https://vimeo.com/413696280

This is the Jesus story number seven. We're almost half our after today will be over halfway done pretty cool Who are we gonna talk about today? Do you remember? You don't remember who'd we talk about last week Adam Adam and Eve remember their story Yeah, it's pretty sad story after their story then there's a couple other things that happen I told you that Cain and Abel to have Adam and Eve's sons one of them kills the other one So now we got problems right in the world and then humanity got spread out God tells this there Genesis tells a story about the people were all trying to build this big tower to get to heaven They're gonna build a big tower called Babel the Tower of Babel and God looked down and said oh my gosh These people because they could they talk the same language they can do everything they want to do And so it said that God destroyed the tower and scattered them and gave them all different languages So they couldn't communicate with each other because humanity at its most broken is too dangerous to try and do what? They want to do all together. So that's how we got confused languages in the world Why we can't talk to each other and so all of those stories right there Not everybody believes all those happened exactly that way that people are really building a tower to heaven and other people do Hey, it happened just like the Bible says other things say well, you know, maybe the stories are metaphors Maybe they were meant to at least let Abraham's generation and Moses's generation know that hey This is how we got a messy world. This is how the world is and maybe Adam and Eve We're not necessarily the first humans that everybody came from because science says there was a lot of different humans on the planet But Adam and Eve represent the moment when God begins to reveal himself to us and instead of choosing him we choose apart from him and Abraham's the story when this all begins to change Did you guys did you guys get a chart that somebody gave you today to talk about this journey a little bit? You get a chart that looks kind of like this except yours is black and white Yeah Here in this chart what I want us to see is look here's Adam right right here Here's Jesus remember we talked about Jesus earlier. So we talked about these books right here is Jesus and Paul Here's Adam way over here And this is the story that we're going to look at going through all of that time between the two So this is story. We're going to sort out and the next one on the list is Abraham, right there Oh, no, I need to get my little tool up here. Click here. There's Abraham. See now Abraham is to 2100 years before Christ came into the world. Here's Jesus. Okay, that's around zero So 2100 years ago Abraham was How long have we been here since Jesus was on the planet? Do you know? How long have we been here? What year is this? 2020 2020 years since about the time of Jesus. It's not exact but about the time of Jesus So Abraham was 2100 years before We're 2000 years after so we're about the same distance from Christ that Abraham was before Christ Okay, got that. I hear noisy dogs in the background. I see Amy smiling too. She likes the dog Okay, we got a few dogs joining us today. That's fun. Austin was in a big class this morning. So he's already been exhausted, right? Aren't you? Yeah, they talked you up really good in class So here we go. So Abraham 2100 years ago and then we're going to talk about Moses and David. What are these up here? Can you tell what these are? Trees trees. Well, they're what's over here? What's that look like grapes, maybe a grapevine, right? This is how we're gonna this is how we're gonna understand this story together Here's Adam in the creation right here And that's where it was all really beautiful and lovely and then we ruined it So we disobeyed God we entered into shame and we destroyed the creation And then Abraham comes along and then Moses eventually David. Look at this 1000 years to here 300 more years to here 550 more years to there. So during this time this vine begins to thrive again until Jesus comes and Jesus restores the beauty of the creation even before it started And then we talked about Paul and the new believers and how they began to learn to follow Jesus together Okay, so we're going to talk about that. We got past the and I'm not saying that Adam and Eve weren't real I think they were real Okay, some people don't it's not important whether they were real or not The important thing is their story helps us understand where we start Which is the same place that Abraham started. We're born into a broken world And there's all kinds of conflict and people are greedy and selfish and that's why we have laws And that's why we have jails. So people who hurt other people have to go to jail They have to be pulled out of society We grow up in this broken world and we're not even sure that God exists We don't know about God because we just grow up and our parents might tell us about God or other people But he's we didn't see him the same way Adam and Eve saw him But one day God makes himself known to Abraham And I want to go back to this screen, which this is a map that we've had before remember this map I've got to find mine. Mine is gone. There it is. There's my map Okay, now I want you to look right here. What do you see right here? What does that say? Can you read it? Hello Can't read it too small It says ur Now remember this map big desert here, right? Remember that big desert big water here mountains up here Mountains up here This is where Abraham lives and we don't know how old he is but Abraham one day he God comes to it And he says Abraham i'm going to be your god now all these people this is Babylon This is Canaan all these people have gods that they try to live and follow and serve They try to follow these gods they created these gods They made them up because there's only one god and that's the true god the father of jesus christ only one god But because man felt so ashamed He made up his own gods and these gods were very angry all the time Because when they had famines and they didn't get their crops when they had wars They felt like the gods must be angry at them. So they're doing bad things to us And so we've got to make the goods like us How are you going to make the gods like you if they're doing bad things to you because you've done bad things How do you how do you help a god like you? Do you know? You guys are quiet today. Do you know how god's like you? How do you get a god to like you? Well, when you make up the god they gave god gifts They give gifts to god they gave like little birds and animals and goats and they would try to make Okay, if god's mad because we've done bad stuff We'll give god something he wants these gods and they had names like mollic and ball And they would give gifts to these gods and then they their crops would be good for a while So they would think oh our gods like us now and so they kept giving god gifts and then Famine would come again or the rains wouldn't come and their crops would fail And it's oh no the gods are angry again. So we got to give them a better gift And so I kept giving their false gods gifts and it's in this climate That god comes to abraham in this little town called ur Right here Oh, let me give my thing again Right here in ur, which is clear down here in what's modern day aran or iraq Here's the persian gulf. Okay, so all the wars have been going on And right here god says abraham. I love you and i'm going to make you a great nation Your your your descendants your children and children's children all the way down They're going to be greater than the sands of the sea and the sarge of the sky But I want you to follow me. I want you to come to a place and god didn't tell him where he was going He just said follow me So abraham gets in his tent And he follows god probably up the euphrates river up here And then down here and he came into the land of caiman What we know as israel today, right? See this little town right here little town called miguito I'm going to show you miguito in a moment So I want you to see it But this is the journey that abraham took following god He comes to this new land and god says i'm going to give you this land But there's already people living there, but god says i'm going to give it to you It's going to be yours after a while after about 400 years And so abraham goes there just because god told him now In canaan just like back where he came from There were a lot of false gods There were a lot of gods that people served there and they tried to give gifts to their god This is one of those things that I want to show you That happened back in those days. This is a place called miguito. Remember I told you miguito on the map This is miguito. It's a big hill now that they have been excavating down They archaeologists find old civilizations by burrowing down into the hill Because in the old days when they would conquer a place They would bury it and build on top of it And then they would bury that and build on top of it. This is miguito This is right in the middle of canaan and I want you to look at this right here. Oh God it I always have to grab my pen. Okay. Look at this right here. What do you think that is right there? Tell me what do you think that is What does it look like? A pile of rocks good, but they're kind of in a what kind of shape are they Turn the circle and it's all flat on top. What do you think that was used for? Do you have any idea? What do you think? Could have been a stage Where the bands played No, it could be theater. Maybe Amy that theater there. No, they didn't have theater till Rome Theater or grease theater came much later. Look at right here. What do you see right here? These are these are steps to get up on to this place Do you know what this was? This is really scary This was an altar. You know what altar is An altar is a place where you make your offerings to your fake gods So this is where they would kill their cows kill their sheep. They give them to god to make god happy And here's a god. Here's an altar to a god that required child sacrifice About 12 years old. Lindsay. They would take a young child And they would kill them on that altar to give them to god So god would like them. That's how dark sin was they believed that that would help them But remember this isn't the real god. This is a fake god Austin, how would you like it man? You're going to only live to be 12 because we're going to throw you on that altar and kill you In in canaan. It was often firstborn male children. Who would that be? It's not Amy It's not lindsay it'd be austin They take the firstborn male child and they would offer him to god because that was the most precious to them Was their firstborn male children their their boys and they would give them to god it is likely That abraham stood Right here at this altar and watched them sacrifice kids to the god malik abraham probably saw this he was there when they were actually doing it And so one day god said and now abraham's getting older How many kids does abraham have at this point, you know? He has no kids God says i'm going to make you the father of a great nation. He has no children His wife can't bear children and they keep trying but they can't have children Between the time god promised abraham. I'm going to give you a child and abraham actually having that child was 25 years Every week there every every year they hope for a child and the child didn't come And they try again and the child didn't come and god kept saying i'm going to give you a child and abraham Is known as the father of faith I'm going to tell you about that in a minute because abraham's the first one that gets to know the real god That's in this story for us in the bible God appeared to other people we know about joe There's people called inek noah. There's other people god knew but this bible story begins inside abraham's journey As he gets to know the real god In a world of a lot of fake gods that are sacrificing kids So after 25 years and abraham not even sure he's ever going to have a kid and he gets discouraged But he keeps believing that what god told him was true And 25 years later after he was too old to have children and sarah was too old to have children sarah was abraham's wife They had a child. She finally got pregnant And this was the child of promise and god gives them a child in their old age and they're so happy and his name is Do you know his name? abraham his son was named isek And one day when he's 12 years old Abraham here's god say to him. I want you to give me your son and sacrifice him austin, how's it sounding? scary, right Well, abraham doesn't tell his son. He just takes him on a long trip He takes him on a place where he's going to offer him As a sacrifice to god And so he gets there and he ties the boy up and he builds an altar and he puts the boy on the altar And just as he's ready to kill him with the knife and then he was going to burn him to god An angel shows up angels are messengers from god angel shows up and said abraham not do that. I don't want that And what god wants to show abraham is i'm not like all the false gods you've been following All the false gods that ask for sacrifices. In fact, I don't want your sacrifice I'm going to provide yours. I'm going to provide because in our Shame remember out of me after the shame how embarrassed they were and how ashamed they were And they had to hide from god because they felt horrible about themselves This is what man did to resolve his shame. I'll give a gift to my god And what god tells abraham, I don't want your gift I'll be your gift for you I'm going to teach you how to live and follow me And that's the story of abraham So that abraham learns to become what a what they call what uh, Paul calls later the father of faith abraham is the first person That begins to have an understanding of who god is and he learned to trust him Isaac is his son Isaac has children jacob and isa and then jacob has 13 or 12 children 13 if we count them all but that we'll get back to that later has 12 children And so now between abraham isaac and jacob these three different and you can read about all of these in genesis genesis keeps telling us about abraham Then abraham dies now we talk about isaac then isaac dies and then jacob comes and jacob has 12 children But his favorite child is named joseph and joseph is his 11th child and joseph is uh Well, he's treated too well by his dad his dad buys him a real fancy coat doesn't buy it for the other kids Just his 11th child. He buys this fancy coat. You've heard of the joseph and the technicolor dream coat heard that play amy Yeah, it's a play about this and he gives his coat to joseph and joseph goes to show it off to his brothers who are off working And joseph's not working because he's the pretty boy. He's the loved child He doesn't his dad wasn't very fair to the other brothers So I take him out. Do you know what the brothers did to joseph? You know about the play at all? The joseph that his brothers kidnapped him and they're going to kill him because they're so jealous of him just like abe adam's children did Now jacob's children are going to kill one of his but then one of the brothers said, ah, let's not kill them. Let's sell them And so they started human trafficking. You've heard of human trafficking where you sell humans It's all over our world today. They sell humans for all kinds of things horrible But they sell joseph into egypt So let's go back to our map now because here's where the stories progressed abraham comes from ur All the way into canaan He lives there and he dies And isaac and jacob and then joseph is kidnapped by his brothers Instead of killing him they sell him to a group of people who are going to egypt. Here's egypt They're going to egypt and joseph goes there. He's kidnapped. He's a slave. This can't be any fun, right? And then he gets there and he's He because he's filled of wisdom He gets he people really learn to love him and respect him And he's able to interpret dreams for people and pharaoh has a dream and he interprets pharaoh's dream And that gives him a place in pharaoh's town. There's a whole story here of Joseph first getting there and he's a slave and then some woman tries to get him to love her And he doesn't want to so she lies about him So he goes to jail then he gets out to help pharaoh because he interprets dreams And now he becomes the second in charge of all of egypt because the whole world this whole area of the world That we're talking about in our bible in our jesus story here from the bible this whole air Ah I gotta remember how i use these tools this whole area has a big famine that means they don't have any crops It's going to be seven years long Well joseph knew it was coming because of a dream that pharaoh had so he stored up all the food So people from all over the world came to egypt to buy food And that's how egypt got very wealthy is because all these people egypt had the only food left in the world They all came to buy joseph's food and one day Joseph's brothers come to buy food from joseph But they don't know it's joseph And they come to buy food with them and he plays a little game with them You can read about at the end of genesis and in this story They they realize what they've done to their brother And then they and joseph says to them listen i forgive you What you intended for evil? God has used for good gods put me in this place so that i could save the world on god's behalf We could have food for them And then how the story goes on we'll talk about next week That the children of israel grow too numerous in egypt so they make slaves out of them again And that's when moses comes on the scene. We'll talk about moses last week But we need to learn from abraham. This is the this is the part of the story Where we learn to trust god again abraham learns to trust god. He doesn't start out doing it very well He's just like us Remember i told you adam and eve get us in a place where we are born just like abraham is born We don't know god. We live in a broken world. It's easier as we've said all along It's easier to be selfish than it is to be kind. It's easier. I want my way. I don't care what anybody tells me Now god comes to abraham and says listen. I want you to learn a different way to live You have a god who loves you. I want to bless you And in blessing you i want to make you a blessing for the whole world And god already does that a little bit through joseph joseph is blessing the whole world because he's got food enough for everybody Now they use it to make egypt rich and then egypt uses it to enslave joseph's children and his brother's children But that 400 years goes by before gods get ready to take him back into the promised land The point is this When abraham trusted god his life went well Where abraham trusted himself He got into all kinds of trouble and you can read those stories. He lies to Pharaoh at one point and he almost gets killed because he does it He just he's scary He tries to have a kid with another woman to try and fulfill god's promise. That's another story When he learns to trust god so that now in romans chapter four, this is in the new testament Who wrote romans? Do you remember? Remember on your little book mark who taught romans paul wrote romans the paul we talked about who's a follower of jesus This is what paul says about abraham. He says he became all of our father. He becomes the father of faith And here's why he became the father of faith Even when they couldn't have a kid Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of god But he was strengthened in his faith and he gave glory to god being fully persuaded That god had the power to do What god had promised Now that's what abraham arrived at. He didn't start out as the father of faith He was the father of unbelief. He was the father of all kinds of things But through his life through a promise that didn't happen for a long time Through a child god gave back to him abraham came to learn that god is able to fulfill Whatever promise he makes and that's what i want you kids to know God makes a lot of promises. We're gonna talk more about him We're gonna talk more about how we learn to trust god and trust that god knows better than we know And if we follow him and trust him Our life goes well That doesn't mean we always get what we want doesn't mean we because what we want most of the time isn't all that good But if we learn to believe That what god promised he can do And so instead of doing what i think best I learned to do what god thinks is best And now I can be his child in the world. Does that make sense? any questions You guys sit there and listen so good pay attention any questions about abraham Any questions about how we learned that he didn't need to offer sacrifices to god That god was the one that was going to give abraham what he needed Not that abraham needed to give god So it's not us trying to get god on our side It's god inviting us to be on his Come learn to trust me lindsay Come learn to trust me austin Come learn to trust me. Amy and i'll take you on an adventure of life that's full of joy And full of good things struggle to always struggles But god makes himself clear Even through a pandemic Even when the whole world is afraid and some people are afraid of dying If you trust that god's got you and your life is in his hands, then you can relax and follow him All that makes sense I hope it does Because that's the god. I know that's the god. I've been learning to follow my whole life And that's a god that's worth following No matter what happens in the world around us