The Godfathers
Pt. 2 - God of Abraham 2
I. Introduction
The movie, directed and written by Francis Ford Coppola and released in 1972, is considered to be one of the greatest films of all time. The film paints a chilling portrait of the Corleone family's rise and near fall from power in America and focuses on this powerful Italian-American crime family. One of the quotes from the movie that has endured the years is this statement . . .
“Italians have a little joke, that the world is so hard a man must have two fathers to look after him, and that’s why they have godfathers.” – The Godfather
I am thankful for our Father. However, it struck me a while back as we sang a song that states "I call on the God of Jacob" that we too have God fathers. In over a dozen passages a statement is made in Scripture that continues to be quoted today. God is referred to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. These three men (Father, Son and Grandson) are singled out as God Fathers. This phrase is used because God makes and repeats a covenant with these three men. Scripture declares in Galatians 3:6-7 - Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, so then, understand that those who believe are the sons of Abraham.
We even sing "Father Abraham had many sons and I am one of them." However, I question whether we really have any understanding of the powerful nature of the promises made to them and ultimately to us since
I want us to go back and examine the God of Abraham. The God of Isaac. The God of Jacob. Let's see if what our Godfathers experienced may have some lessons for us.
Text: Genesis 12:1-4, 21:5 (NLT); 22:1-13 (NIV)
God had told Abram, “Leave your own country behind you, and your own people, and go to the land I will guide you to. If you do, I will cause you to become the father of a great nation; I will bless you and make your name famous, and you will be a blessing to many others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and the entire world will be blessed because of you.” So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed him, and Lot went too; Abram was seventy-five years old at that time.
5 - Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.
22:1-13 - Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.” Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He 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.” Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “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.” Abraham 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. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
God calls Abram to leave his homeland and travel to a place that God would show him. Abram obeys and God speaks to Abraham when he is 75 and declares that he will become the father of a great nation. Twenty-five years later, God finally fulfills that promise and when he is 100 years old Sarah gives birth to Isaac! We then read what is perhaps the best-known scene out of Abraham's life. God tests Abraham's faith and asks him to sacrifice his promised son Isaac. Three days with the knowledge that this is the last trip. Three days knowing that he is going to have to kill the one he has waited on and hoped for for so long. Three days knowing that there would be a return trip filled with tears, heartbreak, anguish only to face his wife and tell her what he had done. They arrive at the mountain and Abraham gathers wood and begins the long climb while fielding questions from Isaac about the lack of a ram to sacrifice. Leading to what we now know was a prophetic statement . . . God will provide. Abraham ties up Isaac, lays him on the altar the knife is arcing down to end his life and an angel stops his hand. Abraham looks up, having passed the test of faith, and a ram is there caught in the thicket and God gets a new and lasting name . . . Jehovah Jireh.
When you review this story of Abraham our godfather teaches us that God is our provider.
We need to know this today. When we declare that we serve the God of Abraham we are making the declaration that God is Jehovah Jireh. He is our provider.
That is why David declared in Psalms 37:25 - I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.
That is why Paul could tell the church at Philippi . . . my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7
If you are serving the God of Abraham, you need to know you are serving a God that sees our need and meets our needs! In fact, His own son, Jesus, tells us in Matthew 6:25-26 . . .
"Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns— and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"
The God of Abraham cares and provides.
I want to tell you a couple of things we need to know about this providing God.
1. Supply was a result of sacrifice.
We often forget that the reason that Abraham saw provision in his life he lived a life of sacrificial obedience. God calls Abram to leave his homeland and all of his family, tradition, familiarity, religion, culture and travel to a place that God would show him. He sacrifices! Then Abraham is asked to kill his promise and he obeys. Provision is always working its way up the back side of the mountain called obedience. The reason some of us never meet the God of provision is because He never meets us as the servant that is willing to sacrifice. We want miracles but we won’t sacrifice. We don’t live in a such a way, serve in such a way, or give in such a way that a miracle is required. The reason that the ram was there when he needed it is because Abraham had learned to live obediently and sacrificially before God. You don't earn provision, but you do position for provision.
2. God is a provider through principles first!
If we are not careful, then we focus all of our attention to the provision made on the mountain in the time of Abraham's need. So, we conclude and rightfully so that God is a miracle working God. There is no doubt He is a miracle working God. A miracle is the interjection of God's power into a situation beyond our control. He does those things! But I also need you to back up and realize that God is a provider through principles first.
Genesis 17:8-9
And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.” Then God said to Abraham, “Your responsibility is to obey the terms of the covenant. You and all your descendants have this continual responsibility.
You read that Abraham's promise also comes with responsibilities. God is saying "I will if you will." I will produce provision, if you will operate on the principles. Abraham positioned himself for a miracle by taking care of the principles that were established by God first.
I bring this to your attention because I think some of us are trying to live on miracles everyday while ignoring and discarding the principles that would lead us into daily provision. I want to make a statement that you may not like but that I think is accurate . . . we aren't supposed to live on God's miracles. We are supposed to live by the principles that He has established that produce daily provision. And then we when we have done all that we can do we stand and see God move in the miraculous.
Do you a need a miracle again today? I mean you just got one yesterday. Living like that is a revelation that you are mismanaging an area of life. Miracles are when God breaks in when the principles that we are obeying don't produce the necessary results. Granted, in mercy, God sometimes responds when we don’t live by principle. Peter doesn’t operate in principle of turning other cheek. So, in mercy Jesus provides a miracle. However, notice Peter never has to ask for that miracle again because he learned to live on principle. Can you imagine reading that time and time again Peter has to ask for an ear to be put back on someone’s head?
Could it be that you wouldn't need as many mind-blowing, jaw dropping, if He doesn't come through my world is lost miracles if we would take care of living up to the responsibilities, He called us to deal with daily?
Principles like . . . treating our body as the temple of the Holy Spirit. Like giving Him what is already His before we spend it all. Like forgiving. Like preferring others over ourselves. Like holding things lightly.
I know God is a miracle working God. I have seen Him interrupt the ordinary and perform the extraordinary. I have witnessed Him override the laws of natural to perform the supernatural. But, like Abraham, I have discovered that my need for those moments diminishes as I follow the principles He laid out for my life!
We must love and live by the principles of the Provider. It is by doing this that we reveal that we love the Provider more than we love the provision. If we don't, then we have turned the God of Abraham into a Santa Claus that we only want anything to do with when we are in need. Have you ever been in relationship with someone who only wanted you when they needed something? That isn't a fulfilling relationship. We must desire His face more than we desire His hand. We do that by following the principles out of love for God and watch the Provider work!
You need to know today you serve a providing God. He knows your every need. If you have need today, then God can come through. He has provision for you if you obey. There are some here today who need to embrace the principles that God has called you to so that you can see His hand work.
