The Way To The Top

The Way to the Top

Gen 18:19 July 27th, 2009

What do you think is the most important job in the world? Soccer player David Beckham makes ½ million $/week, but most soccer players probably make about $100,000/ year. Dentists and doctors make 100 – 300/year. Big jet pilots about 200. Stock traders 1 mill, movie directors 1 mill movie producers 10 mill.

It’s very strange what the world values most and which jobs are deemed the most important by the salary they are paid. People in entertainment make obscene amounts of money. People in the financial world – the love of money world - make crazy amounts of money. Are these the most important things? Is following this route the way to the top? We want to look at things from a different point of view. Because we are Christ followers and because God is the most important thing to us we have different questions. Our question isn’t how much do you get – it is how much fruit you produce – how much good you do – how much aligned with God’s will you are.

When we measure success it is a little different than measuring how big your pay cheque is – it is measured spiritually and eternally. The way to the top is much more attainable, much closer to home and way more profitable than any of the top 50 careers. You don’t have to sacrifice yourself for a giant corporation. You don’t have to become a slave to the business world. You don’t have to compromise and do a hundred things that don’t sit well with you. You don’t have to leave your Lord and your loved ones to pursue wealth. God’s message to us is that one of the very most important jobs you can have is the job of parent.

Abraham was a very famous father. Throughout the Bible he is referred to as Father Abraham. How important do you think Abraham was? Pretty important right? The patriarch of Israel – the founder of the chosen nation through which the Saviour of the world would come. A father of the faith to us – a godly example of a righteous man, a radical God follower. Admired and revered, studied and emulated; imperfect? O yes he certainly was, but even still Abraham is still such an important man.

But Abraham wasn’t just an important man- he was a godly man – a person who pleased God, and people who please God are blessed by God. He followed God’s will and so he was not only important to people – he was important to God.

Gen 17:5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

The name Abraham means “Father of multitudes”. The honour that God bestows on Abraham – the promises God makes to Abraham all revolve around 1 thing – the fact that he is going to have a family and he is going to lead that family as God leads him. Abraham is important to God because He can use him to influence a family, a generation and all his ancestral generations. Through Abraham God will bless the world – how? – as Abraham becomes a good and godly father. Listen to our scripture:

Gen 18:19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him."

God plans to bless all nations through Abraham:

Gal 3:6-8 just as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"? 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed."

This is a grand plan – an epic plan. What could be bigger – what could anyone conceive of that would be more huge or more challenging than to bless all nations? God has very big plans for Abraham, and so what does Abraham have to do to bring this into fruition? He has to be a good parent. That’s it. It’s kind of surprising isn’t it? God’s Master plan hinges on him - it is dependant on Abraham being a decent, God fearing parent to his family.

Parents; do you want to do great things for God? Are you unsure how to do it? Maybe become a missionary, maybe start a ministry like Joyce Myers, run huge crusades like Billy Graham or run conferences like Bill Hybels. Are you overlooking something? Could God have bigger plans for you than any of these people? – You have no idea how important your family is to God. I know you love them; I know you would do anything for them; I know that you want the absolute best for them, but have you ever dreamed that you could be a parent who would continue the Godly legacy of your father Abraham – that you could be a great and Godly person – renowned in Heaven because of what you do at home? Have you ever imagined that the world could be blessed through you and that you could be the patriarch or matriarch of generations of God fearing; God loving; righteous fruitful men and women?