Sermon Tone Analysis

We continue looking at the conversion of Abraham.

Please open your Bibles to

Your Bible might call this whole beginning section of , The Call of Abraham.

Last week we learned about Abraham.

I think that Abraham is an important man for us to study.

He was previously an idolater in Ur.

He wasn’t seeking God.

He wasn’t pursuing God.

And out of that idolatry, the Lord pursued him and converted him.

As a Christian, the question for us is often now what?

People want to be growing, and when you’re not growing, it’s not satisfying.

Something’s off.

You ever had those dry spells in your life.

Essentially, you’re looking for a change, and you ask yourself, what should I be doing now?

Abraham is a good person to look at in those moments of lostness.

Why?

Because he was lost.

Then the Lord appeared to him and called him.

We can see in Abraham’s life, how to exist as a Christian.

Let’s go ahead and read this text now to get an idea, what I’m talking about.

Go ahead and read with me now.

(ESV)

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.

Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and 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.

When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh.

At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

7 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.

8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

I have three points for us in our sermon for today.

Go

Worship

and Be a Pilgrim.

Our first point is, Go.

Remember, when we see Abram, we are talking about the same man who later is named Abraham.

Part of the call of God, and part of the call of a Christian, is that there is a separation.

A Christian is a saint.

Literally, they are holy ones.

We are different.

And the word church in Greek is ekklesia, or literally, the called out ones.

When God calls a person, he is called out from everyone else.

God is separating the Christian.

You’ll notice that in verse 5 it says that Abram went.

God had appeared to Abraham earlier.

Actually, probably much earlier than we even realize.

We read about the call of Abraham last week, in the first 3 verses of this chapter.

I said that those first three verses make up what is called the Abrahamic Covenant.

I actually think that was spoken to Abraham sometime at the end of chapter 11.

What I mean by that is that in it says that Terah, that’s Abraham’s father, left Ur, and they went to Haran and settled there.

Why did Terah leave Ur, I think it’s actually because of what we seen the first verses of .

I think that those first 3 verses were communicated to Abraham, while they were in Ur.

But Abraham didn’t fully obey.

Verse 1 said, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”

He took his time.

His dad came with him.

And in the process, they got delayed in Haran, a land of idolatry.

But then in it says, “So Abram went, as the Lord had told him,”

A Christian is a saint.

Literally, they are holy ones.

We are different.

And the word church in Greek is ekklesia, or literally, the called out ones.

When God calls a person, he is called out from everyone else.

We know there was a delay, then here in verse 4, he finally goes.

What happened so that Abram eventually obeyed?

What happened that caused him to go?

The answers a little rough.

His dad died.

We read about that at the end of chapter 11.

God told him to go.

Abraham didn’t go.

But then with the death of his father, he was then went.

God told him to go.

He didn’t go.

God brought about the death of Abraham’s father.

Now he goes.

Why is this significant?

Because I want you to see the hand of God even in your actions.

The sovereignty of God is for our good.

says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Often times we think only about disaster.

That God uses disaster to shape us.

Kind of like how God used disaster in Joseph’s life to save many people.

But do you realize that it can even happen for our obedience, our sanctification.

But

God can cause disaster in our life so that we can be freed to obey.

As long as Abraham’s father, Terah, was alive, Abraham would not obey God.

God is sovereign over life.

Terah dies.

Now Abraham goes.

God is making us his own.

The church is made up of the called out ones.

We are to repent.

We are to separate.

And yet … like Abraham, we don’t obey.

Throughout Scripture, God issues these commands, and the hardness of the human heart is that we don’t obey.

And like Abraham, he does something to make us obey.

At the point of conversion, it’s Him giving you a new heart.

And for this I praise God.