Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

You may wonder why I am here to share with you about Jesus on Good Friday.

Let me tell you, I know more about Jesus than you think!

I may have lived 2000 years before Jesus lived on earth, but I know lot about Jesus.

Not every conversation I had with God is fully recorded in your bibles.

Just the ones God felt were necessary for the foundational history are there.

For instance, God recorded in Genesis when He told me to leave Haran to go to Canaan.

But it was through Joshua, and later Stephen in Acts where God recorded how He appeared to me while I was in Mesopotamia.

God recorded the things He knew were necessary to give the foundational understanding.

But not every conversation He had with me, nor every conversation he had with others for that matter.

Another famous man from my time knew a lot about Jesus and the resurrection which you will celebrate on Sunday.

You may remember him.

His name was Job.

Job knew that,

Job knew a lot about Jesus and the resurrection because God talked with us and revealed more to us than is recorded in the Bible.

Too many people miss those little details, and fail to see that we knew more about Jesus, and what He was coming to do than you think!

We knew it—we saw it because God revealed it to us, off-the-record so to speak.

That is why Jesus himself rebuked my descendents who were not believing in him when he said,

Yes, I saw it.

God revealed it to me, and tonight, I want to share with you, what God revealed to me.

Do you have the time?

Would you like to hear?

Well, you’re here, I’m here… here we go.

My Forefathers

Where to begin...

I was born to Terah, my father, about 300 years after God had flooded the world, saving my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Noah.

That’s 8 greats, though they were not all so great.

Noah and his son Shem knew and followed our Lord.

They found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

I understand that now.

They were not perfect, but God gave them grace, and they believed God.

Not long after God saved them when he flooded the world, within 100 years, my forefathers turned their hearts away from our creator, our true God, and started worshiping the things God created, like the stars, sun, moon, and even themselves.

They decided to make a name for themselves, and started to build a tower to the heavens.

It was in the time of my great-great-great grandfather, Peleg, that God stopped them by giving them different languages, and scattering them throughout the earth.

My forefathers, Peleg, Reu, Serug, Nahor and Terah were in Ur, in Mesopotamia.

There we worshiped the moon god.

Yes, I was raised worshiping something God created, instead of giving Him the glory and honor he is due.

That is, until that day… That day when God first showed me grace and mercy.

Mercy and Grace

God appeared to me.

I cannot give you a reason why.

I know I did not deserve it.

I was an idolater, worshiping false Gods!

I did not deserve it.

Yet, He appeared to me.

I saw His glory, and greatness, the Holy Lord God Almighty.

He was seated on His throne and the angels were praising him, Holy, Holy, Holy they said over and over… They were praising Him and I knew I was condemned, unclean before His holy presence because I did not revere him and worship Him.

I instantly knew I was a dead man, being unrighteous in the presence of my Creator, my Judge.

But then, the unexplainable happened.

He did not condemn.

He did not treat me as I deserved, a sinner, condemned, unclean.

Instead, He said he wanted to bless me, and make me a blessing to others.

He told me to leave my country and my people and go to the land He would show me.

Bless me?

I was undeserving.

I had not followed God as Noah and Shem had.

I did not worship him.

I worshiped false gods and thought only of myself, my glory.

I turned my back on my Creator, I misused what He gave, and still He wanted to bless me?

My friends.

That is unexplainable.

That is mercy.

He did not treat me as my sins deserved.

He did not condemn.

That is grace.

He gave me blessing.

When he first appeared in his glory, my heart melted within me out of fear from the condemnation I deserved.

When He commanded I revered Him as I heard all authority in His voice.

When He promised, I worshiped Him for His grace and mercy.

My heart welled up with praise.

Sarai

After He left me, I immediately went to my wife Sarai and told her to start packing!

I told her about the one true God, the God of Noah and Shem who appeared to me.

She rejoiced with me in the grace of His promises.

Then, she reminded me, we needed to tell our father.

Yes, Sarai was my step-sister that I married.

Our father, Terah, was a strong man, who ruled our family.

Terah

It was no small thing to tell him I was leaving.

But I had to obey God.

So I went to my father.

He took it…, not so well.

You must understand.

Family was very important.

Terah was not pleased that I wanted to take Sarai and leave.

He really did not like that I wanted to take Sarai and go, well, somewhere.

God did not tell me where.

He just said to go, and He would show me.

Imagine telling that to your father!

He called me foolish.

He called me many things, which I will not say to you.

But in the end, I was just as stubborn as he.

I told him I was going to obey God and go.

That is when Terah shocked me and said the family would go.

My father was very strong, and since he was letting me go by going too, I thought, okay.

My friends, let me tell you, partial obedience is not obedience.

I have learned that after my many years of walking with God.

I did not obey God when he told me to leave my country and my people.

But, God was faithful to me, nonetheless.

Haran