The Thread - Abraham - A Man Called to Trust

God keeps His promises. He has communicated to people down through history. Some have had a special place in His plan. He made promises to them and He kept them, even when the people failed in trusting Him. Abraham is just such a person.
Outline: God makes God-sized promises to His people: When God speaks to people He often promises so much that we have a hard time believing those promises. The LORD is always faithful, no matter the degree of our unfaithfulness: Living a life of faith doesn’t mean we are perfect in our trust. We are imperfect trusters. We stumble and fall. We falter and sputter as we learn to trust. But when we do trust, the LORD shows Himself mighty. Sometimes God calls us to do seemingly impossible things: Abraham is called to do something very few people on the planet would be willing to do. And yet, because of his history with the LORD’s faithfulness, he steps out and trusts, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense. Trusting God can be the most difficult thing to do: When the LORD asks us to trust Him, we need to trust Him, no matter how hard it seems.

http://hospchap.sermon.net/main/main/20700261

Deeply Distressed and Troubled

Mark 14:32-34

      Do you remember the movie Meet the Fockers and the ‘circle of trust?’ If you were in the circle, you could be trusted with the family secrets. If you were outside the circle, and you didn’t want to get outside the circle, you couldn’t be trusted. And once you were outside, you couldn’t come back into the circle. While humorously portrayed, the movie taught an important lesson. We all have different levels of trust with different groups of people. And this is a good thing.

      We teach our children to not take candy from a stranger, right? We teach them to not allow anyone to touch them without their permission. We teach them the difference between immediate family where hugs and kisses are allowed, and others where hugs and kisses are not allowed. Children learn their names and addresses so that they can get back with family if separated. We don’t just teach them the zip code. They need to get closer than just their neighborhood. They need to get home.

      We share our financial information with our accountant, but not with the Russian hackers on the internet. (Or at least we don’t try to!) We share our health information with our doctor, but hopefully you don’t trust healthcare.gov to keep the information safe. You don’t post it on Facebook. Some things are private, personal, to be held closely.

      Even Jesus had different degrees of closeness with those of His day. He had large crowds who would show up occasionally. He had a group of followers, around a hundred or so showing up shortly after His death, both men and women. He had the twelve disciples. He had the inner three.

      But when it really was tough, only One stood with Him: the Father. He tells his disciples to stay while He prays. He tells His Three to stay and keep watch. He tells the Three that He is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. He doesn’t share this information with the other eight, or with the larger groups that didn’t even end up in Gethsemane with Him.

       We need to which group of people in our lives to share what information with. We all know people who unload their whole history in the first few minutes of meeting. They seem to vomit their stuff all over anyone who is there to listen. It is almost as if they can’t help themselves. They just have to tell someone in hopes that this time someone will really hear them.

      We have the responsibility to control our sharing. We also might need to help someone else control the flow of information so that they will not be hurt in the future. Scam artists prey on people who don’t have good boundaries, people who share too much with someone that they barely know. And of course scam artists know how to make people feel relaxed and at ease with their ‘new friend.’ They know how to get people to drop their defenses and give up the good stuff.

True to Your Word

Mark 14:16-17

      When you say something, does it happen? When you tell someone you will do something, do you do it? Do you pontificate about things, political and social trends? Are things going the way you predicted? Can people trust what you say? Or do others just kind of roll their eyes when you start spouting?

      Many politicians are viewed as untrustworthy in what they say. That is because many have a track record of saying one thing, promising the world, and then delivering next to nothing, a token at best. Little gets done, and what does get done seems counterproductive to most people.

      But before we do what politicians do best, point fingers, we need to take a moment and be honest with ourselves. Are we people of our word? It does us no good to point fingers at others, when we don’t deal with our failures.

      Jesus said certain things would happen when the disciples asked about Passover preparations. Those things happened. There was a man carrying a water jar who led them to a house that hand an upper room furnished and ready where the disciples could make preparations for the Passover meal. I love it when a plan falls into place without any hiccups.

      But many times in life things don’t fall into place. Life brings many hiccups. So when things do fall into place, enjoy them. So when Jesus and the disciples return later in the day to have their preparatory meal together, things are all ready to go. All the necessary elements are present. They don’t have to go out at the last minute to WalMart and pick up what they forgot. They can sit down together and enjoy the meal and the fellowship.

      I want to encourage you to be a person of your word, to make complete preparations for the LORD’s work. I think we should do our best when it comes to His work. I want people to find things just as I said they would be. I want my word to count for something. I want people to be able to trust what I say.

Rental Agreements

Mark 11:4-6

      Have you rented a vehicle lately? Man, there is a lot of paperwork to fill out. I almost feel like bringing a pint of blood with me, and maybe pictures of my grandkids as collateral. I guess Hollywood’s use of vehicles in high speed chases has inspired a generation of rental car drivers. I just can’t figure out how the lawyers have messed up so many aspects of life.

      But it wasn’t always so difficult to borrow things. Not that long ago, and still in some places in the world, your word, and maybe a handshake was all that was needed to seal a deal. A person’s word was their bond. When they said something, they meant it. You also knew them. They lived in your town, and if they backed out, everyone in town would know they had backed out, and they would stop doing business with them. It was a personal matter.

      This didn’t mean that there was NO dishonesty back then, but that most transactions that involved finances were handled with a simple pledge acknowledging the obligation to repay. Traveling salesmen perhaps came to gain a bad reputation because they weren’t known personally before the transaction. This is one of the reasons for the Better Business Bureau’s creation. People could complain and have the complaint recorded. Then people could check on the business to see if there were complaints against that business. It was the official word of mouth.

      Two of Jesus’ disciples enter into an agreement with the owner of a young donkey. They do a little name dropping, “The Lord needs it,” and that is enough. This would indicate to me that the owner knew Jesus, or at least knew of Him. They might have even known these two disciples. But Jesus and the disciples had been to this area before during the three years of His ministry.

      Ministry takes support from all sorts of sources. No fruitful ministry can be an isolated ministry. The best ministries make lots of connections. We need each other. Sometimes you need to borrow a donkey, and connections may help.

      Jesus was not afraid to ask for a favor. Sometimes He had to ask for help from others. This asking for help can put a person in a vulnerable position. The person being asked could reject the person asking. That is always a possibility. And it can be humiliating to be rejected. The ego takes a big hit. The self-esteem can go right out the window in those moments.

      But sometimes, you have to ask. There is no way to accomplish what you need to do if you don’t ask for help. Jesus trusted both the disciples and the owner of the young donkey, that they would support Him in His ministry. He had faith in them.

Ticked Off

Mark 10:14-15

      When was the last time you were steaming mad? How often do you get steaming mad? I hope your answers to these two questions were, a long time ago, and not too often. Steaming mad raises your blood pressure, constricts your blood vessels and doesn’t allow you to think clearly. Not the best place to spend large amounts of time. Not the happiest of lives either.

      Our text tells us of a time when Jesus was indignant toward His disciples. They were standing in the way of justice. Jesus saw the wrong being committed by them, and He got very mad. He was ticked off. He was rip roaring mad. The disciples were clearly in the wrong. They were backing the wrong horse.

      Do you ever get mad because someone is clearly on the wrong side of an issue? I know I do. That seems to be what Jesus is feeling. So Jesus does something about it. He lets His disciples have it. That’s right. He balls out His closest companions.

      Out of this indignation Jesus tells them two things, to start allowing them to come and to stop hindering them from coming. They must open the door and then not stand in the way. Both of these elements are important. We can open the door, but then stand in the opening preventing people from entering. We can also act like we want people to enter, but then not give them the key that opens the door.

      Jesus sees something in His disciples that He doesn’t like. They want to restrict access to Jesus. Jesus wants to throw the door wide open, allowing any and all to be with Him. But there is more to this event than this.

      Jesus wants to teach His disciples about the simplicity of faith. The words faith and trust are often interchangeable. The original language of the New Testament, Greek, uses one root word for both concepts. And who knows how to trust better than children, if they are raised in trusting, safe environments.

      So Jesus tells His disciples that they are the example of how we as adults need to come to Him. We are to receive the Kingdom like little children. How do most kids receive a free gift? With joy, eagerness and enthusiasm. They don’t suspect the package to be a box filled with anthrax or C4 explosives. If you are giving it, they expect something good.

      The same is true for those of us who want to follow Jesus. We need to accept what He has to offer with joy, eagerness and enthusiasm. If we know Him, then His plan for our lives, His working out of the Kingdom in and through us, will bring something good. Our job is to simply trust that He has our best in mind, that He will take care of us, that He will never leave or forsake us. We can count on Him.

      Are there things that Jesus is asking of you that you are hesitant to release to Him? Are you hesitating in trusting Him, because people have let you down and you can’t figure out if the LORD will do the same? Become like those little children who ran into Jesus’ arms. Don’t hesitate for a moment. Run into His arms.

Children’s Ministry

Mark 10:13-16

      For many people in the world today, children seem to be a nuisance. They get in the way of the fun we had planned, the independence and free-flowing lifestyle. They take our time, attention, energy and patience. They can push us in ways we never imagined possible, even to the edge of sanity! But children can also be a wonderful blessing, bringing more joy and fulfillment than anything else in life. And grand parenting, don’t get me started!

      In our culture babies have been devalued repeatedly. I imagine you heard about the church denomination that said it is OK to kill the live-born baby after a botched abortion. That’s right, the baby is born alive and they said it was OK to kill it, or let it die without intervention. So they have moved from killing babies in the womb to killing them outside, if they aren’t wanted. I sure hope I don’t end up on their “Not Wanted” list. I might be next.

      Jesus’ disciples had a problem with children. They were a product of their culture, just as we are a product of ours. Because infant mortality was so high, children were often not given much value until they had made it for a few years. If they didn’t get killed off by some disease or malnutrition, then they were given status as a person. This sounds familiar. We don’t grant value to a baby until ‘viability’ in the womb, an artificial line in the sand. The baby is a human before that point and after that point, just as an apple is an apple even when it is small and green.

      Some people “don’t want to impose” their values, especially religious values on their children. They want them to be able to choose. What foolishness. They are already passing along their values to their children by the way they live. They are actually saying that these most important issues of life are irrelevant by not purposefully passing along the values. They pass along the value of not lying to them, and yet they lie about their stated beliefs and their lived beliefs.

      Jesus gathers these small children into His arms in order to flip the value system on their day on its head. The simple trust that children have is the kind of trust we should have in our relationship to the LORD. Simple faith, not blind faith. Children learn that their parents can be trusted or not trusted by their interactions with them very early on in life. Long before they have language to express needs, they communicate those needs. When parents respond, the child is soothed and they learn that other people can be trusted to meet their needs.

      Jesus challenges His disciples, and us, to trust Him. He has been faithful in the past. He has not changed. He will be faithful in the future.