Answering the Call

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 100

Psalm 100 ESV

A Psalm for giving thanks. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

Scripture Reading: Acts 7:1-8

Acts 7:1–8 “And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years. ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’ And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the…”

Sermon:

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Speaker 1

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Well once again, and as always, good morning church. I was glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord. This morning we will be moving in our series through Genesis from pre-history Genesis 1 through 12 or 1 through 11. Rather is largely considered pre-history.

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In Genesis 12, we start the time of the Patriarchs. We were introduced last week to Abram, the first of the Patriarchs Abram, who will have his name changed ultimately to Abraham God. Is the god of. He's referred to many times throughout scripture even into the New Testament as the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

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And so we come to who we discussed this in my grace group. Last week, I set it here from the pulpit. Abram is probably. The second most important character in scripture. This is all going to be up for debate. Jesus is number one. I think we can all agree there who's number two, it might be Abram.

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But that makes? Sort of the beginning here of Abram's story even more. Interesting. Part of this is what we'll talk about this week in Grace group, but if we just think about it? Who is Abram? Hey, we're going to jump into it. You'll see in our passage. We're just jumping into the middle of his life.

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So, what introduction? What do we have? What do we know about him? We know he's from ER of the Chaldeans. He's from a far off land, the land where they worship idols, where where there is no knowledge of who God is and what he has done. He comes from her of the Chaldeans.

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He's an old man.

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He has no kids. His wife is Barren. That's all we know of him. And then this is what we hear Genesis chapter 12, starting in verse 1.

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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. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name Grace so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you.

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I will curse in you, the families of the earth shall be blessed. So, Abram Wendt as the Lord told him and lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Heron. And Abram took Sarah, his wife and lot his brother's son in 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.

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When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place of shechem to the Oak of Mora. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. 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.

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From there, he moved off to the Hill Country to the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west, an eye on the East. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on. Still going toward the Negab.

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These are the words of the Lord for us this morning. Let's open our time together with a word of prayer. Oh Lord, Our Lord, How Majestic is your name and all the Earth? We thank you for all of the the privileged blessings that you have given to us. We thank you that out of darkness and death, you have called us into light your light into life.

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We thank you for your goodness and Grace given to Sinners such as us. We thank you for your promises that we may cleave to them. May we rest in you and your work. May we see the completed work of Our Savior each and every day. We ask that you would speak to our hearts according to your word, and I asked this morning that you would speak through your servant.

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It's in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. And amen. Well, here we have it. Here's the the real beginning. Of Abram's story. This man from Earl, the Chaldeans, who 75 years old.

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No Fame. That we know of yet. No claims on anything important. And yet we. Very clearly.

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Abram's call. We start with the call, and there are some important things that we have to note here. First, who is the one who calls Abram? 12, 1 it's the Lord. The Lord here. Just so you know that, and this I'm not gonna lie even well into Seminary sometimes confuse me. Why do we have Lord? All caps, but it looks normal letters. Why is it written like this? Well, anytime you see that Lord, the underlying Hebrew word there is going to be Yahweh. Yahweh is a very particular name. Is what we call the covenantal? Name of God.

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It describes who God is and his relationship to his people. I think that's important here. This is The God Who is called. This is not other names for God that we read in all. This is not Elohim, which also means god, but that when we speak of God as Elohim, this is God High Seated on the throne Lord of all things he is God. When we see Lord here, Yahweh, it's much more like the the closest New Testament to try to get our new testament brains to think through this right. Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord's Prayer. How do we start Our Father?

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In heaven. Why do we start our prayers? Our Father in heaven well, because? To say Our Father shows us teaches us, tells us the closeness that God has the way we identify God and the name we use for God in the Lord's Prayer. Our Father shows his closeness, his compassion, his care, his love for us. To say that Yahweh said to Abram is to say The God Who will Covenant who makes Covenant his close personal name. That's the God who will call Abram. And is this same God who is the one who will take on who will bear all of the responsibility and all of the burden for the call that Abram has?

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Note he will verse 2 1 show him the land. I will show you the land verse 2, I God says, will make of you, a great nation. Verse 2 God continues, he says. I will bless you and make your name great. Verse 3 God says, I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. God says, I will curse. God will bless. God will make God will care. God will take care of his enemies. Those who are against him this call, we should note from the very beginning, is all entirely. A work of God.

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What does Abram do? Well, his only responsibility. In verse 1 is to go. It's to go. God will bless. God will make God will grow. God will multiply. God will do these things. What do you do Abram go? Go where?

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I don't know. As we just let the story unfold. I don't know. God says, go to the land. I'll show you. I'll show you just start going.

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But wouldn't it be easier if I knew God didn't give that to Abram? He says, go from your country. Take you leave your Kindred, your father's house, the place you know, the place that's home, the place that's comfortable, the place you're used to go, and you go where I show you.

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Doesn't matter where God shows him. In some sense. It does matter, doesn't become the promised land. Yes. But here from the get-go. In a lot of ways, we say it doesn't matter. As parents, maybe we, we've done this? I try to be careful as a parent not to throw this out all the time, but I think this is a valid parental thing to say. When kids say why? Because I said so. Well, why do I have to go God because I said so? Yeah, but you won't tell me where you're going. I didn't ask you to know where we're going. I told you to go and I'll tell you how to go and where to get there.

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Abram's call. From the beginning, we can note this in the book of Hebrews teaches us. This is a call for Abram to have faith. God will do all of the work. Abram have faith trust in God wherever you go. It will be good for you because wherever you go, that's where God will bless you and multiply you make into you into a nation. He will protect you. He will curse those who dishonor you and through you, Abram. All the families of the earth shall be blessed. So, in Grace group, we'll be talking about two things this week. One sort of Abram's resume.

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Black thereof. But on the flip side, there's also this thought.

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What value? Does God's promise to Abram have to me? We're talking about Abrams call, but how does this impact your life? Countless ways. Here's one for you this morning. In Abram.

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Of the families. Of the. Shall be blessed. Are you alive on this Earth? Are you part of a family that exists on this Earth? If the answer is yes. Through Abram. You shall be blessed. These are the sorts of things are why I'm willing to say Abram is the the second most important character in scripture. We all receive blessing to this day and forever. Because of this, call that God gave to Abram God's the one who will do it. God's the one who will work Abram. You have faith in you go.

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And we go straight. Abrams. Obedience. Abram does not to his great credit.

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We don't read of him questioning. We don't read of Abram, hear his doubt and troubles. We don't read here in this section that Abram argued and debated, right? There's no story of Abram like we have elsewhere in Scripture, right? What Gideon who's God's like, go, and he's, like, well, what if, what if? What if we do this thing where I'll put out the fleece if there's Dew on the fleece but not on the grass, then I'll do it. And God does it? Forgot job that was too easy. Let's flip it do on the grass, not on the fleece. I might have those orders, but you know the story?

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There's no. Putting God to the test. There's no asking God. Verse 4. So, Abram went as the Lord told him. God says, go. So, Abram.

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Abrams obedience. Is immediate. Abram's obedience. Is, as the Lord told him.

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Though he was 75 years old. And I think it's beautiful. The more I have spent time in Genesis getting ready to preach this. The more I am in awe. I mean. Moses, who wrote this and The God Who inspired Moses to write this. You just. We just throw in these little thoughts, and they're there if you pay attention to them. And the weight of what's being said. Abram, who the only thing we know before verse one, his wife is Barren, and he has no kids. God comes, and I promise, I will make you a great nation.

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And so, at some point, we might be thinking here. If we didn't know the story else, Abrams, a young man, his wife's Baron. But, you know, that'll get fixed. Maybe he's 25, 30. There's still chance for him to grow and multiply for his family to to be taken care of. His wife's young. Maybe there's time for her to eventually have kids.

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But in verse 4, Abram goes as the Lord told him. He takes his dead brother's son, that was. We talked about that a little last week. And his wife. So, even when his Lord told him Allah went with him, Abram was. 75 years old. When he departed from here.

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He's 75. He's not young. He's not still in Prime position to be able to have kids. He's not in a place where he can look around and think, okay, well, you know, you know? I'll go. I'll get this new job. I'll move across the country, and then I'll get it all figured out. He is past the age of retirement, the die for his life he may feel has been kept, has been cast. But he hears God's call.

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And he obeys. He took Sarah, his wife lot, his brother's son, all their possessions. They gathered all the people they acquired inherent. And they set out to go to the land of Canaan.

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They were passed through. The lands. To the place at shechem to the Oak of Mora. At that time, the Canaanites were in the land. This is important. It's important for a few reasons. God says, go to the land. I'm going to show you. And God shows him the land, and yet. That land is occupied by Canaanites. Who probably even at this time, right? We hear the reports from the spies in in Exodus. That the people here are powerful. They are giants. They are terrifying.

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I have to assume, at least in some sense. Those are still the people in this land. And, and part of the reason, I think that is, why would Moses give us this note? Oh yeah, the Canaanites, right? The Canaanites, you guys are terrified of the Canaanites, who we already sent the spies. They came back 10 of them brought a bad report, so we had to go wander some more. And if you guys remember that? And what Moses is saying is when Abram came when God promised this land to Abram. They're already there. They're not a problem to God. He's well aware of this.

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April Bayes and he goes through. He passed through the to shechem. There's the oak. He sees the Canaanites are there. And here is where God appears on the scene again, verse 7, the Lord said to Abraham to you and your Offspring. I will give this Lent. Abrams obedience was immediate. Abram's obedience was to what the Lord said, and Abram's obedience received for him this reward. This is the end result of his faith. God shows him in a real and tangible way. This, this is the land. This will be for your children, the great nation that I will make of. You will come from here.

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There's a payoff. Abram's obedience.

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And Abram's obedience continues.

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Verse 7, the second half.

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He built. An altar. To the Lord. Who had appeared to him? From there, he moved to the Hill Country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and I on the East and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. Abram's obedience was immediate. Abram's obedience was to what the Lord had said. Abram's obedience received this reward that God said, this is your land. And Abram's obedience is manifested in worship.

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You should all know this by now. David's super secret, special trick to if you're reading scripture, figure out the big, important Clues you look for. What's repeated? Verse 7, he built an altar verse 8. There, he built an altar. What's important Abram is building altars. His life is a life of worship. He will give to God what God is due. God called him Hebrew obeyed. God blessed him Abram worshiped and Abram worshiped. We must. We must. Ba people. Who obey? And a people. Who worship?

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And this all the book of Hebrews teaches us is through faith. By faith, Abram went right. Let's, let's flip. Let's flip to Hebrews. We looked there last week. We'll, we'll go there again. We'll be there many times as we cover the life of Abram because the writer of Hebrews gives us. The background and the theological weight of Abram's life. So, here we are. In Hebrews verse 11, chapter 11, verse 8. By faith. Abraham obeyed. There's the word when he was called to go to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. Looks. This is what we just read. Go to this. Go to the land. I'll show you.

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Hebrews 11, 8, and he went not knowing where he. Let's go! By faith, he went. By faith, he sees God's promises, and though he will not physically lay hold of them by faith, he will apprehend what God will do for him. It is by faith that he obeys, and this obedience has payoffs, and his obedience is manifested in going. And worshiping. So, if God says, go. We go. And all throughout the whole time. We worship. Here's Abraham, he's left everything. He's left his home country. He's left his family. He has with him, his, his nephew, his wife, and all of his servants.

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That's all he's got. He's left his home, his inheritance, all of the things that he would have. He's left it. And he comes here. And he looks around, and the Canaanites are all around. And God said, this is your land.

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And instead of. I don't know. Instead of? We will see him. Do this at times in his life. We have to deal with what's in front of us here, here. Instead of trying to help God with God's plan and figuring out ways to make sure this plan can come to fruition instead here. He worships. Builds altars. He honors the name of the Lord, the one who would call him and make these wonderful promises to him.

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And so what, then, is the reward in Abram's life? He hears the call and he obeys. He obeyed. In the text we read, we read in Hebrews. He obeyed.

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Well, the text ends with Abrams. Wandering.

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He continues wandering. He goes. He sees the land here. He is in shechem with the Oak of Mora. Here he is with Bethel on one side, an eye on the other side. Here he is building altars and worshiping the Lord. Here he is in the midst of a land that God has promised him. Genesis, chapter 12, verse 9, and Abram journeyed on.

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Keep on going! Still going? Towards, then again. Some of you may know this word. You may have heard the Negab. Where do you see you see it also a lot in the Psalms? It refers to an actual physical area.

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But it also has a. Spiritual and? Symbolic.

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For us in our context. It would read like this. And Abraham journeyed on. Still going towards the Wilderness. Not home. The wild unkept, not the place that's flowing with milk and honey. The the Wasteland Desert Wilderness? He has seen the promise he has seen the land of Promise. He has built altars there, honoring The God Who promised it.

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And he keeps on wandering.

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What's going on here?

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Well, part of what's going on just to be frank and honest. There's a lot of story of Abraham's life still to tell Abram's life see. He's gonna have his name changed. That's how much of the story there is left to tell. There's still a lot of the the story of his life to tell. That's part of it. But the book of Hebrews also help us here. What's going on?

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By faith. He went to live in the land of promise. Verse 9 tells us of Hebrews 11, as in a foreign land. Living in tents.

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Hero continues live, intensualizing Jacob with his, his son and his grandson.

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But the weight is even here. You've seen the land, but keep going. Abram you're a Wanderer? Sure, I've promised land. I have promised this place I've promised this blessing, but you Abramural wander because what Abram needed to learn and what Abram did learn? Was that what he is looking for is not some patch of land situated between Bethel and I? What he's hoping in is not some place called shechem, where there's a oak growing what he's looking for. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 10, tells us is a city who has its foundations, whose designer and Builder is God. He is looking forward to better things Abram.

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Is the first Saints to learn? That this world is not my home.

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Anyone will learn that through his wandering.

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So too. Church, hear this lesson. Hear the call of God.

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He no longer. No longer does the call. Look like getting up and going to some lands. Put a star in that, maybe, but? At its heart. No longer is the call one to become a great nation. Put a star in that. The. Is to see and know. Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

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And then, in seeing to steal from John Piper a little bit in seeing and savoring our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well, now the call. Maybe, does the call is still to go? It's go. In Genesis 12. It's go in Matthew 28.

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And though we are not looking for a physical, Earthly Nation to call our own, we are being made into a kingdom, a nation of priests unto God. Almighty John teaches us.

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Because through Jesus Christ, we all receive blessing. So you see the call? Will you hear? Will you obey? At the most fundamental level. This is to hear the call to devote your life to repent of your sin and cry out to him who will save you. And then, for those of us who have responded and heard the call of the Gospel, the call is still to be holy as he is Holy to sanctify yourselves to live lives. We saw this in Philippians live, eyes worthy of the calling we have received. Will. Obey. Even when your obedience means a life.

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Of wandering. One more New Testament passage.

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We may Wonder First Peter chapter two. Let's start in verse nine, but you are. Hear the promises of eight to Abram In this passage. This is what Peter says to those of us who have trusted in Christ who have heard the call who are now seeking to be obedient. But you are second Peter 2, 9, a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. The you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of Darkness and into his light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received Mercy, but now you have received Mercy.

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Beloved. I urge you. As sojourners and Exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul? We are soldiers and Exiles. We still wonder for this. Earth is not our home. Abram learned it first, but we see it clearly. We look to the the city whose foundation and Builder is the Lord. We set our eyes upon, he.

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May Our Lives. Be a mirror. The life of Abram. Let's pray.