Walks along a Baltic beach and a grandfather telling the same stories over and over, that memory opens a series about people who stepped into the story God is writing. The first is Abram, seventy-five years old and childless, living in polytheistic Mesopotamia, who hears: leave your land and go to the land I will show you (Genesis 12). The sermon shows that God chooses whom he wills, and that Abram’s faith was not an idea but a journey and an altar built in worship, before a single promise had come true. Listen if you are waiting for something you still cannot see.
Discussion questions
For your small group or for personal reflection after the sermon.
- In Genesis 12:1-9 God tells Abram to leave, go, and head for a land He will show him. What about this promise made no human sense, given Abram's age and Sarai's barrenness?
- Against the backdrop of the story from Cain and Abel to the tower of Babel, Abram builds altars in Canaan. What does this contrast reveal about what God is looking for in people?
- The speaker emphasizes that God chose Abram not because of his merits but simply because He wanted to. How does this truth change the way you think about whether you are fit to take part in God's story?
- The sermon quotes Bonhoeffer: only the obedient believe. In which everyday choices do you find it easiest to separate faith from obedience?
- Abram worships God before any of the promises is fulfilled. What makes it hard for you to praise God for who He is rather than for what He will do for you?
- What are you waiting for in your life right now, and how can you, like Abram, build your own altar of worship this week and take one concrete step of obedience?
