Abraham’s Call is Our Call

Sermon by Mark Johnson of Steiger Minneapolis

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go 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.”

So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.

Genesis 12:1-4

In this passage, the God of the universe appears to Abraham and tells him to go to a land he will give him. In exchange, he promises Abraham blessing and descendants. It sounds like a great promise, but there is one problem—Sarah is barren. In that culture, not having kids meant you were nothing, because without children, you had no legacy to pass on or security as you aged. Yet God picks these two—a couple without any potential—to create a nation. Without any explanation, God chooses people without any possibilities and makes them an extravagant promise.

After God picks this unlikely couple, he actually speaks directly to Abraham. I think that usually when we hear that God “speaks” to someone, we imagine a deep, somber “voice of God” like you hear in the movies. But as I thought about this, I decided that I think God was excited! He created us to bless us, and even in the midst of judgment, his default mode is to bless. So I think he’s excited here. And not only that, but his call on Abraham’s life is also a call to adventure and excitement. At the same time, there is a downside: It means that Abraham and Sarah have to leave everything—their home, their family, their possessions, everything. There is a significant cost, but in return, they’re going to have a life of adventure.

These are the central verses of the Old Testament—a promise of blessing for the whole earth through Abraham. And the amazing thing is that we have seen that become reality, because the whole earth has been blessed through Christ.

So that’s the overall story. I think there are a few things we can learn from it.

First, the call to leave everything and follow God is our call, and our story. We cannot read this story and just say, “Well, good for Abraham. That’s a nice story.” That’s not an option. The call to leave everything to follow God has been reiterated for us. Jesus said, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” He talked about leaving our family, our homes, and our belongings. There is a principle of leaving in order to follow Christ. Abraham left to follow God; and his call is our call, his story is our story. The New Testament says things like, “Go into all the world,” “Take up your cross,” and, “It is impossible to please God without faith.” Leaving requires faith, because we do not always get to see the whole picture. Like Abraham, we often don’t always receive much more detail than the call to go. But, also like Abraham, when we hear that call, we need to respond.

It is likely that God is calling some of you to leave the church or ministry you are a part of at the moment. You need to know that your obedience is the best thing for you, and for the people around you. If God you stay when God is calling you to go, you will live without promise or hope. It is not a light thing to say no to God. I know that leaving is difficult, because it requires faith, but a faithless life does not please God. It doesn’t even acknowledge God.

So there are probably people reading this whose witness for Christ is feeble, because God is calling you to go. Your calling is somewhere else, and you need to live in faith. And even if God isn’t calling us somewhere else, I believe God is calling most of us to leave some stuff behind. Maybe remnants of our old life still have a strong hold on us, and he wants us to leave them behind. It might be politics, or a relationship, or a diet, or even a way of doing ministry. If God is calling you to go, leave the stuff behind, and follow him.

The next thing I see in this story is the fact that first God called Abraham to go, and then he showed him where. Abraham didn’t know where he was going when he first set out. God just told him to go, and he obeyed. I think the principle here is that without going, there is no showing. We have to take the first step, or we will not see what God is showing us. Generally, when God speaks into some area of our lives, following him means letting go of the present for the promise of the future. And I think that we should be praying about what we need to abandon—both as individuals and in our churches or ministries. The challenging truth is that God called Abraham to do something irrational. It wasn’t easy to follow him, and it won’t always be easy for us either. But even though we live in the midst of what may seem like more attractive options, we need to follow.

I also want to draw your attention to the fact that Abraham’s faith affected the entire world and all of history. He was one guy, and he changed the world. I’ve decided that there are no insignificant acts of faith. One person can change the world. All it takes is to say yes to God. It really isn’t rocket science; we just need to say yes, and God will use us to accomplish his purposes. Because there are no insignificant acts of faith.

We also need to remember that, for Abraham and Sarah, the alternative to saying yes to God was to stay barren. And the same is true for us. Saying no to God is saying yes to a barren life, and no to an abundant life. If we really look at it, Abraham’s call was a call back to the Garden of Eden. God was speaking life into him, and bringing forth new life out of him, just like in the Garden. And I firmly believe that saying yes to the call of God rescues us from a barren life.

Finally, we all need to know that faith is revealed in obedience, not in ideology or theology. Abraham had to go. He couldn’t just say that he would go, and then not go. That isn’t faith; that’s being a poser. We live in a world that says no to God, so many of us have just settled for ideology or propaganda. And I’m talking about the Christian world. I think many people who identify as Christians are actually saying no to God. Because it doesn’t matter how much we say we’ll go; we have to actually go. We cannot enter the Promised Land unless we leave our old life behind.

So go! What are we waiting for? Leave those things behind that you’re hanging onto for security. Trust in God. Sometimes, just because we live in the inner city, or go to a “cutting edge” church, or do “cool” ministry, we think we’ve gone. But we haven’t. That doesn’t mean anything if God is calling us to something else. So go. Obey God. Make no compromise.

If you’re waiting to see before you go, you won’t ever go. I am fed up with mediocrity and swimming around in the same stuff all the time. Go!

Leave it behind. Begin to live a life of faith. Pray that God would show you what you need to leave behind and what the next step of faith is. Ask yourself, “Where in my life am I living by faith?”

Remember: Abraham’s call is our call, and it matters what we say, and it matters what we do. Go. Follow God.

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