The scripture reading is from the book of Genesis in the Old Testament chapter 14 verse 18 through chapter 15 verse 1 That's Genesis chapter 14 verse 18 through chapter 15 verse 1 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine He was a priest of God most high and he blessed him and said Blessed be Abram by God most high possessor of heaven and earth and blessed be God most high Was delivered your enemies into your hand and Abram gave him a tenth of everything and the king of Sodom said to Abram Give me the persons but take the goods for yourself But Abram said to the king of Sodom. I have lifted my hand to the Lord God most high Possessor of heaven and earth that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours Lest you should say I have made Abram rich. I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me Let an ear aschle and memory take their share After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision if you're not Abram I am your shield your reward shall be very great the word of the Lord
Thank you Sam Good morning Hard a story once about a man in London England who more than anything else in all his life he wanted to become a pilot So he saved and saved and saved for month after month until he had enough to start taking flight lessons And he went to Heathrow International Airport and he found a really good instructor and he started logging hours Well on his way to becoming a pilot and finally came the day when he would take his first solo flight He arrived well ahead of time in order to get his plane a little single engine Cessna that's all he could afford to go up in And he got in that Cessna and he contacted the air traffic controller and received his instructions what runway He was supposed to go to what time he was supposed to take off and He started sputtering out there in his little single engine Cessna Rounded the corner to the runway where he was supposed to take off and low and behold and the lineup right in front of him was of all planes the concord Well, what a contrast this is he thought As the Concord revbed its engine and bolts of fire shot out the back of it. He grabbed his wheel Just plain started shaking and the Concord zipped down the runway and took off onto the horizon and he kind of sputtered up to the starting line Hoping that he could just get his plane off the ground I'm here to tell you that whether you realized it or not last Sunday from this pulpit I believe a Concord took off That's how good how beautiful I thought the sermon was and if you weren't here Please do whatever you have to do to get a copy of it Leo preached a magnificent sermon last week get the CD go online listen to the MP3 call the church office I don't know do whatever you have to do to get a copy of it even if you were here I would encourage you to listen to it again. It was that good Which also means that Here stands your single engine Cessna Before you to follow that and I am hoping that this gets off the ground. So let's pray father in heaven We do ask that you would have your way with us Father I pray that you would free me from myself That you would speak words of wisdom that the meditations of my heart would be a humble focused on you and you alone Thank you for the good news of the gospel Thank you for the foolishness of preaching And it is through what we were about to do That we are saved and fall in love with you and And are given help to make it in this world that is yours and Jesus name we pray man The story that Sam read to you a few minutes ago is only part of the story You may have guessed that because it's rather bizarre portion that he read the part that wasn't read is the beginning And we'll eventually get to that but we're going to start at the end because the end is significant And so I hope I don't confuse things, but that's where we're going to start Genesis 15 verse 1 the last verse he read We're told after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision Fear not Abram. I am your shield your reward shall be very great Here's the question Abram What made him so afraid What made Abram so afraid in the story that we're going to look at to where God had to appear to him and say Abram Don't be afraid When Ellie made the switch From her crib into a big bed All of a sudden she became definitely afraid of the dark I would tuck her in at night kiss her on the cheek tell her I loved her walk out flip the light off I'm scared It's dark in here Ellie who's with you I'd say from the door God Somewhat unconvincingly so I'd ask again who's with you even when it's dark even though you can't see him God a little more confident this time and then we'd play this little game exchange that we do I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you more. I love you more Who loves you the most even more than daddy Jesus she would say and who's with you right now Jesus and then I'd shut the door and we usually wouldn't hear another peep Aren't we such great parents Around this same time Ellie enjoyed playing a game with me where she would tuck me into bed So one morning we were playing this game is still pretty early. We had all just gotten up and she wanted to play it So I got into bed. I think even got under the covers and she came over and kissed me good night I love you. I love you know back about she walked leaves shuts the door walks down the hall Well, I hopped up a flipped off the light guy back in bed. I'm scared. It's dark Pitter-patter of her feet across our hardwood floor. She burst into our room comes over to me looks me right in the eye Point your finger at me says daddy go to sleep. God is with you
That's exactly what God shows up to tell Abram Abram I know you're afraid, but God is with you The story we're gonna look at today contains the events that made Abram afraid. That's why it's important to start at the end This story that we're gonna look at is a story of mystery It's a story of compassion and it's a story of generosity and I don't know about you but those three things frightened me Mystery frightens me because it really makes me feel uncomfortable I don't like it when I can't figure something out I'm very analytical and a sort of panic if I can't get my hands around something in panic. I'm convinced it's born of fear Compassion in order to be compassionate it requires that I have to feel what it's like to live in someone else's skin I have to feel their pain. I have to make their problems my problems and I don't know about you, but I got enough pain and problems on my own Generosity even though I do like to talk about it. I'm not gonna lie I have to also tell you the truth and say when I read what the scriptures say about giving I get absolutely scared to death Like for instance Luke 1433 Honestly, I just read this This past week while I was preparing for this sermon in one of my morning devotionals Jesus chimes in with this little jewel Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple And I checked the context
Okay, so let's leave that right there. Let's go to the mystery We'll begin with the mystery which happens to be a person He bursts on to the scene Literally out of nowhere then poof he vanishes into thin air as far as we can tell Don Miller who's a contemporary author writes this you cannot be a Christian without being a mystic And in his book blue like jazz he shares this as an illustration to prove his point He writes I have a friend who criticizes certain Christian writers for embracing what he calls mysticism I asked him if his statement meant that he was not a mystic of course not he told me So I asked him if he believed in the Trinity And he said he did And I asked him if the Trinity represented three separate persons who are also one and if that's what he believed And he said he did and then I asked him if that would be considered a mystical idea and he just stood there thinking When I think about Melchizedek, which is the name of this mystery man of Genesis 14 I find myself just sort of standing here thinking who is this guy This mystery man. He shows up here in Genesis 14. He prepares a meal He gives a couple of blessings. He collects the tie from Abraham and then poof He disappears You don't hear from him again until Psalm chapter 110 Which is even stranger Because David talks about the fact that he's a king but there's also this other king who he calls my lord and oh yeah That my lord happens to be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek wildly mysterious Jesus also brings up this figure in Mark chapter 12 In a discussion that he has with some of the religious elite It's a very sarcastic conversation very funny conversation And he in effect winds up telling his audience that yeah, you know that guy that David was talking about in Psalm 110 That priest king forever mystery man in the order of Melchizedek that's me Then the author of Hebrews writes an entire chapter about him In fact Melchizedek is the only character I know of in the Old Testament that receives more attention in the new This is a very mysterious figure. Here's what we know about him He's a king But he also happens to be the very first priest mentioned in the Bible Not to mention that he's also quite a chef when you hear about the bread and the wine and the story don't think Lord Supper think wedding banquet think royal feast think Bigger helpings than you get at majianos
We're also told he's from Salem Now commentators do not know where this place is it could be Jerusalem It could also be a short and form of Shalom kind of meaning a city of peace I guess it could be that city in Oregon, but not that's probably not right But that's not all here's here's the best part of the story Abram and you remember the Lord called great Gives this enigmatic figure a tenth of everything Suggesting of course that this someone whoever he is is someone greater He's greater the other night Katie was tucking Ellie into bed And Ellie said or she asked mommy how many feet does Jesus have curious Katie responded well Jesus is a man and he has a body So he has two feet just like us No She adamantly objected he has so many feet Well, how do you know that Ellie he has so many feet because of all those crowns All the crowns that will lay at Jesus's feet Ellie's reasoning is well if there's going to be a whole lot of crowns There's got to be a whole bunch of feet one foot for every crown It's very very funny, but it's also very very Amazing because underneath that question was this recognition on my little three-year-old's part that Jesus is so much greater It must trickle all the way down to his toes How about Jesus has a crown waiting for Ellie even though that views absolutely heretical right that Jesus has so many feet I'm convinced that Jesus has a crown waiting for her for wondering that part of the mystery of this story Is when you understand someone's greatness Logic just sort of goes out the window Abraham be hold someone mysterious someone greater than he is and his response is a little crazy If you don't think it's crazy, you just tell your mortgage broker while you're planning for how much you can afford to buy a house Just say now you need to know that right off the top we take tent a tent of it give it to the church And so we're really starting with this number as our salary instead of this one and I promise you'll get a look of craziness It's also the response of a child And here's what I mean Jesus says that unless you change and become like little children You'll never enter the kingdom of heaven and Abraham's picture here is a beautiful picture of this truth If there's a rainbow on the horizon and I tell Ellie Ellie, there's a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow Well, let's go see she would probably she grabbed my hand And she would want to run until we got to the end of the rainbow now you tell an adult that And they'll brush you off and probably send you to a shrink but not a child And in this story, it's like Abraham finds a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow And he beholds someone greater and mysterious and he runs to him with his treasure in his hands a tenth of it at least And he lays it at his feet and that's the moment. I want you to think about for just a minute the moment itself Melchized ex moment, I call it because I'm convinced that we all have them We all have them their mysterious moments when something happens or someone happens And all we do is stand and wonder Like John the Baptist did when he learned that his followers were following Jesus instead of him And what did John say he must become greater and I must become less Moments I know you've experienced them in your life when the honor completely belongs to someone else But you're actually more excited for them than you would be for you if it belonged to you Moments when you find yourself spilling over with emotion Saying inside and maybe even out loud that This has got to be a picture of what life is all about like when a baby's born Or the minister says you may kiss your bride Or married folks the still moment after making love to your spouse Or those with children when I pull into the driveway and Ellie and Julius faces are smeared against our front window Because they can't wait for me to get home Or the moment that you reconcile with a close friend that you've experienced experiencing a lot of conflict Or the moment that you serve someone else Instead of yourself or in a little while The moment you take the breath And you take the wine And you just sense there's a whole lot more here than this bread and wine When I was four years old my dad opened the front door and I screamed Dad, dad, dad, we got you the biggest, bestest, bluest Nike basketball shoes today My mom had given me a stern warning earlier honey This is Daddy's Christmas present. It's a big surprise and we have to wait until Christmas morning to give it to him But when my dad walked through that door I completely forgot about my promise Why? Because this was my dad and I was four and he wore a size 12 And he was the greatest basketball player I had ever seen He deserved it. He was greater. I couldn't help myself I spilled over with emotion Joy and worship lost in my dad not caring what anybody else thought I did exactly in effect what Abram did Whether you realize it or not you'd long for moments like these Moments, Melchizedek moments when everything's defined for you When you come into God's presence or rather when his presence comes into you and I'm speaking of the Holy Spirit And you're given grace and faith to do is he commands and I have to tell you what he commands Is Luke 1433 To give up everything To give up absolutely everything For this something greater This something mysterious more of a someone than a something right? Jesus to be his disciple He is really what life's all about now make no mistake about it if and when you do this it'll scare you to death Just like it did Abram just like Ellie in the dark But I promise you if you cry to him you'll find he's there mysteriously He's there And whether you believe it or not Jesus really is all you need Or could ever want now quick switch into the second part I didn't know any way to transition. So I'm just gonna move this way We're leaning into the second focus of the story which is compassion and the way we're gonna do that is we're gonna summarize all the events that led up to what Sam read real quick Five Kings join forces to attack four Kings and the reason why they do it is that the five Kings were subject to one of the four Kings and after 13 years they've had enough so they rebel Now despite the fact that the odds were in their favor five against four and they got to choose home field advantage They get their tails whipped the four beat the five they take everything that belongs to the five And if you're reading this story you should probably be wondering Okay, what does this have to do with Abram? And it's a very good question and the author anticipates it and he sort of slides you into what this has to do with Abram by talking about Lot who was Abrams nephew you're introduced to him last week He is Abrams nephew that chose to live where in Sodom Well the king of Sodom happened to be one of the five Kings that got whipped and like I said All of those five Kings stuff gets taken by the four Kings Which includes lot Now somebody escaped. We don't know who it is Found Abram and told him about this and then here's what the author writes Abram was living near the great trees of momry the Amorite a brother of eshkol and on here No, whenever an author sort of gets off track like that and he gets really specific You should file it away for later So try to remember those three names are at the very least just remember that Abraham's got three friends and we haven't heard the last of them yet Back to the story Abram waste no time He teaches us all especially us Presbyterians A lesson a good friend of mine taught me one time Sometimes it requires more faith to take action than to remain passive Come on, you know it's true Abram calls out 318 trained men again very specific the author gives you the exact number why well believe it or not There's actually a pretty sizable army in this time And the author's kind of saying Abrams got a chance And he has more than a chance he attacks them that night he wins He rescues everybody and everything including most importantly lot
joyo my younger daughter 19 months old came to me the other night with book in hand read read read She's a very intense little girl I've no idea where she gets it Whatever The name of the book was five little monkeys jumping on the bed You've probably heard it's one of her favorites, but the reason is very surprising. She climbed up into my lap They take a bath put on their pajamas rust her teeth and then the rhyming begins five little monkeys jumping on the bed One fell off and bumped his head and I accentuated the word bumped I think I even said bot Because it's more graphic and as soon as I did Julia burst into tears. I mean Wailing is the more appropriate word tear streaming down if it was everything I do to not laugh I turned the page But mama called the doctor and the doctor said I told her no more monkeys jumping on the bed
You know those snifles you get and you trying to stop crying, but you can't really stop Well, that was joyous. She kind of she calm down quite a bit poor little thing till I turn the page Four little monkeys jumping on the bed one fell off and bumped his head
Flood of tears returned turn the page talk about the doctor three more monkeys all the way to the end Wailing snifling wailing snifling Now I don't know how many of you know my daughter well, but if you know Julia you know Why she was crying? She bops her head all the time At least once a day She never walks anywhere She always sprints And because of that she always trips and bops it she'll hit bot head that she'll do every time She falls and when she was six months old and this was totally my bad she fell off our bed Literally popped her head concussion hold on yard
She can't help herself when she hears about somebody bopping their head She just wells up with compassion and it manifests itself because she's 19 months old in tears And it makes me wonder and since I'm doing the talking I hope it'll make you wonder too Do I feel for anybody the way Julia feels for those monkeys?
Do I grieve within when I hear About people that need to be rescued. That's how Abram felt for lot And believe it or not He rescues lot this time and where does lot go and live? He goes right back to Sodom And what does Abram do though when God reveals to Abram that he's gonna destroy Sodom? He intercedes he pleads with God. He tries to get God to change his mind No save the city save the city and what he's really saying is what save lot And God doesn't save the city But he does save lot When every single one of us would have said he's made his bed letting lie in it Let him reap what he sowed That's not what Abram does. Lot keeps falling off the bed and bopping his head And Abraham calls the doctor every single time Frederick beaconer one of my favorite authors writes Lot must have had something going for him. On the other hand, it's hard to see just what No, Frederick as much as I love you as a writer you're wrong What lot had going for him was Abram and it begs the question doesn't it? Who in your life would say that one of the only things they have going for them is you
I know it's a hard question. It's hard question for me to ask myself But who are we rescuing? Even though we know time and time again there is gonna go right back To the same old patterns of destructive sinful behavior Like the proverb says a dog returns to his vomit, but we've just decided I'm cleaning up the vomit Even though they ignore me. I'm not gonna ignore them Even though they won't give me the time of day. I'm gonna keep pursuing them I'm gonna love and I'm gonna love and I'm gonna love why because Jesus said things like love your enemies And he doesn't qualify it and Jesus saved us long before anything we wanted to have anything to do with him That's why That's ultimately why Abram does this Because he had found God to be a God that would keep rescuing him when he pond his wife off to foreign kings When he made fun of God to his face When he slept with his maid hey guard because he didn't trust in the promises God kept pursuing and pursuing and pursuing and that is the God that loves us And to the extent that we pursue others that same way is a litmus test for how well we recognize His love and faithfulness to us The second part of the story is compassion The final part is generosity After Melchizedek's blessing and after Abram's token of thanks the king of Sodom shows up And this is kind of odd while he's on the scene and it's even more odd what he says because he makes a demand He says give me the persons but take the goods for yourself And instead of saying what you would expect Abram to say which is exactly what I would have said like Are you kidding me? I rescued you Abram doesn't do that at all look at what he says he peers into this king's eyes and he says I won't take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours less you should say I have made Abram rich I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten and the share of the men who went with me and here they come back Let on near Eschol and Mamri take their share. Here's the point Abram keeps nothing for himself He gives away everything This is not a text about tithing
He does give a tent to Melchizedek But then he divides up a share with his friends and where does the rest go to an enemy It's not a sermon about tithing it's a sermon about Luke 1433 And he of you who does not give away everything he has Cannot be my disciple. So here's another little dose of mysticism for you Abram obeyed Jesus before Jesus was even born
Every night Before we go to sleep or before Ellie and Joy go to sleep we have Ellie go into the bathroom and fix both of their toothbrushes So Ellie fixed one for her fixed one for Joy and we always give Ellie these parting words don't take more than you need Barbie brand toothpaste if you haven't had it it's like candy So the other night I was gone and Katie happened to be in the bathroom with them and Ellie said Mommy, can you watch me And Okay, so we're sure do you need some help and Ellie said no, I just like it when you watch me because then I don't take too much
Man little three years. Oh, she's wrestling with sin in her heart She knows that if Katie's there if she's watching she's not going to be tempted to take more than she needs But when Katie's gone when we're in the living room I've got to try to sneak in and watch her deliberate over this Let's go want to squirt more onto the toothbrush
That's what Abram knew He knew that the Lord was watching because the Lord's always watching Abram accepted only what he needed and since he came into this story having all that he needed He gave away Everything and I know it sounds really childish, but maybe that's the point Abram was willing to share And I have to confess one more thing to you. I do not know Why every sermon I preach at this church has this theme in it I was thinking about it and I suppose that generosity is really all over the scriptures or I just keep drawing the short straw
Well, I confess one other thing to you. I tend to think it's the former Now this brings us full circle Back to the Lord's words to Abram in the vision and this is how we'll close Remember what he said fear not Abram. I am your shield your reward shall be very great What I didn't have Sam read purposefully was Abram's response Verse two he says oh sovereign lord what can you give me since I remain childless you have given me no children Having shared everything having kept nothing having provided for everything everyone but himself Abram's only hope now is this Promise this promise that God's given him that he's going to keep reiterating to him this promise of what will be Isaac his son And I'm here to say if our story is anything like his One of mystery one of compassion one of generosity Then you can bet your last dollar that fear is going to be the result You are going to be scared to death But in the face of your fear in the face of Abram's fear God appeared to him in a vision With a promise The promise of a child that's what his very great reward is And in the face of our fear there is also the same promise The promise of a child the only difference of course is at this point in Abram's story He is not yet received his promise He is still waiting for his promised child to arrive while at this point in our story the promise has come true Brothers and sisters the promised child has arrived He's even here mysteriously with us right now And he promises to take away your fear And I'll whisper you one final secret Nothing else will Only Jesus can take the fear away He told me to remind you of that