Abraham : a Field Guide to Loving God

In this series, Pastor Dave Tieche and friends explore four critical moments in Abraham's life and four key lessons that show us what it looks like practically to love God.

Series Overview | Sept 12, 2021

Today Pastor Dave gave us an overview of what's ahead. It all begins with a verse from Deuteronomy 6:5: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." We are called to love God with all we are and all we have. But the truth is, we love lots of things. As Pastor Dave mentioned when you love tacos and you love your mom, what does love even mean and how can we love God with all we are and all we have? As we look at Abraham's life over the next several weeks, we'll see in his life four moments and lessons we can take to understand what it means to love God. As scripture shows us, we are called to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, our souls, and with all our strength. Yet there is so much competing for our attention and our devotion - money, career, relationships, comfort. We encourage you, sit with God and ask: God, will you reveal to me if there is anything in my life that I’ve placed above you? Let God speak to your heart. Write down what you hear and ask God what next steps he'd like you to take this week to draw nearer to Him and put Him first in your life.

Learn more about Shema prayer

The Call | Sept 19, 2021

This week, Pastor Ben anchored us in who Abram was when God called him. Was he a Godly man? Righteous and obedient who because of his ways, caught the eye of our Father and was chosen for a special purpose in his Kingdom? He wasn't. Abram came from a pagan worshipping family, living in Ur, the center of pagan worship. God chose an ordinary man, who likely felt completely unqualified for the assignment he was given. The call of Abram, was to go, to go where God was calling and trust where God was leading. "The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you." (Genesis 12:1) God told Abram to go and Genesis 12:4 shows us his response "So Abram went." Abram answered God's call. Our encouragement to you this week, sit with our Father in prayer and ask him, God, where are you calling me to go? What is it you want me to step into and what is it you want me to leave behind? As you sit with him in prayer, ask Him what next step he wants you to take this week. God is looking to use you this week to be a light for His Kingdom and to go where He is calling. Will you answer the call?

Learn more about loyal love

Be Loyal | Sept 26, 2021

This week, Pastor Dave taught on the loyalty of God. As we look at Abraham's life in Genesis 12-15, we see how Abraham loved God, how in these verses he shows his loyalty and commitment to God by building altars to him. Even more amazing than Abraham's devotion to God, is God's devotion to Abraham, to us, as shown by his love and actions with Abraham. "When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram." Genesis 15:17-18 The Lord made a covenant. It's easy to move past those words, to miss how unbelievable, how loving, how truly incredible this is. God made a covenant. God comes to us. The creator of everything, the perfect Father, almighty God, made a covenant with Abram. All other gods require the people to seek, to earn, to work towards favor. The one true God, in His immeasurable love, comes to us and gives us his commitment to never leave us, never forsake us, to cover our debts, to make a way for us to Him. Our encouragement to you this week, sit with our Father in prayer. Seek him with an open heart and ask Him to speak into your life. A question you can ask: God, is there anything in my life that is getting in the way of my love and devotion to you? We encourage you to wait for his response and write down what you hear. His words are always spoken in love and he loves to speak with his children.

Learn more about covenants in the Bible

Trust Him | Oct 3, 2021

We've all heard the advice "follow your heart". Maybe it was given to us or maybe we've given it to someone else, always done with good intentions. It seems harmless enough...what's wrong with following our hearts? As Pastor Joey showed us this morning, our hearts really represent our motives. Following our hearts, in practice means, following our own desires, our emotions. The danger is, our emotions and our desires, can mislead us and deceive us. Four motives that can drive our hearts include: 1) Performance: Need to win 2) Approval: Need people to like me 3) Control: Need to know every plan and 4) Comfort: Never want to do anything difficult. God's word tells us again and again that we must trust Him. Trust God even if we don't know where he's taking us. Trust God even if it doesn't make sense. Trust God even if it means others may not approve, or it will be difficult, or if we don't know the details. We see in Abraham's life that God told him to trust him, to follow where God was leading even though it meant leaving all four of these motives behind. Abraham did just that. And in doing so, showed us what it means to love God by trusting Him. The questions Pastor Joey encouraged us to meditate on: Why don't we trust God more? Why do we trust God with the big decisions and not the little ones? Our encouragement to you this week, sit with our Father in prayer. Seek him with an open heart and ask Him to speak into your life and if you are trusting Him. Ask him the questions above and allow God to answer. Are there any areas you're following your heart, your motives, instead of what God is asking you to do? Is there a step you can take this week to trust Him over your heart?

Be Loyal Pt. 2 | Oct 24, 2021

In this week's teaching, we were blessed to hear from Pastor David Kim who continued our series on Abraham. Pastor David shared powerfully and vulnerably about his own experience learning that loving God meant trusting Him, even when it didn't make sense. We looked at Genesis 16 and how in the life of Hagar and in our own lives, God not only loves us but chases after us, in the hard times and even when we don't want to be found.

Check out this incredible series on how to read the Bible

Seek Justice | Oct 31, 2021

Today, Pastor Dave unpacked how justice and righteousness are key to understanding what it means to "love God.”

Learn more on what the Bible says about justice

Seek Justice Pt. 2 | Nov 7, 2021

As Pastor Dave taught this week, we see in Genesis 18 how God desires for His sons and daughters to partner with Him to pray on behalf of others. Who is God calling you to pray for? We encourage you to sit with God and ask him to reveal how he wants you to partner with Him in prayer. We’d also love to join you in those prayers. Simply email prayer@calvarylg.com with that prayer request and we will pray alongside!

Check out an awesome overview of Genesis 12-50

Expect God to Be Good | Nov 21, 2021

In this week's teaching, Pastor David Kim walked us through Abraham's test, where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son, and looks at what this story shows us about loving God and living life with God.

Does God test people?

Conclusion | Nov 28, 2021

This week brought our Abraham series to a close. This series gave us a beautiful guide, a compass, from the life of Abraham to learn how to love God more fully. To be loyal, even when it comes at a cost. To trust him, even when life doesn't make sense. To seek justice. To do what's right and set things right. To expect God to be good, even when life falls apart. Abraham's life, full of God's presence, guidance, blessing, points to something even greater, who God is. How God loves, how God comes to us, how God desires to be in relationship with us, how much our Father wants us to trust all of who we are, every aspect of our lives, to him. "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns— and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" (Matthew 6:25-26)

Learn more about “sacrifice and atonement” in the Bible