From Darkness To Hope Series

Series: The Journey

Message: From Darkness to Hope

Text: Genesis 11:27-12:1

Date: September 11, 2011

Pastor: David McBeath

OFFERING

At this time I’d like to continue our time of corporate worship and celebration by taking an offering. The offering is simply an opportunity to celebrate and thank God for what he has given you, what he has allowed you to have, how he has and is taking care of you! It is a way for those of us who are Christ followers to acknowledge all I have is from God. Giving to God some of what God has allowed us to use is a spiritual discipline that helps us realize life is not about us—but about him. And let me tell you, having this attitude is the best way to live. Don’t believe me try it! You won’t be disappointed

Now, if you are visiting with us, please, please don’t feel like you have to give. You are our guests! Your presence with us is gift enough. Please don’t feel any pressure. We just ask that you place your name on the communication card in your bulletin so we have a record of your visit with us!

As the ushers provide you the opportunity to worship God in this way, I have a video I want you to watch. Today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The video contains radio transmission from the twin towers and names of everyone that lost their life on this date 10 years ago. Let’s take a moment to remember those that lost their lives in this awful tragedy.

PRAYER

INTRODUCTION

We’ve heard the radio transmissions, seen the names of those who lost their lives on 911, here are some of the horrific images. Look at them. Planes crashing into the towers! Explosions! Fire! Towers crashing down! Debris!! Ruble!

Does it hurt to see these images of this event? Do you remember where you were when this happened? Do you remember how you felt? I was at the office. We were dumbfounded! Couldn’t say a word! I remember going home and watching the news, seeing the video over and over again—it was like I had been kicked in the gut. I remember thinking this was an evil act! This was a Dark act! I remember there was this sense of Darkness.

I was a youth pastor at that time, and I remember students were saying that their friends were asking, “Where was God when this happened!” …I could tell this wasn’t just their friends question, it was their question as well! Deep down, it was my question also. Maybe it was your question too?

Where is God when evil rears its ugly head? Where is God in the Darkness of this world? How do we move from Darkness to hope? These are the questions we are going to answer from the Bible this morning. We are going to see how God gave hope to a man that lived in a time of incredible evil and darkness. We are going to look at the beginning of Abraham’s journey of faith, a journey from Darkness to hope.

TEXT

Please open your Bibles to Genesis 11:27-12:1. Will you stand in honor to God’s word as I read?

"This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. Now Sarai was barren; she had no children. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Haran. [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." ]

ABRAM’S DARK WORLD

9/11 was a dark time. But not nearly as dark as the world Abram lived in. Let me give you a little biblical context. (Remember, when you study the Bible, always, and I mean always remember the context.) We should never divorce a passage of the Bible from the overall message or story God gave is telling humankind in the Bible!

Genesis is the story of beginnings. In Genesis 1 we learn that God takes an empty (or barren) dark nothingness and creates the world with his voice (or his word). In a portion of this world he created God makes a wonderfully beautiful Garden! Again, God does this with HIS WORD ( with HIS VOICE).