Genesis 12:1-3

Into God’s Best for Your Life- Part 1

“Leaving Ur”

TAKEAWAY: God wasn’t calling Abram away from his life. He was calling Abram to real life in
Him.
READ SCRIPTURE FIRST
Opening Illustration:
There was a radio station that did a call-in for New Year’s resolutions. These are the top goals they
got:
Exercise more
Save more money
Eat healthier
Spend more time with family
Improve physical/mental health
Now, all these things have something in common. They all are all improvements on what already is.
- Notice the word more
All of these things fit within the category of “Better Life.”
TRANSITION: What we find is that we are all living in the land of ER (UR). Humanity tends to
always want “better” or improvement.
We want to…
Be prettier
Be fitter
Be wealthier
Be better fathers and mothers
MAJOR POINT: Many times, we don’t walk in God’s best for our life is because we aren’t looking
for it. We are constantly comparing our lives to someone else’s.
Hebrews 11 is key for interpreting Genesis 12:
Hebrews 11:1- Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 1
Hebrews 11:8-10- 8  By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an
inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9  By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in
a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10  For he was looking forward
to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. 2
Abraham declared this world “not his home.” He adopted the life of a nomad, living in faith, rather
than a citizen of Ur.

1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Heb 11:1.
2 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Heb 11:8–10.

APPLICATION: Life here is chasing what is better. God has called us to leave that life. To tell the
world that your best doesn’t compare to God’s best. I want to walk with him.
ILLUSTRATION: Have you ever started looking for something, and you started finding other stuff
that you’d been missing, and you forgot about what you were looking for in the first place? This
seems to be the status of humanity after the fall. They had forgotten what life with God in the
garden was like, and they thought they were building their own way of life in places like Babel and
Ur.

TRANSITION:
In fact, when we go back in time, we find that humanity has gotten caught on the gerbil wheel of
better since the time of Babel.
A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday night, we did a study of Babel in Genesis chapter 11. Babel
wasn’t so much about architecture as it was about a way of life. The people of Babel represented a
spirit of pride that said to God, “We can do life better without you.”
After the confusion of language in the land of Babel, the people dispersed.
Our text today picks up on the heels of that event about 200-250 miles south of Babel in a city called
Ur.
31  Terah took Abram, his son, and Lot, the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai, his daughter-in-law,
his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of
Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32  The days of Terah were 205 years, and
Terah died in Haran. 3 — Genesis 11:31-32

UR of the Chaldeans (Around Abraham’s birth approx. 2100-1900 BC)
 Ur → southern Mesopotamia (near modern Nasiriyah, Iraq)
- A center of worship of the moon-god Nanna (Akk. Su-en “Sin”)

MAIN POINT:

God is telling Abram that the best life for him is not in the land of Ur. It is walking in faith,

believing the promise of God.
Will Abram make a move?

Theological truths…God may call you to walk away from something, but walking with Jesus always
results in God’s best for your life.

3 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Ge 11:31–32.

NOTES
- Remember where this falls in scripture. The account comes on the heels of Babel.
-  Babel → central Mesopotamia (near modern Hillah, Iraq)
-  Ur → southern Mesopotamia (near modern Nasiriyah, Iraq)
-  Distance: roughly 200–250 miles apart
-  Same river system, same cultural world
Ur was not morally neutral. It was:
 Part of the same post-Babel culture
 Deeply idolatrous (moon-god worship)
 A refined version of Babel’s spirit—polished rebellion

Why Ur doesn’t work in God’s plan for Abraham?
- God wanted Abraham’s relationship with Him to reveal God’s best for Him.
- God’s primary concern with Abraham is his spiritual condition.
- He has selected