How We Can Answer God's Call - Genesis 12:1-9

What if the next step God asks you to take doesn’t come with a destination, a map, or a safety net? We open Genesis 12 and sit with Abraham at the moment God says “Go,” tracing how trust, obedience, and holy living turn one person’s surrender into blessing for countless others. Along the way, we weave in vivid stories—Jackie Pullinger stepping off a ship into Hong Kong with almost nothing, Florence Nightingale transforming battlefield care, Eric Liddell trading Olympic acclaim for a life poured out in China—to show how the ancient call still reshapes modern streets, homes, and hearts.

We don’t romanticize the journey. The text is honest about risk, delay, and the cost of partial obedience. Abraham’s detours, Saul’s compromises, and the fallout that follows remind us that clarity from God deserves a whole-hearted yes. Yet the thread of promise holds. God blesses so his people can bless; he forms a pilgrim posture where we pitch tents but build altars—temporary with our plans, permanent with our worship. Bethel, Shechem, and the Negev become more than places; they are signposts that mark encounters with the living God and teach us how to travel light and pray heavy.

This conversation aims at courage. If you feel late to the start line, remember Abraham at seventy-five. If you feel underqualified, remember the one-eyed preacher who learned to read and ignited Wales. If you feel stuck, take the next faithful step and let God set the route. We close with an invitation to follow Jesus, plus declarations rooted in Scripture to anchor your week. If this stirred you, share it with a friend who needs a nudge of faith, subscribe for more deep dives into Scripture, and leave a review so others can find the show. Your yes might be the blessing someone else is praying for.

Chapters

• 0:07 Welcome, Prayer, And Theme
• 1:18 Genesis 12 Read And Framed
• 2:54 Genesis As Beginning And Abraham’s Place
• 5:21 The Call To Leave And Trust
• 7:11 Modern Mission Example: Jackie Pullinger
• 11:51 God’s Promises And Obedience
• 15:54 Blessing Abraham And History’s Lessons
• 22:59 Blessed For The World Through Jesus
• 25:00 Partial Obedience And Its Cost
• 29:35 Shechem, Altars, And God’s Appearance
• 34:00 Eric Liddell’s Costly Yes
• 39:00 Tents And Altars: Pilgrim Posture
• 43:00 Samuel Walker And Local Reformation
• 50:05 Invitation To Salvation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:07

Hi, and welcome to Catch on Fire Podcast. I am Dr. Novella Springett. I've been a follower of Jesus Christ since I was a child. Over the years, I've spent time studying the Bible and the history of the Christian religion. Catch on Fire Podcast will be conducting in-depth studies of scripture with the goal of encouraging us all to grow in Christian discipleship. This podcast is for all those who have an interest in knowing more about Jesus and what it means to live for Christ in today's pluralistic society. We pray that this podcast will positively impact all of our lives and enable us to become more like Jesus. Please like, follow, and subscribe to Catch and Fire podcasts on the varying platforms that we are featured on. Let's pray, Heavenly Father, we ask God that your presence will be in this place. There will be all of you and none of me. That your word will go forth with power, that lives will be touched and lives will be changed. In your name. Amen. Today we are speaking on We are called by God. And it is based on the passage of Scripture, Genesis 12, 1 to 9. And let's and it reads thus The Lord had said to Abraham, Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you. I will make into a great nation and I will bless you. I will make your name great and you'll be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all people on earth will be blessed through you. So Abram went as the Lord has told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarah, his nephew Lot, all the possessions that accumulated, and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they settled for the land of Canaan. They arrived there. Abram travelled to the land as far as the site of the great tree of More at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring I will give this land. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he went on towards the hills east of Betel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and I on the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Then Abraham set out and continued toward the Nejev. Traditionally, Moses is considered to be the author of Genesis and the other books that constitute the Torah, that is Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. These books were written by Moses during the 40 years that the Israelites wanted in a testimony. Genesis is essentially an introduction to the entire Bible and is referred to as the book of beginnings. Genesis describes events that took place in the ancient Near East. It chronicles the beginnings of civilization, right down to when Jacob's family relocated to Egypt. Genesis stories speak of the oldest nations in the world. It speaks of Assyria, Babylon, Elam, and Egypt. The central figure of chapter 12 is Abram, who would be renamed Abraham. He is hailed by the observance of the three great monotheistic religions as their father. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all declare that there's only one God. The Jews are of the lineage of Abraham as they are descended from Jacob. The Muslims are also of the lineage of Abraham as they are the descendants of Ishmael. Christians consider Abraham to be their father as they have been grafted into his lineage and promise through the blood of Jesus Christ. Bible scholars affirm that the division between Genesis chapters 1 to 11 and Genesis chapter 12 is of greater importance than the division between the Old and New Testament. In Genesis chapters 1 to 11, the word earth occurs 92 times. In chapters 1 to 11, Genesis deals with the creation, Adam and Eve and the fall, Noah and the flood and the Tower of Babel. Mankind is committed to corruption and destruction in these early chapters. In chapter 11, we learn that Abraham was a descendant of Shem, one of Noah's sons. He was married to Sarah, who was childless and unable to conceive. Abraham married Sarah while they lived in Ur. Abraham's brother died before and Terah moved Abraham and Lot to Haran. It was in Haran that Abraham's father, Tarah, died. Chapter 12 begins the story of how God redeemed mankind back to him. Chapter 12 tells the story of Abraham, who was then known as Abraham. God picked Abraham out and gave him seven wonderful promises that would allow mankind to once more have communion with God. Here begins the story of Israel, God's chosen people. And the scripture says the Lord had said to Abraham, Go from your country, your people, and your father's household to the land I will show you. God is calling Abram out to leave everything behind. First Abraham is to leave his country. For 75 years Abraham had lived between Ur and Haram. At that time in history, Er and Haram were cities in Mesopotamia. Abraham had traveled in a safe zone among people that he knew that he was familiar with and civilizations that he was accustomed to. God is now asking Abraham to leave his people and his father's household. Those days there was no welfare system. If anything occurred, it was your family who would take care of you. Abram is being told to abandon his support system. Abram has to believe that God will take care of him in order to take such a step. Abram is going to leave behind the comfortable what he knows best and obey instructions and trust God. Even better, no destination is given to Abram. God is basically saying, as you go, I will give you directions. In Matthew 4, we are told how Jesus called Peter and his brother Andrew, and then similarly called John and his brother James to leave everything and come and follow him. Just as God gave no specifics to Abraham, Jesus also did not provide any details to these fishermen who he was calling to follow him. Jesus simply told them to come, follow him, and he will make them fishes of men. Jackie Palinga details in her book, Chasing the Dragon, how she was felt called to be a missionary, but she had no idea where to. She applied to every missionary board that she could think of and was rejected by all. Finally, in 1966, she met a pastor who told her that if God was calling her to go, she should just go. The pastor told her this that this was exactly how God had called Abraham. Jackie went home. This was in England, she was living in England, and she found a ship that was taking the longest route and making the most stops that she could find. This vessel was going from France to Japan. So she got on the ship in 1966, and when she got to Hong Kong, she got off. She only had 100 Hong Kong dollars to her name. As she informed the immigration officer that she had nowhere to stay, no family, no friend, and no job, and only$100 Hong Kong dollars, which was about$10 US, he was horrified. They informed her that money could only last her three days in Hong Kong and that she should not disembark from the ship because they were planning to send her back to England. While she was on the ship waiting for their decision, she remembered, God had brought back to her memory that her mother had a godson who was a police officer in Hong Kong. When the immigration officers were informed of this fact, they immediately let her enter Hong Kong as in 1966 police officers outrank immigration officers. Jackie Pelinga went on to serve God in the walled city of Hong Kong. This was a place that was known for gambling, drug dens, prostitution. It was a center of action for criminals and gangs. In fact, she stayed there for more than three decades, and she recounts in her book that in the year 2000, more than three decades after she had finally first arrived in Hong Kong, an old man who she had no memory of ever speaking with excitedly called to her. And by that time, the walls of the walled city had come down. It had been bulldozed and there was now a beautiful park. That sordid place of iniquity was gone forever. And that old man began to witness to those around him that Jackie, during a time there, cared for those in the walled city. And as a result, miracles happened and people's life, who we were taught was impossible to change, had changed. Jackie says that in the 1960s, when she arrived in the Wall City, the residents of the Wall City asked her to stay and told her not just to get back and run back to her comfortable life in England. And out of that extended stay in Hong Kong of more than three decades by Jack Timpulinger, there were now houses that house over 300 men, women, teenagers, and children. Addicts had come to Jesus during that time, prayed in tongues and detoxified without any pain. All because Jackie, like Abraham, followed God's call to get up and go with no idea where she was going. God is calling us to serve him. However, God still wants us to reach out to wherever we are to administer to those who are in need and tell them about Jesus' power to heal, save, and satisfy. God is still in the healing and miracle business, and he's longing for us to make ourselves available to be used by him. And the scripture says, I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. Here, God makes a promise to Abraham that would certainly seem impossible in the natural. Chapter 12 had just ended by giving us this insight that Sarah, his wife, was childless and had proven unable to conceive. Nonetheless, God is promising that Abraham will become a great nation. However, all things are possible with God. He's not a man that he could lie. If he says it, it will surely come to pass. God then promises Abraham that he's going to bless him. This first blessing is a solitary blessing reserved just for Abraham. This blessing will be a direct result of Abraham being obedient to God's instructions. And then God gives Abram some exceeding great promises here, but they're all dependent on obedience. When the Israelites, Abram's descendants, were in bondage in Egypt, God sent Moses to tell them that he would not only deliver them from Egypt's bondage, but he would give them the land of Canaan. And Canaan was a land that was flowing with milk and honey. At that time it seemed impossible, but God's words came to pass. On the David, the Israelites worshiped God and became a great nation in that same land, promised land of Canaan. However, after the death of David's son Solomon, Israel split into two kingdoms. The northern kingdom was composed of ten tribes and was known as Israel. And the southern kingdom was the other two tribes that was known as Judah. And this northern kingdom, Israel, fell into idolatry, apostasy, and forsook the worship of the one true God. And as a punishment for their disobedience, God allowed the Assyrians to conquer them and take them back to Assyria in 722 BC. These ten tribes of Israel are called the lost tribes because they never came back. They're assimilated and they never returned in an organized manner as the ten tribes of Israel. The promises are made to God by God to us, but they must, they're dependent on obedience. Florence Nightingale was called by God to serve him. And because she stepped out on faith to serve God, she was able to change the world. She lived from 1820 to 1910, and she was born into a wealthy family, but she felt the call of God to care for others. As a young lady, Florence came to know Jesus. And in her private notes on February 7, 1837, she wrote that God spoke to her and called her to his service. As a teenager, Florence spent time ministering to the poor villagers that lived around her family's estate. And over the objections of her family, because she could have lived a life of ease and favor due to her family's wealth, Florence became a nurse. Florence went to Germany and she trained as a nurse and she came back. She was working at a wealth hospital for wealthy Londoners, and she also volunteered in the poorer hospitals. However, during the Crimean War, it was revealed to the British public that the British soldiers were dying of malnutrition and disease, and there was a huge outcry. Florence's friend Sidney Herbert was at that time the Secretary of War, and he asked her to assist in ministering to the wounded soldiers. At the age of 34, Florence took 38 other women and went to the front. Until then, women had never been at the front of the war, and there were no such thing as nurses being on the battlefield. And while there, Florence pioneered new standards in hygiene and living conditions for wounded soldiers. She mandated that every soldier should have a bath regularly. The wounds were to be clean and bandaged with clean dressing, and the bed linens were to be changed and washed regularly. She also implemented proper sanitation, that the toilet pipes had to be unplugged and unclogged, and there had to be ventilation on the wards. The soldiers also received hot and healthy meals. And sometimes Florence Nightingale would work for 24 hours nonstop, and often she was on her knees dressing wounds for up to eight hours at a time. And still at night, after the other nurses were asleep, Florence would take a lamp and make her rounds, which gave her the name, the Lady with the Lamp. Along with the other woman, Florence Nightingale was instrumental in saving the lives of thousands of wounded soldiers. It was said that the only true hero to emerge from the Crimean War was Florence Nightingale. After the war, Florence returned to England, where she received great accolades. Even the Queen visited her, and her family was now at peace with her chosen vocation. Florence continued to improve, continued to campaign for improved nursing care and sanitation when she returned to Britain. She even opened her own nursing school, the 19 Gale Training School for Nurses, in 1860. And this was the world's very first nursing school that was connected to a hospital. It is still operational to today. At the age of 90, in August 1910, Florence died with the words of the Apostle Paul on her lips. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Nowadays in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. Florence Nightingale heard and responded to God's call and changed the course of history. God promises great and wonderful blessings to those who follow him. However, it is all dependent on holy living. God says that we must be holy because he is holy. It is not possible to say a sinner's prayer at some point in life and proceed to live a life that is not faithful to God and expect to make it into heaven. It will not happen. God is calling us to live for him and be like him if we are to make heaven our home for eternity. The scripture goes on to say, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And whoever curses you, I will curse. Among human beings outside of Jesus, there's certainly no name throughout history that has been more honored than that of Abraham. Christianity, Islam, and Judaism all declare that there's only one God. Abraham is regarded by the observance of these three religions as their father. The Jews are of the lineage of Abraham as they are descended from his son, the child of promise Isaac. The Muslims are also of the lineage of Abraham, as they are the descendants of Abraham's son Ishmael. And Christians, Abraham is a father because we have been grafted into the lineage and promise of true faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. Abraham's name has truly been made great. Additionally, the promise that God will bless those who bless Abraham and curse those who curse Abraham has been consistently lived out throughout history. Historically speaking, those who have welcomed the Jews have always done well, while those who persecute the Jews have experienced hardship. After the Greeks overran Palestine and thought it best to desecrate the temple, they were soon conquered by the Romans. When Titus thought it best to destroy the temple in AD 70, this precipitated the decline of Rome. Spain was reduced to a fifth-rate nation after the Inquisition against the Jews. Poland fell after the programs who killed the Jews. Hitler's Germany was almost completely destroyed after his efforts to annihilate the Jews. The Allahad program occurred in 1839 in Mashdad, Iran, and led to mass killings of Jews accompanied with forced conversion to Islam. There was significant loss of life and destruction of Jewish institutions during this period. However, the Sikhs and the citizens of Kerala, India, welcomed Jews during this time of severe persecution and they offer them refuge. While they live in Kerala, India, they tried and were completely secure. Today, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Since 2000, the economy has nearly quadrupled in real terms, and per capita income has almost tripled. India is reaping the blessings of Abraham. Today we are called to remember the promise that God made to Abraham, especially as we speak about today's current affairs. The blessings of Abraham are tangible and can be incurred by blessing his descendants. We must bear in mind that both the Palestinian and the Jews are descended from Abraham. One through Isaac and one through Ishmael. And the scripture says, and all peoples of the earth will be blessed for you. The purpose of God's blessing Abraham and making his name great was so that he could bless others. Abraham has been a blessing to the whole world because Jesus is a direct descendant of Abraham. The apostle Paul, writing to the Gentiles, to the Galatians, reminded them that God knew that through Abraham's descendant, Jesus, the Gentiles would be justified and reconciled to God. God sent the gospel to the Gentiles, and he has mightily used Gentiles to spread the word that Jesus came and died so that we might live. The Apostle Luke was a Gentile. He was a physician and a constant companion of the Apostle Paul. He wrote the Gospel of Luke along with the book of Acts. Originally, these two books were not only written together but circulated together. Sometime in the late 1st or early 2nd century, the book of Luke became associated with Matthew and Mark and John, and Acts was put at place after these four books. Luke is the longest of the New Testament books. The three longest New Testament books are Luke, Matthew, and Acts in that order. Acts is only about one-tenth shorter than Luke and is almost exactly the length of Matthew. Luke and Acts, when combined, constitute 27.5% of the New Testament. Together, these two books exceed both the writings of Paul and John in size. It follows, therefore, that the apostle Luke, a Gentile, was the most prolific writer of the New Testament. Another Gentile who centuries later was greatly used of God to bless the world was Christmas Evans. Christmas Evans was born on Christmas Day, December 25th, 1766, in Wales. After his father died, when he was a teenager, Christmas was sent to live with his uncle. His uncle Lewis was a cruel man and a drunkard. Christmas spent six miserable years with this man who gave him no education during those years. At 17, Christmas could neither read nor write and had received no moral or religious training. Thanks be to God. He was able to move on at 17, but up to that point in time, he was known to constantly be in fights. And in one of those fights, he lost his right eye. So he was essentially a one-eyed man at the age of 17. But he left his uncle and went to work for a minister. And while in the minister's employee, Christmas gave his life to God at a revival. And within a short time, Christmas taught himself to read and write and started ministering at cottage meetings to the poor people. In those days, in 1766, he joined the Baptist church and they saw the desire and the passion of Christmas. They ordained him and sent him to a small parish in Wales in 1760. In Wales at that time, they would have what they call preaching festivals, where as many as 25,000 people would show up to hear the word preach. It was at one of these preaching festivals that Christmas Evans became known. As he was called on to speak, and as he preached the word, he became the talk of the festival and the newest preaching sensation in all of Wales. In 1792, Christmas and his wife moved to Northwest Wales, where he ministered for the next 20 years. Within a few years, more than 600 people had committed their lives to Christ. Christmas was a constant reader. He often preached daily and twice on Sundays. He was also a man of prayer. He had three stated times for prayer during the day, and he would often wake at midnight to seek God's face. Christmas didn't fit the mould of who becomes a great preacher. He was born and raised in poverty. He was brutalized and deprived of formal education. He only had one eye, having lost the other in a fight. However, he was the instrument that God used to carry the gospel throughout Wales. And many found salvation due to his passionate and impassioned ministry. We have been truly blessed because of Abraham. Jesus, the direct descendant of Abram, is calling us to come out and live for him. Come out from wherever we may be, because he came to take away the sins of the world. May we follow in the footsteps of faithful Abraham and answer the call of God. The scripture goes on to say, so Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he set off from Haran. He took his wife Sarah, his nephew Lot, all the possessions that accumulated, and the people that acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan and they arrived here. Ah, Paul, writing to the Galatians, told him, So also Abraham believed God, and he was credited to him for righteousness. Abraham did not ask for consensus. He stepped out by faith to do what God told him to do. Abraham was already 75 years old. He did not tell God that he was too old for this kind of adventure. He simply obeyed. It would appear that Abraham was well off. He took possessions and servants with him that he had accumulated over the years. But anyone who's ever moved knows that he must still have had to leave a lot behind. And Abraham made his way to Canaan. It was a long journey. It was 400 miles away to the southwest of Haran. And he took his entourage, they took the time, but they made it. Abraham Completed the journey. He did what God told him to do. He did not come up with a better plan that made more sense or listened to the advice of others, of the popular people and the intelligent ones. Abraham simply obeyed God. However, Abraham was not completely obedient to the commandment to leave everyone and step out by faith. He kept his nephew Lot with him. He was an orphan, and that would lead to trouble. Lot settled in the lawless city of Sodom, and it was from Lot that was descended the bitter enemies of the Israelites, the Ammonites and the Moabites. In 1 Samuel 15, we are told that God told King Saul to wipe out the Amalekites. And Saul decided that he knew more than God, so he left some of them alive. When the prophet Samuel questioned Saul, he lied. He stated that he had destroyed everyone, all of the Amalekites, except for the king Agad, because he couldn't lie about that because Agad was right there looking at Samuel. Unfortunately, because the Amalekites left alive. Ironically, when Saul was killed in battle, is one of those supposedly totally wiped out Amalekites who claimed to have killed King Saul. While Daniel was king, he had to keep going to war against the Amalekites. Haman, who tried to wipe out all the Jews in the days of Esther, was a descendant of this same King Agad, who Saul left alive. John Henry Newman was born in London on February 21st, 1801. And he was educated in Trinity College, Oxford. And he in 1824 he was ordained and he began his ministry as Vicar of St. Mary's, Oxford in 1828. W. Robinson Nichol refers to Newman as the most influential preacher Oxford has ever known. But he got caught up in a controversy, Newman, when he tried to prove that the 39 articles of the Church of England could be interpreted as being from a Roman Catholic viewpoint. He was asked to recant this position or stepped aside. Newman refused to recant and left Oxford. On October 8, 1845, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. Whilst Newman's preaching progress was phenomenal, it was noted that he never preached about the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. His sermons were intellectual analysis of the heart of man. He did not conduct a New Testament preaching. He never touched on the essence of the gospel, which is the free grace of God which is extended to sinful man. He only partially followed the commandment to go and preach. Sadly, Newman preached himself out of the evangelical tradition of the Church of England and into the sacramental system of the Roman Catholic Church. When we don't follow Jesus wholeheartedly and completedly, completely, things tend to go wrong. We must follow the call the way that God wants us to. Scripture says that Abraham traveled to the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moriah, Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abraham and said, To your offspring, I will give this land. So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him. Shechem is in the midst of two mountains and is in the middle of Canaan. And Shechem is a place fraught to biblical history. This is the first place that Abraham is recorded as having visited when he came to Canaan. Jacob brought a piece of land here for a hundred pieces of silver from Hama. Jacob built an altar to the Lord here. Jacob gave land in Shechem to Joseph that he captured in battle. When they brought up Joseph's bones from Egypt, it was in Shechem that those bones were buried. This is where Joshua threw down the gauntlet to the Israelites when he told them, Choose ye this day with whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. It is here in Shechem that Jacob dug a well. You can still visit it in the holy land. It is said to be about a hundred and forty feet deep. And it is called living water because it connects an underground stream. And it was here in Shekem that Jesus came to meet the woman at the well, at Jacob's well. When Abraham came to Canaan, it was fully inhabited. The Canaanites, who were the residents then, they're known to be immoral and deprived inhabitants. And it was here in this place that God appeared to Abraham. For the very first time since Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden of Eden, it is recorded that God appeared to a human being. God brought Abraham all the way to Canaan, didn't even give him the land. He simply assured Abraham that his offspring, of which he had none at that point in time, would inherit the land. Abram knew that this was not an event to be taken lightly, so he built an altar to commemorate this prestigious incident God had appeared to him. And this altar was a permanent structure that would last for ages. Later in Genesis, when there was a famine in the land, God made a way for the descendants of Abraham, Jacob and his entire family, to leave Canaan and go down to Egypt so that they could survive the famine. And God informed Jacob that he should not be afraid to leave Canaan and go down into Egypt, as he would surely bring back up the Israelites from Egypt and back to the promised land of Canaan. Not only that, but during their time in Egypt, God would make the Israelites into a great nation. Eric Liddell left the fame and fortune of athletics to follow God in missionary service in China. He was born in China in 1902, where his parents, James, Reverend and Mrs. James Dunlop Liddell, were Scottish ministry missionaries. And until the age of five, he went to school in China. And then at the age of six, he and his eight-year-old brother were sent back to England to go to a boarding school in South London. And their parents and Jenny returned to China. It was in 1920 that Eric joined his brother Robert at the University of Edinburgh to study. And while there, athletics and rugby played a large part in his life. Liddell ran in the 100-yard and 220-yard races and he also played rugby. But he earned the reputation of being the fastest runner in Scotland. He became the national 100 and 200 meters champion after winning both titles at the 1923 Athletic Champions. In the 10 yards, Liddell set a British record of 9.7 seconds that would stand for 23 years. At the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, Liddell was there representing his country, but he refused to run in the heats for his race, a 100-meter race, because the heats were being held on a Sunday, which immediately disqualified him from being able to compete in the finals. So Liddell said he would compete in the 400 meters, which was being held on a weekday. He had never run the 400 meters prior to then. And Lindell not only won that 400 meters, but he broke both the Olympic and world records with a time of 47.6 seconds. After university, Lindel went back to China. He gave up all the splendor and the accolades of being the fastest man in the world. I went back to China to serve as a missionary. He was in Hebei province, which was an extremely poor area. And he was also in China when the Japanese invaded. In 1943, he, along with the members of the China Inland Mission and many others, were placed in an internment camp by the Japanese, which was located in what is now known as Weifang. And during his time there, Liddell acquired a reputation of being a truly exemplary follower of Jesus. And he died there five months before the end of the war. Six years after the anniversary of the internant camp liberation, the city of Wafan commemorated him because they remembered that Lyddell stood for Christ in the midst of all that was happening. Like Abraham, like Eric Lydd, may we answer the call for God wherever it may lead. And the scripture said, from there he went on towards the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and I on the east. And he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Then Abraham set out and continued toward the Njev. Abram kept moving. He pitched a tent between Bethel and I. This was a temporary structure that would come down when Abraham moved. Where Abraham was involved, he pitched temporary tents. He knew this world as not his world, and that he would be moving on. Nothing on earth had any ties to him. To today, Bethel and I can still be found. They're about 12 miles from Jerusalem. And Bethel, which is translated as the house of God, continues to appear in Bible history. It was at Bethel that Abraham had the dream, that Jacob rather had the dream of the ladder going up to heaven and erected a pillar in worship. And here between Bethel and I, Abram built another altar. Where Abraham was concerned, he built temporary, he put up tents, but he built permanent altars so that the inhabitants of the land could see him worshiping the God, the one who hung the stars in face. And there we are told that Abraham called on the name of the Lord. He called on Yahweh, the existing one, the one who sits outside of time, the one who reigns from everlasting to everlasting. Abraham paid honor and gave worship to Yahweh. And he kept moving, but he kept praising and he kept praying. Abraham then went on to the Nejev, which is a desert area. By this time, Abraham has transversed all of Canaan from north to south. He has seen the land that his offspring would possess. In Joshua 21, we are told how this land was divided among the tribes of Israel, just as God had promised Abraham. Samuel Walker, who was a formula follower of Jesus, also possessed the land that he was given to minister while he pastored in England. He was a minister of Trura in Cornwall, England. He was born in Exeter, England in 1714. He went to Exeter College, Oxford in 1732, and he earned his degree. At the age of 23, Walker entered ministry. And in 1747, he had accepted the position of minister of True Conval and remained there for 15 years until his death in 1761. True was known for its entertainment and festivities. And for the first 12 months of Walker's ministry, he was known as a card playing, dancing, party going clergyman. But God allowed him to become friends with one of his members, a Mr. Conan. And Mr. Conan, which through his discussions with Samuel, taught him the importance of possessing the mind of Christ. And a change took place in Samuel Walker's preaching and practice. He stepped away from all these worldly entertainment and amusements that had one time captivated him. Repentance, faith, and the new birth became the topics of his preaching. Samuel even spoke out against the empty pleasures that he no longer participated in. And his passionate preaching drew the people. And eventually, such crowds attended his services that the streets would appear to be empty during service time. However, you know the devil doesn't rest. As Samuel spoke out against these frivolities, there was great animosity and hostility stirred up against him on the part of some of his members, especially the wealthy ones. And they went to the rector, who was Samuel's superior, to have him dismiss. And uh went the rector taught to listen to them, they were very well off. And he went not once but twice to try to do dismiss Samuel. And he came back because he said there was such power in Samuel that he could not bring himself to do it. And they came back to him the third time and he told them that they should go themselves, since they wanted it done so badly, because he did not possess the power to remove Walker from that position. And Walker was living a life of such outstanding holiness, just like Daniel, that they could not find anything that they could use to move against him, to move, to get him ousted. And where he wasn't sure, worldliness and wickedness were greatly reduced. The theater, the cockfighting pit were abandoned. Even those who continued to sin were they had to hide to do it. They were not open with it. And in 1754, after having preached like this for more than seven years, Walker reported that no less than 800 people had approached him to ask what could it do to be saved? And he implemented a system of private meetings, the precursor of today's small groups. The Apostle Paul instructs believers to edify one another. It's not supposed to be left up to the pastor to do everything. And this mutual gathering of believers is a valuable means of growing in grace and in the knowledge of God. And in 1761, Walker died from pulmonary consumptions. It is believed that he overworked himself. He never married. He held services on Sundays, he conducted burials, burials, baptisms, and visited the sick. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 6 to 10, he met with people. On Tuesdays, he attended society. On Thursdays, he gave a lecture at church. On Saturdays, he prepared the Sunday sermon. But he died having given his all to the work of God and having answered the call of God. Walker possess the land that God had promised him and serve God there. Let us answer the call of God. And wherever we are, may we go all out for Christ. God is called on Abraham to come out from where he was. Today, God is calling on all of us to follow him in Christian discipleship. Today, if you do not know Jesus as personal Lord and Savior, He's knocking at the door of your heart. Will you please let Jesus in? There's eternal life after this life here on earth, and we have to make a choice where we'll spend eternity, hell or heaven. Hell is real. Jesus spoke more about hell than he did about heaven. There's one way to heaven, and that is by confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and believing in our hearts that he rose from the dead. If anyone listening wishes to come to know the joy, peace, and love that can be found in Jesus, please feel free to repeat this prayer after me. Jesus, please come into my heart and be Lord of my life. Wash me and make me clean. Teach me to live for you. Amen. If you have prayed this prayer, congratulations. You're now officially one of Jesus' believers. Please find a Christian church to go to fellowship with other believers so you can learn how to be a disciple of Christ. We are going to speak words over our lives. We are going to confess that Jesus is Lord of our lives and that everything in our lives is in keeping with His words and His promises to us. We can say Amen as I declare these confessions. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that we are still holding on to God's unchanging hand. We are still in God's holy plan. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that we are the head and not the tail. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that from the crown of our heads to the soles of our feet, we have received healing, as by his stripes we are healed. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that God is all in our steps, that no weapon formed against us shall prosper, and every tongue that rises up against us in judgment is condemned. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that we have been made more than conquerors through the blood of Jesus. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that angels are watching over us, our family, our children, our grandchildren, our loved ones. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that we are financially in line with God's word. And as such, we are lenders and not borrowers. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that all of our debts have been paid and are forgiven. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that the enemy of our souls has no authority over our finances and our funds, and that we are good stewards of the money that God has placed in our keeping. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus the doors are being opened and that blessings and answers to prayers are being manifested in the spiritual and the physical in our lives. I shall not want. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup run it over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. Amen.