Who Will Carry on When I am Gone?

March 16, 2019 Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Second Sunday of Lent Year B Who will carry on when I am gone? Children’s Sermon Exegetical Aim: God has made the greatest promise of all. Props: None. Lesson: I have a question for you this morning. What is a promise? (response) That’s right. A promise is when you say you are going to do something and you really mean you are going to do it no matter what. How many of you have ever made a promise? (response) When you made your promise did you do anything extend your hand as if you are shaking hands with someone with your hands? (shake hands). Everyone shake hands like you are making a promise and you really mean it. Are there other things that people do when they make a promise? (response) What’s the one where you say, "Cross your heart…? (hope to die, stick a needle in your eye. Ok, everyone do it with me. Everyone cross your heart. (response) Now, hope to die. (response) Ok, stick a needle in your eye. (response) I don’t know what that’s all about but it sounds like someone is pretty serious about keeping their promise. When I was a kid there was one way to seal a promise that was extra strong. If someone sealed a promise this way, you knew that they wouldn't break it. Do you know what it was? (response) It was called a "pinky promise." How do you do it? Who can show me? (response) Good! If you ever make a promise, remember to keep it. Especially if it's a "pinky promise." Application: In the bible God made some pretty serious promises. One time he made a promise to Abraham and Abraham wasn't so sure God was going to keep his promise. So God made a very serious promise and do you know what kind of promise it was? (response) I like to call it a “heifer, goat, ram, turtledove, pigeon promise.” Do you know what a heifer, goat, ram, turtledove pigeon promise is? (response) Well, when Abraham lived they didn’t shake hands or make pinky promises. They would sacrifice an animal—the bigger the animal the more serious the promise. So God made a promise to Abraham and sacrificed not just one animal but five: a heifer, that’s a cow, a goat, a ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon. What do you think Abraham said? (response) He said, “Wow God you must be serious!” Pinky promises are pretty good but a heifer, goat, ram, turtledove, pigeon promise from God is even greater. Let’s Pray: God you have made such great promises not only to Abraham but to us as well. Amen. ChristianGlobe Network, Inc, Old Testament Children's Sermons, by Brett Blair Genesis 15:1-12 Common English Bible (CEB) God’s covenant with Abram 15 After these events, the LORD’s word came to Abram in a vision, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your protector.[a] Your reward will be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “LORD God, what can you possibly give me, since I still have no children? The head of my household is Eliezer, a man from Damascus.”[b] 3 He continued, “Since you haven’t given me any children, the head of my household will be my heir.” 4 The LORD’s word came immediately to him, “This man will not be your heir. Your heir will definitely be your very own biological child.” 5 Then he brought Abram outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars if you think you can count them.” He continued, “This is how many children you will have.” 6 Abram trusted the LORD, and the LORDrecognized Abram’s high moral character. 7 He said to Abram, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession.” 8 But Abram said, “LORD God, how do I know that I will actually possess it?” 9 He said, “Bring me a three-year-old female calf, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove, and a young pigeon.” 10 He took all of these animals, split them in half, and laid the halves facing each other, but he didn’t split the birds. 11 When vultures swooped down on the carcasses, Abram waved them off. 12 After the sun set, Abram slept deeply. A terrifying and deep darkness settled over him. Footnotes: a. Genesis 15:1 Or shield or benefactor b. Genesis 15:2 Heb uncertain Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Genesis 15:17-18 Common English Bible (CEB) 17 After the sun had set and darkness had deepened, a smoking vessel with a fiery flame passed between the split-open animals. 18 That day the LORD cut a covenant with Abram: “To your descendants I give this land, from Egypt’s river to the great Euphrates, Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible Today is the second Sunday of lent. By now we should well on our Lenten journey, remembering our Lenten words of lent, prayer, fasting, helping others, and repentence. If we have decided to give something up for lent, we are well on that journey of learning to live without that treasured item. The second Sunday of lent is always the time when a new word is introduced – that word is promise. More specifically, that word is covenant. A covenant is a one sided promise. A promise where one person does all of the work, and the other person agrees to receive the benefits. That word describes our relationship with God. God does all of the work, and we receive the benefits. God makes a lot of promises to us all throughout the bible. Here are some of those promises that God makes. What can be said about God's promises to us? 1. He has promised to supply every need we have. The Bible says: "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus". That's Philippians 4:19. Now notice, God has obligated Himself only to the extent of our needs. That would include food, clothing, shelter, companionship, love, and salvation thru Jesus Christ. It would not include the multiplicity of luxuries that we have come to think of as needs. 2. God has promised that His grace is sufficient for us. (II Corinthians 12:9). In fact, He has made provision for our salvation by His grace through faith. Read Ephesians 2:8. It is through an obedient faith that we have access into the grace of God according to Romans 5:2. 3. God has promised that His children will not be overtaken with temptation. Instead, He assures us that a way of escape will be provided. This promise is recorded in I Corinthians 10:13. Jude wrote: "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you’re faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy" (Jude v 24). Darius, King of the Medes, said to Daniel, "Thy God whom thou Servest continually, he will deliver thee" (Daniel 6:16). He did deliver Daniel from the den of lions. 4. God has promised us victory over death. He first resurrected Jesus by way of assuring our resurrection. Peter said: "This Jesus hath God rose up, whereof we are all witnesses" (Acts 2:32). Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures" (I Corinthians 15:3,4). Later on he adds: "but thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Corinthians 15:57). 5. God has promised that all things work together for good to those who love and serve Him faithfully (Romans 8:28). It may be difficult for us to see and understand how this is accomplished at times, but God has promised it, and He will deliver. 6. God has promised that those who believe in Jesus and are baptized for the forgiveness of sins will be saved. (Read Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38). 7. God has promised His people eternal life (John 10:27,28). In closing, let me appeal to you to live so that the promises of God will be yours. God has been making promises all throughout the bible. Today we look at the promise in Genesis 15. Abraham has followed God into an unknown land. His trust in God had paid off. He has a huge household, he has a happy marriage, a successful business, things are going well. But as he looks at all of the wonderful things in his life, Abraham is still sad and frustrated. All of this is wonderful, but when he dies, it will all be for nothing. All of it will go into the hands of a slave, because he is over 70 years old and he has no children to carry on his legacy. God makes a promise not to worry – because his descendants will be as numerous as the stars. For some strange reason, God tells him to make a sacrifice – to bring a lamb, a goat, a cow, a sheep and a pigeon. Abraham is to prepare them by cutting them in half and placing them on the altar. And as he sleeps, a mysterious light appears and passes through each of the animals. This seems like a really strange thing to us, but it all made perfect sense to Abraham. This was how you made a covenant promise to someone. You but the animal in half and passed through it. Basically, you are saying that if you break that promise, then the same could happen to you – you become the sacrifice. God is saying to Abraham that if you don’t have any children, then I deserve to be sacrificed. The good new for us is that God knows that god never breaks his promise. God’s word is always sufficient. What God says will always happen. Today, indeed Abraham has many children. Some are descendants of his son Isaac, some are decendants of his son Ismael, and some are like us, who are children of the covenant, children who have faith in God, because Abraham had faith in God. That is why we make a sacrifice during lent – to honor our relationship with God. To honor God’s promise in our lives. Just as the animals at the altar are a sacrifice, so are our lives. To sacrifice – means to make holy. To dedicate something for the sole purpose of God. To set something aside for God. Lent is our time to think about what needs to be made sacred in our lives, - our finances, our friends, our habits, our thoughts. What part of our lives do we need to stop controlling and be willing to turn it completely over to God. How can we trust God more in our lives. Tight rope worker and the believer Jean Francois Gravelet was considered one of the greatest tightrope walkers in history. He was the first man to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. But that was not enough for him, he liked to show off. One day while crossing, he lowered a rope to a ship, pulled up a bottle of Coke, sat down on the rope to drink it. When he achieved all of that he needed to do more. He crossed in a sack, on stilts, on a bicycle, one day he was blindfolded. By this time, he had the attention of the world, so whenever he would walk across crowds of thousands would come to watch, cheer and scream his name. Finally, one day – he announced that he was the greatest tight rope walker – he asked the crowd if they believed in him. They shouted – we believe. Okay he shouted back, I will walk back across the tightrope. But this time I am going to walk with one of you on my shoulders. – do I have any volunteers? There was not a sound – no one said anything. Until one man finally raised he hand, and said he would be the one to sit on the tightrope walkers shoulder. He rose forward, got on the man’s shoulder and they went across together. Of course the crowd roared – the tightrope walker asked once again – do you believe? He corrected them – when I asked you if you believed – more than 10,000 people shouted yes. But the truth is – there was only one of you who really believed in me. God asks us every day if we believe – how many times in our life do we really answer yes? We are the children of Abraham – when we have faith in God. when we believe in the words of God there is nothing that we cant do and achieve. Sacrificing for lent is not about what we got to do, it is about what we get to do. It is not an obligation, it is a joy, when we do it for and with God. In his book, If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of The Boat, John Ortberg tells about a very remarkable lady named Henrietta Mears. Ms. Mears taught college-age, single young people for decades at Hollywood Presbyterian Church. She was a formative influence on the life of a whole generation of Christian leaders including Billy Gra¬ham, Campus Crusade founder Bill Bright, former Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson, and hun¬dreds of others. Ms. Mears was frustrated at not being able to give her students first-rate material to educate them, so she began a little publishing enterprise out of a garage. It grew into Gospel Light Publishers, a major Christian publisher in its day. She was also frustrated because she knew so many Christians liv¬ing in crowded Los Angeles who needed someplace to withdraw and be with God outdoors where they could hear him better. So she drove up into the San Gabriel Mountains and found what she thought would be the perfect location. She talked to God about how much it was needed. Then she talked to the man who owned it, and although he hadn’t been inclined to sell it, he never really had a prayer. It grew into Forest Home, one of the premier spiritual conference centers in the country. Henrietta Mears was frustrated by not having a good single-volume intro¬duction to the Bible that could help her students understand what it was all about, so she wrote one herself that sold hundreds of thousands of copies and continues to sell today, decades after her death. She did all these things and many more, despite doing them in a day when many people thought a woman had no business doing such things. Time and again she took the step of faith, and time and again she succeeded. At the end of her remarkable life, as she lay on her deathbed, someone asked her, “Miss Mears, if you had it all to do over again, would you do anything differently?” She thought for a moment and replied, “If I had it all to do over again--I would have trusted Christ more.” (2) In our covenant faith, the faith of Abraham God makes a promise, and all we have to do is trust in that promise. A promise that God loves us, God is with us, and that God has the power to lead every aspect of our lives. Lent is about us learning to trust God more in every circumstance in life. I want to leave you with these words, of faith taken from the jewish bar mitzvah service – words that I think take on new meaning for all of abrahams’s children living in the modern world. In a world torn by pain, a world far from wholeness and peace, a world still waiting to be redeemed, give us to courage to say to that world – there is one God in heaven and on Earth. Whatever we are dealing with – let us fulfill that promise – to trust God to the end. Let us pray……. What we really need to do to get in the Lenten attitude is first relearn what sacrifice means. To sacrifice does not mean to give up. The word sacrifice really means "to make sacred." If we do give up something as a sacrifice, it is only so that we may take it back in a new, transfigured way. Syndicated religion columnist for Scripps Howard News Service, Terry Mattingly, notes that while our emphasis on giving up certain foods during Lent may seem arbitrary and unimportant, it can lead us toward the true meaning of sacrifice, if we let it. But why place such an emphasis on food? Does anyone really think it's spiritually better to eat dark chocolate (no milk) during Lent than it is to eat milk chocolate? Some people forgo steaks or fried chicken, but then manage to eat their weight in forms of seafood that are allowed during the fast, such as shrimp or clams. The bottom line is that our appetites do matter. St. Paul warned the early church to avoid the sinful ways of those whose "end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things." But the Bible also warns believers not to turn ancient spiritual disciplines into showy gestures, planting the seeds of pride and arrogance. Yet it's good to open your refrigerator door and have to ask the question: Who's in charge here? "If God isn't in charge of my refrigerator, then He isn't in charge of the rest of my life," said one Orthodox friend. "If God isn't the God of my refrigerator, then He isn't the God of my check book, or my Day Timer, or my television or any of the other THINGS that try to run my life." (Prof. Terry Mattingly directs the Institute of Journalism at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C.) This Lenten season, how deep will your commitment be to "make sacred", to take back elements of your life? In today's text from Genesis, Abram confronts God with his greatest fear. He had grown old and wandered far. All at God's instruction. But where was this alleged "Promised Land." Still no sign of it anywhere. Even more frightening, there was still no son to carry Abram's lineage into the future. It was this fear that Abram gave up and that was returned to him as a sacred promise -a covenant sealed by sacrifice - that transformed Abram. With the divine promise Abram could take back his advanced age, take back Sarai's age and apparent barrenness, take back his own confidence in the divinely-directed future he had hoped for and believed in for so long. His age, Sarai's age, the passage of still more years, would all now be counted as sacred - elements that would be used by God to fulfill God's plan, not serve as impediments to block God's plan. In today's gospel text Jesus looks down on Jerusalem, that most holy and sacred city. But Jesus sees it and its inhabitants with a heart that knows what lies ahead. Jerusalem will kill him. Her inhabitants will turn on him, they will abandon him, they will condemn him to death. These are the very same inhabitants Jesus calls to, those he longs to make sacred again through his sacrifice. In one of the gentlest, most blatantly maternal images of the Second Testament, Jesus speaks of gathering these citizens of Jerusalem together and covering them with his protective wings like a mother hen. (Luke 13:31 35) This is the meaning of sacrifice: · Abram made his fear of childlessness...sacred. · Jesus made those who would lay hands on him and kill him...sacred. What part of your life needs to be made sacred. · Does your job need to be made sacred? · Does your marriage need to be made sacred? · Does your body need to made sacred? · Does your vocabulary need to be made sacred? · Does your time need to made sacred? · Does your relationship with your kids need to be made sacred? · Does your relationship with your parents need to be made sacred? In the high-speed, high stakes, sometimes high-handed sport of NASCAR auto racing, Dale Earnhardt was the undisputed - though often contested - king. Known as "The Terminator," Earnhardt has been given the lion's share of the credit for popularizing and profit-maximizing NASCAR. Under his leadership NASCAR was transformed from the sport of redneck roughnecks to the most watched sport in America. Everyone...from highbrow, high-profile, multimillionaire Hollywood types, to hardworking, face-in-the-crowd, blue-collar/pink-collar laborer types...came to love watching cars go fast and pass one another. And everyone, it seems, loved Dale Earnhardt. When an unremarkable track accident (hardly worth calling a crash in the spectacular smashup world of NASCAR bash ups) took his life two weeks ago, racing fans were stunned and disbelieving. Earnhardt himself admitted that he played hard and he played for keeps. While he didn't drive "dirty," he certainly wouldn't have been accused of behaving like a gentleman. He was out to win. Every time he drove onto the track, he expected to win. His tough-guy-in-a-tough-sport image came through off track as well. Though a wildly successful and savvy businessman, Earnhardt could still come across like the "hick from-the-sticks" that was his heritage. But Earnhardt had won the admiration, the respect, and even the hearts of his fellow drivers by being honest, hardworking, hard driving, as well as being a loyal friend, a loving father and a compassionate man. What only a few people knew was that although Earnhardt knew he was in a tough, dog-eat-dog-run-over-the-dog business, for years he had practiced small, but significantly meaningful gesture of "sacrifice" during each race he drove. Darrell Waltrip, whose little brother Michael was in the lead as they came into the final quarter of a mile in the 2001 Daytona 500, wrote a memorial tribute to his best friend of 30 years Dale Earnhardt in Newsweek. Waltrip, who retired a year before Earnhardt was killed, tells how his wife Stevie wrote verses of Scripture on notecards and gave them to him before a race. She'd sit down on a Sunday morning and go through the Bible. Then at some point during the race, I"d look at the card. In 1994, just after Dale's close friend, Neil Bonnett, was killed at Daytona, Dale asked her, 'Will you do that for me, too?' From that day on, she made one for me, one for him. We'd meet at the racetrack - she and Dale and I - and she'd have the two Scriptures, mine and his. Dale would read both of them and then he'd say to me, 'You take that one, this one's mine.' Then he's wink at me and say, 'I got the good one, didn't I?' That's what happened two Sundays ago. Dale didn't know if Stevie was even going to be at the track, since I wasn't racing. So when he saw her there with a notecard, he was really pleased. It was Proverbs 18:10: 'The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.' Dale read it, then he looked at her and said, 'I got the good one, now don't I?'" - ("A Farewell Lap for 'The Intimidator,' Newsweek, 5 March 2001, 53). Into the steamy, sometimes seamy life of NASCAR racing, Earnhardt brought these Bible verses, rejoicing in the way they could enter the hot, single-minded cockpit of his race car and bring a transforming peace, an uplifting spirit, to its interior. Earnhardt took back his humanity, his spiritual center, even as his physical self was necessarily at its most intense, its most narrowly focused. He sacrificed his self reliance, his self-absorption in the sport he loved, in order to take back the real love of life, the genuine joy of spirit, that drove him on. When you take back life, when you take back church, you move from what Fred Luter, Jr. of New Orleans (Franklin Avenue Baptist Church) calls a "Got To" Christian to a "Get To" Christian. Here's a "Got To" Christian: I've got to go to church today; I've got to read my Bible; I've got to go to prayer meeting; I've got to serve on the Board of Trustees. Here's a "Get To" Person: I get to play golf today. I get to go to Hawaii on my vacation. I get to see the Dallas Cowboys play. Here's a "Get To" Christian: I get to go to church today. I get to spend time with God today in prayer and Bible study. I get to minister at Hospice this week. What is it? "Got To" or "Get To?" Will you make sacred your life this Lent? Don't give up. Take back. Don't Got To. Get To. ChristianGlobe Networks, Collected Sermons, by Leonard Sweet I want to start out this morning (afternoon) talking about the promises of God. I found this wonderful article on the things that God has promised us All of those promises come from the promise that God made to our mother and father in faith Abraham and Sarah. That they would be the parents of a large nation, kings shall come from this promise. Today – according to recent statistics – 50% of the population of the world attribute Abraham as the father of their faith. That means that there are 3 billion people on the earth who are a part of Abraham and Sarah’s family. There are Christians, Muslims and Jews – the people of the book. Who are a part of God’s promise. And yet in the story, Abraham was 99 years old, Sarah was 89. He already had a son by Hagar, and he had gone on with his life, accepting things just as they were. He had done the best that he could in his life, he was only a man – so when God says that he will have another child, and create another nation – he laughs.

Prayers for the City

February 24, 2013 Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 Luke 13:31-35 Prayers for the City 2nd Sunday of Lent Year C Second Sunday of lent This is the second Sunday of our Lenten journey. Its winter, it is cold and many of our days are dark. This winter we don’t know what it going to happen, some days it is raining, some days its snowing, and the worse are the days when it is doing something icy in between. But it is fitting weather for lent, a time of darkness when we are waiting for the joy of Easter. It is a time when we focus on the promises of God, and we prepare ourselves for the day that they will come true. Focus of our text The old testament readings focus on our relationship with God. the promises that God makes of us and the things we do for God in return. In the gospel readings for lent focus on the journey of Jesus to the capital city of faith- Jerusalem. Today I want to focus on both readings – Genesis and Luke. They both have important lessons for our faith. The importance of Jerusalem Luke mentions the city Jerusalem 99 times – he tells the story of Jesus knowingly journeying to Jerusalem – the place where the cross has been waiting for him for decades. Jerusalem literally means the city of peace – and yet Jesus sees that there is anything but peace in the city. He sees sin, corruption, people who are not willing to listen to the good news of salvation. Jesus overlooks Chicago A friend of mine, a fellow pastor says that if you go into the Chicago temple, the largest United Methodist church in Chicago – downtown – if you go into the main sanctuary you will find a large picture of Jesus overlooking Jerusalem in tears. Scripture says that Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Our scripture for today days that Jerusalem is a city so sinful, that it kills those prophets sent to turn it around. Jesus says that he wants to make a difference but the people wont let him. And yet he knows that is where God calls him. There are many portraits of him like the one in the Chicago Temple, longingly looking over Jerusalem. But in that church in the prayer chapel there is another picture, of Jesus looking over the city – but it doesn’t take long to realize that it is not Jerusalem – you look at the skyline and realize that it is Chicago. Jesus looks over our city too – praying, hoping, inviting, forgiving and waiting. Chicago 4th most miserable city A report was just released over the weekend which says that Chicago is the 4th most miserable place to live in the nation. Rockford is #3 in the nation, Lake county #9 – the list also includes Gary as one of the top 20. The report list crimes, high forclosure rates, and declining values of homes as reasons for the misery of its residents. For someone who is looking, you can find a lot of things wrong with this city. As one who does ministry in Chicago – there are a lot of things that are discouraging. But the one thing that gives me hope if the tenacity of Jesus – who that in the midst of rejection and hopelessness, find hope. I remember attending a gardening meeting, and talking with a women – and telling her that the youth cannot come across the street to work on a garden because of the danger of violence. And the woman replied, but that is why I come to these meetings, in the hope that one day things will be different. If I keep believing, if I keep working, if I keep living, then one day our city will change. And all of the negative things that affect us, all of those conditions will disappear, and our children will live in a better community. Children of Abraham Now I don’t know that woman’s religious background – but I can say that she is truly a child of Abraham. She has the faith in the invisible, the impossible, the improbable, things that cant possibly make sense in our circumstances. How do you know when you have a call from God? when you been given a vision of a world that can’t possibly be, when you have been called to a place where there are no known pathways – you could be a child of the faith of Abraham. Emily Dickenson said – I dwell in possibility. The children of faith dwell in what is possible with God, not in what the news tells them about the world. William Cary, who started the missionary movement said that we should expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. Galatians 3:6-8 Just as Abraham believed in God and reckones it righteousness, those who believe are the descendents of Abraham. God promised Abraham that he would have children as numerous as the sea. It is Paul that reminds us that those descendants are his natural children, but more importantly those descendant are those who were able to have faith like Abraham. After these things Look at the scripture in Genesis for today. It starts out – after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. After these things? After what things? After Abraham had been called to leave his family and go live in the middle of the dessert, after being tested by his family, after fighting enemies in order to rescue his family, after being tested by kings to worship them, after being married for years with no offspring, after claiming a new life – he had a vision from God. Scripture says that this was one of the darkest times of his life. Not so much because things were going bad for him. But because he was scared. He had been through so many changes, he had listened to God for no reason. He had no idea of what God was going to ask of him next. All God asked of him – was to believe God. to have faith in what God was calling him to do, to go where he had never been before, to create what he had never seen before, to stand up where he had never had to take a stand – and to believe. Believe in an invisible, impossible, improbable God. And Abraham responds, I don’t have a problem believing in you. But Abraham did what most of us do. We look at the one thing in our lives that we don’t have, and we say that we will believe when that problem is solved. When we receive that one thing in the world that we need. For Abraham is was an heir – he and his wife were in their 90’s and they still did not have a child. If God could do anything – why did God not give him a child. Storms and anchors come from the same place A young naval student was being put through the paces by an old sea captain. "What would you do if a sudden storm sprang up on the starboard?" "Throw out the anchor, sir." "What would you do if another storm sprang up aft?" "Throw out another anchor, sir." "And if another terrific storm sprang up forward, what would you do?" "Throw out another anchor." "Hold on", said the captain. "Where are you getting all your anchors from?" "From the same place you’re getting your storms, sir." You don’t have to worry whether or not God has enough anchors for your storms! We worship a God who is invisible, impossible, improbable and most important – omnipotent. He is the God of all things in our lives. God creates our needs, but he also fulfills our needs. God will always provide. In the midst of this dark time in Abraham’s faith – God invites him to go outside and look up at the sky and count the stars. If he could count the stars he could count his children. God provides for our needs, The God who calls us to the impossible, will equip us to succeed – if only we are willing to believe. Tight rope worker and the believer Jean Francois Gravelet was considered one of the greatest tightrope walkers in history. He was the first man to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. But that was not enough for him, he liked to show off. One day while crossing, he lowered a rope to a ship, pulled up a bottle of Coke, sat down on the rope to drink it. When he achieved all of that he needed to do more. He crossed in a sack, on stilts, on a bicycle, one day he was blindfolded. By this time, he had the attention of the world, so whenever he would walk across crowds of thousands would come to watch, cheer and scream his name. Finally, one day – he announced that he was the greatest tight rope walker – he asked the crowd if they believed in him. They shouted – we believe. Okay he shouted back, I will walk back across the tightrope. But this time I am going to walk with one of you on my shoulders. – do I have any volunteers? There was not a sound – no one said anything. Until one man finally raised he hand, and said he would be the one to sit on the tightrope walkers shoulder. He rose forward, got on the man’s shoulder and they went across together. Of course the crowd roared – the tightrope walker asked once again – do you believe? He corrected them – when I asked you if you believed – more than 10,000 people shouted yes. But the truth is – there was only one of you who really believed in me. God asks us every day if we believe – how many times in our life do we really answer yes? We are the children of Abraham – when we have faith in God. when we believe in the words of God there is nothing that we cant do and achieve. Lent is a lot like that dark time in Abraham’s life. When he was holding on the a vision that he could not see. Lent is our time to wait for God’s Easter promises to come true. The opposite of darkness in life is not necessarily light – it is the faithfulness of endurance. It is waiting on God, waiting with God, faithfully believing until circumstances change. Change comes to those who have the endurance to believe, in the invisible, the impossible and the improbable. May our prayer – be like the prayer of a young girl entering the faith of Abraham – “In a city torn by pain, a city far from wholeness and peace, a city waiting still to be redeemed, give us lord the courage to say: there is but one God in heaven and earth, in dark and light in good times and bad. Amen. Dr. Charles Blair, pastor of Calvary Temple, Denver, Colorado, said, “My first year as a pastor was a floundering experience. The turning point came when I read a book of sermons by Dr. Robert G. Lee, then pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church, Memphis, Tennessee. I went to Memphis to interview Dr. Lee. For a week I trailed him as he made sixty pastoral calls, and I said to him one day, “Dr. Lee, if I made that many calls, I might have a big church too.” He replied, “Well, why don’t you?” “Then I wrote to Dr. Louis Evans, pastor of Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and later went to see him. He could spare me only twenty minutes, but they changed the course of my study life. “Son,” Dr. Evans said, “for every minute I preach I study an hour.” When I came back, Denver looked different to me.” In ancient Israel six cities were founded as cities of refuge. Thither for refuge could flee men who, without malice or premeditation, had taken the life of a fellow man. Once within the gates of the city of refuge, they could not be touched by any hand of vengeance or judgment. The rabbis have an interesting tradition that once every year the roads leading to these cities of refuge were carefully repaired and cleared of obstacles and stones, so that the man fleeing for his life would have no hindrance in his way. The Cross is God’s great and eternal city of refuge from the penalty upon sin. In the liturgy of the Jewish bat mitzvah of Julie and Valerie Glauberg was this beautiful prayer: “In a world torn by pain, a world far from wholeness and peace, a world waiting still to be redeemed, give us, Lord, the courage to say:”There is one God in heaven and earth:” Summary Depression, while serious, is not to be feared. By God’s grace and with the help of modern medicine, it can be healed. Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares “A deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.” So says Genesis, chapter 15. The man those ominous words describe — the one who is surrounded, enveloped, by “deep and terrifying darkness” — is revered as a spiritual guide by perhaps more people on the face of this earth than any other. His name is Abram. We know him as Abraham. He’s the common ancestor of not one, but three great religions of the world: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. So you may be surprised to hear an interpretation of the biblical narrative that describes Abram this way — as a man struggling with depression. Might depression, in fact, be a possible way to explain this “deep and terrifying darkness”? It comes upon Abram suddenly, without warning. It comes upon him at a time in his life when he has little reason to be depressed, when nearly everything about his life has been going well. Man of blessing “Look toward heaven and count the stars,” a generous Lord has said to him, not long before. “Count the stars, if you are able to count them. So shall your descendants be.” Now, having lots of descendants may not seem an attractive thought to many of us — most parents today prefer smaller families. Yet, most of our ancestors valued children as though they were wealth — which, in a very real sense, they were. For a man of the ancient Near East — a nomadic herder of livestock, like Abram — having many children is the be-all and end-all of life. For Abram, wealth is directly related to biological reproduction. Every time a ewe drops a new lamb, or a nanny goat a new kid, Abram’s net worth creeps up a little. Every time a young woman of Clan Abram bears a new child, that means another set of hands will one day hold a shepherd’s crook or bake the flat loaves of bread that sustain the community. The paradox, among all this divine blessing, is that Abram himself has, as yet, no children. His wife, Sarai, seems unable to conceive. Using a word that sounds harsh and hurtful today, the Bible calls her “barren.” This is the greatest sadness in Abram’s life, that as yet, he has no son and heir. Yet, hasn’t the Lord just assured him that his descendants will be as numberless as the stars of heaven? Hasn’t the Lord just promised to give Abram and his descendants a rich land one day? When I was a child, I was afraid of the dark. I would go get in bed with my dad, and he would tell me a story, and I knew everything was okay. As long as I was with him, I knew nothing would harm me. That is the way our heavenly Father wants us to feal about Him. He wants us to know that He is always near us, just a prayer away, and He will protect, lead, and guide us, and we can feal sheltered in His arms.