The Call of Abram
12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
Genesis 12:1-3
The New International Version (https://ref.ly/res/LLS:NIV2011/2024-03-22T14:15:08Z/1228649?len=1288)
. 2011. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Philippians 4:6 (https://www.biblestudytools.com/philippians/4-6.html): "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication wit
h thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
There will be a meeting of the Church Board immediately after the service,” announced the pastor.
After the close of the service, the Church Board gathered at the back of the sanctuary for the announced meeting. But there was a stranger in their midst — a visitor who had never attended their church before.
“My friend,” said the pastor, “Didn’t you understand that this is a meeting of the Board?”
“Yes,” said the visitor, “and after today’s sermon, I suppose I’m just about as bored as anyone else who came to this meeting.”
My dad told me a story about one of his return trips from Guantanamo Bay Cuba while he was doing his two weeks active duty for the Navy reserves. The flight had arrived late at JFK and my dad had to travel from one terminal to the next. As he ran through the airport people were cheering him on. It was as if he were in the New York City marathon. As he started to approach the gate the attendants closed the door and waved him off. He missed his flight and got to spend the night in New York City. He was put up in a nice hotel and that evening. He ventured out to one of the nicest restaurants in the city. The following morning, he flew out to Buffalo, NY and arrived safely at home, remember these are days when cell phones didn't exist. The only contact we had with my dad was when he would call from the pay phone. I know the anxiety that it produced in me as a child waiting for my dad to come home from a foreign country. I can only imagine the anxiety my dad experienced being in New York City and having to wait till the next morning to get home.
I can only imaging how Abam felt, being told to leave his home and community to go to a land that he did not know. I imagine there was an awful lot of fear and anxiety trusting an unknown God.
Part of the human condition is experiencing anxiety and fear. The reality that we are in control of our circumstances is foolish. Control is an illusion we make up to help us cope in this world. How many times have our days been interrupted with unexpected events period. A couple weeks ago I came out of the dentist office and got into my truck only to find out it wouldn't start. Mary and Kiah were on their cruise, and I had to rely on AAA for help. I sat and waited in a hot truck with a sore mouth for 2 1/2 hours for a tow truck. I was filled with anger, frustration, anxiety and exhaustion. When the tow truck driver arrived, I inquired what took so long. He had just come from Binghamton, NY. I thought in all of north Syracuse and Syracuse there wasn't one tow truck driver available? That they had to send a driver from Binghamton. Needless to say, I was thankful he was there.
When my day yes gets interrupted by the unexpected, I am absolutely paralyzed and useless. I used to be able to multitask and handle the changes, but after my strokes I find that is absolutely impossible. I have to approach 1 task at a time. I am starting to believe that that is how God works, one task, one person, one church at a time.
If ministry has taught me anything it is this: God's time and our time are not the same. As human beings we are in such a rush to be everywhere and do everything at the speed of light period. We wonder why we make it home in the evening and we are so exhausted that all we can do is collapse in front of the TV with our supper.
The real cure for our anxiety is not medication. Don't get me wrong medication has its place, and you should take your medication as your doctor directs.
However, there are so many pharmaceutical products advertised on television that sales in this country have gone through the roof, the pharmaceutical industry is a trillion dollar a year business. They create anxiety and fear to sell their medications. If you don't believe me, just check their stocks. Companies like EI Lily, AstraZeneca, Pfizer and many others have made many people wealthy throughout the years. Viagra was being developed as a heart medication, but when they discovered the side-effects, they marketed it for a different purpose. I'll let you Google what those side effects are. It is impossible to know how many of those little blue pills have been sold worldwide. All I know is this Pfizer is still making a killing on this drug.
Saul had an encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. I can only imagine this was an anxious moment for him. Remember before he was Saul, he rounded up Christians and have them jailed, beaten, and put to death. He was not I'm nice person. But after his encounter with Jesus his eyes were blinded, and he was directed to go to the home of ananias. There he stayed blind and confused trying to process all that had happened to him. When God spoke to ananias and directed him to care for Saul he was resistant. His anxiety told him that Saul was a murderer and why would God want anything to do with him. But when Ananias Submitted himself, you in obedience to the Lord. The world changed. He laid hands on Saul’s eyes and the scales fell off. He would be no longer be called Saul but Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ. Paul was baptized and followed the Lord all his days.
When Paul went to Jerusalem to meet with Peter and the other disciples, they wanted nothing to do with him. He had zero credibility, and they were convinced that this was a plot to trap and kill them. The apostle Paul went away from that experience and did not reappear on the scene for three years.
The apostle Paul in his lifetime would write 2/3 of our New Testament. Plant churches all over the world, be shipwrecked, beaten, imprisoned, and eventually put to death. If that doesn't produce anxiety, I don't know what will. In Paul's letter to the Philippian church, he writes the following.
Philippians 4:6 (https://www.biblestudytools.com/philippians/4-6.html):
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
After all Paul had been through, I don't think that he wrote this with ease in his heart. I imagine it took a lot of prayer and solitude to write those words.
Children experience anxiety and fear when they are confronted with new situations. This time of year, can be especially hard on them with all the changes that take place in the new school year. They have new schools, new friends, and new communities to get used to. There's even the fear and anxiety of riding the bus for the first time. Trusting people that they have never met before. Their feelings and emotions are valid. We should not expect them to be as resilient as we have become over the years. Children have Tender spirits and there is a time when they are gonna lose it and have temper tantrums. The response to those moments is not to chastise them or punish them for having those feelings, but to stop in the business in our day and listen to them. When we hear, honor, and respect their feelings we empower them to grow past the anxiety and fear. We make them feel as if they are more important than what we have to do. When we put making dinner, doing laundry, vacuuming or just watching hallmark, or the news we let them know that they are not our first priority.
So how do we help them cope it’s these changes?
I want to share with you this short clip from a Ted talk. This is a mom who got a lesson in how to care for her four-year-old daughter by her 10-year-old daughter.
Children do what parents do for them. The 10-year-old simply listened. We are so obsessed today with instant communication and instant gratification that is almost impossible to separate us from our smartphones. Children need love, care, compassion, and most of all faith in their parents and God. If we don't model those things for our children, they will never learn them. Our children are the most important disciples that we will ever make. We get one shot at it and God help us if we blow it. I've said it before that when Kiah was born, I looked at her in the incubator and thought “God, you trust me with this child.” God replied, “Not only do I trust you, but I believe in you and Mary.” Mary and I are still figuring this parenting thing out. But by the grace of God, we do it one day at a time. We are learning constantly to hear, honor, and respect our daughter's feelings period. This is grace: that God loves us in whatever shape God finds us and it is my hope for all of you that as you begin a new school year with your children and grandchildren that you will spend time praying for them and with them for God's blessing.
I want to close this sermon with a video about praying for your children. See if you can hear the call of God to pray for and with, your children and grandchildren.
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