CROSSroads -- The Crossroad of Obedience -- Genesis 12:1-8

Introduction
Family plans sometimes just don’t work out do they? We have all had plans go awry. There was a guy who had a date with a girl that he wanted it to be kind of special. Well, the date was anything but special. He had a terrible meal and just had a terrible time. And to end things, they had gotten milkshakes and wouldn’t you know that the lid on his was not on correctly and it fell open and spilled all over her dress. It was a terrible date and the night though not special was certainly memorable. I believe that God used that to help that relationship fall apart for something better that he had planned.

Describing the Biblical Text
Abram’s life at this point was probably just as memorable with his family’s plans changing.
We are finding Abram in Haran with his family and they are settled pretty comfortably there.
It is one of those situations where they have been there a while and they are settled in and going through the normal things of life.
For instance, while in Haran, Abram’s dad passes away.

Narrate the Contextual application
So, the family is just kid of sitting around minding their own business and all of a sudden, they hear form God.
Well, they don’t but Abe does.
He hears God tell Him to do something that is slightly out of the ordinary, like it was an everyday thing to hear from God.
Abram is at a crossroad in His life.
God is calling him and he is having to look both back and ahead to see if this is a calling that He wants to accept.

Life Application (thesis)
Has there been a time in our lives when we have heard from God?
Has there been a time in our lives that we have had to examine everything and then determine that we are going to follow Him and do His will no matter what it might take or where it might take us.
There is something here that is so important that if we miss it, the meaning of this passage will be lost to us.
A calling from God requires a surrender to God.
That is a big statement because surrender always means that you have lost a battle or a war.
So why do we surrender?
We surrender because any other response to God is making ourselves arrogant and disobedient thinking more of ourselves that we should.

SO WHAT!! (Outline)
Surrender to God certainly requires something from our lives doesn’t it?
Actually, it requires everything.
We really cannot keep anything back and legitimately claim to be surrendered.
This is why I cannot let my life get in the way of hearing God.
Life can really take some curves and twists.
I will never forget Palm Sunday 2006. I was talking to someone in the FLC following our early service that day when I saw Randy Robinson bolt out the door and down the sidewalk. What I did not realize was that Valerie had fallen on the sidewalk between the buildings and had broken her knee. That event changed our lives. She had to wear a cast for several weeks, she could not drive a car, deliver the kids to any of our practices. As you can imagine, it disrupted our live tremendously.

This word from God was something more to Abe than just a disruption
It was in fact a calling but it was very much more than that as well.
There is a passage in the book of Joshua that rolls us back to this very day in a sense.
Listen to the words of Joshua as he calls the people into obedience.
Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘From ancient times your fathers lived beyond the River, namely, Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor, and they served other gods.

It is interesting to note that even though Abram was a descendant of Shem, he had apparently inherited as heritage of paganism and polytheism.
So what really happened at Haran when God visited Abram and called him to Canaan?
This is where Abe was converted.
This is when he believed and his measure of faith was received and he followed Jehovah God.

How many times have we heard someone tell us that they have been called into some ministry or they felt God leading them to do something significant for Him?
What we need to see is that this in a very real sense is a conversion experience.
It may not be when they first follow Christ but at this point, they are being instructed by God to essentially cancel the rest of their lives regarding the plans and the reservations they have made and simply let the Lord start leading the way.
Verse 1 so clearly says, “To the land that I will show you.”

My life cannot get in the way of my following the Lord
If it does, then am I really following?
Am I really letting Him lead the way?
It’s like Spiritual ADD; God calls us and he tells us what we need to do and we respond to Him in a series of distractions.
It is like one of us men when the wife asks us to vacuum. All of a sudden the nails on the deck steps need to be resunk, the car needs washer fluid, it’s time to return that screwdriver to the neighbor that you borrowed last year.
Well, God, I have sort of planned this career thing and a marriage and I was hoping to put a couple of kids in college.
None of that is bad stuff but it is stuff that will get in the way of truly hearing God if we let it.
I can’t let my life get in the way of hearing God, because, surrender means trusting God even when I don’t know where I am going.

Blind faith is a hard thing.
Stepping out on faith is very difficult to do.
When we think about when a church calls a pastor. There are some things that you can know about him before he comes but the future of His leadership is really a mystery. Most people don’t like that so there are all kinds of checks and balances in churches to keep a pastor from leading in an unpopular direction. There are boards, committees, business meetings and other less formal entities.
It is like when we give a large sum of money to a cause. We don’t just Willy-nilly give money. We discuss it and pray about it and make sure it is what we are supposed to do.
We take a logical approach.
But, what about when we step out on faith?

Can we logically step out on faith?
I don’t think so.
If we can see it, if we can figure it out, it is not faith and neither is it following the call of God in our lives.
Look at verse 4
So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan.
No meetings, no discussions, they just picked up and went.
Now what is ironic is that God finishes the journey that they started before.
Back your eyes up to the last verse of chapter 11. They were headed to Canaan. According to Stephen’s sermon in Acts 7, God visited Abe before to instruct Him to Go to Canaan.
But, here is where he got self out of the way and obeyed.
Why stop in Haran on the way?
Why there? There was family there.
Move your eye up one more verse.
There is Haran, the father of Lot who was born and died in Ur.
That is the land of his kinsmen but Haran left a legacy far away from where he died and that is where Terah and Abe stopped on their journey to Canaan.
Maybe they were just going to drop Lot off in Haran.
They are in the land now of Lot’s inheritance.
Can you imagine how much harder that made it to leave Haran?

But when Abe left Haran, something was clear to Him.
Trusting God means believing that God is doing His best for us.
There is no other way to follow Him.
If we think that God might not do what is best for us, then we are going to look to whom to do it better?
We will look to ourselves.
That would and does make us most pathetic as we claim to be the people of God.

So we cannot let our lives keep us fro hearing God.
Surrender means trusting God when I don’t know where I am going.
Here is something else we need to think about.
My surrender today bears on my life tomorrow.

Really and truly, there is not a lot in life that does not come to bear on our tomorrows.
If we buy a car today, we are agreeing to make payments for the next 4 years.
If you have a baby, you are committing your life to raising the child for the nest 18-20 years.
But, what about when you surrender to the call of God.
There are eternal consequences involved.
Abram’s name was changed to Abraham.
He fathered Isaac who fathered Jacob who fathered Judah whose line led to Jesus.
We might be thinking that God won’t do anything that significant in my life.
Really?
I have never pastored a mega church but under my ministry, 5 men have been called to the ministry and one has been called to the mission field.

As far as we know, all of us have lives with several tomorrows left.
But those tomorrows depend on what we do today.
They depend on our willingness to be obedient to leave Haran and to go to Canaan.
Living for Christ, following Christ mans that we are stepping out in faith everyday as we seek to obey him and we serve Him.
If we are walking by sight, we are not surrendered and if we are not surrendered, we are not serving and if we are not serving it is very possible that we are not saved.

Are you feeling that call today?
Is there that sense that God wants you to step out and to follow Him in faith without looking back to Ur or Haran?
Maybe you are hearing his voice for the first time today saying come unto me you who are tired and carrying that heavy load and I will give perfect rest.

You can come to Jesus Christ this morning and you can surrender your life to following him today.