Abraham’s Story Series

Abraham’s Story:

“The father of multitudes”

Series Intro: Series BC Justice League of Bible Super Heroes:

In a world of chaos and destruction, many are called but few are chosen. Join us as we explore the events surrounding the lives of those biblical heroes; these are the true stories of the BC Justice League.

http://www.whatsyourstoryonline.com/: Quote: Stories are powerful. Stories give meaning to who we are and how we became who we are. Stories help us understand how life happens, and they give value to our experiences. Some of the most powerful testimonies to Christian faith come not from lists of accepted doctrinal beliefs (though they’re important) nor from recitations of biblical principles (also important), but from the enlivened re-telling of how God has acted, overtly or covertly, in each of our lives.

Story:

Reality Show Reveals Our Need for a Father’s Blessing

John Sower, Fatherless Generation (Zondervan, 2010), pp. 116-117, 12-13 | posted 6/13/2011

In the BBC reality show Monastery, a group of five men from diverse backgrounds voluntarily join a Benedictine monastery for a span of forty days. The five men don’t have to assent to Christian beliefs, but they do have to respect and follow the monks’ communal requirements— a strict rhythm of meals, silence, prayer times, and so on.

One of the stories focused on a man named Tony, a producer of soft-core pornography. After some time in the monastery, Tony felt torn: he wanted to keep his job, but he didn’t want to lose the peace he was experiencing in the monastery. With two days left at the monastery, he shared his concerns with Brother Francis:

Tony: No, I am not going to give up my job. I am not going to sit in church all day and read the BibleI need to live. I need to keep my lifestyle. So I’m just a little bit worried. Part of me wants to keep the whole thing alive and carry it through. And I know the minute I get out, it will fade.

Brother Francis: I want to give you something that I think will help with what you’ve just described …. Vocation is about discovering who you really are and maybe what you should really be doing. And that is what we are trying to do here—discover who we really are. I want to give you this stone, this white stone. We have our Christian name, our family name. But we also have another name, and it’s called our "white stone name." [Revelation 2:17] says, "Your new name is written on a white stone in heaven." I think our vocation is to find out what that name is, to find our white stone name.

After handing Tony the stone, Brother Francis places his hand on his head and speaks a word of blessing over him. Immediately after that exchange, the camera scans to a shot of Tony, outside in the dark, huddled on a bench, deeply affected by Brother Francis’ fatherly words of hope and blessing.

Author John Sower comments on this scene from The Monastery:

I believe Brother Francis … speaks to the heart of the fatherless generation. These are the sons and daughters who don’t know their true name. They are searching for who they really are. In their search, they bring this question of identity to anyone who will listen …. They are willing to look anywhere to find it.

Earlier in his book, John Sower had already described our crisis of fatherlessness:

We are a generation seriously searching for Dad. Fatherlessness has become the new cultural norm. This story is being written into the lives of my generation. A story that can be heard in our songs, seen in our movies, read in our blogs. A story of grief and pain, of loneliness and rejection. A story that desperately needs to be heard.

Thesis: Abraham’s story reminds us that God is faithful to His call on our lives and that He will fulfill the promises He gives us in his timing. We just need to be patient and faithful and not try to help God out. We also discover that God always will provide for us if we are obedient to follow the leading of the Lord with our life. A side lesson we learn is that God saw Abrams potential not so much his failures.

T.S. - Over the last few weeks we have been learning about God’s super heroes and today on father’s day we are going to learn the story of Abram whose name was changed by God to Abraham. He is the considered the father of the world’s three major religions: Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.

Introduction:

Abraham whose birth name was Abram, is the modern father of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. According to both the Tanakh and the Qur’an, Abraham is the forefather of many tribes, including the Ishmaelites, Israelites, Midianites, Edomites, and others. Abraham was a descendant of Noah’s son, Shem. Christians and Muslims believe Jesus was a descendant of Abraham through Isaac, while Muslims also believe that Muhammad was a descendant through Ishmael. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham