The Journey of Faith: When God calls (North OC)

, Marcel: I just want to encourage all of you today, and I want to encourage you

for being here this morning You have made a decision to worship God and Whether

you've been worshiping God for most of your life or for many years or maybe

you're just checking out this Christian thing Or you just want to visit the

church I just want to lift you up and encourage you because you could have made

a different decision this morning You But you made a decision to be here and I

want to encourage you, uh, those who have been disciples of Jesus for years now

for continually choosing to follow Jesus.

And so I want to commend you for that because it is a journey with God.

Amen.

And so, uh, you actually has been said many times.

Our walk with God is.

A journey and we're going to begin today a new series, a new sermon

series in which we are calling the journey of faith, the journey of faith.

And so we're actually going to be looking through, um,

Genesis chapters 11 through 25.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

And we're going to be looking at the, uh, through the journey of faith through

the lens of Abraham's journey of faith.

The patriarch Abraham.

Uh, who is considered, uh, the father of faith.

And so, uh, we're actually, we actually have a little handout.

If you want to hand over a physical copy, but on the church app, we also

have this on the church app as well.

And I'm going to put something on the screen here right now.

The journey of Abraham.

And so we're going to learn and discover through Abraham's journey.

And we're going to see the parallels in our journey of faith as well And

so we're gonna learn from Abraham's mistakes and victories, but we're not

really trying to highlight Abraham We're trying to see God in our journey

Through the life and journey of Abraham.

Are you guys with me here?

And so I want to encourage you as we go through this that you again

Insert yourself into the story.

That's one of the best ways to get, uh, uh, the most out of your Bible

study, but also take a step and go, what do I learn about God through this?

Not so much.

What do I learn about Abraham, but what do I see about God?

And what are the parallels in my faith journey that relate to Abraham?

And so we're going to start this on Sundays, but we're actually going to

continue this study through Wednesday.

And so we're going to send out and have discussions in our family

groups and for the college ministry.

We'll send you guys the handouts as well digitally so you can have

that for your quiet times there.

So we're going to walk through this.

So through the next two months here, we're going to be walking through and

understanding our journey of faith.

Now, as you see on the screen here, I want to give you a

little bit of a context here.

Abraham is called by many the father of faith.

And he's actually been, um, Uh, even in scripture called the friend of

God, and he's actually a major figure.

Uh, really a major figure in three religions, Christianity,

Judaism, and Islam.

And so let's go over a couple of these things here.

And so approximately 2100 B.

C.

is when we take up the life of Abraham.

And this part of the Old Testament covers the life of Abraham.

It was originally called Abram.

God called him to faith while he lived in Ur of the Chaldeans and was part of

a family that worshipped other gods.

He set out from Ur, but settled in Haran before continuing to the

land of Canaan, modern day Israel.

Abraham is obviously one of the most important characters in the Bible.

He became the father of the Jewish nation who were chosen and used by God to bring

salvation to a lost world through Jesus.

Abraham is mentioned more than 300 times in the Bible.

A couple of the themes.

Abraham is an inspiring example of what it means to live by faith.

His sins and failures also give us an opportunity to see and

appreciate God's grace and patience.

In the end, Abraham also became known as the friend of God.

And so if you look on the handout that we will sit, that's on your church

app there, uh, there's also some.

Uh, commentaries about five commentaries that we can suggest to

you so you can also have your own deep dive into the journey of Abraham.

So let's go ahead and, uh, let's start off today and we're going to be talking

about when God calls, when God calls, let's go to the father in prayer.

Father in heaven, I thank you so much for this opportunity to worship

you with my brothers and sister.

God, we thank you so much for the AC that we enjoy in here.

God, we thank you so much that you are a cool air to our souls.

We thank you for your word and the nourishment that we receive.

Thank you for your faithfulness from the time of Abraham, really from the time of

creation till now to your chosen people.

And God, we pray that today allows us to learn more of you, our relationship

with you and draw closer to you and answer your call for our lives.

We pray this in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

All right.

Turn over in your Bible to Genesis chapter 11.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

We'll have it on the screen.

But in Genesis chapter 11, we'll start off here in verse 27.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

And so up to this point, we've had the account of Adam and Eve, uh, the fall.

We've had the, uh, uh, uh, the, the, the Noah and the Tower of

Babel, and we take it in here.

Right now, there's giving a lot of genealogies in, in Genesis

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

chapter 11, and it says, This is the account of Terah's family line.

Terah became the father of Abram.

Remember Abraham?

Uh, that's his name change later on.

No whore and Herod and Herod became the father of lots.

While his father Terah was still alive, Heron died in Ur of the

Chaldeans in the land of his birth.

Abram and Nahor both married.

Then Abram's wife was Sarai.

Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot, son of Haran, and his daughter

in law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from

Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan.

But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

We'll stop right there.

Just want to make some some notes here to remind us.

I know many of us are very familiar with Abram and his life, but we want

to stop because some of these things play a pivotal role for the next.

Couple of weeks in this bible study and understanding a bigger picture of

god's story as well And we see here they come from the land of ur which

was a big city Uh during this time And it was known for its idol worship.

And so they worshiped the moon and so there was a moon god I believe it was

uh, hannah or henan, uh in certain different translations and so abram's

family You His family, his parents and those before him actually worshiped idols,

which is important to understand and appreciate when we see the call of Abram.

Now, Abram's wife, Sarai, she was unable to have children.

That's going to play a big role in understanding the call and also later on.

And then also, uh, Abram's nephew, Lot.

Uh, accompanies him and maybe was actually being taken care of.

We don't know lots age at the time, but we know he joins Abram.

So let's go ahead and let's continue in verse one.

It says the Lord said to Abram, go from your country, your people and

your father's household to the land.

I will show you.

I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you.

I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you, I will

curse and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.

So Abram went as the Lord had told him and Lot went with him.

Abram was 75 years old when he set out from Haran.

He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated

and the people they had acquired in Haran.

And they set out for the land of Canaan and they arrived there.

Abram traveled through the land as far as the sight of the

great tree of Moreh at Shechem.

At that time, the Canaanites were in the land.

The Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring, I will give this land.

So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

From there he went on toward the hills 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 on the name of the Lord.

Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.

We'll stop right there.

All right, so let's recap here.

They're in the land of Ur, but God calls Abram and he appears to him and we don't

know exactly how it happened, but he gives him his word and he tells him to leave.

And that he's going to show him where he should go, but he gives

them these promises of blessings upon his life and Abram does follow suit.

And there's so many things that we can take from this, but there's a couple

of things that I want to see here.

Is that when God calls and we see here, God has this call for Abraham.

And, or excuse me, I might say Abraham and Abram because, you

know, just interchangeable and I always think of him as Abraham.

But when God calls Abram, we see the sacrifice of God's call.

We see the blessings of God's call.

We see the nature of God's call.

And also we see how to answer God's call.

And so let's walk through that.

Church, are you still with me here?

All right, let's go through this.

Let's look at the first part the sacrifice of God's call right

there in verse 1 He tells him to go from your country your people your

father's household and to the land.

I will show you Was that a sacrifice?

He says I want you to leave your hometown Leave your family leave your culture

and I want you to go somewhere and I'm not even going to tell you where

yet Now that's, that's a high calling.

Some of us, we don't even want to leave our family.

Like we want to live with our parents until we're like 60.

You know what I'm saying?

And so none of us, some of us, we don't want to dare leave Southern California.

I know that's me.

But he says, Abram, I'm calling you and I want you to leave

your family, your country.

Your culture, your relationships, and go to the unknown.

Is there anything harder than that?

I don't know about you, but that would have been tough.

You know, one of those requests would have been a challenge, but

all four, that makes it even more.

And you have to ask yourself, why would Abram follow this?

Put yourself in those shoes.

Would you have quickly said yes?

Why would anyone want to do this?

Well, I think we understand a little bit more as we think about the

blessings of God's call He says to Abra.

I will make you a great nation Your name will be great and you will be a blessing

and others a great nation You're gonna go from one to a great nation again.

How many kids does he have at this time?

None, he's 75 years old.

He's probably looking around like who are you talking to?

What are you talking about?

Oh, my nephew Lodge.

Okay.

It's going to be through him because we're family.

He probably is reasoning that.

But he says, I will make you a great nation.

I will make your name great.

That sounds a whole lot better than a good reputation.

And he goes on and says that you will be a blessing.

You're going to be a blessing to those you are around.

You're going to be a blessing to those.

They're going to be taken care of.

And he says the whole world will be blessed through you.

You're not going to have just a local impact.

You're going to have a worldwide, eternal impact.

And so I'm sure Abram started thinking through these blessings.

And thinking, yes, there's a sacrifice, but look at all that God is calling me to.

You know, when God calls to do something as well, we can see he's

calling for a greater purpose.

He's calling for this greater purpose and we can see, um, also

that when God calls us to sacrifice, he also promises blessings.

And I believe maybe God is trying to help us because when we're called, if we

actually follow, there's going to be times where it's challenging and we're going to

question, why am I sacrificing so much?

And then we'll have these promises to go back to.

To help motivate us to get over the hump and continue moving forward.

Can you relate to that at all?

And I believe that god is just a benevolent father who just wants to

shower us with good things That he wants to take care of us And so we

also see something about the nature of god's call in these verses.

I'll make you a great nation But he also says all the peoples on

earth will be blessed Let's let's let's stop here for a second.

One of the things that stood out to me in this nature of God's call is

that God's really calling Abram to a relationship first and foremost.

Remember, Abram doesn't come from a family of worshipers of God.

The people of God, not just the people of God, but really most people in this

land at this time, they have deviated from knowing the true God Yahweh.

And so Abram is being called first and foremost to a relationship because

we're going to go on a journey together.

What does he call him to?

Hey, come lead and we're going to go somewhere together.

Now how many times do you journey off with strangers?

Hopefully you don't do a lot of this, but you don't, unless

you're on the Greyhound or Amtrak.

You know what I'm saying?

I've DC, boy, that was an experience.

You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't have time to get into that, but boy, trust, I haven't

been on the Greyhound since.

All right, so, but when you go on a journey with someone, what happens

with you and that someone or someones?

You bond.

Kenny and Julie just went on a journey across the country.

They drove their daughter over to Maryland.

So that's about 3000 miles.

We said, Kenny and Julie, how was it?

They said it was terrible.

No, that's not what they said.

They said it was awesome.

They said, man, we did this and have so many experiences and connections and

memories from this journey together.

So when God calls Abram, what's he calling them to chew and experience

and adventure of relationship, we're going to go somewhere together.

We're going to build some memories and you know, like all journeys that we'll

see, there are some ups and downs, especially if you have kids with you.

No, we are not there yet.

No, we're not going to stop yet.

You know what I'm talking about, parents.

But he calls into a journey, an adventure.

And this call is for a bigger purpose.

It's beyond Abram and his circumstances, that even what he can fathom or imagine.

God chose Abram to be a vessel to redeem his creation.

That it would be a great nation.

Who is that nation?

Israel, you guys got the right answers, not a true question.

The nation of Israel comes out, well what comes from the nation of Israel?

We have the prophets, we have the scriptures, and we have the Messiah.

That comes from the great nation, which again, this great nation wasn't

really a promise just for Abram, but it was a promise for the world.

It was bigger than Abram.

It was for you, and for me.

And we see this great call.

And we see it's a bigger plan that Abram really knows nothing of,

nor will he see it all fulfilled.

It says, Hey, to your offspring, I will give this land, your offspring, not you.

You're not going to fully be able to appreciate it and live here like this.

So this is bigger than you, Abram.

And so we see the nature of God's call.

But then we also see the answer to God's call.

Brothers and sisters, are you still with me here?

It says, So Abram went out as the Lord had told him.

I just love the simplicity of the scriptures here.

Abram's got a lot of people with him and he's got a wife.

We're going to go somewhere.

Where are we going?

We're just going to hop on the five and we'll see.

I would love to know what was that conversation like with Sarai at that time.

Hey, God told me which God Yahweh, uh, what are you talking about?

We're gonna just gonna leave.

Where are we going?

I don't know yet.

So I'm sure he went but I'm sure there was some conversations

that took place in the meantime.

You with me here?

And so he went but he comes in contact with the true God.

It says that the Lord appeared to him again.

We don't know exactly how but we know that God's word was revealed.

And so he's beginning to know the truth of the one true God.

Hey, if I don't worship, I'm around, this is actually false.

You know, I have a chance now to, to go and be a part of this grand plan that

the creator wants me to, to be a part of.

And I believe he starts to go, you know, I think, I think I should

trust God and I should do this.

I think, I think, I think he's going to get us through and he's going to bless.

And I think he realized that the blessings far outweighed the sacrifice.

And we see here that he obeys, he sets out for the land of Canaan.

And not only that, but he goes and he builds an altar to the Lord.

So he obeys, he worships, and he makes God known to the surrounding community.

He worships and makes God known it says at the great tree of moray at Shechem So

this was a place that was known for idol worship Some commentators think that this

is maybe where they would give Sermons, if you will about their idol worship

and what does Abram do at this location?

He decides I'm going to erect an altar to the one true God And remember

it's not just Abram doing this.

He has a family of people that are with him.

It's a large number of people.

So this wasn't an event that was done in quiet.

This was a public showing and display of his faith.

This was the, maybe the first church perk service, if you will.

And he's wide out in the open and he's proclaiming the God of the universe.

And he builds an altar there.

And not only that, but then he goes and builds another

one and calls upon the Lord.

No wonder he's the father of faith.

And so we see the nature of God's call.

We see the answer to God's call, the sacrifice, the blessings of God's call.

But again, we can relate because we too are all called by God.

And so here's the thing, God calls all of us today.

And when I see, and I say us, I mean yes, everyone in this room, but every single

person outside of this room as well.

That God calls all of his creation.

And we can see from a couple of scriptures.

Jesus says to go and make disciples of all nations.

The Apostle Paul tells Timothy that God wants all people to be saved and

come to a knowledge of the truth.

The Apostle Peter says that God doesn't want anyone to perish, but

everyone to come to repentance.

God calls all of us and every person alive.

Two day to him

and we have to understand the nature of God's call for us as well because God

has called us to an eternal relationship with him through his son, Jesus.

This call to join God and redeeming the world.

Remember Abram is a part of this big colossal cosmic plan to redeem

all of creation back to God.

And what does he call for us to join him in that work in redeeming

all of creation back to God?

And he also calls us to a specific purpose.

You know, Abram was called to a specific lane, a specific purpose.

I am 100 percent convinced that God calls each one of us to a greater purpose and

to a specific purpose for our lives.

And so that God wants to take this specific time, this specific place,

your passions, your desires, your experiences, your talents and your

resources, and use it to accomplish His great will and for His glory to be seen.

Through you and so all of us are called by God and God, you know, it's funny.

He chose Abram and we're not really sure at least from the

scriptures why he chose Abram.

There's nothing that seems to be special about Abram at this point.

But God chose him and so I know for some of us we go.

Yeah, that might apply to someone else, but I'm just a little old me.

God's not calling me to something.

He's calling you.

Because I'm sure at that point, Abram wasn't this grand figure that

would become the father of faith.

And so we don't know why he got you, but he chose him.

And God is choosing and has chosen you for a greater purpose

and for a specific purpose.

And this call by God includes sacrifice.

It includes many blessings.

And it requires an answer and response from God.

And so we see this sacrifice that is called.

Jesus said, If anyone will come after me and does not hate father,

mother, wife, children, brother, sister, yes, even their own life,

such a person cannot be my disciple.

And whoever does not carry their own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

And then later on he says, in the same way, those of you who do not give up

everything, you cannot be my disciples.

He doesn't mean hate your father, mother, and brother, and sisters.

He's using hyperbole to make a point.

He's trying to let us know that Jesus has to be number one,

so we have to sacrifice all.

And so that's the sacrifice for you and me today.

Family, relationships, past sins, our attitudes, our way of life, our comfort,

Jesus must be Lord of our lives.

We have to leave, like Abraham, those things behind and give him

full control, allow him to truly steer direction of our lives.

And if you haven't made a choice, if you haven't felt like, man, I really

looked and thought about and decided I'm going to sacrifice for Jesus.

I'm going to give up these things.

Then the likelihood is that you haven't become a true Christian So

I want to encourage you to sit with that thought because that call is for

anyone who would come after Jesus And again, why would we do such a thing?

Why would we give up so much?

You know the Apostles they had a similar question one time Peter spoke up.

He says we left everything to follow you Jesus replied, Truly I tell you,

no one who has left home, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or

children, or fields, for me and the gospel, will fail to receive a hundred

times as much in this present age.

Homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields,

along with persecutions, and in the age to come, eternal life.

He says, If you sacrifice for me, I'll multiply the blessing by a hundred.

He's not talking about prosperity gospel and we'll all be rich and ballers,

you know that that that's not what he's talking about That's Eric Ennis.

You know what I'm saying?

But he's saying I'm going to bless you so much That it's gonna be incredible

but not just for the here and now but for the age to come So man, you mean

to tell me if I sacrifice I'm gonna be blessed now and I'm gonna be blessed

for eternity Hallelujah sign me up.

I Know it's a sacrifice But again It's eternal blessings from God.

And again, how do we do this?

He says, you know, Abram called upon the Lord.

When do we call upon the Lord?

Peter tells us when we call upon the Lord on the first day that the

gospel message was the first gospel message that was ever preached.

The people say, well, how do we respond to this gospel?

Peter tells them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus

Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.

You receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Spirit.

Those who accepted his message were baptized and about 3, 000

were added to the number that day.

So what do we receive?

We receive forgiveness of sins.

We receive God's spirit dwelling in us and we're, we're, we're related to God and now

part of God's greater kingdom and family.

These blessings far outweigh the sacrifices when it

comes to the call of God.

But like all calls, we either choose to answer or not.

And so the question for us today is this, will you answer God's call?

Will you answer the call?

Will you swipe left or will you swipe right when you see that message from God?

Will you send it to voicemail or will you answer and follow?

You know how it is.

Sometimes you get those calls.

You're like, I'm not answering that one today.

And the person goes, I know, I know you, you, you, you saw my

call because it was straight to voicemail after the second ring.

And that means you saw it and you turn and you decline me.

I got a message from that from somebody the other day.

They said, Hey, stop declining me.

I was like, hold on, man How you know that?

But I was doing something I say man was just because I was doing

something, you know what I mean?

But here's the question for you.

Will you answer God's call?

I Know we have some people in here.

You have not made a decision to follow Jesus But I want to encourage you God is

calling you to be his people and to enter his promised land of heaven So whether

you're in person or you're online, God is calling you to him, to a relationship.

He's calling you to an adventure and he's calling you to

join in his redemptive work.

But let's be honest, we have some things that could hold us back or some reasons.

And maybe we're thinking, well, maybe it's too late for me.

Abram was a senior citizen man was 75 years old when he got called by God.

Don't say it's too late for you.

Okay, maybe we say, well, I'm too sinful.

What God chose Abram.

And as far as we know, Abram might have been a moon worshiper, but we know

his family was and so we're not too sinful to respond to the call of God.

We say it's too difficult.

I don't know if I can change, you know, God has a track record, a track record.

Of helping, building, informing, and shaping us to change into

the image of his son, Jesus.

You say, maybe it's too much to sacrifice relationships, and my

ambitions, my aspirations, and dreams.

You know, why would God command this type of sacrifice?

Why can't he ask me to sacrifice just a little bit less?

Well, let's think about this for a second.

I always think of the marriage analogy.

Imagine being at the altar.

And you're going, yes, I will give my whole life to this person.

And then the person says, yes, I will give most of my life to this person.

Again, what did you say?

No, I said, I will give most of my life to you.

Is that not good enough?

Why do you want all my hearts?

Uh, uh, uh, uh, excuse me.

We're going to cut this wedding ceremony right now.

You know what I'm saying, right?

Cause you're like, wait, I'm giving you my all.

I would want my, I want your all back.

You know, God gives his all to us.

What do you think he's asking for in return?

Some, most, middle, all in return.

And we still can't match what he gives us.

We can't say, you know what, man, I kind of got you today, God, I

kind of gave more to you today.

He's like, the fact that you can breathe and talk shows that

you didn't give more to me.

You know, man, I'm, oh man.

I'm sorry.

We got to get moving here.

Here's the thing.

You know, I also believe God calls it to the sacrifice because it's

what we need for him to bless us.

Some of these things actually prevent God's blessings in our lives.

Because we're holding on to them.

And if things aren't there, they might seem enjoyable, seem the

best, but God's like, I have something so much better for you.

And in fact, if you get to me, I'll give you your desires in

a different way or maybe in a greater way than you even imagine.

But just let go of those things and allow yourself to follow me.

And so he calls us to the sacrifice, not because he's mean

or he's selfish or he's arrogant.

No, because he knows what's best and he wants to bless.

So that's why we can look at the sacrifice to go.

Hmm.

It doesn't really compare to what God wants in and for my life

Sometimes we can say we're too busy.

We're never too busy for God.

We say you're too scared of the unknown.

You know, God was present with Abram and he fulfilled all of his promises to Abram.

Every single one.

So I want to encourage every one of us that God loves you and wants

to bless you and the blessings far outweigh the sacrifices.

I do have a message here as well for those of us who have made.

That decision.

We answer God's call at some point in our lives and maybe we've been a

member of this church for many years or maybe just for a couple of weeks.

But here's the question for you.

Are you still answering God's call?

Are you still answering God's call, still living by faith or now living by sight?

What you sacrificed before when you decided that Jesus was going to be Lord,

that you gave up, did you, as you went on your journey, did you decide, let

me go back and pick those things up?

When Jesus says to carry your cross and follow him, we can, yeah, I'm carrying

my cross, but maybe we put it down a couple weeks, months, or years ago.

Are we still answering God's Call or are there a lot of missed calls from God on

our call log lists Where God's been he's been teaching he's been reaching out

to us, but we've been hitting decline Maybe it's discouragement Life hasn't

gone the way you thought Maybe it's distraction Distracted by the world's

pleasures or world's worries or the temptations of earthly desires and

all these different things You know, the one thing I appreciate about the

journey of Abram is that it reminds us that our life is a journey with God.

That it's not a one time decision and a one time call and then that's it.

But it's a journey.

And as we'll see in studying, there's going to be ups and downs in this journey.

But because of God's love, God calls us back by His grace to

join us again in the journey.

And so if you have not been answering God's call recently,

if you have regressed, God's grace is calling you back today.

Not tomorrow, but today.

He's calling you to return to his calling.

And so what is God calling you to today?

Some of us, he's calling you to get right with him, to make a decision, to

seek and pursue a relationship with him.

Some of us, it's, hey, we've been studying the Bible, we've

been hearing different things.

He's calling you today to commit.

For some of us, he's calling you to return to God.

You, you, you aren't answering the call anymore, and he's calling you to return.

For others, it may be to fulfill your specific purpose, and Right now, your

time, your resources, your money, your availability, your talent, your experience

to serve others and fulfill God's greater purpose in and around your life.

And so I believe then that every one of us, the response is to answer God's call.

Whatever he's calling you to today, to answer God's call, Abram's journey

reveals that our journey requires us to respond in faith to God's call

and to follow the Lord's direction.

And so I want to encourage you practically, uh, if you're coming

out first time to set up a Bible study, to get into the word and

discover what, what is God's call?

More in my life.

If you've been studying the Bible, take that step of faith.

Make Jesus Lord and decide to repent and get baptized and

give yourself over to Christ.

For those who are disciples of Jesus, return to God's call.

Make that altar in your neighborhood, if you will, and

make God known to those around you.

Or it's to answer God's call to serve, to lead, and to share the good news.

You know, we're going to learn a lot in this series about our journey

of faith and be reminded of things as we study the journey of Abram.

But we have to remember the journey begins with a call and God has

called every single one of us and our response is to answer God's call.

Let's answer God's call today with decisions to follow in faith.

Right now we're going to take communion.

This is where we, uh, remember Jesus's life, death, and resurrection.

And we take the emblems that represent his body and his blood

that was sacrificed for us.

And again, we're reminded that the promises of God to Abram

were all fulfilled in Jesus.

And through Jesus and his sacrifice, we too are blessed and have the

opportunity to be a blessing to others.

I want to read this passage before we pray for communion in acts 3 the apostles

They're they're talking and they tie it back into abram and the blessing that is

fulfilled through Jesus says and you are heirs of the prophets and of the covenant

god made with your fathers He said to abraham through your offspring all peoples

on earth will be blessed when god raised up his servant talking about jesus He

sent jesus first to you to bless you by turning each of you From your wicked Ways.

Let's go to God in prayer.

Father.

Thank you so much for Jesus for him being the fulfillments of all

For him being a fulfillment of the promises that you gave to Abram.

We see your plan unfold and God Thank you that we get a chance to Be embraced by

you to participate in this great divine call to redeem to redeem your creation

We thank you for jesus and his life.

We thank you for his perfection We thank you for his death upon the cross for our

sins and we thank you for his resurrection God that we too can have hope And we thank

you for the new lives you have given us.

God, we pray right now that we can not only listen and hear

your call, but God, that we can answer your call today in Christ.

It's in his name we pray.

Amen.