Genesis in Biblical Perspective:
The Gospel of Christ from Genesis –
Can You Hear Me Now?

Genesis 12:1-9

By Dr. Harry Reeder III

This is the word of God. Genesis 12:1-9.

1 Now 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. 2 And 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. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." 4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

May God bless this His Word to the heart of His people.

Can you hear me now? There is a place on Highway 280 between Home Depot and Wal-Mart. You now know how I gauge my entire life. When I leave here I have a list of phone calls. I've solved Highway 280. I never get mad on Highway 280 anymore. Mad is when your objectives in life are blocked. So what I do is I make it my objective in life to use my Highway 280 travel time to catch up on all my phone calls. That's one of the blessings of the cell phone. It's about the only blessing I know of the cell phone, but it is a blessing of the cell phone. So, I'll just make calls. See, no longer is my objective to get home. It's to make phone calls. So people pull in front of me and stop and slow me down. I say, "Praise the Lord, I can make more phone calls now." This is just a little hint towards sanctification there. Hopefully that would be helpful. I would love to have a nickel for every time between Home Depot and Wal-Mart that I lose a signal right there. The conversation will always go this way; "Can you hear me now? Can you hear me? Can you hear me now?" Many times they'll come back in. I've just lost them for a while but I'll come back in.

We are at one of those wonderful passages in the Bible where God calls Abram and Abraham hears him and responds but then God has to call him again, "Abram, can you hear me now?" And he gets him back on track. This is a wonderful passage of scripture about Abram. Did you know we now pick up the study of Abram? We're going to stay with Abram and his family all the way to the end now. Did you know that in the Bible there is no other individual in all of the Bible more commented upon than Abram? There is nobody else. There are whole sections in the New Testament devoted to make sure you and I understand the life of Abram. He is an interesting man, an interesting man not only in how he is used to bring the Lord, how he is used to point to the Lord, and how he is used to show us how much each one of us, like him, need the Lord. He is an interesting man to study.

Now, by the way, starting right now in Genesis 12 you can start your dating. Now, I didn't mean courting dating. I just meant dating like dates. Okay? Up until now the first eleven chapters have given you thousands upon thousands of years of history. Now, starting in Genesis 12:1, the year is 2000 B.C. In 2000 years from Genesis 12:1, Jesus Christ will come into this world. Now we're 2100 years on the other side of that. So where you are right now, go back 4100 years and you have Abram at 75 years of age leaving Haran going to the Promise Land. I want to jump ahead here and say before we leave the Book of Genesis we're going to get down to close to the year 1400 B.C. We're going to start talking about the year 1400 B.C. and that's when Israel will finally become a nation. From 2000 B.C. it will go all the way to 1400 B.C. until they'll become a nation when they're brought out and brought back into the land of promise with the exodus. So here is a crucial time, the year 2000 B.C.

But I want to give you a picture of this moment, if I can. I read a wonderful book called The Flags of Our Fathers in which I was able to kind of get an understanding of the Battle of Iwo Jima. I don't want to use a lot of military but this is a really great way to understand this passage right here, at least the start of this passage of what God's telling us here. When I read the book, The Flags of Our Fathers, of course many of you may know about the Battle of Iwo Jima because it was quite a significant battle in World War II. The Third Division of the Marine Corps had been trained just for that battle. The Third Division of the Marine Corps landed. It took them three days to take the beach and get up on Mount Suribachi. At the end of that three days they raised a flag and the wire reports came back to this country, "The Marines have won the Battle of Iwo Jima." They had taken that island and yet the fighting on that island would go on for three more months, intense fighting. The Marine Corps will win 43 Congressional Medals of Honor in World War II, and 27 of them will be won on that one island right there. Yet they'd proclaimed the battle had been won. A very similar thing happened in Europe. Once that beachhead at Normandy was taken, there was a lot of fighting to be done but the war was won right then.

That's about as close to the picture that I can give you of what God is telling us right here in this text. Here is God's toehold. What is God's purpose? God's purpose is to bring the glory and majesty of His grace and overcome what we keep bringing which is sin. Man keeps bringing sin and God keeps bringing His grace to rescue man from sin, conform him, transform him, and renew him. We've already seen it once. God has this glorious creation that's here. This creation is described in Genesis 1 as absolute chaos. The water is violently going upon the face of the earth and God does two things. He sends His Spirit, Genesis 1-3, who hovers over the face of the deep. Then He sends His Word and for six days with His Word He forms and fills the earth. From chaos God's Word and God's Spirit brings cosmos, order, for His glory.

Then man again brings his sin to the point that God makes His evaluation in Genesis 6:5. The thoughts of his heart was only evil always continually and man has filled the earth with his sin and the chaos of rebellion against God. Then God sends His Word and His Spirit and He brings in Noah in an ark through the judgment. Now He puts him back on the cleansed earth for His glory and Noah worships.

Then in the last three weeks you and I have been through Genesis 10 and 11. From this mountaintop of God's glory and majesty as Noah and his family begin this refurbished heavens and earth with worship and praise to the living God, in ten generations the earth has now again been filled with the chaos of sin, paganism, rebellion against God, false worship, and false religion. It has pervaded not simply the line of Japheth, not simply the line of Cain, but even the line of Shem has descended into paganism and now finds themselves enmeshed in that pagan culture of the Chaldeans there at Ur. There in that place, the line of Shem has come to a man named Terah and the three sons and they have been enmeshed into paganism. Now the earth is filled with sin and rebellion against God but God is going to send His Word.

He's going to pluck out a man by the name of Abram and His spirit will renew him and make him a new creation. Then God is going to pull him up out of that land and He's going to put him in a land. Then He's going to give him a family, "And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." He's going to make him a nation and now God has His beachhead. This God who is going to bring the glory and majesty of His grace and mercy to all the nations now has a man and he'll have a nation. From that nation He'll bring His Redeemer and with that Redeemer that Name will be proclaimed to all the nations from which He will call out a nation of His own, a royal nation, the people of God.

We're on our way to that day when the holy royal nation shall gather at the throne and be deposited in a new heaven and a new earth and the order, glory and majesty of the Lord will reign. When we get there we will all be able to look back for the beachhead was Abram. Abram, then a family, then a nation, from which a Redeemer, through which went all the gospel to all the nations, from which will come His royal nation. That's His plan. Enough of this thinking that God's got this one plan over here for Israel and now we're in the parenthesis with the church. That's God's plan. That's why He has Israel, to bring the true Israel into existence from all the nations. God's got His beachhead. He's got His toehold with Abram. He'll get His beachhead in the land of the promise, Canaan, and ultimately He'll bring forth the people.

He starts by getting hold of a man. He calls him. I can just hear the cell phone ringing right now. I don't know how He called him in the land of the Chaldeans. There wasn't any church there. There wasn't any preacher there that I know of. Somehow God called Abram in Ur, the land of the Chaldeans and when He called him He said seven things to him. Now God always says three and seven because God is a Presbyterian preacher. I want you to know that. Everything is in threes or sevens. So here are the seven things He says. You'll find them right there in Genesis 12:1-3.

Here's the first thing He says to him. The first three are the call to Abraham to go from... Number one is, "Go from your country." Number two is, "Go from your kindred, your family, your extended family." Number three is, "Go from your father's house." So you see He's gone from the wider down to the more intimate, from your land, from your country, from your kindred and then from your father's household.

Then when He finishes those three "go froms" He then gives him a "go to" but notice how vague the "go to" is. "Go to - where?" "A land." "Okay. What land?" "I'll show you." So really what He's telling him is what? "Go to Me. I'll take you to the land but you fix your eyes on Me. You hear My voice and where I send you, go there, but you can't go to Me where I send you until you go from this. Go from your country, your kindred, and your father's household. Go to a land that I will show you."

Then after that pivotal point of number four, He then gives three promises. Tuck this away in your mind. Very seldom does God ever give you the rationale for what He calls you to do. He very seldom gives you the reasons, but He never calls you without giving you promises. He never gives you a call without giving you promises. So now He says, "Go from your country. Go from your kindred. Go from your father's household. Go from all of that. Go to the land that I will show you."

Number five, now here's the three "I wills." "I will make you a great nation. I will make you, Abram, a great nation."

The sixth one is, "I will bless you." Then He doesn't stop there. He adds some more to it. He says, "I will bless you. I will make your name great." Now whenever God does something great to us and for us why does He do it? So we will do something great for Him. He doesn't give us greatness for us. He gives us greatness that we will do great things for Him. So what does He say? His sixth one is, "I will bless you. I will make your name great." Why? It is so that "you will be a blessing to others. That's why I'm going to give you great blessings so that you will give blessings to others."

Then, number seven, is an interesting one which is, "Those who bless you, I'll bless them." Now He's not necessarily saying He's going to save them. He's talking about providential blessings here. "Those who bless you and this nation that I now establish from you, I will bless them that bless you and (I greatly appreciate the English Standard Version taking the time to translate this right.) those who dishonor you, I will curse. I'll shut them off. Those who bless you, I will bless. Those who dishonor you, I will curse." Cut them off, literally is what it means.

Now the call has come. What does Abram do? Praise God, Abram obeys. Look at Genesis 12:4. God calls, Abram went. I just love that. God says, "Go." Abram went. God says, "Rise up." Abram rose up and went. God says, "Go." Abram goes and notice Abram doesn't just go but Abram goes where the Word of God leads him. Notice what it says in Genesis 12:4; "So Abram went, as the LORD had told him...", Where did Abram go? It says that Abram went as the Lord had told him. He didn't go short of the Word of God. He didn't go over the Word of God. He was guided by the Word of God. So, where does he go? He goes and ends up in the Promise Land.

Now, stop right here. We did this last week so if you don't mind I'm going to take a shortcut and I'll take you to the passages of the Scripture. Let me just refresh you to it. From Genesis 12:1-3, that call did not come to Abram when he was in Haran. That call, according to Hebrews 11 came to Abram when he was still in Ur, the land of the Chaldeans. Abram rose up from Ur, the land of the Chaldeans with Sarai, his wife, Lot, his nephew, and his father, Terah and he started to follow the Lord. He got as far as Haran and there, probably under the influence of his father, Terah, he stopped and he stayed there. We don't know how long he was there but he was there until Terah died. Then God says, "Can you hear me now?" See, He had called him and somehow Abram had lost connection. God then says, "Can you hear me now?" And he rises up from Haran and he goes on to arrive in the land of Canaan. When he arrives there he's 75 years old.

By the way, just tuck this away in your mind. There is always little interesting stuff in the Bible that I really enjoy. The first 75 years of life, Abram was a son with a father. The next 25 years he's a man without a father or without a son. Then the next 75 years, the last 75 years of his life, he's a man with a son. Now he's 75, he's without his father, and he goes and for the next 25 years he's going to be in the land of promise without a son. When he gets there, who's there? It's Abram, it's Sarai, it's Lot, and would you please look at your Bibles very closely? It's not just Abram, Sarai, and Lot, but some other people that he acquired while he was in Haran. Do you see that? Now that does not mean he bought them. That's not the word for bought. We're not talking about slaves or servants. We're talking about people that clustered around Abram while he was in Haran. When he picked up to go not only did Lot and Sarai go with him - now remember his father's dead - but he says these other people had started to cluster around him and they rose up and went with him.

When this entire party arrives in Canaan there something interesting happens. Number one is he gives you the itinerary. Now what is Abram's itinerary? I don't think it's every place he went but here's a basic itinerary. He comes in across the river Jordan. He arrives at Shechem. When he gets to Shechem guess what happens? This is a big time in your Bible. This is the first time God appears to someone. It says, "The Lord appeared to him." This is what we call a theophany or a Christophany, a pre- incarnation appearance of God. This is the first one in the Bible. We're not given any information about it except its fact. The Lord appeared to Abram. When He appeared to Abram at Shechem, Abram then did what? He built an altar. He built an altar to worship and praise the Lord. Then Abram moved on from Shechem and he arrived at a place between Bethel and Ai. There he built a second altar of praise and worship to the Lord. Then he moved on into the Negev, into the wilderness, the desert of Israel and then he moved on into that area.

Don't just skip past that itinerary. Do you know who else followed that same path? Jacob after he had gotten Rachel will come back to the land of promise and follow the same exact itinerary. Now let me ask you a question. Who is writing the Book of Genesis by the power of the Holy Spirit? It is Moses. Who is going to be the first people to read this or hear this? It will be Israel. Where are they? They are in the desert, the wilderness. Where are they headed? They are headed to the land of promise. Who's there? The Canaanites are there. Who else is there? God is also there. What is God the Holy Spirit doing through Moses? He's telling the people, "Your father Abram came and when he got here guess who was here? The Canaanites. Guess who else was here? Me. I'm here and I told him I'll give him the land. Now we're 400 and something years later and all of you, his children by physical decent, you're coming here. Guess who's still there? The Canaanites and guess who else is still there? Me, your God. I'm there."

By the way, guess what their itinerary will be? They will go to Shechem, Bethel, Ai, and the Negev. The same itinerary will be theirs. I know this isn't a life take away spot here but I've got to stop and do a life take away here. Your God has called you. You're not going anywhere that is virgin territory. Someone's been there. If no one else has, your Savior has. You may have enemies that fill the land but there is no where that your God will not be with you. There is nowhere. When He calls you somewhere He will go with you there and be with you. That's why Moses will be so bold when God says to him, "I'm not going with these people into that land." Moses will say, "God, how will the people of the world know that we are Your people? Will they not know we're Your people because You go with us?" The Lord is there. The Canaanites are there, yes, but so is the Lord. The Canaanites were there with Abraham. They're there the day that they're coming from the Promise Land but the Lord God will bring them to glory and to victory.

Here is just one other thought. He ends up building two altars. The Canaanites and all of their paganism and all of the high places are there but they built two altars. When he builds that second altar did you notice what it said? It said, "He called upon the name of the Lord." Again, that is a tough Hebrew word to translate. Can I give you another translation that is faithful to the Hebrew word? When he built the altar at Ai and Bethel it says he called upon the name of the Lord. You can say this, "He called out the name of the Lord. He cried out." In fact, Martin Luther, in his translation of this text translated it this way, "And Abram proclaimed the name of the Lord." He shouted out. He preached. He cried out the name of the Lord.

I want to give you three takeaways. Let me give you the first one and kind of build on this first one just a little bit. The first one, I want to give you the beauty of God's grace. Secondly, I want you to see where these promises are ultimately fulfilled and thirdly, I just want to end up with a couple of thoughts about God's call upon your life and my life. Here's the first one. The first take away is on the beauty of God's grace. Let me tell you what most of us do with this text in our Sunday school class, in our small groups, and from our pulpits. God called Abram. Abram rose up and he followed God. Be like Abraham. When God calls you, follow Him. There is an aspect of that that needs to be seen in the text and I'll try to honor that in the text but Abram is not the central figure in this narrative. It's God and the beauty of His grace.

This man, Abram, is going to be talked about throughout all of the Bible but what God wants you to know and understand, is the same God who saves you and me by grace saved Abram by grace. The same Abram who was saved by grace needed to be saved by grace. The Bible, three different times, will call Abram "the friend of God" but he doesn't start off as God's friend. He starts off as God's enemy just like everybody else. For all have turned aside and there is none who seek God, no, not one. There is none who is good, no, not one. All of the earth including the line of Shem, all the way down to Terah, and all the way down to Abraham have descended into cosmic treason and rebellion against God. God doesn't have a pretty good guy over in Chaldea that He is going to raise up and start a nation with. He has an apostate pagan, who has descended from the true worship of God. Remember that from last week? Christianity isn't something that evolved from paganism. God starts with the true statement of praise and worship to Him in the Bible, in the day of Noah, and paganism is the descent of man's abuse of God for ten generations. It has gone all the way down to Terah and Abraham. The Bible is wonderfully honest so we'll see that.

Let's look at Joshua 24. This isn't my speculation. This is the clear Word of God. Abram isn't a pretty good guy that God just gives a hand up and from that he gets a nation, from that his son will come, from that the Gospel will go to the nations. On the contrary, Abram is a rebellious sinner and an enmity against God, an abject pagan in rebellion against the Lord. In Joshua 24 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel. Now they've already come back to the land, they've taken it, and before he leaves them in death he says this to them in Joshua 24:1-2,

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. 2 And Joshua said to all the people, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they (Terah, Abraham and Nahor) served other gods.

Joshua 24:14-15 says 14

Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

So what do we know? Abram was a pagan. In fact, in Genesis 12 we have the picture him from a pagan to a pilgrim to a builder for Jesus Christ, a sojourner in grace. He has now come back into the world to penetrate it as a builder for Christ with worship altars all over and around the land where he has been brought. Here are toeholds, footholds, beachheads for the glory of God that will ultimately be seen in the majesty of Christ. Here is the beauty of grace, its intrusiveness. It comes into the lives of dead sinners and it rescues them that we might have life. We don't begin as God's servants, friends, or saved. We begin as enemies just like Abram and we are debtors to God's grace.

We not only see the beauty of grace, intrusive grace but look at the patience of God's grace. Again, I so am grateful for the honesty of the Bible. We don't have some manmade religious book that whitewashes everybody. Here, Noah got drunk. Abram got the call from the Lord in the land of the Chaldeans, he rises up, he starts and he goes off to lead the country, his kindred and his father's household but he has some kindred and his father with him. The result is he ends up stopping in Haran and he stays there. He loses that intensity and that focus of following God's call and yet God in His patience when His people hear His call and they follow even when they falter God is patient. Can you hear me now?

How many times has God broken back in to get the cell phone connection established with you? I cannot tell you how many times with me. "Harry, can you hear me now? Listen, I'll get you somewhere where you have to hear Me." God is so patient. God's the patience of grace, the beauty of intrusive grace, and the beauty of patient grace. Look at the beauty of the power of grace. What is Abram over here in the land of the Chaldeans doing? He's a pagan. He's worshiping other gods. He rises up. He follows God. He went and when he went he came to another country. When he arrived there he is no longer a pagan worshiper he's a worshiper of the true and living God. The reason the passage said the Oak of Moreh is that would be a place where the Canaanites would have raised up one of their gods. In other words, he went right into the presence of paganism and raised an altar to God saying, "Worship the true and living God."

Now the man's not only a worshipper, he's a witness for the Lord. Look at the power of grace that's transformed. I don't know about you but I love our culture that gives me all kinds of reasons for all of my sins. I'm the son of this kind of a father. I'm a son of this kind of a mother. I was born in a bad neighborhood. I didn't get the right education. I'm a dysfunctional this. I've got a dysfunctional that. I know our environment and the behavior of other people affects us, but I want you to see Abram. He's over here enmeshed in paganism and he is a pagan through and through with his father and what's going on, but when grace takes hold of his life he is now not perfect. Did you see him falter? But he is changed. He is a new creation in Christ and he goes over here with the Canaanites. Guess what they are? They're pagans also. But now instead of that paganism forcing him into its mold he steps up and instead of a thermometer of paganism he becomes a thermostat of God's grace. He raises up a standard to worship the Lord, just like you and I will when we know Jesus. I'll be a pilgrim, then a builder for Christ, and I'll raise a standard to worship God in my office, in my neighborhood, and among my friends. I will become like Him, a change agent because of the changed power of grace in me and in you. He went, he worshiped, and he became a witness.

By the way, I don't want to press this too much but his witnessing started bearing some fact. In Haran even in his moments of faltering he ends up drawing people with him. He gets over here in Canaan, right in the midst of this, I love the way the Bible puts it there and says "The Canaanites were there." Right where they were he raises up worship to God and he bears a witness for Christ so glorious that Luther will translate it, "He proclaimed the name of the Lord there." He didn't become a secret agent for the Lord. He proclaimed the name of the Lord. So here is intrusive grace, patient grace and the power of grace. He refuses to be a victim by God's grace, even faltering, even failing at times he becomes a witness of the power of God's grace.

Let me just say to you it is an abundant grace. I mean, I can just hear Him, "Go from. Go to" and then God says, "I will. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I will make you a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you. I will do these things in you and for you." I can almost hear Abram saying to Him, "But what about when my wife and I falter and we go over here with a hand maiden named Hagar?" "I will still make a nation of you." "What about when our nephew departs from the faith and he goes into this den of inequity in Sodom and Gomorrah?" "I will make a nation. I will raise up a standard." "Lord, what about when I begin to falter? What about when I falter so much that I'll go down to a place called Egypt and I'll lie about my wife and risk her becoming a prostitute in the harem of a pharaoh? What about when I do that?" "I will bless you." Notice it doesn't say, "If you, then I will." It says, "I will." Why can God make that statement? It is because God does the "If you..." God does the "if." God gives His Son. Therefore, "I will." Then all that we do then becomes an offering of praise to the living God who will take us from glory to glory when our trust is in Him alone.

As soon as I read this people will say to me, "Now, Harry, by the way don't you ever say something bad about Israel because God will curse you if you do that." I mean, I love Israel. Okay. I'm not going to say anything bad. I will critique their politics like anybody else's. I've got some brothers and sisters over there in Palestine and in Israel. I want you to understand that Israel had a purpose. That purpose was to bring a Savior. Israel is not the seed. Jesus is the Seed and from that Seed comes now the Israel of God, His people, from every tribe and nation including Jew and Gentile. That needs to be understood.

I want to look at two passages of scripture here. Look at Galatians 3. There in Galatians 3, just in case we miss this, the seed is not Isaac. The seed is not Israel.

The seed is Christ. Galatians 3:15-16 says, 15 To give a human example, brothers: [6] even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. 16 Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say, "And to offsprings," referring to many, but referring to one, "And to your offspring," who is Christ. Now, who comes from Christ? Who is the true Israel? It is not the circumcised of the flesh but the circumcised of the heart. It is all who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, Jew or Gentile.

Now look at Romans 9. Romans 9:3-8 says,

3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

Or as Galatians 6:16 says, "And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God." The Israel of God are those who are the spiritual children of Abraham and belong to Him.

The takeaway on that one is any nation that honors the people of God, who belong to Jesus Christ, God brings His blessing and providence. That's why this country has been blessed. When a country no longer honors God's people, when it dishonors God's people, then God will bring His judgment upon it. That promise is now. I've had somebody ask me, "Is that replacement theology that the church replaces Israel?" No, no. That's fulfillment theology. That's what God has been doing all along. Abram - a nation, the Seed is Jesus and now from Jesus come the children of the promise, the Israel of God, who belong to Him, the people of God, from every nation who have now become His nation. Now, by the way, I don't think He's through with Israel but what He's yet to do with Israel is not to go back in terms of the physical dynamics but to bring the Gospel to the Jew as well as to the Gentile.

The last take away is calling. God's calling you. I'll give you one way God's calling you. He's calling you to come to Jesus Christ today if you never have. May I hook up the cell phone right now? The Lord is calling. Come to Him. Don't let anything stand between you. Don't go try to get better. You just be like Abram. You come right out of wherever you are and come straight to Him. Put your trust in Him. This Savior is ready to save you. Now, you say, "Pastor, I've received that God." If you haven't now I'd love to pray with you and talk with you about what it means to put your trust in Jesus Christ. Please take that first step of the pilgrim. Come not to religion; come to Jesus as your Savior.

If you belong to Jesus today God's call is to you as well. Hear it? Let loose. Deny yourself. Cut loose. Come to Him. Salvation is free. Discipleship costs you, me, as we die to ourselves and the love of Christ would constrain us as He calls us to serve Him. That's what I long for each one of you. I don't long for you or me to do what we want to do. I long for you and me to have a passion to do what God has called us to do. Then let nothing stand between us and following His calling to serve Him. He has given you gifts. There are opportunities from teaching little Sunday school classes to doing Bible studies to preaching sermons to leading worship to whatever it is to share the Gospel. He has called you to worship. He has called you to evangelize. He has called you to love one another. He has called us to these things. Let nothing stand in the way. Let it all go so that you can follow Him.

What happened to Abraham? He left his country. Look at the land. He left his kindred. Look at his nation. He left his father's household. He's a father of many households. He's our father in the Lord as the Lord used him to bring forth our Savior. God has great things for you. Let nothing stand in the way of serving your God. He's ready to do great things that you would be a great blessing to others. As I close in prayer remember your Savior. There's the call. It goes out to heaven, "Who will go and redeem My enemies?" And Jesus says, "Father, I hear your call. I'll go. I'll go and humble Myself. I'll leave everything to go and get Your people and bring them to You." Oh, what a Savior. Let's pray.

Prayer:

Father, thank You for the time we could spend together in Your Word and with each other. Lord, if there's anyone here who is reading this and has never made that commitment to Christ, may the call of the Savior draw them to Himself, may they run quickly to Him who has come for them. And Father, for those of us who know Him, Lord, help us to leave whatever we have to leave in order to love to do what You have called us to do. We hear Your call. Here am I. Send me. In Jesus' Name I pray, Father, Amen.