### Summary

Tonight, we delved into the story of Abram and Sarai, later known as Abraham and Sarah, from the book of Genesis. We explored the theme of God's calling and the human tendency to be impatient with God's timing. We began by reflecting on the nature of a divine calling, which is an inner spiritual nudge towards a particular course of action, often accompanied by a conviction of divine influence. This calling can manifest in various forms, not just in preaching but in any vocation or profession where one feels led by God.

We then examined the narrative of Abram and Sarai, who were called by God to leave their homeland and promised that they would become the ancestors of a great nation. Despite this promise, they struggled with impatience and tried to take matters into their own hands, leading to the birth of Ishmael through Hagar, Sarai's slave. However, God reaffirmed His covenant with them, changing their names to Abraham and Sarah and promising that they would have a son, Isaac, through whom the covenant would be established.

This story teaches us the importance of patience and trust in God's timing. We often want to rush God's plans and take control, but true faith requires us to relinquish our desires and fully trust in God's promises. The Psalm 46 passage we read emphasizes the need to be still and know that God is in control, a lesson that Abraham and Sarah had to learn through their journey.

### Key Takeaways

1. **Understanding Divine Calling**: A calling from God is an inner spiritual nudge towards a particular course of action, often accompanied by a conviction of divine influence. It can manifest in various forms, not just in preaching but in any vocation or profession where one feels led by God. This calling requires us to be open and receptive to God's guidance in our lives. [25:03]

2. **Impatience with God's Timing**: The story of Abraham and Sarah highlights the human tendency to be impatient with God's timing. Despite God's promise, they tried to take matters into their own hands, leading to complications. This teaches us the importance of trusting in God's timing and not rushing His plans. [30:55]

3. **Relinquishing Control**: True faith requires us to relinquish our desires and fully trust in God's promises. Abraham and Sarah's journey shows that when we try to control God's plans, we often create more problems. Instead, we should allow God's Spirit to lead us where He wants us to go. [42:14]

4. **God's Faithfulness**: Despite our impatience and attempts to control, God remains faithful to His promises. He reaffirmed His covenant with Abraham and Sarah, showing that He does not abandon us even when we falter. This reassures us that God's promises are steadfast and reliable. [42:49]

5. **Being Still and Knowing God**: Psalm 46 reminds us to be still and know that God is in control. In our busy lives, we often forget to pause and listen for God's voice. Taking time to be still and reflect on God's presence can help us align with His will and trust in His plans. [46:06]

### YouTube Chapters

[0:00] - Welcome
[21:53] - Introduction and Call to Worship
[23:03] - Recap of Previous Sermons
[24:14] - Introduction to Abram and Sarai
[25:03] - Understanding Divine Calling
[26:58] - The Nature of Calling
[28:07] - Personal Reflections on Calling
[30:55] - Impatience with God's Timing
[32:10] - Personal Experiences of Impatience
[33:36] - Genesis 12:1-3 - God's Promise to Abram
[34:28] - Genesis 15:1-6 - Abram's Doubts
[35:13] - Genesis 16:1-4 - Sarai's Plan
[36:02] - Genesis 17:1-8 - God's Covenant with Abraham
[38:02] - Genesis 17:15-22 - Promise of Isaac
[39:57] - Lessons from Abraham and Sarah
[42:14] - Relinquishing Control
[46:06] - Being Still and Knowing God
[49:26] - Conclusion and Final Reflections
[01:01:38] - Closing Song and Benediction

### Bible Study Discussion Guide

#### Bible Reading
1. Genesis 12:1-3
2. Genesis 15:1-6
3. Genesis 17:1-8

#### Observation Questions
1. What specific promises did God make to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3?
2. How did Abram respond to God's promise in Genesis 15:1-6, and what was God's reassurance to him? [33:36]
3. What significant changes did God make to Abram and Sarai's identities in Genesis 17:1-8, and what was the purpose of these changes? [36:50]
4. How did Sarai's impatience manifest in Genesis 16:1-4, and what were the immediate consequences? [35:13]

#### Interpretation Questions
1. What does Abram's initial doubt in Genesis 15:1-6 reveal about human nature when it comes to trusting God's promises? [34:28]
2. How does the change of names from Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah in Genesis 17:1-8 symbolize a deeper covenant with God? [37:30]
3. In what ways does the story of Abram and Sarai illustrate the dangers of taking matters into our own hands instead of waiting on God's timing? [41:26]
4. How does Psalm 46, as referenced in the sermon, reinforce the lesson of being still and trusting in God's control? [46:06]

#### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when you felt a calling or nudge from God. How did you respond, and what did you learn from that experience? [25:03]
2. Have you ever been impatient with God's timing in your life? What were the consequences, and how did you eventually see God's plan unfold? [30:55]
3. What are some practical ways you can relinquish control and fully trust in God's promises, especially in areas where you tend to take matters into your own hands? [42:14]
4. How can you create moments of stillness in your daily routine to better listen for God's voice and align with His will? [46:06]
5. Think of a situation where you are currently struggling to trust God's timing. What steps can you take this week to surrender that situation to God and trust in His faithfulness? [42:49]
6. How can you support others in your small group or community who are struggling with impatience or control issues in their spiritual journey? [39:57]
7. Identify one specific promise from God that you find difficult to trust. What scripture or prayer can you use to remind yourself of God's faithfulness in that area? [38:33]

This guide is designed to help your small group delve deeper into the themes of divine calling, patience, trust, and God's faithfulness as illustrated in the story of Abram and Sarai. Use these questions to foster meaningful discussion and personal reflection.

Day 1: Embracing Your Divine Calling
A calling from God is an inner spiritual nudge towards a particular course of action, often accompanied by a conviction of divine influence. This calling can manifest in various forms, not just in preaching but in any vocation or profession where one feels led by God. It requires us to be open and receptive to God's guidance in our lives. Understanding and embracing this calling means recognizing that God has a unique purpose for each of us, and it is our responsibility to seek and follow His direction.

In the story of Abram and Sarai, we see how they were called to leave their homeland and embark on a journey of faith. This calling was not just about physical relocation but about trusting in God's promise and plan for their lives. Similarly, our divine calling may require us to step out of our comfort zones and trust in God's plan, even when it is not fully clear to us. By being open to God's guidance, we can fulfill the purpose He has for us. [25:03]

Isaiah 30:21 (ESV): "And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left."

Reflection: What is one area in your life where you feel a nudge or calling from God? How can you take a step today to follow that calling?


Day 2: Trusting in God's Timing
The story of Abraham and Sarah highlights the human tendency to be impatient with God's timing. Despite God's promise, they tried to take matters into their own hands, leading to complications. This teaches us the importance of trusting in God's timing and not rushing His plans. When we become impatient, we often make decisions that lead to unnecessary complications and hardships.

Abraham and Sarah's impatience led to the birth of Ishmael through Hagar, which caused strife and tension within their family. However, God remained faithful to His promise and eventually blessed them with Isaac. This narrative reminds us that God's timing is perfect, and His plans are always for our good. Trusting in His timing means waiting patiently and believing that He will fulfill His promises in His perfect time. [30:55]

Habakkuk 2:3 (ESV): "For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay."

Reflection: Think of a situation where you are struggling with impatience. How can you practice trusting in God's timing and waiting for His perfect plan to unfold?


Day 3: Relinquishing Control to God
True faith requires us to relinquish our desires and fully trust in God's promises. Abraham and Sarah's journey shows that when we try to control God's plans, we often create more problems. Instead, we should allow God's Spirit to lead us where He wants us to go. Relinquishing control means surrendering our own plans and desires and trusting that God's ways are higher and better than our own.

In our lives, we may face situations where we feel the need to take control and make things happen according to our own understanding. However, true faith involves letting go and allowing God to take the lead. By doing so, we can experience the peace and assurance that comes from knowing that God is in control and that His plans for us are good. [42:14]

Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV): "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

Reflection: What is one area of your life where you are trying to maintain control? How can you surrender this area to God and trust in His guidance?


Day 4: Experiencing God's Faithfulness
Despite our impatience and attempts to control, God remains faithful to His promises. He reaffirmed His covenant with Abraham and Sarah, showing that He does not abandon us even when we falter. This reassures us that God's promises are steadfast and reliable. God's faithfulness is a constant reminder that He is always with us, guiding and supporting us through every situation.

Abraham and Sarah's story is a testament to God's unwavering faithfulness. Even when they doubted and took matters into their own hands, God did not abandon them. Instead, He fulfilled His promise and blessed them with Isaac. This narrative encourages us to trust in God's faithfulness, knowing that He will always keep His promises and provide for us in ways that exceed our expectations. [42:49]

Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV): "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

Reflection: Reflect on a time when you experienced God's faithfulness in your life. How can this memory strengthen your trust in His promises today?


Day 5: Being Still and Knowing God
Psalm 46 reminds us to be still and know that God is in control. In our busy lives, we often forget to pause and listen for God's voice. Taking time to be still and reflect on God's presence can help us align with His will and trust in His plans. Being still means creating space in our lives to connect with God, to listen to His voice, and to experience His peace.

In the midst of our daily routines and responsibilities, it is easy to become overwhelmed and lose sight of God's presence. However, by intentionally setting aside time to be still and focus on God, we can gain a deeper understanding of His character and His plans for us. This practice helps us to cultivate a sense of peace and assurance, knowing that God is in control and that we can trust Him with every aspect of our lives. [46:06]

Psalm 46:10 (ESV): "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!"

Reflection: How can you create a moment of stillness in your day today to connect with God and listen for His voice? What might God be trying to say to you in this moment of stillness?

1. "God calls us to move, but we fear the unknown. God calls us to move, but movement can be uncomfortable. God calls us to move. So we move, trusting that God goes with us, preparing the way." [21:53] (20 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "What is a calling, not just, you know, nobody picks up the phone anymore, so not like a phone call or, you know, something over a loudspeaker or anything like that, but truly an inward nudging spiritual calling is defined this way. A strong inner impulse toward a particular. Course of action, especially when accompanied by conviction of divine influence, the vocation or profession in which one customarily engages." [25:03] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "One author states that a calling from God is a wholesale relinquishment of all other loves. It's the prerequisite to walking fully in friendship. With God. Acknowledging and discerning and living into a call is setting aside all these other things in which we think we should be doing and fully walking in relationship with God." [28:07] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "How creative and awesome that God might be using you for something you just don't know yet. That's so cool. One author states that a calling from God is a wholesale relinquishment of all other loves. It's the prerequisite to walking fully in friendship. With God. Acknowledging and discerning and living into a call is setting aside all these other things in which we think we should be doing and fully walking in relationship with God." [28:07] (45 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "And so this full relinquishment of ourselves to live into the fullness of God's calling is not trying to do what it is I want to do and fix what I want to fix. But allowing the full movement of God's spirit to lead me where God wants me to go." [29:35] (20 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "If you ask anybody that is a pastor or a preacher, or some type of Christian educator, and you ask them about their call into that niche part of ministry, they're probably going to tell you that they were aggravated at some point with God, annoyed with how slow sometimes God acts to give you everything that you want right then and there." [32:10] (29 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "In pushing things forward at his own pace, Abraham has to deal with the devastating consequences of this selfish decision. A lesson many of us have had to learn through life when we take word from God and try to fulfill it in our own way. The result is usually damage for us and as we see in Abraham's story, in this case, even more damage to others. And yet, as we see with Abraham, God will not give up on us." [43:39] (40 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "The fact is, when we hear a call from God, the fact is, when we discern, when we cultivate with others that call, whatever that may be, at some point in that, we're going to want to try and fulfill it in our way. And really, that's straying from the way in which God is trying to lead us in the right way." [44:32] (32 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "Sometimes we just need to shut up. To be still and patient with the promise from God. Psalm 46 says this, God is our refuge and strength, mighty and impenetrable. A very present and well-proved help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its roaring." [46:06] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "If there's one thing that we can take away tonight is to know just a few things, that somehow God is working on you. God is calling you. Be still, be still. Listen and follow that lead and try not to, as much as we want to, take control of God." [49:26] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)

Hey, welcome to worship.

If you will stand with me and with them, I'm going to give us our call to worship. That leads us into our scripture that we will get to here in a little bit. I guess y'all aren't going to see. All right, here's what we will be sort of talking about tonight. So let's be receptive to the Spirit's movement here in this place.

Holy God of love, there is light in our lives because of the abundance of your steadfast love. This is last week's. God calls us to move, but we fear the unknown. God calls us to move, but movement can be uncomfortable. God calls us to move. So we move, trusting that God goes with us, preparing the way. And we'll speak a little bit about that and Abraham tonight.

Let's worship.

Hello? Hello? Hello? We're good now? Okay. The other side of the card, sorry. If you would like to share information with App Wesley, I'd love to be able to add your name and email. We send out a weekly email on Sundays and it just has a lot of information about what's upcoming, more than little five minutes that Ken is trying to – all that's going on, it's kind of hard to keep all that together, right? So if you'd like to receive that email, you can put that on here and put it in the bowl and I'll add you to that list.

So tonight we are continuing. We are still in the book of Genesis. And we're looking at – we've looked at God's creation, how God began the work that we are still a part of today. And then we moved last week into the fall and how Adam and Eve kind of led humanity. And then we moved last week into a different direction and how God brought that back by clothing them, right? And kind of went into a thing.

What's so special about sewing and so special about clothing but the intimacy that God had because God wanted to be in relationship and God still wants to be in relationship with us. And so we're continuing that relationship piece. And we're kind of – there's a lot in Genesis. And so we're going to have to bypass a few things. So we're not looking at Noah this year. But we're moving beyond Noah. Just think of that children's story, if you will, right? All the two by two of the animals and going on to the ark and all of the flood, the great flood and how that came to be. And then God's receding of the water and then the building of the nations again, right?

So we're kind of picking up a little bit after this. And we're starting to look at this narrative of how God is continuing to build relationship with humanity. And now it's the relationship with Abram and Sarai. You probably know them as Abraham and Sarah. But first, we have to start with Abram and Sarai. And what is it that happens there?

Y'all, we could spend the entire semester just looking at these next few chapters, but we're looking at tonight. I am condensing and kind of patchworking here about five or six chapters of Genesis. And what is it kind of saying to us? We have to focus on one thing. And so we're going to focus on tonight some stuff. Thank you, Parker. Some of the stuff for music and the rest of you. Thank you for leading music. But for picking songs, we had a conversation that really, really match with the promises of God and what it means to be in covenant with God.

So we first start with Abram and Sarah. How does this relate to being a part of the story of God? Well, first and foremost, I think it really has to do with the calling from God, a calling from God. So let's talk about calling for just a moment. Just thinking in your heads for a moment. What is a calling? Not just, you know, nobody picks up the phone anymore, so not like a phone call or, you know, something over a loudspeaker or anything like that, but truly an inward nudging.

Spiritual calling is defined this way: a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action, especially when accompanied by conviction of divine influence, the vocation or profession in which one customarily engages. What does that say? What does that say about calling? The first piece of that says, well, it can be something that comes from God, divine nature, right? Could be moving you to some form of ministry, whatever that may be. That is a broad word. Forming a calling into ministry does not ultimately mean preaching. It can mean so many, many different things.

But the second piece of that is, is a vocation or profession in which you engage. Everyone in here at some point are going to have to make some type of decision on what you're doing education-wise, right? And some of you have already done that. And I bet you anything there has been some form of nudging or some form of passion or just something that has led you to the trajectory you are in now. Why am I studying this? Right? There's something there. And it doesn't mean you have to have it figured out right now as to where that movement may come from. It could come years from now as to why you studied this. It could be the thing that you studied. Yet there's something there because you might use it at some point. It is still a calling.

I think if you asked any educator, I don't think people pick out of the hat and say I'm going to be a school teacher, especially middle school. Lord bless. Like that is definitely a calling, right? That's something. So this whole thing of what is a call from God? It can be anything, y'all. And how creative and cool as we learned at the beginning when God created this world. How creative and awesome that God might be using you for something you just don't know yet. That's so cool.

One author states that a calling from God is a wholesale relinquishment of all other loves. It's the prerequisite to walking fully in friendship with God. Acknowledging and discerning and living into a call is setting aside all these other things in which we think we should be doing and fully walking in relationship with God.

We talked last week about how after Adam and Eve sinned that they went and hid and they mended for themselves clothing out of fig leaves. And they tried to cover up and fix what they had done themselves. But it was God who ultimately came and did it for them, something even better, clothing them with his grace. And so this full relinquishment of ourselves to live into the fullness of God's calling is not trying to do what it is I want to do and fix what I want to fix, but allowing the full movement of God's spirit to lead me where God wants me to go.

Who does God call? Who does God call? I think I already said it. Every one of us. In some form or fashion, God speaks to us in some unique and varying way to do something. But there's something else about it. When we come to the point in our lives, and you're probably, where are we going to get to? We're going to get to it. I promise. I'm leading you up to where we're going to get here.

Some point in our lives when we come to that discernment of, yes, this is where God is leading me, we're probably going to also get just a little impatient. How many of you, I mean, probably every single day are impatient with something, right? Yes. You know, it could be the simplest of things, crossing the street when the red hand is still up because you're not going to wait for the little walkie-talkie man that shows up, right? Or those of us that are driving, I get impatient when I'm coming in on Howard Street and all these people want to come out of Peacock Call without looking, right? Or impatience with calling.

Impatience with God. Everybody impatient with God? I mean, probably at some point you have or you're going to be. If you ask anybody that is a pastor or a preacher or some type of Christian educator, and you ask them about their call into that niche part of ministry, they're probably going to tell you that they were aggravated at some point with God, annoyed with how slow sometimes God acts to give you everything that you want right then and there. Myself included in that.

But what we're going to learn here in Scripture is sometimes we've got to figure out how to be patient. How do we stop being so impatient and wanting a result right now? And that leads us to our passage tonight. God calling and humanity's identity with being impatient with God's timing of the call and moving forward.

So as I said earlier, it's going to be a patchwork of Scriptures coming up here. And we're going to start in Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3.

Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

We're going to skip a little bit and go to chapter 15, verses 1 through 6.

After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward shall be very great." But Abram said, "O Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus." And Abram said, "You have given me no offspring, and so a slave born in my house is to be my heir."

But the word of the Lord came to him, "This man shall not be your heir. No one but your very own issue shall be your heir." He brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your descendants be." And he believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Now keep that in mind. Keep that passage in mind. Then we're going to go to chapter 16, verses 1 through 4.

Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave girl whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, "You see that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my slave girl. It may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.

So after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave girl, and gave her to her husband, Abram, as a wife.

Verse 15. Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

And now we're going to skip to chapter 17, starting with verses 1 through 8.

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram. Think here about impatience and timeline and all of this time and space that has gone on, okay?

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous."

Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you. You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham. For I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you, throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you, and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding, and I will be their God."

And we'll finish with this, verses 15 through 22.

God said to Abram, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she will give rise to nations. Kings of peoples shall come from her."

Then Abram fell on his face and laughed and said to him, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" And Abram said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live in your sight."

And God said, "No, but your wife Sarah shall bear you a son, and you shall name him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will bless him, and make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous. He shall be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year."

And when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

Okay, I know there's a lot going on there, and we bypassed a lot more that is in between all of these chapters and also what comes after. But what is it? What's the importance in these passages, in this entire narrative? If you want to go back and read it from chapter 12, really through the end of Genesis. What is it here?

We see Abram is called, right? God comes to Abram and calls him. We see that Abram is impatient. He tries to help God, right? What does he first say? He says, "Oh, well, we have this son that's the son of a slave girl that lives with us. He can be the heir." God says, "No, no. I'm going to provide for you an heir."

Well, the time goes on a little bit, right? God says, "I have given you a promise. Just hold on. I've given you a promise." An author says it like this: "Lord, I know you've said you love me and I really want to be with you. But ultimately, I don't know if you're going to come through for me."

How opposite someone that has seen and talked with God about a promise of an heir and the building of nations to come who does not have the faith and the trust from God Almighty, does not have faith and trust in God Almighty.

So then Sarai and Abram, they come up with a plan, right? "Well, this still ain't happening as fast as we want this to happen. And God said that we're supposed to have an heir. So let's figure this out ourselves." And what happens? They plan to have a child another way and use Hagar. And then Hagar gives birth to Abram's son, Ishmael.

But God still says, "No, Abram. Just bear with me. Follow me. You're not allowing the promise to happen. You're trying to take control."

So again, what we read near the end of the reading tonight is we see God make an even deeper covenant. Something about God and covenants in which names change, right? There's a name. Instead of Abram, now you're Abraham. We're starting again. It's not Sarai. Now it's Sarah. We're going to do this again.

I have not abandoned you. I have not left you. Even though you feel like you need to tinker around and do this thing yourself, I am going to bear with you. I have promised you something. I have now built covenant with you. You cannot run from me. I am with you always. And I am here to make this thing that I said would come true to come true.

And that's what happens. Isaac is then born.

What does this mean for us? What does this story say to us and our incorporation into the overarching story of God? What do we do with this information? How is it important? Why do we even care about this for our particular lives in this present day? Why?

Well, we need to learn some lessons from Abraham and Sarah. And the author of the book, The God Story, that I'm using to help prepare this series, writes it like this: "In pushing things forward at his own pace, Abraham has to deal with the devastating consequences of this selfish decision. A lesson many of us have had to learn through life when we take word from God and try to fulfill it in our own way. The result is usually damage for us and, as we see in Abraham's story, in this case, even more damage to others."

And yet, as we see with Abraham, God will not give up on us. Here's the fact. The fact is, when we hear a call from God, the fact is, when we discern, when we cultivate with others that call, whatever that may be, at some point in that, we're going to want to try and fulfill it in our way. And really, that's straying from the way in which God is trying to lead us in the right way.

So what do we do with that? Where do we go with this information? Where do we go acknowledging that we're going to do the same stuff that we read over and over and over in these scriptures? We're going to fail. Because we want to do it our way. We want to help God and say, "God, this is probably the better way." Instead of relinquishing all that we are and fully accepting the grace of God that is bestowed upon every human being that allows it, accepts it, to be led in God's way.

And one of the ways that came to me was it made me think of a Psalm. It's to know to be still and to just know God. To be still and to just listen for God. And I'm not saying listen with your ears and you're going to hear this big, booming voice of God. I'm saying just listen and just be in tune for just a moment. Be quiet. Sometimes we just need to shut up.

To be still and patient with the promise from God. Psalm 46 says this: "God is our refuge and strength, mighty and impenetrable. A very present and well-proved help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains be shaken and slip into the heart of the seas, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its roaring."

Let's pause. Because this is important. This word, when you get into the Psalms and you read it and you get to the word, Selah. Selah just means breathe and take a moment. Pause. Don't read through that scripture in Selah and keep going. Don't even read Selah. It is an instruction to you to take a moment and pause.

"There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, his city. She will not be moved. God will help her when the morning dawns. The nations made an uproar. The kingdoms tottered and were moved. He raised his voice. The earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold, our refuge, our high tower. Come, behold the works of the Lord who has brought desolations and wonders on the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow into pieces and snaps the spear in two. He burns the chariots with fire."

Friends, here's what we need to hear at this end of this psalm for us all tonight. If only Abraham had heard maybe this psalm, if the psalmist who wrote this was prior to Abraham, maybe none of that impatience would have happened. And maybe this is a testament to us tonight to just be saved.

We need to be still and know, recognize, understand that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold, our refuge, our high tower.

Friends, there's a lot in this Genesis passage and the entire story of Abraham and Sarah. But if there's one thing that we can take away tonight is to know just a few things, that somehow God is working on you. God is calling you. Be still, be still. Listen and follow that lead and try not to, as much as we want to, take control of God.

Thanks be to God.

This song pretty much says it, right? What we just sang, the last two songs is there's nothing that can keep us down when we are moving through in the power of God's Holy Spirit.

So go forth into this world, in this community that is our world at the moment, and share with the voice that you do have the love and the grace of Jesus. Grab a hand and we'll sing together the doxology.