Go said GO
Genesis 12:1-9
This is a fabulous passage. You may conclude it is also timely for us as a church. I’ll underline a few points, you underline the rest. 
At the end of Genesis chapter eleven, Terah (Abram’s father) had a hunch; an inner restlessness, a holy dissatisfaction. There was something more to be found; that there was more to life than he could see; there was a bigger story and he had a part to play in it. It does not say God spoke. At this stage, it was a hunch, either because God hadn’t spoken, or Terah hadn’t heard/ listened. Have you ever done something and only later realised it had been part of God’s plan for your life?
Terah left Ur for Canaan. “Terah decided to move from Ur to the land of Canaan.” (Genesis 11:31) Terah knew little about Canaan (no TripAdvisor or Google Maps), maybe only what he had heard from other nomadic travellers. But it was enough! Terah took his extended family and left Ur (later called Babylon, now modern-day southern Iraq) for Canaan (modern-day Israel). Today, travelling direct from Iraq to Israel is not possible for military and political reasons. Likewise, with the Arabian Desert in the way, Terah had to head north before tracking back into Canaan.
But then Terah settled for something different
“But when they came to the city of Harran, they decided to settle there instead. 32 Terah lived to be two hundred five years old and died in Haran. 
Genesis 11:31-32
Did Terah get distracted?  Did he forget the ‘bigger picture’?  Did he settle for something easier or simpler to pull off? Whatever, instead of fulfilling what he’d set out for - his ‘promised land’ in Canaan - Terah settled in Harran (modern-day southern Turkey.) Yes, they had moved. Yes, they’d found somewhere more comfortable. Yes, it was financially more attractive. Yes, it was in a nice location. But it was not where God had called them to be. Terah had set out to be a pioneer, but instead he had become a settler. Let that never be said of us.
Settling too soon put them back a whole generation. Terah’s generation that had set-out so well, ran out of steam. It would take another generation to get them back on track. Only when Terah had died, did God speak to, or was heard by, Abram. But now was the time to pick up the vision. Not a new vision, but the original vision.
“The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.’” Genesis 12:1
God SAID GO! Now it was more than just a hunch. God said leave.  It was time to for the next generation to take up the mantle.  Abram was 75 years old! It’s never too late to participate in what God is doing!

Abram had to exchange the ‘known’ for the ‘unknown’. God said, leave your country, leave your family, leave what feels familiar and comfortable. Yes, but, where are we going. What’s the destination? God said, leave your country, leave your family, leave what feels familiar and comfortable. Yes, but… God said, leave…
And, aged 75, Abram would find his reward in what he might not live to see.
God said leave, He did not say WHERE to! Leave/ go and THEN I will show you! This is a challenge for us who, so often, want the comfort of knowing all the (good) detail of the plan. We’ll only go/ set out if we know precisely where we’re going and all the points on route. But Abram had to trust God, not just his own methodology or logic, and accept that God sees the bigger picture. 
God said, I WILL bless you and make your name great. No wonder Paul called Abraham, “the father of all believers” (Romans 4) God BLESSED Abraham so Abram could bless OTHERS. Abram did not earn the blessing (God made the promise before Abram had done anything.) Others will be blessed by you: because Abram would directly bless them; others would be so inspired by Abram’s blessing that they would also look to God to bless them in the same way. Ultimately, it would be through Abram’s ancestry that the Messiah, Christ Jesus, would come.
God had previously spoken to Abram (Harran) But now God appeared to him at Shechem. This is Christ. Abram’s response was intuitively to build an altar. Abram hadn’t read the Scriptures (not even any part of the ‘old’ Testament, never mind the ‘new’), Abram had never been to church or an Alpha Course. But he intuitively knew that something profound was happening, and that this originated not from within him; it was coming from something, someone for far bigger and more powerful than him. It was coming from God.
But Abram did NOT build a sanctuary. At least not there - and not then. Settlers can build sanctuaries (as the Canaanites did), but Abram was called to be a Pioneer. Abram knew he had not yet reached his final destination. So Abram pulled together a collection of stones to mark both the time and place (ones they and future ancestors will revisit to remind themselves of God’s presence and their journey of faith.
Let’s be people who, like Abram, say, yes to God. Who respond to His call and follow with obedience, even if we don’t yet have all the detail. Let’s not be so much like Terah and settle for half-measures. God has very clearly given us a mission as a church, we know that we are on a journey together. We have not reached our destination, now is now the time to settle for less, bur rather to press on in faith together.
07840 046020   DannyBrierley@ChesterRoadBaptist.org.uk