The Faithfulness of God

Message Transcription

Today. What's what's been on my heart. First, let me let me say this. You're not going to get a polished sermon from me. I wish you would. You would think after 50 years of preaching, I could come up with something nice and polished and could speak, uh, like a very, uh, eloquent orator, if that's what you're thinking. I'm sorry to dash your hopes, okay? Because that's not happening. But what I do want to do is I want to share to you some things that have just touched my heart, uh, looking at the faithfulness of God as we come to know it through Abraham, through a guy that was named at some point, exalted father and his wife. Princess. Now, I know that in here we have I have a lot of preachers and Bible readers and Bible students and a lot of people that kind of know this thing. And probably you could do a better job talking about this than I can. And please don't hesitate. Don't do it right now, but don't hesitate afterwards to say, hey, Frank, I think you're a little wrong on that. I think you ought I will not take any offense, but Exalted Father is is how we first meet Abraham in Genesis chapter 11. His dad's name is Tarak in Hebrew. And the reason why I'm going to use right now, Exalted Father, is that's what his Abraham's name literally means in Hebrew.

Uh, Exalted Father Terok. It's really hard for us to figure out exactly what that name meant. There's a good chance it meant Wanderer. Okay, but there's there's there's different, uh, analysis of his work. Uh, that word at play. But we first meet him in Genesis chapter 11, and he's one of Terrax's sons, and he marries Princess. Now, princess, we know as Sarai. And of course, we probably think of her as Sarah, but that actually happens later on. Just like Abraham we probably think of as Abraham. But that kind of happens later on. But. Abraham. Um, got has the name Exalted Father. I wonder, as he and Sarai went through their marriage and went through the years, if the name Exalted Father ever caused any embarrassment? I mean, we know that. We know the way the story goes, right? He's about 100 before he ever has a kid. And yet everyone, when they're seeing him is saying, high exalted, father, high exalted. And what was it like when he met somebody new? Oh, how many kids do you have? Oh, well, none, you know. But, you know, we're working on it. We're working on it. And then. Sarah Princess, I don't know. Well, I want to I want to talk about him. And I want us to try to.

I want to show you some things that, uh, you can tell me later if this helped you or not, but for me, it kind of helps me to kind of put aside a little bit of the, um, I guess the images that we have of somebody like Abraham and trying to understand him for who he really was as best we can. Um, let me see. Are we? I'm trying to go on and get us going. Yeah, here we go. Oops. I'll probably go on. Okay. So, Abraham, now if you if you go to your Google images and you put in Abraham, you're going to see a lot of pictures like this, right? And maybe that's what Abraham would have looked like if he lived in the 14th or 15th century A.D., you know, have a big robe like that and the turban hat. And he looks he looks very regal and he looks you know, I'm probably prejudiced by the Bible here, but, um, he does look rich. Okay. And when you read the Bible, it seems like Abraham was pretty well off, but he probably didn't look anything like that. Now, I'm going to show you some images here of what we know that people roughly in his area looked like. And the reason why we know that is because of archaeology. And we have found, um.

I'm sorry. I need to turn this thing on. That's why it's not working. Yeah. Uh, the, uh, we we have found images of people from what's called sometimes Western Asia, and that would include Canaan, and that would include Mesopotamia, and that would include Turkey, and that would include Iraq. And we know a little bit of how they would dress. And, uh, here's one of the ones that really an image that comes from his time, uh, it's from an Egyptian tomb. And we know again, from the inscriptions there, this was a group of West Asiatic foreigners. They considered them foreigners, right? The Egyptians did. And and I guess what I want you to note is those tunics that they have on you see how they're kind of multicolored. And then here's another one again, Egyptian source. They're Canaanites. And there's a thing called the Egyptian Book of Gates. And they've taken the images that were there and they've kind of enhanced them. But that's that's what the Canaanites would wear. Okay. So again, kind of got that same multicolored thing going on. And then here's another one of Amorites. And Amorites should ring a bell. We know that from the Bible. Right. Uh, and this is from an Egyptian tomb painting, uh, about 1900 BC, which again, you know, you know, when you're talking about something that happened 4 or 5000 years ago, that's in the neighborhood, right? Um, he's, uh, excuse me.

We got we have the same kind of multicolored tunics, and then you see a couple guys there with a white. Okay. And the Egyptians, whenever you see their guys dressed in white, uh, that's because, uh, they're Egyptians that they're portraying. Okay. And so you got the Egyptians there, and then you've got some of the Amorites that are coming in to Egypt. And then the last one here that I wanted to show you, just to give you kind of a different look, these are Chaldeans, and we know that there's a thing called the standard of ur, uh, that again, was found by archaeologists. And this is literally what's on that standard. And this I don't know what comes to your mind when you think of standard, but this really looks like a piece of furniture. That's what it looks like. And they engraved, uh, what they looked like on there and the kind of clothes they were wore. So at any rate, in all the Google images that you find that date back to Abraham's, uh, time, you're not going to find anything that looks at all like that first slide. Right? Okay. So he looks like this. Now, we know from Joshua 24 that Abraham and his whole family worship other gods.

Hey, do.

You remember that? Joshua, chapter 24 tells us that. And, um, I just wanted to go on and put up there a few to kind of help set the stage here. Um, very possible that Abraham's family. And Abraham himself could have worshipped Enlil. That was kind of the chief god that was so holy that other gods couldn't even look at him. And they've. There's one image of him here where you can plainly see the his hair and his beard, which, uh, if you're looking at, uh, artifacts from that era or different archaeological finds from that era, you know that kings often had that kind of headdress. Here's another one, another picture of him, uh, doing the, you know, the warrior thing, because gods were thought of many times as warriors. And then there's Enki. He's the great Sumerian water god. And I just wonder, he was the god of male fertility. And then there's sin. The moon god. Unfortunate name. Right? Uh, sin. Uh, he's an ancient major god who is one of the patron deities of er. And he was a closely associated with cattle herding. Okay. Do you think maybe Abraham might have worshiped the God of sin? By the way, in Haran, they have found many objects associated with the worship of their moon god. Okay, so I'm trying to set the stage for you here. Abrams, a guy that I don't know if anybody can relate to this, but it's kind of like he's in the cattle business, except he also had sheep and he also had goats. He had cattle, too. And I don't know this for sure.

Just basing this on what we do know about at least some places, some areas. Good chance he lived in ER and his flocks were outside of er and good thing for him. He had many different uh servants and we know that from the Bible that helped take care of all those uh flocks that he had. And he is without a child, even though his name is Exalted Father. And we know from all kinds of ancient sources, including, of course, the Bible, that having children was very, very important to the people back then. And we know from extra biblical sources about different peoples, uh, for them, it was kind of their way to say we're immortal because we have kids and. Here they are. And I keep I keep thinking about Abraham in this situation. And his family all worshiped different gods and the way the worship of gods work back then. Was you would worship the different God that would help you get what you wanted. You'd do the sacrifices you needed to that God to help you get what you wanted. And you would, um, pray the prayers that were expected to be prayed to that God to get what you wanted. And I'm. I just can't help but think that Abraham had been caught up in that just like the rest of his household. And they keep he keeps praying. For a child, you would just you wouldn't expect anything else. But somewhere down the line. And the Bible doesn't tell us when or where or how, but somewhere down the line. I think Abraham started thinking differently.

I think he may be started thinking. I don't know about all these gods. Nothing's really working here. And I imagine Abram going out at night looking at the stars. And remember, this is before light pollution. He can see the stars. Y'all live in Lubbock. Y'all probably can too. But in Dallas, you know. Looking up at the stars and thinking, there's there's got to be something else. Maybe he's thinking, what's wrong with me? And I the I wish the Bible had told us. I don't know what the answer is on this. I can speculate, but. A voice ends up coming to Abraham, and I'm going to pick out this part of the story from Stephen in Acts seven, three and four, where Stephen, when he's telling the story of Abraham, says that God tells him, leave your country and your relatives and go to the land. I will show you. Then, according to Stephen, he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. Okay, so he does that. Now. I can't help but wonder how that conversation went. With Siri or with his dad, or with what? I just can't help but wonder now, Abraham was told, leave your relatives. And sometimes I think, you know, we may be in a position where we go, okay, I'm out of here. Uh, but that's not really the way societies tended to work back then. But God had said, leave your country. Now that's that's pretty big. You tell my wife to leave the country and, uh, you know, that's kind of big. And then you say, leave your relatives.

Ah.

And then you say, go to the land that I will show you. And from the way the whole story plays out, it's clear this was a voice that was talking to Abraham. And Abraham had to at some point go in and say to Sarai and say to his father, uh, we need to leave. What? Yeah. We need to leave. Why? Yahweh told me. Yahweh. And again, we know that from Genesis his name was Yahweh. Yahweh told you. Yeah. We need to leave. Where are we going? I'm not entirely sure. Where? He said he's going to show me. He's going to show you. What would you do if you were Sarai or Torak? What would you do? And your husband comes in and saying talking like that? Well, I don't know. I don't know how the interpersonal relationships worked then with this, but Abraham left and he goes to Haran. And then I'm going to pick this up in Genesis 12 one through three. And what I'm going to assume, and I don't know if everyone assumes this with me, but when Stephen tells the story, he talks about God telling him when he's still in ur to go. But then when you go to Genesis, it doesn't really give you that account. It gives you an account that's there in Genesis 12 one through three. And the Bible clearly states in the the chapter before that Terah had died in Haran, and Abraham is in Haran at this point.

So this must be the second time. That Abraham is told by God, and it's a little expanded now, according if we compare it to what Stephen says now, Yahweh or the Lord. And you know that right in your Bibles, when you see those capital l o r d that's what English Bibles do when you, when they're translating Yahweh from Hebrew, says Yahweh. Or the Lord said to Abraham, Exalted Father, go from your country and your kindred, and your father's house, did you not from your country? Now that's that's kind of a big unit, your kindred, a little bit smaller unit. Your father's house, the smaller he's got. Abraham. You're not quite getting them. I want you to leave everybody and go to the land. I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. And he hears this. From God. Now, the first time he didn't really leave his father. Maybe there were extenuating circumstances, I don't know. He made it to heaven. And we know from the story he doesn't really leave a lot because a lot ends up with him.

But he starts on his way from this time. Going to the land that God would show him. Now, um, I neglected to put in my slides here. I really wanted to be able to show you a map that shows you about how far he went. And again, I imagine a lot of you know how far he went, but he went from Haran, which is in Turkey, and he he traveled with this group all the way down to what we know as Canaan. And we also know from what the Bible says, that Abraham starts out on this when he's 75 years old, okay. Where he's got this promise that he's going to have a huge family and that this family is going to bless all the earth. Well, um. I am going to, um. I got to confess to you, uh, you know how you know how Netflix makes. Movies, and then sometimes they make series, and sometimes they take a movie and they make a series out of it. And how people say, well, the series are good because you can really develop the character. Okay, well, what I'm really wanting to preach to you is a series where I can develop this, but I can't. And I asked Carl, could I just come back every Sunday for about, you know, 3 or 4 months? And I developed this theory and he said no.

And. And my wife had already told me. And then Kaylee also, and then also Carl. You really can't get all of this in to this certain time. And that's true. But this is the point that I'm wanting to make to you. This promise that you see, we have a record of it seven times being given to Abraham. His name ends up changing to Abraham when he's 99 years old, where he becomes father of the multitudes. But seven times over the course, from 75 to about, Paul calls it about 100. He keeps being told this promise over and over and over again. He has two. He has a son, Isaac, that receives from God the same promise. And then Jacob receives from God the same promise. And these promises are just told. And listen, let me tell you what what I think happened. At a certain point, we again, we know the story, right? You've got Isaac and Jacob, and you've got the whole thing where they end up in Egypt. And there they become slaves in Egypt, and then they end up coming back to Canaan. And when you go through this movement, you're going to see references. When you read your Old Testament, you're going to see references to, you know, this is the land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

You know, because now think about it. They weren't reading this. They were telling each other this, uh, this is the way I imagine it. I, um, I was in Ghana once, and I was at a village where they had no electricity and people. It was all very, very rural. And, uh, many places in Ghana like that, at least when we were there and you would talk, I asked them once, what do y'all do at night? Guess what they do at night? Or what I was told they do at night. They tell stories. They tell stories. And I said, well, tell me one of your stories. And, uh, and it was cool. You're one of the stories. And everybody knew the story, and they told me, I mean, this story has been told forever. I think this was happening. Abraham. Our forefather. Isaac. Jacob, they were promised these things and all kinds of sin and wickedness happened all along the way. And yet the promise remained. And they kept looking back and saying, as they went through their history, the nation kept looking back and saying, you know what? We have a promise. We've been promised something. Okay, now I'm going to just. Boy. You. Carl. Only. Only Carl knows. Well, I think somebody else. I think you'd know, too.

You've seen all the slides I'm cutting out here, right? Okay, I had to. I know I'm going too long anyway. But the people, no matter what happened, if they looked to their God, the promise remained. And the New Testament makes clear. Look at Paul. Look at what he says specifically in Romans chapter four. Jesus was the answer to the promise. And he's our promise fulfilled. And the whole world has become the land of Abraham. And we have the promise of being part of God's family through Abraham. Okay, now, I don't know what all you may have going on with your with your life that may, uh. Cause you to doubt the promise of God. But let me tell you something that you need. I really believe this. And you guys that are young, uh, younger. I think you really need this, too. You need to realize you're part of a story that extends way, way, way past you and way before you. You're part of a story, and you're important in that story. You're important in it, just like these biblical characters that we read about. They're important to it. You're going to have a lot of things happen to you that's going to make you feel like, yeah. All kinds of, you know, this isn't this my life? My life is really about. I know for me, at one, my life is really about, uh, working in a factory.

I've done this before. Worked in a factory where all day long I did this. Where's God? Where's my life? We're going to have things, kind of situations that we're going to be in where it's. Going to work against faith. But I'm telling you, put your faith and hope in him. You're part of the story. Okay. Uh, we're going to I'm going to go in and close out at this time. And, uh, and so let's let's have a prayer and then I think Gary will close us out. Uh, father, thank you so much for your blessings. And we thank you, father, for, um, people that have gone before us. People like Abraham. Father, we're thankful for who he is and what he did for us and remaining faithful to you and father. We know that he. Was not by any means perfect in his faith. And we know we're not by any means perfect in our faith. But father, we know you are faithful and father, we. I pray for everyone that's assembled here together that they'll know that you're faithful and they'll come to know your love in a way that's very real, in a way that, um, they take with them every day in their lives. And it's in the name of Jesus that we pray these things. Amen.