Order, Words, & Voices
Order
Pre Worship Music
Opening Song Billy & Team
Lord Reign in Me
Hallelujah He Reigns
Opening/Worship Response/Lord’s Prayer Rick
Reading Genesis 18:1-15; 21:1-7 Dona
Songs Billy & Team
Shout to the Lord
Faithful One
Message Who Would Believe? Rick
Music Old Rugged Cross Billy and Team
Community/Peace Rick
Benediction/Closing Peace Rick
Post Worship Music
Music (slides) – Billy and Team
Lord Reign In Me
Over all the earth You reign on high
Every mountain stream
every sunset sky
But my one request Lord
my only aim
Is that You’d reign in me again
Lord reign in me reign in Your pow’r
Over all my dreams
in my darkest hour
You are the Lord of all I am
So won’t You reign in me again
Over every thought over every word
May my life reflect
the beauty of my Lord
‘Cause You mean more to me
Than any earthly thing
So won’t You reign in me again
Lord reign in me reign in Your pow’r
Over all my dreams
in my darkest hour
You are the Lord of all I am
So won’t You reign in me again
Hallelujah He Reigns
Hallelujah
He reigns in majesty
Hallelujah
He reigns in glory
Hallelujah
He reigns in righteousness
Oh hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah
He reigns in righteousness
Oh hallelujah
Opening Verbal Praise
We gather here this morning for a moment, a moment of worship, a moment of praise. We gather for a moment to recognize the beauty of God’s creation, we gather for a moment to refresh our focus on God the creator. We gather in the shadow of victory, we gather while countless fellow humans are suffering great loss – we gather as many have no place to gather but many of them probably will gather still.
We gather to remember those in places like Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Ukraine, Hawaii, those suffering in ways few of us can begin to imagine. We gather as people worldwide who share a common path, a path of becoming, becoming the righteousness of God. A called and yet chosen path, a path of grace and a path of work. May we, even now, prepare to move forward from this moment to the next moment that is on our path, our path of becoming.
Call to Worship (Slides) – Rick
Leader: If God is for us none can be against us for there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Response: There is no condemnation because Jesus has set us free.
Leader: We give praise this day because God sent His own Son as a sacrifice for us.
Response: The sacrifice has been given, grace is now offered.
Leader: We failed to embrace God’s gift of life yet God continues to offer us a life of peace and hope.
Response: God has not enslaved us with a fear that condemns.
Leader: Regardless of our labels, our circumstances, our situation, God is present.
Response: Whatever our circumstances, God is our constant.
Leader: When we cannot see as the angels see, when we fail to notice the works and presence of God, when we are blinded to God’s path, God is present.
Response: In all things, God is working for the good for those who love him and have been called according to His purpose.
Leader: God did not spare what was most precious and gives all things to us.
Response: Neither hardship, persecution, famine, can separate us from Jesus Christ.
Leader: In everything we are more than conquerors because He is the Almighty God.
Response: We are convinced that death nor life, angels nor demons, nor anything else created can separate us from the love of God.
Lord’s Prayer (Slides) – Rick
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, On Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us. And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Reading Dona Petty
The Lord appeared to Abraham as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing near him.
When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them and bowed down to the ground saying, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant.
Let water be brought, and your feet washed while you rest under the tree. Also, let me bring bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.”
The men agreed and Abraham hurried into the tent to his wife Sarah and said, “Quick, use our best flour and make cakes.” Then, Abraham ran and took the best calf from the herd gave it to the servant to quicky prepare it.
Lastly, Abraham took curds and milk along with everything prepared and set it before the three me, and he anxiously stood by them while they ate.
The men said to Abraham, “Where is your wife Sarah?” Abraham pointed to the teat and said, “She is in the tent.” One of the men said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and Sarah will have a son.”
Sarah was hiding at the tent entrance and listening to the conversation. Both Abraham and Sarah were very advanced in age and the idea of her having a baby was outrageous even to her.
Without a thought, Sarah laughed and said to herself, “I have grown old, and my husband is old, and now we are going to have a child!?”
The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘It is outrageous to think that I can have a baby in my old age?’ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?
At the set time I will return to you and Sarah will have a son.” Sarah flatly denied, and responded saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. The man said, “Yes, you did laugh.” Genesis 18:1-15
Music (Slides) Billy and Team
Shout To The Lord
Verse
My Jesus my Saviour
Lord there is none like You
All of my days I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love
My comfort my shelter
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath all that I am
Never cease to worship You
Chorus
Shout to the Lord
All the earth let us sing
Power and majesty
Praise to the King
Mountains bow down
And the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name
I sing for joy
At the work of Your hands
Forever I’ll love You
Forever I’ll stand
Nothing compares to the promise
I have in You
Faithful One
Verse
Faithful One so unchanging
Ageless One
You’re my Rock of peace
Lord of all I depend on You
I call out to You again and again
I call out to You again and again
Chorus
You are my Rock in times of trouble
You lift me up when I fall down
All through the storm
Your love is the anchor
My hope is in You alone
Ending
My hope is in You
My hope is in You
Our hope is in You alone
Message (Slides) Rick
Ordination/angelology illustration
[Slide] Charles Ryrie says that “the study of angels or the doctrine of angelology is one of the ten major categories of theology developed in many systematic theological works. The tendency, however, has been to neglect it.”
[Slide] I have to admit that I have neglected angelology until this week as I have considered these 3 visitors to Abraham and Sarah’s encampment. One of these messengers is quickly identified as the Lord, while the other 2 are identified as angels later in chapter 19. I think I have managed to develop a simple theology of angels – ‘Beings that are more holy than humans but less holy than God, whose sole purpose is to proclaim the praise and worship of God – not to sing, shout, or proclaim, all of which are an avenues to do their job, however the sole responsibility of each angel is to wholeheartedly and unabashedly serve God in whatever manner God sets in front of them.”
[End Screen Share]
I have come to a fuller appreciation of these beings, and the lessons they teach to us. Angels are either fully in or out, 100% faithful and obedient to God, or they are 100% not. It was at the fall from heaven that the angels who were in and those who were out made their eternal decision. So, we begin this story with a visit from the Lord and these 2 angels who are 100% faithful and obedient to God
God proclaims his clarification that Sarah is an equal benefactor of his promise while she hides in her tent where culture demanded she be. God is proclaiming to Her that she is as much a receiver of this promise as is Abraham. Earlier, in the chapter before, God had given this clarification to Abraham. Abraham laughed hysterically at the thought of Sarah birthing and nursing a child due to her age. So it should be no surprise that when Sarah overheard this clarification she did the same while the angels stood there with the Lord.
I’ve developed a picture of these two angels this week – they are a lot like the Spock character on Star Trek, fully rational and fully knowing and for the angels they are fully trusting the faithfulness of God. They could not understand why Sarah would laugh and doubt. They had witnessed God’s fulfillment, therefore they had no perspective to understand how anyone would doubt God. Sarah, who was not an angel, she had not seen God answer prayers or fulfill promises. To Sarah, this God was still just the God of Abraham. She could not believe, because she could not yet see.
[Slide] “If I could see what the angels see, behind the walls, beneath the sea, under the avalanche, and through the trees gone would be the mystery
[Slide] If I could hear what the angels hear, the thunderous sound of a crashing tear, holy, holy in my ear, I’d never doubt that God is near
[Slide] I’d see that love will conquer hate, I would know that there’s always hope, it’s not too late, then I’d find the truth is easy to believe
[Slide] If I could know what angels know, that death’s goodbye is love’s hello, that those created come and go, I remember them even though they would never show
[Slide] If I could stand where angels stand while they watch this world while God commands, and see how love designed this plan, reminders on His feet and hands
[Slide] If I could see, if I could hear, if I could know, if I could stand, like angels do I’d see that love will conquer hate, that there’s always hope, I’d find that truth is easy to see and believe and that there’s nothing to fear
[Slide] For now I can choose to live this life differently, for now I can choose to see the unseeable truth that the angels see
[Slide] I can believe that love will conquer hate and that there’s always hope, maybe now I can know that it’s not too late
[Slide] I can choose to seek the truth, and like sunlight shining on my face, I can choose to feel the presence of God’s grace and let the truth finally set free (adapted from the writing of Amy Grant & Marshall Altman)
[Slide] It is here that the story becomes about Sarah. [leave this slide up to the groups following groups of slides – list slides will be abbreviated]
One chapter before our reading, God makes it clear to Abraham that Sarah is the essential element of the fulfillment of God’s promise of descendants and blessings. Up to this point, Abraham had been filled with the poison of the culture where women were of little value and could not be a part of God’s plan. To God’s clarification of the promise, Abraham laughed at the age impossibility. Abraham laughed long before Sarah laughed at God’s promise.
Consider, for a moment, Sarah’s experiences with this God
[Slide] She married into the family of false god evangelists, their faithfulness to the false gods was dictated by their vocation, they made idols to the false gods. Her husband Abraham packed her and everything he owned up to follow the instruction of this God she had never heard. So she left her home and her people to follow yet another god whom she had never met.
[Slide] Just like the culture in which she had been raised, this new God only talked to Abraham, the man. She was invisible.
[Slide] When her husband heard from God, Sarah then only heard second hand if at all. The promise of God, seemed to her to be just another instance of someone else telling her what to do.
[Slide] Abraham, her husband, had abandoned her in order to save his own life. He gave her away to an unknown King who reigned over an unknown land and people.
[Slide] One promise that was shared with Sarah, the promise that Abraham was to have a son, was yet another instruction from this unknown God to devalue her even more than her culture had done her entire life – now, not only was she included, but now, she was also to blame for the fact that Abraham, decades after the promise still had no son.
[Slide] Sarah, in her despair and insecurity insisted that her husband have the promised son via Sarah’s maid, an insistence that didn’t seem to require must insisting.
[Slide] The hiding Sarah overhears the Lord clarify the that the promise to Abrahanm was a promise to Sarah. A statement that was as outrageous as it was impossible.
[Slide] “The point of this story for us is to recognize that this story is not just a story. Nor is it just a good story. Even more that it is not just a good a story about God. Rather, the point is to recognize in this story the character and nature of God.”
Rolf Jacobson, Dean of Faculty; Professor of Old Testament, Theology, and Ministry, Luther Seminary, Saint Paul, Minn.
To see this we must not just look at what Sarah had faced up to this moment but to also look ahead and that lies in between this promise that included Sarah and the coming fulfillment of God’s promise…
[Slide] The messengers leave and the Lord remains with Abraham who is made aware of the coming destruction of the city of Sodom which has become evil in the likes of the people of Noah’s day. Abraham, who has family living in Sodom, bargains with God for the deliverance for the Sodom, for God to change his mind.
[Slide] While this is going on, the messengers, at God’s instruction, have arrived in the city of Sodom, as the evil of Sodom is directed at the angels, Lot, the relative of Abraham begins his attempt to protect the angels from the city and its citizens. Part of this efforts to protect the messenger is to sacrifice his own daughters, but the angels rescue the daughters showing Lot that they can protect themselves.
[Slide] As the destruction of the city is imminent, Lot’s wife cannot let go of her attachment for the city and in turn dies. The two daughters, after recognizing the disregard of their parent, much like Sarah, take matters to protect themselves into their own hands.
[Slide] Abraham, again, abandons his wife Sarah in an effort to protect his own life.
[Slide] Sarah, births the promised son. [leave this slide up through the next slide, which is the final slide of the message]
Let’s be honest, it is a horrible story, a story of a dismissed woman who goes to her grave with understandable resentment still hanging over her. A story of a person we still call the ‘father of our faith’ who frequently seems very unfaithful. And a story of a promised son who grows up in this environment, surely absorbing much of the worst of humanity experienced and exhibited in the lives of his own parents.
But, still God is there all along the way. Still, God keeps his promises. And, still, somehow, just like Eve, in the midst of the worst of times, for just a moment Sarah recognizes that God is present.
[Slide] ‘At the birth of her son, Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have given birth to a son in his old age.”
Genesis 21:6-7
[End Screen Share]
While we see the presence of the God who does not forget or forsake his promises. We also end the story of Sarah and Abraham and the continued self induced curse of being human and living amidst humans – and the inner struggle for us to hold on to and remember the God of promise.
After seeing and experiencing God’s presence and promise, Sarah is still insecure and still allows jealousy to rule in her heart and then dies of old age. Abraham eventually remarries and then he too dies of old age.
We are left to wrestle with this story of Sarah, and Abraham, and ultimately of humanity. Human life in the world where humans have turned from God. An existence in which we not only live in the midst of the struggle but also struggle to not internalize it.
In this, we grasp to hold firmly to the God that is present and does not forget. We determine to see that which we cannot alway see, and to believe that which is unbelievable. We seek to see as the angels see.
“We believe in God and we all need Jesus. ’Cause life is hard and it might not get easier. But don’t be afraid to know who you are, don’t be afraid to show it.
For we believe in God and know we need Jesus, and, we can remember that he will be where we are and will never leave us.”
(Adapted from the writing of Wes King and Amy Grant)
Music (Slides) Billy and Team
The Old Rugged Cross
Verse 1
On a hill far away
stood an old rugged cross
The emblem of suff’ring and shame
And I love that old cross
where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain
Chorus
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown
Verse 2
O the old rugged cross
so despised by the world
Has a wondrous attraction for me
For the dear Lamb of God
left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary
Chorus
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown
Verse 4
To the old rugged cross
I will ever be true
Its shame and reproach gladly bear
Then He’ll call me some day
to my home far away
Where His glory forever I’ll share
Chorus
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday,Wrestling with God, Genesis 32:9-30
- Next Book Discussion Luncheon, ‘Making Sense of the Bible’, Some Books available in entry was -$15, or link on web page will take you to Amazon order page (audio, or library app), luncheon will take place in October (date – TBA), ‘[I wrote this] in the hope that [you] will come to love the Bible, and that in it [you] will find [your] defining story.’
Benediction (Slides) Rick
As we leave this place may we continue on our path of becoming. A Becoming that is a gift of God, a journey fully dependent on the life and work of Jesus Christ. We are on this path by choice. We are on this path gratefully due to God’s extravagant grace through which we were, and are, welcomed to this endeavor. We are connected to the dirt of the path yet chosen by the Holy God to live in the pursuit of becoming the righteousness of God.
We walk even when we cannot see, we take from the flowing provision even when the waters appear difficult, we hope even though despair often threatens to consume us, we love because that the the true and intentional impact and outflow of our journey. We step onto the path in trust, in hope, in love.
Closing Peace Rick
Leader: May the Peace and Hope of the Lord go with you.
Response: And also with you.
Leader: Go in the Peace and Hope of the Lord.
Order, Words, & Voices 