• Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18 God makes covenant with Abram and seals it with sacrifice.

-Covenants are promissory oaths in which one party promises to do something in the future for the other party. Craddock

-So far, Abram has to wonder.  He’s traveled a long way from home at God’s direction, yet the promise has yet to be fulfilled—he has no child, no heir.  Yet, once again he’s asked to trust, to believe.  This time God repeats the promise and formally establishes the covenant with him.

-Abram decides to trust the promise rather than the evidence.  (a possible sermon topic) 

-In the Old Testament, righteousness (sedaqa) is something most often achieved by compliance with Jewish law.  However, God has not yet transmitted the law to Moses, so there is no law for Abram to observe.  "But here Abram is not described as doing righteousness.  Rather faith is being counted for righteousness....  sermon writer

-Earlier God promised, "I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth" (13:16).  Now he promises to make Abram's descendants like the stars of the sky.  Both metaphors (dust and stars) suggest numbers beyond comprehension –– beyond human counting.  A shepherd accustomed to walking unpaved pathways with a flock of sheep would be intimately acquainted with dust –– with its pervasiveness and endless quantity.  He would also be accustomed to seeing stars on very dark nights.  There would be no light pollution to spoil his vision of an otherwise perfectly dark sky lighted by millions of tiny points of light.Stars are a more attractive metaphor than dust –– we don't like dust, but we do like stars.  Also stars have a permanence that dust doesn't enjoy.  Dust gets kicked around and blown about so that you can never tell where a particular grain of dust will be tomorrow.  The stars, on the other hand, are immanently steadfast.  An astronomer can predict with great accuracy exactly where a given star will be at any given time.   Sermon Writer.

- By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to set out for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; and he set out, not knowing where he was going. Hebrews 11,

-We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table—“Here's my life, Lord. I'm giving it all.” But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid's troubles instead of saying, “Get lost.” Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isn't glorious. It's done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it's harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul. Craddock   (God called Abram to be faithful in the little things, and he was.)

-God makes great people out of ordinary people who are faithful to him.

-We simply give up the notion that we are in control of our lives….that may be why we call it the "leap of faith"

-Without seeing you, we love you; without touching you, we embrace; without knowing you, we follow; without seeing you we believe. Song called With out Seeing You  David Hass

-I am afraid of saying 'Yes", Lord. Where will you take me? Afraid of drawing the longer straw, afraid of signing my name to an unread agreement. Afraid of the 'yes" that entails other "yeses"

QUOTES

-Believe and I will show you, not I will show you and then you will believe

-Faith is a category of relationship. Douglas Hall

-Men are willing to let God control future more than present

-We use 7-10% of our brain.  How much of our faith do we use?

- Not "Give me faith"  but "Release my faith"

-The greatest risk is the risk of riskless living. Stephen R. Covey

-If you're hankering for God, He's already found you for it is God who creates the hankering. Gerald Mann.

--Abraham was not a self-made man; he was a God made man.

-Wait without idols. Keep the faith

-Faith is belief in action…no action, no faith….no faith, no action. Gomes

-I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land; faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of life; faith is the oil  Luke Lucado

CHILDREN

-  Show children some jigsaw puzzles pieces from a box with the picture of the puzzle on it.  Ask them if they ever did a puzzle without a picture to go by.     That would be hard!.  Talk about Paul's words in today's scripture. "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,"  Paul wants us to imitate Christ and we have a picture to go by.  We have the Bible, role models, and most importantly we have all the pieces we need right within ourselves!  Lindy

HUMOR

 -What can you say about a society that says that God is dead and Elvis a alive?  Irv. Kupcinet   

-  They asked Abraham, "Where you going?".  "I don't know."  When you going?  "I don't know"

  What you going to do there?  "I don't know!"  etc. etc. etc. Lindy

- Is Jesus Chicken?

-Faith is located under the left nipple Martin Luther

PRAYER PHRASES

-Oh God, because He lived and because you lived in him we now know you live in us and you are a part of us and we are a part of You and because of that our lives have more direction, deeper meaning and greater purpose.

- We are tired of our littleness.  Out of our littleness and partialness weave us into thy larger life.
 

REST OF SCRIPTURE FOR LENT 2

• Psalm 27
• Philippians 3:17—4:1 Some live as the enemies of the cross; stand firm.

-Paul encourages the church at Philippi to “stand firm in the Lord,” and reminds them that “our citizenship is in

 heaven.”

- Remember not only who you are but whose you are.

• Luke 13:31-35 Jesus anticipates Jerusalem and laments its resistance to the prophets.

-The Church also has to choose between expediency and confrontation, between conforming to the ways of the world and being governed by God’s plan. So, too, the individual Christian.

-The first three verses of our text, (31-33), are found only in Luke. The next two verses. (34-35), are nearly identical to Matthew 23:37-39 -- suggesting a Q origin Stoffregen

-These two texts have contrasting animal images: fox and hen. Herod the fox and Jesus the mother hen. Both the Greek and Hebrew words for "fox" can also be translated "jackals".

-When the Pharisees came with the message, "Herod wants to kill you," Jesus responds with the fact that he intends to finish his work. The outer circumstances of his life were powerful and difficult. Yet, the power of his inner life was stronger. His direction came from the inner work of the Spirit of God... what the bible calls, "The still small voice."

- Jesus has "set his face to go to Jerusalem" to meet his fate.

-The world is a very dangerous place from which to view the world.

-We can never be at home in the world because we are human.

-Civilization is a limitless multiplication of unnecessary necessities. M.Twain

-Civilization is the process of reducing the infinite to the finite. O.W. Holmes Jr.   

-Give God what’s right not what’s left.

-People see God every day.  They just don’t recognize him.  Pearl Bailey

-When we serve God, we don't just serve God but we serve Him by sharing his Godly tasks: love, compassion,

  forgiving, etc. Lindy

-We wait for God to break into our world before we change...we need to change so God can break into our world.

-Recently I learned a succinct way of doing courage: Show up. Listen. Tell truth as you see it from your heart.  Let go of the outcome. Charlotte Russell

-Herod seeks to kill Jesus. But, as the story will unfold, the real threat to Jesus is not Herod but Jerusalem. How is it that Jerusalem, the holy city, this religious capital, has become known as the city that kills prophets and will shortly put to death God’s final envoy? Why is it that it is often the religious establishment that has so much conflict with prophets?

-Herod a "fox"? Probably because Jesus likens himself later to a motherly "hen" gathering (with the usual difficulty that hens have with their offspring) her chicks. The fox goes for the most substantial menu item. Any other ideas from anyone?

- Surprisingly it was the Pharisees  who warned Jesus of danger.

-How difficult it is for people to unlearn what we have been taught. We fight and defend our beliefs while often neglecting to look at what those beliefs have produced in us.

-Jesus stands like the parent of the Prodigal Son who wants more for us than we often want for ourselves

-sermon: Proactive (respond to principle)  Reactive (respond to feelings like fear, etc.)  Jesus was proactive!

-Like chickens?  Easily distracted, unfocused, too busy pecking,

-The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey says that the two most important habits are to "Be Proactive" and to "Begin With the End in Mind".

- Abingdon annual says that Jesus is inner-directed and cannot therefore be knocked from His mission.

SOME NOTES ON THE SUBJECT OF LENT

LENT

-. If something is worth giving up, it should be for more than just the few weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter.

- Lent and Advent are both preparation times before a big event

- Think of Lent as an Outward Bound for the soul. No one has to sign up for it, but if you do then you give up the illusion that you are in control of your life. B.B.Taylor

-. Lent = "Lencten" meaning spring time (Old English)

-. If sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end. (Buechner)  

-. Buechner suggests that during lent we ask these questions:

     a. When you look in the mirror what do you see you most like...you most want to deplore

     b. What last message would you give to a handful of people most dear to you. (25 words or less)

     c. Which thing you have  done would you most like to undo?

     d. What person, or cause would  you  die for?

     e. If this were the last day of your life, what would you do?

   Ansering these help  us to  see who we are and what we are becoming.

-Fill communiion cups with water so we can so we can taste the “almost nothing” that is living.

- Illustration Pretzel -- an ancient bakery item.  Used to be eaten only during lent.  Goes back to 5th century.  Shape is made in the form of two arms crossed in prayer.

- Ash Wednesday is a kind of baptismal branding.

-. Lenten penance may be more effective if we fail in our resolutions than if we succeed for its purpose is not to confirm us  but to bring home to us our need for salvation.

 TRY http://www.textweek.com/  YOU'LL LOVE IT!!!

 home