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Sermon Notes

Strangers and Pilgrims

Sunday 22 March 2026 Pastor Craig Ledbetter Genesis 12
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I. Introduction (Hebrews 11:13,14)

  • We are in Genesis chapter 12
  • Learning about REAL faith
  • From the life of Abraham AND… his wife, Sarah
  • They both will show us how to live by faith!
  • As Strangers and Pilgrims in this world - out of step, strange, not staying around…

  • “,14 These [MEN AND WOMEN] all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country” - Hebrews 11:13

II. Review

A. God had told Abram to leave everything and everyone to follow HIM

  • That is a common request by God…
  1. Abram was not the only person asked by God to leave everything and follow Him

  2. “And after these things he [JESUS] went forth, and saw a publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he said unto him, Follow me. And he left all, rose up, and followed him” - Luke 5:27,28

  3. All the apostles left everything to follow Jesus
  • Never forget that God asks US to leave old habits, old friends, the past behind
  • And to live by faith in Jesus from that moment on - THAT is the call!
  1. Not ever fully understanding the future
  2. Not controlling our lives anymore
  3. But allowing God to take us wherever He thinks best!
  4. It is sad that WE are way too comfortable in OUR following of Jesus - it never seems to cost anyone anything today! But it should!

B. Called to Go to a New Home (Genesis 12:1)

  • ”… unto a land that I will shew thee:” - Genesis 12:1

  • God didn’t even tell Abram where he was going - didn’t point to a map
  • It was just a place, “promised” to him if he would believe God would get him there
  • A promised land

C. Called to a New Way of Living

  • “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith” - Galatians 3:11

  • Believing every word of God - we hold them in our hands, the BIBLE
  • Believing all the promises of God - that is how we live now!
  • Trusting that God will KEEP all His promises
  • Trusting God completely, Overruling your emotions, and your opportunities and fears
  • THIS IS THE LIFE OF FAITH - Enjoying faith instead of fears and flaws

D. With Abram Leading His Home (Genesis 12:1-3) - THAT is the Bible way

  • Not Sarai leading, and not a “partnership” either
  • God Speaks to Abram (Genesis 12:1) and tells him to “Follow Me”
  • Abram Took the Lead (Genesis 12:4,5) and asked his wife to follow him
  1. He decided to believe God enough to obey God - THAT is what faith DOES
  2. He is 75 years old at this point (I have 13 more years before I can know what it felt like for Abram to start to live by faith)
  3. Asks his wife to now follow HIM to go… somewhere, and expect a baby sometime!

E. Sarai Followed Abram (Genesis 12:6)

  • She made a choice to follow - not many wives do that anymore! Very risky thing

  • “And Abram [AND SARAI] passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land” - Genesis 12:6

  • Don’t miss this point - this is the Biblical pattern for the Christian home
  1. Everybody wants a companion, to follow THEM
  2. Some may want a marriage partner to be WITH them
  3. But FEW women are willing to follow their husband
  4. And fewer still are willing to follow all their life!
  • Sarai followed her husband into a dangerous enviroment (right into the MIDDLE of the perfect will of God in Canaan) - MORE NEXT WEEK

  1. ”… And the Canaanite was then in the land” - Genesis 12:6

  2. A very dangerous culture - lawless, ruthless, warmongering, raping, child molestations, sex-trafficking, child abuses and human sacrifices
  3. Very unsafe for TWO foreigners to live amongst… without God being with them!
  • But she trusted that the promises that God made to Abram would be fulfilled.
  1. Ladies, you would do well to start trusting the God of Abram, instead of your own heart - GOD knows how to lead you through a flawed husband
  2. Yes, there are limits, and often leadership is abused
  3. But a godly women must START Trusting that God is always in control, and you don’t have to be! You can just follow and rest in GOD’s care for you!
  4. By-the-way, start praying that your husband/future husband follows God and not you!
  5. And pray for the courage to follow your husband’s lead - as flawed as he will be

III. Message

A. God Knows How to Lead His People

  • Where was Abram and Sarai going when they left Ur and later Haran?
  • He had no idea! It was a big world! (Hebrews 11:8) By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
  • And so they depended upon God to direct their every step - what direction, how far
  1. God gave a literal moving pillar of a CLOUD every day to Israel [PICTURE]
  2. And a pillar of fire by night
  3. When it stopped, they knew to stop. When it moved, they knew to move
  4. God will show you His will too!
  5. And if He hasn’t yet, just wait! He will! If you will trust Him to

  6. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand” - Psalm 37:23,24

  • The question is, Do you know how to follow instead of fear and fight?

B. How does God show us His will?

  • The instructions of SCRIPTURE first

  1. “The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide” - Psalm 37:31

  2. This Book is our life manual - but it must be in your HEART as much as in your head
  3. READ it looking for instructions on what to do, not to do

  4. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” - Psalm 119:105

  • God-given WISDOM will guide you
  1. God gives you understanding and wisdom when you ask Him

  2. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” - James 1:5

  • CIRCUMSTANCES will guide you
  1. Sometimes being forced to go a certain direction (See Jonah) - just go with it

  2. “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word” - Acts 8:4

  • BURDENS - you sense direction when praying and yielding
  1. Paul and Timothy sensing the call to go across the Agean Sea to Philippi to meet the Macedonian man, whoever that was
  2. Sensing God’s call on your life to preach, to serve the Lord in some ministry
  3. Simply because you start to care about some people
  • Get COUNSEL from Godly influences: parents, your pastor, your husband, godly praying friends - people who will not tell you what you want to hear!
  • Do NOT follow your heart and feelings and voices in your head! NO!
  • You will not usually know God’s will until you are surrendered to whatever it will be!

C. Into the Land of Canaan They Came (Genesis 12:5-9)

  • “And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came” - Genesis 12:5

  • So far from what they had known as home
  1. Think of how far Abram and Sarai walked and travelled from Ur to get here to Canaan
  2. 700 miles to Haran, and then 500 more miles to Sichem
  • This was the Promised Land - the land promised to Abram and his children by Sarai
  1. He and his wife pitched their tents near Shechem, some thirty miles north of Jerusalem. Jerusalem didn’t exist yet - only a small town called ‘Jebus’.

  2. “And Abram passed through the land [WALKING] unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land” - Genesis 12:6

  • It was a strange land

  1. “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:” - Hebrews 11:9

  2. Different than the world they already knew
  3. Nothing was familiar to them - different language, customs, gods
  4. Canaan was NOT heaven
  5. It was NOT “the good life” (retirement)
  6. It was NOT prosperity he and Sarai came into
  7. But it was the will of God, and that made it PERFECT!
  • A dangerous culture
  1. They are now in enemy territory, surrounded by dangerous people
  2. Canaan was a very wicked region.
  3. Already occupied by wicked people - the Canaanites

  4. “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion. Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you: And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants” - Leviticus 18:22-25

  5. THAT is the land they had walked right into the middle of!
  • But it was where they were supposed to be
  1. God called Abram to live in the midst of his enemies. It was the safest place for him

  2. “Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;” - Philippians 2:14,15

  3. “After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves” - Luke 10:1-3

  • By the way, the Promised Land does not belong to children by Ishmael, or to the Roman Catholic Church, or to the Palestinians, or to you or me - it belongs to the JEWS!
  1. Always has, and always will!

  2. “And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me, And said unto me, Behold, I will make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession” - Genesis 48:3,4

D. The Lord Appears to Abram THERE (Genesis 12:7)

  • “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him” - Genesis 12:7

  • How does God do that? I’m not sure. Maybe as a light, definitely as a voice.
  1. The Lord appeared to Moses as a burning bush, a fire.

  2. “Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I” - Exodus 3:1-4

  3. So, Abram sees someone talking to him - he knows it is the Lord God
  4. Probably THE angel of the Lord - the appearance of the Lord God Almighty as a man - that is what JESUS was, God as a Man!
  • The Lord says, “You are right where you should be”
  1. “Welcome to the Promised Land”
  2. “You have arrived!”
  • And then says, “unto your children, I will give this land.”
  1. The dirt, and the soil, and the hills and the fields of Canaan

  2. “In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:” - Genesis 15:18

  3. From the Euphrates RIVER to the Nile RIVER [LAND GRANT MAP]
  4. ALL this land belongs to your descendants through Sarai, even though it was already occupied by Canaanites - you will replace them one day!
  5. Remember, Abram has no children yet! He had tried for decades with no success.
  • But instead of DOUBTING God, Abram believes God again and again!

  1. “And he [ABRAHAM] believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness” - Genesis 15:6

  2. These are THE most important words!

  3. “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” - Romans 4:3

  • Our responsibility is to BELIEVE God - trust Him - without ANY EFFORTS!
  • The challenge to all believers is to KEEP believing the promises of God, especially when things are ONLY impossible without God doing things! And doing what God says do!

E. Abram Worships God (Genesis 12:7,8)

  • “And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD” - Genesis 12:7,8

  • The presence of God prompted Abram to WORSHIP
  1. Some of you don’t worship simply because you never humble yourself and get into a closet and draw nigh to God in prayer and praise!

  2. “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” - Hebrews 4:14-16

  • Abram does something marvellous here…
  • He creates a personal place of worship - where he and his wife and future family would one day gather around and worship God!
  1. Nimrod built cities and empires for the worship of himself
  2. But Abram built a small, stone altar about a meter long and a meter wide and a meter high - just big enough for an animal to die on
  3. Abram builds an altar unto the Lord God who had made promises to him, and spoke directly to him.
  4. No temple, no idol, just a pile of stones upon which a lamb would die
  5. That’s the purpose of an altar:
    • It is NOT a place of comfort, or beauty - but of death and personal sacrifice
    • It is a place of simple worship
    • Where GOD has all our attention!
    • And it is where we lose our will into His hands as we humble ourselves
  6. There Abram offered his best lambs to God
    • He sacrificed his best in worship of God
    • IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HIS LIFE DYING, but a lamb took Abram’s place so Abram can approach to Almighty God and worship Him!
    • He worships out of appreciation for God’s goodness to him
    • And out of awe that God had valued him and noticed him out of all the people in the world and called him to follow Him!
  • Our faith will show BEST in our worship
  1. The greatest men and women of faith, worshipped God in spite of everything wrong and hard and hurtful in their lives - REPEAT THIS!
  2. Job worshipped God in the darkest of times (Job 1:20,21) Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.
  3. The Canaanite woman (Matthew 15:22-25) And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. **Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.
  4. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego worshipped in the fiery furnace
  5. David worshipped God in dark caves while running for his life from King Saul

F. How Should WE Worship Almighty God?

  • Our worship will shine through our attitude about the things of this world - believing that we are Strangers and Pilgrims, and deserve very little that this world offers!

  • “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” - Matthew 15:8

  • So, be thankful IN and FOR everything - THAT is the foundation of all true worship!

  1. “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” - 1Thessalonians 5:18

  2. “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;” - Ephesians 5:20

  • Let God lead and be in charge - trusting he will do right
  • Sing to Him - THAT is part of worship - no wonder Rock Stars love their concerts
  • Love Him with all your heart - we are so dry today
  • Remember His goodness’s to you
  • Remind Him of His promises - show Him His promises mean something to you
  • DO THESE THINGS EVERY DAY!

G. On to Bethel (Genesis 12:8)

  • And then Abram moves on to the next place [MAP]

  • “And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the LORD, and called upon the name of the LORD” - Genesis 12:8

  • Abram pitched his tent, which means he set up his camp. He was going on constant camping trips and he was in the middle between Bethel and Ai.
  • Bethel means “The House of God”
  • And there Abram built ANOTHER altar to the Lord
  1. He creates another place of worship
  2. A set-apart place, special, holy place, built for sacrifice, not entertainment
  3. WE NEED ALTARS AGAIN! A place where we lose our will into God’s will!
  • What is Abram doing?
  1. He’s establishing beachheads, you might say.
  2. He’s telling the culture of that day… Somebody who worships the Lord God of heaven is here and I’m here to stay. And these places will be places where we worship the Lord God of heaven and earth, and nothing else!
  3. No idols, no temples, no priests - just a simple altar and a sacrifice around the Bible
  • And there Abram called upon the name of the Lord - worshipped God
  1. Daily worshipping, wherever he may be - not just on Saturdays or Sundays, etc
  2. Starts talking TO God, casting all his care upon the Lord
  3. He starts asking for help - Abram will need it constantly
  4. Offered a sacrifice for sins - no access as a sinful man without a substitute
  5. GOD has spoken to us with this Book, so it is okay for us to speak back to heaven

  6. “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” - 1Peter 5:7

  7. THAT could take quite a while doing, sometimes!

  8. “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving [WORSHIP] let your requests be made known unto God” - Philippians 4:6

  • True worship is how you can get SAVED
  1. Calling upon the name of the Lord - not Mary, not the Pope, not the Saints, but Jesus

  2. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” - Romans 10:13

  3. Listen to the worlds of the thief on the cross next to Jesus…

  4. “And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” - Luke 23:39-43

H. They were Strangers and Pilgrims (Genesis 12:9) - TWO in the midst of thousands

  • Abram and Sarai Kept Moving (Genesis 12:9)

  1. “And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south” - Genesis 12:9

  2. They will travel on foot for the rest of their lives never owning a home
  3. Some of you rent and may never own a home for the rest of your lives
  4. That is how Abram and Sarai lived!
  5. Abram will just keep walking with his sheep and cattle for the next 100 years, never retiring, never resting, never owning any property, or bitcoin, or gold, or silver
  6. Always a stranger in a strange land
  7. Always a pilgrim going somewhere better someday
  8. Always camping - a nomad - no permanent home
    • Always setting up his tents for a while, and then taking them down and packing them up and moving to another location
    • THAT is a strange way to live - downright PECULIAR
    • And Abram was fine with that - and evidently so was Sarai
    • Not many women would agree to that kind of a life
    • But you need to if God’s will is such for you and your family! Hopefully not

    • “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:” - 1Peter 2:9

  • This world was not their home
  1. He set up no city like Nimrod did. He built no house, no palace.
  2. He was just a pilgrim and a stranger in Canaan.

  3. “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they [ABRAHAM AND SARAH] had been mindful of that country from whence they came out [UR], they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city” - Hebrews 11:13-16

  4. He could have gone back to Ur of the Chaldeans, but he chose not to.
  5. He chose the better home that God had for him
  6. That “city” is the NEW Jerusalem!
  • This world is not OUR home either!

  1. “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation” - 1Peter 2:11,12

  2. Go ahead and BE different, be peculiar, be strange - be out of step - BE CONTENT
  3. Don’t fret over the politics, the war, the conspiracy theories, the threats, the troubles
  4. Pray, worship God, trust God is in control, win souls, have a family, serve God
  5. Why? Because …
    • We don’t belong here - we will be only weird to this world
    • WE are foreigners here - WE are the aliens in this world
    • We have another citizenship - another “country” that we belong in
    • We are just passing through this world - that little DASH between our birth and our death!
  • God’s people have to follow the pattern of Abraham
  1. The people of Israel, 400 years later will need to remember this when they are called to come back to this place in Canaan after being in Egypt.
  2. They’re going to be asked by God to follow Abram’s footsteps - he is their pattern - NOT Moses, not David
    • A simple, cattle farmer, with no mansion, no great wealth
    • Leave everything behind them in Egypt
    • Don’t hum and haw, and hesitate
    • Get into the Promised Land!
  3. And so we Christians are called to come out from our homes, our comfort (WE ARE WAY TOO COMFORTABLE, and MISERABLE), our culture, whatever our religion may be, and to follow Jesus, to listen to his voice, to set up our own altars, and in the midst of our enemies, worship God, and live for the promises of God instead of the pleasures of sin that last only a season!
  4. Christianity USED to be like this! It has to be lived this way again, if the world is to be won to Christ, and if our children are to see a great awakening!

IV. Conclusion

  • God knows how to lead His people!
  • Do you know how to follow?
  • The will of God…
  • Will be strange to you
  • Will usually be dangerous and hard
  • Includes the presence of God - He will be with you!
  • Our responsibility is to BELIEVE God - trust Him
  • Our faith will show in our worship
  • And in our attitude about the things of this world - we are Strangers and Pilgrims
  • Strangers and Pilgrims never stop!
  • Until we reach that better country - heaven
  • Are you going there?
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