This past week, I came across on article on plagiarism in pulpit. The short story is that pastor use others material, sometimes even whole sermons 1.) without permission or 2.) if they have permission, they don’t credit the source. Over my years of pastoring, I have tried to do both. In the earlier years of preaching, I wasn’t always creative enough to come up with original sermons – I didn’t know where to start, so many times I used someone else’s material and made it my own.
So, in the spirit of giving credit where it is due, I present to you the research of the JARs research team. You ask, “Who is the JARs research team.” In the process of preparing this morning’s message, I was coming to some writer’s block. I was even having trouble thinking, which happens sometimes. As I went to work, I mentioned something about needing to come up with famous fathers. When I got home, I was presented with a wonderful list of famous fathers. Thank you to the JARs research team for your excellent work. Just in case you haven’t figured it out JARs stands for James, Anna, and Rebecca. We are going to first take a look at some famous fathers, but not in the way we typically look at them. Then, we want to take a look at the Father of a Nation. So let’s take a look at a few famous fathers.
Who is???
The Father of our Country – George Washington
Father of the Constitution – James Madison
Father of the Monroe Doctrine – James Monroe
Isaac Newton – Father of Calculus
Pythagoras – Father of the Pythagorean theorem
Willis Carrier – Father of air conditioning
Orville and Wilbur Wright – Fathers of the airplane
Abner Doubleday – Father of Baseball
Aristotle – Father of the Scientific Method
Galilio Galilei – Father of modern astronomy
Michael Faraday – Father of electromagnetism
Hippocrates – Father of medicine
Mark Twain – Father of American Literature
Luther Lee and Orange Scott – Fathers of the Wesleyan Church
William Tyndale – Father of the first English Bible
Joseph Haydn – Father of the symphony
John Paul Jones – Father of the US Navy
Thomas Jefferson – Father of UVA
Thomas Peebles – Father of Cheerleading
To see the complete list, go out to http://www.prestonwesleyan.org/ and click the Famous Father’s link.
While many of these men were famous in there own right, there is a father who is much more important than them, especially when it comes to our faith. There’s even been a song written about him, that children love to sing. And we’re going to do the short version.
Father Abraham had many sons,
Many sons had father Abraham
And I am one of them and so are you.
So let’s just praise the Lord – right arm, left arm, right foot, left foot, nod your head, turn around, sit down.
Who was Abraham? Why is he so important? The story of Abraham or as he was known at the time Abram, begins at the end of Genesis, chapter 11. This is just after the genealogy of Shem, one of Noah’s sons. Before the flood, it was common for men and women to live well past 500. In this genealogy we see the lifespan of the men reduce from over 500 years to less than 200 years. We are introduced to Terah, the father of Abram. Terah had a brother named Haran, who had a son named Lot. We are told that Terah takes his family, consisting of Abram and his wife Sarai and his grandson Lot away from the land of Ur of the Chaldeans. They were headed for Canaan, but never made it. After Haran dies, The Lord speaks to Abram and says, “Leave your native country, you relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.
This is quite a statement from the Lord. God is calling Abram to leave everything he knew, including the polytheistic, idolatrous worship of his father. Monotheism or worship of one God was not a common practice in the ancient world. We have several examples of those in early days who did, such as Adam and Eve and Noah and his family. This was something new. What is also interesting to note is that family in this culture was your social security system. Families in this culture took care of each other. Children were to take care of their parents. Parents were to take care of their children. Abram must have believed God’s call, because he followed God to the land of Canaan. Abram was already seventy-five years old when he moved to Canaan – following God’s call. He had no idea where God’s call would lead him. He only knew that God had promised him to be a great nation. He also took his nephew Lot along with him which will play a part in the story.
Abram is an interesting study, because on one hand it appears that he trusts God and yet in the next paragraph trusts only himself. What do I mean? Abram moves to Canaan, then during a drought moves to Egypt. While in Egypt, he is afraid that his wife will be stolen by the Egyptians, so he says that Sarai is his sister. This causes the Pharaoh great difficulty, even bringing plagues on the Egyptians. Pharaoh wasn’t too please with Abram, gives him back his wife and tells him to leave, please! Through this process Abram acquire sheep, goats, cattle, donkeys, servants and camels. Abram, Sarai and Lot move back to Canaan. At this point Abram’s servant and Lot’s servants can’t get along. Abram says to Lot, “pick either the left or the right. If you go right, I’ll go left. If you go left, I’ll go right. Lot chose the fertile plains of the Jordan River, but it also put him near Sodom. The scriptures tell us it was a beautiful land. Unfortunately the people of the land were extremely wicked and constantly sinned in the eyes of the Lord.
So, the pair break up and live peaceably. Not long after, God returns to Abram in a vision. “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you and your reward will be great.”
Abram is not so sure. He questions God, “How can I be great if I don’t have any heirs?” This was an important question in this culture, because having many children meant you were blessed by God. God reassures Abram that he will have a son of his own. God says to Abram, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
Then the scriptures record this famous line, “And Abram believed in the Lord, and the Lord counted him righteous because of his faith.” This is a key element of the New Testament teaching. It is an unusual element to be taught in the Old Testament where righteousness was gained through sacrifice of animals. We are counted righteous through faith, not of our works. However, our works (as James so aptly put it) are proof of our faith.
If only Abram would have listened to God. In the next chapter, Abram with the help of Sarai tries to move God’s hand. By this time both Abram and Sarai are old and Sarai has never been able to bear children. She is afraid that God promise will not come true. So she says to Abram, “Take my maidservant and have a child through her.” So Abram does and Sarai’s maidservant, Hagar, becomes pregnant. Sarai is not please with the developments. She treats Hagar harshly and Hagar runs away and an angel of the Lord convinces her to return. Through this whole process Hagar and her new son Ishmael receive a blessing from God. Abram was 86 when all of this happened. Fourteen years pass and now Abram is 99. God reappears to Abram and says, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.” Abram bows down in worship and God continues, “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! What’s more, is I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations. I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendents will be come many nations, and kings will be among them. I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you will live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God. God seals the covenant with a ceremony and then changes Sarai’s name to Sarah which means princess. God tells Abraham that Sarah will have a son. Abraham still cannot believe the news. “How will I have a son at 100 years old? How will Sarah have a baby at 90?” How would you like to have a baby at 90 years old? Abraham says, just bless Ishmael. But God says “No! Sarah will give birth to a son and call his name Isaac (which means laughter.)”
Not long after, some visitors arrive and confirm the news that God gave to Abraham. During their visit Sarah overhears the conversation and laughs. The visitors ask the question, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Sarah denies that she laughed at the Lord, but she did.
In chapter 21, the scripture record that Abraham and Sarah did indeed have a son. At the birth of Isaac, Sarah declares, “God has brought me laughter, All who hear about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby? Yet I have given Abraham a son in his old age!”
We have seen to this point that sometimes Abraham trusted God and sometime he tried to move God’s hand for himself. Abraham had one more test. God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son – yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
We think that Abraham would immediately reject this notion. What do you mean sacrifice my son? But this practice was common. There are many archeological records that indicate child sacrifice was common in the land of Canaan. With this in mind, Abraham, packs up the donkeys and some servants and obediently follows God. After three days, they stop and Abraham tells the servants to stay, that just he and the boy will continue. Isaac finds this all strange. Sacrifice must have been common, because Isaac asks, “Where is the sheep? We have the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep?” Abraham replies, (showing his great faith) “God will provide the sheep.” They finally arrive at the place. Abraham ties up his son and lays him on the altar, picks up the knife to slay his son, when an angel cries out, “Abraham! Abraham! Don’t lay a hand on the boy. Don’t hurt him in any way, for now I know that you truly fear God. You have not withheld from me even your son, your only son.”
I’m sure Abraham is shaking as he pulls the knife down and looks up and sees a ram stuck in a thicket. Then Abraham and Isaac sacrifice the ram together. Abraham names the place Yahway-Yireh (The Lord will provide.)
Abraham is reminded again from the Lord, “This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by my own name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed – all because you have obeyed me.”
That is quite a story – Another great adventure from the pages of the Old Testament. One of the things I find amazing is that God uses men and women, despite their failings. Abraham did not have his act together. As we saw, he even had skeletons in his closet and yet God used him.
What can we learn from this? We can learn that our faith takes obedience to God. When we try to make God’s will ours we will mess it up. Most importantly, when we give our best to God, we will be rewarded. God is calling us to give our best, our very best. Those who were here on Wednesday night, will remember the video I played. What difference could we make in the Kingdom if we gave our very best. Is it hard? Will it require sacrifice? Yes, but God gave his very best in His son Jesus and we need to give our best and be obedient to his calling. As we sing, the altar is open. Are you willing to give your very best to God. Even if it is something you worked hard for like Abraham did? Are you willing to be obedient to his call even if it means leaving everything you know? I believe God is calling us to have faith like Abraham. As we sing about that faith, I invite you to offer your best to God. I invite you to offer your obedience to God. If you do, Preston Wesleyan Church will never be the same….
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