You Can't Stay Here: Abraham's Call to Leave What's Familiar

[Music] [Applause] Hey, we live in a world where the Lord God Almighty, eternal, All powerful, all- knowing God is not the center of civilization. We find ourselves studying a book of the Bible called Genesis. Everyone shout Genesis. Genesis. It's the first of 66 books that make up the Bible. It's the easiest one to find. It's in the beginning. That's what the book's name actually means.

Genesis means beginning. It is the book of beginnings. And this book is great because it reminds us that what we're going through right now is not new. The whole world could reject God, but that does not mean you have to live that way. As we study this book, we've looked at four major events thus far in the book of Genesis. We look at creation. That in the beginning, God, he is the creator. He holds things together. He is the sustainer. If you ever wonder if God can do it, just go to the beginning and see that God is able. There's creation, but not long after that is the fall. Sin entered the story. It's because of sin that we have a separation in our relationship with God. It's because of sin that we have brokenness and evil that abounds in this world today. And we

see this woven throughout the scriptures just as it weaves into our lives today. And then we have the flood. God's judgment is real. He's a perfect, just, holy God. And there was a flood, but God is so gracious. He preserved life. Then last week, we looked at the Tower of Babel. We see the potential of what man is able to do. Yet, if you remove God from it, what good is it? That's called humanism. And we see the potential of what we're able to do. But God wants to be the center of our lives. God wants us to live by faith. And now we enter a new season in the book of Genesis and we will see great influencers of faith, the potential of what God wants to do in our

lives. That we do not have to live like everyone else. We can live the great plan and the destiny God has purposed for us. And so we'll look now at four major influencers of the faith. We'll look at Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. And today we'll start our journey with Abraham. and we'll see what happens when you put your faith in God. There's nothing that he can't do. When Mary was first approached that she'll have the son of God and she wonders, well, how in the world can this happen? She was told in Luke 1 37, for nothing will be impossible with God. There's absolutely nothing that God can't do. When Jesus talked about the wealthy and how difficult it is to actually get into heaven, there there was the question from his disciples then who can get in

and Jesus said this. He said what is impossible with man is possible with God. That is that we don't try to figure this out on our own. We don't do this. It's God that wants to work his will in our lives. And when you put your faith in Almighty God, he has to do the impossible or else you could do it. God wants to work in you and through you. And that's what we're going to see through the life of Abraham. Some of us want God's blessing, but we don't want to surrender it all to God. We want God to work and we think, "Well, Lord, if you would just do a miracle, then I'll trust in you." That's not the way it works, which is why it's so important to study the Bible. God wants you to take a step of faith so that he can show up in

your life so that you could see that God wants to work in and through your life. There's a book of the Bible called Hebrews and we we see that what God requires of us. And in Hebrews 11:6 we see without faith it's impossible to please God. For whoever draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. So it starts by believing God and then you'll take steps of obedience and when you do God will reward you. I don't know if this is talked about enough in the church today that is God wants to bless you. He wants to reward you. But there is a principle of sewing. You will only reap in this life what you sow. So if you do not take great steps of obedience, great steps of faith, your

reward actually might be smaller. It's not enough to just to believe in God. It's not enough. Some of you are here today and you say, "Well, I I believe in Jesus. I I I believe in God." That's not what God wants from you. Even the devil believes in Jesus. In fact, James says it this way in chapter 2 19. You believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. You see, it's not enough to believe that Jesus is even God. The demons know that, but they don't obey Jesus. The difference is believing Jesus. You can believe in Jesus or you can believe Jesus. And if you believe Jesus, you will take him at his word. You will do what he says. And you will see that

his ways are far more superior than your ways. So what happens when you believe? It impacts you and it impacts others. Every decision you make in your life has a direct impact. This is just called cause and effect. Even if you decide to do nothing that will do something. So you choose what you do with your life and you can choose to believe God and take him at his word. And this guy Abraham is called the father of our faith. What is so special about this guy's faith that so many thousands of years later we're still talking about him? When Paul wrote to the Romans, he says this in chapter 4:3. He says, "For what does the scripture say?" And he's actually quoting out of the book of

Genesis. He says, "Abraham believed God." He didn't just believe in God. He believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Abraham was not righteous because he was a religious man. Abraham was not righteous because he was born into the right family. Abraham was not righteous because he followed the rules or did good deeds. It's because he believed God and God gave him his righteousness. And I'm here to tell you today, the same could be true of you. When you believe God, he looks at you and he sees righteousness. In the book of Galatians, the there were a group of religious people in a whole region with different towns and different churches, and the church was

starting to spread. And and some people said, "Well, if you really want to be saved, you got to do certain things." And and the the writer here, Paul, writes to the Galatians and says, "Now, it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law." So So what he's saying is you're not made right with God because you do the right things. He says, "For the righteous shall live by faith." So if if you really want to be right with God, you're going to live by faith. And that's what God counts as righteous because you believe him. You're willing to live for him. You're willing to go after him. You're not wanting to add anything to this message. You're not thinking that you can do anything to get saved. You realize it was what was done for you. And so the writer continues and actually uses

Abraham as an example when he says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus, this is what you get in Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles. Now, Gentile just simply means a non-Jew, a non-Hebrew person. That the promise of Abraham can come to anyone who believes in Jesus. You do not have to be born into the right family. You don't have to go to the right church. If you believe in Jesus, the same promise that God gave Abraham is yours today so that we might receive the promised spirit. That's God

himself through what? Faith. Come on, someone shout faith. Faith. Faith should change. Faith should move you to action. Faith should move you to obedience. So, let's dive in to Genesis chapter 12 and let's learn a little bit more about this man known as father Abraham. He had many sons and many sons had father Abraham. I am one of them. So are you. So let's just get in the word of God before I start singing. Genesis 12 starting with verse one. Now the Lord Now the Lord said to Abram,

when you read the story of Abraham, you discover his birth name was Abram and God would later change his name. Our God is in the business of changing things. The way you start is not the way he wants you to continue. And we see now 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. Faith must be followed by action." If I would give this sermon a title today, I would call this You can't stay here. You can't stay here. Say that with me.

You can't stay here. If you want to get where God wants you to be, you can't stay here. In this case, God said to Abraham, "Go." Everyone say, "Go." Go. That means go. There's no hidden meaning here. Faith simply says here, "Go." When God says go, you should go. This sounds incredibly simple until you put yourself in the shoes of Abram and say, "But where am I going? When am I going to get there? How am I going to get there? And why am I going there?

See, faith sounds so good until you realize that faith is not having it figured out. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. It's the evidence, the conviction of I can't see it, but I believe God, so therefore, I'm going to do what God says to do, even though I don't know how it's going to happen. If you are looking for an excuse not to live by faith, I'm here to tell you there are a lot more excuses not to live by faith than to live by faith. I cannot convince you to live by faith because it's unseen. It's unknown. God says go. You need to go. You can't stay here. In the case of Abram, he said, "I want you to leave everything that's familiar, your land, your family. I want you to leave all of this behind. I'm not going to tell you

where I'm taking you, but all your old habits, all your familiar habits. I I want to show you something new. This is what God does in our lives. You can't stay here. God does not want you to stay in the place where you are. He has a much better plan for your life. Every single week I'm confronted with so many different people in all age categories. men, women, teenagers, married, single, wealthy, poor, that all have the similar problem of doing things in their life they don't want to do. This could be cigarettes, marijuana, alcohol.

A common one in most men and now it's becoming predominant in women as well is pornography. I continue to look at this. I don't want to look at this, but I just keep coming back to it. It produces dopamine. Something makes you feel good for a moment that then causes shame later, and you don't want to do it, but you keep doing it. Sounds like this dialogue like Paul has in Romans chapter 7. I don't know why I do the things I don't want to do, but I do them. And and there's so many people right here in this church that that are doing things they don't want to do. And and the reason they tell me is not just to confess because I'm not a priest in a booth. You know, I I did this this week. They're actually asking for prayer. Pastor, pray for me. I'm doing things I don't want to do.

And I try the best I can to to pray. I try to press into somebody. And I try to say, "Lord, would you help this person stop doing those things and show them who you are?" And I try to say, "Let let's replace this." And and then I got this revelation from another pastor in another sermon just last week and and it finally hit me. It struck me that you will end up doing what you obsess in your life. So So whatever you're obsessed with is what you will eventually do. If you're frustrated, if you're downcast, if you're going through a difficult season of your life and you start to obsess over this, you will live in depression. So many of you had trauma in your childhood. It's it's actually it's the normal thing that you go through trauma.

Not that it should be, but somewhere there. And then of course the pandemic hit and there was trauma on everyone. And if you if you don't deal with this, you'll obsess with this and the the depression will be so dark that you'll end up focusing on this. Now track with me here for just a moment. If you stay here, that's that's where you will will be. If you want to break a habit, an addiction, I don't care what the addiction is. You need to be obsessed with Jesus. You need to literally be so obsessed with Jesus that he is the priority of your life. Your waking moments are thinking about Jesus. You start your day with Jesus. You read the word of Jesus. You obey Jesus. You pray to Jesus. You talk to Jesus. You invite Jesus into your life. You get so obsessed with

Jesus that your habits start to conform to his habits. So you no longer think the way you used to think. And we can get neurologically into this. Your brain needs to be rewired from the way it was to the way God wants you to be. We just sang a song. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. If you're a child of God, then God needs to show you then as a parent how to live your life. But you've got to get obsessed with this. If not, you'll keep coming back to who you used to be. You can't stay here. You've got to go. You've got to leave it behind. You've got to leave it where it was. And some of you want to say, "Well, where am I going?" God says in Genesis 12:1, "I

will show you." This is key to faith. It's no longer about you. You want me to explain your life? Well, now you're the center of the universe. And you're not. God is. This is not about you. It's all about the Lord God, almighty, eternal, all knowing, all powerful God. He is going to show you. But you've got to leave the place of comfort, what you know, and believe that God's going to take you to a greater place. Thank you, Lord. You're going to have to say goodbye to what you understand, and I mean the world. You've got to recognize that you might have to give up relationships. You might have to give up habits. You're going to have to give up that which is familiar.

And what's going to come with faith? Fear, insecurity, stress, some sorrow, because you're leaving behind things. You have to give it up. You're going to have to kill it. So, all that's going to come with faith. Who wants to sign up? I will tell you, it is a lot easier to hibernate, to stay in the same place, to stay in what's familiar, as traumatic as it is, is as much as you don't want to stay in this place, God has called you to something greater. And I need to tell you this, you are called by God. You are called by God. And with a calling comes challenges. Calling comes with challenges. It is not easy to follow the Lord.

And if you thought that if I put my faith in God, then he's going to make a way and the way will be easy. He will make a way, but it won't be easy. Sometimes following the Lord will lead to the most complicated journey that you could have ever described. You thought God was going to do it a certain way because you prayed for God to do a miracle. And he will do the miracle, but it won't be the way you thought it would be. He will make a way. Sometimes he'll press you against the Red Sea with mountains on every side with the enemy coming for you. That story sounds a lot better once the Red Sea is split, but it does not feel good when you're in the moment. And you will have your Red Sea moments. Unless you think you have to have your faith all figured out, Abraham, he made some pretty big mistakes.

I'm not going to give you all the details because I want you to read the Bible for yourself and say, "What were you thinking, bro? And the first time he does this, you think that's a pretty big mistake. And then he does it again, which tells me we're in really good company. You do not have to have your life figured out. You do not have to have your faith figured out. And if you make a mistake, guess what? It's not about you. The Lord says, "I will show you. God's going to give you the resources. God's going to take you to where he wants you to be, but you're not going to do this on your own." And this will require courage to step up and do what you've never done before. Let me give just a modern context so we understand Genesis 12:1. Today, if you heard me at church and I said, "God says go." And you're just confirmed. I think

the Holy Spirit's telling me I need to go. I'm going to go do something. And then you go after church and you go straight to U-Haul because you realize, you know what? My family wasn't at church today. And you go get a U-Haul and you say, "Listen, I need the biggest U-Haul because I'm moving today." And they say, "Okay, hey, uh, where are you moving to?" I don't know. Uh, well, how long do you need this U-Haul? I don't actually know. Well, how many miles are you going to put on the U-Haul? I don't know. Okay, sir. We're going to have to hold your credit card, but we're going to give you the U-Haul, but we're we're going to hold the credit card since you don't know these things. You show up in the U-Haul. Your family's like, "What's this all about?" You're like, "We're going." Well, where are we going? I don't know. When are we going to get there? Not sure of that one either. Now, this is just a modern context and I'm not asking any of you to move geographically. But what I am trying to say is calling comes with challenges.

You may not know where God's going to take you, but you can know this. God has a great purpose in your plan. To understand chapter 12, we've really got to go back to chapter 11 for just a moment. Chapter 11 is where we have the Tower of Babel where they had it figured out. You ever think you have it figured out? I mean, it could actually even be going well. You could be building your tower. And God looks at it and says, "Yeah, about that." This is centered around you. And the Lord actually allowed the people to be multiplied in his graciousness, he broke them up. Anybody been broken up? And the people go all over the world. And by the end of chapter 11, we're introduced to a man named Tara. And I want to read about his story. Gen Genesis 11:27. Now, these are the

generations of Terara. Terara fathered Abraham. Excuse me, Abram. So, so Tara is the father of Abram and Nahor and Haron. These are the three sons of Tara. Abram, Nahor, and Haron. And Haron fathered Lot. Now, why is this important that the author said that Haron fathered Lot? That's because Haron would die. You you just read the next few verses and you discover that Lot's dad died. And you're going to see this will become a significant part of Abram's story, Abraham's story as he takes his nephew Lot with him wherever he goes. Now, as we read this story, we start to understand the significance of chapter 12 and in Genesis 11:30, we're we're told after we're told that that each of the sons has wives and Abram has a wife named Sarai. And we're told in verse 30, now Sarai was barren and she had no child.

This description is defining to who they are. Abraham, Abram and Sarai were barren. This is the defining moment of who they are in a culture that family is everything. The children are blessings. If you have no children, you're cursed. If you have no children, you do not pass down your family name. You leave no legacy. There's no one to take care of you when you're older. Family is everything. And Abram and Sarai are barren. This is who they are in chapter 12. Barren. Some of you can relate to Abram and Sarai. You're barren. Some of you are trying to have children and you just can't. And it hurts when other people get pregnant. You're barren.

Some of you are spiritually you feel dead right now. You're not close to God. You don't feel the existence of God. you you have no emotional connection to God. You're barren spiritually. Some of you financially are so depleted, you have no clue how you're going to survive this financially, you are barren. You can relate to this story in chapter 12. So if there's any place in your life right now of uncertainty, faith meets you right where you are. And in verse 31 of chapter 11 before we get to chapter 12 says Tara took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haron his grandson and Sarai his daughter-in-law his son Abram's wife and they went forth together from of the Calaldanss to go into the land of Canaan. Now Canaan is the promised land of God. It's modern day Israel.

So Tara has a great idea. I'm going to take my family. we're going to go to this promised land to Canaan. But when they came to Haron, they settled there. Now, in the Hebrew, this Haron, where they settled, it's a city, is a different spelling than Haron, his son. So, it's don't don't get confused. Haron is his son who had Lot and Haron died. And then they're on a journey to Canaan and they settle in a city called Haron. They're different places. They have different meetings. Now, I need to give you a little history and who Tara is because we know way more about Abraham than we do about Tara. So, what happened here? I want you to note that he decides to take his family to Canaan. Why did he go to Canaan? I suspect that God told him to go. Rabbitic literature tells us based upon writings we read about later in the Hebrew scriptures, the Old Testament,

that Terara was he was a pagan idoltor who made trinkets for false gods. More than likely, it was the false moon god because of Calaldia in Mesopotamia was a a known place to worship the moon god. Now, it happened to be in Haron. They too had a significant place of worship for the moon god. So, God's calling Terara to go to a place that he's never been before. And on this journey of leaving, which is spelled you are, leaving the place where you are, they end up settling in Haron. Now, I need you to see this in verse 31. But

when they came to Haron, they settled there. Before they get to the promised land, they settled there. I wonder how many of you today have settled. You know that God has a greater plan. You want the greater plan, but somewhere in your life, you kind of get stuck again. You You've settled. This could be in a relationship. This could be emotionally, spiritually. This this could be the dream that God placed in your heart decades ago, years ago. You settled. Well, the Lord sent me here to tell you today, you can't stay here. This is not the final destination.

God's plans are far more superior than our plans. I'm here to tell you, God's plans are far more superior than your parents' plans. The Lord tells Abram, "Go and I'll show you the land. So let's keep reading in verse two of chapter 12. And God says to Abram, "And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be shall be blessed." This is known as the Abrahamic covenant. Now, a covenant is a commitment between two parties. It's it's such a deep commitment. It's not a contract goes beyond that. We're going to see that

later in the story of of Abraham that this contract was between two parties, the Lord and Abram. But the one that keeps the covenant is the Lord. It all has to do with God. I'm going to do something for you. Now, what does Abraham have to do to get what God has to promise? He just has to believe God. And it's really a three-part promise. And I want you to see the three-part promise of the Abrahamic covenant because this impacts you if you take God seriously. Here's the first promise in verse two. It says this, "And I will make of you a great nation." Here's the first part of the promise. A great nation. This is significant because what do we know of Abram thus far in chapter 11? He and his wife have no children. None.

We're going to later learn in just a few moments that Abram's 75 years old. He's not just getting started. This is not their honeymoon on this journey where God says, "Listen, you're young. Go have an adventure." God's saying, "Listen, I know you're collecting social security, but it's time for you to step up and go to places you've never been before because I'm about to produce a nation unlike any other nation." Which, by the way, we know this nation and it still exists today. It's not like any other nation. This nation is more hated by other nations than any other nation in its existence. This nation is blessed by God. This nation is so special. God would say before anything can actually happen, it's going to be me that makes it happen.

God's going to produce a great nation from this promise. Now, how does that impact you? I told you earlier in the book of Galatians that when you believe in Jesus, you actually get the same promises of Abraham. How do you get the same promises of Abraham? How do you get to be a great nation? Well, listen to what Peter says. When you believe in Jesus, Jesus changes you. In 1 Peter chapter 2:9, Peter tells us this, "But you," and," and he he's referring to the believers in Jesus. When you believe in Jesus, the church, "but you are a chosen race." Oh, in a world that's still saturated with racism and division. We see that God has a purpose and a plan for all people. Doesn't matter what color your skin is, what nation or

ethnic background you might have in Jesus. You are a chosen race. You are a royal priesthood. You are royalty. You are in ministry. You are a holy means set aart nation. Hallelujah. In Jesus, you are no longer your own. You are a part of one race. You're a part of royalty. The great priest says, "You're now a priest, a messenger pointing people to who he is and a holy set aart what? Nation, a people for his own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

That is in Jesus. We are one people with one purpose to give him all the glory. That I'm no longer who I used to be. I was in the dark, but I made this journey of faith and now I'm in the light. Oh, I used to live in fear, but now I'm a child of God. Oh, I used to be defined by my earthly parents, but now I've got a heavenly father over here. Oh, I used to be a pagan and I worshiped what was made with hands, but now I worship that which I can't see because one day I believe I'm going to be with this God forever, and I'm not going to be alone. You know, there's a a lot of things about uh leading a church. I started this church 13 years ago, and we've been through ups and downs and allarounds. And we started this church. It was really small. There was maybe about 150 people on our first Sunday. Over the coming weeks after that, I learned how to grow a church smaller, and it just

kept getting smaller. And then we decided, hey, what are we going to do about this? And I said, hey, there's some really cheap rent downtown. It just happens to be under a strip club. Let's go there for church. And we moved downtown under a strip club. This is a true story. I lost even more people. I just kept growing this church smaller. And then all of a sudden, people saw that we're taking Jesus serious because we wanted to remember that we want to go where Jesus would go to reach people Jesus would reach. And that's where he would be. He would be right in the middle of it all. In fact, I didn't even know that about this location. We're no longer by a strip club. Now we're in a strip mall. And you know how many people come to this church because of Goodwill? I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, but it might have been Goodwill that led you to this church. That's the graciousness of God. But I I I I need you to to hear me on this because over the years people start to see this Jesus thing is real and people's lives being changed. Starts to grow and it starts to grow and it starts to grow and then

people look around say, "Hey, this church is starting to get big. Are we starting to be one of those mega churches?" Pastor, if this is one of those mega church, I'm going to leave this church. I see lights. I see haze. I see lots of people. I'm not going to do that. Now, I just I got to warn you based upon the text I'm about to read to you. When you get into heaven, it's going to be a mega church. And it's so funny. This side over cheered and this side over here wants to be the small church. It's all good. We can be small and we can grow bigger. We can grow smaller, we can grow big. That's why we hired Pastor Brad to do small groups because we're meant to be in community in small groups. But I need you to see this. I need you to see this that that one day we're going to get into heaven. Oh, the diversity, the beauty. Listen to what

John sees this revelation. He gets he gets a glimpse of what will be in chapter 7:9. After this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb." God is telling Abram, "Listen, I want you to go because where I'm taking you, it's going to be so great that all people all over the world will see who I

am and worship me for who I am." This is the promise of a great nation. It's not just a great nation. Here's the second promise. It's a great blessing. Yeah. Genesis 12 2 and three. I love this. I will bless you and make you your name great so that you will be a blessing. Do you know what I wrote in my margins? I said you're meant to be a blessing. When you live by faith, you know it's no longer about you. Your purpose in life is not to receive blessings but to be a blessing. Your highest level of achievement is not going to be when you succeed in your career, you succeed financially, you succeed in your family. It will be when you are a blessing to other people. You will see this was God's purpose and his plan from the beginning. Why? I'll tell you why. No one. No one is a greater blesser than God. No one.

God says, "I want you to be a blessing." And here's the deal. I will bless those who bless you. So when you bless others, they're going to bless you. And you know what I'm going to do? Just keep blessing. But our God is just. And he says, "By the way, those who dishonor you, I will curse. In you, Abraham. All the families of the earth shall be blessed. You know who all the families are? We are. So here you got God the creator, the sustainer. We start to see as an understanding with with Noah and others, he's also the protector. He's the defender. We start to see that he's the multiplying God. Be fruitful and multiply. He's the giving God, but he is the blessing God. And although this story today in Genesis 12 is about Abram who's later called Abraham, what we really see is this promise is fulfilled

in Jesus. So through us today, we still get that promise. I need you to see this in Galatians chapter 3 verse 7. This is what he says. He says, "Knowing," Paul writes to Christians. He says, "Knowing that it is knowing then that it is those of faith." So when you believe in Jesus, those of faith who are the sons of who? Abraham. So when you believe in Jesus, you are a son of Abraham. And the scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospels beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." This is a gospel. What does gospel mean? Shout it out. Good news. Too many people think that God is a God of bad news. He's not. He's a God of blessing. He's a God of good news. So then verse n, then those who

are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. You know what God wants to do for you today? Bless you. This is a promise. He wants us to be a great nation. But he also wants us to be blessed. And he wants us to be a blessing. Ephesians 1:3 says, "Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places." I'll tell you, you don't even know how much God wants to bless you. How will you receive it unless you believe and obey and follow him? You cannot reap the reward if you're just saying, "Well, God, if you bless me, then I'll follow you." We We have it the wrong order. He's God. You're not. So, you do what he has to say because he has a great plan for you. So, a great nation, a great blessing. I got to bring this now. A great land. Our promise is for a great land. This is a promised land here. It's called Canaan.

It's also referred to in the scriptures as a promised land. Today, we now know it as the nation of Israel. Look at verse 4-7. Let me read the whole text. So, Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Haron. May I just declare today over every single person that's still breathing, it is never, ever, ever too late with God. You are never too old to serve God, to obey God, to experience his blessings. It is the lie of the enemy to say you missed your best days. The best days are not the old days. The best days are today because you believe in the Lord. Doesn't matter how old you are. Doesn't matter where you've been. Doesn't matter if you're barren. Your best days are still ahead of you. That's why we say at Journey Church, the best is yet to come.

75 years old. I don't know what your excuse is. Verse 5. And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haron, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place of Cheshim to the Okamora. 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. Who are his offspring? Notice here it's only only offspring, not offsprings. It's in Jesus we become children of Abraham. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. My friends, your faith when you obey God will not just impact your life, it'll

impact others. This is so important to see that when it says here in in in verse four, the phrase Abram went those two words when you walk by faith, you do not just impact your life, you impact others. In fact, scholars would would say that Abram probably took close to a thousand people with him as he journeyed on. We see this later in and and and chapter 14 where he he comes together and gets these trained men to battle. So, who were these trained men? He created this small army. He brought people with him. Now, he still had no children. He was willing to leave his homeland. He was willing to leave his family. This is at a time that was unlike anything we understand in our current context. In our civilization,

we're individualistic. You leave your family, you go live your life. And we live in in this this independent society today. In this day and time, it was all revolved around the family. To leave what was familiar, a homeland, and a family, was to leave everything. And Abram said to go after God is to give up everything that is of value, even according to the world's standard. And he went. Abram went. He went. Now, the reason we're talking about him thousands and thousands and thousands of years later is because he did this by faith. And we're told here in chapter 12, he went through Israel. We can go visit the same place today that Abram was on a journey. It reminds us that God's promises are not just for our lifetime. They are for a lifeline.

The enemy of the devil would think you need to live for right here and right now. No, you live for the Lord, you're gonna impact the next generation and the next generation and the next generation after that. And you don't even need to try. All you got to do is live by faith. We live in the here and now, but God wants us to live in the one day. So whatever happened to to Tara, he settled. He never got to see that promised land. But by faith, Abram got to not only go to this place, but he didn't even realize that he was there. He was actually going for something greater. One day, we get to two enter into this promised land.

I'm telling you, this is not actually about a physical land. This great land is far more superior than anything this earth will give us. Go read Revelation 21 and 22 and you'll see that John says, "I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God." This is that promised land. One day, wherever you go, God is with you. How great is that? It's just the next verse and you go read it for yourself in Revelation says there'll be no more sorrow, no more sin. He'll wipe away every tear in this promised land. It's unlike anything we've ever experienced. And God said, "That promise I gave to Abraham, I'm giving to you today." I want to just remind you, this guy

Abraham did not have it figured out, but he had the one thing that you can have today, which is faith. Let me just finish up the story. Genesis 12:8-9. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethl, which means the house of God, and pitched his tent, and with Bethl 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. An altar is a place of worship. It's a place you give an offering. You give a sacrifice. And then verse 9 says, "And Abram journeyied on." I love this ESV translation here. He journeyied on still going toward the NGB. He's like, "Where is this place, God? I want to experience this place. I'm going to worship you along the way. Here's what faith does. It worships God. He builds an altar because God is worthy of our

worship. You know, today, God's not asking you to build a wood altar or a stone altar. He's not asking you to bring an animal to sacrifice on that altar. Do you know what he wants for worship? You. He wants your heart. He wants you to be a living sacrifice. He wants you to be the altar of your life where wherever you go, you say, "God, I'm just giving you everything." And when the whole world looks at you like you're crazy and says, "Well, where are you going?" I don't know, but he'll show me. How you going to get there? I don't know, but God's able. He's done it before, and he will do it again. I know that he's making a great nation. I know he's given a great blessing. I know he's taken me to a great land someday. So, I'm going to follow him and I'm going to worship him. And I love how it's said here, friends. We got to journey on because you can't stay here.

Anytime we start to stay here, it's us four and no more. We got to keep it this way. We got to stay familiar. We got to do things the way they used to be. We've settled. We've missed the mark. God wants to take us to somewhere much greater. And Abram's story is meant to reflect your story so that we would believe in the same God. And this part gets me every single time. The God of Abraham is our God as well. And he's made himself known through Jesus Christ. God never said you have to be born into the right family. God never said you have to do the right things. But the Lord did say you need to believe in me. You need to love the Lord because he loves you. It's in Hebrews 11:8. says, "By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place where he was received as an inheritance. And he went out not

knowing where he was going." I'm here to tell you that's what the Lord requires of you, faith. When you have faith in Jesus, he gives you hope. When you have hope in Jesus, you have the promise of eternal life. I believe today God wants to write your story and say, "By faith, you fill in your name. by faith, Keith obeyed the Lord and did whatever he told him to do. See, one day in heaven, it won't be your accolades. It won't be your talent. It won't be your good looks that requires God to say, "Well done." It'll be because you believed him. And you might say, "Well, I've messed up so many decades of my life. I've messed up so many different times. I'm not sure this can be redeemed." God is in the

redemption business. He could take that which is dead and make it alive. So today I want to ask you, are you alive in Jesus Christ? This is not so much about Abram as it is about Jesus and your relationship with him. This whole world today is much like the world that Abram lived in. We've got brokenness all around us. It might come in different forms. We've got drug addiction. We've got homelessness. We've got human trafficking. We have all sorts of problems all over the place. So, what's the solution? The solution is not us trying harder. It's not us doing more. It's by faith being obedient to what God calls us to do. This is a living God, the God of Abraham. And when you can't stay here, here's what happens by faith. He's going to reward you. Some of you aren't giving right now. You say, "I don't have enough money to give to the church. I just

can't do that." Actually, it's it's a lack of faith. God God wants you to trust in him. I'll tell you, he can't reward you until you trust him. Some of you right now haven't forgiven someone who hurt you tremendously. The Bible says you need to forgive. That if you're holding on to unforgiveness, you're not even experienced the liberty of forgiveness. You need to release that today in the name of Jesus. Bitterness and anger be gone in the name of Jesus Christ. Some of you keep coming back to old habits and old addictions because that's who you think you are. I'm here to redefine that and say, "No, you should be obsessed with Jesus Christ." That tomorrow that is going to consume you. You're going to focus on Jesus. You're going to speak of Jesus. You're going to speak his promises. You're going to pray his promises. You're going to get to know Jesus even greater. Those old habits are going to disappear.

Crucify them in the name of Jesus Christ. We've got to take this serious. This is a full surrender to God. Full surrender today. Enough is enough of settling. Oh, I'm going to go, God. Oh, I I I'm never going to go. So, today, do you want this? You may have never given your life to Jesus. Today's your day. Some of you gave your life to Jesus many years ago. Maybe it was a Sunday school or some camp somewhere, but you you're not living for Jesus. You need to say yes to Jesus today. Where is he going to take you? I don't know. But you can't stay here. You can't stay here. By faith. By faith. By faith. Abraham, the promise. He's our father. He says, "It's worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it." Today, you want that. I just want to ask that you close your eyes. This is a time of prayer. Prayer is our time with God. Prayer. Prayer does not have to happen in church. It

can happen in your closet. It can happen in your car. It can happen in your workplace. It can happen in your heart. It can happen out loud. I'm going to do it right now out loud. I want to know today who I'm praying with. Who today is saying yes to Jesus. If you want to say yes to Jesus, would you just slip your hand up right now? Nice and high so I can see it. Praise God. All over the place. Yes. Praise God. I see moms and dads. I see couples. I praise God. It is never too late. Right now, if you're saying yes to God, you're saying yes right now. I'm so done doing it on my own. I'm surrendering. Yes. Praise God. Praise God. Praise God. All over the place. Praise you, Lord. You can put your hands down. I want you just right now be in agreement in your heart with these words. It's not the words that saves you. It's Jesus that saves. He died on the cross to forgive every single one of your sins. It was his

blood that was shed so that you would be saved. He was buried and on the third day he rose from the grave by the power of God himself, the Holy Spirit. The same spirit that will live in you when you believe in Jesus right now in your heart. Would you say, "Lord, I receive you. I repent of my sins. I receive salvation. I receive the hope of eternal life. And in Jesus name I pray. Amen." And amen. My friends, if you just prayed that prayer, you made that decision today. You just crossed the line from death to life. God has given you the hope of salvation and you've got to tell somebody. We've got connection cards that you can just take out your phone and take an image of the QR code and it will send you to a place where you fill that out. We want to pray for you. If you need a Bible, we would love to give

you one as a gift today. We're going to have prayer teams on either side after the service. If you want prayer, come let us know that you made that decision because we want to pray with you. I told you this does not mean your life will get easier. It might get more complicated. But God is now on your side. He's going to give you his word. You've got to take the next step of obedience. Just keep taking one step at a time. You know, on our birthday, we're going to have baptism. So, if you've believed in Jesus and you've never been baptized, that's your next step of obedience. Get baptized. It's saying you believe in what God's done. It's your allegiance to Jesus. You're telling the world, "I believe in Jesus." So, if that's you, in just two weeks, we're going to do baptisms right here. I would love to see you say, "I'm taking that step of faith." If you're able, let's just finish with one last song.

Stand to your feet. Let's celebrate who God is, what he's done in your heart. Would you make this your prayer right now, right where you are? Say, "Lord, I'm not going to settle here. I can't stay here. I'm going to trust you, Lord, with all that I am in Jesus name. Amen.