Ten More Minutes on Abram & Obedience

God tells Abram to leave everything familiar and walk into an unknown future and Abram goes. That one sentence in Genesis 12 confronts the way we treat obedience as either a personality trait or a religious checklist, because real obedience usually involves loss, uncertainty, and a decision to trust God’s voice over every other voice competing for our attention.

We talk through why Abram’s calling may have landed so deeply at age 75, how purpose can show up when life feels stuck, and what Scripture reveals when you trace Abraham’s bigger story beyond a Sunday morning window. We also unpack two sides of obedience that belong together: obedience to God’s mission in the world and obedience to God’s commands in everyday life. Love God and love people sounds simple, but it reshapes how we think about holiness, temptation, and the spiritual disciplines that keep us grounded.

From there, we get practical about the “authority battle” happening in a normal week. How do you recognize God’s voice instead of anxiety, culture, online noise, or your own inner narrator? We explore why time in the Bible and prayer isn’t just a habit but a way to build discernment, and why “small” choices like entertainment, words, and relationships can quietly set the direction of your life over time.

We close with a challenge to consider how God may be uniquely calling you right now and to let this message become a springboard into deeper Bible study and spiritual growth. If the conversation helps you, subscribe to Ten More Minutes, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find it.

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Idea

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Ten More Minutes. This is an original podcast from Cross Point Church where we just take a little extra time each week and reflect on Sunday's message. I'm Ryan Ritchie, joined again by Pastor David Rogers with us. And Sunday mornings they tend to move quickly, but the truths that we hear aren't meant to just stay there. And so each week we come back to them and we slow things down and we spend a few more minutes with God's word and try to hear what he's saying to us. David, this past Sunday you took us to Genesis chapter 12. And the call of Abram. And uh this is the moment where God tells him to go, and then he simply went. Went. You know, and so there's a huge lesson on obedience. It seems like it's simple on the surface, but there's actually a lot underneath that kind of obedience that we get the chance to dig into. And so let's do it. Let's take 10 more minutes. All right, we're back. We're ready to go. Mm-hmm. We're on, I think this is week six. How do you feel about this podcast so far?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah, I'm enjoying it. I am too. I've had a lot of good response too from different people that are watching.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Yeah, I think we're we're still learning. We're still trying to figure out how the mic should be positioned and like you know how everything works technically. It's a bit awkward at times. True is doing a great job producing this whole thing for us. And so uh I I just uh I've had fun with it. It's been a fun little pet project, and so uh something neat that we can kind of grow in and build in. Still haven't figured out what's inside this box. Uh I guess these are pins that have clocks on them.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

So I don't know if we're supposed to wear those or not. I'll just put one of those on. That reminds us.

What Didn’t Fit Sunday’s Message

SPEAKER_02 1:42

What are these coasters? We're on the clock. Yeah, coasters. This is supposed to be a little hourglass there that tells us when it's supposed to stop. Yeah, it's a 10-minute hourglass, not really. Uh hey, uh we we want to get back to basics today. So every week when you think about preparing a message, there's always stuff that's kind of on the cutting floor, left out, things that maybe just didn't tailor their way into this particular message for this particular audience. Right. So I wonder as we dug into Genesis 12 and we're uh talking about these character lessons, these timeless studies that we can dig into. Right. What are some things that maybe got left out this week? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Uh well, a lot. Yeah. I mean, you know, we're with it being a character study, uh, looking at the life of Abraham, uh, also being uh it wasn't a topical message because we're preaching out of four verses, but the the lesson to be learned was obedience. Um, man, you can go in so many different ways with that lesson. Yeah, but the life of Abraham, there's just so much there, you know. And I I mentioned uh Sunday that you know we we begin hearing about him in in Genesis 11. It goes all the way through verse 20 or chapter 25, and and then he's also the most talked about Old Testament figure in the New Testament.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

And so gosh, there's just so much. Um, and so I left a lot out, you know. Um, but I was thinking, you know, one of the things that I would have probably liked to have done a little more, uh, you know, if you just had the time, was to uh to tell more about his life, you know, to share more about his story, uh, uh to get more into the details. Like one thing I didn't even mention uh was the fact that um that we see Abraham's faith and and uh in the birth of his son Isaac. And you know, he and Sarah they're they're very old in age, I mean 75 years old, and and yet God promises them a son. Yeah and they were childless, you know, and and and I think about that and how uh in their culture uh what shame that would bring about you know to a family to not have a child. Uh and so they're living in that, uh living in that moment, and then God promises them, and then you see throughout the story of his life that God fulfills that promise, you know, ultimately. And um, and so uh, you know, just getting into that, those kinds of stories. But what do you what do you choose? Right. What do you what do you share?

Purpose, Loss, And A New Mission

SPEAKER_02 4:13

That's right. Those are neat stories too. You know, you're reading scripture for the first time, maybe, and you say, Where am I gonna start? And you start in Genesis, and you get some interesting things right off the bat. And you know, by the time you get to chapter, I think that's 22 in Genesis, you're reading where God asks Abraham to sacrifice the only son that was promised to him. Oh yeah. Sort of if we dig into it, we recognize the symbolism of that, how that points to Jesus, the idea that God is the one that faithfully provides the sacrifice at the end of the story. But man, what a difficult thing to try and back and understand. But even in that, you see Abraham's obedience. Yeah, and his kind of faithful trust in what God is trying to do in his life, and uh you start to see that. Um I I kind of wonder sometimes in this story that we were digging into in chapter twelve, if Abram in his old age, you know, we we said he was 75 years old, right? Um, if there wasn't just a little bit of purposelessness and hopelessness that he felt in his life, you you did a great job of sort of unpacking this idea that there was all these things that he had to leave behind. Right. You know, you you said leave behind country and and kindred and house, and I don't know how you couldn't figure out a K-word. K-word perhaps. I thought he was gonna do it. He's gonna do it. But no, you just it was it was good. You stuck to what was in the scripture. Um, but you know, and that can be uncomfortable. We sort of talked about how sometimes we have to go through seasons of loss before we can see what God is going to provide for us in the future. This is a great example of that. But I also just wonder if there wasn't something inside of Abram that connected heavily with the message of becoming a great nation, right of seeing multiplication happen in his life, having purpose, of having purpose for the first time. You know, um, I don't know if this is true, but he's 75 years old. He's married to his wife, and he's still living at home with his dad. You know, like let's what are we doing? It's like a failure to launch Abram. Like, let's go on, let's get out, let's do something. And I don't know if you see in him just a little bit of this connection to God that's giving him some worth and value and a purpose and a mission for the first time. And that's how it works and stirs inside of us. That's right. You know, uh I think so many young believers can resonate with a message of saying, I I didn't feel like I had a purpose in life.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

That's what literally brought me to Jesus. It really is. Uh, I think uh at 23 years old, that was the biggest thing on my mind was what is my purpose in life? It was a big deal. And even as I get older, uh, and I and I've been blessed in so many ways, and I I feel like uh God has just uh given me so many opportunities uh as uh a pastor to fulfill my calling and my purpose in life. Um but as you get older, and I'm only you know 62, I guess we can say that on the podcast here, but uh I'm not 75 yet, but there's all already these uh sort of emotions that stir in your heart as you get older, and like, is this it? Is this all that God has in store for me? You know, uh you start thinking about things like that. So I think you bing you bring up a really good point that he probably did sense some of that.

Obedience To Mission And Commands

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah, I mean we don't know, I guess, but I just think that that's a large degree as to how people feel and sense that calling. That's right. Sometimes it feels like such a huge leap of faith, and there are a lot of things that we leave behind. That's right, but you still have a peace because you know deep down in your soul that God is giving a greater worth and a greater purpose. That's right. And there's there's a a plan that he has in place that you know is gonna reap a lot of reward and benefits, you know, down the road as we remain faithful to it. So I just kind of thought about that as you were you know preaching about it and so many great things that were in the midst of that. And certainly I I resonated tremendously with the idea of um, you know, the things that we have to leave behind in order to follow God's plan. But I also resonated with other things that you had going on in the message. I wonder if you if you had 10 more minutes in your message, what where's a part of your message? I know I have a few that I want to get to in a minute, but where's a part in your message that you would go back to and just sort of sit with it a little longer?

SPEAKER_00 8:19

Yeah, so you know, we're talking about Abraham, and he's a per he's a just a great example of obedience. Uh and obedience is like I said earlier, it's um it's such a giant topic, you know, to dig into. And so our objective in this series is to bring the character study into it where you look at someone like Abraham, but also what are the lessons to be learned? And in this one, it was obedience. Obedience, you know, when you think of obedience, you think of it in so many different ways. You know, and I think primarily when I think of the word obedience or obedience in my life, uh, I think of it in two primary ways. Uh one is the way we looked at it uh as we were trying to remain faithful to the text, you know, where Abraham was called to go and he went. Yeah. Right. And so it's this idea of being obedient to God's mission, you know, uh the the purpose and the plans that God has for us uh in in sometimes very unique ways as believers and followers of Christ. And so, you know, I think of uh an obedience to the mission, uh God's redemptive plan, uh, being faithful to the calling. And Jesus even said to his disciples one time, he said, as the Father has sent me, I send you. Yeah, you know, and so thinking about it, uh, obedience like that, uh, and every one of us as believers are called in some unique way to fulfill God's plan for redemption and and to take the gospel into the world, right? The other way that I think we can think of obedience is um obedience to his commandments, right? Yeah. Where Jesus said to his disciples, if you love me, keep my commandments. You know, and so there's this idea that we uh we need to flee from temptation, we need to run from sin, we need to pursue the righteousness of Christ, you know, we need to remain holy, uh, which is not easy. Temptation is a huge, uh, uh, a huge deal in in the believer's life today. And um, I think of um, you know, Matthew 26, 41, uh, where uh Jesus says again to his disciples, he says, Um, watch and pray, you know, uh for temptation in our life. You know, he's telling us to be careful that temptation would not enter into our life. He says, uh the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. You know, and so um as we think about remaining obedient, or you know, if you love me, and and that's where it should really come from is a great love for what Christ has done for us. Uh it's not so much about the rules and regulations as much as is Jesus is my savior, he's my king, I love him, and I want to be obedient to him, I want to live for him, you know. And so this pursuit of righteousness, fleeing from temptation. We're gonna actually get into that uh this Sunday. Oh, good. You know, because we're talking about temptation as we look at Joseph in the Old Testament, you know, as he flees Potter for his wife. But um, so you know, and that's what I love about this is as we go through these series, like the a lot of times the things we don't cover one Sunday, we might have an opportunity the next to just continue the conversation. Yeah. But I think, you know, just diving into obedience is something I was like, man, as I'm watching that clock go, sure, it's like, boy, if I just had 10 more minutes, right?

SPEAKER_02 11:48

Well, and I I think you you make a great point that obedience is is both and. Right. You know, I've said this before, but you know, obedience cannot be a checklist in the life of the believer. That's right. It just can't be. So you could look at things like the Ten Commandments that are written and you could say, Well, I'm I'm gonna get every single one of those. Right. And uh the way that we do that, you know, we could lock ourselves in a closet with a bottle of water and a loaf of bread and accomplish all ten commandments to the degree that we think we've done all of these things.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Like a monk, just move away from civilization.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

But that's still not the kind of obedience that we're really called to. And that's why obedience also has to be sort of tagged with what the mission is that God has called us to go on and obedience with following through with that mission. And for all people, the great uh the great commandment is how Jesus frames obedience and adherence to the law, which is love God and love people. You can't do that if you just try to follow a checklist. That's right. You know, you have to do that with a heart that's on mission and has a purpose to move forward in life. So I love kind of framing it as a both and both and you know, and uh really, really neat how we're talking about that.

When God’s Voice Becomes Loudest

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:58

Um, you know, one of the things you mentioned really early on in your message was this idea of voices. I loved your first point. You you you talked about how um obedience begins when God's voice is more authoritative than every other voice. This idea that there's so many voices that make their way into our lives. You talked about the voices in the world around us. You talked about the voice of the enemy that sometimes we allow to have influence in our life. You talked about the voice in our own head that you know kind of moves and steers us maybe in directions we don't want to go. I was talking with a lady this week about, you know, just wanting control over every aspect of our life. And if we stop to think about it, we really don't have control over that many aspects of our life. You know, the weather happens and we have no control over that. Other people can't control them. Right. In fact, oftentimes I can't even really control myself. Paul says, I'm doing what I don't want to do, and what I want to do, I don't do. That kind of gives you an indication that there's times where our own mind will manipulate us and we can't even control ourselves. That's right. And so that's where this surrendering to God's voice in our life is so important. I was gonna ask you, you know, in that discussion of voices and trying to get God's voice to be the most authoritative voice in your life, how does that authority battle play out in the daily life of the believer, do you think?

SPEAKER_00 14:22

I think, I think for um uh for me, uh it's easy to recognize that Christianity is this huge wrestling match between the flesh and the spirit, you know, always. I mean, we're constantly sort of at battle with those other voices, especially if we do have a desire to to pursue the things of Christ, you know, to not follow the things of the world. You know, when we really have set our mind to that, to live that way, uh, we we've got to recognize that um that life is a battle, you know, and um constantly trying to uh make sure that that God's voice is the voice that we follow. Yeah. Right. And so um I think uh staying in his word, spending time in prayer, carrying out all the different spiritual disciplines is very important for us. Yeah. Um, you know, I I want to get up in the morning and read God's word. You know, I want to spend time in God's word because I know that that's part of uh helping me um uh understand when I hear God's voice versus you know all the other voices in my head, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:25

That's that thing of counterfeits when they talk about when you're trying to decide when a dollar is counterfeit, you don't study the counterfeit, you study the real thing.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

The real thing.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

So you know how to discern.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

And then when you see the counterfeit, you know it. That's right, you know, and so just spending time in God's word, but but just knowing God more, you know. I just want to know him. Uh spending time in prayer, asking him to guard my heart, you know, um, to um to help me to resist temptation, uh, temptation being a very real thing in our life. And and I think uh temptation, uh, you know, we look at the our heroes of the faith in the scripture, and uh we see some mighty men and women of God, you know, and and and their obedience and and stuff. But today, I just feel like in so many ways, temptation has evolved. You know, there's so many other things that we have today that they didn't have. And so goodness, you know, uh, you know, like uh, you know, online stuff and you know, just so many different ways, and there's so many different opinions and so many different teachers online that are, you know, uh false teachers. Uh and and it's just uh we are just waging war, you know, every day.

Small Choices And Spiritual Drift

SPEAKER_02 16:36

As you talked about this authority battle and voices in our head, I also kind of thought about the small decisions that we make in life. And sometimes we like excuse ourselves out of listening to God's voice. Like, like this isn't a big deal. Like God doesn't really care about this part, you know, or or this isn't gonna really affect me that much. Um, and sometimes we were like, okay, God wants me to read my Bible, He wants me to go to church, He wants me to be in a life group. Those are bigger decisions. He's called me to this, I do it, but then in some of my other little things, I can handle those things.

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

But I think it's really important in a sort of uh a key moment in the life of every believer when we can start to understand that God cares about every little facet of our life.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Even the little things.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

And all of the little decisions add up to big directional things that we end up going down. Things like the kind of entertainment we consume, you know, things like the kind of words that we use, things like the kind of people we are hanging around, um, things like even the kind of food that we allow ourselves to consume and be led by. So uh those are little decisions, but sometimes we don't ponder God in the little decisions. We only ponder God when we think it's a spiritual thing. Right. But all things are spiritually leading us closer to him or further away from him, and we need to think about how we can allow God's voice to be authoritative in all our decisions in life.

SPEAKER_00 17:56

It's kind of the death of a thousand cuts, right? At times it can be. You know, it if if you're letting all this little stuff in, it's just as dangerous and just as um, you know, um um unhealthy for us spiritually.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Um, you know, and so uh I think that's why it's just uh, you know, Jesus said to his disciples, he said, Abide in me and and I will abide in you. And so I think every day waking up and making that decision to abide in him, you know, going to him with the the little things, the big things, every every aspect of our life.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

Well, like you said, it's kind of uh do how much do I love him? Right. How much do I believe that his way is better than the best way and is the best way of life? And if we can convince ourselves in our heart and our minds, um, you know, down to the tactile elements of our lives that God is better than anything else. Just as the psalmist says that his love is better than life. You know, and if we can live in that mindset, then we begin to have joy in leaving behind things that we need to leave behind and pursuing things that we should pursue. You know, obedience can feel like a really weighty and very heavy task at times. It can feel like it's a huge leap of faith that God is asking us to take or a complicated set of rules that God is asking us to follow. It can feel big, it can feel overwhelming. Right. But you know, I think it's really about uh trying to stay faithful in the middle of decision-making seasons of life, especially for those that are going through big times like that.

SPEAKER_03 19:26

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

You know, if you had one more minute, and and just as people think about this message during the week, um, I I know you got the chance to talk with several people after the message and people that are, you know, really wrestling with it, but what what what do you want to say to folks like that that are I mean, we're we're I'm struggling with this, it feels overwhelming, it feels like it's a really big decision-making time in my life. You know, where's the next step for people like that as they sit with this message this week?

Wrestling With Calling And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Right. You know, I I think um as we as we sort of um bring it to this place uh in this podcast here today, um uh, you know, the I guess where does the rubber meet the road kind of thing, you know. I I think um one is I I would really like to encourage people to um to really consider how God might uniquely be calling you, or what he may be uniquely calling you to. I I think it's interesting this past week. Um I had probably four or five people that came up to me um uh of all ages, too. I mean, it was young and old and and uh came to me and uh really wrestling with calling in their life, uh where the message had really um challenged them in some unique ways. A couple of them were were in tears thinking about how uh they had recognized God's voice in their life, uh and their and and God's calling on their life, and how they had been disobedient in that and and just asking for prayer um to uh to be able to um to to to go back to him in obedience, you know. And then uh some of the others that came to me were really questioning what is God's calling. They they feel as though God is up to something in their life. And so um I think one of the things I'd really like to do is just challenge people. We just we ran out of time Sunday, and I and I feel like this would have been a sort of a better application that I presented to everyone, but just really consider how God might uniquely be calling you. And then the other piece is um, and and this is where I would hope to challenge people too, is uh, and and this goes for every week, right? But um how might this message uh be used as a springboard uh into deeper study for you? Uh, you know, we to we talked about already here um uh the need to be in God's word and spend time in prayer, uh carry out the spiritual disciplines in our life, but how might this message, as we uh read this story in Abraham? Life, as we go and read other stories in Abraham's life, how might the word of God really challenge you, pull you into a deeper study? Yeah. Desiring more than anything, you know, spiritual growth, maturity in your life. Um, I know that that challenges me every time, you know, uh, that I get in God's word. I always want more, you know. I want to learn more, I want to study more, I want to, you know, I want to know God more. So I that's what I would say. I I would say that I I hope that the people would use this message uh to to really consider their unique calling, but also to allow it to pull you into deeper study.

How Your Obedience Affects Others

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Well, I think there were several that were uniquely challenged uh by what we were talking about on Sunday. And that's right. You had a line, you know, uh after both services. And you even said at one point it was like we're the last people in the building still talking about what God's dealing with here. Which is awesome. It was really neat to see. I I know on the other side of that coin, you had a great application for maybe other people that feel like, okay, maybe my life is pretty solid walking in the direction that God has called me to walk, but our obedience can actually be an example to others around us. You you spent a great deal talking about that. I loved that application point. You talked about how really Abraham's obedience was quite significant in our salvation experience even today. And when you said that, it made me think back to a story of Carly uh when she was 16 years old. There was a family that uh she did some extracurricular activities with at school, and they invited her to church, and she had never really been to a church before in her entire life, didn't have a Bible, family never went to church, just wasn't raised in it.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Right.

Keep Pursuing And Keep Coming Back

SPEAKER_02 23:43

And this uh this other family just took the opportunity to invite her, and she said, Sure, that sounds like fun. And so uh she went and she received Christ for the first time at this event, and um and then the rest of Carly's family then was led to Jesus through her introduction and just an impact that is generational and turns a family around, you know, but it's a simple act of obedience to invite somebody to church, you know, and to just participate in their life and introduce them. They they bought her a Bible that she started reading, and all of a sudden she's on this faith journey that has absolutely changed her life for the better, you know, because somebody was obedient. And uh I thought that was a really neat example of how you do that. And so, you know, I think it's important for us to be considering how is God uniquely calling us, you know, each and every day to follow his lead and to obey so that even people around us can find Jesus through our simple acts of obedience. So David, thanks for taking us through another week and coming back to Genesis 12 and talking about obedience and crosspoint family. Thanks for taking a few extra minutes with us. Our hope is that you'll take this podcast and even the message you heard on Sunday, and just as we talked about, that it wouldn't just stay right there, but that you would continue allowing this to stir in your heart. Keep searching, right? Keep pursuing and keep wondering and asking how God is uniquely uh calling you because it just is going to shape the way that we trust and follow Him throughout the week. And uh so keep coming back as well and uh keep joining us every Wednesday. New episodes of 10 more minutes. We really, really appreciate it. And so take what you've heard, carry it with you. If you need it, you can continue to take 10 more minutes. We'll see you next time. Take care.