WEBVTT 00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:07.120 We come to the conclusion of our series Blessed together, and in looking at the life of Abraham and how the 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:08.210 Lord blessed him. 00:00:09.340 --> 00:00:14.610 I hope within our lives we begin to recognize that Abraham as he was blessed. 00:00:14.940 --> 00:00:15.660 So can we. 00:00:16.720 --> 00:00:17.960 We're blessed in the Lord. 00:00:18.940 --> 00:00:22.980 We're blessed through the salvation he's provided for us, and blessed as we trust in him. 00:00:22.980 --> 00:00:30.400 Through that provision and differentiating between this blessing that God gave Abraham and us and living 00:00:30.400 --> 00:00:32.119 life according to career. 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:38.980 It's been said that a career is what you are paid to do, and a calling is what you're made to do. 00:00:40.280 --> 00:00:44.760 And God has created all of us for a reason and purpose in him. 00:00:45.860 --> 00:00:47.750 And we may retire from a job or career. 00:00:47.880 --> 00:00:53.300 But as a believer, you never retire from the calling Christ has given you. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:01.900 The American way is we work a job and we look forward to retirement one day. 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:07.140 But in biblical terms, no one retires from the reason for which God has created you. 00:01:07.980 --> 00:01:10.720 We're all made for a purpose. 00:01:12.380 --> 00:01:19.600 The trick to never retiring for the Lord is to understand the reason for which he has created you, and to understand that through him you 00:01:19.600 --> 00:01:21.120 are blessed. 00:01:22.860 --> 00:01:28.280 And sometimes we fall short in appreciating the life and living it for the purpose in which God has created us. 00:01:28.340 --> 00:01:30.200 In fact, we can live without purpose. 00:01:33.320 --> 00:01:38.920 Warren Wiersbe wrote, A few people really experienced joy and satisfaction as they age. 00:01:38.940 --> 00:01:40.530 When they look back, it's with regret. 00:01:40.820 --> 00:01:42.210 When they look ahead, it's with fear. 00:01:42.520 --> 00:01:45.180 And when they look around it is with complaint. 00:01:47.720 --> 00:01:49.860 Knowing that life can be lived aimlessly. 00:01:50.280 --> 00:01:57.520 There are some people whose gravestones could read, died by age 20 but buried at age 90. 00:01:59.860 --> 00:02:00.800 But not in the life of Abraham. 00:02:03.640 --> 00:02:09.520 Bible tells us in Genesis chapter 25 and describing the end of Abraham's life in verse seven. 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:16.520 These are all the years of Abraham's life that he lived 175 years. 00:02:18.520 --> 00:02:25.600 At 75 years old, God calls him at 175 100 years of walking with the Lord, he still following 00:02:25.600 --> 00:02:26.700 after him. 00:02:26.760 --> 00:02:31.540 And the summation of Abraham's life as it comes to an end is concluded for us. 00:02:31.540 --> 00:02:36.640 In verse eight it says, Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age. 00:02:36.860 --> 00:02:44.760 I don't know what that looks like ripe old age, but it says this an old man and full of years satisfied with life, and 00:02:44.760 --> 00:02:46.920 he was gathered to his people. 00:02:48.980 --> 00:02:52.750 This thought of being full of life in the Hebrew word. 00:02:53.040 --> 00:02:58.900 It really doesn't grasp its complete picture for us on the English language, for us to really understand it. 00:02:58.900 --> 00:03:00.680 It really it needs a sentence. 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:07.700 But as translators translate, they try to figure out the few words they can in order to correlate it to verses as they 00:03:07.700 --> 00:03:08.350 translate. 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:14.080 But this idea of Abraham living full of life means it carries two thoughts with us. 00:03:15.780 --> 00:03:19.120 It literally means both quantity of life. 00:03:20.640 --> 00:03:22.280 And quality of life. 00:03:25.040 --> 00:03:26.860 Abraham's life was full. 00:03:28.440 --> 00:03:30.720 At the age of 175. 00:03:32.300 --> 00:03:33.680 When he crossed the finish line. 00:03:35.440 --> 00:03:38.860 He didn't cross on a gas tank that was on E. 00:03:40.700 --> 00:03:45.720 He crossed with one still overflowing with the blessing that God had given to him. 00:03:49.100 --> 00:03:51.560 Psalm 92 and verse 12. 00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:57.460 Verse 14 say this the righteous man will flourish like a palm tree. 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:01.850 They will still yield fruit in old age. 00:04:02.420 --> 00:04:05.740 They shall be full of sap and very green. 00:04:07.480 --> 00:04:12.060 Jokingly, I say in the literal sense, if you're feeling full of sap, please see the doctor. 00:04:13.700 --> 00:04:17.180 But literally or figuratively, I should say. 00:04:18.060 --> 00:04:23.520 God's desire is for us to experience a joyful life in him. 00:04:24.800 --> 00:04:29.880 The understand that he has created us, that we would be blessed through him. 00:04:31.700 --> 00:04:38.780 And this word in verse eight to be full, as it describes Abraham, is a summation of a life that trusted 00:04:38.880 --> 00:04:39.780 in the Lord. 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:44.320 Leaving us with this question how did Abraham live a life full of years? 00:04:44.820 --> 00:04:51.660 How can we as people, into the older years of our life, still live life with a cup that overflows? 00:04:53.730 --> 00:04:55.800 The first is this. 00:04:57.580 --> 00:04:58.620 Abraham. 00:04:59.860 --> 00:05:02.240 Refused to retire from his calling. 00:05:04.520 --> 00:05:05.400 He wouldn't call it quits. 00:05:07.440 --> 00:05:12.970 It reminds me of an illustration of the great Satchel Paige who was a pitcher. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:20.680 This thought relates in my mind as it as the story is told with Satchel Paige, that sometimes we may see our self past our 00:05:20.680 --> 00:05:28.120 prime as a reason to quit, but not with Abraham and not with Satchel Paige, 62 years 00:05:28.120 --> 00:05:28.640 old. 00:05:28.640 --> 00:05:30.430 He's still throwing in baseball. 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:32.840 He's pitching an exhibition game. 00:05:32.840 --> 00:05:38.700 And as the story is told, he retired six straight batters, of which it included the great Hank Aaron. 00:05:41.620 --> 00:05:42.400 Or even Babe Ruth. 00:05:44.720 --> 00:05:49.490 History tells us that Babe Ruth struck out over 1300 times. 00:05:51.400 --> 00:05:53.650 But we remember him as the great home run king. 00:05:55.740 --> 00:05:58.080 Hitting over 700 home runs. 00:06:00.100 --> 00:06:01.400 Leaving us with the thought. 00:06:02.740 --> 00:06:04.100 To hit a lot of home runs. 00:06:05.440 --> 00:06:06.660 You've got to swing at a lot of pitches. 00:06:09.760 --> 00:06:13.400 And you have the opportunity to look and be marked by your failures of strikeouts. 00:06:15.480 --> 00:06:17.890 Are to remember your position in Christ. 00:06:19.700 --> 00:06:20.000 Home run. 00:06:20.220 --> 00:06:22.120 King. 00:06:23.200 --> 00:06:25.220 Abraham at the age of 75. 00:06:26.960 --> 00:06:31.140 Refused to retire from his calling in the Lord. 00:06:33.080 --> 00:06:40.100 If you were to examine the life of Abraham at the time that God called him in the land of Ur, by the world's standards, we would say Abraham 00:06:40.100 --> 00:06:41.520 was successful. 00:06:43.080 --> 00:06:43.730 He was wealthy. 00:06:44.220 --> 00:06:47.040 He lived in a nice home in a beautiful city. 00:06:47.540 --> 00:06:52.420 In the cradle of what we say is the existence of civilization in modern day Iraq. 00:06:55.410 --> 00:06:56.620 But Abraham didn't follow God. 00:06:58.460 --> 00:06:59.160 Because he had no other options. 00:07:00.880 --> 00:07:02.850 Or because he was looking for monetary gain. 00:07:03.820 --> 00:07:07.680 He was already independently wealthy, with tons of options of worldly comfort. 00:07:09.380 --> 00:07:14.880 Choosing to change the direction of his life at 75 years old wasn't easy. 00:07:17.020 --> 00:07:19.460 In fact, we looked at together in the land of air. 00:07:19.720 --> 00:07:22.780 Archaeologists have discovered there's running toilets. 00:07:22.780 --> 00:07:25.480 And it was a beautiful area in which to live. 00:07:25.540 --> 00:07:32.860 And God calls Abraham and he says, go to the land of Canaan and live among nomads in a place that isn't so well. 00:07:32.900 --> 00:07:34.950 And I want you to exist in tents. 00:07:38.780 --> 00:07:39.820 Paul Tripp says this. 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:44.360 Your weakness is not something to be afraid of. 00:07:46.260 --> 00:07:46.540 No. 00:07:46.620 --> 00:07:50.980 It's your delusions of strength that are much, much greater danger. 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:56.710 Abraham, by the world's standards, saw himself. 00:07:58.060 --> 00:07:59.960 A successful and he was successful. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:03.950 But Abraham knew according to God's standards. 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:05.820 But he was lacking. 00:08:08.080 --> 00:08:09.360 In Hebrews chapter 11. 00:08:09.380 --> 00:08:16.480 When it describes Abraham, it says then therefore in verse eight, by faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he 00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:18.330 was to receive for an inheritance. 00:08:18.440 --> 00:08:20.800 And he went out not knowing where he was going. 00:08:22.420 --> 00:08:22.500 For. 00:08:22.500 --> 00:08:30.360 He was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. 00:08:30.900 --> 00:08:31.520 Abraham. 00:08:33.100 --> 00:08:38.309 Knew there was a far greater purpose for which he was created than the temporal satisfactions of the world. 00:08:40.159 --> 00:08:40.700 His life. 00:08:40.780 --> 00:08:44.480 He desired to be identified for a purpose that lived beyond today. 00:08:46.560 --> 00:08:53.800 And the reason Abraham crossed the finish line, having been full of years, was that he refused to retire from the calling 00:08:53.800 --> 00:08:56.000 through which God had given him. 00:08:58.580 --> 00:09:00.020 And the second is this. 00:09:01.740 --> 00:09:05.490 He followed the Lord even after hardships and failures. 00:09:07.320 --> 00:09:09.860 The truth is, when God calls us. 00:09:10.300 --> 00:09:14.460 It's not that it's always easy, but it is full of life. 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:17.880 Abraham when he left Canaan. 00:09:18.740 --> 00:09:24.520 The Bible tells us as soon as he entered or he left for Canaan, as soon as he entered the land, he experienced a drought. 00:09:24.860 --> 00:09:29.020 He left then for Egypt, and he lied to save his hide. 00:09:29.060 --> 00:09:32.220 And through his lie he loses his wife. 00:09:32.520 --> 00:09:37.270 When he regains his wife from the rulers of Egypt, he goes back to the Promised land. 00:09:37.760 --> 00:09:40.630 He fights with his nephew. 00:09:41.320 --> 00:09:46.780 Then he has to fight a war against individuals to save his nephew who was captured. 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:49.290 He then commits a sin with Hagar. 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:55.320 He sees Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed and God calls him to even offer his son. 00:09:59.360 --> 00:10:01.500 You want to love about the life of Abraham? 00:10:03.700 --> 00:10:04.420 It's not perfect. 00:10:06.540 --> 00:10:09.100 His marriage with his wife wasn't perfect. 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:12.860 His faithfulness to Christ, it wasn't always perfect. 00:10:15.280 --> 00:10:19.480 But he was willing to come to the Lord even after hardships and failures. 00:10:20.760 --> 00:10:22.900 He was a man who had scars from sin. 00:10:24.700 --> 00:10:27.980 There's a quote that says, don't be paralyzed by regret. 00:10:28.020 --> 00:10:34.540 Every moral failure of the past has been fully paid for and forgiven by the sacrifice of Christ. 00:10:37.280 --> 00:10:38.670 And even towards the end of his life. 00:10:40.500 --> 00:10:47.740 I would say one of the deepest grievances of Abraham's soul was still to be endured, and that was through 00:10:47.740 --> 00:10:49.560 the loss of his wife. 00:10:51.780 --> 00:10:55.540 And Genesis chapter 23 and verses one and two, it says this. 00:10:55.540 --> 00:10:57.780 Now Sarah lived 127 years. 00:10:59.520 --> 00:11:01.480 And these were the years of the life of Sarah. 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:05.680 And Sarah died in Kiryat Arba, and that is in Hebron, in the land of Canaan. 00:11:05.820 --> 00:11:10.260 And Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 00:11:12.580 --> 00:11:19.420 As Abraham's life is described in Scripture, it says there are places of highs and lows. 00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:25.500 There are places of difficulties and triumphs, but never has it described in the depth of his soul that he is. 00:11:25.780 --> 00:11:27.620 He is weeping and he is mourning. 00:11:29.700 --> 00:11:31.140 But in this passage. 00:11:32.580 --> 00:11:35.540 He experiences the loss of his wife. 00:11:37.060 --> 00:11:40.480 Abraham goes on to live another 38 years without his bride. 00:11:40.520 --> 00:11:47.820 But according to customs of if Abraham married Sarah at the age when most people in that time would be married, that 00:11:47.820 --> 00:11:52.000 meant Sarah would have been married to Abraham when she hit close to the age of 15 or right around. 00:11:52.260 --> 00:11:59.300 She lived to be 127, and so these two walked with the Lord together and experience marriage 00:11:59.300 --> 00:12:01.020 for over 100 years. 00:12:04.020 --> 00:12:04.780 Abraham's soul grieved. 00:12:07.500 --> 00:12:12.120 Once heard a younger man marked remarked to an older man about losing his wife. 00:12:12.160 --> 00:12:13.880 He said, I'm sorry for the loss of your wife. 00:12:15.300 --> 00:12:23.090 To which the older man replied, son, when you know where something is, you haven't lost it. 00:12:24.940 --> 00:12:26.560 Hebrews 11 and verse 11 and 13. 00:12:28.780 --> 00:12:33.300 Describes a faith within Sarah where she has put her hope in the Lord. 00:12:35.700 --> 00:12:42.760 And what Abraham does from this point forward, he continues to walk in God and even honoring the bride in which God had given 00:12:42.760 --> 00:12:42.860 him. 00:12:43.360 --> 00:12:47.800 And it says in Genesis chapter 23 and verse six, hear us, my Lord. 00:12:47.880 --> 00:12:51.200 This is the people of the land talking to Abraham as he's burying Sarah. 00:12:51.320 --> 00:12:52.920 And they say to him, hear us, my lord. 00:12:54.200 --> 00:12:56.060 You are a mighty prince among us. 00:12:56.060 --> 00:12:58.120 Bury your dead and the choices of our graves. 00:12:58.220 --> 00:13:01.900 None of us will refuse you his grave for burying your dead. 00:13:04.040 --> 00:13:07.940 When these people come before the Lord, as Abraham is about to bury his wife. 00:13:07.960 --> 00:13:13.980 There's a beautiful picture that's created with Abraham's testimony in Hebrews chapter 11. 00:13:14.000 --> 00:13:18.640 It tells us in verse nine that Abraham goes in into the land of Canaan as a foreigner. 00:13:21.020 --> 00:13:26.040 Meaning it wasn't where he belonged, but it was a place where he came to be and belong. 00:13:26.420 --> 00:13:33.500 And the testimony is seen by the way he lives his life in Genesis chapter three and verse six, where even though he came in as a foreigner, he 00:13:33.500 --> 00:13:38.460 lived in his life in such a way of integrity that the people embraced him as their own. 00:13:41.870 --> 00:13:47.000 So much so that they're willing to give up a burial plot for his family. 00:13:49.500 --> 00:13:54.010 Abraham, I'm sure honored by this offer, says in verse seven. 00:13:54.160 --> 00:13:56.940 So Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. 00:13:57.420 --> 00:14:04.760 And he spoke with them, saying, it is if it is your wish for me to bury my dad out of my sight, hear me and approach Ephraim, 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:11.980 the son of Zophar, for me, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns, and which is at the end of his field, 00:14:12.020 --> 00:14:12.740 for the full price. 00:14:13.180 --> 00:14:15.660 Let him give it to me in your presence for a burial site. 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:20.510 It's according to the customs of the Hittites who were in the land. 00:14:22.040 --> 00:14:29.240 They would bury their people together and worship towards their false God, to acknowledge that wherever they were to spend eternity, it 00:14:29.280 --> 00:14:30.150 would be together. 00:14:32.200 --> 00:14:36.020 But Abraham knew both he and Sarah didn't belong to the false gods of the land. 00:14:38.520 --> 00:14:39.460 Sarah belonged to the Lord. 00:14:41.520 --> 00:14:44.320 And so Abraham buys his own place. 00:14:45.560 --> 00:14:57.740 For his own family, separated from the pagan people of the land to acknowledge the glory of his goddess at worked in the life of both 00:14:57.740 --> 00:14:57.740 he and Sarah. 00:14:57.740 --> 00:14:58.000 C.s. 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:02.320 Lewis wrote a book called The Grief Observed. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:04.380 And C.S. 00:15:04.420 --> 00:15:07.900 Lewis was a man who came to faith later in life. 00:15:07.900 --> 00:15:15.060 He wrote many great books on relationship with the Lord, and his most famous is Mere Christianity, which acknowledges his 00:15:15.060 --> 00:15:16.320 own struggle. 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:21.990 And before he was a believer in how he came to know the Lord and presenting it to the world in mere Christianity. 00:15:24.940 --> 00:15:31.560 But he wrote this book, The Grief Observed, reflecting on the loss of his wife having gone through that pain of separation. 00:15:33.520 --> 00:15:36.560 And he gave this one thought that always resonates with me. 00:15:36.580 --> 00:15:40.080 He said, the greater the love, the greater the grief we observe. 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:42.960 Meaning for us as people. 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:48.080 The pain we experience and the loss of a loved one magnifies the beauty of the love that we have for them. 00:15:51.100 --> 00:15:51.960 For you and for me. 00:15:53.440 --> 00:15:56.540 The closer we are in relationship to people that we care about. 00:15:58.850 --> 00:16:02.650 The greater our soul grieves when they pass from this world. 00:16:04.300 --> 00:16:05.330 And the pain of that loss. 00:16:07.220 --> 00:16:10.560 Testifies to the beauty of the love that you had for them. 00:16:13.020 --> 00:16:20.300 And Abraham at the end of his life, living another 38 years without Sarah as she passes in Genesis chapter 23, it tells us that 00:16:20.300 --> 00:16:23.520 he mourns and he cries and he weeps over her. 00:16:25.380 --> 00:16:29.790 And even in hardships and failures, he follows the Lord. 00:16:33.100 --> 00:16:39.620 I should give justice to Sarah in these moments, because we focus much on the life of Abraham. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:47.950 But I should say Abraham was the man that he was because he had a wife who was willing to follow the Lord in her own life. 00:16:51.640 --> 00:16:53.380 When God called Abraham. 00:16:55.080 --> 00:16:56.120 He also called Sarah. 00:16:58.140 --> 00:17:02.430 She went with him every step of the way, trusting in the Lord and the promises that he gave. 00:17:04.740 --> 00:17:12.200 So much so that when Peter writes first Peter in chapter three, verses 1 to 6, he uses Sarah as a godly 00:17:12.200 --> 00:17:19.400 example of a Jewish lady who loved her husband as God had called her to love, willing to live 00:17:19.400 --> 00:17:20.720 in tents. 00:17:21.960 --> 00:17:23.750 And to walk with her husband before the Lord. 00:17:25.900 --> 00:17:30.340 Both Abraham and Sarah follow the Lord, even after hardships and failures. 00:17:32.980 --> 00:17:34.000 No reason I should say. 00:17:34.100 --> 00:17:36.080 From point number three the Abraham continued in his calling. 00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:42.050 Was by remembering who he was and what he had been given in the Lord. 00:17:44.060 --> 00:17:50.460 You know, for us as people, it's not always easy to focus on the calling which God has given to us because we still struggle in the flesh. 00:17:52.260 --> 00:17:58.260 Sometimes we understand the nature of which Christ has placed upon us, but the pull of the flesh we give in to. 00:18:00.060 --> 00:18:00.400 But God. 00:18:02.360 --> 00:18:03.710 Would show up in the life of Abraham. 00:18:05.960 --> 00:18:13.000 In fact, in Genesis chapter 15, it gives for me what I think is the pinnacle moment in the life 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:13.690 of Abraham. 00:18:13.760 --> 00:18:13.860 It is. 00:18:14.200 --> 00:18:21.300 It is one of the most beautiful things, I think, within Scripture and all of his life that we saw from Genesis chapter 12 on into Genesis chapter 00:18:21.300 --> 00:18:25.700 25, that God did for Abraham as he shows up. 00:18:27.860 --> 00:18:29.600 Genesis chapter 15 and verse one. 00:18:29.600 --> 00:18:32.780 He's still fairly new into the land in which God had called him. 00:18:33.760 --> 00:18:34.800 He shows up to the land. 00:18:34.800 --> 00:18:35.320 There's a drought. 00:18:35.440 --> 00:18:37.340 He goes down into Egypt, he loses his wife. 00:18:37.600 --> 00:18:38.860 He comes back into the land. 00:18:38.860 --> 00:18:40.060 He fights with his nephew. 00:18:40.320 --> 00:18:45.260 He loses his nephew to a raiding band of kings who captures him and runs off with him. 00:18:45.260 --> 00:18:49.210 He goes and he fights that battle, and in that battle he's reminded of his own mortality. 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:52.400 And he's had a place of weakness. 00:18:54.860 --> 00:18:55.860 And then in verse one it says this. 00:18:57.460 --> 00:18:58.060 After this. 00:18:59.620 --> 00:19:02.430 The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. 00:19:04.860 --> 00:19:06.120 Isn't it beautiful for us? 00:19:06.300 --> 00:19:10.220 The way God shows up and the desperations of our need? 00:19:12.200 --> 00:19:13.360 And God spoke these words. 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:16.250 He said, do not be afraid, Abraham. 00:19:16.540 --> 00:19:17.140 I am your shield. 00:19:19.580 --> 00:19:26.800 In verse five it says and hee hee hee, referring to God, took him outside and said, look up at the sky and count the stars, if indeed you 00:19:26.800 --> 00:19:27.840 can count them. 00:19:27.840 --> 00:19:30.440 Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. 00:19:30.680 --> 00:19:33.460 Be Abraham believed the Lord. 00:19:35.540 --> 00:19:42.700 The reason Abraham continued his calling was by remembering who he was and what he had been given in Christ, and Abraham believed 00:19:42.700 --> 00:19:43.480 the Lord. 00:19:45.900 --> 00:19:47.000 The story goes like this. 00:19:47.060 --> 00:19:48.080 In a moment of weakness. 00:19:48.200 --> 00:19:49.670 Giving in to the flesh, not understanding. 00:19:50.720 --> 00:19:52.640 It's not by his power, but by Christ. 00:19:52.980 --> 00:19:55.400 God comes in and he takes him in verse five. 00:19:55.440 --> 00:19:58.020 And this word for take means with violent force. 00:19:58.380 --> 00:20:00.760 He grabs Abraham, who's looking into the ground. 00:20:00.940 --> 00:20:06.440 He takes him outside and said, son, get your head up and look to the stars for which I have called you. 00:20:08.940 --> 00:20:11.440 This passage is so important in Scripture. 00:20:13.480 --> 00:20:17.640 That the Bible quotes it in Romans four, Galatians three, and James chapter two. 00:20:19.080 --> 00:20:19.960 In Romans four. 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:27.260 In Galatians three, Paul uses it as the foundational illustration to understand that the righteousness which we are given 00:20:27.260 --> 00:20:31.240 in Christ has nothing to do with our merit in him. 00:20:31.260 --> 00:20:33.020 We'll see that verse quoted in the end. 00:20:34.420 --> 00:20:37.060 But everything to do with the merit that we receive in Christ alone. 00:20:38.820 --> 00:20:40.100 His righteousness. 00:20:42.020 --> 00:20:45.260 Abrahams called from Earth not because Abraham is special. 00:20:46.820 --> 00:20:48.020 But because the Lord is good. 00:20:50.040 --> 00:20:51.120 And Abraham. 00:20:51.120 --> 00:20:58.340 Rather than wrapping himself in the world's identity, he wraps himself in the identity that God desires to lavish upon 00:20:58.340 --> 00:21:00.600 him apart from anything that he has done. 00:21:03.280 --> 00:21:10.460 And Paul in the Book of Romans, a book about salvation in chapter four recognizes for us that righteousness is received on our 00:21:10.460 --> 00:21:13.140 part, not because of us, but because of Christ. 00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:15.510 And in that you are blessed. 00:21:17.300 --> 00:21:24.840 And in Galatians chapter three, when the argument for circumcision is being made known by the law and the Jews are saying, you must be circumcised 00:21:24.840 --> 00:21:31.880 in order to receive salvation, Paul says to add anything to the law is an anathema, and we receive the righteousness of Christ apart from 00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:32.960 anything that we've done. 00:21:32.960 --> 00:21:40.080 And so in Romans or Galatians three, he uses this picture illustration of Abraham to say, this righteousness which we receive 00:21:40.080 --> 00:21:41.500 is based upon Christ. 00:21:43.500 --> 00:21:48.240 And then the beautiful story is told in Genesis 15. 00:21:48.340 --> 00:21:55.460 Verse nine, God tells Abraham to go grab some animals for a covenant that he's going to make between he and Abraham about the 00:21:55.480 --> 00:21:56.700 life in which he's going to give. 00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:05.780 And when God allows Abraham to bring these animals before him, the Bible tells us that God then causes Abraham 00:22:05.780 --> 00:22:06.700 to fall asleep. 00:22:08.820 --> 00:22:15.260 And God establishes that covenant with Abraham, without Abraham doing anything within that covenant promise. 00:22:17.340 --> 00:22:20.140 God's the one who makes the sacrifice and provides the way. 00:22:21.940 --> 00:22:25.230 God's the one who cloaks us in his identity. 00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:32.980 The quote that says, when you forget who you are and what you've been given in Christ, you then search for 00:22:32.980 --> 00:22:36.100 life in places where it cannot be found. 00:22:39.510 --> 00:22:41.680 And so in Hebrews chapter 11, verse nine. 00:22:43.620 --> 00:22:44.460 The promises of God. 00:22:44.620 --> 00:22:51.190 It says this by faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country. 00:22:53.820 --> 00:22:58.870 He clothed himself and the promises of God no matter where God called him. 00:23:00.300 --> 00:23:03.420 Let me think of the beauty of the faith that's expressed in a passage like this. 00:23:03.760 --> 00:23:06.860 Some of us won't even leave the house without a GPS telling us where to go. 00:23:09.300 --> 00:23:11.380 And Abraham just wants to trust his godly. 00:23:14.040 --> 00:23:19.960 Sometimes we look at a man like Abraham and we think to ourselves, he's just special. 00:23:20.200 --> 00:23:20.840 He's unique. 00:23:20.860 --> 00:23:28.120 But when you look at the stories from Genesis chapter 12 to Genesis chapter 25, you find that God, when he comes to Abraham, sometimes decades 00:23:28.120 --> 00:23:29.760 before speaking to him. 00:23:29.800 --> 00:23:31.140 And he didn't do it very often. 00:23:35.800 --> 00:23:35.900 As people. 00:23:37.920 --> 00:23:42.350 Sometimes we look for God to just show up and continue to repeat things to us. 00:23:43.760 --> 00:23:48.580 As if before we know what we need to do, we need the special divine revelation. 00:23:51.360 --> 00:23:53.140 Has already declared it. 00:23:54.260 --> 00:23:55.810 We just need to listen to it and follow. 00:23:59.080 --> 00:23:59.880 Abraham. 00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:05.860 Was just a man and her recognizing in life he was bankrupt. 00:24:08.050 --> 00:24:14.760 That he wanted something more to live for the purpose for which he was created, that God had given him a calling. 00:24:16.760 --> 00:24:20.860 And so he wrapped himself in the identity that Jesus brought to him. 00:24:22.980 --> 00:24:28.020 And today, in looking at the life of Abraham, literally half the world judges him as a great man. 00:24:28.080 --> 00:24:32.820 Jews, Muslims, Christians all recognizing Abraham as one of faith. 00:24:34.500 --> 00:24:41.960 In Romans chapter four and verse 11, as Paul begins to use the illustration of the life of Abraham, he says this, that he, talking about Abraham, 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:44.700 might be the father of all who believe. 00:24:46.500 --> 00:24:53.590 That in living out the calling for which God had created him, it wasn't just a calling to bless Abraham, but it was a calling to bless all people. 00:24:53.600 --> 00:25:00.800 Saying to us this morning, by this man's faith and the promises of God, there isn't a person here this morning who hasn't been influenced 00:25:00.800 --> 00:25:02.300 by Abraham's faith in the Lord. 00:25:04.400 --> 00:25:05.060 We're here because of. 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:13.240 Last night I watched a basketball game. 00:25:14.460 --> 00:25:16.460 I secretly have hopes of joining the NBA one day. 00:25:17.600 --> 00:25:21.860 And I am a I'm a I'm a fan of teams. 00:25:21.880 --> 00:25:23.960 That turns out that always wins championships, right? 00:25:24.140 --> 00:25:24.860 I'm the guy that you. 00:25:25.140 --> 00:25:30.560 I don't cheer for the Yankees, but Patriots and Kentucky Wildcats cut me open. 00:25:30.580 --> 00:25:31.020 I bleed blue. 00:25:32.560 --> 00:25:36.320 When, when I was growing up, we would go to the Kentucky Wildcat games. 00:25:37.780 --> 00:25:40.240 Last night they had a game that came very close. 00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:43.620 They almost lost, and I want to pretend like it wasn't going to matter to me. 00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:47.320 But truth is, 90 year old kids with a basketball matters to me. 00:25:49.460 --> 00:25:51.380 And I noticed by the end of the game it's so close. 00:25:51.480 --> 00:25:54.140 Like my heart starts pounding, starts pounding, starts pounding. 00:25:54.460 --> 00:25:57.520 So by the end of the game, I'm pretty sure it's on the outside of my chest. 00:25:58.000 --> 00:25:59.900 And I wonder how it's going to happen. 00:25:59.920 --> 00:26:00.940 And you're biting your nails. 00:26:00.960 --> 00:26:01.720 You're chewing on things. 00:26:01.740 --> 00:26:02.920 You're hoping, hoping wins. 00:26:02.920 --> 00:26:04.530 And in that moment, I just began to think. 00:26:04.840 --> 00:26:08.820 And how foolish it is to be so passionate about things that won't matter beyond tomorrow. 00:26:10.900 --> 00:26:11.240 But God. 00:26:13.020 --> 00:26:14.520 I mean, give me a passion for you. 00:26:14.520 --> 00:26:16.560 Like this. 00:26:17.860 --> 00:26:19.300 The care beyond the moment. 00:26:22.140 --> 00:26:25.370 But for the next 100 years, if you call to be faithful. 00:26:28.200 --> 00:26:30.420 Abrahams called the father of all who believe. 00:26:32.700 --> 00:26:34.740 Maybe you could say to us as men. 00:26:37.140 --> 00:26:38.720 Because God's created you for a purpose. 00:26:40.860 --> 00:26:43.660 Your life is going to matter for something. 00:26:43.680 --> 00:26:47.220 It's going to count for something, and you should make that something worthwhile. 00:26:50.500 --> 00:26:54.020 Something worth living for beyond the day. 00:26:54.020 --> 00:26:58.580 And if you're lacking someone to emulate in your life, that's going to matter. 00:26:58.820 --> 00:26:59.640 Why not Jesus? 00:27:04.000 --> 00:27:11.180 All of us here today because of a faith that this man expressed and following after God and not just him, Sarah, 00:27:11.460 --> 00:27:18.600 who equally expressed her faith in the Lord, impacting not only him, not only the people around him who called him a prince, but generations 00:27:18.600 --> 00:27:20.490 to come. 00:27:21.160 --> 00:27:22.820 What a hope that takes. 00:27:24.240 --> 00:27:29.340 But requires one to cloak themselves in the identity through which Christ has given you. 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:36.220 To not waver from that calling and even in adversity to trust in it. 00:27:36.980 --> 00:27:39.560 God said, through Abraham, all nations would be blessed. 00:27:39.560 --> 00:27:39.780 How? 00:27:40.940 --> 00:27:43.080 It would be by a blessing that keeps giving. 00:27:43.120 --> 00:27:47.860 Which means if you are part of that blessing, that keeps giving, it has defined your purpose for living. 00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:52.680 And if you are a part of that blessing for living, you have something worth giving. 00:27:56.560 --> 00:27:57.080 Following are the. 00:27:59.660 --> 00:28:01.140 It's not necessarily easy. 00:28:03.320 --> 00:28:09.340 But it's something when done by faith at the end of your life, your cup. 00:28:09.480 --> 00:28:11.000 Overflows. 00:28:12.600 --> 00:28:16.090 Abraham went without knowing where he was going, what he was promised. 00:28:16.660 --> 00:28:20.820 He believed when he was tested, he trusted when he was blessed, he said. 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:25.040 He shared saying to us as a church, when God leads, follow. 00:28:25.040 --> 00:28:30.280 When God promises belief, when God tests trust, and when God blesses, share. 00:28:32.620 --> 00:28:34.300 When your life is finished. 00:28:36.140 --> 00:28:37.580 Your cup will overflow. 00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:43.330 If your life were to end today. 00:28:45.900 --> 00:28:47.760 What would people say about you? 00:28:50.420 --> 00:28:57.080 Paul in Romans chapter four really writes the epitaph of Abraham. 00:28:57.820 --> 00:28:58.200 Verse 11. 00:28:59.020 --> 00:29:00.760 He was the father of all who believed. 00:29:00.940 --> 00:29:08.180 But using the illustration from Genesis chapter 15, he goes on and says in verse 20, Abraham never wavered in 00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:09.540 believing God's promises. 00:29:11.480 --> 00:29:15.620 In fact, his faith grew stronger and in this he brought glory to God. 00:29:15.620 --> 00:29:22.640 He hints that God is able to do whatever he promises, and because of Abraham's faith, God counted him as 00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:22.940 righteous. 00:29:23.820 --> 00:29:29.900 And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for Abraham's benefit, it was recorded for our benefit too. 00:29:31.060 --> 00:29:36.140 Assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him. 00:29:37.580 --> 00:29:39.780 The one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 00:29:42.110 --> 00:29:44.260 This is the blessing that keeps giving. 00:29:45.860 --> 00:29:47.760 This is the blessing that blessed all nations. 00:29:49.340 --> 00:29:55.880 The blessing that set the precedent for the life of Abraham, for us to recognize as people that it continues on in our lives today. 00:29:58.320 --> 00:30:00.120 Remarking that today is Palm Sunday. 00:30:02.080 --> 00:30:03.860 The beginning of the Passion Week of Christ. 00:30:05.560 --> 00:30:12.540 And once Jesus fulfills his promise to Abraham and blessing all nations by coming to this earth and offering his kingdom. 00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:17.290 And giving his life that just as Abraham's cup overflowed. 00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:20.710 Just so yours could overflow too. 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:26.140 Jesus gives it all for you. 00:30:27.600 --> 00:30:29.960 So that you can be full of life in him. 00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:34.780 As Abraham did in this passage. 00:30:36.160 --> 00:30:39.040 Abraham gave his life in all in return. 00:30:41.900 --> 00:30:43.150 For your cup to overflow. 00:30:45.160 --> 00:30:46.140 This is what Jesus asks. 00:30:49.080 --> 00:30:50.280 Regardless of where you are. 00:30:52.220 --> 00:30:54.960 No matter how much you look at a world and realize it might be bankrupt. 00:30:57.420 --> 00:30:57.880 One five. 00:30:59.820 --> 00:31:04.460 Maybe if we said to Abraham today, Abraham, what made you what made you so special? 00:31:07.260 --> 00:31:10.940 On a week like today, he would say, it's nothing to do with me. 00:31:12.720 --> 00:31:14.670 I was a man lost in air. 00:31:16.420 --> 00:31:23.660 I had no direction and I knew I was bankrupt, and what I had happen to me was the grace of God intervening, given 00:31:23.660 --> 00:31:28.870 me such glorious promise and hope beyond today, that if I would just trust by faith. 00:31:30.940 --> 00:31:31.600 Blessed. 00:31:33.960 --> 00:31:34.620 It's not me. 00:31:36.340 --> 00:31:43.520 It's the King of Glory who rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey as a servant, giving his life for you, that you could be blessed in him. 00:31:43.520 --> 00:31:47.610 It's not me. 00:31:48.650 --> 00:31:49.590 How did your cup overflow? 00:31:51.530 --> 00:31:52.220 It's faith. 00:31:54.700 --> 00:31:56.130 It's trusting no matter what. 00:31:56.130 --> 00:31:59.240 And the one who has promised you something far greater than the world has to offer.