Traveling Through Transitions 

Follow Me 

Mosaic Rockford – Dave Spooner – Oct. 11th, 2020

Intro:

Series overview: Follow Me – Abraham/What do you see? The Twelve Spies/Crossing Over – Stones of Remembrance. Merger and any major transition . . . it is critical that we seek God, seek counsel, and seek the truth about ourselves, and our situation. Once we know what we are to do, it is important to see it through. These are both two difficult stages: clarity and completion. This morning we are turning to the opening pages of Genesis to follow the story of a clear command God gave to His people. We will see where and why they failed to complete the command, and then look to Abraham: what it took and what he gained in complying and completing the command of God. From this message this morning, I want you to learn the difference between those who fail and those who succeed in times of transition so that you will choose to make the choices that will see you to the promise land.  

We are given a command

After creating the heavens and the earth God blessed humans and told us to: 

Gen 1:28 NIV 

be fruitful and increase in number.  Fill the earth and subdue it. 

This was His original command. And our ancestors became corrupt because of sin and used our power to do what we thought was best. God wiped the planet clean in a great flood and started over with a man name Noah and his family. Once Noah and his family came out the Ark, God repeated the same command to Noah: 

Gen. 9:7 NIV 

As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it. 

Noah and his sons obeyed the command of God and pushed forward to fill the earth. In the passing of time, they came up with their own plan and decided to go their own way. This is what we read from Gen. 11:

We go our own way

Gen 11:1-4 NIV

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 

3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 

Instead of making footprints we make monumentsHis direction is to go out; our direction is to go up   This is the real battle of our souls: choosing to follow our will or choosing to follow the will of God.The battle of who is Lord. Transitions are difficult. Sometimes God’s will is difficult. It requires us to do things that we would rather not do. In times like this, are we going to trust that His plan is better than ours? Every time I followed my own plan it has not turned out the way that I had hoped.After we know what we are to do, our first and primary obstacle to overcome is our own hearts. Are we willing to trust God and follow His lead, or do we want to resist Him and do our own thing?  

Gen 11:5-9 NIV 

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 

8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel — because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. 

Sometimes God has to shatter us to scatter us. (Great commission, Acts, persecutions, war.) The sovereign plan of God will be accomplished either through us or in spite of us. His plan will go forward.  Gen. 11 continues the story of humanity through the line of Shem (one of Noah’s sons). In listing the genealogy, it flows down to a guy