The Call of Abram

Intro- We’ve just finished the 2nd part of a multi-year sermon series through the gospel of Mark. We will return to that series with Part 3 of Mark sometime in early 2023. But this morning I’m starting a new series on a man who is perhaps the granddaddy of all biblical heroes…Abraham.

And we start this series at the very beginning of God’s dealings with him. We start when Abraham was 75 years old and still called Abram. His name wouldn’t be changed until later. I like how one commentary sets the stage for Abram’s story. It says, “Abram was middle-aged, prosperous, settled, and thoroughly pagan” when the call of God entered his life. [Allen P. Ross, “Genesis,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 46.] This morning we’ll look at the call of God on Abram’s life and at how Abram responded to it, because God is still calling people today. Do you believe that? He is! He is still calling people out of the pagan world to place their faith in Him and live out the purpose that He has for their lives. So, let’s see what we can apply to our own lives from the call of Abram.

Genesis 12:1–3 (Page #)

The Lord had 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.”

1. The Call

You need to understand that Abram was almost certainly a pagan idol worshipper before God appeared to him. Joshua 24:2 tells us that Abram’s father worshipped other gods, so it is most likely that Abram was raised to do the same. He was almost certainly a pagan man living in a pagan culture. And we know from biblical genealogies that it had probably been ten generations since Noah’s time, which was the last time the Bible records God speaking to anyone. It may have been ten generations since any human had heard from God. [John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Ge 12:1.] So, Abram was almost certainly an idol worshipper who didn’t know or honor God. But God called him anyway. God called Abram out of his lostness, out of his pagan way of living to follow the plan God had for his life. That’s what this passage is.

The first word that Scripture records God speaking to Abram, the first word of his call is an imperative command- GO! “Leave your country and your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.” [Victor P. Hamilton, “Genesis,” in Evangelical Commentary on the Bible, vol. 3, Baker Reference Library (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1995), 19.] Again, grammatically this is an imperative command. God wasn’t asking, He was commanding.

I believe that is very true for us as well. When God calls you it isn’t an invitation. It’s a command. When He calls you to leave your unbelieving way of life behind and come to salvation, it isn’t a suggestion…it’s a command. A command that will bring punishment if you disobey it. When God calls you to the ministry or the mission field, He isn’t giving you career advice. He isn’t acting as a cosmic guidance counselor making sure you know all your career options. He is calling you into His service. He is commanding you to go. I think an appropriate metaphor would be to compare it to being drafted to go to war. It isn’t a request. It’s a command. When God called Abram, He commanded Him to go. And whatever God is calling you to do, whatever purpose He has for your life, you can be certain it isn’t just a suggestion or another option for you to consider, it is a command.

But you can also be sure that there will be certain blessings that go along with obeying the call of God on your life. If Abram will leave his country, his people, and his father’s house, God promises to bless him. In fact, God makes specific promises to Abram about these blessings in verses two and three. God promises to make Abram into a great nation. He promises to bless him. He promises to make Abram’s name great.

And in then at the end of verse 2 something grammatically interesting happens. Bible scholars aren’t 100% sure how to take this. God says “and you will be a blessing.” Most people take this to be another promise of God to Abram, that God will make Abram be a blessing to other people. But interestingly, the word here is another imperative command just like the word “Go” or “Leave” at the beginning of Abram’s call. Literally, this translates as the command “Be a blessing!” [Allen P. Ross, “Genesis,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 47.] So, is God commanding Abram to be a blessing or is He promising Abram that he will be a blessing. I think maybe both! Certainly, for Abraham to be a blessing God must first bless him otherwise he won’t have anything to bless others with. But, just as the kid’s sermon this morning showed us, Abram would still have to choose what to do with the blessings God was going to give him. And I think that God is using this imperative command to subtly tell Abram that he is not supposed to horde all these blessings for himself. He is supposed to be a pipe not a bucket. He is called to be a conduit or channel of blessing to others.

I hope you know that you are called to do that as well. Whatever blessings God has placed in your life, He has given them to you so you can enjoy them, yes, but He has also given them to you so you can share them. Christians especially are supposed to follow the example of Christ who “though he was rich, yet for our sake became poor, so that through His poverty we might become rich.” That is from 2 Corinthians 8:9 and the idea in that passage is that your plenty might supply the lack or the wants of other believers. God promised Abram, and I believe commanded Abram, to “be a blessing.” And He commands you to do the same. “Be a blessing!”

We get some more specifics on how God will help Abram be a blessing in verse three. There God promises to bless those who bless Abram, and to curse those who curse him. And He promises that all peoples on earth will be blessed through Abram. Do you know that you and I are some of those people spoken about in that verse. It was through Abram and his descendants that Jesus came to offer salvation to you. Those of us who are saved, are saved only because of what God did through Abram and his descendants. You have been blessed through Abram.

And if you are a believer, then you have been adopted into the family of God. Spiritually speaking, you have become a descendant of Abram. And you have inherited this same command to go and be a blessing to all peoples on earth. This is what the Great Commission says to us in the New Testament. Listen to it again this morning and see how it echoes Abram’s call. It says, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19–20a) All believers have been called to take the gospel to the nations and to be a blessing to them in that way. We do this when we give money, or when we pray for ministries and missions, and when we go on mission trips or serve in our community.

Every believer has this general call of God on our lives to go and be a blessing to the nations by sharing the good news of Jesus with them. But some of us, some of you, are being called to a more specific kind of service. God still calls individuals today. He still calls people to ministry, to church planting, and to missions. There may be a man here today that God is calling to preach. There may be a woman He is calling to women’s ministry or children’s ministry or student ministry. God may be calling you to take a special role in caring for orphans or widows. He may be calling you to foster or adopt or become a caretaker. He may be calling you to share the gospel with someone. Scripture even says He may be calling you to singleness, so you can serve Him wholeheartedly.

But many people in the church today hear the call of God on their life and refuse to obey it. Don’t make that mistake. You don’t have to know exactly what it will look like. You don’t have to know exactly where it will lead you. You only have to be willing to go…to step out on faith and obey.

But what of those who heard the call of God many years ago and never obeyed? To them I would say, “Don’t let that become an excuse for not obeying now!” Maybe it isn’t too late for you to obey the call you received so long ago. If God hasn’t revoked the call, then who are you to say it’s too late. If God has placed a call on your life, remember, it isn’t a suggestion... it’s a command. So, obey His call, no matter how long it’s been.

Transition: Let’s look now at verses 4-5 to see how Abram responded to the call of God.

Genesis 12:4–5 (NIV)

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.

2. Abram’s Response (Faith)

The Bible often phrases things so simply and yet so powerfully. It says simply “So Abram went.” “So Abram went.” God essentially asks Abram to leave everything to follow Him, and Abram did it! And he seems to have done it without pause.

What are you willing to leave behind to follow God’s call on your life? Following God’s call will require sacrifice. For Abram it meant leaving his country and any land he might have owned behind. It meant leaving his people and his extended family behind. But Abram was willing to make these sacrifices to obey God’s call. He reasoned that the blessings of obedience would outweigh the sacrifices that God asked of him.

What is God asking you to sacrifice? Money? Friendships? Time? Your plans for your life? No matter how much sacrifice it requires to follow God’s call, I assure you that you will be happier living inside God’s will for your life than you will be living outside of it. So, trust God and make any sacrifices He asks of you willingly.

I should point out that when Abram obeyed God’s call, he didn’t even really know where he was going. God didn’t tell him the whole plan. He made some specific promises to Abram and He told him that He would show him the land, but that was about it. Hebrews 11:8 puts it well when it says that Abram “obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”

Often that is exactly what following God’s call in your life feels like. You have no idea where you’re going. You don’t fully know where He is leading you. God seems to only tell us what we need to know to be able to obey. Perhaps that is because He wants us to obey based on faith instead of knowledge. It could also be because He knows we couldn’t handle knowing the whole plan. Either way, you don’t have to know the whole plan to obey. Just step out in faith and obey what He has revealed to you and trust that He will show you the rest along the way. That’s what Abram did.

Conclusion:

As we close, I want you to know that I believe it is very possible that there are multiple men here this morning that God is calling to the pastorate. There may very well be women that He is calling to serve His church in their own way as well. There may even be one or more He is calling to the mission field.

For others God’s call may not be vocational. He may be calling you to salvation this morning. He may be calling you to give generously to help make up the church’s shortfall in funds right now. He may be calling you to adopt or foster. He may be calling you to join the church so you can plug in and serve. He may be calling to be a part of this new church planting initiative that was announced at the Robertson Baptist Associations annual meeting. Our association of churches recognizes that the population of Robertson county is expected to double in the next 20 years and if we are going to sustain our gospel witness that we need double our number of churches as well. If every person in our county showed up for church, we don’t have enough churches to hold them. We need to plant more churches. God may be calling you or you and your family to be part of a core team of believers that are sent out to help a church planter start a new church somewhere in our county.

There are so many things God may be calling you to, that I simply cannot name them all. So, here is what I want you to do. As we have this time of prayer and invitation, I want you to very simply pray and ask God this question, “What would you have me do?” Then, I want you to step out in faith and do it. Step out and obey. Come forward and tell me. You and I can pray over it together down here. If you want we can announce it to the church. If not, we can keep it between us. If you don’t feel comfortable telling me, then tell someone you are sitting with and pray together over it there in your pew. Ask the Lord now, “What would you have me do?”

PRAY