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
Abraham was:
• Born: 3rd century B.C.
• Birthplace: Ur, Babylonia in current day Iraq
• Died: 3rd century B.C.
• Best Known As: Patriarch of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
Three world religions honor Abraham as their ancient patriarch father, founder and a model of faith in one God. In Judaism the 12 tribes of Israel trace their lineage to Abraham through his son Isaac and grandson Jacob. In Christian scriptures he is a spiritual ancestor, "justified by faith." In Islam’s Koran he and another son, Ishmael, build the sacred site at Mecca, which remains the holiest destination for the world’s Muslims, by decree of Allah through Muhammad. The biblical book Genesis describes Abram’s birth in Ur (near modern Nasiriyah, Iraq), his marriage to Sarai, and God’s promise to make of him "a great nation." God sends them on a long, dramatic, Middle Eastern journey, eventually renaming them Abraham and Sarah and periodically giving Abraham guidance and commands. The hardest of these is to offer Isaac as a human sacrifice; an angel stops Abraham at the last minute.
In Genesis, Abraham is 86 when Ishmael is born to the young servant Hagar, given to him as a second wife by the childless Sarah. Abraham is 100 and Sarah over 90 when they miraculously give birth to Isaac; Hagar and Ishmael are then sent away. After Sarah’s death, Abraham has six children by a third wife, Keturah. At age 175, he dies and is buried in Macpelah, near modern Hebron, West Bank. From http://www.answers.com/topic/abraham#ixzz1PRlWVt4v
T.S. - Abraham’s story teaches us three dimensions about God and how we need to react or not react to certain situations in our lives. We can all learn from father Abraham!
I. God’s call
a. Without us discovering the will of God for our life will cause our life to be senseless and meaningless. So we do need to hear the voice of God and respond to the call He has on each one of our lives.
i. Rick Warren “Purpose Driven Life” – Contrary to what many popular books, movies, and seminars tell you, you won’t discover your life’s meaning by looking within yourself. You’ve probably tried that already. You didn’t create yourself, so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for! If I handed you an invention you had never seen before, you wouldn’t know it’s purpose, and the invention itself wouldn’t be able to tell you either. Only the creator or the owner’s manual could reveal its purpose…You exist only because God wills that you exist. You were made by God and for God-and until you understand that, life will never make sense. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead one” (Warren, page 18).
1. Colossians 1:16 (CEV): “Everything was created by him, everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen, including all forces and powers, and all rulers and authorities. All things were created by God’s Son, and everything was made for him.
b. The important point to learn from Father Abraham is that God’s call will lead you to unexpected places but the key is to keep your faith in God the Father and go. Because this will bring you the greatest fulfillment in your life.
i. Genesis 12:1-3: 1The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.2“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
ii. Hebrews 11:8-12: 8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.
12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
1. Abraham knew he had to leave Ur to go where God was calling him - sending him.
2. He had to trust God, have faith in God another words believe that God would protect him, provide for him, and lead him. That’s faith to trust and believe that God is with you even in the remotes parts of your call.
iii. Have you ever wondered what the Bible would say about its heroes if they had no faith:
1. Contributed to sermon central By: Sherm Nichols
a. How would the Bible read, I wonder, if faith were left out. Imagine Heb 11 w/o faith:
¬ Without Faith, Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, didn’t even gather the materials to build an ark because a worldwide flood was such an impossibility.
¬ Without faith, Abraham, didn’t leave his home when God called him because that would be foolish. Without faith, he wasn’t able to become a father, and if he had he wouldn’t have offered up his son to God.
¬ Without faith, Moses chose to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and to enjoy the pleasures of sin over suffering for Christ.
¬ Without faith, the people of Israel couldn’t pass through the Red Sea on dry land, and the Egyptians overran them.
¬ Without faith, the walls of Jericho didn’t fall at all. The people didn’t even march around the city for 7 days, because such a thing would have been foolish, right?
¬ Without faith, many others failed to conquer kingdoms, justice was perverted, they lost what was promised, were burned by flames, caught by the edge of the sword, their strength was turned to weakness, they were weak in battle and routed by foreign armies. These were all not commended for their faith, and none of them received what was promised.
Take the life of great people, remove faith, and that’s how it reads. That’s the Bible story without faith.
c. Video Illustration: Blue fish TV - “God’s Call”
d. Illustration: Martin Luther King Jr. Hears Jesus’ Promise : Charles Marsh, Welcoming Justice (IVP Books, 2009), pp. 16-17; source: Men of Integrity (January/February 2011) | posted 1/03/2011:
i. Most people know about the passion of Martin Luther King Jr. for racial justice and nonviolent resistance. However, some people aren’t as familiar with King’s deep personal faith in Christ. In his book Welcoming Justice, Charles Marsh describes one of King’s profound encounters with the Risen Christ. [In January 1956, Martin Luther King Jr.] returned home around midnight after a long day of organizational meetings. His wife and young daughter were already in bed, and King was eager to join them. But a threatening call—the kind of call he was getting as many as 30 to 40 times a day—interrupted his attempt to get some much-needed rest. When he tried to go back to bed, he could not shake the menacing voice that kept repeating the hateful words in his head. King got up, made a pot of coffee, and sat down at his kitchen table. With his head buried in his hands, he cried out to God. There in his kitchen in the middle of the night, when he had come to the end of strength, King met the living Christ in an experience that would carry him through the remainder of his life. "I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on," King later recalled. "He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone … He promised never to leave me, no never alone." In the stillness of the Alabama night, the voice of Jesus proved more convincing than the threatening voice of the anonymous caller. The voice of Jesus gave him the courage to press through the tumultuous year of 1956 to the victorious end of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. More than that, it gave him a vision for ministry that would drive him for the rest of his life. Copyright © 2011 by the author or Christianity Today International/ PreachingToday.com.
ii. The call of God can be a lonely and even scary place to be, but even when we are called to places we still need to respond and go.
e. The Call:
i. Henry and Richard Blackaby in their book Spiritual Leadership:
1. They note: “An examination of God’s promises, as seen through the Scriptures makes two things obvious: (1) God’s promises are impossible to achieve apart from him, and (2) God’s promises are absolute. They are not open for discussion or amendment. Apart from a miracle, Abraham could not even become the father of one, let alone the father of a multitude. God supplied the miracle 0 Isaac, in fulfillment of his promise to Abraham and in accordance with his desire to use Abraham’s life for his divine purposes” (Page 72).
2. The key to fulfilling the call of God on your life and achieve the promises He has made which are attached to that call all reat in God’s ability to fulfill them not ours.
a. Blackaby notes: “Abraham needed to understand that, as long as he had an intimate relationship with God, God’s promises were assured, no matter how impossible his situation appeared” (page 72).
T.S – We need to respond to the call of God on our lives and go where He wants us to go and then be patient and wait for God’s timing and God’s intervention. We must remember God always fulfills His promises.
II. God’s timing
a. After we have received our call or our purpose in life we then need to make sure that we don’t try to help God out in fulfilling His promise for us.
i. Blackaby states, “Abraham learned that God’s promises are perfect. God does not need man’s wisdom to help get the job done. On at least two occasions Abraham attempted to modify God’s promise in order to make it more attainable. First, Abraham suggested using his adopted son, Eliezer of Damacus, as his heir (Gen 15:2-3). This was an accepted custom in Abraham’s day. But God refused. God’s promise was for Abraham’s descendent to come through Abraham and Sarah. After living in Canaan for ten years without child, Abraham then attempted to produce an heir through his servant Hagar (Gen. 16:1-4). Hagar did bear a son, Ishmael, but using him as Abraham’s heir was not in accordance with God’s promise. Even when Abraham pleaded, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!’ God stood firm to his original promise (Gen. 17:18) (Page 72).
b. Galatians 4: 22-30: reveal to us the devastating results of what happens when we try to help God out.
i. 21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
23His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
24These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.
25Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.
26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.
27For it is written: “Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”
28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
29At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.
30But what does the Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”
31Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
1. In life I have discovered that when I act to try to help God out or to look good I end creating more of a mess and end up in bondage rather than freedom.
2. I need to be reminded that God will use me but I cannot try to do something in the flesh to assist God in fulfilling a promise.
ii. Genesis 16
1. 11The angel of the LORD also said to her: “You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery.12He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”
a. Notice we are still seeing the result of what happens when we try to help god fulfill a call he has on our lives, when we try in the flesh to help God out. The result is hostility and war and heartache!
i. This is why Muslims and Jews still dislike each other! It goes that far back in time!
iii. Blackaby notes - “Christians” - “Spiritual leaders must continually remind themselves that what God has promised, God will accomplish completely in his time and in his way (Phil. 1:6)” (page 72).
1. He does not need us to do things on our own because that just makes a big mess.
iv. Henry Blackaby once wrote,
“When God was ready to judge the world with a flood, He came to Noah. When He desired to build a nation for Himself, He turned to Abraham. When He heard His children groaning under Egyptian bondage, He appeared in a burning bush to Moses. They were three of the most ordinary of men. But God had work to do, and He knew just who to do it with. God has always given His people assignments that are too big for them to handle alone, so that a watching world can see—not what we can do—but what God can do.”
c. If you have not noticed - God is always honest in Scripture when He tells a person’s story. He usually shares the good with the bad. Our super hero like David had many flaws.
i. He lied about his wife on a few occasions causing her to be taken by other men.
1. He did this out of fear instead of faith.
ii. He tried to fulfill God’s promise by using his flesh and by falling into sin.
1. Trust me this never works! It just causes heartache and pain for those involved.
2. It cause bondage not freedom.
3. This whole situation could have been avoided if Abraham would have waited patiently for the miracle God had promised.
d. Remember: God saw the potential in Abraham not the failures! He was not perfect and neither are you or I but God will use imperfect people to do his perfect will.
i. God saw his heart – remember that God always looks deep inside of us especially in our points of failure or shortcomings:
1. The next time you feel like GOD can’t use you, just remember...
Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Sampson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
John the Baptist ate bugs
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer...
AND
Lazarus was dead!
What do you have that’s worse than that?
So no more excuses!
God can use you to your full potential.
Besides you aren’t the message, you are just the messenger
From: http://www.sermoncentral.com/Illustrations/SearchResults.asp?sscat=illustrations&sitesearch=ros-abraham&rk=abraham&keyword=abraham
ii. Video Illustration: Blue Fish Tv: “God’s Timing”
1. This video shows the turmoil we find ourselves in when we try to help God out in fulfilling His promises.
T.S. – God’s timing is crucial as we follow the path God leads us down. We have to make sure that we don’t try to help God out in fulfilling His plans or promises. He is the one that always comes through in the end.
III. God’s Provision
a. Genesis 22:1-19: The sacrifice of Isaac and God’s provision
i. Key verse: 5He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”
ii. Key verse: 8Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.
iii. Key verses: 12“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” 13Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
iv. Now this is a close call! God steps in at the last minute! Have you ever been there?
1. God comes through at the zero hour!
IV. Illustration: FAITHFUL INSTRUCTIONS
There was a man who got lost in the desert. After wandering around for a long time his throat became very dry, about that time he saw a little shack in the distance.
He made his way over to the shack and found a water pump with a small jug of water and a note.
The note read: "pour all the water into the top of the pump to prime it, if you do this you will get all the water you need". Now the man had a choice to make, if he trusted the note and poured the water in and it worked he would have all the water he needed. If it didn’t work he would still be thirsty and he might die. Or he could choose to drink the water in the jug and get immediate satisfaction, but it might not be enough and he still might die. After thinking about it the man decided to risk it. He poured the entire jug into the pump and began to work the handle, at first nothing happened and he got a little scared but he kept going and water started coming out. So much water came out he drank all he wanted, took a shower, and filled all the containers he could find. Because he was willing to give up momentary satisfaction, he got all the water he needed. Now the note also said: after you have finished, please refill the jug for the next traveller.” The man refilled the jug and added to the note: “ Please prime the pump, believe me it works”!
We have the same choice to make, do we hold on to what we have because we don’t believe there are better things in store for us, and settle for immediate satisfaction? Or do we trust God and give up all that we have to get what God has promised us? I think the choice is obvious. We need to pour in all the water, trust God with everything.
Then once we have experienced what God has to offer, the living water, we need to tell other people, “Go ahead prime the pump, believe me it works”!
i. Contributed to sermon central by: Randy Leckliter
b. Illustration: This story has been a hard thing for many people to swallow!
i. In World magazine, interviewer Larry King said: I can’t make that leap that a lot of people around me have made into belief that there’s some judge somewhere. I have a lot of respect for true people of faith…. I’ve done so many interviews on it. I’ve always searched. But as someone said, "Did you ever sit down and read the Bible cover to cover?" The answer’s no, because I don’t know who wrote it. I’m too in my head to be into faith. Faith is a wonderful thing. I envy people who have it. I just can’t make the leap. I remember as a kid, my father died when I was young, and that was unexplainable to me. The God of the Old Testament, I didn’t like things he did. "Abraham, sacrifice your son." That always bothered me as a kid. I remember thinking, Why would he do that to Abraham? As a test? So I said to myself, I don’t know. I just don’t know. That’s still true to this day. Copyright © 2011 by the author or Christianity Today International/ PreachingToday.com.
Conclusion:
Abraham’s story teaches us that we need to respond to the call of God, or the purpose of God for our life.
If we do it will take us to places we never expected but we will know and understand that God is with us.
We will have to learn patience in our journey of life but God will always fulfill his promises to us.
We just have to make sure that we do not try to help God out with our flesh or own hair brain ideas. Because if we do this it will only produce bondage in our life and we will lose the freedom in the Spirit.
In the end we will see that God always provides in his time and in his way.
We just have to remain faithful to Him and in the end we too could be called a friend of God.
