Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

You know there is something about this time of year that really lends itself to experiencing the drama of a good story.

As the days gets shorter, the air gets colder and we start spending more time inside and we start thinking of family and the holidays, our minds are drawn to memories of good stories.

Often times these are stories where decisions create drama that point to someones true destiny.

I can think of two particular places where stories like these are often found:

1.

The Hunting Shack

2. Hallmark Channel

Have you experienced this?

People talking about how excited they are about even the preparations for these upcoming dramas.

As the deer hunters prepare for a new season of hunting and have to make decisions on where and when they will go out to hunt they are reminded about where and when they were successful in years past.

This brings up a lot of “remember when’s” stories that are fun to tell.

And you can’t have a good story without a little exciting drama can you?

And I have heard other people talking about how excited they are about the upcoming holiday dramas season.

Just like hunting there is a season for this.

They are actually scheduling time to make sure that they see these favorite feel good movies.

Typically there is some sort of unlikely romance, where some big city executive gets back to their small town roots and falls in love again with either their high school sweet heart or falls in love with the small town and the feel of the holidays there.

They are looking forward to cuddling up on the couch with a blanket and a hot drink and watching this drama of true destiny unfold.

I am being careful this morning to not attribute either of these two activities to one specific gender.

Right!

Because there truth is thre are a lot of women really into hunting, and there are some big burly men who turn into tear filled teddy bears at the end of a good holiday movie.

The point is, that in one way or another, we can all relate to enjoying a story where decisions create drama that reveals someones true destiny.

The reason that I mention this is because we are continuing our series in the book of Genesis today, and Genesis is just full of stories of drama like this.

The one that we are going to look at today is found in chapter 24, the longest Chapter in the book of Genesis.

While this story does include a beautiful young woman who’s destiny is to marry into this wealthy family, but the real thrust of the drama is not found in their.

The bulk of this story lies in the decisions made by the person who introduces them.

A trusted servant of the wealthy family who is sent out on a long journey to find a woman that is fit to marry the son of his beloved masters.

And it is the decisions that he makes, and how he makes them that creates the drama of destiny.

And this destiny is not one governed by romantic interest, or by an authors great story line.

The destiny of this couple is a divine one, and this trusted servant is sent out to discover it.

The reason that I mention this is because today’s text is a story.

A story of both adventure and romance, but better than anything hallmark can bring it is a romance that includes a divine destiny.

Tension

Because this is a divine destiny, we find the servant asking God for direction in it.

This is actually the first time in the Bible that anyone directly asked God for guidance like this.

This servant was not a prophet.

He was not a prince.

He was not a priest.

We don’t even really know his name, but he does know the name of LORD.

He has served his master for many years and so he understood the power behind the God of his master Abraham.

So since he was sent to discover a divine destiny, he asked the divine for His help.

serving the LORD and it was this very same master that sent him on this Holy quest.

Knowing that he could not accomplish something like this on his own, he asks God for guidance.

Having a “true destiny” might be easy to relate to in the throws of a great hunting story or the drama of holiday special, but sometimes it is harder for us to remember that this is something that is true for each one of us.

We each were created for a purpose.

We were created with a divine destiny to know God, to worship Him and to build his Kingdom here on earth.

This is the destiny that God has declared over us and when we are after these things then God invites us to come and ask Him for His guidance, just like the servant in this story does.

And He promises to help.

The trouble that many of us run into is that we are not looking to discover the story that God has written for us.

We are just wanting Him to play a part in the story that we are writing for ourselves.

So in our selfishness, we make decisions that cause drama too.

But this drama isnt’ the exciting kind that reveals true destiny - it is a drama of despair and destruction.

The servant in this story knew the difference between the two, and we can learn from him this morning.

This is where you and I can probably best relate.

Most of us would not submit our lives to made into a Hallmark movie, but we probably all have had times when we had needed help making a decision.

A decision that had potential for great drama.

One where if we made a good decision then we saw the potential for great things, but just as real was the prospect of terrible things if it goes poorly.

This servant found the key to making decisions like this, and we can learn from him this morning.

Open up with me if you will to Genesis chapter 24 (p 17) we won’t be reading all 67 verses of it, but we will cover a lot of it today.

I’ll pray and then we will learn from God’s Word together.

Truth

God’s covenant family will continue through Isaac ()

There is a little bit of a back story needed as we begin this passage in want to say a special thanks to Denny for teaching last week.

The Bibles says that the role of an Overseer includes the trait of being “able to teach” and it is such a blessing that we have Overseers who are taking on that role and teaching in the various ministries of the Church.

So thanks Denny for such a great review last week, that really walks us right into the story today.

We are in Unit 2 of the Gospel Project, and the focus of this unit is on the promise that God made to a man named Abraham.

This “Promise” or Divine Covenant was

1.

He would be given a great Name

2. He would be given a great Land

3.

He would be the father of a great Nation

4. Someone from his family will bring blessing to every person on the earth

All of this was overwhelming, and the idea of being a father was particularly curious to Abraham because his wife was barren right up into their old age, but Abraham had faith that it would happen.

The aged Sarah gave birth to a little boy named Isaac, which means laughter.

Mostly because the idea of someone as old as they were having a child was laughable, but God was faithful.

Abraham and Sarah got to watch young Isaac grow.

They longed to be parents for so long and when it happened they loved being his parents.

Anyone who has every struggled with infertility can relate to this.

In fact, they took such great joy in being Isaac’s parents that God decided to test Abraham’s faithfulness to him, by way of his relationship with his son.

As Denny covered last week, God commanded that Isaac the only son of the promise, the only son of Abraham and Sarah,God commanded him to be sacrificed.

This is probably one of the hardest stories for any parent to wrap our mind around.

Why God might do this.

How Abraham could even consider doing this, but Abraham trusted that the faithful God who made the laughable happen by giving them a Son in the first place, would follow through in his promise that Isaac would be his heir.

And before Abraham’s knife could end his sons life, God stepped in and offered a substitute sacrifice of a lamb.

Isaac marched up that mountain to be the sacrifice that God demanded, and God returned his life to him.

How Abraham could even consider doing this, but Abraham trusted that the faithful God who made the laughable happen by giving them a Son in their old age would follow through in his promise that Isaac would be his heir.

And before Abraham’s knife could end his sons life, God stepped in and offered a substitute sacrifice of a lamb.

Isaac marched up that mountain to be the sacrifice that God demanded, but God gave him back his life.

This is a beautiful foreshadowing of how God the Father will one day offer HIS only son as a sacrifice for you and I.

Abraham had seen that God is a promise maker and a promise keeper and God did indeed give Abraham a great name.

He was living in a great land and he was watching his son Isaac grow up into a great man.

Then something significant happened.

Right before the story we will experience this morning, Abraham’s beloved wife Sarah dies.

Suddenly Abraham is reminded of his own mortality.

This great promise is not just for him in his lifetime, but it will flow up through his family tree until it becomes a blessing to all people, even to us some 5,000 years later.

So with this in mind, he begins to make arrangements for the next step in the covenant promise that will lead to the entire world being blessed by his family.

He needs to find a wife for his son Isaac.

Abraham had seen that God is a promise maker and a promise keeper and God did indeed make Abraham a great man, He was living in a great land and he was watching his son Isaac grow up into a great man.

Then, right before the story we will cover today, his beloved wife Sarah dies.

Suddenly Abraham is reminded of his own mortality.

These great things are not just for him in his lifetime, but they will flow from his family long after he is gone.

So in the fear of the Lord, he arranges for the next step in the covenant promise that will lead to the entire world being blessed by his family.