The life and faith of Abraham. Part 1 – The call to the new adventure of faith

Well, there's this little strip of

garden just in front of the manse, if

you the house out there.

Last year, well, probably few last

years, it was covered in in weeds and

overgrown and we thought we'd take some

action. And so, we were pulling out all

the weeds and Claire's been busy

planting lovely new plants and flowers

and everything and

and it looks it looks really good. Well,

I'm I I think it looks good anyway.

But, what that garden needs is a

constant supply of water. So, most

nights Claire will go around the back of

the house, will pull the the hose around

and she'll water the garden. It needs

that constant connection between the tap

and the garden.

There is that constant life-giving

connection.

So, that life exists because that

channel of water. And today we start a

new series looking at the life and faith

of Abraham or Abram as he's first

called. But, what has this man who lived

around 4,000 years ago got to do with

us? What can we learn from this man

who's lived in ancient times? What can

we learn? Well, it's a bit like that

garden hose

that connects the garden to the water.

There is a spiritual connection

to us

from Abraham.

It's not that he is the source of

blessing himself, rather as Paul writes

in Galatians 3:29, "And if you are

Galatians 3:29

Christ's, then you are Abraham's

offspring as according to the promise."

So, if you are a Christian here this

morning, if you belong to Christ,

then you are Abraham's offspring.

You have come into those promises that

were promised to him. He's considered

the father of faith and the promises

given to him, they reach down to us

through all those many years. And what's

more, not only are these promises given

to him fulfilled in Jesus and they

affect us, we can look at his life, his

life of faith, and we can learn what it

looks like to to walk with the Lord,

too.

So, let's just think about the

background to the story because we're

jumping in halfway through Well, just a

a little bit into Genesis. 11 chapters

have already happened. And so much has

already happened in those 11 chapters.

So, God created everything and he

created it good.

Adam and Eve, they enjoyed good

fellowship with the Lord. They walked

with him in the garden, but eventually

they believed the devil's lie.

And they thought they could become like

God, and they disobeyed him. And so,

what was good

was ruined.

And death and dissension entered the

world, and it wasn't long before murder

came into the world, too.

And humanity spirals further and further

away from God and from what is good. So

much so that God, looking out out over

this world, decides he's not going to

tolerate wickedness anymore. And isn't

that the cry of so many people? Well, if

God is good, why doesn't he do something

about all the wickedness and the evil?

The point is, he did.

Back then.

But when God does something about that

that that evil, the sinners, that

includes dealing with the people who do

the sin.

And in that time, he chose to bring

along a flood against sinful humanity.

He saved just one man and his family, so

Noah.

And Noah responds to this amazing

salvation,

uh this new start, these new promises

that he's given, he responds to God in

worship. And he builds the first altar

and worships God.

And then generations go by, humanity

spreads out over the earth, and uh

memories of that one true God begin to

fade.

And humanity regresses to our old ways,

and we think that we are so amazing that

we want to be like God. We We should be

gods ourselves. And so you get to the

story of the Tower of Babel, just the

beginning of chapter 11.

And they plan they're they're going to

build a city. They're going to build a

tower for to make a name for themselves.

They're going to reach the heavens

themselves. They're going to become like

gods. And we look back now and realize

how absurd that was.

And yet

nothing has really changed.

Despite all our advances

and the passing of nearly 4,000 years,

humanity is still trying to displace

God.

We create far-fetched theories to

explain him away.

We think we know better.

And we want to make our own rules. We

want to be who we think we should be

rather than who God says we are.

We suppress that nagging feeling that

that there is a God.

That we are going to be accountable to

him. We hate the idea of being

accountable to God because we we want to

be free

to be who we want to be.

But the truth is we are accountable to

one who is so much greater than us.

A God who is good through and through,

who is worthy to be praised.

And because we want to be the ones who

are great and worthy of praise, we want

to make a name for ourselves, we want to

be recognized and valued and celebrated

and loved. And the sad thing is

humanity's trying to take those things,

look at me, love me, celebrate me. We're

trying to take those things,

but we miss the fact

when we know who God is, when we make

God God, he gives us those things.

He says, "You are important. I love you.

You matter. You are valuable."

But we're so busy trying to take them,

we miss what God is trying to give us.

So, if we allow God to be God,

our maker to tell us how things work,

then actually we find he gives us what

we so want.

And that is meaning

and purpose

and assurance and and something to live

for.

But this is where we are in in Genesis.

Humanity has this tendency to substitute

anything for God, whether it's

ourselves, we put ourselves in God's

place, or something he's made, the moon,

the sun, nature, whatever,

or something we've made, we we put it in

God's place, and we give ourselves to

that thing.

So, that brings us to Abram.

We don't know much about his early life.

Was he just like those around him

worshipping the moon god as they did?

Just trying to make the best of it?

Or was he, as extra-biblical tradition

would tell us, standing against the tide

of pagan foolishness and retaining a

knowledge of the one true God? Well, we

just don't know

how Abraham lived at this point.

We do know that his family seemed to be

caught up in this moon god cult. Um

the the the name is is bizarrely

actually the the the moon god was called

Sin or Sin or Nanna, depending on which

civilization

you look at. Uh and and many of

Abraham's family names uh derive

themselves from the religious cult of

that time. So, even Abraham's dad,

Terah, whose name means moon. And so, uh

uh of the Chaldeans and Haran, they were

important centers for this moon god

worship. And we're going to get to Haran

a bit later, but Ur is where Abraham was

from. They are centers of this this moon

god cult.

And so, that's a big part of Abraham's

culture. He would have been been

impacted by this massively.

Whether or not he went along with it or

not, we don't know, but this would have

impacted him massively. It was part of

his culture.

But then, God spoke to him.

And everything changed.

God called him to leave his old ways

behind, and that's our first point.

A call to leave his old life.

Something exciting about an adventure,

isn't it?

Uh I don't know whether what what

tickles your fancy when it comes to

adventures, whether it's um The

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes or

Paddington or Tintin or Huckleberry

Finn, if anyone remembers that. I don't

really, but there we are. Um uh

when I think of an adventure, I think

about um

Indiana Jones, you know, some sort of

epic quest of that sort of nature.

But God calls Abraham on an adventure of

faith.

To a new beginning.

An adventure of trusting in the Lord.

Chapter 12, verse 1.

Go from your country and your kindred

and your father's house to the land that

I will show you.

Now, to understand where this call

actually occurs and at what point isn't

quite as straightforward as we might

think. Because we see in verse 4,

Abraham's response is to go not from Ur,

because he's already in Haran when he

gets this call, apparently.

You see, he's already left Ur, where he

grew up, and traveled with his family to

Haran. What's more, in chapter 11 verse

31, we see it's Terah, Abraham's dad,

who seems to be behind the move. He

takes his family with him. So, so what's

going on?

Well, there's two suggestions. In

chapter 12 verse 1, uh that can be

translated as per the footnote of your

ESVs, uh as the Lord had said.

So, it it when we translate it like

that, and that's okay to do that. It's

not an abuse of the text. Uh it's just

the the the grammar. Um so, if the Lord

had said, so that would say this call

happened originally in the past in Ur.

It's only mentioned here uh a few verses

later than that the the action in Ur,

because that would interrupt the family

line linking Shem, the son of Noah, all

the way down to Abraham. And those

verses were concluding those times of

ancient times, and then in chapter 12,

we get the start of a new section, a new

story, a new epoch, Abraham's story. So,

then they bring in the command at that

point. That's one suggestion. The other

suggestion is that God said it at the

beginning, and he repeated it here after

the delay in Haran to get Abraham back

on track.

And as for Terah being uh the one to

take his family, well, I guess it would

be said like that because uh Terah was

the head of the family, and so you could

say he took him he took his family, even

though it might have been Abraham and

what God said to Abraham that inspired

the move in the first place. But, that's

all by the by, because the main point

that we need to just think about now is

that Abraham spoke No, God spoke to

Abraham.

God spoke to Abraham. That's the

important thing. There's nothing in the

scripture that suggests that Abraham

actually deserved this.

There's nothing in the scripture to to

to suggest that he was seeking God. But,

God chose to speak to Abraham. It's the

doctrine of election right here back at

the very beginning. Abraham wasn't

described as particularly righteous or

deserving. This is all of God's mercy.

This is God um

looking down and choosing a man he's

going to have mercy on. He didn't have

to, he chose to.

And this is how it has to be.

If it was down to us finding God, we

never could.

We never could build a tower a tower

high enough to reach God. We never could

um present ourselves in a a morally good

enough state to be good enough for God.

If we are going to know God, we can't

work our way up.

God has to stoop down to us.

And so he did.

The Lord spoke to Abraham. We can move

that slide on now, thank you.

And what God was commanding wasn't easy,

verse one.

Go from your country and your kindred

and your father's house to the land that

I will show you. So leave your country.

That was his country. It's the place

where he grew up, the place you call

home, the place you know.

You've got to now leave that.

I mean, to be fair,

he came from a place called Ur. I mean,

that's a bit of a funny name, isn't it?

What should we call this place? Uh oh,

yeah, that will do. It's like, what a

funny name. Ur.

Uh but actually it's thought to be uh a

pretty cultured city, a sophisticated

place, and a powerful city.

Uh and that's what he's called to leave.

The the mod cons, the security, the buzz

of city life.

We often think of Abraham as being

nomadic, but there's nothing to suggest

that's actually how he started.

Um that's what he was called to. He

became a traveler, but he was in this

city.

So leave your country. Also, leave your

kindred, your people, all those familiar

ways. He was part of them. They were his

people. Your culture, your traditions,

your network, your friends.

I mean, that's that's quite a thing to

do, isn't it?

And then leave your father's household.

Perhaps that is the hardest thing to do.

Why did he have to leave his father's

household? As we've already postulated,

there's probably a lot of involvement

with the moon cult.

So, he has to leave that behind. He

can't stay with those practices going

on.

As it turns out, his father went with

him. And that seems to have resulted in

in a many years of delay in Haran. So,

so maybe Abraham didn't quite get this

right. He left, but he took too much

with him.

It meant It was meant to be a break,

but it wasn't a complete break. The

Hebrew there, the wording suggests uh go

by yourself.

By yourself. That doesn't mean he has to

leave his wife and

uh household behind.

That was classified as himself. He's,

you know, his household. But he was to

disassociate himself with all that

belonged to his old life and his former

ways.

And that meant leaving his father's

house and influence. So, so why did his

dad end up going with him? Well, perhaps

Terah begged to go with him. In chapter

11 verse 28, we see that Abraham's

brother Haran, not related to the place

Haran where they're now as confusing as

that. So, there's a a man Haran and

there's a place Haran.

Uh but Abraham's brother Haran had died.

And so, maybe dad can't face losing this

other son. And it it's You can imagine

the sort of thing, "Well, if you're

going, I'm coming with you." "Oh, Dad,

really?" "Yeah, I'm coming." Uh I'm just

speculating here, but you know, you can

see how that sort of thing happened. Uh

so, maybe Abraham relents and his dad

comes, who knows? But the point is God

is calling Abraham to a new life.

So much of his old life

has to be left behind.

And this is the reality of being a

Christian.

When Jesus called his first disciples,

Peter and Andrew,

he said in Matthew chapter 4 verse 19,

Matthew 4:19

"Follow me and I will make you fishers

of men."

Immediately,

they left their nets and followed him.

You see they they leave that behind. A

few verses later, Jesus calls James and

John and likewise they leave their boat

and they leave their father and follow

Jesus. They they leave their old

careers, their old their old ways

behind.

This is the way God God calls us to

follow him. Now, for most of us that

doesn't mean leaving friends and family

and home, etc.

But when we follow Jesus, it always will

involve some kind of a break,

leaving something behind.

Perhaps Abraham didn't quite get it

right.

Maybe he's still trying to understand

what this call meant for him in practice

and that's often the way for us, too.

To follow Jesus will mean leaving some

things behind, but what that is

is not always quite so clear, is it?

It might mean for some people to follow

Jesus, you need to leave

unhelpful relationships behind.

Unhelpful friendships behind.

It might mean stopping going to certain

places because you know they just they

just don't line up

with following Jesus.

It might mean not doing things that we

used to do. It might mean changing the

way we speak, changing the things that

we watch, changing the things that we

read, changing the things that we look

at and scroll at. It might mean

rethinking our work ethic because I know

I've got to work as if working to the

Lord so I can't just slack off all the

time.

It might mean we we we change the way we

treat our family, our children, our

spouse, the way we we deal with our

money or the way we we deal with our

time. Suddenly my time is not just all

for me. I want to use it for the Lord.

Do you see there's there's certain

attitudes when we are following Jesus,

there's certain things that need to be

left behind, behaviors, attitudes,

habits. They need to go.

The call to follow Jesus has

implications.

Sometimes they are radical. Sometimes

they are costly.

But quite often learning what it means

to follow Jesus in our context

takes some working through.

We don't have to leave everything just

for the sake of it.

Sometimes it takes time. Maybe you've

been a Christian for decades.

And then suddenly the Lord just puts

some his finger on something in your

life and what you were happy doing for a

long time, suddenly you're aware that

God seems to be saying that's that's not

for you anymore.

You need to put that behind you. Do you

know I don't know if you've ever had

that?

But it happens.

God sometimes mercifully doesn't show us

everything we need to leave behind all

at once, but he will speak into our

lives

saying no, that that's not right.

And you see you've been you've been

blind to an area and he shines a light

onto it and you realize I I can't carry

on. I can't continue to do that.

So I just wonder, how willing are you

to

leave things behind if the Lord is

putting

his finger on parts of your life,

attitudes,

behaviors,

situations,

certain types of entertainment,

maybe a lifestyle

and you're becoming increasingly aware

that the Lord is is putting his finger

on that. How how willing are you

to say, "I'm going to follow Jesus and

that's going to be put behind me."

Cuz that's what that's what followers of

Jesus do.

How willing are you to step away from

your old way of life and in faith follow

him?

Well, it's not easy

if all you can see is

what you will lose.

But, that's not actually how God

presents this call to Abraham, is it?

Yes, God calls him away from his sinful

past. But, God promises Abraham

a wonderful new adventure.

A new life beyond his wildest dreams and

that's we'll look at that in our final

point this morning, a call to go with

God. A call to go with God. I don't know

if you can see that map, but probably

not. Don't worry too much. If you can,

that's great, but

It's disappointing, isn't it, when

someone promises you something

and then they don't follow through.

Don't you feel like that? You know,

someone said like, "Yeah,

I promise I'll I'll be there. I'll do

that thing. I'll give you that or

whatever. I'll help you." And then it

doesn't happen.

Maybe, you know, someone you love, maybe

a parent or a child or someone, you

know, they make that sincere promise.

They really intend to, but it just it's

beyond their control. It doesn't work

out.

Or maybe you believe the adverts

and or the reviews and you order the

miracle cream, but it just doesn't make

your hair grow back and you're like,

"Well, that was disappointing, wasn't

it?" I'm trying not to look at any bald

people right now.

Or you buy a thing that you think's

going to make you happy

and then you get it and it does for a

day or two, but then it wears off and

you go, "Well,

it's just a thing, isn't it?"

Or you you believe the promises of the

culture that you're free to be whatever

you want to be, whoever you want to be.

And then you you follow that path and

you discover actually it's unfulfilling,

it's unsatis- unsatisfying, and actually

it damages me. It's It's not I'm not

free to be anything I want. I I There's

a certain way I've been made.

And the world is full of people making

great-sounding promises, but often they

fail to deliver.

But let me just assure you,

when the all-powerful,

all-knowing God,

who is love,

and who cannot lie,

when he makes a promise, that promise is

of a different order.

When God promises, you know you can

trust him.

You might not always know when that's

going to be fulfilled or in what way.

You might not see how that's going to

happen, but if he if he has made a

promise, you know you can trust that

promise.

>> [snorts]

>> And that's what Abraham did, not

perfectly all the time,

but Abraham's general response to God is

he believed him.

He believed him.

So, having uh traveled roughly 600 mi

from Ur, uh presumably uh following the

Euphrates River to Haran, uh for

whatever reason, Terah stays there.

Maybe after such a long journey, he's

had enough, or maybe he just comes to

this place, it's one of the other great

um centers for moon worship, and he

thinks it's like home from home. I'm

just going to stay here, you know, this

is the place.

And he stays there, and he dies there.

He doesn't go on.

And at some point, Abraham either has a

renewed urgency about the Lord's call,

or the Lord calls him again, whatever it

is, but Abraham realizes he can't stay

here either.

The

You know, he can't stop.

He has to continue uh uh on this new

call of God. He can't just stay in his

old ways of life in the old places. God

has got new amazing things for him. And

did you notice that he's 75 years old at

this point, which is quite amazing. Now,

there are some strange things that goes

on with the ages in the those early

years of humanity.

It's true some of those ancients had the

capacity to to live for much longer

periods than us. I blame McDonald's for

that. Maybe not. But, however old you

are,

even if you think life

is drawing to the end or in in the

golden years, and perhaps you think you

can't change that that it's all over for

you. Do you know it's never too late to

start a new life with the Lord.

I think Iris was 80. Were you 80 when

you came to know the Lord? Yeah.

So, it's never too late to start this

adventure with Jesus. And we can move

the slide on.

And it would prove to be an adventure.

Verse 1. Go from your country and your

kindred and your father's house to the

land that I will show you.

So, although Abraham must have had a

general idea about where he was going,

God didn't actually reveal the final

destination about where they were going

to go until he got until Abraham got

there. That's one of the exciting things

about following Jesus. You just never

know where it will lead to.

I look back on my own life and I

recognize that because of my faith,

because of Jesus, my life has taken a

dramatically

different turn to how I naturally would

have chosen. I I really

petrified of the idea of standing in

front of people and speaking, and yet

the Lord had this plan for me. And

my childhood involved being taken around

to various gigs

with my parents Christian band. And that

was just something that I thought was

normal, but it was just something we

did. As a teen I found myself on a

minibus touring churches throughout

Prague.

Later, just after we got married, we

went to Africa a number of times to

teach missionary children.

While we were on a missionary trip

actually, someone tried to buy my wife

for a couple of camels.

Obviously I said no. I thought she was

worth more than two camels, but

I wanted three. But um

God then called me from my comfy life as

a designer in an ad agency to enroll in

Bible college and become a pastor. These

were not necessarily things that I would

have chosen for myself. Our family then

found ourselves leaving where we'd grown

up, where all our friends and family

were, to move. And that happened twice.

Uh so far.

And that's against my natural

inclination.

Cuz we want to settle down. You know, we

want to build a house and a family and

be settled and everything else.

But I I I testify that our lives have

been much richer

for that.

I don't know where I'd be if Jesus

hadn't saved me at that young age and

worked on me piece by piece, step by

step. I realize it's not all the same

for all of for all of us. Some of us

have got much more exciting stories than

mine and you've done many greater things

and your your cost has been much greater

for you. And others, your your story

will be much less dramatic than mine.

But following Jesus has meant learning

to give up relying on ourselves

and our and our own understanding

and our own securities.

Following Jesus means you learn to trust

the Lord. When I became a Christian at

about seven,

God didn't reveal it all to me all at

once. And I'm glad he didn't because I

couldn't have taken that. If he said,

"This is what you're going to do." And

actually, he's really merciful. He just

reveals the life one step at a time.

I don't know what the whole future holds

for us

or what Jesus has in store for you, but

it's not just about giving up stuff and

loss. It's about learning to trust the

Lord in the big things and in the little

things, too.

Even if your life with Jesus

doesn't take you far from home.

A life with Jesus may not be easier, but

it will be far better

than a life without him.

Ultimately.

And so

rather than chasing the promises of this

world that may or may not satisfy for

living for things that are so temporary

and fleeting, Abraham knew the direction

to go.

And he goes in the direction that God

takes him. He He doesn't know about the

journey, what he's going to face. He

doesn't know about the destination.

But he goes with the Lord. He's obedient

to the Lord. It's the same for us. We

know for all who's faith in Jesus, we

kind of know where we end up. We're

going to end up in the new heavens and

the new earth.

But there's much about that we don't

understand. We don't know the journey.

We don't know the difficulties we're

going to face. But there's much about

that end destination we don't

understand, either.

But what we do know is is that we will

be with the Lord.

And that is an important thing. Not so

much about

the great adventures you go on or where

you end up or all those sorts of

different things. The fact is What What

matters is who you are with

on this adventure of life.

And it is to be with the Lord. That's

the The thing.

It's who you're with, the Lord.

And that is a great source of

joy and peace to know that he is always

with you. He's always got you. He will

never leave you.

There is an assurance, a joy, a thrill

that comes from that. Oh, my Lord, my

savior, he calls me to trust him, to

follow him, and he promises always to be

with me. I find that to be a great joy.

Well, I haven't left myself enough time

to study these promises in depth today,

but God reaffirms them other points in

the narrative, so we will revisit them

at various points. But, I just want to

just give a little taste of these

promises. There's seven of them. We can

break them down seven.

We'll sprint through them really

quickly. So, one, God promises, I will

make you a great nation.

Now, remember we read in chapter 11,

verse 13, that his wife was barren. She

couldn't have children.

So, do you see the contrast here? He's

going to be made into a great nation,

but his wife can't have children.

This is a call to trust God, isn't it?

It's impossible unless he does some

naughty things, but it's impossible.

So, God is asking Abraham, trust me. I'm

going to give you so many descendants, a

great nation. And we know that God was

faithful and kept his promise. Second

promise here, will God will bless you.

And God did. Abraham became rich and

powerful

and

uh many descendants. A third promise,

make your name great. Now, I'm told

there's about 8.3 billion people alive

in the world today, and over half of

them, say Jews, Christians, and Muslims,

trace their spiritual heritage in some

way back to Abraham.

Over half the living people today trace

their spiritual heritage back to

Abraham.

So, did God make his name great? Yes, I

think so.

The tragedy is in Judaism and Islam they

miss how these promises given to Abraham

were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That's

the tragedy, but over half the world

know his name knows his name. Fourth

promise, so that you will be a blessing.

And Abraham in all his greatness and

blessings it wasn't just for himself. He

was a blessing wherever he went. He was

a blessing and people were blessed. He

helped them, he saved them.

So that country fifth promise, I will

bless those who bless you. Sixth

promise, and him who dishonors you I

will curse. So God was going to put his

name on this people, on Abraham. And

what we see in the New Testament as well

as the Old Testament is what you do to

God's people you do to God.

So God was going to protect his people.

Additionally, God planned to bring the

Messiah from these people. So he would

safeguard them

through many difficulties. He would

safeguard them because this great thing

was going to come. The savior of the

world was going to come from these

people. So God was not going to let that

be stopped.

So if you blessed him

then you would be blessed. If you

dishonored him, you would face the

consequences. And and and so so we see

that God has in mind the blessings on on

this man Abraham, but it's actually a

promise that then spreads out throughout

the entire world. The seventh promise is

and in you all the families of the earth

will be blessed. How so? How is all the

families of all the earth going to be

blessed?

It's through Jesus.

Abraham's greater descendant. We can

move the slide on, thank you.

God's promises

God promises blessing to all people

through Abraham and that is fulfilled in

Jesus Christ. That whoever believes in

him, in Jesus, should not perish but

have eternal life.

That's that's That's what God had in

mind all these years. 4,000 Well, 2,000

years ago it was when Jesus was born

that he would bring about Jesus, that

whoever believes in him should not

perish, but have eternal life. Abraham

believed God.

And we are uh called to believe God,

too.

God stoops down to Abraham cuz Abraham

couldn't get up to God. He didn't want

to get up to God, but God stooped down

to Abraham. And you know, God stoops

down to us, too. He did that in the form

of his son, who was born into history.

He's spoken to us by his son, who came

on that rescue mission to save us.

That's such a such a contrast between

God's efforts to meet us and our little

efforts to try and build a little tower

or whatever it is that we're trying to

do.

Our religion can't get us right with

God.

Uh God knows we can't reach him, so in

mercy

he sent Jesus to come and make a way for

us, so that our sin can be dealt with

not by a flood

but by the death and resurrection of

Jesus Christ, so that we can be forgiven

and come into this renewed, life-giving

friendship with God. This is the path to

blessing.

To follow Abraham's example.

To hear the call of Jesus to come and

follow me.

To leave our sinful life behind us. To

trust the promises of God and and in

what Jesus freely gives us. Now, to be

sure, Abraham's going to face all kinds

of challenges and difficulties, and he

doesn't always come out very well well

in them.

But here

he chooses to put his faith, his trust

in the one true God, who called him to

go where he would show him. And And I

just want to ask you, what about you?

What's your response to God?

Are you willing

to go all in

with Jesus?

Or are you still clinging on to your old

sinful ways?

The idea that you know what's best for

you and you can't quite trust him with

it all. You're still holding on. You

think, "I can't just I can't quite" Are

you still holding on?

Hear the call of God.

Turn from your sin

and follow me.

There is a new adventure to be had with

Jesus,

which does involve taking up your cross,

but ultimately leads to eternal life.

Well, as we finish, let's just wrap up

the the last few verses in in about 2

minutes.

Abraham traveled another 400

miles, and so he arrived at Canaan, and

God appeared to Abraham, confirming,

"Yep, this is the place you've arrived.

This is the promised land." What was

Abraham's response? Verse 7, he built an

altar to the Lord. That's the only the

second altar we see built in the Bible

at this point. He builds that altar, and

he worships, and then he's about to

build the the third one as well, verse

8. From there, he moved to the hill

country onto the east of Bethel and

pitched his tent with Bethel on the west

and Ai on the east. There, he built an

altar to the Lord and called upon the

name of the Lord. So, his response to

this blessing and the leading of God is

worship, and he calls upon the name of

the Lord. What that means is he is

seeking the Lord. He's asking for help.

He's depending upon him. And in the

4,000 years that Abraham has has lived,

this is the same for us today.

It is the mark of those who are in

relationship with the Lord. We believe

him.

We follow him.

We trust him for this new life, and we

worship him, and we call upon the Lord.

That's what a believer does.

I wonder if that's what you are doing.

Let's just be quiet before the Lord.

Father, we

pray that you would

speak into our minds, Lord. Let us not

excuse these things.

Father, we pray that we would hear the

call of God on our lives.

That we would not be satisfied to go

halfway with you.

But we would leave what needs to be

left. And we would embrace what needs to

be embraced. That we would be willing to

trust you.

To put our faith in you fully,

completely, and walk with you calling

upon your name. Lord, we thank you that

that is not a burden, that is a joy,

that is a privilege. We thank you that

what a wonderful thing it is that when

we are walking with you, we just don't

know how that's going to turn out, but

we know it will be good.

So, Lord, help us in this. Lord, may we

consider the call you have on our lives.

In Jesus' name, amen.