God's Presence Goes the Distance

Have you ever felt like God was far away?

Whether you're walking through suffering, uncertainty, or simply feel spiritually dry, it's easy to wonder where God is. But throughout Scripture, we see the opposite of what we often assume: God is the One who moves toward us.

In this message from Acts 7, Pastor Matt Shackelford begins the Dwell series by exploring Stephen's sermon and the story of Abraham. Long before Abraham sought God, God sought Abraham. The same God who called Abraham still pursues people today through Jesus Christ.

You'll discover:

•  Why God's presence isn't limited by a place 
•  How Abraham's story points to God's pursuit of His people 
•  Why God always makes the first move 
•  What it means to live by faith instead of sight 
•  How Stephen's message points us to Jesus 
•  Why you can trust God even when His plan isn't fully visible 
•  How Jesus makes it possible for us to dwell in God's presence forever 

No matter how far away you may feel, God's presence goes farther.

Scripture: Acts 7:1-8

Series: Dwell

If this message encouraged you, subscribe for more biblical teaching each week from Central Church.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Let's take our Bibles. Let's open to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7. If you're just joining us, our habit is to work through books of the Bible verse by verse. We find ourselves in Acts chapter 7. So excited about what the Lord's going to do. As you're turning there, I'll tell you what happened at my house this week. We pulled out the pressure washer to kind of wash down the patio. We have to do this every few years here in Memphis. The humidity, something about just the grime and the humidity, and so we pulled out the old pressure washer. Hadn't used it in several years, and that's always a problem. Caleb and I were out there on the patio and we were trying to get it started up. We must have pulled the string on that pressure washer over a hundred times and it just wouldn't it just wouldn't catch. And so I do all the things that you're supposed to do. I pulled out the spark plug. I smell it for gas. There's nothing on the spark plug. And I'm like, well, maybe it's still, it could be a spark plug issue. Let's just test it. And uh I had Caleb pull the string while I was holding the spark plug and I got zapped. It looked probably something, something like this, is what AI said it said it looked like. Um you know what I like about that picture? I have a lot more hair in that picture. You know what I mean? Uh AMI can imagine this stuff. But I got a good shock, and I was like, it's not the spark plug! And so I uh put the spark plug back in and I was like, okay, it's the carburetor. And so here I am pulling this thing apart. It looked something like this, and I get the carburetor cleaner out, spray it down, and I have this thing in like 10 pieces by the time I've got it all taken apart, and I pull out this last little piece, and it's where all the jets are for the fuel. And I notice every single jet is clogged up. And so I spray that thing down. I get my daughter's sewing needle, and I just start poking holes through all the little jets that are clogged up, and I put it all back together, and sure enough, one pull just starts right up. All the all the lanes, all the openings are are finally opening where now the engine is getting fuel. And I love that illustration because, you know, that that that really that power washer is a lot like the Christian life. You see, a lot of times we can feel distant from God, no power for living. And there are some jets that are clogged up in our life. There are some areas of our life where we're not listening, we're not obeying, we're not trusting. And God in love, He comes and He unclogs all the little holes, all the areas of our life where we're failing. And he addresses them one by one so that we can have a powerful relationship. You see, this is a major problem for us. Some of you feel no power for living today. Just like pulling that rope. It's like, that's you. You're just you're just out here and I'm pulling this rope and I'm pulling and I'm pulling, and life just doesn't seem to be working. Life's hard. And you answer the question, you ask the question, what is wrong? Why is it that I sense such little power for living? Why do I sense such little closeness to God? Such little connection. Maybe you remember a time when you were close to God. Maybe it goes all the way back to high school. It's been a long time. Today it's just a memory. And you ask that question could I have that again? Could I get all the little jets, all the little holes in my carburetor unclogged so that I could have power again? You see, people do this, they they seek power for living in all sorts of places. For some people, they seek it in a location. We come into a church building, maybe a little stained glass, that makes me feel close to God. Some people seek it in an event. Mountaintops events. We we we talk about the mountaintop events, and and and folks, we try to do that here at Central Church. We try to plan mountaintop events. They don't just happen, you have to plan them. And they're good. We love them. Some of our young people, we just had four camps. Some of our young people felt a relationship to God, some of them for the very first time. And then next month, get back to school, back to college, get back to work. And where is the power for living in daily life? How do I feel close to God? Not just at summer camp, how do I feel close to God in every season and part of life? That's a question. And many don't know how to get back to God. For me, I when I was pulling that carburetor apart, there's nothing I love more than a YouTube video. All God's men say, Amen. I just they just step by step by step. I can solve anything with a good YouTube video. And it's like, I was just, it was a how-to, how to fix your carburetor. Check this, check this, check this, check this. Some of us just need a YouTube video. We just need a step-by-step instruction on how to be in God's presence and how to experience God's power. So today, what I want to do is I want to look at Acts chapter 7, because believe it or not, the story behind the story is we're learning how to dwell with God. We're learning how to have a powerful, close relationship with God. It's a new series. Next seven weeks, this is what we're studying. And if you're a guest with us, I want to challenge you for the next seven weeks. Come to Central Church every Sunday. And for the next seven weeks, I want to challenge you. Hear from God by going through Acts chapter seven with us. We're going to learn how to dwell with God. This is a discovery of the daily path to God's presence. Some of you need to learn how to experience and dwell in the presence of God. Now, this all comes in the context of Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7 is Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin. He will be martyred eventually, but the charges against him are very heavy. He is going to be accused of blaspheming God, blaspheming, it means to belittle, it means to treat with dishonor, it means to dishonor, disglorify. He is going to be accused of blaspheming the temple, blaspheming God, blaspheming Moses or the law of Moses. And Stephen is going to walk through all of that and actually turn their accusations against them with a history lesson. This is the longest sermon in the book of Acts, and Stephen will defend himself by talking about the presence of God. He will talk about the temple. The Jews loved the temple. One of their accusations was, you've blasphemed the temple. And he's going to stop and say, listen, guys, the presence of God isn't bound to the temple. The presence of God is everywhere. In fact, God's presence predates the law, it predates the temple, it predates the land. And he'll do that by walking through basically four Jewish heroes. Like if you're a kid in Judaism, these are the four baseball cards that you want. You know what I mean? Did you collect baseball cards as a child? These are the four baseball cards that you want. This is Mickey Mannell, this is uh Ken Griffin Jr., right? These are all of the old baseball cards that people are trying to collect. It's Moses, it's Abraham, it's Joseph, it's Solomon. And each of these characters, let's put them up on the screen. Each of these characters actually teach us something about the presence of God. With Abraham, it shows us that God's presence goes the distance, reaches people who are far off. Maybe you feel far off today because of a sin, a situation, a trial. God's presence is for you. God's power is for you. Or maybe Joseph. Joseph, in this passage, we'll look at next week. Six times you get the word Egypt. Joseph went down to Egypt, foreign land, pagan land. He's thrown into a pit. It shows us that God's presence is there for us in the pits of life. With Moses, God's presence travels, it goes with us everywhere. Whether you're in Egypt or whether you're in the wilderness, God's presence is available. Solomon shows us that the presence of God cannot be contained in a box, in an ark. It goes far beyond a box, far beyond the temple. God's presence is available to his people. So we're going to look at all four of these. And really today I just want to start with the first one. I want to talk about from the life of Abraham that God's presence goes the distance. So let's take our Bibles. Let's stand together in honor of God's holy word. We're in Acts chapter 7, verse 1, which says this. And the high priest said, Are these things so? And Stephen said, Brothers and fathers, hear me. The glory of God appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, Go out from your land, from your kindred, and go into the land I will show you. Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land, in which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his offspring after him, though he had no children. And God spoke to this effect that his offering would be, or his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. But I will judge the nation that they serve, said God. And after that they shall come out and worship me in this place. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. What's the point? We're learning to dwell, and what we learn is that God's presence is seeking people to dwell with him. People who are far off. And he does that in basically three ways. Three points in the sermon today. Three ways to close the distance. Three ways if you feel far from God, if you want to feel his presence, if you want to draw near, if you want to renew your relationship. He calls us in the chaos. You've got to start listening for God's call. He's going to give all kinds of calls in your life: calls to repent, calls to leave, calls to do certain things. You've got to obey and listen to his call. You've got to understand his commitment. He's going to comfort us with his everlasting commitment. He's committed to the end of time to you. And if you would know that, you would be near him. Lastly, we're going to dwell with God as we understand his comfort. That he gives us a covenant. A covenant that's unbreakable, a covenant that lasts into the ages. And so all of this together shows us how to close the distance in your relationship with God, how to open up all those jets and have a powerful relationship wherever you go. So may God bless his word. And may God draw us near as he seeks us. You may be seated. First of all, I want to start with that thought of the call. We need to recognize God's call in our chaos. Some of you need to open your ears. You need to listen closely right now. God is calling you. The question is: are you submitting to his call? Are you obeying his call? Notice this first sub point, Stephen shows how God uses his people to call. In fact, we see this in the life of Stephen. God uses Stephen to call the religious leaders to obedience. God has not given up on even these religious hypocrites in the temple, the Sanhedrin. Look at verse 2 with me. Notice how God uses Stephen to give a call. He calls them brothers and fathers. This is really interesting. The word brother, I think it really denotes that these are some people that are swept up. Remember in our previous passage that this starts in a synagogue, and a sort of a riot emerges, and they sort of carry Stephen to the Temple Mount. Now he's with the Sanhedrin. And I'm sure all sorts of people, all sorts of national Jewish people have been swept into this riot, into this judgment, and now they're all standing in the Sanhedrin trying to understand what's going on. The word fathers probably represents the leaders of the Sanhedrin. It probably represents those who are in authority. And so all of this together, I notice this, he uses family words for them. He doesn't call them villains, he doesn't call them evil, he calls them family. And he's drawing near to them with this call. And there's kindness in it, there's tenderness in it, and that's a very powerful pattern that we need to walk in. Like if God's going to use you to call others, you have to start seeing people this way. You have to start stop seeing people as problems and see them as possibilities. You've got to love them into the kingdom of God. These religious people are far from God, but his words are respectful, they're kind, they're drenched in love. This is a good pattern for us. Something is happening in America right now. There's all this talk about estrangement. And really, since 2021, there's been sort of a shift in society. Not only couples, husbands and wives are being estranged, but actually the latest trend, and the internet right now, if you've been watching this, has been going wild with this. There's a trend of children being estranged from their parents. That's on the rise, like we've never seen in a generation. And there was an article that went out in the Wall Street Journal just this week, and it essentially says that therapists have taken on a new methodology, and the therapists are calling their counselees to cut off their parents and to not talk to their parents, to run away from that relationship. It's this massive trend, and they're doing it in the name of self-protection, self-care, healthy boundaries. But really, uh we don't see that in the Bible. We don't actually see that you're supposed to cut people off and treat them with dishonor. Actually, the Bible says you're to move towards people, you're to love your enemies, you're to move towards people, the very people who hurt you. That was the pattern of Christ. In fact, the word that the Bible uses for relationships is actually peacemaking. You're supposed to actually draw near and make peace. You're supposed to have reconciliation. You're supposed to honor your father and your mother. And so that really we're seeing this trend on the rise right now. And we as pastors are seeing this everywhere. And I just want to keep holding up actually a biblical pattern. The biblical pattern isn't that you you you show uh evil for evil. It's actually you return good for evil. You draw near to the person who hurt you. In fact, there's nothing in the Bible about self-protection. The Christian life is actually more about taking a risk, it's about putting your life on the line, exposing yourself to trouble. Why? So that you can take a risk and reach someone far off and give them a call. Stephen's a great example of this. He does it with a heart, not of, I'm gonna get away from you, but with a heart of tenderness, brothers, fathers. In fact, we say it this way when we try to help couples or or relatives or parties reconcile, there are the four G's of peacemaking. Write these down. Number one, you need to seek to glorify God. It's all about honoring God, not protecting yourself. Don't be selfish, don't be self-driven, don't be self-care focused. It really results in a lot of pride if you're if you're self-focused. God's calling us to be others focused and God focused. Second, we need to get the log out of our own eye. This is where it falls apart for most people. You'll have one couple that's willing to repent, own their percentage of the problem, but the other couple who says, I'm not the problem, I've got nothing to repent of. Everybody has a law, a log or a splinter in their own eye. Every single conflict I've ever had, I own some percentage of it. All of us do. We all do. And we can own it. Get the log out of your own eye. Be reconciled. Go be reconciled. Go to that person. Pursue that person. Don't cut them off. Pursue them. Gently restore. Those are the classic patterns of reconciliation. And we, as ambassadors of reconciliation, ought to be those people who are driven towards reconciling with others. God wants you to be a reconciler. Stephen is trying to reconcile, and his words are drenched in love, respect, and grace. And that's how we can actually be a part of God's call in other people's lives. God uses Stephen to call those who are distant. Number, a second subpoint, notice this one, write this down. God calls us where we are, not where we should be. God calls us where we are, not where we should be. Look at verse 2. Abraham, where is he living? Mesopotamia. Godless territory, godless country. In fact, Joshua 24 tells us what Abraham's life was like. It tells us plainly that he served other gods. He was an idol worshiper. He's this backwoods, moon-worshipping, lost guy, not looking for God. And this reminds us, is there a temple in Mesopotamia? Nope. Is there a promised land in Mesopotamia? Uh-uh. Is God there? Oh yeah. You see, God goes the distance. God seeks people who are far off. And let me just say this: the person that you have written off, God has not written off. The person who you have said will never change, can never change, God goes distances. God reaches the person with an addiction. God reaches the person with a lying tongue. God reaches the person who is a slanderer. God reaches the person who is far from God, walking in darkness. Notice that term. The God of glory appeared. Now, this is a term actually I think is really interesting because one of the accusations against Stephen was that he's blaspheming God. He's belittling God, he's treating God not as glorious. And this is actually one of the highest terms used for God in the Old Testament. In fact, it's only used one time, it's used in the Psalms. And this is the highest way that you could speak of God. He's not just God, he's the God of glory. Stephen's like, I'm not blaspheming God. No, friends. I'm all about the glory of God. I'm all for the glory of God. Highest honor to God. But the key point is that the God of glory appeared in Mesopotamia. You see, the pattern is that even in a land without the temple, God's presence is seeking. And Abraham didn't discover God. God pursued Abraham. God called to Abraham. This is the pattern in every relationship with Jesus Christ. Write down Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 to 4. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 to 4, it says that when you were dead in your sins and trespasses, what happened? What was life like for you? When you were lost, what was God doing? When you were dead, when you were, and this is a good image of lostness, dead in trespasses. We were just sinning and loving our sin, captive to our sin, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, among whom we all were disobedient and we all once lived this way, the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind. By nature, what? Children of love? Nope. Children of wrath. Guys, we were as lost as lost could be, like the rest of mankind. And then you get this transition, but God. That's a great word. I love the phrase, but God. Don't you? Are you a but God Christian? But God stepped into my life and he called and he convicted and he saved me. But God, what? He made us alive. And what this shows us is that God is the first mover, that even when we're living in darkness, even when you feel like someone is hopeless, God is the one who pursues for a relationship. And so you could even apply this to your spiritual journey. Are you far from God? Are you living in darkness right now? Are you walking in sin? Looking at pornography? Captive to an addiction? Lying to your boss? Whatever it is. If you're far from God, our God is a pursuing God. And he comes to you with a call. He calls you to repent. In fact, this is this is in our story. Look at verse 3. Notice God's call, it includes the hard commands. God's call it brings us out of our sin, our environment even of sin. Look at verse 3. Go out from your land and from your kindred. This is really key. God doesn't come to Abraham and essentially says, Abraham, I love you just the way you are. I affirm everything in your life. Which, by the way, that's what our culture wants today. Would you agree with that? Isn't that what our culture wants today? They don't want to be called out of sin. They don't want to be called out of darkness. They don't want to be told that there's something wrong that they're doing. They don't want to be called into obedience. They want to be affirmed. That is the word of our generation. Affirm me. Affirm my choices. Affirm my lifestyle. Affirm me. God doesn't do that with Abraham. He doesn't affirm this pagan, moon worshipping Mesopotamian. Instead, God calls him out. Need to make a change. You need to leave. My friend Johnny Artavanis, who's going to be speaking at our fall conference, he's in Franklin, Tennessee. And uh Johnny had an experience. He was preaching on a Sunday morning, and as he was talking to the people of his church, he actually started calling out some particular sin. And I believe it was a sexual sin or something happening in the church. And he made some comments, and there happened to be somewhere in the audience a young person, a college student, struggling with same-sex attraction. And they got so angry. And they said some things and they left angry. And Johnny prayed for that person, and he was saddened by the interaction, and he's trying to be respectful and trying to deliver the word of God. And it was six months later, this person came back, and God had just been working on them for six months. And this person came back to church and they were so convicted they realized God was calling them to make a change, but they just didn't like it. And they finally had submitted to the call. And they came, she came back to the church and she said, Listen, I was angry when I first heard the word of God. I didn't like what it said. I just wanted an affirmation. Now I'm convinced that was actually God calling me into obedience. And I've got to make a change. I fully repent. And this is the only church I've ever been to that has actually said the hard things of Jesus Christ, the hard statements of Jesus Christ. The only church that's ever called me to turn from sin. I'm in. And she went all in. And Johnny said, I just had this realization and I had this reaffirmation that it's unloving to not give the call of Scripture to people. And it's a neglect of your call as ministers of the gospel to not call for correction. It's loving to call for correction. Now, I think one of the things that's interesting is that God calls him out of Mesopotamia. You've got to get away from that environment. You've got to become stronger. Now, environments don't make you sin, but they certainly don't help you in holiness. God calls him to go to war against every sin in his life, every idolatry. And here's the truth: God loves you too much to continue letting you walk to hell. And so he comes with a call. He comes with a command. And here's the question for all of us. If God were to write down his call on a sheet of paper and slide it across the table to you, what is he calling you to do? Is there an environment to leave? Is there a sin to renounce and confess and repent of? Is there an addiction? Is there some sort of thought sin where you are just seething with anger and bitterness? And that's not the way Christ wants you to live. Christ wants you to live in reconciliation and forgiveness and to put off all bitterness, anger, clamor, and slander along with all malice, Ephesians 4 says. What's the thing that the Lord would write on that paper and call you out of? Notice also about this call, then we're going to move on. Not only does he call us with hard commands, he calls us with a new identity. He calls you to embrace something new. In verse 2, Stephen calls him Abraham. That wasn't his name. Abraham's original name was Abram. He is given the new name, Avraim, Exalted Father, the Father of many. It's a name change. And I love this, you guys. I love people who have embraced the name change, right? Have you had your name change yet? Have you become something new? These guys come up to me at Central Church. This is why I love Central Church. New Christians come up to me and they say, Look, I'm not the dad I used to be. I'm a my marriage is completely different. My job, the way I work, it's all changed. I'm a new creation in Christ. In fact, there's a story. It's hilarious. This guy came up to me about four years ago, and um, I won't share his name. He's actually not here. He moved away, but um I'll share the story because he's not in the room. Amen. Um, but this guy came up to me, and he's a new Christian. And he's he's just learning the Christian life, but he's learning to love scripture, he's he's learning to love preaching, and he came up to me and he said, Oh, Pastor, that was a heck of a sermon. But he didn't say heck. Right? And I was just kind of shocked by it, and I said, Thank you. Thank you very much. And uh and I loved it. I'm not worried about the language, I'm not worried about profanity at this point in his growth. God's gonna clean that up later, you know what I mean? Like that will eventually come. I'm just not worried about that. What I loved about it was this guy was embracing his new identity. Like this guy was, I now have a love of scripture, I now have a love of preaching, and I have a love to have God call me out of sin and use the sermon to do that. He was embracing it, and I was just like, yes, he's had the name change. He's a new creation in Christ. If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old things are gone, the new have come, new desires, new passions. And that was true for Abraham. He put on a new identity. God gave him a new name, new identity. Now, this call requires faith in verse 3. He's called into some places, he doesn't know where those places will take him. Verse 3, into the land that I will show you. Where? I'll show you. Right down Hebrews 11, verse 8. He went out not knowing where he was going. No map, no destination, no sort of tracking device on his car, right? On his camel, no GPS. He didn't know where he was going. But for him, he was willing to sacrifice anything because of the name change, because of the new identity, because of the call that came to him. And here's the question: are you willing to sacrifice? Are you willing on faith to give up anything? I tell you, I uh I've been out of the pulpit for a little bit. I've been in Africa for a couple of weeks, almost a couple of weeks. And uh this is the team that went with us to Africa. We had a great time, great team. And uh we'll at the end of the summer, I'm sure we're gonna have like a recap of all the trips that we've taken, and we'll tell all sorts of stories of what God has done. But um this was amazing. Our team built two more churches there. We built 67 churches in total in Africa, and I had the joy of preaching in one of those churches. They've since we built it, since our team built it, um, they've put down concrete and they've put in a sound system, and they now have 600 people meeting there. Isn't that great? Like 600 people are meeting in these churches. Right now, Pastor Paul is overseeing about 185,000 Messiah churches or people in those churches. That's a lot. And God's bringing the Messiah to Christ uh in really amazing, amazing ways. And I could I could tell you story after story, I don't have time, but but I want to uh in another time. Um of the things that shocked me after I got finished preaching in this this service was the pastor invited me to his house. And I went to his house, which essentially, friends, is 90 square feet, and it's made out of cow dung. All right? They essentially take cow patties and they mix it together and they spread it on the wall, and this pastor was living. I mean, he has nothing. He has nothing. And we sit into his living room, which has this couch-like thing. It's not a real couch, it's like boxes that he put stuff in and then spread a blanket over it in the form of a couch with the armrests and everything. Here's a little box over here, and it looks like a couch. So you're sitting on these boxes that look like a couch in his uh living room, and we're sitting there, and he serves this chicken, which is the toughest, stringiest piece of meat I've ever put in my mouth. I'm literally like taking the little leg and like trying to use my incisors to like just cut it so that I can get one bite down. And I know I I want to do this because I want to eat what's set before me. You know what I mean? Like I want to honor this guy. He is trying so hard to honor us. He killed his chicken, killed his rooster that morning, right? And and and and he sacrificed because he wanted to be the first Timothy 3 elder pastor who is hospitable. He was showing us hospitality. And he was willing to give up anything. You see, the path to being close to God, to dwelling with God, is to answer his call and be willing to give up anything because he's worthy. Man, that's it. God is worthy, he is the greatest treasure you can have. And so all the trinkets and treasures of our life, we're willing to give them up. And Abraham, he said, I'm willing to give up my family, I'm willing to give up my friends, my neighbors, my town, my city, my religion. I'm Jesus is so much better. I will give it all up. I will put anything on the sacrificial altar. And that's the call God brings to you. Now, sometimes we get stuck, and that may be where some of you are at in this room. Notice Abraham actually got stuck. There's a town mentioned called Haran, and it says in the text that he went out, that's from Ur, and then he went and he lived in Haran, and then this land. So three places. You've got Ur, you've got Haran, you've got Israel. What's this? This represents a stall. Haran wasn't the place God was calling him to. But he stayed there for a while. Now, commentators will argue back and forth, and I think there's some validity to this. This probably represents a form of partial obedience. He went a certain distance and kind of got stuck. And that's some of you. Some of you have just gotten stuck. You know that you need to go all the way. You've gone part way, but you need to go all the way. And notice God in his mercy is so patient, he's so kind. Look what God does to get him going again. Sometimes God uses big life events to call us to reevaluate our life. Like you're you've lost your job and you start thinking more about what you should be doing with your life, and that's a good thing because God gets you going again. You have a big conflict, you start thinking about how you treat people, and God starts changing you. So you need to look at the big events of your life and see where God's moving. Notice God, it says here that God removed him. In fact, literally, that phrase, God removed him, could be translated. God relocated him, God did this. How did he do that? After his father died. It's a major event. Dad just died. You know, I've kind of lost my mission. I need to get going again. It's after this major event. God, in his mercy, is patient with Abraham, and God brings him along, and God gets him going again to this land. That's the idea. And so we need to listen to the call. We need to pay close attention to the big events in life. Is there sickness? Is there death? Is there loss? You and I have to answer the question: what is God doing? I want to ask you all this morning, can you hear the call of God on your life? Is there a risk to take? Is there an identity to realize? Is there a people that you need to leave? Is there a sacrifice you need to make? Is there a partial obedience that you need to go all the way? If you want to be close to God, heed his call. Listen. Point number two, how do we close the distance in our relationship with God? Point number two, we need to rest in God's commitment. This is a quick point. It's going to go very fast. One verse, verse five. We need to rest in God's commitment. It says this that yet he gave him no inheritance, not even a foot slink. Now, this is an idiom, which essentially means he had nothing to show for all of his faith. Abraham has faith, but nothing to show for it. He's got promises, no possessions. In fact, it says here in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 9, he died in faith, not having received the things promised. In Genesis 23, he owns one plot of land, just one. He's this tent dweller. Most of his existence, he owns just one plot of land. What is the plot of land he owns? His grave. That's it. He's just this wandering nomad going through the wilderness. And worst of all, look at verse 5. Those two terrible words. No child. No child. All these promises and no possessions. He's been promised in Genesis. In fact, you can look it up. Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 17. God has promised him, I'm going to make your name great, I'm going to make you great, I'm going to make a great nation out of you, and through you the whole world will be blessed. That's the full promise. Kind of feels like uh you ever get those emails from the Nigerian prince? You've just come into some money. You got great things coming to you, right? All it requires is a little faith. Just send me a check. And the gold bullion is headed your way. You ever mess with those guys? Every once in a while I'll I'll send an email back sharing the gospel or something like that. Talking, and the thing, the sin I'll address is lying. Uh my wife had somebody uh that called her and it was a scam call, and she had them on there for like 20 minutes sharing the gospel with them. Uh and it was it was really funny, but uh it kind of feels like that. All the promises, no possessions. Abraham's got faith, though. In verse 5, he trusts God for a long-term commitment to him and to his offspring after him. Abraham's not looking at the present now, he's looking in the far future. Abraham has lifted his eyes higher than this life. Friends, this is what God's calling you to do. See his commitment long term. See how his commitment to you and your faith will ripple through the world and through time. My great grandfather lived in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. And if you've ever watched the Andy Griffith show, there's a character called Otis. Do you remember Otis? He was the town drunk. He lived in the jail. Do you remember Otis? Yes. He he lived in the jail and he loved the jail. It was like his home. It was like his second home. He would walk in drunk, he would take the keys off the wall and lock himself up. Do you remember this? My great-great-grandfather was Otis. He was the town drunk. And it happened one time that an evangelist came to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and shared the gospel, and that man got saved. And his whole life was changed. And it changed his family because his wife and children became Christians too. And my grandparents became Christians. And my parents became Christians. And I became a Christian. It has affected me. It has affected my children. And it now affects all of you. What Abraham does is he traces the kind hand of God, not for one day, but for years and decades and hundreds of years and thousands of years to come. And he trusts God, and that's what God's comforting you with. That's how God brings comfort. Yes, this life will be hard. Yes, there will be pain. Yes, there will be a diagnosis. Yes, there will be conflict. Yes, there will be trouble. But I'll be faithful to you. I will be faithful to you through the ages and through this life, and this will ripple out through time. It's about eternal investments. So start living like a tent dweller in this life and start looking. Lift your gaze higher than this simple life, friends. That's what this is saying. Number three, and we're done. Point number three. How do we close the distance? You need to hear God's call. You've got to start listening to what God is calling you to, like Abraham heard the call of God. Number two, you've got to rest in God's long-term commitment. That if you follow in faith, it will change not just your life, but the life of generations. And number three, you've got to receive God's comfort in covenant. Receive God's comfort in covenant. We get this line about circumcision and what is all this about? What is going on here? Let me just tell you, you've got to have comfort in this life. Now back to Africa. On my trip to Africa, there were several things that shocked me. The number one thing that shocked me, this is number one, is how many lions there are. Like I don't know. I thought that I don't know. I just thought there were a few lions, and there's like a million wilder beasts, and there's like a million gazelles and everything else. There were lions everywhere in this place. Everyone had a lion story. Yeah, the lion got my cow last night. Yeah, the lion got my goat. In fact, they bring their animals inside the house or or they pin them up in these pins because lions are everywhere. They don't walk at nighttime because they don't want to become prey. It's like late at night. It's like people really have their wits about them. And you talk to these guys, and we met a guy that speared a lion. And it's like, there's a lot of lions. Now, what do I know? Everything that I know about lions is from the 1994 documentary, The Lion King. Amen? And and uh but but I was shocked by that. I was just a little shocked by how many lions there were in Kenya. And and what I discovered is there are predators everywhere, and I need to know comfort. We had a guy named Elder Paul, and he actually was with our build team, and the guys building the church, and he was watching the tools, and it just was kind of comforting having him around because he had a lion story. He was a Messiah warrior, and and and he actually went out and speared a lion. That's how you become a man in that tribe. That's how you get respect. You go kill your lion all by yourself. Anyone want to go on a trip and do that? Go go go lion hunting with a spear. Um it was kind of nice having him around, if I'm being honest. Just just someone with experience, someone protecting. We end this passage with comfort in a covenant. Notice in verse 6, God spoke. His offspring would be sojourners, belonging to others, enslaved them 400 years. God has comfort in promises for our future. He knows the future for you. He knows the good seasons, he knows the bad seasons. He's telling Abraham, there's going to be some hard seasons. I know it all, it's all been filtered. You're going to be fine. And then he brings up the justice and deliverance. He also wants you to know, this will comfort you, that God is a God of justice. And those who hurt his people, he will get justice for you. In verse 7, I will judge. They will come out, they will worship me. There's gonna be deliverance. And then he offers his covenant in verse 8. He gave them the covenant of circumcision. I have been married this week, it will be 21 years, and I have worn this ring so long that it has, this ring has sort of morphed my finger. I kind of have this, it's just forever changed. You know what I mean? I've worn this ring for so long that it has been on my finger. And here's the great thing. This is a symbol, right? This ring is a symbol. It's packed with meaning. It never ends. Love never ends. It's made of gold. The reason it's made of gold, it's to symbolize the purity, the fidelity of marriage and what marriage should be. And symbols are helpful. It reminds us that I'm to be pure, that love never ends. My marriage is never to end. I'm never to stop loving my spouse. Symbols are great. God gave the symbol of circumcision because even though man, sometimes we break our covenants, God is promising us and he's reminding us, I will never stop loving and being devoted to my people. Now, where's all this leading? Back to Stephen's defense. This is only point one in seven weeks of the defense I'm going to explain to you. All right? So if you want to know the rest, you're gonna have to come back next week, okay? But but but this is point one. And it all goes to the end of the chapter. In fact, if you if you turn the page, if you skip ahead to verse 52, this is all leading to Christ. He is going to Abraham to actually talk about Christ. It's all about Jesus. All this. Explanation about God's presence. Stephen's going to tie it all together eventually, and he's going to say, This is just one point, but God eventually sent his Messiah. God's presence became a man. And this is just one point. But he's essentially saying, in Christ, God has called you and God has comforted you and committed himself to you. But you killed him. And you nailed him to a tree. And in verse 52, it says, they will be, uh some translations say they're cut to the heart. They're enraged. God sent a Messiah. God sent presence to be with you. And you killed him. You weren't listening to his call. You weren't listening to his commitment. You weren't listening to his promise of a covenant. He wants them to know that in Christ, God is offering you all of those things so that as you go through life, you will dwell with the good shepherd. And he will be with you forever, comforting you. But he says you missed him. And this is the reminder to us all as we close: don't miss Jesus. My old pastor used to tell the story of a young girl. Parents would put her to bed, kiss her on the forehead, tell her a story, turn the lights off, go back to their room, and then comes the thunderstorm. Thunder and lightning, and eventually the little girl runs, pitter-patters all her feet back to the parents' room, jumps in bed, and the dad is like, What's wrong? And she's like, I'm scared. And he says, Listen, sweetheart, don't you know that God is with you? And then she says back, but right now I know God is with me, but right now I need someone with skin on. And that's what Stephen's argument is. God sought Abraham, but he has most greatly sought you by sending someone with skin on. Jesus Christ has come to offer you his comfort, his commitment, his covenant, and he would give all that to you if you would heed his call. So heads bowed, eyes closed as the team comes out. Can you hear his call today? Here's let's just do some response right now. Let's do some application right now. What is God calling you to do? How is God calling you to respond? For some of you, you need to respond in relationship. For some of you, he's calling you out of a specific sin and addiction. A heart attitude of bitterness, anger, clamor, slander, malice. Some of you just need to let some things go. He's calling you out. He's calling you to let some things go. And the sacrifice, dear friends, is worth it. Jesus is worth it. For others of you, you need to rest in his commitment. Some of you are going through a hard season right now. I know that. I can look around this room and I can look around the next service and I can pick out specific people who I know are struggling. It's hard. I know a guy in next service and he's struggling. I know a gal in next service. She's struggling. Are you hopeless? Are you hurting? Are you afraid? Are you frightened by the next step that God has for you? Maybe God's calling you to move. Maybe God's calling you on a new journey, a new career. Can you feel God's commitment to you? That He'll never forsake you. No matter what city you move to, no matter what decision you have to make, no matter what darkness you face, God is with you. If you're in Christ, you're safe. You have him as your protector. He's far better at killing lions than you are. He is your protector who is with you. Receive the comfort that Jesus has offered you. The greatest comfort of all is that Jesus died for your sin. He rose from the dead. And because of his death and burial and resurrection, he offers you life. And today you can know that life in Christ. If you're not a Christian, the gospel is God sent Jesus to be your sin substitute, your sin sacrifice. That he died on the cross to make you right with himself, to bear the very wrath of God, that if you would turn from your sin and repent, you would have everything that I'm talking about this morning. And so won't you do that? Won't you cry out to God where you are? Won't you repent of your sin and trust him for the first time? Father, we thank you for this sermon. We thank you for Acts 7. It really does show us some wonderful things about how to dwell with our King. And Father, we say that you are worthy of it all. You are worthy of every sacrifice we could make. You are worthy of everything that you call us out of. You are worthy of every sin that we give up. You are worthy of it all. There's no sacrifice that is as great a treasure as you are. And so, Lord, we come and we just say in our hearts today, we respond with a spirit of submission. We hear your call, we take our next steps, and may you be glorified. We ask this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. And all God's people say it together. Amen. Church family, let's stand together. Let's respond to the word of God and song.