Jul. 20, 2025

Background:

• God has a call on all His people
• He will get our attention
• God's call on people to serve Him everyday
• He has a call on every believer's life and a purpose for each
• Some are appointed for specific tasks (e.g. Samson, David, John the Baptist, the Apostles, etc.)
• Some will respond to the call and others will not

Key Sermon Points:

1. What does God call people to do?

• God's call is not always easy to follow
• It's not always easy to respond to (e.g. leaving your family that raised you and cared for you to go to a place you don't know)
• God stressed the difficulties first (leaving his home and family to go into a strange land)
• In order for God to use us, we must trust Him first
• It was a command before a call
• God made Abram a wonderful promise
• He will challenge us, but at the end will always be a blessing if we follow it in faith
• What has God called us to do?
• We can be stuck if we don't do what God has called us to do
• We must worship God in order to respond to the call...we make excuses
• God is in control, if he called us, he knows we can do it...we just have to trust Him
• Abram showed that he was the man of the house because if God called him, then his wife has to go with him

2. God's promises for Abram's life

• God will make Abram a great nation (v. 2)
• If Abram responds to the call, then God will bless him, the nation, his name, and make him great...and the ones that curse him will be cursed and those that bless him will be blessed
• This is one of the first promises of the coming Savior that would bring salvation to all the nations
• Abram was the conduit through which God would bless others around Abram
• Jesus would come through Abram's seed
• God's promises are true...God cannot lie!
• God also promised to protect Abram
• We must trust whatever God promises as an act of faith
• It was an unconditional promise
• A lot of us cannot collect on God's promises because we do not trust Him enough to receive His promises

3. Abram obeyed God's Word and demonstrated his faith

• The most difficult part of obeying God is starting
• Obeying God is in our best interest
• Obedience is better than sacrifice
• God desires that we obey Him
• Some of His teachings are easy to follow while others are difficult
• Choosing our own way may feel good at first, but will lead to regret
• Every act of obedience builds faith
• Anytime we obey God, we bring blessings upon our lives
• The promise was to Abram...and we should not attach anything else to it because there will be consequences
• It was a long journey...it's never a short journey with God
• Sometimes on that journey, we begin to doubt God
• God always protects us...and we don't even see it
• Stop talking about what we don't have and start praising God for what we do have
• Abram had faith (Hebrews 11:8)
• God still blessed Abram even when Abram messed up
• Abram goes in faith while trusting God to do what God has called him to do
• Abram building the altars was a sign of his worship recognizing God as the center of his life
• We should worship God before doing anything
• We must work through faith and obedience and God will bless us
• Abram was 75 years old, but not too old to be used in the ministry (Moses was 80)
• If God is in it, He will bless us in so many ways
• God shows up to Abram to let Abram know He will bless him...it's a great thing when God shows up
• God is not in the majority, but in the minority
• He doesn't need a lot of folks to get done what He needs to get done (e.g. the 12 disciples)
• We must step into our call!
• We are all called to witness
• We must tell others AND demonstrate that we are a Christian
• There's a time we must pitch our tent, worship, and bring glory and honor to His name
• It's not about us, but a sacrifice for others
• We must be careful that what we do doesn't negatively affect our family and others
• Stop saying what we can't do and start trusting God for what He can do!
• God wants to use us...stop hiding in the shadows and step out into our call and be faithful to our call
• It's in the blood that saves, the blood of Jesus Christ
• If it had not been for the blood of Jesus we would not be hear
• It's all about the blood of Jesus!