1. Core Values

Love God and Love Others

Love God and love others.  All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments Matthew 22: 40

 

May think we have these down, but we are gong to be looking at them this year.  I guarantee we are going to be stretched and many times have to repent because we are not there yet.

Core values with what makes life change

  1. Come that you would have real and eternal life Message Bible

 

  1. Real spelled out
  1. Relationship with God Vertical
  2. Relationship with others horizontal.

Love God and love others is not something new Jesus came up with, but eternal law written down long before Moses existed.

 

2. Who was Abraham?

Why did God choose Abraham?

  1. Moses gets a great introduction from birth to running away from Pharaoh
  2. Noah is even known as a righteous man in his generation
  3. Abraham is just introduced.

Genesis 11: 27 – 32

  1. Milcah and Iscah
  2. Sarai first thing we know about her is that she was infertile. Awkward and an invasion of privacy.

Haran died young leaving two brothers and three children.  Nahor marries Milcah and Abraham marries Iscah  Iscah means princess and Sarai means my princess (maybe a pet name)  God renames her Sarah (princess of the world.

Deuteronomy 25: 5, 6 kinsman redeemer.

3. Man’s towers

Look at background of story.

Tower of Babel Genesis 11: 3 Let us make a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky.  This will make us famous…”

  1. Build a legacy to their own name.
  2. Focus on what people think of us, then we are a tower builder
  3. Narcissists who are only focused on themselves.
  4. They have chosen to build their own empire.

4. Abraham’s tower

Reread the story of Abraham, we see Abraham focused on his brother and his three children.

  1. Sarai could not have children.  Would have been easy to ditch her so I could make my name great
  2. Abraham stayed with Sarai and kept her
  3. Abraham built towers too Genesis 12: 8 to the name of the Lord.
    1. Abraham dedicated himself to making God’s name great.

Settled

  1. What did it take to bring this home for Abraham
  1. Genesis 11: 31 they settled there
  2. Genesis 11: 2 they settled there only other time that is used in the first five books of the Bible.
  3. Abraham did not settle but pursued…
    1. God to build a tower and make his name great
    2. Lot the third child who was not redeemed.

5. Lot the orphan

Could not marry Lot, but wanted to bring him into the family.

Genesis 12: 1 Leave family and go to a nation (don’t settle)

Genesis 12: 4 brought Lot

He and Abraham fought constantly until they finally separated.

  1. Lot was captured by an enemy and Abraham took his shepherds and freed Lot from 4 kings
  2. Lot still had an orphan spirit and did not move back with Abraham, but moved to Sodom
  3. God was going to wipe Sodom out and Abraham interceded for Lot. Genesis slide(Genesis 19: 29 God had listened to Abraham’s request and kept Lot safe removing him from the disaster that engulfed the cities on the plain.

Wanted more than just being safe, bring him back into the family.

Lot has a child called Moab

10 generations later a man named Boaz brings Ruth into his family and she becomes a great grandmother to David who is 28 generations to Jesus.

God answered Abraham’s prayer and brought Lot home.

Why did God choose Abraham?

  1. Didn’t Settle
  2. Built God’s tower to make God’s name great rather than his own
  3. Loved others to bring them into his family
    1. Bring the orphans home.