Genesis 12:1-9 | Part 10 | God's Call; Our Response

If you have your Bibles, you can uh go ahead and turn to the book of Genesis.

If you're new here, we tend to preach book by book through the Bible.

And uh we're in Genesis.

If you stay uh 73 years, we'll make it to Revelation.

So uh, but no, we're in chapter uh 12 today.

While the users are taking the offering, I want to thank you guys who brought water for the millstone and those of you who helped us.

Very successful day, beautiful weather.

Got to talk to hundreds, if not over a thousand people, and uh got to really encourage them, invite a lot of people to a lot of people to church.

And uh, we're just believing that you know seeds were sown, gospel seeds were sown, and that they will will bear fruit.

Um, they say about 40,000 people come to that on average.

I haven't heard the the count yesterday, but it's pretty substantial.

Um, I also uh want to say today, uh, if you came in the parking lot was empty, we've been like packed out.

You guys know that come every week.

And so I asked everybody to park on uh in other parking lots, you know, that that could so that we can make space for new people.

And then I I see there's not a lot of people here today, and I'm thinking maybe people drove in and saw the empty parking lot and just headed right out.

I don't know.

But, anyways, um Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

If you have it, say amen.

All right, let's dive in.

Well, how many of you have ever traced your family history?

Yeah.

When speaking with my grandmother and doing some exploring on ancestry.com, I've discovered a lot about my family roots.

Like I'm super proud that I've got family in Northern Ireland and uh amongst other places in in Europe.

I actually found out a couple fascinating things.

I I've got a distant grandfather who was a preacher in Wells, and that's on my mom's side.

On my dad's side of the family, I had in the in the States, I had a uh a distant grandfather who was a circuit rider preacher.

You know, they went around on a horse and uh shared the gospel from town to town.

I believe he was a Methodist.

And so I get preaching uh, you know, that comes honestly in my family.

But isn't there something fascinating about studying and and discovering people whose stories are connected to yours?

I mean, I love that.

Well, we all have like bloodlines, right?

That we can trace back.

But do you know that we all have a spiritual bloodline as well?

That we can trace our spiritual roots back?

Listen to me, this is wild.

If you are in Christ, you the the scripture would say that you can trace your spiritual roots all the way back to this man we're introduced to today called Abram or Abraham.

And by the way, I'm gonna use those names interchangeably, don't let that uh trip you up.

But listen to this verse.

This is Galatians 3.29.

Paul writes, if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, Jew or Gentile, heirs according to promise.

It's wild.

Today we're gonna be looking at God's calling of Abraham and what that story teaches us about God's calling in our own lives.

Now, how many know that our salvation begins with the call of God?

And the entirety of the Christian life is shaped by continuing to hear God's call and responding to it.

This is an important subject.

And there's two aspects to our calling.

I want you to understand this so you're not lost during the message.

But there's a salvific call or a call to a relationship with God, a call to salvation.

But then there's also, once you're saved, there's a call to what you might call vocation.

That's with Abraham.

We see the call of salvation and we see the call of vocation.

And this is important that you know the call that God's placed on your life for two reasons.

Number one, if you don't understand the call of God on your life, you'll never understand his grace.

And you will try to find your identity and on an in, let's say, your achievement instead of on the grace of God, you'll never be secure in his love for you.

And secondly, isn't everybody about finding their purpose in life?

If you don't understand the call of God, then you will never understand your purpose in this world.

So we're gonna look at this in two movements.

Number one, God's call.

And number two, Abraham's response.

You look tired.

If you're with me, say amen.

All right, number one, God's call.

Go with me.

We're actually gonna back up one chapter to chapter 11 in the book of Genesis.

Put my old man glasses on here.

You know, all right.

Look at verses 27 through 32.

Now these are the generations of Tarah.

Tarah fathered Abraham, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot.

Haran died in the presence of his father, Tarah, in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans.

And Abraham and Nahor took wives.

The name of Abraham's wife was Sarai, become Sarah.

And the name of Nahor's wife, Milka, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milkah and Ishka.

Now Sarai was barren.

This is important.

She had no child, and Tarah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son, Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan.

But when they came to Haran, they settled there.

And the days of Tarah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

All right, so here's where we're at in the story of Genesis.

Okay, just a quick review.

God created a good world.

Yes?

He put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, this cosmic temple where heaven and earth overlapped.

And then Adam and Eve, what do they do?

What we all do, they mess it up.

They sin, they betray God.

And from then on, what we've seen is this downward spiral of the world due to man's sin.

Well, God is patient for 1500 years.

Over 1,500 years, God is patient with mankind as wickedness becomes more and more pervasive.

But finally, after about 1,500 years, God says, I will not strive with man forever.

And he brings judgment upon the world.

He floods the earth, but he saves one man in this family who found favor in the sight of God, the man named Noah.

And so Noah gets off the boat with this family, and the world has been reset.

And it's like, oh man, finally the evil, the evil from the world is gone, and the world now can be what God designed it to be.

Except that Noah's family walks in Adam's footsteps and they sin.

And what we've seen is more, another downward spiral, which culminates last week in Genesis chapter 11 at the Tower of Babel.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

You remember the whole earth joined together, disobeying God's command to spread out and to multiply and to fill the earth.

They come together and they bring together their resources and they say, listen, let's build a city, let's build a tower so that we can make it to the heavens.

And their aim, which it says explicitly, was to make their name great.

They had no regard for God.

We asked last week, what are you building that God didn't ask you to build?

Or are you about making your name known or about making God's name known?

So at this point, I mean, it's almost a repeat of pre-flood, the pre-flood world.

That's where we're at in Genesis chapter 11.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

Now, there's an important verse in what we just read.

We're introduced to a man by the name of Abram, Abraham, and it says, Abraham's wife is barren, she cannot have a child.

Now, this is literally the case, like she is barren, but it is also a metaphor to the state of the world.

It is a dry and barren land.

There is spiritual darkness and barrenness across the land.

The world seems to be hopeless.

And here's the thing: we've been, you remember back in Genesis 3.15 that God uh told Adam and Eve after they sinned that there would be this perpetual conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent.

But but God promised there's going to come through the seed, through the woman's offspring, one seed eventually, who would crush the head of the serpent.

And we know, as we've talked about, that is a prophetic word, looking forward to Jesus Christ who would come.

And he would give his life as a ransom.

And at the cross, Satan would bruise his heel, but Jesus in his resurrection would crush the head of the enemy.

Amen.

So this prophecy is what we find in Genesis, and we followed the line of the serpent and the line of the woman.

And so right now, there's this line of Shem, one of Noah's sons.

This would be the line of promise.

And this is where Abraham comes from.

But the question is, what are we going to do?

How's the promise going to be fulfilled?

Because Sarai is barren.

And that's where we're at.

But today there's a shift.

We begin studying the story of Abraham, which takes up the rest of the book of Genesis.

It's all about Abraham and his family.

And we're going to see this morning that God is not done with the world.

He is not done with humanity.

And so God puts a call upon Abraham's life.

And here's what we learn about the call.

Number one, God's call comes by grace.

You know, Abraham has a good name, right?

I mean, a lot of respect around this patriarch of the faith.

And so when you see the way that God used Abraham, you might think, well, you know, he must have been a really good guy.

He must have had his stuff together.

And that's why God chose to use him.

And it's like, don't be so sure.

And you know this if you've read on, right?

I don't know if you noticed in what we read in Genesis 11, but it said that Abraham's father Terah and his family, they lived in this place called Ur of the Chaldeans.

And what you need to know about Ur is that uh it's a weird name, uh, Ur.

You know, where are you from, Ur?

You know, uh, I don't know.

But but besides that, it's a polytheistic city, meaning that they believed and worshipped multiple gods.

It's a very pagan place.

Well, then you argue argue, well, listen, I realize that, but surely Abraham's family just stood out, and that's why God chose him.

Let me just read you Joshua 24, verses 1 and 2.

Joshua 24:1

Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel.

And they presented themselves before God.

And Joshua said to all the people, Thus says the Lord the God of Israel, listen to this.

Long ago your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, to Rah, the father of Abraham and Nahor, and they served other gods.

Now, this is wild.

The God, or excuse me, the man that God chooses to use in a unbelievable way, through Abraham's line, the Messiah would come.

This man came from an idol worshiping family.

It's worth thinking about.

Because here's my point.

God doesn't call Abraham because he's faithful, he chooses him by grace.

And let me just tell you, you may look at somebody like me up here behind the pulpit, and you you must think, you know, or you might think, if you know me, you know this is not the case, but you you might think, you know, man, he must have been a great guy.

He he must, you know, he must have had this light shining around him when he was growing up, you know.

Let me just tell you, that's not the case.

Don't agree.

When I I grew up in a youth group in Winchester of about 75 to 100 people.

And if a poll was taken, I would have been voted the least likely to be used in ministry.

I promise you that.

See, God doesn't have me in this position.

Because I was the most moral, faithful man on earth.

No, it's a call of grace.

God calls us to Himself by grace.

As a matter of fact, we are called to salvation by grace.

Ephesians 2.8, by what you've been saved.

By grace you have been saved through faith.

So if you're saved this morning, if you are in Christ, just understand, I don't care how moral you were before you came to Christ, I don't care what, you know, your granddaddy may have been a preacher, doesn't matter.

The only reason you are saved this morning, if in fact you are, is by the grace of God.

Not by works.

Then we're called to serve by grace.

This vocational call on Abraham's life is an act of grace.

This is what Romans 12, 6 teaches, that the particular gifts that God has bestowed upon us are gifts of grace.

So if you can sing like Whitney Houston, I don't know the new people, you know.

And I'm not mentioning, I'm not giving Taylor Swift any credit.

So listen, if you if you can sing or if you can speak or if you can lead, just understand those gifts are from God.

They're gifts of grace.

So God's call comes to Abraham unto us by grace.

But secondly, here's what I want you to know about the call of God.

It's costly.

I want you to read.

I'm gonna hold this way back so I don't have to wear these things again.

But uh look at verse one.

Now the Lord said in chapter 12 the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

Wow.

God's command to Abram encompasses three escalating levels of separation.

Think about this leave your land.

And by the way, you've got a big family, don't take your relatives with you.

And by the way, it gets even more distinct.

You got to leave your father's house.

Like I feel like Abraham's, you know, in his 70s here, and he's still living in his parents' basement playing video games.

And you know, he's saying, get out! Come on, Abraham, do something with your life.

Here's the thing this would be a different, difficult call for anyone to leave everything you've ever known, but especially in the ancient world.

One commentator noted that this was something only the destitute would do.

And listen, where Abraham's at, he's pretty wealthy.

I mean, he's he's got a lot and God and he does take some of his possessions with him, but I want you to know he's got a comfortable life.

And God says, leave it all behind.

It's very costly.

And do you know to follow Christ when you come to Christ, isn't there a cost associated with it?

Let me just read you Luke 14, 26 and 27.

Jesus says, if anyone comes after me, and watch this, I'll explain this, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children.

Quinn, does your mom hate you?

All right, good.

That's not what this actually means.

If you don't hate, think about this.

Your own children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even your own life.

Aren't I supposed to love myself?

Right?

He cannot be my disciple.

This is wild.

What's it mean?

Well, obviously, we're not called literally to loathe and despise our parents and our children.

Like you'll get social services called on you.

Like, don't hate your kids, all right?

But here's what Jesus is saying.

This was uh in in the ancient world, it was a way to say to love someone and hate the other.

It was to say, I love this person more.

And what Jesus is saying here is if you want to be my disciple, if you want to be in a relationship with me, here's what it means.

You love me more than your parents, you love me more than your children, you love me more than your brothers and your sisters and your friends, you love me more than your job, you love me more than your hobbies.

And watch this, you love me more than yourself.

And only then can you be my disciple.

And then he says, in that same text, whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Well, that doesn't sound fun.

There is a cost to following Jesus.

Now, good news, not every Christian is called to leave family or city or possessions, but we're all called to put Jesus above everything.

Here's the deal.

You know, when I was first called to ministry, I got to stay in the town I grew up with in Winchester.

And all my family was there, and all my friends were there, and it was great.

But when I took the call to ministry, I had to decide: am I gonna go wherever God tells me to go?

Or am I gonna be choosing?

He said, God, well, my family's here, my comfort's here.

And so, God, when I was like 25 years old, called us to Tucson to leave our family when we had two young kids, to take them away from their grandparents.

They're still mad at me.

The grandparents.

But listen, that's what it is to be a Christian, not just a pastor.

It's to say, God, I will go anywhere you call me to go.

Leave anything behind, you call me to leave behind.

It's costly, the call of God.

Number third, it's number three, it's personal.

God's call is personal.

Notice in 12.1, God said to who?

Abram.

Abram.

This is amazing out of uh thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of people in the world at this time.

God speaks to one guy, Abram.

And this call, first and foremost, this is so important, is an invitation into a relationship with him.

It's not first vocational, it's first relational.

James 2, 23 says this, and the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called, do you know this?

A friend of God.

Abraham was not just a servant of God, he was a friend of God.

You and I, if we're in Christ, we're not just servants of God, we are friends of God, and we are sons and daughters of the most high God.

There's no better news in the world.

God's call is personal.

Now, watch this.

There's a universal call to salvation, isn't there?

Anyone who believes shall not perish but have eternal life.

Whoever, everybody say whoever, calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

So we have text like this.

Whosoever believeth.

There's a universal invitation to salvation.

But I want you to know if you're here today and you're saved, there was also a personal invitation, a personal call.

Jesus, or excuse me, John 10 3, Jesus says he calls himself the Good Shepherd, and he says, I call my sheep by name.

Jesus knows your name.

John 6 44, listen to this.

This is unbelievable.

John 6 44.

No one can come to me, Jesus says, unless the Father who sent me draws him.

And I will raise him up.

On the last day, this is profound.

Your decision to follow Christ began with God drawing you personally to Jesus.

Never say to anybody that you found God.

You did not look look at me.

It's all right.

That you found God.

You did not find God, not a single one of you.

You weren't looking.

God found you.

Didn't He love you first?

Yes.

You did not find God.

God found you.

Last week we we had a wonderful lady come up just bawling and said, I want to give myself to Jesus.

And I talked to her on Wednesday night and got to talk to her about what she was feeling before she came to the altar.

As far as I understood, there was this urge to come up and almost there was no explanation for what she felt, except she felt a drawing, this magnetic urge to come to the front and to say, Jesus, I want you, I give my life to you.

So here's what's what happened.

Let me just give you the theology behind that.

Last week, out of eight billion people in the world, Stephanie, God was drawing you personally, calling your name.

Unbelievable.

And that's true of every one of us who are in Christ.

His call is personal.

And he promises personal blessings.

Look at verses two and three, if you would.

And I'll make you, Abram, uh I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse, and you, in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Just quickly, let me go through some of these promises.

He says, Abram, I'm gonna give you land.

And in verse 5, God takes uh, he leads Abram to Canaan, and then he looks out and says, I'm gonna give this land to your offspring.

God promises the blessing of a family.

I'll make you a great nation, which requires a son.

It's a remarkable promise because Sarai is barren and Abraham's old.

You ever thankful those of you who had kids young?

Are you grateful you had them young when you see older parents like trying to chase them around?

Like it's hard enough when you're in your 20s.

When you're in your 40s, woo, that's tough.

That's right.

God promises the blessing of family.

Then he promises Abraham prominence.

Uh he says in verse 2, I will make your name great.

Now let's compare this to Babel.

What did the the people in Babel, what did they want?

Let's make our own name great.

And God scatters them.

We don't know the architect's name who tried to build the tower of Babel.

But Abram, humble guy, accepts the call of the Lord.

God says, Trust me, and I will make your name great.

And this has happened.

Do you know that Abraham is highly regarded around the world, even beyond Christianity?

For us, Abraham's the spiritual father of all who believe.

For the Jews, he's the patriarch of Israel whom God established his covenant with.

And even in Islam, Abram is honored as a prophet.

That's roughly 55% of the world who holds Abram as some type of patriarch within their faith.

Though to be sure we see him very differently.

4.3 billion people hold Abraham in high regard.

Would you say God made his name great?

I think it's a fair statement.

God finally promises protection.

I'll bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you.

Abraham leaves behind his security.

He's got the protection of his family.

There's no government, there's no welfare.

Your family was your security.

He leaves, but God says, I've got your back.

I've got your back.

He gives him personal promises.

Now, many missionaries that we've brought here, many missionaries that you know and I know who've grown up in the United States, when God calls them, they often are asked to leave this great country where they have freedom, family, friends.

They have more money than most people in the world.

They're afforded so many great commodities.

It's a comfortable, you know, respectively, it's a it's a comfortable place to live, yeah?

Like we love the United States.

But why would a missionary uproot his or her spouse and kids and leave this great country to go talk about Jesus in a third world country?

Well, let me tell you why.

They give up land now, but like Abram, we're promised land.

And it's not just the land of Canaan, it's the whole world.

Matthew 5, I think it's verse 3.

The meek shall inherit what?

The earth.

See, the Christian life, I'm gonna say it again and probably twice in this sermon, but it's not about ultimately it's not about going to heaven.

It's about heaven coming to earth, God's new creation, and we inherited.

Wow.

The sacrifice of time with family that these missionaries make is difficult.

But they get to spend eternity with their family if they are in fact in Christ.

And they're brought into a new family.

They give up the protection of being in this country, but they have security in the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's amazing.

Here's the point.

Why would anybody bear their cross, come to Jesus, say, I'll give it all to you?

Let me tell you why.

Because the blessings of Jesus far outweigh the cost.

If you don't know that, you need to read your Bible this morning.

Jim Elliott, the famous missionary who gave his life as a martyr for the gospel, said, He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain which he cannot lose.

God's call comes by grace.

It's costly, but it's personal.

And then finally, God's call is missional.

God's call is missional.

Please don't tune out here.

This is so important.

God's call is not just about Abraham, but it's first, it's about his family.

His family, think about this.

They're all adulterers.

This is what Abraham grew up with.

But do you know by Abraham coming to the Lord into a relationship with him, generations are changed?

Now they're not perfect, we know that.

But it's his family, not just Abram, moves from idolatry to worshiping the one true God.

And I've seen this happen.

You've got families who are so far from God, and a mom or dad or even a son or daughter will get saved, and it changes the whole trajectory of the family.

God's call is not just about you, but it's not just about your family either.

That's what we see here.

It's about all people.

Did you notice in verse 3?

God says to Abram, He says, Through you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

All generations.

Watch this.

Abraham's call was never just about the Jews.

It was so that through Israel, through the Jewish people, all the peoples of the earth, Jews and Gentiles alike, could be blessed through the Messiah, through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here's the application here.

God's call on your life.

You accepting that call is important because it's not just your life at stake.

It's your families, it's those under your sphere of influence.

So let me just read you something.

I uh I've quoted before one of my favorite books is Dossievsky's the brothers Karamazov.

And in there, this is one of his most famous lines.

He says this listen, each of us is guilty before everyone, for everyone and everything.

And then he says, I more than others.

Each of us is guilty before everyone, for everyone, and everything.

Now, I was reading uh a book last night, uh Thomas Merton.

It's a beautiful story, uh, the seven-story mountain, and um, it's an autobiography.

And in here, I want you to listen to what he writes.

It goes right along with this.

Since no man ever can or could live by himself and for himself alone, listen to this.

The destinies of thousands of other people were bound to be affected, some remotely, but some very directly and near at hand by my own choices and decisions and desires.

As my own life would also be formed and modified according to theirs.

I was entering into a moral universe in which I would be related to every other rational being, and in which whole masses of us as thick as swarming bees would drag one another along towards some common end of good or evil, peace or war.

So you you hear this line from Dossievsky who basically says, you're not just responsible for your choices, but the choices of the entire world.

And you go, wait a minute.

You know, I'm not responsible for this guy who just went out and did such and such.

Well, not literally, but you are responsible.

And here's here's the point as Christians.

Well, every decision that you make, for better or worse, impacts your family, and you have no idea how it does and will impact the people around you.

Like if you accept the call of God, you may not know until you get to eternity the people that that acceptance of God's call has impacted.

For better or for worse, see, we're so individualistic in this country.

This is why we say, well, just do your thing, live like you want, do what pleases you.

The problem with that is it doesn't just affect you, it affects everybody around you.

See, the call of God is not just about you.

So again, that when when God calls you to salvation, it's just not simply so you can go to heaven one day, sit back and wait.

No, that's not the main point.

God saves you, yes, and forgives you personally, but he brings you into a kingdom to do the work of the kingdom so that his image can be displayed and his name, the goodness of his name be spread.

There's so much at stake.

The question is, are you gonna follow God's call or not?

So, how does Abraham respond to all this?

God's call is comes by grace, comes with a cost, it's personal and it's missional.

Well, number one, Abraham's salvation.

He he his response to God's call is by faith.

This is primary.

Romans 4, 3.

For what does the scripture say?

Abraham did what?

Believe God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Abraham wasn't, again, justified by works.

He wasn't the best guy in the world.

He was an adulterer.

He came from a family of idolterers, but God used him because Abraham believed God.

That's what it is to answer God's call of salvation and vocation.

It starts with believing God, putting your faith in him.

And his faith is not just lip service, it is shown through obedience.

Look at verse 4.

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

Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran.

Go back to that very first part.

Abram went as the Lord had told him.

Beloved, that's what faith looks like.

Now that may sound like works to you, works-based salvation.

Well, you mean I have to do this and do this and do this to be saved?

Abraham is not saved by works.

And we know we are saved by grace through faith in Christ.

Period.

But Martin Luther, the great reformer, said it best.

He said, we are saved by faith alone, but saving faith is never alone.

In other words, when you put your faith in God, you are regenerated by the Holy Spirit.

You are given a new heart and new desires.

And if you do not walk in obedience to God, though you will not do so perfectly, if you're not striving to follow God, do you really have faith?

James says faith without works is what?

Dead.

He said, Oh, you believe the demons in hell believe and shudder in fear.

Because there's a lot of people who believe and they don't even fear God, which means they don't even have demonic faith.

Faith and obedience, it's they're different sides to the same coin.

Faith always produces obedience.

It's faith and action.

Abraham has faith in God's promises.

I mean, think about this.

He promises a large family, but he's old and his wife's barren.

And initially Abraham believes, but he does struggle with this.

He tries to take matters into his own hands.

But he believes God.

And eventually he's given this promise son.

He has faith.

God called me to this church 12 years ago, and I sensed the Lord, you know, I was so excited and so naive.

And I thought, man, this is gonna blow up, you know, on day two.

And it actually did.

Uh we went from 30 to 168 week two, and then the next week down to 24 because we had no systems in place to keep those people.

I I came here and I just expected it to be glorious, and in some ways it was, but it was hard, and it didn't grow like I expected it to grow.

And I didn't expect the challenges that I faced, but I had to have faith in God's goodness and his promises.

Had to keep having faith in God, and that's what's kept me all these years.

Abraham responds to God's call in faith, but also with patience.

Watch this, verse 7.

And the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring, he's at Canaan, I will give this land.

Abraham, I'm gonna give you your offspring, this land, it's yours.

But do you know that Abraham never he didn't live to see that promise?

Do you know that his when his family got the land?

600 years after Abram's death.

Think about that.

That takes some patience.

But Abraham to his death believed the Lord.

He gave him the promise of offspring.

And he's thinking, all right, I'm 75.

Like this this is when he's in Haran, he's 75 years old, and and God tells him I'm gonna give you uh offspring.

And it's like Abraham thinks, okay, like I'm 75, like probably tomorrow would be a good time for this to happen, right?

But it doesn't happen until he's 100 years old.

Oh my goodness, could you imagine?

You know, we've got to be patient on the Lord.

I heard a story, I don't remember who told it was somebody here that was telling me that, you know, they they grew up, they were not a Christian, but the grandmother prayed day in and day out, day out, one day after another, prayed that God would reach that grandson and that he would be saved.

And she prayed this to her death and never saw it happen.

But sometimes later, this man came to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

And I believe it's somebody who became a pastor.

And he realized, man, one day, maybe now my grandmother's aware that all those patient prayers came to pass.

Let me tell you, parents, never stop praying for you, kids.

You got prodigal sons, prodigal daughters, keep on praying, keep on believing.

Amen.

He's got to be patient now.

Guys, we got to be patient.

Watch this.

Don't just trust in God's promises, trust in God's timing.

Patience is difficult, isn't it, for us?

I mean, I we we have like same-day delivery now when you order something online.

It's I don't even see how it happens.

Like, I don't ask questions, I don't want to know.

I was actually upset um a couple of weeks ago because I ordered something online, it was gonna take five days, and I thought, dear Lord, they expect me to wait five days?

We've got to be patient.

Um, I love the story of the man was at the grocery store with his toddler, and you've parents, you've been here, the toddler was having a meltdown.

As they went down the first aisle, the man calmly said, Be patient, Billy.

We're gonna be done soon.

Then in the serial aisle, the the the kid screaming louder, easy, Billy, just a few more things, and we'll be out of here.

But a checkout, it wasn't done.

The child started kicking and crying.

Anybody thinking back to those days?

Little PTSD?

The child's kicking and crying, hang in there, Billy.

We're almost out of here.

And a woman watching all of this walked over and said to the man, and she said, I just have to commend you.

You've been so patient with little Billy.

And the man said, His name's Michael, I'm Billy.

Sometimes patience requires preaching to yourself.

Can I get a witness?

Abraham responds to God's call with faith and patience.

But then finally, last point, he responds with worship.

This is beautiful.

Look at verses seven and eight.

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

So what did he do?

He built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him.

And then again from there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai, you didn't know Ai was in the Bible, on the east.

And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

Abraham journeyed on, still going towards Negab.

Oh my goodness, how do you respond to God's call?

You respond in faith.

But friends, more than anything, you ought to respond in worship.

If you understand the magnitude of what God is calling you to and the cost that God paid to call you, send a son to die on your behalf.

How could you not worship?

How could you not worship?

This is what Abram does.

He leaves it all.

He leaves it all.

Do you know that God doesn't even tell in the beginning Abram where he's going?

He says, just go to the land, I'll show you.

Now, if God's calling you, what do you do?

Like you want to weigh your options.

So Lord, tell me where it is.

Because if it's Cancun, I'm in.

If it's a third world country, you know what?

Maybe not.

Abraham just leaves it all.

Abraham has faith.

And when he realized, though he doesn't know how it's all gonna work out, all he has is promises, and he hasn't seen these promises fulfilled.

But once you do two times back to back here, he builds an altar and he worships.

That's the response to God's call that we ought to have.

We ought to worship him.

And this is difficult.

I get it.

Let me tell you why.

Because life is difficult, is it not?

And sometimes our problems, our suffering can become so great in our eyes that they overshadow and make us forget the blessings that we have in Jesus.

So I'm gonna help you worship today.

You look kind of tired.

I'm gonna try to get you a little worked up here, alright?

I've read this before.

I'm gonna remind you of who you are in Christ because He's called you and you've received Him by faith.

All these promises that you have, these come directly from the Scriptures, alright?

And I didn't come up with this, I don't know who did.

My uncle sent it to me probably two decades ago.

But here it is.

You ready?

This is why you worship.

Number one, you worship just because of who God is.

But if you need another reason, Let me just tell you what the Lord has done for you.

This is true of you if you're in Christ.

You can say, My salvation is fully accomplished.

John 19 30.

I have passed from death to life.

John 5 24.

I've been quickened by God.

I've been made fit for heaven.

Colossians 1:12.

Colossians 1:12

I have the forgiveness of sins.

I'm made nigh by the blood of Christ.

I'm redeemed through his blood.

I've been delivered from the power of darkness.

I've been delivered from the wrath to come.

I'm a child of God.

I'm a son of God.

I belong to Jesus Christ.

I'm an heir of God in a joint heir with Christ, an heir of Abraham.

I possess all things.

I'm a new creature in Christ.

I've been renewed by the Holy Ghost.

I'm Pentecostal today.

It's Holy Ghost, not Holy Spirit.

Come on.

I'm accepted and highly favored in the beloved.

I'm light in the Lord.

I dwell in Christ.

Christ dwells in me.

My body is now the temple of the Holy Spirit.

I have an anointing, an unction from the Holy One.

1 John 2 20.

I've been called with a holy calling.

I'm chosen in Christ.

I'm complete in Christ.

I'm beloved of God.

I'm a child of promise.

I'm a sheik, sheep in his flock, I'm a member in his body.

I'm a stone in his building, a branch in his vine.

I'm a child of the kingdom.

Are you bored yet?

Come on.

I was identified with Christ in his death.

And I was identified with Christ in his resurrection.

I can walk in the newness of life.

I can serve in the newness of spirit.

I can live under righteousness.

I'm identified with Christ in the suffering.

I'm being perfected.

I'm not of the world.

I'm sanctified in Christ.

I'm holy in him.

I'm clothed in righteousness.

I'm faultless in Christ.

I'm perfected forever.

I'm not my own.

I'm a citizen of heaven.

Christ has made me free, free indeed.

Is anybody free in the house today?

I'm free from sin.

I have a sound minded Jesus.

Christ has given me an understanding.

1 John 5 20.

I have the righteousness of Christ, sufficiency in all things.

I have all things that pertain to life and godliness.

I have all the armor and all the weapons I need.

I have God's all-sufficient grace.

I have grace to help in time of need.

I have God's power, access to the Father.

I have a great high priest.

I have an unfailing intercessor.

I have a righteous advocate with the Father for times when I sin.

I have peace with God.

I have rest for my soul.

I'm led by the Spirit.

I'm enabled during trials and temptations.

I'm given assurance by the Spirit of God.

I'm given comfort by God.

I'm not in distress.

I'm not in despair.

I'm not forsaken.

I'm not in darkness.

God is my sufficiency.

God is my strength.

God is my helper.

I belong to a sovereign God who works all things together for my good.

My God is for me.

My every need is supplies.

I'm supplied on his workmanship.

I'm sealed by God.

I'm kept by his power.

I'm more than a conqueror, a super conqueror, Romans 8:37.

Romans 8:37

I have victory in Jesus.

I've overcome the world.

Satan cannot touch me.

I have a living hope.

I have a glorious future.

I've been given eternal encouragement and good hope through grace.

I will sit with Christ in this throne.

I will be with my God forever.

Church, let's build an altar today.

I know you've got so much that's wrong in your life.

I get it.

Life is tough.

It's a barren land.

But in the middle of the barrenness, build an altar to the Lord because he's worthy.

God has called you today.

If you don't know him, respond.

And if you are a Christian, he's calling you to something today to godliness, to holiness, to take care of the poor and the widow to make his name known.

What would happen today if you got your life together by coming to God and receiving his grace?

You have no idea.

But I dare you to try.