The Call to Follow — Abraham’s faith and obedience

Genesis 12:1–9

Introduction

If you’ve spent any time with Jesus’ words in the Gospels, you’ve heard His simple but searching command: “Follow Me.” That call is at the heart of the Christian life. It is the call to discipleship.

Over the next several weeks, we’re going to explore what it means to follow after God by looking at the call, the cost, and the crown of discipleship.

We’ll do this by looking through the lens of Old Testament believers, not because they followed a different God, but because they followed the same faithful God whose promises find their “Yes” in Christ.

We’ll learn from them about faith, sacrifice, and the glory of following after the Lord. And we begin where discipleship always begins: With the call of God.

The Call of Abram

Genesis 12 opens with God speaking into Abram’s ordinary life: “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

Abram is called out: away from his kindred and father’s house, everything that provided connection, provision, and security. He is called out from Ur, a land of idols and pagan worship (Joshua 24).

Notice this: when God called Abram, He wasn’t choosing the most promising candidate. He was displaying the freedom of His grace. Abram’s story begins not with devotion, but with deliverance. He doesn’t start as a model believer; he starts as a rescued sinner.

And that means this story has room for us. Because every one of us, in one way or another, has come from “away.”

Some from open unbelief. Some from false religion. Some from lives visibly broken by sin.

But even those raised in the church, even those who never missed a Sunday, must still be called out by grace. We inherit many blessings in covenant homes. But we do not inherit regeneration.

Each heart must be awakened by God. Each soul must be delivered from darkness into light. So if you belong to Christ today, your story begins where Abram’s does: Not with your devotion, but with God’s deliverance. Not with your choosing Him, but with His mercy toward you.

No one stands before God by pedigree. We stand by grace alone.

And Abram is called in: into a strange land, into relationship with God, into a life of faith. When God called Abram to follow, He established that call in promise.

God never sends His people on bare obedience. He sends them out leaning on His Word. Faith is always tethered to promise.

God’s Promise and Abram’s Experience

God’s Promise

“I will make you a great nation.”

Abram might have pictured a large family, many children and grandchildren, a visible and flourishing household that would grow strong in the land.

“I will bless you, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

He may have imagined honor, influence, and prosperity, perhaps even political or social power, flowing through him to others, a blessing that would be obvious in his lifetime.

“I will give you this land.”

Abram might have expected to live in a secure, fertile territory under his control, a home for his family and descendants to flourish in comfort and stability.

Abram’s Experience…

Abram receives the promise, yet what does he experience?

A long delay. Abram was 75 when God called him out, 85 when the promise was renewed in Genesis 15, 99 when God reaffirmed the covenant in Genesis 17, and didn’t see a son until he was 100.

Only one child. - Not a great nation

No land but a burial plot - the only land he ever took possession of was the land where he buried Sarah

Which raises the question: What sustained Abram’s faith?

What do you do when God’s promise and God’s providence don’t seem to match? When prayers seem unanswered. When the timeline stretches. When obedience costs more than expected.

Many of us live right there. We believe God’s Word, yet our circumstances seem to preach a different sermon.

And yet Paul tells us in Romans 4 that Abram did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith. Why?

Because his faith was not ultimately in the fulfillment of the promise, but in the One who made the promise.

Faith is directed toward the Promise-Maker, not merely the promise.

Faith is not optimism about outcomes. It is confidence in the character of the God who speaks.

There is a difference between believing in God and believing God.

One acknowledges His existence. The other trusts His Word.

Abram’s faith rested on God’s faithfulness.

Hebrews 11 tells us Abram died in faith, not having received the things promised, but seeing them from afar.

He greeted the promise from a distance.

Some of God’s promises to you may also be greeted from afar. Some prayers may not be answered on your timetable. Some labors may not bear fruit in your lifetime. But delayed fulfillment does not mean divine forgetfulness.

God is never late. He is always faithful.

The question is not whether God will keep His promise. The question is whether we will trust Him while we wait.

God’s Faithfulness Revealed in Christ

And here is where we see something Abram only saw dimly.

Abram leaves his father’s house not knowing where he goes. Christ leaves His Father’s glory knowing exactly where He must go, to the cross.

Abram receives the promise. Christ secures the promise.

Abram blesses nations by anticipation. Christ blesses nations by accomplishment.

All God’s promises find their Yes in Him.

Standing in the Promises Today

Which raises an important question: How do promises made to Abraham become promises that belong to us?

Scripture answers that plainly. The promises were not ultimately secured by Abraham’s obedience, nor were they fulfilled through ethnic lineage alone. They are fulfilled in Christ, the true Seed of Abraham.

Paul says in Galatians 3 that the promise was spoken to Abraham and to his offspring, singular, who is Christ.

And then he says something astonishing: “If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”

Do you hear that? Union with Christ makes us heirs of Abraham. Not by bloodline. Not by geography. Not by moral achievement. But by faith.

The same faith that took Abram out of Ur is the faith that brings us out of darkness.

The same faith that led Abram into an unknown land is the faith that brings us into the kingdom of Christ.

So the story of Abram is not merely history to admire. It is a pattern of grace to enter.

God still calls people out. God still calls people in.

He calls us out of the world that is passing away: Out of sin’s bondage. Out of false saviors and fragile securities.

And He calls us in: Into Christ’s kingdom. Into covenant fellowship. Into a life of trusting His promises.

Every Christian, in that sense, walks the road Abraham first walked. We leave what cannot save to cling to the God who promises.

Conclusion

The strength of our following does not rest in us. It rests in the One in whom we believe.

Abram followed a faithful God into an unknown future. We follow the same faithful God, but we do so knowing the cross and the resurrection.

The question is not whether God will keep His promise. The question is whether we will trust the One who already has.

As one pastor said: “God’s promises are not built on the sand of our faithfulness, but on the rock of His.”

So when Christ says, “Follow Me,” He is not sending you into uncertainty. He is calling you to trust a faithful God.

And that is a foundation strong enough for every step of discipleship.