Called to Go

We are in the second week of our sermon series “Called.” We are using the book of Genesis to show us various ways that God calls people and how they were willing to respond to the calling they received.

Last week we focused on being created by God and how we were created in his image to be on a journey with him. You can find this sermon and all of our sermons on our You Tube Channel. This week we are focusing on how we are “Called to Go.”

Our scripture comes from Genesis 12:1-9. The words will be on the screen.

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household 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 went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 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.

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.

Let us pray…

A definition of the word “go” is “to move from one place to another.” This seems easy enough, but what we know within the Christian context is it can become a little more complicated. In order for us to “go” and “do” what God called us to do involves us being willing to hear from God, listen to God, believe God and trust God. It will usually take each of these steps for us to be willing to go.

The last words we hear from Jesus in the Gospel of Mark is for the disciples to go and “proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” These were those that had followed Jesus during his time on earth.

(Transition)

What we know from their story is that even after they received the Holy Spirit, they remained in Jerusalem. They seemed to be unwilling to “go” and spread the word of God beyond the area that they knew.

It was not until the death of Stephen as the first Martyr of the church and through the work of a man named Paul who was originally attempting to get the early followers of Jesus killed before we see movement by the early followers of Jesus outside of Judea.

It seems like as is true in many cases for us their fear of the unknown was greater than their faith in God. They seemed paralyzed. They were unwilling to move from what they knew into the unknown. They were unwilling to trust God.

(Transition)

We, that believe Jesus is our Lord and Savior, were first called by God into a relationship with him. We were given the gift of grace. A gift that cannot be earned or deserved. A gift given freely to us by God because of the love that God has for us.

Abram who will eventually become Abraham was a man living a life among a group of people that normally would worship various gods. These gods were believed to be the ways that good would happen to the people. If the people were right with the gods things went good. If things were not going well than they must have done something to anger the gods.

We have Abram through an interaction with thee God, be able to believe that there truly was only one God that was worthy of worship. There is only one God that is worth listening too, and that God told him to go.

(Transition)

Abram probably did not know anything about this God that he ends up following. But it is through hearing from Him that leads him into being willing to go. We call that within the United Methodist Church prevenient grace.

It is often explained as God attempting to woo us or lead us into a willingness to have a relationship with him. We believe that God attempts to find ways to get us to believe in him even before we are willing to follow him.

(Transition)

It is after we believe that we should begin listening for God. We should desire to discover ways for us to hear what God may want to say to us. This can often be difficult for us to do. We may want to hear from God, but we don’t know how, or we may be hearing from God and not realize it is him.

The best way for us to be open to hearing and listening to God is to connect with him. Our first reading says it this way. We need to “come to Jesus.” We need to take the time to speak to and listen to Jesus.

We can do this through a number of different ways. We have spoken of these before. We can read scripture. We can check out devotionals. We can spend time in quiet offering God a chance to speak to us. What may be the hard part is for you is to discover the way that you can hear God the easiest.

(Transition)

Our text has God speaking to Abram which should inform us that Abram was open and available to hear from God. This can be hard for us to do in a world in which many of us have every moment filled.

God speaks to us in a number of different ways. One of the ways it is expressed is that he speaks to us in a still, small voice. If that is the case, then it should point out to us that we need to quiet ourselves in order for him to best speak to us.

We need to quiet our minds and our souls to be able to best hear from him. God desires to hear from you. He is waiting for you to be willing to slow down and spend time with him. He wants you to quiet your mind long enough to hear his still, small voice.

(Transition)

Hearing and listening are the first part of the sequence that has to take place in order to lead us to accept the calling God has given us and for us to decide to go. We also have to believe that the message is as it seems.

We have to be willing to believe that God would call “us” to do what he wants “us” to do. Often, we will say “who me?” We will have doubts rise up. We will decide that we are not good enough to fulfill the mission that God has for us.

(Transition)

Moses offers us a good example of this. God calls Moses through a burning bush to go to Egypt and free the Israelites. We have Moses come up with a bunch of excuses why he can’t do this, and God responds to each one of his excuses until finally Moses admits that he doesn’t believe he is the right person.

God tells him that it is him who he has chosen. He may have chosen “you” for a specific way for “you” to serve him. He has had “you” experience life and he has given “you” gifts that will allow “you” to fulfill the calling he has given specifically to “you.”

This is doubt  does not seem to be a part of Abrams story. He seems to have the faith right away to believe that it is God speaking to him and that God has prepared him for this job. He is willing to leave everything in order to follow the will of God.

(Transition)

We need to decide that we are not only going to listen, hear, and believe God is calling us. We also have to many times be willing to trust that he will be with us. It is the trust factor that will many times stop us.

We believe that God wants something done, we just don’t believe that we can do it. It is through the understanding that God is with us on the journey and that he is going to help us that can often lead us to decide to go.

Abram did not hesitate. We are more likely to go when we are called when we discover what it means to be formed in the image of God. We are to be Jesus to those around us. This means that we should choose to listen and respond to what God desires for us to do.

(Seminary story) Called to seminary, called to ministry, called to being a pastor, called to being a United Methodist pastor.

(Transition)

We have a story to share. Our first reading is a great reminder of who Jesus is and what Jesus desires to do for each person that walks the earth today. We find three ways that Jesus helps us through what he did for us. He saves us, provides for us, and he teaches us.

The crowd finds Jesus and asks “what does God require from us.” His answer is simple, all that God requires is for them to believe. What do we need to believe. We need to believe that Jesus is our Savior. We need to believe that Jesus died to remove the power of sin from our lives.

We receive in Verse 40 part of what that belief gives us.

“My Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

We become saved when we believe. Jesus would eventually be willing to die upon the cross for them and us so that those that believe are able to be saved. Jesus saves those who believe from the power of sin and from death through eternal life.

(Transition)

Jesus also provides for us if not in the physical sense, he offers a metaphorical understanding of what he does. The scripture states that “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

He wants the people to have the faith to believe that Jesus will be their provider. He is reminding his Jewish audience that God provided for those that were saved from captivity in Egypt. God during their time in the wilderness provided for them both food and drink. Jesus is stating that he will provide for them whatever they need again.

This may be actual food and drink, but it will often mean assurance, removing obstacles, offering love when it seems like the world has abandoned us. God offers us what we need when we need it and sometimes even if we don’t ask for it.

(Transition)

The last Portion of the scripture tells us that he will teach them. We have Jesus quoting from Isaiah that God will teach them. Jesus has already been teaching them, but we know that the teaching will not end because God will remain as their helper through the Holy Spirit.

Part of being willing to go is to believe that God will save us, protect us, and teach us. It is when we believe these three ways that God will be with us that will often give us the willingness to go and do what God desires for us to do.

When we believe in God, we are blessed to have a God that will not leave us or forget about us. He will walk with us on our journey. He will continue to desire to lead and direct us to the ways that will best benefit us and those around us.

(Transition)

Abram reaches the land promised to him. He was willing to go and God went with him. He followed up by worshipping God. We should be willing to celebrate when we go for God and when God helps us accomplish what he designed for us to do.

This is an area that I will sometimes struggle. I will thank God but then I will often move on to the next thing. This church has been serving the Sharon Woods neighborhood since 1969 and has been in this building since 1974.

Ourselves and those that were before us have been a part of God’s presence here for 57 years. That is something to celebrate, but we also aren’t done. We have a mission given to us by God. We state that mission as us, reaching out to our neighbors, loving all people, and growing in faith together.

Let us continue to make the decision that we are no longer going to allow fear and indecision to stop us from acting on behalf of God. We need to be willing to listen to God. We need to be willing to believe we are good enough for what God is calling us to do.

We need to have enough faith to believe that God will be on that journey with us. We have a God that loves us and loves those around us. Let us be willing both individually and as a church to go and do what God desires for us to do when we have been called by God.

Please pray with me…