Worship (Lesson 6) - Aaron Cozort - September 09, 2026

Explore the biblical principles of worship from Genesis to the New Testament, focusing on examples like Noah, Abram, and the significance of altars and calling on the name of the Lord.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Worship in the Bible
00:33 The Call to Worship in Genesis 4 and 5
02:23 The Descendants of Seth and Cain: Worship and Departure from God
04:42 The Name of the Lord and Humanity's Worship
05:09 Noah: Grace and Worship in a Wicked World
08:21 God's Promise and Noah's Worship after the Flood
12:37 Offerings and Acceptable Worship in Noah's Time
23:56 Noah's Worship and God's Power to Remake the Earth
26:04 The Call of Abram and the Building of Altars
28:00 Abram's Worship at Shechem and Bethel
29:26 Living in God's Will and Worship in James 4
33:30 Abram's Faith and Worship in the Land of Canaan
36:37 The Significance of Returning to Worship after Blessings
40:49 The Consistency of Worship in Abram's Life
42:10 Lessons on Worship from Old Testament Examples

Creators and Guests

Host

Aaron Cozort

What is Admonition Podcast?

The Admonition podcast brings you Bible lessons and sermons from the Collierville Church of Christ with host Aaron Cozort. Each episode focuses on interpreting Scripture in its original context, exploring the background of key passages, events, and teachings. Gain deeper insight into God’s Word as we study together, applying timeless truths to everyday life.

Good evening.

Good to see everyone out this evening.

We will be continuing our study of worship
in the Old and New Testament.

As we consider additional principles
concerning worship and some

of the history behind worship,

we've noticed a a few of the beginning
examples of that.

We're going to notice a few more this
evening.

But let's begin with a word of prayer and
then we'll get into our study.

Our gracious Father in heaven,

we

Come before your throne, grateful for the
day that you've blessed us with,

for the life that you have granted to us,

for the health and the opportunity that we
have to assemble together.

We pray that you will continue to grant us
that health and continue to grant

us that opportunity. Lord, we pray for
those who,

by reason of illness or injury,

are unable to be with us. We pray also for
those who have lost loved ones.

Especially mindful of Beverly and her
family at this time,

pray that you give them strength as they
grieve.

Lord, we pray that you will help us to
always be an encouragement to those

who are struggling in whatever way they
may be struggling.

And help us to be mindful of our position
in life and

be grateful and thankful for all that you
do for us.

Lord, we pray and ask that you forgive us
of our sins when we fall short

of your glory.

And all this we pray and ask in Jesus'
name.

Amen.

We're going to begin this evening in
Genesis chapter four.

So in Genesis chapter 4, ~ we of course
have noticed the incident

of Cain and Abel earlier on in the
chapter.

We're not gonna spend ~ any additional
time on that,

but we do notice there in that example
that we have worship occurring.

When we get to the end of the chapter,

we find verse 25 and 26:

Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a
son and named him Seth.

For God had appointed another seed for me
instead of Abel,

whom Cain killed. And as for Seth,

to him also a son was born, and he named
him Enosh,

then men, and notice this terminology,

began to call on the name of the Lord.

This evening as we go through our study,

we're going to notice examples of altars
that were set up.

And the sacrifices that were offered on
them,

and the connection that exists between
worship

and calling on the name of the Lord.

Because that terminology is used a number
of times throughout Scripture.

Now, as Moses here records the events,

he will utilize the reference.

That is the term Lord in most English
versions you'll find there at the

end of verse 26 is the term for Yahweh.

It it is the ~ in most English versions,

it's either all caps or it's l uppercase
and low or sorry,

large and lowercase. I'm gonna get it
right.

Large and small caps ~ is the way many
translations actually place it in there.

~ but that is there to

To differentiate if you see Lord in all
caps,

it's to differentiate the fact that
they're the passages using the term
Jehovah

or Yahweh in the Hebrew, and ~ gives some
special recognition to that.

We we recognize that God will tell ~ Moses

if you go forward into the book of Exodus
that he would be

Known by that name from that point
forward,

that that would be a recognition of God's
place

and relationship to Israel. But here in
this text,

we notice that humanity begins to call
upon the name

of the Lord. Humanity at large begins to
worship God.

Now,

It's not going to be but a chapter before
we see the descendants of Cain

and their complete departure away from
God,

and their departure away from what God had
told them to do,

and humanity's departure away from what
God had told them to do.

but as a result of that,

when we get to the end of chapter five,

we're introduced to Noah.

And Noah at five hundred years old is one
who finds grace in the eyes of the Lord,

but the contrast to Noah is the entire
rest of the planet.

Because you have in chapter five the
declaration that those sons

of God intermarried with the daughters of
men.

that was actually a discussion Kevin and I
were having relatively recently about

what what does that mean?

Some will come to that passage and they'll
argue,

well, this is ~ I think ~ I'm not sure
what religious group it is that that holds

to this, but a number of people do,

~ that this is a a time where angels
intermarried with humans.

That's not what the text is talking about.

What you have in that text because of the
direct reference previously to the men.

Began to call on the name of the Lord,

is you have those of Seth's descendants
that are worshiping God,

that are faithful to God, and they're
going to be referred to as the sons of
God.

They're going to be referred to as those
who are following after the Lord.

They're calling on the name of the Lord.

And yet Cain's descendants, which you read
about in chapter 5,

are going to be those who are going to be
following after Cain.

That which is evil, they're going to
persist in that which is evil,

just the same way that Cain did.

Actually, you read about Cain's
descendants in chapter four,

verses 16 through 24. But there's a
separation.

Here's Seth's descendants, and they're
following after God.

Here's Cain's descendants, and they're
following after their own sinful desires

and their own sinful lusts. And what
happens?

The same way it happens in the days of
Israel.

Well, the sons of

These people marry the daughter of these
people,

and guess what? It doesn't turn out well
for.

It doesn't turn out well for faithfulness
to God.

And so eventually, through the course of
marrying into one another,

the same way God will later tell Israel:

don't intermarry with the Canaanites,

don't intermarry with those Parizzites and
the Hivites and the Jebusites

and the ones that I told you you're going
to put out of this land.

Don't intermarry with with the people who
are in that land,

because if you do, they're going to turn
your heart away from me,

and I'm going to come and judge you.

And sure enough, what do you find to be
the circumstance that leads to the flood?

Intermarrying between those who are
faithful and those who are ungodly.

And so their hearts are turned away from
God,

their hearts are turned away from the
Lord,

while they began to call upon the name of
the Lord.

By the time you get to the end of chapter
5,

Noah.

Stands as a unique example of those who
find grace in the eyes of the Lord.

So, as we look at worship,

we consider that first God expects it.

Secondly, God has expected it generation
after generation after generation from

garden forward. But let's notice what we
find in the life of Noah.

Genesis chapter five, we're introduced,

as I mentioned, to Noah, and God is going
to declare that Noah finds

grace in his eyes. You find ~ Genesis
chapter six,

verse one, now it came to pass when man
began to multiply on the face of the
earth,

the daughters were born to them,

that the sons of God saw the daughters of
men,

that they were beautiful, that they took
wives for themselves of all they chose,

and the Lord said, My spirit shall not
strive with man forever.

For he indeed is is indeed flesh,

yet his days shall be one hundred and
twenty years.

There were giants on the earth in those
days,

and also afterward, when the sons of God
came into the daughters of

men and they bore children to them,

they were the mighty men who were of old
men of renown.

Then the Lord saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth,

and that every intent of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil continually.

And the Lord was sorry that he had made
man on the earth,

and he was grieved in his heart.

So the Lord said, I will destroy man,

whom I have created from the face of the
earth,

both man and beast, creeping things and
birds of the air,

for I am sorry that I have made them,

but Noah found grace in the eyes of the
Lord.

This is the genealogy of Noah.

Noah was a just man, perfect in his
generations,

Noah walked with God. And Noah begot three
sons,

Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

The earth also was corrupt before God,

and the earth was filled with violence.

So God looked upon the earth, and indeed
it was corrupt,

for all flesh had corrupted their way on
the earth.

And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh
has come before me,

for the earth is filled with violence
through them,

and behold I will destroy them with the
earth.

Make yourself an ark of gopher wood,

make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside
and outside with pitch,

and this is how you shall make it.

The length of the ark shall be three
hundred cubits,

its width fifty cubits, its height thirty
cubits,

you shall make a window for the ark,

and you shall finish it to a cubit from
above,

and set the door of the ark in its side,

you shall make it with lower second and
third decks,

and behold I myself am bringing the flood
waters on the earth to destroy from under

heaven all flesh in which the br is the
breath of life,

everything that is on the earth shall die.

Because of the wickedness of mankind,

because of their persistence in that which
is evil,

as the book describes it, that they only
thought of that which

was evil continually. It was the only
thing they thought about.

It was the only motivation, and their only
desire was to do that which is wrong.

Now

Could that ever happen again? Absolutely.

Absolutely. It is part of the reason why
it is a necessity

for us as members of the body of Christ,

as Christians, to continue to teach and to
preach the gospel.

It is because the world does

not trend towards righteousness.

It doesn't habitually just decide to do
that which is right.

The world continues to

Push generation after generation towards
that which is evil.

And it is only through those who are
righteous doing what God has commanded
them

to do that that is held back. And
furthermore,

you see that God has a willingness to
judge the evil that exists in this world.

So when you look at

The events that are going to transpire in
the life of Noah.

Noah is going to build the ark just as God
commanded him to.

God is going to tell Noah to get on the
ark,

and Noah's going to do that. Noah is going
to take him with him those clean animals

and those unclean animals that God
commands him to do.

And then we find chapter 8. Chapter 8,

we find in verse 20.

As we go down through the text,

then Noah built an ark to the Lord,

or sorry, an altar to the Lord,

and took of every clean animal and of
every clean bird,

and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

When the flood is over, when Noah and his
sons and

his wife and theirs and his sons' wives
depart from the ark,

when the animals come off of the ark.

We're told that Noah is going to build an
altar to the Lord.

He's going to take of every clean animal,

of every clean bird, and offer burnt
offerings on the altar.

You notice here that as Noah offers this
worship to God,

he's going to offer what is acceptable to
God.

We've already seen in the ~ events of Cain
and Abel that Cain offered

that which was not acceptable to God.

That Abel offered that which pleased the
Lord,

that which was accepted by God.

Here we have another event not too far
forward

in the text where again we're being told.

There's that which is accepted by God,

and there's that which is not accepted by
God when it comes to worship.

And should it be any surprise for us today
that that's still the case?

Should we be surprised when from the
beginning of time God has had

a standard of how worship is to be offered
in order to be accepted by Him,

that He still has a standard? Certainly
not.

But notice

The Lord verse twenty one smelled a smooth
aroma,

a soothing aroma. Let me get my words out
tonight.

Then the Lord said at his heart,

I will never again curse the ground for
man's sake,

although the imagination of man's heart is
evil from his youth,

nor will I again destroy every every
living thing as I have done.

You know, I have heard it said before,

usually by gardeners, that those weeds are
the curse that

God placed on Adam. No, they're not.

We're told here that that curse ended.

That wasn't any more in effect the way
that it had been.

Now

There's certainly things that exist in
this world that are bane

on somebody's existence, especially if
they're a gardener.

But the thing which God made that caused
the earth

to be cursed is not in existence anymore.

That was something that existed and was
for a time before the flood and not now.

~ but God says, I'll never do this again.

I will never curse the ground for man's
sake,

although the ~ although the imagination of
man's heart is evil from his youth,

nor will I again destroy every living
thing as I have done.

While the earth remains, seed time and
harvest,

cold and heat, winter and summer,

and day and night shall not cease.

God makes a promise.

That the earth is going to continue to do
exactly what he made

it to do until he says otherwise.

We often ~ hear by a lot of people a

lot of ~ tumult, a lot of of worry,

a lot of hand-wringing about one thing or
another on the planet and

How you know it's all going to come to a
disastrous end if something doesn't change

soon. Usually ~ someone's in an incentive
~ or position to be paid

if that thing ~ doesn't change.

But you find that they're quite ignorant
about what God had said.

Now, God didn't always say that it was
going to be springtime.

And everything was going to be warm and
everything was going to

be cool and everything was going to have
rain everywhere and there wouldn't

be any droughts and there wouldn't be any
deserts and there wouldn't

be any mountains and there wouldn't be any
glaciers and there wouldn't be any.

He didn't say that, did he? He said rather
that the systems that he

put in place were going to persist.

The systems that he established to
maintain the earth would not.

deteriorate beyond the point that he
allowed them to go.

All the way over in the book of Hebrews,

we're told in Hebrews chapter 1 that

the earth and the world and the universe
that we live

in is maintained by the word of God's
power.

We notice Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 1,

God who at various times

And in various ways spoken time past to
the fathers by the prophets,

has in these last days spoken to us by his
Son,

whom he has appointed heir of all things,

through whom also he made the worlds,

who being the brightness of his glory,

and the express image of his person,

and upholding all things by the word of
his power when he had by himself purged

our sins, sat down at the right hand of
the Majesty on high.

The universe is not going anywhere.

The world is not going anywhere.

It's not going anywhere because Jesus
Christ isn't going anywhere.

And it is his word,

it is his authority that allows and
demands that

the world persist.

But isn't that an interesting point to
realize?

What happened if he ever changed his mind?

What happened, I don't know, not in
conjecture,

but to say, there is a day in which Christ
will stop doing

that. There is a day in which Christ will
return,

and the purpose that this physical world
and this universe have served

in humanity's existence to lead us to
eternity will be over.

And when they are,

Peter will write in second Peter chapter
three that it's going to end

in the very elements being burned up.

Just a little bit of a rabbit chase here.

It wasn't until

the nineteen forties that we had
confirmation that there

was more power at the atomic level than

had ever been tapped into,

let alone unleashed, in this universe.

by mail.

The atomic bombs that were dropped ~ by
the United States

in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the testing of
the atomic weapons that

and nuclear weapons that followed after
that was the release

of more power in the form of energy power

in one decade than all of humanity had
released to all knowledge in human
history.

from the beginning of time to that point,

in one decade.

So when you think about all of humanity's
existence from

Genesis all the way until 1940,

and you realize that humanity had operated

in an incredibly limited scope of
knowledge about what God created.

And only after 1940 do you have ~ really a
new world

in which we have insight into

That which goes all the way down to the
atomic level and the egg

the energy that exists at the atomic
level.

And we have the audacity quite often to
think,

well, we that was the last thing to
discover.

That that was the the last nugget of God's
creation that we could possibly have have

have discovered and imagined and surely we
now know the the most powerful thing

that we'll ever know about. And I think
that's probably nonsense.

But then pause for a moment and consider
if you think about the power that exists

at the atomic level and what we know can
be unleashed,

what would happen if God ever kept ever
stopped keeping

it together?

If that's what can be released simply by
what man can learn,

what would happen if God ever stopped
holding it together?

And we say again. It'd be gone.

He made it. He holds it together.

We exist because he holds it together.

And without that, we don't exist

in this physical life, in this physical
world,

because it will be gone. And there will be
a day in which that will occur.

But God says, up until that point.

This is never going to happen again.

God is never going to cause an event to
wipe the planet clean like

he did in the days of Noah.

So as you look at this, you consider,

should, that Noah comes

off the ark to a clean planet,

as it were, wiped clean by the Lord.

All the sin, all the wickedness,

all the debauchery, all of the things that
had been filling the earth,

the violence that we just read about,

wiped away. Not wiped away pleasantly,

but wiped away. But as Noah came off the
ark,

Noah recognized

the Lord in worship.

Noah has lived during the time of the
flood nearly a year

in this boat with these animals.

And you can imagine what the sounds would
have been like

inside the boat.

As they listened to the tumult that
occurred outside the boat.

We're told that God broke up the deep.

God raised up new mountains and made new
valleys.

You don't have to spend much time looking
at the footage from

~ the event that that took place recently
on the border of China and Nepal.

or looking at the the scars that still
exist in western North Carolina after

the hurricane, to realize that when God
allows nature

to do what nature can do, especially when
it comes to water,

the landscape changes dramatically and
does so incredibly quickly.

~ look look at some of the the satellite
footage from Nepal before the event.

And after the event. And that's just from
a glacier breaking loose.

So Noah worships God.

A God who could remake the planet.

A God who could start all over again.

A God who could control the deep and the
skies above.

but also a God who could save them through
the midst of it.

Noah and his family had a true
appreciation for what it meant

to be saved by God.

Then consider chapter twelve.

We put spotlight on some additional events
of worship.

In Genesis chapter 12, of course,

we're introduced in chapter 11 to Abram.

We're introduced to his family,

and chapter 12, we're introduced to the
call of God to come out of his nation,

out of his country, out of his family,

and from his father's house and go to a
land that God would show him.

So in Genesis chapter 12, verse 1,

we read, Now the Lord said to Abram,

Get out of your country, from your family
and from your father's house,

to a land that I will show you.

I will make you a great nation,

and I will bless you. I will make your
name great,

and you shall be a blessing. I will bless
those who bless you.

I will curse him who curses you.

In you all the families of the earth shall
be blessed.

As the relationship between God and Abram
is

Is beginning to be unfolded here by Moses.

We're told about this covenant promise
that God makes to Abram.

We're told about what God tells Abram to
do.

He says, You need to leave your family,

you need to leave your country,

you need to leave your father's house,

and you need to go to the place where I
will show you.

And so Abram does. Verse 4:

Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to
him.

And Lot went with him, and Abram was
seventy five years old when

he departed from Haran. Then Abram took
Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's

son and all their possessions that they
had gathered,

and the people whom they had acquired in
Haran,

and they departed to go to the land of
Canaan.

So they came to the land of Canaan.

Abram passed through the land to the place
of Shechem,

as far as the Terabinth tree of Morah.

And the Canaanites were then in the land.

And the Lord appeared to Abram and said,

To your descendants I will give this land.

And there he built an altar to the Lord,

who had appeared to him. God has spoken
with Abram before

when he was in Haran. God speaks to Abram
again now that he arrives in Shechem,

and God says, This is part of the land
that your descendant.

descendants will receive. And as Abram
stops there in Shechem,

Abram will build an altar to the Lord.

And he moved from there to the mountain
east of Bethel,

and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the
~ on the west and Ai on the east,

and there he built an altar to the Lord,

and called on the name of the Lord.

So here we see this continuing action,

this

This regular activity that Abram was
involved in.

Abram, when he would go from one place to
the next place,

when he would arrive there, when he would
pitch his tent,

when he would prepare to stay in a
particular place for an extended period of
time,

Abram would build an altar. You know,

over in James chapter four.

James, as he is writing to the Christians
and specifically the Jewish Christians

in the first century, will write to them
and say,

beginning in verse 13 of James 4,

come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow
we will go to such and such a city,

spend a year there, buy and sell and make
a profit.

Whereas you do not know what will happen
tomorrow.

For what is your life?

It is even a vapor that appears for a
little time and then vanishes away.

Instead you ought to say, If the Lord
wills,

we shall live and do this or that.

But now you boast in your arrogance,

all such boasting is evil. Therefore,

to him who knows to do good and does not
do it,

to him it is sin. As James writes to the
Christians,

he

Emphasizes to them that when it comes to
your plans,

when it comes to your priorities,

when it comes to your decision-making
process,

your first question ought to be:

will this accomplish the will of the Lord?

The Christians were struggling.

You go all the way back into the beginning
of chapter four,

and they were struggling with more than
just where to move to and how long

to stay there. They were struggling with
the fact that they were asking

for things from the Lord only to spend it
on their own lusts and desires.

They were only interested in what they
wanted.

And James condemns them for it.

James tells them they need to reorder.

Their priorities. They need to go back and
determine first what is the will

of the Lord. And if that is the will of
the Lord,

then they'll go do it. They need to stop
prioritizing prophet

and start prioritizing the will of God.

As you look at the life of Abram,

one of the things that you see is number
one,

he's following the Lord.

He's going where the Lord tells him to go.

Secondly, you'll notice that when he
arrives anywhere he's going,

he's going to worship the Lord.

There's not a point in Abram's life where
you

see Abram departing from God.

Abram is very conscientious to go where
God desires for him to go,

when God desires for him to go there,

and when he does go there, he worships the
Lord.

He builds these altars to the Lord,

and interestingly, as you note.

~ this particular altar that we just read
about is going to be built in Bethel.

Where is it that Jacob is going to be when

the Lord appears to him as he is fleeing
from his father's house

and from his brother after he has taken
the birthright?

Bethel.

And so Abram builds an altar.

Abram will hear worship the Lord.

And Abram will provide an example to us,

not just in worship, but in life.

Just the same way James emphasizes that
our focus needs to be doing

the will of the Lord.

Our focus needs to be doing that which God
desires for us to do.

And when we do, God will take care of the
rest.

And when we don't, James says,

when you know to do good and you don't do
it.

To him it is sin. I remember all the way
back when we were in school of preaching,

we had a a student come to us and he was
young.

we were young at the time, but anyway,

he was young and and he was not quite
happy with

the political situation at the time,

and it was getting on, I think,

election year or whatnot. And ~ and he he
came to me one time,

he said, Aaron.

I've had somebody tell me that if I don't
vote,

I'm sinning. And specifically if I don't
vote for who they think I should vote for,

I'm definitely sinning. And they quoted
James chapter four,

verse seventeen to me.

And I said, well, that's not what that
passage is talking about.

He said, but on the other hand,

if you determine to do what you want
instead of what the Lord wills,

now we have a problem. We need to be
careful with passages and keep them

in their context. But Abram's going to
build this altar at Shechem.

He's going to build another altar at
Bethel.

And then chapter 13.

At the end of chapter 12, Abram's going to
go down to Egypt,

and he's going to remain there because of
a famine that was severe in the land,

according to chapter 12, verse 10.

When Abram returns from Egypt,

we find in chapter 13, verse 1,

then Abram went up from Egypt,

he and his wife and all that he had,

and Lot with him to the south.

Abram was very rich in livestock in silver
and in gold,

and he went on his journey from the south
as far as Bethel,

to the place where his tent had been at
the beginning,

between Bethel and Ahai, to the place of
the altar which he had made there at
first,

and there Abraham called on the name of
the Lord.

You notice when Abram comes back up out of
Egypt,

Abram doesn't say, you know what,

I'm a whole lot richer than I was when I
came down into Egypt.

I don't know that I really need to worry
about God anymore.

After all, I'm a pretty significant guy at
this point.

I I I've got plenty of possessions and I'm
rich in gold

and and and possessions, such gold,

silver, livestock. What do I need the Lord
for?

That's not what Abram does. Abram comes up
out of Egypt and he goes right back

to that altar.

But again, what's the message behind it?

God provided for Abraham when he was in
the land.

God provided for Abraham when he was in
Egypt.

God provided for Abraham when he came back
up out of Egypt.

And Abram recognizes that not a thing
about

his circumstance and his situation was his
doing.

Except for the trouble that he almost
caused by the lie that he told in Egypt.

But everything else was God's doing.

Abram had a recognition that he owed

it all to God. If you turn over to chapter
thirteen and verse fourteen.

We find verse twelve Abram dwelt in the
land of Canaan,

and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain
and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.

But the men of Sodom were exceedingly
wicked and sinful against the Lord.

And the Lord said to Abram after Lot had
separated from him,

Lift your eyes now and look from the place
where you are,

northward, southward, eastward,

and westward.

For all the land which you see I will give
to you and your descendants forever,

and I will make your descendants as the
dust of the earth,

so that if a man could number the dust of
the earth,

then your descendants could be numbered.

Arise, walk in the land through its length
and its width,

for I give it to you. Then Abram moved his
tent and went and dwelt

by the Terabinth trees of Mamre.

Which are in Hebron and built an altar
there to the Lord.

God tells Abram,

after Lot and Abram have separated,

he said, You've you've got some traveling
to do.

You need to go survey the land.

You need to go view the land that I'm
going to give to your descendants.

You need to go to the north, you need to
go to the south,

you need to go to the east, you need to go
to the west,

you need to go throughout the land.

And you are going to see what I'm going to
give to your descendants after

you. Now, as God says this to Abram,

Abram has no children. Abram is over 75
years old.

He has no child. He has no descendants.

And as will be pointed out later on.

The one who is currently set to inherit
all that Abram has is one of his servants.

But God is going to make it clear to
Abram.

I'm going to not only give you servants,

I'm going to not only give you
possessions,

I'm going to not only give you gold and
silver,

I am going to give you this land,

and I am going to give you descendants to
fill it,

so that if you could number the dust of
the earth,

you would be able to number your
descendants.

God is going to make it clear to Abram.

That the promise is still in effect.

The promise that God had made with Abram
in chapter 12,

God was still going to fulfill it.

No matter how much time transpired,

no matter what had happened in the
intervening period,

Lot was not going to be the one through
whom God would fulfill the promise.

Abram's servants were not going to be the
ones through whom

God fulfilled the promise. God was going
to provide descendants.

But as God sends Abram through the land,

what do you find Abram doing? Builds
altars,

worships the Lord.

Wherever he went, you would have found
Abram worshiping God.

As a matter of fact, it is such an aspect

of the life of Abram that over in chapter
22,

the test of Abram concerning his
faithfulness

to God will be couched in worship and
Isaac.

The two things that Abram would have

desired to do no matter what, have a son

and worship God were the things with which
God tested Abram.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely. And you see ~ you see that all
the way forward ~

to the days in Jesus' time where the
altars that

are discussed in the mountain of some of
the Samaritans being referenced

all the way back to the days of Jacob and
Isaac ~ and those altars being built

there. All right, we're about out of time,

so we're gonna go ahead and put a put a
plug in it there.

But as you think about

These passages, what I want you to do as
you're reading,

as you're doing your own Bible reading,

take a note. When worship happens,

what are the things that are described
around it?

What are the things that are going on?

And what do we learn about worship,

the motivations for worship, the reasons
for worship,

what is acceptable worship by the
circumstance

that surrounds the worship that is
acceptable to God.

Okay? Thank you for your attention.