Go In Faith, By Grace: Following God’s Call In Your Life

A distinguished preacher once said, “There is a definite, proper end and issue for every man's existence; an end which God intended for him. That which man is privileged to become, called to become, ought to become; that which God will assist him to become, and which he cannot miss except by his own fault. Every human soul has a complete and perfect plan cherished for it in the heart of God -- a divine biography marked out, which it enters into life to live”.

Surely, this is a great thought, and one that gives to every lifeeven the smallest and most obscurea sacred dignity and importance. Nothing that God thinks about, plans and creates can be trivial. The lowliest place in this world, to the person whom God made to occupy that place, is a position of rank and honor glorious as any, because for it God formed an immortal being in his own image and with immeasurable possibilities to fill.

George MacDonald, the Scottish poet and clergyman says, “I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God's thought, then made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking”.

I. INTRODUCTION

1. Today is special. So was yesterday. So is tomorrow. They are special because we have been called for service to Christ. God calls us, just as he once called a man named Abram.

2. Perhaps a definition is in order. Os Guinness, in his book “The Call” defines calling as

The most comprehensive reorientation and the most profound motivation in human experience—the ultimate why for living in all history. Calling begins and ends such ages and lives of faith, by placing the final aim of life beyond the world where it was meant to be. Answering the call is the way to find and fulfill the central purpose of your life.”

3. God uses two calls in your life: a primary call and a secondary call. The primary call is when he calls you into fellowship with him; it is a call to a person (himself), rather than a purpose. The secondary call comes after becoming a Christian; it is a call to Christian service to a purpose rather than a person.

4. We must not confuse secondary call with natural gifts. Natural gifts may or may not have anything to do with a secondary call. Remember, the secondary call is a call to serve God, and every Christian receives it. Look with me at the call of Abram. OYBT Gen 12.

[God calls everyone. Be sure you are listening, and follow him in faith; his grace will provide all that you need to fulfill his purpose in your life.]

II. THE CALL AND THE PROMISES (vv. 1-3)

1. The divine silence that persisted for ten generations is shattered. Yahweh’s voice is again heard in the land of Haran, where for some unexplained reason the intended migration of Terah and family from Ur to Canaan had come to a halt.

2. God calls Abram, son of Terah, saying, “Go forth…to a land which I will show you.”

A. Of particular interest is the triple object following the imperative “Go forth from (1) your country, (2) your homeland, and (3) your father’s house.”

B. God uses this triple object in his first communication with Abram (here) and his last (cf. 22:1f, take your son, your only son, Isaac). Each is in a sequence of less intimate to more intimate.

3. God’s promises to Abram contain seven elements: [1] I will make you a great nation; [2] I will bless you; [3] I will make your name famous; [4] and be a blessing; [5] I will bless those that bless you; [6] curse those that curse you, and [7] by you others shall be blessed.

4. Amid all these promises, one thing remains clear. Until Abram goes forth, nothing happens. In other words, Abram must respond to God’s call; he must take action, take a leap of faith; if he does, God’s grace will carry him; that is part of the promise.

III. ABRAM’S RESPONSE (vv. 4-5)

1. Abram responds. He packs everything he owns, gathers his wife, his nephew, the persons he had acquired (servants?) and leaves his comfort zone on a journeyknowing neither his direction nor destination.

2. Now that is answering the call of God; “I don’t know where I am going, how I will get there, or why God wants it this way, but I am going. See ‘ya later…”

3. By the way, did I mention he was seventy-five years old when God called him? Rather kills the notion that God selects workers according to age!

[God calls everyone. Be sure you are listening, and follow him in faith; his grace will provide all that you need to fulfill his purpose in your life.]