From Abram to Abraham

SERMON: 2003-07-27--g1714--from-abram-to-abraham SOURCE DURATION: 00:52:58.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The sermon begins with spoken exposition in segment [0]. The recording ends with sustained acoustic music intervals starting around segment [880] and continuing through the final provided segment [911], which marks the end of the main content. Acoustic segmentation found sustained music at the end edge and moved the boundary to the adjacent transcript segment. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: 00:48:43.920-00:52:57.500 ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: yes ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: end Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- The promise that God made to Abraham when he first called him from Ur of the Chaldees in Genesis chapter 12 was really a three-fold promise. God said to him, "You follow me, "and I will give you a land. "I will make of you a mighty nation, "and through you I will bless all the nations of the world." One little glitch, however. The fulfillment of that promise hinged completely on Abraham's ability to beget an heir through Sarai. And that, of course, is really the problem because Sarai was barren. Not only that, she was, by this time, long past her childbearing years. There was no way in the natural that she could ever get pregnant. So they try to work around. You will remember Sarai said, "Well, since I can't have any children, "take my maid servant, Hagar. "You can have a child by her. "You and I look at that, think it's scandalous, "but we need to remember that in that culture, "the servant was an extension of the mistress, "and the child that she would bear to Abraham "would be considered her child." Ishmael was born, gave nothing but trouble, and in the long run, God made it very clear that his promise would not be fulfilled through Hagar's child, Ishmael, but rather through Sarai's child. And so, much to his pain, Abraham had to send away Hagar and Ishmael. And Ishmael, as we know today, serves as the forefather of many of the Arab nations still living in the Middle East. But it brought Abraham and Sarai's problem back squarely to where they had begun, because they still faced infertility, and they still faced the problem of how do we get a male heir? And so it is that here in Genesis chapter 17, once again, at the age of 99, God appears to Abraham and he steps into the picture because now the promise is about to be fulfilled. And as we look for a few moments at these verses that we've read together in Genesis chapter 17, I want you to notice there are two things God does in addressing Abram's concern about their inability to produce a male heir by Sarai. The first thing that happens is that God renews or he confirms his covenant with Abram. Verse two, I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers. A covenant, as you know, is a solemn agreement. It typically consists of public vows two parties make to each other made in the presence of witnesses, usually the signing of a document and the exchange of a symbol that reminds them of the covenant. The closest thing we have to it today, I think, is the marriage covenant. So in this particular passage, as the story goes on, God institutes circumcision as the sign of this covenant that God has made with Abram. We read in verse 10 and 11, this is my covenant with you and your descendants after you. The covenant you are to keep every male among you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision. It will be the sign of the covenant between me and you. And so in circumcision, God, by the cutting of the flesh of the foreskin, is reminding his people that they are his holy people. They are in covenant with God and they are to put off the works of the flesh. And we don't have time to expand on it, but in the New Testament, Paul makes a huge issue of the fact that this sign of circumcision was instituted in the Old Testament in Abram's life before the law was given. And he uses that to prove, as we'll see later, that salvation is by grace through faith, not by keeping the law. So the first thing that God does here is he renews and confirms his covenant with Abraham. And that covenant was actually made two chapters earlier in Genesis chapter 15 in a very complex and sacred covenant ceremony. We won't dwell on it today. But there's a second thing that happens here in this particular passage, and that's the one that I'm anxious for us to get to this morning, and that is the fact that God changes their names. You'll have noticed that, have you not, as we read the scripture together. Abram becomes Abraham, and Sarai becomes Sarah. And so we read in Genesis 17, five, no longer will you be called Abram. Your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. Similarly, verse 15, as for Sarai, your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai. Her name will be Sarah. So here's the question. Why the name change? As Shakespeare said many years ago, what's in a name? Well, quite a bit biblically, because names in scripture are not just labels by which you distinguish one person from another. They are often a description of character, and not infrequently, they are an indication of God's purposes for that person's life. And so in changing their names, God in this passage is really doing two things. First of all, the name change is a prophetic declaration of God's promise to bless them and make them a mighty nation. Let me say that again. It is prophetic indication of God's determination to fulfill his covenant promises to Abraham that out of him will come forth a mighty nation. And that is indicated by the meaning of the names. The name Abram means exalted father. The name Abraham means father of many, because God says you're going to be the father of many nations and kings will come forth from you. Now the story is not without its irony, because if Abram means exalted father, picture yourself as one of Abram's contemporaries. And so you meet Abraham on the road and you introduce yourself. I am Yebib, your local Canaanite living down the road. What's your name? Well, my name's Abram. Oh, what does Abram mean? Exalted father. Oh, well, let's talk about your children. How many children do you have and what are they like? Well, the wife and I ain't got no kids, but we're waiting on God, because God told us we would have a child. Oh, really? And how old did you say you were? Well, I'm 86 and how old is the Mrs.? Well, 77, somewhere in there. And we forget sometimes that having the call of God on your life can entail a lot of shame. Can you imagine the feeling of going through life, I'm an exalted father, but my wife can't have any kids, and we're childless. It's a little bit like Mary, the mother of Jesus, when the angel comes and declares that she's going to be pregnant. And how do you handle a pregnancy in your unwedded state and how do you live with the humiliation? Don't ever think that when God places a call on your life that it's automatically going to be sunshine and roses down the road, because sometimes it involves a lot of humiliation. So the name Abram means exalted father. It's changed to Abraham, which means father of many nations. The same thing happens with Sarai. It's a lot more subtle, because Sarai means a princess, and Sarai means the princess. And there's a lot of speculation as to really what's happening here other than to say that as a princess, there was a sense of nobility. There was a sense of I'm a high born woman, but when it becomes the princess, she becomes the princess to many, many nations because God again repeats the promise of many nations. She's going to be the mother of many. It's much more subtle than with Abraham. So the name change is prophetic. I am going to change your status from people who cannot have a child to people who are going to be the forebears of a multitude of nations, because remember the covenant, as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore, so numerous will be your descendants when I'm finished with you. But there's a second thing, and that's really easy to miss. God reveals his strategy. That is to say, God reveals how he is going to fulfill his promise to enable them to bear fruit. Let's think about that a little bit, because what is the common element in the change of names? Think that through with me. Abraham becomes Abraham, Sarah becomes Sarah. What is the single letter those two names have in common? It is the H. Now think about this. How do you make the sound of an H? It is a ha sound. It is a breathing out. Is it not? And in scripture, the word for breath, the word for spirit is the identical word ruach, and the equivalent in the Greek is the word nouma, which we find in pneumonia and pneumatic and all of this sort of thing. And throughout scripture, remember the opening verse of Genesis. There's the water of chaos that covers the whole earth, and what is the spirit of God doing? He's hovering over the water. And then when God speaks, it is the spirit of God who is the agent of God who separates the waters, brings life into the creation, and eventually you have what we have today. And similarly, when God makes Adam, what happens? What does God make Adam out of? Makes him out of dust. And then what does he do? Breeds into him the breath of life, and Adam becomes a living being. So what's God saying in this passage to Abraham and to Sarai in changing their names to Abraham and to Sarah? What he is saying to them is this. You cannot have kids on your own. Your bodies are as good as dead. There is no hope for you in the natural, but guess what? I'm gonna come along with my spirit in fulfillment of my covenant promises. I'm gonna breathe life into you and your dead bodies will come to life and they will bear fruit. And that's exactly what happens. Shortly later, she gets pregnant. Isaac is born who remembers what Isaac means. Means he laughs. Abraham laughed the laugh of faith. Sarai laughed the laugh of unbelief. But there is this wonderment at how in the world could God pull this off and give people our age, the fulfillment of the promises of God, and a child to cherish and to nurture. I think you have to be childless for all your married life to be able to appreciate the incredible wonderment. I mean, later on you see it in the New Testament when Elizabeth gets pregnant. And you see it when Mary gets pregnant, you get these supernatural, miraculous impartations of divine life. And so, what is happening in this story and what brings it really home to us and what makes it so important for us today is that God is establishing the foundation of salvation by grace through faith. That is to say, God is laying the foundation in Abraham, who is our forebear, to show us how it is that God is going to bring the world back to himself. Specifically, God is teaching us three very foundational truths that we need to understand and embrace with all our hearts. Number one, we cannot save ourselves. There is nothing we can do to move us from a world of bondage and alienation and sin back into the presence of God, Romans 3, 10, and 12. There is no one righteous, no, not even one. All have turned away. They have together become worthless. There is no one who does good, no, not even one. And I can tell you that when God begins to work salvation in somebody's heart, it always begins at this place of realization, I don't have what it takes to get to where I need to be. I need help outside of myself. And so in the New Testament, Paul picks up on this and he says, for example, in Romans 4, 13, the promise to Abraham and his descendants that they should inherit the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. What's he doing? He's going back to the story of Abraham, back to the story that they could not make this happen themselves. The fact that circumcision was instituted before the law was given to demonstrate you do not become a Christian. You do not become part of the family of God until you realize that no matter what it is that you bring to the table, it's never enough because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Now then, he goes on to make the observation that God must do the saving. Titus 3, 5, he saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. The reason the cross of Christ is so offensive to so many people is because God is not impressed by our natural attributes, our natural strengths, the family that we come out of, the good things that we have done. Paul says, I count them all as garbage. The word he uses in Philippians 3 is I count them all as manure. It is worthless, he says. The only thing that matters is being found in Christ, who as we'll see in a moment, is the fulfillment of all of this. So God is laying this foundation of how he is building his new people. It starts by the realization that what I have to offer is not enough, I cannot usher in the presence of God or the favor of God. More than that, it's got to come from God. Unless God breathes into our dead bodies, we will never be able to have a child. And that's why Paul then, again, picking up on this in the book of Romans, describes the story this way, Romans 4, 1920 and 21. Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, speaking of Abraham here, since he was about 100 years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised. You see, it's like Paul says later on in Ephesians too, we are saved by grace through faith, not because of works lest any man should boast. There isn't a one of us who in that final day, when we stand before God, is going to be able to boast that we had something that we could bring to the table that gave us an edge over somebody else. Good and bad, the worst and the best of the human race, all need Jesus. Because we are saved by grace through faith. And that then is the third practical lesson that flows from this. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the covenant that God makes with Abraham. A verse you've heard us quote a lot around here, Acts 412, salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. This salvation, this life out of death comes through Jesus because Jesus becomes this ultimate fulfillment, this merging of heaven and earth. He is the son of God who brings the values of heaven in human flesh. Remember, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God and then he goes on to say, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. I'm mindful of the words of the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary when he announced to her that she was gonna be the mother of Jesus and she said, how in the world can this be since I'm only a virgin? And the angel responded with these words, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. And the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. Here you have the Ruach, the Numa of God, God breathing into this young girl, heaven's life. And all of a sudden, she is pregnant with heaven's child. And so Jesus is born and he lives his life unlike any human being that has ever lived before because on the one hand, he is fully human like you and me, but on the other hand, he is infused with the breath and the power of God. And the message of the gospel, as you know, is that he not only lives his life, demonstrating what the kingdom of God looks like, but for our sins, he was put to death on the cross because the light came into the world and the darkness didn't like the light. The presence of God makes sinful people look and feel very foolish. And unless they're prepared to embrace the light, they do everything they can to kill it, which in the wisdom of God leads to our salvation. Then he was raised from the dead for our justification. The Bible says he ascends into heaven, sits down at the right hand of God the Father, the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham that out of him would come kings that would rule over all creation for an everlasting kingdom. They didn't understand that very well in the Old Testament or even in the early stages of the New Testament, but it's a beautiful biblical reality from a God who keeps covenant forever. But then what does he do? He pours out his Holy Spirit, which is now the Spirit of Jesus who was fully human and the Spirit of God who is fully divine. Then what's the message of the gospel? When you and I know our sin and misery, when we finally realize that nothing we bring is good enough, we cannot save ourselves, we cannot earn the blessings of God, we cannot bargain with God, none of the things that we try to do to usher in a better world ultimately are going to be successful. When we know our sin and misery and our eye turns toward Jesus and we recognize that he is the perfect one and by faith in him we are saved, then the breath of God, the numa of God, the ha, the Spirit of God comes to dwell within us and guess what happens when the Spirit of God comes to dwell within us? The dead come to life because it is God's resurrection life and God's resurrection power. Very specifically, three things happen when by faith we're joined to Jesus and we are filled with the Holy Spirit. First thing is this, we become alive to God. Paul writing to the Ephesians puts it this way, and you he made alive when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the Prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Remember by nature we're dead to God. We are like a radio receiver whose tuner is dead and therefore cannot pick up the radio waves in the atmosphere around us. I mean if you didn't know that radios existed and worked and somebody came to you and said, well you know there's thousands of voices in the air all around you, you would say you're absolutely crazy, wouldn't you? Because there is nothing in me that is able to pick up on these wavelengths. A lot of people say, well I don't believe in God because I can't pick him up, I can't see him, I can't feel him, I can't hear him, well welcome to the world. The problem isn't that the waves aren't out there, the problem is that your receiver is broken. Or worse yet, it's actually tuned to the wrong station. Because we have no trouble picking up on the garbage of hell, it's just God that we can't hear. You can try all you want to tune in to God, you cannot make it happen. It only happens when God reveals himself to you and when by faith you were joined to Jesus, the moment you were joined to Jesus, what happens is the light goes on and you who were dead in trespasses and sins, spiritually, you become alive. And suddenly you know that God is more than just a vague concept, he is more than just a stranger, he's real, he is alive. And as I said earlier, my prayer for this community in this next year is that God will so reveal himself to us that he will be more real, more real than the things you can feel and touch and your friends and your family and your business because God is the ultimate reality who desperately longs to be in connection and in relationship with us and who paid an incredible price to make that happen. And it all starts with a sinner's prayer. It all starts where Abraham and Sarah found themselves. We can't do this, doesn't make any sense to us. You have already done it in Christ. So Lord, bring me to life, we call it the new birth. If anybody's in Christ, he's a new creation. And if it has to be explained to you, then you haven't really clued into it. And what you need to do is just say, Lord, help me to get this, help me to understand it, help me to get the deeper levels of my inadequacy and your great love and your great power. We come alive in Christ and once we come alive in Christ, we develop a new desire and ability to obey God. Romans 6, 17, thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. You who were slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart. Ephesians 2, 10, Paul says, where God's workmanship curated in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance to do for us. Abram and Sarai, they could make love all they wanted. Wasn't getting anywhere. Until God came along, breathe into them his breath of life, and suddenly they experience a new life. A lot of people think that living the Christian life is doing your best to be good, keep the rules. We all fail and so we just sort of live under that tension of well I'm trying but I'm not really good enough. Being a Christian is not just doing your best. It's not just high moral behavior. I can think of a lot of pagans who probably live better lives than you and I do. That true? But it's not about how good a life you live, it is a question of is the life of Jesus in me because if the life of Jesus is in me, then something begins to change inside because now I'm alive to God. I'm beginning to understand who he is, what he has done for me and then he works in me, the will and the ability to say no to the old and to put on the new and my life begins to change. There is a new hunger to do the will of God. A new conviction about the things that I do wrong, not just the deeds but the motivation and the attitude and I discover God calling me forth to become the man or the woman that he wants me to be. My life begins to bear fruit in transformation. That's how God changes us because it's Jesus changing us from the inside out. It's not just external behavior modification, no, it is transformation from the inside. When I want to walk after the flesh, when I want to get even with you, when I want to walk in unforgiveness, if I want to be my rebellious, stubborn, old miserable self and justify my actions, the Holy Spirit will come along by the word of God and by the power of his Spirit and he will convict me and he will transform me and he will change me from glory to glory to become more like Jesus. It's the breath of God. One final thing, he empowers me for service. He gives me new power to commit my talent, treasures and abilities to his service. Acts 1-8, you will receive power. When the Holy Spirit comes on you, he says to his disciples just before he returns to heaven, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. I mean, here they were entrusted with a great commission to make disciples of all nations. He didn't give them a budget. He didn't give them an agenda. He didn't give them the wherewithal to carry out that mission. He said, you just wait around in Jerusalem because there's gonna be something happening. The power from on high will come upon you. You will receive power, the word, as you know, is dunamis from which we get the word dynamite. And the early apostles who cowered behind closed doors because they were so afraid of the authorities and who didn't know where to look or what to do were transformed into blazing apostles who in their generation turned the world upside down because Christ living in them had overcome death and hell and the fear thereof and propelled them forward into the service of God. And a church like this accomplishes what it accomplishes for the glory of God because the Spirit of God in our lives stirs up our desire not only, but gives us abilities and powers to do things that are humanly not like us. And God is glorified because he is breathing new life into those places in our lives. Now, just to put some flesh on those bones, I've asked Penny and Powell Slimmon to come up this morning. They shared with me a story of a family event that I think in some small but significant way is illustrative of what happens when God breathes new life into us. Many of you have heard their stories. Penny had many, many issues in her life long time back and in walking past the church building here some years ago, saw our sign that said something to the effect of messy people, broken lives, and a great God. And she said, well, maybe this is a church that I ought to go to. So she came and for a long time she sat in the back. And then one service was one of the rare services where we had an altar call. And Penny is sitting in the back and she's fighting with God and she's saying, don't let them sing just as I am. And you know, what would happen? It was one of those moments where that's precisely what we sang. And you know, if you attend here regularly, how seldom we do that. And she came down the aisle and we talked and prayed. And that was the beginning of huge transformation. Their marriage at that point in time was pretty shaky. Powell was not the same that he is today. But I first met Powell on Thursday night suppers. Eventually became part of the services here. We've had a number of conversations and the Lord has touched not only his life, but their marriage. And now I was working on the extended family and that's where we pick up the story. Just so I can put a little bit of history on how we came about Boxing Day. We had a blended family and Powell had one son and I had two sons and a daughter. And all of a sudden we are all put in the same household and I have one son and his name's Trevor and he is my middle son. And he has had much anger towards his father and I'm sure myself throughout what upbringing he's had. He leads a very tough life and spent most of his youth in and out of jail and even his adult life. And trying to then bring him into a household with a stepfather like Powell who Pastor John knows is not the Powell that I have now. It was like dynamite and there was a lot that went on. It caused the police to be called in a lot. It caused me to leave with the boys, the rest of the children had moved away. But me leaving to protect the children and myself. Then me getting very sick and going back because I didn't have anyone to look after me and Powell looked after me but it didn't have the boys in the family. And there was assault charges and threats on our home. We left for a weekend because there was such bad water between Powell and him that he'd phoned me one day when I was at work and Powell was at work and there'd been a little altercation and Powell wasn't allowing what Trevor wanted to do. And he called me and he said, just stay away from the house. He said, I'm blowing up the house. Powell's on his way home now and I'm gonna blow up Powell. You stay away from the home. Luckily I got a hold of Powell and I got a hold of the police and we went to the police station. So there was all this going on. So for the last five years, I have forgiven Trevor and put personal boundaries and they had to be safe boundaries. And for the last while Trevor and I have not even talked because anytime we brought into our life, he left a mess. He would always leave the whole family in shambles and just bleeding and raw. So Powell, out of his protection for me and out of his anger towards things that Trevor had done, we hadn't had Trevor in our home. Trevor, I think between five and seven years has not been allowed for any Christmases at home. So his younger brother, who's two years younger, Michael, he had asked me about four months ago. He said, mom, do you think there'll be any chance that you would ever be able to reconcile with Trevor and forgive Trevor? And he said, he needs his mommy. He's mad, but he needs his mommy. And it got me and I said, you know what? I've forgiven him, but let me think about that. So my thinking instead of thinking with my own head involves me praying all the time and keeping my head out of it because my head usually doesn't know what's going on. It can only pull from the past. So I have to trust in God for what should be going on in my life, not in what I think I know. So about four months ago, I started praying and God said that it was about time, but to be safe and to just start meeting him at a safe place, which I considered Tim Hortons. And so for the last four months, I've been meeting with just myself with Trevor and I just read him my personal testimony and let him into all the things in my life that he probably didn't understand and made him very angry. And at that time, after all that and my work with healing and being able to forgive people in my life and asking forgiveness for what I've done in my life, out of all that, he didn't get that I had forgiven those people, he was really mad. He said, I am gonna get those people and I'm still gonna get Powell. And he went on and I said, I think you've missed the whole point, honey. The point is, I am like I am now because of forgiveness. That I have forgiven those people and I hope you can be at that point soon. So we've done that, but not allowing him into my home. Out of respect for Powell, it's our home. And that would have been something that I wouldn't have been able to understand before, is this is our home. This is my home, if I want him in my home, I'm gonna have him in my home. I've really, really changed and learned how to be in submission to my husband and that's a good thing. So I continued to pray and it came upon me, God touched me and said, what about this Christmas? I'm thinking, what about this Christmas with Trevor, you mean, at our house and not knowing how Powell was with that because I'd asked him many times and his answer would be, no, I'm not ready to forgive about anything that had to do with Trevor. In my mind, I'm thinking, but how can you not be ready to forgive when God's forgiven us? But I'm able to give that over to God and let go and let God, so I just kept praying about that. And so we sat down and I just blurted it out and said, you know what, Powell, what about inviting Trevor over for Christmas this year? Knowing that the rest of the family, if Powell did say yes, there was members of the family I would have to go on and through to ask because they have their own hurts too, but I'd first have to start with Powell. And so I asked him. - Yes, and he did ask me about my stepson and Penny's son, Trevor. Just before we get to my answer, though there was a situation a couple of years ago that Trevor could no longer come to us because I would not allow it for our own protection for the safety of our home and our personal being. So he'd gone to his grandfather, Penny's father, and Penny's father had helped him get a loan to move into a place to rent. Penny's father had co-signed for him. And after living there for about a year, Trevor had just totally misused that whole communication and set up and let his grandfather be liable for all the damages that Trevor had done to this apartment, totally destroying it, not paying his rent, and so on. So Penny's father was really upset and said that's it, that's enough. And had kind of come alongside me and said, same thing as you, I'm done with them, I'm fed up, I don't want them anymore part of my life. When Penny came to me weeks ago and asked, can Trevor come for Christmas? I said, right off the bat, I wanna say no. Something in my heart went tingle. And I said, let me pray, let me pray to God, 'cause ultimately it's his choice, 'cause God has forgiven me. So it was about a week later, I came back to Penny, I said, it's okay, Trevor can come. And the light on her face was amazing. See, when I prayed to God about Trevor, God said to me, I've forgiven you, why can you not forgive Trevor? And it's my history that I wanna take control of everything. And God ultimately said to me, you're not in control. I'm in control of you. So you accept him this year and make him part of your home. So when I told Penny that Trevor was able not to come Christmas day, but Boxing Day, and both my step-sons and their families came on Boxing Day. And it was ultimately amazing the minute that Trevor and his girlfriend walked downstairs. God lifted me up off that chair and made me walk over to him. And I wanted to sit so desperately back in that chair. But God picked me up and let me put my arms around him and gave him a hug. And as many of you in here know me, I'm the huggy guy. And God made me hug him. And it's the first time ever in 12 years, Trevor ever hugged me back, said, I love you. It was cool. So only through the power of God and the forgiveness of Jesus on the cross that that was able to happen. Amen. - Amen. [audience applauding] Thank you, Penny and Powell for sharing that story. It's a story that is multiplied many times over in many of our lives. And as we bring the service to a close, I'm keenly aware that all of us sooner or later come to these places where the Lord is asking us to do something that we don't feel that we can, where we are so clearly aware of the fact that we have this treasure, but we have it in earthen vessels. And what I wanna do as we bring the service to a close is pray with you that the breath of God will just fall upon each of us in the places of our need and that God will breathe life. For those of us for whom God is not real, let's pray that God will show himself powerfully real. For those of us who find ourselves in situations where we've broken relationships or where people have wounded us and we need to forgive them, but we don't know how to do that, let's pray for the breath of God to pave the way. And for those of us, God is calling forth into new places of life and new places of ministry and everything inside us is aware of our inability. Let's cry out to God for God to open our eyes to his grace, to pour out his life and to stir us to the core of our being until every part of our being vibrates with his vitality and with his power. Would you join me in that prayer? Let's stand together. Thank you, Father, for the covenant that you made so many years ago with Abram, for the fact that you changed their names and prophetically declared that what they could never do in the natural, you could do by the simple addition of your breath into their lives. And what a wonder it was and how they laughed when Isaac was born because it was so contrary to nature. Lord, it's contrary to nature for us to know that you're real and that you're alive and that you're a God who cares. And we have lots and lots of reasons to question and to doubt and to keep our hearts closed. And Lord, we cannot even begin to change that, but we're mindful to you that every sacrifice that Abram, Isaac, or Jacob ever made in the Old Testament comes in response to your self-revelation. And so we pray that by your Holy Spirit, you would breathe life into us and that you will help us to hear you in ways that we have never heard you before. And where there are places where we have been wounded or places where we have sinned against you or places where our hearts have grown cold, oh God, wrap us in your love and in your care and show us your heart and reveal your person to us in such a way that we cannot but fall down before you and declare that God is truly among us. And Lord, for those of us who know that there are things that you're calling us into that we're afraid, we're aware of the frailty of the flesh, we're aware of our own rebellion, we're aware of our own fear. Lord God, we open our hearts to you now and we invite you to come and just flush out places of our sin, places of our wounding, places of our pain, the places of our grief, and fill us afresh with the realization that though Abraham was but one, you made him many because you're a God who keeps covenant. Help us to understand in ways that we've never understood before that Jesus inherits the promise and that through the Holy Spirit we share in that by faith in Christ. And so stir our hearts, oh God. Help us to believe your word and then when all around us there is a world that is perishing and we get hopeless in the fact that it's going downhill in a handbasket, help us to know that you're bigger than all of that and that you have men and women, boys and girls in every walk of life whose hearts you have prepared and who you're calling to yourself. And so Lord, as we stand at the beginning of a new year, I pray for a mighty outpouring of your Holy Spirit so that through your spirit we will be so alive in our relationship with you and so alive in our relationship with each other that the world cannot but marvel at the joyous life that you give us because you have given resurrection life. And so Lord, we commit ourselves to you afresh and I pray that as a community we may just lay it all on the altar knowing that with God, absolutely nothing is impossible. Thank you for hearing us in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:48:43.920; remove through 00:52:58.000] ( [CUT]gentle piano music) ♪ When Christ alone my hope is found ♪ ♪ He is my light, my strength, my song ♪ ♪ This cornerstone, this solid ground ♪ ♪ Burn through the fiercest drought and storm ♪ ♪ What heights of love, what depths of peace ♪ ♪ And fears are spilled when striving seas ♪ ♪ My comforter, my all in all ♪ ♪ Here in the love of Christ I stand ♪ ♪ When Christ alone who took on flesh ♪ ♪ Fullness of God in helpless claim ♪ ♪ This gift of love and righteousness ♪ ♪ Scorned by the ones he came to save ♪ ♪ 'Til on that cross as Jesus died ♪ ♪ The wrath of God was satisfied ♪ ♪ For every sin on him was laid ♪ ♪ Here in the death of Christ I live ♪ ♪ There in the ground his body lay ♪ ♪ Light of the world by darkness slain ♪ ♪ Then bursting forth in glorious name ♪ ♪ Up from the grave he rose again ♪ ♪ And as he stands in victory ♪ ♪ Since curse has lost its grip on me ♪ ♪ For I am his and he is mine ♪ ♪ Fought with the precious blood of Christ ♪ ♪ No guilt in life, no fear in death ♪ ♪ This is the power of Christ in me ♪ ♪ From Liesford's cry to final breath ♪ ♪ Jesus commands my destiny ♪ ♪ No power of hell, no scheme of man ♪ ♪ Can ever block me from his hand ♪ ♪ 'Til he returns or calls me home ♪ ♪ Here in the power of Christ I'll stand ♪ ♪ No power of hell, no scheme of man ♪ ♪ Can ever block me from his hand ♪ ♪ 'Til he returns or calls me home ♪ ♪ Here in the power of Christ I'll stand ♪ (gentle music) [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:52:58.000; resume after this marked segment]