“Our primary calling is to travel through life with God and living each day as called out people.”
Sermon Title: SECURE IN GOD’S CALL
Scripture Text: GENESIS 11:31-12:1-9
Sermon Series: Abraham: Journey of Faith
Sermon Notes:
GENESIS 11:31-32 NIV
11:31 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.
32 Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran.
GENESIS 12:1-9 NIV
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
2 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.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.
5 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.
6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.
7 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.
8 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.
9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.
“Deep in our hearts, we all want to find and fulfill a purpose bigger than ourselves. Only such a larger purpose can inspire us to heights we know we could never reach on our own. For each of us the real purpose is personal and passionate: to know what we are here to do, and why.” — Os Guinness (THE CALL)
“What makes your life special and distinctive is the call of God.”
“To live a life of purpose is to live a life in answer to the call of God.”
I. THE CALL OF GOD
A. The necessity of the call.
GENESIS 4:25-26 NIV
25 Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”
26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on the name of the LORD.
JOSHUA 24:2-3 NIV
2 Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods.
3 But I took your father Abraham from the land beyond the River and led him throughout Canaan and gave him many descendants. …
“Without the call of God, there would have been no hope for man.”
B. The absolute act of grace of the call.
“What else can we wish for ourselves if not even one hair can fall from our head without his will?” — John Calvin
C. The call to God himself.
GENESIS 12:1 NIV
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
GENESIS 11:31 NIV
31 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.
ACTS 7:2-3 NIV
2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.
3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’
ACTS 7:2 NIV
2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.
HEBREWS 11:8 NIV
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
“The faith to which we are called is not faith in a plan, but faith in a Person.”
“Our calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him, and for him. First and foremost we are called to Someone (God), not to something … or to somewhere…” — Os Guinness (THE CALL)
“Our primary calling is to travel through life with God and living each day as called out people.”
“Follow God’s call by following him.”
II. RESPONDING TO THE CALL
A. Take the first step.
“The biggest blessings of God trace back sometimes to the smallest steps of faith.”
B. Leave your past behind.
“Faith is not believing God in spite of the evidence; it is obeying God in spite of the consequence.”
C. Build altars of remembrance.
GENESIS 12:7-8 NIV
7 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.
8 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.
“We have a tendency to remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember.”
“Our calling is to travel through life with God and living each day as called out people.”