Sermon Tone Analysis

Abraham is a pretty important person.

Do you know there are three major world faiths, the majority of the population of the world, that look to Abraham as their father in the faith?

Do you think you’d ever be able to understand world civilization if you don’t understand this man’s story?

Today’s text introduces us to Abraham at a time when he was called Abram.

Abram means father.

Abraham means father of many.

So Abram means daddy and Abraham means big daddy.

When you read the story of Abraham, you’ll see something very attractive.

Abraham didn’t just live life.

Life didn’t just happen to him.

He didn’t just go with the flow of events.

He happened to life.

He lived a GREAT LIFE!

What made Abraham’s life great?

THE CALL OF GOD.

The call of God not only made Abraham’s life great but it is what makes your life special and distinct.

The call of God is what makes you a Christian.

You’re not a Christian unless you’ve heard and heeded the call.

Today’s text teaches us three truths about the call of God.

The first truth is THE CALL OF GOD IS POWERFUL.

Most people begin Abraham’s story in Genesis 12 but his story actually begins at the end of Genesis 11.

Genesis 11 gives us the context of Abraham’s call which further magnifies the power of the call.

Genesis 3-11 is the story of man’s downward slide into deep dark depravity.

The human race is growing more corrupt, evil, and violent.

However, God has preserved a ray of hope, and that one ray of hope is a single family tree, a single line.

The line of Seth.

Genealogies are glimpses into the Gospel.

In the midst of this downward spiral we are given this verse of hope.

Called upon the name of the Lord, which is a Hebraism for talking about worship of God.

In Seth’s family alone, the knowledge of the true God was preserved and passed on.

Genesis 11:27-32 tell us something disastrous.

You might say “It doesn’t look disastrous”, except for the fact that “Sarah was barren and had no children”.

First of all, the word Terah means moon.

Ur of the Chaldeans was a center of lunar worship.

Terah’s family, Seth’s line, the last family that had a knowledge of God no longer worship the one true God but worship everything as god.

This final family who carried with them knowledge of who, how, and why the world and inhabitants were created has become idol worshippers.

The light of the gospel is being snuffed out.

At the end of the book of Joshua, Joshua gets the people of Israel together and says

Do you realize what has happened?

The last place anybody knows about God is right there, and spiritually, the last family that knew anything about God has just lost it.

It’s not just true spiritually, but physically.

Sarah is barren.

What does that mean?

It means not only has the last family that knew anything about God lost God spiritually, but it’s about to literally end physically.

There’s not going to be any more family.

Walter Brueggemann, who wrote a good commentary on the book of Genesis, puts it like this: “The barrenness of Sarah is an effective metaphor for hopelessness.

This text tells us there is no foreseeable future.

There is no human power to invent a future.

The human race and human history have just hit a dead end.

It’s over.

And then God speaks and there’s hope again.”

The power of the call means the call of God is absolutely necessary and absolutely gracious.

Let me show you.

It’s absolutely necessary.

Abram was in the best family on the earth, but if it weren’t for the call of God, he was spiritually dead.

It doesn’t matter how good your family is.

They’re going to live for something else unless the call of God comes into their lives.

It does not matter if you came from the family of Cain or Seth you’re in spiritual death sleep without the call.

It is an absolute necessity.

It has to come in.

It has to disturb you.

It has to disrupt you.

Secondly,

It’s absolutely gracious.

Abram is unqualified.

Abram is not a good guy.

Abram is not a faithful man.

The call comes to Abram because he’s unqualified.

Let me put it this way.

The call of God is an absolute act of grace.

It doesn’t come because you’re qualified; you’re qualified because it has come.

It qualifies you.

The 1964 movie Becket it’s based on a true story of Henry II and Thomas Becket.

The movie is set in the 12th century AD. Henry and Thomas were drinking buddies.

Thomas is a member of the clergy but just like the king he was corrupt, hotheaded, lived for sensuality.

It was their common corruption that bonded them together.

Then one day the Archbishop of Canterbury died, and Henry II had a brainstorm.

“I’ll make Thomas the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Wow, what a brainstorm.”

Why? “Because Thomas is just like a regular guy.

He’s not going to be telling me how I have to live my life.

He’s not going to be telling me not to oppress the poor.

He’s not going to be telling me to stop whoring around.

He’s not going to do any of that stuff.

He’s just a regular guy.

This is great.

Finally we’ve solved the problem of church/state relations.”

So he makes Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury.

Then something happens.

Thomas is shaken, because he knows that even though it has come through Henry for all the wrong reasons, and even though he’s completely corrupt and completely unholy and completely unworthy and completely unqualified, he is now the bishop of England.

He suddenly realizes a sense of the call of God in his heart.

He realizes the grace of it.

He realizes how unworthy he is of it, and it changes him.

He becomes a good person, and he becomes a man of integrity, and he begins to represent the gospel.

He begins to represent Christ.

He begins to represent the Word, and he begins to call Henry for the things he’s doing wrong, and Henry is going nuts.

Finally, if you remember how the story goes, Henry is just all filled with conflict, you know, because he loves Thomas, yet now he’s so mad at Thomas because Thomas has become a good guy.

Thomas is telling him the truth.

Finally one night.

Henry II cries out to his knights, “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?”