The Stuck and the Still
Notes
Transcript
Children’s Sermon
Children’s Sermon
Something about learning from failure? Little handheld game? Aqua basketball or aqua hoops
We don’t quit after one try, and the game doesn’t quit on us ever, unless there’s a leak or some such…God doesn’t leak
Scripture
Scripture
Genesis 15:7-21 - God said to Abraham, “I am the Lord that brought you from Chaldean Ur in order to give you this land to possess. But Abram said, “Lord God, how am I to know that I’ll possess it?” God said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old and a dove and a young pigeon.” Abram did so and cut them in half, laying each half across from the other except the birds, which were not cut in half. Vultures swooped down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them off. As the sun was setting, Abraham fell into a deep sleep and a great a dreadful darkness fell upon him. Then God said, “Know this, your offspring will be aliens in a land that is not theirs, and slaves there, and afflicted there four hundred years. But I will judge the nation they serve and they will leave it with great wealth. But you shall go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. And your descendants shall come back here in the fourth generation for sin is still thriving among the Amorites.” After dark, a smoking firepot and flaming torch passed between the pieces. On that day, God made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”
Engage
Engage
Years ago, when I was maybe just barely a teenager, we used to camp quite often. Usually every other weekend or more in southern Missouri. We had a camper and a boat…actually, THIS boat, which my mom still owns. Anyway, we’d boat, and ski, and fish and such…one night we went for dinner at the dam, as I recall, about a 45 minute boat ride. We left to return to our cove well after dark. We had a boat full and it was DARK. Cloudy, no moon, no stars. We knew the lake well but in the deep darkness, we took a wrong turn somewhere and grounded the engine on a sandbar or something. Luckily there was no storm but it was still scary. We can’t hardly see…where are we, is the engine ok, it’s very cold and are we going to make it back and if so when, etc. Fortunately, the lake was still the same lake, the turns the same turns, our cove was unchanged, and we were able to dislodge and, very slowly and after several hours, find our way home…just catching enough glimpses of enough landmarks to find our way. There wasn’t anything like GPS in those days, children.
Encounter
Encounter
Friends, we may stop and start…we may be stuck at times. We may feel like the task(s), at times even simple ones, before us are impossible. Where is God when we fail? How does God handle our failure(s)? How does God react when other people abandon us or cause us to fail? The key takeaway for today is that while we may stumble or get stuck, God is still always right beside us. God does not abandon us, God is faithful. Faithful even for us when we slip, or fall, or get stuck. Let’s look at some Biblical examples of this.
Our Scripture for the day out of Genesis 15 is, in may ways, the root of the sacrificial system developed later in the Old Testament AND a precursor of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Right before our Scripture today, Abram has been blessed, in Genesis 14, by the mysterious figure of Melchizedek. Hebrews tells us that Christ is a priest in the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek acknowledges God as creator of everything AND redeemer. Melchizedek seems to be someone who understands the whole plan of God before it’s really even been started in history.
Then we get this sacrifice prepared by Abram according to God’s instructions. This procedure was how important promises were ratified in Abram’s day. If either party broke the promise made, they were punishable by death. For the Harry Potter fans out there, the unbreakable vow made by Snape is something similar to what this sacrificial procedure accomplished. So the animals are split, laid across one another with a small valley or canal in between. Then, the blood from both sides would flow down into the space between and each party was to walk through the blood…thereby signifying their unbreakable promise…which if broken meant death. So, Abram prepares the sacrifices accordingly and creates the bloodpath using the goat, heifer, ram, etc. Abram falls asleep and has this profound hopelessness, darkness fill his mind. A foreshadowing of the dark times Israel will experience. Also, many scholars think, a realization by Abram that he cannot possibly fulfill his end of this covenant. As a matter of fact, he’s already not cut the birds in half as God instructed because some thoughts of his own, some obstacle, got in his way. Abram knows he can’t be perfect. Yet, what does God do? God passes through as a smoking firepot and flaming torch between the pieces. God passes through for God’s self AND for Abram. As Ray Vander Laan puts it, “Knowing Abram couldn’t keep the covenant, God’s actions effectively said, ‘If either you or I break the covenant, I will pay for it with my own blood.’” And it’s not just Abram. God, having full view of all past, present, and future, KNOWS what’s coming. With the Israelites and all of humanity. And he STILL says, I’ve got this. Praise God! We may stumble or get stuck, God is still beside us.
There are many examples of this. Another ones comes earlier in Genesis 3. Right after Adam & Even have disobeyed God’s one commandment…and he’s scolded the snake, and Adam, and Eve, comes Genesis 3:21 - God made the man and his wife leather clothes and dressed them. The sin with the most impact in all human history and God, after giving them the what for, lovingly dresses them. Praise God!
Also, turn to Genesis 21. Hagar is kicked out of her home, the place that provides for her, with her son Ishmael. She’s given only some bread and water. God has promised Abraham that she’ll be taken care of, but she hasn’t been told this yet. She goes wandering through the desert. Her water runs out. She places Ishmael under a shrub and walks far enough away from him that she can’t likely see or hear him, saying, “I can’t bear to see the boy die.” Talk about a no good, terrible, awful, rotten day. She thinks she, and her son, are done for. Inches from death. Stuck! with no foreseeable way out. God sends an angel who says, don’t be afraid. God’s got this. She opened her eyes, and there was a well. Praise God!
You can also turn to Exodus 34 and see where God has Moses re-make the tablets that had been broken. In essence, God re-marries Israel, goes back through the ceremony and everything, after they’ve been unfaithful with the golden calf. Praise God!
This series is focused mainly on the Old Testament…but Jesus models this behavior countless times as well. With Peter, with Thomas, with the thief on the cross, and many other times. Praise Jesus!
We may stumble or get stuck, but God is still beside us.
Empower
Empower
Now, knowing that God is always still beside us has some very practical implications. As we seek to re-launch our church(es), our lives, our relationships or whatever, we should not be afraid. God told Hagar, do not be afraid! As Ross Copeland said a few weeks ago, this is very common in the Bible. I haven’t verified this, but I believe he said there are enough don’t be afraids in the Bible to last every day for a year. We shouldn’t be afraid of trying new things, of branching out, of failure! Many people stick with the old ways simply because they’re comfortable, even if they’re failing. I’d rather try new things and fail than have what we’ve always done die a slow death.
God will NOT abandon us when we fail. Period. Ever. Things may feel at an end from time to time, but he’s there.
I recently learned the story of 10 year old Tanitoluwa Adewumi, who goes by Tani. Tani is a chess master and the best in the world at his age. His parents don’t play chess and his brother will play him some, but is far below his level. Tani was introduced to chess at school and is a brilliant, quick learner, with a remarkable mind. He can picture 20 or more chess boards in his mind at once…representing different moves from where the game he is playing currently stands. He’s remarkable.
But even more remarkable is how Tani even got to America in the first place. Tani’s father Kayode owned a successful printing business in Nigeria, with 13 employees, and they were a happy family. Tani’s mother worked as an accountant. Then, one day, the wicked, Satanic, ruthlessly violent Boko Haram came calling to Kayode’s business. They wanted him to print 10,000 posters espousing their goals for Nigeria…up to and including a radically violent Islamic state. But, you see, Kayode, Tuni, and the family are devout Christians. One of the goals of Boko Haram is to wipe Christians out. A few days after Kayode refused their request, they came calling to his wife and children while he wasn’t home. Only through miraculous divine intervention were they not killed. But, they knew they couldn’t stay. They left everything in June 2017 and fled for the U.S. They were housed at a homeless shelter in Manhattan and Kayode worked washing dishes to buy food. But they knew, even having been stuck and facing a difficult path forward, that God would provide.
Tani’s remarkable chess ability opened some doors. People heard their story and began to help them. Someone rented them an apartment for a year, fully paid and fully furnished. All kinds of experts stepped in to help train Tani. Now, the family has their own house, Tani and his brother are flourishing, and Kayode works in real estate. They have seen many miracles and they know that those who follow Christ may get stuck, but God is always still beside them.
Pray