To… Obey | DECIDE | Genesis 12:1-9, Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-16

We have decided to trust the Lord. We’ve decided to believe that the Lord has our best interests at heart, and today, you and I are going to DECIDE…to OBEY. Today, we’re going to be spending some time with Abram before he was Abraham, and with Sarai, before she became Sarah, at the beginning of their adventures with the Lord. Here we go!

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Transcription:

I’m thinking about a beautiful hymn as we kick off today’s episode of the Bible for Busy People. I’m Erica, your host, and the name of the hymn is called Where He Leads Me, and it starts off by saying, I can hear my Savior calling, take thy cross and follow me. Where He leads me. I will follow. I’ll go with Him, with him all the way. And then at the end it says, He will give me grace and glory and go with me, with me all the way. I just want you to know that wherever God calls you to go, He is going to go with you. That is the promise. Whether it’s a physical place like another part of our country or another country, or through a storm, the Lord is with you. He is with you. Even right now, you and I have been making decisions this week, right?

We have decided to trust the Lord. We’ve decided to believe that the Lord has our best interests at heart, and today, you and I are going to decide, are you ready? To obey the Lord. When he calls, or we should probably say today texts, may we respond quickly. May we not leave the dots, not leave the Lord on red, but answer and say, Yes Lord, where you send me, I will go knowing you go with me.

Today, we’re going to be spending some time with Abraham before he was Abraham, back when he was Abram, the beginning of his journey with the Lord. And we’re going to be hanging out with Sarai, his wife, before she was Sarah at the beginning of her adventure with the Lord. So join me now in Genesis chapter 12, beginning in verse one.

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

Wow, that’s ginormous. What a promise there, right? Verse four now.

So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

Could we just pitch a tent here? It’s actually very fitting. I mean, this guy is 75 years old. My father is getting near 75, and he still has a whole lot of energy and life in him, but still imagine starting over at that age. And yet Abram picked up and left everything and everyone familiar to him and his family and obeyed the Lord. Verse five now.

He took his wife, Sarai, his nephew Lot, and all his wealth—his livestock and all the people he had taken into his household at Haran—and headed for the land of Canaan. When they arrived in Canaan, 6 Abram traveled through the land as far as Shechem. There he set up camp beside the oak of Moreh. At that time, the area was inhabited by Canaanites. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your descendants.

Watch how he responds.

And Abram built an altar there and dedicated it to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8 After that, Abram traveled south and set up camp in the hill country, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built another altar and dedicated it to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord. 9 Then Abram continued traveling south by stages toward the Negev.

What a beautiful example of obeying the Lord. Yes, Lord, I will go. Abram wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes along the way, but God was faithful to him. Abram had a friendship with God. He trusted the Lord, and when you trust someone, it’s much easier to say yes to them. God just simply loves when you and I trust him, and Abram trusted the Lord, and I believe the Lord loved this man of faith. He loved that he trusted him enough to pick it all up and start again at the age of 75. So what is faith? How can you and I be faithful like Abram? Let’s turn to Hebrews chapter 11 now, beginning in verse one, we’re going to find out what faith is.

Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. 2 Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.

Okay, before we move on, we’re going to be skipping down to verse eight. Imagine that the writer of Hebrews is giving a Ted Talk about what faith looks like. Here we go, get cozy in your auditorium seat.

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. 11 It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed[a] that God would keep his promise. 12 And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore, there is no way to count them. 13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. 16 But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

I want to go back to verse 13.

They saw the promise from a distance and welcomed it.

That’s what faith is. We may not know where we’re going, like Abram didn’t know which country he was being sent to and what it would be like. We don’t know where God is sending us, what situation he’s sending us into, but we know him and we can trust him and obey him. That’s what faith looks like. Until next time, you are loved.

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