04.27 Sermon Notes
April 24, 2025

Call of Abram

My concerns with telling the “rest of the story” of Abram’s call

  • “muddy” the picture of the Father of Faith – Muslim, Jew, Christian (Heb 11)
  • “lower the bar” as to live out life of faith

    Hebrews 11:8,9 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents

In Genesis Chapters 12-20 – I noticed things that I NEVER saw before

  • I thought it was Terah who moved his family from Ur to Haran
  • How did God “speak” to Abram?
  • What’s up with the Terebinth tree?
  • Did Abram “Obey” or just “partially” obey?

I thought it was Terah who moved his family from Ur to Haran

Genesis 11:27-32
This is the genealogy of Terah: Terah begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran. Haran begot Lot. And Haran died before his father Terah in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans. Then Abram and Nahor took wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren; she had no child. And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there

Genesis 12:1
*Now the LORD had said to Abram: “**Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house,

Genesis 15:7
Then He said to him, *“I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”*

Acts 7:2-4 And he said, “Brethren and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father was dead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.**

How did God “speak” to Abram?

  • 12:1 The LORD had “said”
  • 12:7 The LORD “appeared”
  • 13:14 The LORD “said”
  • 14:18-20 Physical ncounter with Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:1-10)
  • 15:1 used a vision
  • 15:12-16 Used a dream
  • 17:1 The LORD “appeared”
  • 18:1 The LORD “appeared”
  • 18:2-17 3 men – 2 are angels and Pre-Incarnate Christ

TODAY WE have the WORD (logos) and the SPIRIT (rhema)

What’s up with the Terebinth tree?


Genesis 12:6-8
Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

Genesis 13:18
Then Abram moved his tent, and went and dwelt by ]the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.
Genesis 14:13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre*

Genesis 18:1
Then the LORD appeared to him by ]the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.

Did Abram “obey” or just “partially” obey?


“Partial” obedience is obedience… but on “my” terns…

Genesis 12:1
Now the LORD had said to Abram.“Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.

Genesis 12:4,5
So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan

Partial obedience will open the way for FEAR decisions (Disobedience)


Genesis 12:10-13
Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to dwell there, for the famine was severe in the land. And it came to pass, when he was close to entering Egypt, that he said to Sarai his wife, “Indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. Therefore it will happen, when the Egyptians see you, that they will say, ‘This is his wife’; and they will kill me, but they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, that it may be well with me for your sake, and that ]I may live because of you.”

Genesis 12:16
He (Pharoah) treated Abram well for her sake. He had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male and female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

Genesis 13:2
Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold

NOTICE: After the disaster in Egypt: Abram is back to the Terebinth tree – his original altar, where his tent had been!

KEY: Genesis 13:3, 4 Then Abram went up from Egypt… 3 And he went on his journey from the South as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, 4 to the place of the altar which he had made there at first. And there Abram called on the name of the LORD.

Now…..Mercy and Grace are now at work!!!!!!

Genesis 13:5-12
Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. 6 Now the land was not able to support them, that they might dwell together, for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram’s livestock and the herdsmen of Lot’s livestock. The Canaanites and the Perizzites then dwelt in the land.
So Abram said to Lot, “Please let there be no strife between you and me, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”
And Lot lifted his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere (before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah) like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt as you go toward Zoar. 11 Then Lot chose for himself all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east. And they separated from each other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.

What got Abram back on track?

  • He got re-focused at his altar at the Terebinth tree (Gen 13:3.4)
  • He RETURNED to his altar: place of surrender, remembrance, sacrifice
  • This is not so much a “place” – but is a spiritual stance
  • The Lord redeemed Abram’s failure (in Egypt) and used the circumstances so that Abram now was in COMPLETE and PERFECT Obedience to the Will of God
  • Jesus at the Center of it all!
  • Often misquoted: Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Revelation 2:2-5
“I know your works, your labor, your [b]patience, and that you cannot ]bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; 3 and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. 4 Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works”

Floating ax head - 2 Kings 6:1-7 – go back to the spot where you lost your ax head

Take Aways

  • We all get “off-centered” – times/seasons when Jesus is not “the center of it all”
  • Identify your terebinth tree/YOUR altar when your walk with Jesus was focused
  • Go back and START there again
  • You will return to your terebinth tree/altar time and time and time again….