The age that we live in is one of constant upgrades. It seems like people are always looking to upgrade something in their lives: phones, TVs, houses, cars, internet services, etc. We seem to be looking for the bigger and better things in life.  

When you do upgrade something in your life, there is a learning curve that comes along with it. You may not exactly know how use it properly or understand how it all works. You just trust that what you now have is better than what you had previously. 

Today, I want to talk about the transition of upgrading. Not only does it pertain to the technology devices in our lives, but it applies to our lives as well. It may come in a job promotion or the birth of a child or something else. How do we handle the upgrades in our lives the way that God intends?

Abraham

One of the most popular persons in the Bible outside of Jesus is the man known simply as Abraham. There have been songs written about this man that we have learned through the ages. The Bible teaches that he is the father of all who have faith in God. Three major religions in our world today (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) highly regard this man.  

Abraham was a man that went through some pretty impressive upgrades in his life. I would like to look at this man’s journey through some upgrades and see what God can teach us as we face the upgrades in our lives as well.

Called to a New Life

We are introduced to Abraham at the end of Genesis 11. We see that he sets out with his father and some other family members away from Ur, a prominent area of the time. They settle in Haran (modern day southern Turkey). It is from there that things really take a turn for Abraham.

In Genesis 12:1-3, we see God call out Abraham to leave his family and go to a place that God will reveal to him along the way. 

¹ The Lord said to Abram: Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

Genesis 12:1–3 CSB

But with this invitation came the promise that God would bless him greatly: he would become a great nation, he would have a great name, God would bless the entire world through him.

What would it take to get you to let go of all that you know and set out like this? I don’t many people who would just up and leave everything that they have known. It would take a good deal of trust to just drop everything and go in a new direction. 

That is exactly what God called Abraham to do.  There will be times in our own lives where God asks us to simply follow Him.  He may not exactly reveal the destination.  He may offer nothing more than His presence on the journey and a promise that it will work out.  Would that be enough for you to follow God out like Abraham did?

Called to a Covenant

As the years pass by, Abraham is on this faith journey with God, but he begins to wonder if he misheard the Lord.  God has protected Abraham through a series of events, but one part of what God had promised seemed to be missing: a child to build a nation through.  

¹ After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great.

Genesis 15:1 CSB

Abraham does not see how this can work out because he is still childless.  

Waiting is one of the hardest things to do in life.  We have been conditioned by our culture to have things almost immediately.  When we do not see things immediately, we are tempted to think that they will not happen.  It is important to remember that we operate on God’s timetable not the other way around.

God makes a covenant with Abraham to assure him that the Lord is carrying out His plan. This covenant that God made with Abraham is important.  A covenant is not simply a promise.  It is like a binding contract between two parties that, if broken, has some drastic consequences.  

It should be noted that only God passed through the sacrifices.  He did not make Abraham pass through.  This was to show that the work that is to come out of this covenant is solely on God.  It will be the work of God and not man.  

When God calls us to His plan, there may be responsibilities that we have, but the weight of God’s plan being fully accomplished rests on Him.  God will do His great work in and through us.  What He asks us to do is trust and follow Him.

Called to Commitment

One final piece of the picture of Abraham that we will look at this morning is that he was called to commitment.  While God had promised to bless Abraham and make him a blessing to the world, Abraham had to come to the point of doing things God’s way.

Abraham showed that he was a regular man and not some super-spiritual person in that he tried to take matters in his own hands.  

Abraham would take his wife’s servant, Hagar, and conceive a child with her.  His name would be Ishmael.  He thought that this would be the answer to God’s plan.  

We can be tempted to take matters into our own hands many times.  We like to be able to contribute to the plans that we are a part.  The problem with that at times is that if we do not see the full picture, then our contributions can actually cause more problems than solutions.  

God told Abraham that He would give Abraham a child through his barren wife, Sarah.  This did not make any sense seeing how he was close to 100 years old now and Sarah was 90 years old.  Abraham tried to get God to bless Abraham’s plan instead of following God’s plan.

¹⁸ So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael were acceptable to you!”

Genesis 17:18 CSB

We must resist the temptation to do God’s job for Him.  He is fully capable of carrying out His plans.  We have to come to grips with the fact that we make terrible “gods”.  We are limited in our abilities.  We are not all-powerful.  We are not all-knowing.  God is.

If we truly want to experience God’s best in our lives and be part of what He is doing, then we have to trust that He actually knows what He is doing.  We may not be able to see it.  We may not understand it.  

Conclusion

Like Abraham, there are times in life when we will go through upgrades.  God will want to do something new in our lives.  He will want to take us to deeper waters.  He will want to use us to make a lasting impact on this world.  It will stretch us… it may not be fun… 

The one thing that will determine if we have victory through these upgrades is trust.

 Do we trust that God is able?  Do we trust that God is who He says He is?  

Abraham trusted God… and we’re still talking about him some 4,000 years later.