The God of Abraham praise — Sermon by Rev. Joe Gasbarre

please pray with

me May the words of my mouth and the

meditation of all our hearts be

acceptable in your sight O Lord our Rock

and Our Redeemer amen please be

seated well let me um again Express such

uh gratitude and joy for being back here

in the Pulpit with you uh once again

it's a gift it's such an honor um these

past 10 years of of preaching the

lectionary um I've come to become very

acquainted with the sovereignty of God

it seems that whenever there's something

wrestling in my life uh it's reflected

the text quite often and I find this to

be true today and so if you're the kind

of person that can pray and listen to a

sermon at the same time um kind of like

chewing gum and walking in high heels um

don't know that experience but um if you

could do that that's that'd be great um

I would really appreciate it I very much

much need it and so we we hear this text

from Genesis that that for me has been

striking and I pray that it would be

hitting home for you perhaps now my last

Sunday with you um way back back in the

day was a very fitting farewell gift you

all gave me um a a a snow shovel right

um You Ed carried it through here

processed it through dragged it through

actually and and it was incredibly

fitting and I remember um using it quite

often the sticker still kept up that was

amazing um the sticker Christ Church

England stickers and as I would Shuffle

the the driveway and Alysa would shovel

the driveway and and it would can't wait

to be done with this um I would just see

your faces and I would just pray for you

every time um we would shovel snow and I

wondered about as we were coming back do

I present this shovel back to you um

little I know right little did I know

we'd have to use it here again um right

so uh but I'm not going to give it back

to you and and here and here's why as as

we approach this because I realized why

I'm going to keep it and and um I think

it actually applies to good old father

Abraham as well and so um for Abraham

and myself and and I hope this is true

for you it's abundantly

clear that our lives are not our

own if I could kind of summarize what

I've been learning these past few years

with these Transitions and all that's

gone on um my life is not my own um and

if we claim Christ in our lives if if

we've given ourselves over to him we

learn pretty quickly that Christ himself

is our

life and in him you actually become more

yourself and we truly see at the end of

the day that our

citizenship is in only one place and

that is of course in heaven in the

kingdom of God and that is even true for

a guy like Abraham and so please if you

have your Bibles and you'd like to

follow along turn to Genesis

15 um and as you turn there I want to

remind ourselves a little bit of Abram's

backstory he'll eventually become

Abraham he's not there yet um but a

little bit of his backstory to those of

you that maybe you know the story maybe

you don't know or maybe you've forgotten

it um but just a quick backstory to

Abraham so so Abram is a guy who lives

in a pagan foreign land and amongst many

different gods that are worshiped in

this land and and he shows up God shows

up the one true God shows up to all

places in that place to Abraham and says

hey Abram I'm calling you out um and

Abraham's like who is this God right and

and as God approaches Abraham he gives

these three outlandish and and Powerful

promises right to him he says number one

Abraham I'm going to make you a a great

nation I'm going to give you your own

land to call your own it will be your

land it'll be a great nation um it's

going to be huge secondly um he says I

am going to give give you a huge family

I'm going to expand your Offspring um

it's going to be this uh ginormous

family more than you can ever imagine

right um and number three um through

this offspring that you're going to have

somehow all the nations of the world are

going to be

blessed and wouldn't you know Abram's

like okay like all right I'll go along

with it uh and he does he leaves his

country goes on this journey has no kids

yet wondering what's going to happen and

three chapters later we get to our text

now three chapters doesn't seem like

much right for Abraham from that moment

of Genesis 12 to Genesis 15 it's been

about 25 years and no kid and no

promises are seem to be fulfilled or in

sight and and he's in this place of

wondering what in the world's going to

happen

next um and so enter our text right um

and and so we discover about God

throughout this text and of course

throughout all the witness of scripture

is that where we don't have things

figured out it's very clear that God has

it all figured out right um that he sees

through all of it and he and he sees

through us and he sees through the heart

of Abraham and so our text begins with

what he sees in Abraham and the first

words are fear

not fear not

not um I find it strange sometimes I can

understand but also a bit unusual when

people say the Bible doesn't really

relate to me um I'm not sure many people

have given it an honest look perhaps um

at least not from a completely objective

perspective though that is challenging

of itself but I also don't think people

are generally honest with

themselves um we are more often than

we'd like to admit a fearful or afraid

people we have all sorts of different

fears wrestling within us and one of the

most repeated words in the Bible uh

given to us usually through God himself

or through messengers of God is fear not

do not be

afraid and here's

why his next word to him is I am your

Shield I am your shield and what a

profound word to speak into Abram's

fears and perhaps ours too that in

whatever fearful State you find

yourselves where the pain cuts through

your hopes and dreams and even

expectations God says I will be your

protection and now while you may think

that I've checked out on you I'm your

Shield over you every step of the way

every disappointment every failure every

wandering thought where you feel alone

in this world I remain I am watchful I

am your

guard now Abram's response sounds a lot

like one who's been waiting this whole

time for God to say something like

finally you're going to say something

right um and it's uh and what happens is

that Abram ends up just presenting his

plan B to God okay God that that's great

I I've come up with this plan this idea

uh and maybe even escape plan for God to

consider and I find myself very much

like Abraham right relating to God in

his prayers and um and even his reaction

to the call not to fear um it it's like

you're waiting God to show up and just

redeem these current circumstances and

and often when we feel God's

absence we create our own contingency

plans

our plan

B's well God it's been 25 years and it

looks like we're going to go in this

direction aren't

we I don't have a child so I've arranged

my will to have this other guy another

relative to inherit these things and

he's going to carry it on and and it's

all going to be just fine so I think

this is where we're going to go

right um and um and so we see that

perhaps this is an emotional Plan B for

Abraham yet in God's economy there is no

plan

B there's no contingency plan There's No

Escape Plan with God there's only one

plan and he's sticking with it he's the

one sticking with it you may not find

yourselves really sticking with it but

he's going to and God says to Abraham

come on outside I got something to show

you all right now I love talking about

abraam to kids I really do I love it in

gospel play um I love when we interact

with it um it's it always comes up when

we're outside or we're at the beach and

and the reason is because there's always

this moment where you look up at the

stars you look at the sand and you

remember what God Said Abram try to

count them try to count these Stars

that's how big your family's going to be

and not just his family God was pointing

ultimately to yes Israel but to the

church to God's people right um and and

even the sand and I love in gospel play

when we're in the sandbox these kids are

literally trying to count the grains

right and they're like oh I I just can't

do it right and so Abraham is is

overwhelmed by this and we see in the

text that this is what gives Abram faith

that when he God takes him outside and

shows him this physical these physical

stars and says count them and see this

is how big it's going to be

and Abraham it says believes God he

trusts God and it wasn't because Abram

mustered something up inside himself

right but it was God's promises making

it come alive in him and so it is by

grace through faith in the promises of

God that it's counted to him as

righteousness God creates faith and he

makes us righteous there's something

sacramental going on here where God

takes the physical to communicate

something we can't see that we can't

imagine that fearful wandering and

emotionally unstable Abraham is in fact

declared righteous by God because the

grace of God's promises swept over him

and the same is true for us that every

week God's promises are swept over you

the body and blood of our Lord Jesus

Christ given and shed for

you and it should come to no surprise

that the second portion of our text is

going to get a little bloody all right I

don't like blood but that's where it

goes all right look at verse

7 and he said to him I am the Lord who

brought you out from ER of the Chalan

and to give you you this land to possess

but he said Abram oh Lord God how am I

to know that I shall possess it so Abram

believes in God's promises yet he wants

to go a step further with his promises

how am I to know these

things again God does something physical

and very tangible with his promises and

and and where he is about to do

something quite radical for Abraham to

know just how serious God is when it

comes to keeping his promises that there

is no plan B there's only one plan and

so God instructs Abraham to to make some

preparations it gets a little messy um

and he helps him prepare this really

it's a covenant ritual with animals

being divided in half laying them

against the other making a type of

processional almost like this right so

one carcass here the other carcass there

and you have this kind of middle a you

know middle kind of processional space

um and and and traditionally this kind

of Covenant the way it was done is that

you'd make those preparations and then

the two parties that are making this

agreement this Covenant agreement of

keeping certain promises they would walk

or process between the carcasses right

and and what was being communicated was

if I don't keep my end of This Promise

may I be torn apart like these car

es that's the kind of Covenant God is is

is making here okay

now here is what I'll call the ight

Shyamalan

twist okay you ready for it that twist

that that kind of you know you know him

you know him signs and um all those

other movies he made there's always a

Twist

okay Abram's put to

sleep and it's only God who Pro CES

through not God and Abraham just God

okay God saying to Abraham it all falls

on me buddy I'm putting all the risk

here on

me um I know you would break these

promises every time so I'm taking all

the risk here and and the image of this

smoking fir pot and flaming torch you

all symbolize the presence of God moving

through up and down this these car es

and and what is God doing but he's

binding himself to his promises he's

binding himself to it um and so it's

it's another way of saying may I in fact

be torn apart if I don't keep these

things I am willing God says to be torn

to pieces to keep my promises to you

because there's no plan

B there's only my plan

and all of this friends draws us further

towards the cross that such a covenant

here is a shadow of the extent not only

God is willing to go through but

actually did go through to claim us as

his own to uphold his promises towards a

New

Covenant he came down from heaven became

one of us and whose flesh would be torn

part reconciling the whole world to

himself he would be that blessing from

The Offspring of Abraham for the sake of

all the nations in the

world that we who were once far off

strangers to the Covenant have been

brought near by the blood of Christ his

blood has transferred us from the domain

of darkness and into his own kingdom in

whom we have Redemption

the Forgiveness of

sins that's where we

are and in such a New Covenant God is

binding himself to

us in this Lenton season whatever

practices you find yourself doing I pray

that it's driving you closer to what we

pray to this morning in our CCT of the

day it read we have no power in

ourselves to help

ourselves we have no power in ourselves

to help ourselves and the kind of help

we need isn't something simply to push

us in the right direction so that now we

have it all together oh got that Grace

got that forgiveness I'm good to go I'm

a put together chrisan and it's going to

be great just need that little bit of

help a little bit of push and and we're

good no it's to say we are creatures

always dependent on the grace of God all

the

time there isn't a moment where I would

this is me saying where I want to say

you know what God I'm good

today right there isn't a day where I'd

say I don't think this Grace thing is

something I I'll need today I had the

right amount of espresso the the kids

are getting ready for school I got my

lessons prepared you know I I think it's

going to be great until it isn't um no I

wouldn't want to even think that

um flock of Christ dependency on God's

grace is the only way

forward it's the only way forward it is

the only way towards real Faith it's the

only way towards real righteousness in

our lives Grace is always the beginning

it's always the middle it's always the

end it's the same old song playing on

repeat over the radio again and

again and once again inviting you to the

dance you know as I Was preparing this

this morning I couldn't help but think

of um one of my favorite movies uh

growing up on VHS some of you know what

VHS is um yeah I'm that old now so um

the the VHS movie that always watch I'd

get home from school I was kind of a new

Christian and I just love the story of

Moses and and I would watch The Prince

of Egypt all the time just rewind it go

back to it get some popcorn anyways but

the scene that always moved me when it

came to this whole dance business was

Moses who has you know killed a guy run

away and he's found himself with Zapora

um and her family with with Jethro and

he's overwhelmed by his guilt and his

shame and Jethro sings this amazing song

um- which has everything to do with

joining him in the dance and he says

this to look at your life through

Heaven's

eyes um and this wonderful Dynamic of as

messed up as your life may be um the the

kingdom of God invites you to see things

through this grace and to even join the

dance you have to learn to join the

dance he says um and and there's this

powerful moment where that kind of

joining in of that dance moves Moses

from from a guy who was The Prince of

Egypt to a runaway murderer to someone

who's found a wife and who meets God and

his life forever changed and so Grace

invites us to look at our lives through

Heaven's perspective through the kingdom

through the

cross and we must learn to join that

dance that is the dance we got okay um

and so at the end of the day friends

there's no Plan B right there's no

escapee plan there's no contingency here

um only Grace to meet us in our

fears and only the promis keeping God to

be our Shield that is the way forward

together and so may it carry you this

week May it carry you all the way

through lent into the holiest of weeks

and we know all about

that but for right now I pray that it

would carry you to this table

the gifts of God for the people of God

in the name of the father and of the son

and of the holy spirit

amen let's take a moment quiet