Three Sermons in One

Summary

Today’s sermon has three parts.

The first part talks about Abraham being our father in the faith. We have been blessed with the faith of so many people around us. Today’s Scripture passages talk about Abraham being our father in the faith:

Genesis 12:1-4

Now the Lord said to Abraham, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abraham went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 

Romans 4:1-5,13-17

What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our ancestor according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say?

“Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness. 

For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or    to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If  it  is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the   promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.

For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on    grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

The second part of the sermon talks about how God protects us. We need protection in the face of the coronavirus and as we face other challenges in our lives. Psalm 121 reminds us the the Lord is our protector:

1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—

     from where will my help come?

2 My help comes from the Lord,

     who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;

     he who keeps you will not slumber.

4 He who keeps Israel

     will neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is your keeper;

     the Lord is your shade at your right hand.

6 The sun shall not strike you by day,

     nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;

     he will keep your life.

8 The Lord will keep

     your going out and your coming in

     from this time on and forevermore.

The third part of the sermon talks about John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who   believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

May God help us hear those words today!

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