WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.460 Brother Bible this morning, I want to invite you to turn to the Book of Genesis. 00:00:02.780 --> 00:00:03.640 I'll let you know as you get there. 00:00:03.760 --> 00:00:05.620 Genesis chapter 12, first book of the Bible. 00:00:06.100 --> 00:00:09.720 As you turn to those pages, we're going to bounce around just a little bit. 00:00:09.780 --> 00:00:12.560 The primary text we're going to deal with is Genesis chapter 12. 00:00:13.060 --> 00:00:20.780 This series that we're going through called blessed, deals with the life of Abraham, his story from Genesis chapter 12 to Genesis chapter 25. 00:00:20.860 --> 00:00:22.920 God called him and blessed him in this world. 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:30.820 And we're going to take Abraham and his examination through his life, how God works in our lives and learning about Abraham, along 00:00:30.820 --> 00:00:31.340 the way. 00:00:35.120 --> 00:00:37.240 Abraham's story is one that's themed this way. 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:39.380 Your life. 00:00:40.540 --> 00:00:41.740 Will have counted for something. 00:00:43.660 --> 00:00:47.200 And it's up to you whether that something is worth living for. 00:00:49.480 --> 00:00:52.600 God made you for a purpose and a reason. 00:00:54.360 --> 00:01:01.340 And there are times in our lives where we encounter particular things, especially as it relates to the Lord, that we would clarify as life changing moments. 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:04.220 In the book. 00:01:04.220 --> 00:01:11.360 In the movie Chariots of Fire, there's a story written about two guys training for the Olympics, and one of the guy's 00:01:11.460 --> 00:01:13.160 names is named, Eric Little. 00:01:13.160 --> 00:01:13.700 I believe he was Swedish. 00:01:15.500 --> 00:01:20.960 He's training for the 1924 Olympics at a time when athletes didn't get on the Wheaties box and make all kinds of money. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:26.440 And his sister notices that Eric quit his job just to train for these Olympics. 00:01:26.540 --> 00:01:28.420 That wasn't going to monetarily help him gain much. 00:01:28.940 --> 00:01:32.780 And she goes to him and says to him, why in the world are you quitting your job to do this? 00:01:34.220 --> 00:01:36.470 Nayak's response was simple. 00:01:37.240 --> 00:01:37.600 He said. 00:01:37.660 --> 00:01:41.630 It's when he's running that he feels God's pleasure in his life. 00:01:43.260 --> 00:01:48.070 It's a part of Eric that he thought to himself that God had created him for. 00:01:49.860 --> 00:01:52.120 Your life will have counted for something. 00:01:52.160 --> 00:01:55.440 It's up to you whether or not that something is worth living for. 00:01:56.900 --> 00:02:02.700 And the life of Abraham is a story of a man in his journey who doesn't know. 00:02:02.760 --> 00:02:05.740 God comes to know God and desires to walk with him. 00:02:06.980 --> 00:02:08.970 To make life count. 00:02:10.060 --> 00:02:17.380 And just as God called Abraham, I believe this morning that God created you and he calls you to a specific 00:02:17.380 --> 00:02:20.330 purpose in your life as well. 00:02:21.420 --> 00:02:23.380 A little background to Genesis chapter 12. 00:02:23.540 --> 00:02:27.040 Genesis chapter 12 takes a huge leap in history. 00:02:27.040 --> 00:02:34.220 You've got a few thousand years taking place, but by the time you get to the life of Abraham, but the Bible begins for us, God creates 00:02:34.220 --> 00:02:34.840 everything. 00:02:35.260 --> 00:02:37.470 And then shortly after his creation, Adam and Eve sinned. 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:38.780 They fall. 00:02:38.860 --> 00:02:41.880 They take what God created life for. 00:02:41.920 --> 00:02:43.840 And they make it about themselves. 00:02:44.320 --> 00:02:48.020 And in their fall, God intervenes and he offers them a plan of redemption. 00:02:48.580 --> 00:02:53.440 In Genesis chapter three, he tells them he's going to bring a Redeemer who will have his. 00:02:53.460 --> 00:02:58.530 He'll suffer a heel wound, who will come from the seed of the woman and give his life for mankind. 00:02:59.760 --> 00:03:04.970 Shortly after God comes in and intervenes with his grace, the world falls again as Cain kills Abel. 00:03:05.100 --> 00:03:12.180 As you get to Genesis chapter six six, you find out that the world has become so sinful in the eyes of God that God creates a flood to 00:03:12.220 --> 00:03:13.240 devastate the earth. 00:03:13.540 --> 00:03:16.660 And he preserves one family through this Noah. 00:03:18.020 --> 00:03:25.060 And as God sort of hits the reset button on life to help man in their pursuit of sin outside of their wickedness that they had 00:03:25.060 --> 00:03:25.160 become. 00:03:25.980 --> 00:03:33.080 As soon as the floods over, the Bible tells us, Noah gets drunk and takes off his clothes in front of his kids, and something happens there where one of his sons is 00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:34.410 cursed because of it. 00:03:36.760 --> 00:03:37.460 After the story of Noah. 00:03:37.780 --> 00:03:44.840 Then comes the story of the Tower of Babel, where civilization again makes life all about them, and they build these structures and honor and 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:45.520 glory to them. 00:03:45.520 --> 00:03:52.580 And so God comes down and he confuses the language, and he creates people groups to where the people that are building this tower and 00:03:52.580 --> 00:03:56.460 honor to themselves then disperse into different people groups around the world. 00:03:56.520 --> 00:04:01.280 The tradition says over 70 people groups began from the Tower of Babel. 00:04:03.460 --> 00:04:08.820 It's on the backdrop of the Tower of Babel that God then intervenes again in the life of a man named Abraham. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:12.720 Abraham grew up in what was known as the Bronze Age. 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:17.839 This happened around 2000 BC, so roughly about 4000 years from where you and I are today. 00:04:19.839 --> 00:04:22.270 He lived in an area known as ur of the Chaldeans. 00:04:23.840 --> 00:04:25.700 This was in the region of a place called Mesopotamia. 00:04:26.260 --> 00:04:28.870 If you look for it on the map today, you would call it modern day Iraq. 00:04:29.200 --> 00:04:32.530 That area of the world is referred to as the cradle of civilization. 00:04:32.860 --> 00:04:33.660 It's where mankind began. 00:04:36.960 --> 00:04:39.580 Abraham as he's called by the Lord. 00:04:40.340 --> 00:04:47.580 Something very unique and important happens and is shared throughout Scripture and the lives of those who share the story of Abraham, 00:04:47.660 --> 00:04:50.700 beginning with the life of Joshua, Joshua. 00:04:50.700 --> 00:04:53.840 And speaking of Abraham, he says this in Joshua chapter 24. 00:04:54.140 --> 00:05:01.300 Joshua said to all the people, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, from ancient times your fathers lived beyond 00:05:01.300 --> 00:05:07.960 the river, namely Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods. 00:05:10.860 --> 00:05:13.600 When you study the land of ur where Abraham was from. 00:05:14.980 --> 00:05:17.000 You can recognize very quickly even Abraham's name. 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:18.080 His initial name wasn't Abraham. 00:05:18.400 --> 00:05:19.810 God changed it. 00:05:19.860 --> 00:05:22.320 His name when God met him was Abram. 00:05:23.460 --> 00:05:24.700 Which means the father is exalted. 00:05:26.360 --> 00:05:30.500 Abraham's name wasn't one that honored the Lord, but rather false gods. 00:05:32.100 --> 00:05:37.320 And the land over there was special worship that took place of a God named sin. 00:05:37.400 --> 00:05:41.920 If you were one people group, if you're another people group, you would refer to him as Nana. 00:05:42.260 --> 00:05:44.070 That just comes off the tongue really easy right now. 00:05:44.700 --> 00:05:46.200 I think my son utters that all the time. 00:05:46.300 --> 00:05:51.140 Maybe he's worshipping a false god, the God of sin and the God of Nana. 00:05:51.480 --> 00:05:51.680 This is. 00:05:51.940 --> 00:05:54.680 This is the moon God and the earth. 00:05:54.900 --> 00:05:59.820 The land of ur is the place that you would gather if you desired to worship and praise this God. 00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:04.660 Abraham's name, no doubt, is written in honor of this god or false gods in the area. 00:06:04.960 --> 00:06:11.540 And it tells us in this passage, according to Joshua, that Abraham, his family, they followed these false gods. 00:06:13.160 --> 00:06:20.200 Sometimes when we consider the lives of those who we would call saints of Scripture in the Old Testament and New Testament, we tend to think of them 00:06:20.200 --> 00:06:21.100 as people who are on pedestals. 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:24.600 They're on this super spiritual level that I can't relate to. 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:25.840 Of course, God led them. 00:06:25.900 --> 00:06:27.140 Of course God talked to them. 00:06:27.140 --> 00:06:28.600 Of course God did things through them. 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:29.440 They're special. 00:06:29.700 --> 00:06:30.700 I'm not them. 00:06:32.640 --> 00:06:34.700 But the story of Abraham is unique to us. 00:06:36.200 --> 00:06:43.460 Matter of fact, when you read the story of the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints, you discover that apart from the God's 00:06:43.460 --> 00:06:43.780 grace. 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:47.620 they weren't much to look at. 00:06:49.140 --> 00:06:49.890 Or to brag about. 00:06:50.940 --> 00:06:52.320 I mean, Paul was a murderer. 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:55.740 Noah wasn't anything special. 00:06:55.740 --> 00:06:57.470 He just was called by God's grace. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:02.160 Abraham in the book of Joshua is worshipping false gods. 00:07:03.440 --> 00:07:05.520 Nehemiah says this about Abraham and his calling. 00:07:06.700 --> 00:07:13.740 I should say, as Nehemiah is sharing this, Nehemiah is sharing such a story an important part in this book, because Nehemiah is encouraging the people of God to go back to the land of 00:07:13.740 --> 00:07:17.360 Israel and rebuild the walls around Jerusalem so they could gather together as a people again. 00:07:18.440 --> 00:07:19.670 This is after the Babylonian captivity. 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:24.940 And so this is a people at this time that are dreaming of all the things that God could possibly do through them. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:31.480 There's a part of them doubting what God could do in them and through them, because they're looking at the magnitude that God has called the job that God has called them to. 00:07:32.860 --> 00:07:40.120 In Nehemiah nine verse seven, he says this you are the Lord God who chose Abram and brought him out of er and gave him 00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:40.720 the name Abraham. 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:45.760 Because it wasn't Abraham that made Abraham special. 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:48.720 It was God. 00:07:51.060 --> 00:07:55.700 It was God's grace that intervened in the life of an individual and changed his identity. 00:07:55.740 --> 00:07:58.600 In the mark of his identity, we see his change to the transitioning of his name. 00:08:01.440 --> 00:08:03.620 God calls Abraham by his grace. 00:08:05.380 --> 00:08:12.080 In acts chapter seven and verse two, it says this talking about Stephen, this is the first martyr in the New Testament who's dying for his faith. 00:08:12.260 --> 00:08:19.580 And he's sharing his last message in chapter seven and verse two it says, hear me, brethren and fathers, the God of glory appeared 00:08:19.840 --> 00:08:23.170 to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 00:08:25.520 --> 00:08:31.780 Stephen is sharing in this message, as God has just intervened throughout history and God has been calling his people throughout history. 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:36.720 And in this moment, Stephen is now saying to the people and God, God is calling you as well. 00:08:37.960 --> 00:08:44.320 The reason I bring up this passage of Scripture is because if you if you read the story of Abraham, you'll note that it starts at the end of chapter 11 in Genesis. 00:08:45.700 --> 00:08:50.000 But at the end of chapter 11, it tells us that God calls Terah Abraham's father. 00:08:51.480 --> 00:08:59.510 But in acts chapter seven, and it further elaborates on that calling, it says not only not only is God calling to Rob, but God was also calling Abraham as well. 00:09:00.560 --> 00:09:03.460 God is leading Abraham in what he desires to do. 00:09:03.500 --> 00:09:08.540 And the picture that's created in the New Testament for us as we understand God's grace is one of adoption. 00:09:11.100 --> 00:09:13.220 When God relates to us, the thought of adoption. 00:09:13.800 --> 00:09:16.740 It's similar to how we connect to the word today. 00:09:18.720 --> 00:09:23.340 You know when you talk about adoption, when a parent goes to adopt, they don't they don't. 00:09:23.400 --> 00:09:27.040 Before adopting the child, look at the child and say, okay, now what can what can you do? 00:09:27.040 --> 00:09:28.180 What can you bring, what can you benefit? 00:09:28.440 --> 00:09:29.360 What do you have to offer? 00:09:29.540 --> 00:09:30.530 Can you can you mow the grass? 00:09:30.600 --> 00:09:31.040 Can you get a job? 00:09:31.280 --> 00:09:31.740 Can you do this? 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:32.280 Can you do that? 00:09:32.280 --> 00:09:32.920 You got any artistic ability? 00:09:33.160 --> 00:09:33.820 Will you entertain me? 00:09:34.140 --> 00:09:34.780 They don't do that. 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:38.400 It's not about what the child offers. 00:09:40.280 --> 00:09:41.940 It's about what the parent has to give. 00:09:44.520 --> 00:09:47.180 The word adoption within Scripture creates that in our mind. 00:09:49.920 --> 00:09:55.250 The life of Abraham, as he was called, and Noah and Paul, all the great saints of Scripture that you would look at. 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:56.820 It's not it's not about what they offered. 00:09:59.240 --> 00:10:01.150 It's about what the grace of God had to give. 00:10:03.700 --> 00:10:04.480 And the love. 00:10:05.660 --> 00:10:09.320 Of a father extending to those he created in his image. 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:13.140 God calls Abraham. 00:10:15.640 --> 00:10:18.860 Bible tells us at 75 years old, he calls Abraham. 00:10:21.380 --> 00:10:23.620 In Genesis chapter 12 and verses one. 00:10:23.620 --> 00:10:27.160 It gives us the foundation for really the Old Testament. 00:10:29.160 --> 00:10:32.680 It's going to say to us in this passage of Scripture that God is going to build a nation. 00:10:32.780 --> 00:10:35.040 This is going to be the place where God chooses to work. 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:39.000 In Genesis chapter three, he tells us he's going to bring redemption for mankind. 00:10:39.320 --> 00:10:46.140 In Genesis chapter 12, he tells us what where specifically that redemption will come from, where that person will be born of the seed of the woman. 00:10:46.860 --> 00:10:52.820 And not only is God building a physical nation, but he's also building a spiritual nation through Abraham. 00:10:55.040 --> 00:10:58.160 Within Genesis chapter 12 and verse 1 to 3. 00:10:58.540 --> 00:11:05.860 It lays for us the foundation for God will identify how he is going to work throughout the rest of the Bible, so that we can see his story 00:11:05.860 --> 00:11:09.530 and say, oh yeah, that's God's hand there, calling us in his people. 00:11:11.800 --> 00:11:13.300 Genesis chapter 12 and verse one. 00:11:13.300 --> 00:11:14.360 They use this word bless often. 00:11:14.580 --> 00:11:15.870 I'll explain in a minute, but it says this. 00:11:16.280 --> 00:11:23.280 Now the Lord said to Abram, go forth from your country, leave ur and from your relatives, and from your father's house to the land which I will 00:11:23.280 --> 00:11:29.880 show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. 00:11:29.880 --> 00:11:33.420 And I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse. 00:11:33.420 --> 00:11:36.040 And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. 00:11:40.280 --> 00:11:46.420 This word blessing is important for the life of Abraham because it tells us in this passage, if he just follows God, he's going to be taken care of. 00:11:47.580 --> 00:11:51.080 But the thought of the word blessing in the Bible is full and rich in meaning. 00:11:52.540 --> 00:11:56.360 This thought of blessing in the Old Testament comes from the Hebrew word barak. 00:11:57.980 --> 00:12:02.600 And Barack is literally the word that we will translate in other passages as worship. 00:12:03.860 --> 00:12:05.420 Or praise. 00:12:06.060 --> 00:12:13.080 And what God is saying to Abraham, Abraham by faith, if you trust me as you follow me in this, you're going to find that not only are you blessed, but you're 00:12:13.080 --> 00:12:17.580 going to find reason that I am worthy to be worshiped and praised in your life. 00:12:19.620 --> 00:12:21.140 Tell you what Abraham was looking for in a minute. 00:12:22.060 --> 00:12:22.360 But. 00:12:23.060 --> 00:12:23.580 And the New Testament. 00:12:23.800 --> 00:12:26.620 When Jesus shows up in the sermon on the Mount, he uses the same word bless. 00:12:28.180 --> 00:12:32.630 But in the Greek meaning of the time, the word blessed took on a different thought. 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:34.030 It was a the word blessed. 00:12:34.120 --> 00:12:37.130 As Jesus said in the sermon on the Mount, blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness. 00:12:37.380 --> 00:12:38.820 Blessed, blessed are the weak. 00:12:38.820 --> 00:12:40.360 Blessed are the poor in spirit. 00:12:40.360 --> 00:12:42.880 This word blessed comes from the island of Cyprus. 00:12:44.700 --> 00:12:44.820 Now. 00:12:44.900 --> 00:12:47.900 If you lived in Cyprus, you were better off in weather than those from San Diego. 00:12:50.100 --> 00:12:52.700 Cyprus was considered a place that always had the perfect weather. 00:12:53.040 --> 00:12:54.270 It always had rich soil. 00:12:54.380 --> 00:12:58.760 It always had the just the right amount of rain flow for plants just to flourish. 00:12:58.880 --> 00:13:02.270 And so if you lived on the island of Cyprus, you had need for nothing. 00:13:02.300 --> 00:13:03.260 You were blessed. 00:13:04.940 --> 00:13:12.000 And so when Jesus starts to use a term similar to the people from the island of Cyprus, they begin to correlate it and saying, If Jesus is saying we're blessed through him, 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:17.390 then what Christ has to offer more than satisfies what we need in this life. 00:13:19.580 --> 00:13:20.750 And blessed is the theme. 00:13:23.180 --> 00:13:28.260 Abraham, as you read a story, you find that yes, indeed God does bless him. 00:13:28.460 --> 00:13:33.540 Even when Abraham goes against the Lord in his decisions, God's hand is still there. 00:13:35.820 --> 00:13:42.920 You know, sometimes we read the story of these individuals and we think, okay, and then and then since this guy was the colored person that the Bible was written about, as soon as soon as he followed the 00:13:42.920 --> 00:13:45.180 Lord, it was just smooth sailing from there on out. 00:13:46.820 --> 00:13:47.770 And what we're going to find out. 00:13:48.120 --> 00:13:52.020 Just one verse after this, Abraham starts to fall flat on his face. 00:13:54.780 --> 00:13:55.320 As he learns. 00:13:57.340 --> 00:13:58.720 About the Lord who had called him. 00:14:00.420 --> 00:14:02.700 And his decisions if he would just pursue him. 00:14:04.360 --> 00:14:04.950 He would be blessed. 00:14:07.380 --> 00:14:10.700 Not only does the Bible tell us this blessing comes on Abraham personally. 00:14:13.060 --> 00:14:14.440 But it comes upon Abraham nationally. 00:14:16.440 --> 00:14:17.650 Creating the people of Israel. 00:14:19.280 --> 00:14:21.680 Loans it bless the people nationally. 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:25.220 It blesses the world internationally. 00:14:27.620 --> 00:14:29.420 Abraham by faith, trusted in God. 00:14:30.660 --> 00:14:31.920 And his life made a difference. 00:14:34.100 --> 00:14:41.060 Great lives are built on great promises by God's grace that lead to great callings full of God's blessing for God's glory. 00:14:43.280 --> 00:14:45.300 Your life will count for something. 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:49.360 It's up to you whether or not that something is worth living for. 00:14:50.760 --> 00:14:56.620 John Piper would say it like this God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him. 00:14:58.780 --> 00:15:01.800 And as you pursue him, you're blessed. 00:15:03.120 --> 00:15:04.520 Both praise and worship. 00:15:04.540 --> 00:15:08.120 You find in the idea of what God has called you for in this world. 00:15:08.640 --> 00:15:11.760 Hebrews chapter 11 then writes the story of Abraham's calling. 00:15:11.840 --> 00:15:13.260 Abraham's answer to the call. 00:15:15.320 --> 00:15:18.240 Hebrews 11 is an important passage of Scripture. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:22.000 It's referred to as the Hall of Fame or Hall of Faith. 00:15:23.920 --> 00:15:30.980 Chapter 11 is about all those who took faith placed in the Lord, and saw God working in their lives because of their trust 00:15:31.000 --> 00:15:31.460 in him. 00:15:32.920 --> 00:15:37.520 And it reveals to us the process of Abraham's decision and why he chooses to do what he does. 00:15:38.900 --> 00:15:39.720 And following after God. 00:15:39.820 --> 00:15:43.300 It says in verse eight by faith Abraham when he was called. 00:15:44.500 --> 00:15:50.880 Obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out, and not knowing where he was going. 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:58.220 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow 00:15:58.220 --> 00:16:02.060 heirs of the same promise, for he was looking for the city. 00:16:03.140 --> 00:16:08.960 Which has its foundation, whose architect and builder is God. 00:16:09.700 --> 00:16:10.220 When? 00:16:11.700 --> 00:16:13.160 You make a decision to follow after the Lord? 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:15.760 Abraham's story says this. 00:16:16.980 --> 00:16:19.300 There is something you've got to leave behind. 00:16:21.220 --> 00:16:25.940 When God calls us to the land of Canaan, where he's calling, where the nation of Israel will be built. 00:16:27.240 --> 00:16:29.740 There's always something to be left behind. 00:16:31.680 --> 00:16:33.560 For Abraham in pursuit of God's call. 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:37.380 He leaves behind his friends, his family, his luxury. 00:16:38.100 --> 00:16:38.980 he goes and dwells. 00:16:38.980 --> 00:16:41.340 It says in this passage he dwells in tents. 00:16:42.980 --> 00:16:49.980 the land of er, where Abraham is from is known as a developed civilization, the Mesopotamia region, the place where 00:16:50.120 --> 00:16:50.980 civilization started. 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:52.720 The people there are developed. 00:16:54.040 --> 00:16:57.380 When you leave that region and you head towards the land of Israel. 00:16:57.920 --> 00:16:59.080 Those people are nomads. 00:16:59.960 --> 00:17:00.540 They're hillbillies. 00:17:01.100 --> 00:17:01.980 They dwell in tents. 00:17:03.380 --> 00:17:08.880 And God's coming to Abraham and saying, you've got to leave your nice, luxurious house. 00:17:10.800 --> 00:17:11.670 And go dwell in tents. 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:19.380 I don't know how it goes in your family, but in my family, every so often I convince my wife to go camping. 00:17:21.349 --> 00:17:21.920 When we go camping. 00:17:22.660 --> 00:17:24.000 The first question she always has. 00:17:25.660 --> 00:17:27.099 What are the restrooms like? 00:17:29.120 --> 00:17:32.010 And the land of Ur were where Abraham is from. 00:17:32.280 --> 00:17:35.620 Archaeological archaeologists have discovered that there is a sewage system. 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:37.820 People had plumbing. 00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:40.660 And the land of the tents. 00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:43.040 There is no plumbing. 00:17:45.360 --> 00:17:49.760 He's calling Abraham and Sarah for sure to leave the luxury of the restroom. 00:17:49.820 --> 00:17:53.300 I know for guys, guys, you'll maybe not see this as much as a sacrifice as the ladies. 00:17:53.320 --> 00:17:54.250 I mean, you go camping. 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:54.920 You're. 00:17:54.920 --> 00:17:56.780 Every tree is your home, right? 00:17:56.840 --> 00:18:01.440 I mean, the plants leak can leave more water when you came than when you when you leave. 00:18:03.880 --> 00:18:05.580 But there is a sacrifice to be made. 00:18:07.060 --> 00:18:13.460 I mean, you know how important luxuries are when you were a kid and you go on a car trip and you get in that car, or as a parent, you put your kids in the car. 00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:17.380 The last thing you say to them is you get in for that journey is, did you go to the bathroom? 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:20.380 Not as important. 00:18:22.380 --> 00:18:23.340 Me with young kids. 00:18:23.500 --> 00:18:24.980 It's the only break I get in my day. 00:18:27.940 --> 00:18:35.020 When God calls you somewhere, he has us and requires of us by faith to leave something behind in order to pursue 00:18:35.020 --> 00:18:35.200 him. 00:18:37.280 --> 00:18:44.340 And while Abraham says, in the midst of this journey is what he's after, isn't the luxury of life, what he's after is for his 00:18:44.340 --> 00:18:45.700 life to count for something. 00:18:47.660 --> 00:18:48.120 And he knows. 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:50.920 For life to truly count. 00:18:52.880 --> 00:18:55.960 It's got to rest in the one whose hand controls it all. 00:18:57.620 --> 00:18:59.950 And so in verse ten it tells us Abraham's heart. 00:19:01.220 --> 00:19:11.180 For he was looking for the city which has its foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 00:19:12.850 --> 00:19:14.450 To get anywhere that God's called you. 00:19:16.290 --> 00:19:20.840 To make any sort of significant impact on the life he's created you to have in this world. 00:19:22.650 --> 00:19:29.520 You've got to believe that regardless of whatever you might possess, that whatever God is calling you to is far better than where you are. 00:19:31.950 --> 00:19:36.190 And Abraham's looking at this moment, he says, er, I don't care tents, it doesn't matter to me. 00:19:36.350 --> 00:19:37.810 I just want my life to matter. 00:19:39.430 --> 00:19:46.530 And so he says in verse ten, what I'm looking for is the one who is eternal and whose hand has sculpted all this, who defines 00:19:46.530 --> 00:19:51.850 and gives me purpose and discovering that, then I'll know what I was designed for. 00:19:54.030 --> 00:19:56.230 Abraham is called. 00:19:58.150 --> 00:20:05.430 Every choice that we have in following the Lord involves a sacrifice, but the blessing of the Lord is far greater 00:20:05.430 --> 00:20:06.950 than any sacrifice we might make. 00:20:09.300 --> 00:20:11.500 And Abraham is saying this in this passage. 00:20:12.850 --> 00:20:13.890 I don't want the world to win. 00:20:13.950 --> 00:20:14.750 I don't want her to win. 00:20:14.770 --> 00:20:15.950 I feel like this place is bankrupt. 00:20:16.250 --> 00:20:18.860 I know I've been named in honor of a false god. 00:20:19.130 --> 00:20:20.810 But God, you can turn things around. 00:20:20.830 --> 00:20:24.320 I've seen the way that you've done it in the life of Adam and Eve and Noah. 00:20:24.650 --> 00:20:26.070 Your grace is sufficient. 00:20:26.070 --> 00:20:27.090 You always provide. 00:20:27.170 --> 00:20:28.730 And so, Lord, I'm trusting in you. 00:20:31.550 --> 00:20:36.990 Maybe the question we asked this morning, an application is, that's great for Abraham. 00:20:39.530 --> 00:20:46.550 God calls the big dudes the great saints, women and men who just have this special ability to the Lord. 00:20:46.610 --> 00:20:47.270 But how do I know? 00:20:47.850 --> 00:20:48.870 I don't know, God calls me. 00:20:51.090 --> 00:20:53.390 And then I read a story of Abraham, and I want it to be an encouragement to life. 00:20:53.670 --> 00:20:55.130 And I see the things that's happening to him. 00:20:55.130 --> 00:20:55.490 That's good. 00:20:55.650 --> 00:20:57.420 But what does that have to do with me? 00:21:00.730 --> 00:21:06.850 The story of Abraham and calling out submit and say to us this morning is not unique to Abraham. 00:21:09.010 --> 00:21:10.790 God still calls today. 00:21:12.690 --> 00:21:20.010 In Second Chronicles chapter 16 and verse nine, the Bible tells us, for the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout 00:21:20.010 --> 00:21:24.850 the earth, that he may strongly support those whose heart is completely his. 00:21:26.290 --> 00:21:30.750 May God is seeking this world for those who by faith would trust in him. 00:21:33.590 --> 00:21:35.910 So the question maybe we should ask this morning. 00:21:38.110 --> 00:21:41.410 So why do we choose to stay near the toilets rather than answer God's call? 00:21:43.830 --> 00:21:49.260 What's so important to the luxury that surpasses the goodness of who Christ is? 00:21:51.510 --> 00:21:52.630 You read into the New Testament? 00:21:54.870 --> 00:22:02.090 You find reasons in different places throughout passages, especially the Apostle Paul, where he is encouraging believers through areas 00:22:02.090 --> 00:22:05.490 of life where they feel like they just don't measure up. 00:22:05.530 --> 00:22:10.850 They don't have what they think would take to pursue God the way God may be calling them in this world. 00:22:12.550 --> 00:22:19.610 In fact, in First Chronicles chapter one and verse 27, Paul says this to a group of believers doubting where God's got them, 00:22:19.610 --> 00:22:23.590 and says, But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. 00:22:25.930 --> 00:22:27.430 God has chosen the weak things of the world. 00:22:28.430 --> 00:22:29.510 To shame the things which are strong. 00:22:31.010 --> 00:22:38.130 And the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen the things that are not, so that he may nullify the things that are, so that no man 00:22:38.130 --> 00:22:45.330 may boast before God, but by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom for God, and righteousness and sanctification and 00:22:45.330 --> 00:22:49.160 redemption, so that just as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. 00:22:50.410 --> 00:22:55.570 There's a way to measure what's important according to the world standard, in a way to measure what's important according to God's standard. 00:22:56.710 --> 00:23:01.550 And the way the world measures, it is not important to God. 00:23:02.590 --> 00:23:09.870 And the truth of this passage is saying this for those who feel inadequate to do the things that even is described in Abraham, or the things you see in the New 00:23:09.870 --> 00:23:15.530 and Old Testament of believers who follow Christ by faith, for those who feel inadequate, this is what this passage says you are. 00:23:17.310 --> 00:23:18.190 That's not nice, I know. 00:23:20.210 --> 00:23:24.040 But can I tell you the importance of recognizing what that says is it's just half the step. 00:23:25.490 --> 00:23:30.910 And what Paul is saying is, I want to encourage you to take the full step, listen what God has called you to in this world. 00:23:30.970 --> 00:23:33.990 You are inadequate to do because you are never intended to do it on your own. 00:23:36.030 --> 00:23:41.780 And so recognizing your dependency is half the step, taking your faith and trusting it in the Lord. 00:23:41.990 --> 00:23:42.890 That is the full step. 00:23:44.890 --> 00:23:47.910 We're inadequate because we are sinful people. 00:23:47.910 --> 00:23:51.750 We can't live the holy lives that God has called us to apart from his grace transforming us. 00:23:53.290 --> 00:24:00.350 And the things that God has called us to in this world are to be his vessel, to make an impact spiritually for 00:24:00.350 --> 00:24:00.570 him. 00:24:02.070 --> 00:24:03.390 And you can't do that without a spirit. 00:24:06.170 --> 00:24:09.370 And so we look at ourselves according to the world's standard. 00:24:10.870 --> 00:24:15.080 And we realize the things that the world values in Jesus don't matter. 00:24:16.110 --> 00:24:16.800 See in the world standard. 00:24:17.190 --> 00:24:19.820 It's rising to the top dog eat dog. 00:24:20.930 --> 00:24:33.490 And in Jesus standard, it's humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in 00:24:33.490 --> 00:24:33.490 due time. 00:24:33.490 --> 00:24:33.490 It's a complete reversal. 00:24:33.490 --> 00:24:34.850 The world standards about what you get. 00:24:34.850 --> 00:24:34.850 In Christ. 00:24:34.850 --> 00:24:43.490 Standard is about what you give, and 00:24:43.490 --> 00:24:43.690 he's after your life. 00:24:43.690 --> 00:24:44.990 It's in the giving of your life to God. 00:24:45.050 --> 00:24:49.020 That in your inadequacy, you find that you're more than capable in Christ, who gives you strength. 00:24:50.450 --> 00:24:51.690 I believe Paul said that. 00:24:53.250 --> 00:24:56.270 If you get to a place and you're just thinking, okay, okay, you're telling me this? 00:24:56.370 --> 00:24:58.370 I'm seeing this in the passage, how do I how do I really know? 00:24:58.390 --> 00:24:59.970 And I would say you just read it. 00:25:00.250 --> 00:25:01.410 It was called The Life of Abraham. 00:25:03.450 --> 00:25:05.610 75 years old. 00:25:05.910 --> 00:25:06.150 Young. 00:25:08.070 --> 00:25:09.240 In God's eyes. 00:25:10.450 --> 00:25:15.250 I mean, God comes to him and says, Abraham, at 75 years old, I'm going to let you have kids. 00:25:15.330 --> 00:25:17.530 Now, Abraham for has called that a blessing. 00:25:17.530 --> 00:25:21.710 I don't know how you'd feel like that at 75, but Abraham longed for that opportunity. 00:25:24.730 --> 00:25:26.630 God's grace intervenes. 00:25:28.430 --> 00:25:35.220 Second thing we tend to do when it comes to following God's call in our lives is that we compare ourselves to others. 00:25:36.490 --> 00:25:40.690 When you read the story of Satan, it's always it's a real fun story to read. 00:25:41.670 --> 00:25:43.050 But when you read that story, it's not. 00:25:43.070 --> 00:25:43.560 I'm just kidding. 00:25:43.790 --> 00:25:49.810 Isaiah chapter 14 Ezekiel chapter 28 describes the fall of what looks to be Satan, especially Isaiah 14. 00:25:50.030 --> 00:25:53.850 And in verse 14 it tells us why Satan fell. 00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:00.470 It says to us that he fell from heaven because he wanted to be like the Most High. 00:26:02.550 --> 00:26:05.330 He wanted to be God. 00:26:05.610 --> 00:26:06.190 So he compares himself. 00:26:08.550 --> 00:26:10.880 Not in the channel for which God had created him to be. 00:26:11.870 --> 00:26:12.630 But to be something else. 00:26:14.650 --> 00:26:19.930 It's interesting when God shows up in the Garden of Eden, the lie that he tells to Adam and Eve, if you eat of the fruit, you'll become God's. 00:26:22.570 --> 00:26:23.620 On the aid of the fruit and they fall. 00:26:25.910 --> 00:26:29.510 Comparing themselves to something else that they desire to be, rather than who God made them to be. 00:26:29.570 --> 00:26:32.150 They fall. 00:26:32.590 --> 00:26:38.770 Paul says this in second Corinthians ten, for we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. 00:26:40.270 --> 00:26:44.950 But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. 00:26:45.990 --> 00:26:53.010 But we will not boast beyond our measure, but with the measure of the sphere which God apportioned to us as a measure to reach 00:26:53.190 --> 00:26:54.470 even as far as you. 00:26:56.250 --> 00:26:59.280 And Paul says, you know those that compare themselves to other people. 00:27:00.030 --> 00:27:00.210 Stupid. 00:27:02.050 --> 00:27:08.330 But in verse 13, what he's saying is God has made us uniquely for something special that he has only called us to do. 00:27:08.630 --> 00:27:10.710 And because of the calling, we are able to reach you. 00:27:12.530 --> 00:27:19.230 Robert Madu said that as he's a pastor, he says comparison consistently clouds the clarity of God's call on your life. 00:27:21.570 --> 00:27:25.010 Meaning you can only do what God has created you to do. 00:27:27.150 --> 00:27:28.810 Don't think about what you don't have. 00:27:30.350 --> 00:27:31.610 Look at what God's giving you. 00:27:33.190 --> 00:27:40.230 I've had the privilege over the years we planted here in Lehi and I've got to meet new church planters coming 00:27:40.230 --> 00:27:44.010 in to Utah to plant churches, mainstream churches in cities that don't have one. 00:27:44.570 --> 00:27:48.390 And I always tell them the first thing, best advice I know to give at the get go is this. 00:27:49.770 --> 00:27:50.670 don't think about what you don't have. 00:27:52.570 --> 00:27:54.310 But look at what you do have as a church. 00:27:55.710 --> 00:28:01.690 When the dream of seeing a church long term in your city sustaining, that can inspire people to greater things in the Lord. 00:28:02.070 --> 00:28:03.600 Just focus on that. 00:28:04.270 --> 00:28:11.450 Here's the tendency just from a church culture, and I know that, you can think of different ways it relates in your life, but when you start a church, we've done this as Alpine 00:28:11.450 --> 00:28:11.950 Bible Church. 00:28:12.270 --> 00:28:13.200 We've had six years of history. 00:28:13.990 --> 00:28:18.930 And the second place we moved to was in a printing shop and we rented out two rooms. 00:28:19.390 --> 00:28:20.940 And it was really weird staying there. 00:28:21.750 --> 00:28:22.750 we had a really small room. 00:28:22.750 --> 00:28:25.850 We crammed like 40 people in and we would sweat so bad. 00:28:25.870 --> 00:28:31.430 And it smelled, it smelled really bad because it was a print shop, and we had people that would bring perfume and flowers to church just to smell. 00:28:31.590 --> 00:28:36.030 During church, they'd have to smell the print stuff, and the kids would have to go. 00:28:36.030 --> 00:28:43.250 We had one room downstairs, the kids would have to walk upstairs to the kids class, and in the kids class there was a bird cage and the bird was always out when we got there. 00:28:43.530 --> 00:28:46.790 And then the mice we found like the bird cage because they could jump up there and eat. 00:28:46.830 --> 00:28:48.220 So there was there would be mice running around. 00:28:48.550 --> 00:28:52.260 And then upstairs there was a person that lived next to us, and his bathroom was in between the two rooms. 00:28:52.430 --> 00:28:55.030 So he'd get out and go take a shower while kids would be in the class. 00:28:55.110 --> 00:28:56.160 It was just it was weird. 00:28:56.690 --> 00:29:00.050 And when you're looking for the best church in town, that ain't it, right? 00:29:02.490 --> 00:29:06.840 When you have people come in and stop off and they're like, yeah, I want a kids program, I want a youth group. 00:29:06.870 --> 00:29:09.410 And you're like, ah, yeah, that's not us, you know? 00:29:10.130 --> 00:29:10.730 Yeah. 00:29:11.050 --> 00:29:12.410 How are we going to get where God wants us? 00:29:14.550 --> 00:29:19.790 And how are we going to be a church that can impact lives and minister to everyone that comes in the door? 00:29:20.090 --> 00:29:20.570 Well, here's the trick. 00:29:21.650 --> 00:29:23.030 You don't focus on what you don't have. 00:29:23.990 --> 00:29:25.050 You look at what you do have. 00:29:26.670 --> 00:29:28.860 I mean, stop complaining to God about the things that are wrong. 00:29:29.790 --> 00:29:31.350 You start thinking for the things that are right. 00:29:32.810 --> 00:29:35.710 You look at an area of life that God wants to affect, and you allow him to affect it. 00:29:37.290 --> 00:29:38.330 It's not about what you don't have. 00:29:38.330 --> 00:29:39.450 It's about what you do have. 00:29:43.170 --> 00:29:45.690 All of us in this world have a Conan. 00:29:47.310 --> 00:29:51.310 Meaning, just as God called Abraham to the land of Canaan, for him all of us have a Canaan. 00:29:52.630 --> 00:29:55.530 All of us have a place where God is calling us to have an effect for him. 00:29:55.530 --> 00:29:57.690 And it's different for you and for me. 00:29:58.950 --> 00:30:00.680 God's got me in a different circle of influence. 00:30:00.870 --> 00:30:01.880 I mean, we're a part of a church family. 00:30:02.090 --> 00:30:07.290 We walk out of these doors, we're impacting different lives from one another and the same lives together. 00:30:09.370 --> 00:30:09.850 Well, I can. 00:30:10.210 --> 00:30:17.330 I can think even from my life when God was leading me into ministry and to a place to live, when I was looking at where God wanted 00:30:17.330 --> 00:30:17.870 me to go. 00:30:18.230 --> 00:30:20.200 I had said long ago, God, it's not my life. 00:30:20.590 --> 00:30:21.810 And so whatever you want to do with it, do with it. 00:30:21.810 --> 00:30:22.610 I don't care where I live. 00:30:22.670 --> 00:30:25.720 I'll, I'll go to Turkey, I'll go to wherever, wherever I will live. 00:30:25.770 --> 00:30:28.110 And by the time I got to the end of my schooling, I was looking to India. 00:30:29.450 --> 00:30:34.730 And as I was graduating schooling, I do what college kids do, that you don't have a whole lot of time or a lot of time and nothing better to do. 00:30:34.990 --> 00:30:37.850 I just decided to drive across the country to visit a friend who was from Utah. 00:30:39.510 --> 00:30:41.790 I didn't even know a place like this existed. 00:30:41.930 --> 00:30:42.450 And I was still. 00:30:42.790 --> 00:30:45.320 I was still looking for a place God could use me to impact my heart. 00:30:45.450 --> 00:30:45.530 And. 00:30:45.910 --> 00:30:49.420 And I was looking overseas, but couldn't quite find a place that settled. 00:30:49.550 --> 00:30:50.210 Well with me. 00:30:50.530 --> 00:30:53.350 And I got here and God really started working on me. 00:30:53.390 --> 00:30:57.630 I'd never been in a place like this where there was not a mainstream Christian church in the city. 00:30:59.870 --> 00:31:00.870 And Lehi, Utah. 00:31:00.890 --> 00:31:02.790 As big as it was, it blew me away. 00:31:03.170 --> 00:31:06.640 And in what was available for me as a believer, I wanted to come here and worship. 00:31:06.910 --> 00:31:07.450 There was nothing. 00:31:10.990 --> 00:31:18.190 And I started to look around at what happened in the city, and I realized that over the history of Lehi church, people had come out or church planters 00:31:18.190 --> 00:31:19.450 had come out to try to start churches. 00:31:20.090 --> 00:31:22.570 And within a couple of years they would fold and leave. 00:31:24.720 --> 00:31:26.110 And then I began to. 00:31:27.490 --> 00:31:28.050 Consider my life. 00:31:29.710 --> 00:31:30.370 Where God had brought me. 00:31:33.430 --> 00:31:33.910 I grew up. 00:31:34.930 --> 00:31:37.360 In the south in a very poor environment. 00:31:37.790 --> 00:31:39.690 My mom and dad separated when I was four. 00:31:40.490 --> 00:31:47.630 My mom didn't have anything beyond high school education, and she had two kids, and she was now in her early 20s 00:31:47.630 --> 00:31:49.390 trying to figure out how to provide for us. 00:31:49.390 --> 00:31:50.510 And we just grew up poor. 00:31:50.630 --> 00:31:52.750 She went to college and educated herself. 00:31:53.010 --> 00:31:55.300 She cut hair to make some money while she was going through school. 00:31:56.050 --> 00:31:59.790 And by the time I was 16, 17, she graduated with her BSN in nursing. 00:32:00.890 --> 00:32:03.290 But my whole life I grew up not a whole lot. 00:32:04.030 --> 00:32:05.390 So I fought for what I had. 00:32:05.750 --> 00:32:06.980 I grew a very stubborn personality. 00:32:07.450 --> 00:32:09.210 When I committed to it, I went after it. 00:32:11.410 --> 00:32:16.910 I begin to look at the city of Lehi and what was successful with churches, why churches haven't left and gone, whatever. 00:32:16.910 --> 00:32:20.990 And I begin to realize this God had been working on my heart for a place like this. 00:32:21.070 --> 00:32:23.600 That God all along the way, had been with me. 00:32:26.230 --> 00:32:28.040 I mean, he had built me for a place like this. 00:32:30.010 --> 00:32:37.050 And this place needed a missionary that could struggle and fight and it needed a person that was stubborn enough to stick around and 00:32:37.310 --> 00:32:41.210 not leave one that could look at the vision of what God called them to do and just be here. 00:32:46.170 --> 00:32:47.690 God's got a cannon for all of us. 00:32:49.870 --> 00:32:51.200 Something that you leave behind. 00:32:52.630 --> 00:32:54.580 In order to pursue the blessing of what God gives. 00:32:56.390 --> 00:32:58.690 Can I tell you as you take the steps to follow after the Lord? 00:33:00.210 --> 00:33:01.350 This will be the last thought I share. 00:33:02.870 --> 00:33:03.740 It's not about tasks. 00:33:07.030 --> 00:33:08.230 It's not about what you do. 00:33:10.570 --> 00:33:14.810 But rather the top priority is in what you pursue or who you pursue. 00:33:16.830 --> 00:33:17.890 Reason God created you. 00:33:19.130 --> 00:33:20.250 Wasn't to accomplish jobs. 00:33:21.730 --> 00:33:22.730 It was to reach hearts. 00:33:24.430 --> 00:33:26.810 Jesus said the two greatest commands are to love God and to love others. 00:33:28.550 --> 00:33:31.130 Now you end up doing tasks to reach hearts. 00:33:31.170 --> 00:33:32.950 But the goal is always about the heart. 00:33:34.090 --> 00:33:35.570 Love God, love others. 00:33:35.570 --> 00:33:39.030 You will never get to where God has called you without loving the Lord and giving your life to him. 00:33:40.770 --> 00:33:43.970 You will never reach the people that God's called you to reach without loving them. 00:33:45.850 --> 00:33:46.370 We built this building. 00:33:46.810 --> 00:33:47.810 This building was a task. 00:33:48.970 --> 00:33:51.490 But the reason we built this building isn't because we wanted to build a building. 00:33:52.850 --> 00:33:55.110 The reason we built the building is so we could continue to reach hearts. 00:33:56.410 --> 00:33:57.830 Everywhere we've been, we've outgrown. 00:33:59.890 --> 00:34:05.590 And so we understand that whatever God calls us to and wherever that Canaan is, what God wants us to do is reach hearts. 00:34:05.590 --> 00:34:08.710 Notice when God tells Abraham what those blessings are. 00:34:10.250 --> 00:34:14.639 It's all about the influence that he's going to have in the lives of people throughout this world. 00:34:16.150 --> 00:34:17.610 God calls you. 00:34:17.790 --> 00:34:18.870 God calls me. 00:34:18.889 --> 00:34:24.659 It says in Ephesians one, God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing in first Peter 221, for you have been called for this purpose. 00:34:24.690 --> 00:34:31.270 In first Peter 115 but like the Holy One who called you, be yourselves holy in your behaviour in first Timothy six fight the good fight of faith. 00:34:31.670 --> 00:34:33.550 Take hold of the eternal life through which you've been called. 00:34:33.630 --> 00:34:39.010 Second Thessalonians two it was for this he called you through our gospel that you may gain the glory of Christ. 00:34:39.290 --> 00:34:43.889 In Colossians three, let the peace of Christ rule your hearts through which you indeed were called. 00:34:44.170 --> 00:34:49.510 In Ephesians four, I implore you to walk worthy of a man in the manner in which you have been called by Christ. 00:34:49.770 --> 00:34:52.530 Galatians five for you were called to freedom. 00:34:52.550 --> 00:34:53.510 Galatians one. 00:34:53.510 --> 00:34:55.350 You were called by the grace of Christ. 00:34:55.350 --> 00:34:56.350 Romans nine. 00:34:56.350 --> 00:34:58.650 They shall be called the sons of the living God. 00:34:58.690 --> 00:35:03.790 Romans one seven to all who are beloved of God called as saints. 00:35:04.710 --> 00:35:07.560 God still calls. 00:35:08.730 --> 00:35:12.450 The story of Abraham impacts our lives because God had called him as a man. 00:35:12.610 --> 00:35:16.030 But God is still calling you to impact the lives of others. 00:35:16.110 --> 00:35:18.730 So here's the challenge get out of the bathroom. 00:35:21.970 --> 00:35:22.410 Let go. 00:35:24.170 --> 00:35:25.230 For whatever God has called you to. 00:35:26.830 --> 00:35:27.310 Let's follow.