Abraham
End of the Road
December 17, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 25
As we close our series, Abraham: Journey of Faith, we come to Genesis 25:1-11, Abraham’s death. Like Sarah’s death, it feels kind of sudden after so much story and time together. There are some interesting details in the passage that we will look into. Most of our time, though, will be spent looking at Abraham’s life. We will look at his importance and place in Redemptive History, God’s plan for redeeming humanity and renewing and restoring all things. And we will see how Abraham points us to Advent, the longing, waiting, and anticipation of what God would ultimately accomplish in the coming of Christ.
Mission Impossible
December 10, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 24
This is a long chapter, but we’re going to cover it in one go. I encourage you to take the time to read it between now and Sunday so you can come in with some familiarity. After Sarah’s death, Abraham realized that it was time to find a wife for his son, Isaac. He sent his servant on a journey that led to an intriguing encounter at a well with a young girl name Rebekah. The chapter shows us something of God’s care and will for us. In Abraham’s Journey of Faith there have been a lot of ups and downs. He finally came to the point of complete surrender and God was faithful to provide exactly what was needed. Everyone else in the story shows steps of faith as well, showing us the beauty and freedom we can have in self-surrender.
Eulogy for Sarah
December 3, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 23
This chapter details the legal negotiations and contract for a piece of land containing a cave in Hebron. At first reading it might feel boring to most. With a closer look, though, we can come to realize that this is the first piece of the land God promised to Abraham that was secured as Abraham’s own, and at a high price. Our focus on Sunday, though, will be Sarah. The reason Abraham bought the land with the cave was to bury his wife, the Matriarch of the Promise, after her death. On Sunday we will take a look at Sarah’s life as a whole, and lessons we can learn from her, in a kind of Eulogy for Sarah.
Test of Faith
November 19, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 22
This Sunday we continued our series, Abraham: Journey of Faith with what might be the most famous story in Abraham’s entire life. In the ultimate test of faith, God called Abraham to offer up his son, Isaac in Genesis 22. At this point Ishmael had been cast out. After 25 years of waiting, God finally brought the promise of offspring to fulfillment in Sarah bearing Isaac. That one boy carried the fullness of God’s promises to Abraham – that his name would be great, that his offspring would outnumber the stars in the sky, that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. Now the same God who made those promises was demanding that Isaac be given as an offering. This story is gripping and powerful. It presents a devastating ethical conundrum. As we read through and study the text, we will work to enter into the tension and anguish of the story. It’s only when we are able to experience the tension and anguish of questioning God’s goodness in the midst of His justice, that we can experience the explosiveness of His grace.
Two Sons
November 12, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 21
After 25 years of waiting, longing, and anticipation, Abraham and Sarah finally see God’s promise of a baby fulfilled. Genesis 21 is filled with laughter and feasting and joy, and then the difficulty of family conflict and relational turmoil. In all of this, we see God’s sovereignty on display. At the very end of the chapter we read a new name for God, El Elyon, the Everlasting God. We will see that this characteristic is crucial to make sense of the three major stories – Isaac, Ishmael, and Abimelech – weaving them together under God’s sovereignty and work.
Failure & Faithfulness
November 5, 2023 • Genesis 20
This Sunday we return to our series, Abraham: Journey of Faith with a fascinating story about Abraham and Abimelech. It is possible for us to live our lives day to day without any real sense or awareness of God’s active work in our lives and in the world around us. The more busy and focused we become on what is happening immediately in front of us, the more tempting it can be to forget that there really is someone working at all times, in all circumstances, and in the lives of every person; that God is sovereign, knowing, present, and active. Genesis 20 is a good example of human efforts that are exposed as failures on every side, and God’s faithfulness in the midst of it.
Sodom & Gomorrah
October 29, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 19
Our study brings us to a devastating moment that the rest of Scripture points back to – the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We will face big questions of God’s righteous judgment, human responsibility, divine intervention and salvation, the power of prayer, and the fickleness of the human heart. Sodom and Gomorrah’s wickedness was well known at the time of Abraham, and the names of those cities became euphemisms for depravity. In the midst of the chaos and destruction, we will see God working, remembering His promises, and saving people even in spite of their reluctance. In the darkness there is the light of hope.
Friend of God
October 15, 2023
It is so easy to feel like God doesn’t hear us when we pray. There are times that we wonder if our prayer even means anything, whether what we do, say, pray, or pursue don’t matter. If God is the sovereign Creator of all things, why would we matter anyway? This Sunday we are going to dig into Genesis 18 where we will see Abraham and Sarah both interact directly with God. We’ll see Sarah in a quiet moment, thinking she is unseen, unimportant, and unheard, and we’ll even see Abraham… negotiate? … argue with God? Over and over our time with Abraham in this Journey of Faith helps us to see who God is, through every hill and valley along our path.
The Absurdity of Grace
October 8, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 17
This is another critical moment in Abraham’s life and in the storyline of Scripture. God came to Abram again, and this time changed his name to Abraham. Every time God has come to Abraham so far, the promise was clarified and made more specific. Chapter 17 is no exception. We will see a name change, a call to circumcision as a mark of the covenant (!?!?), and a man who laughed at God – we will look together and see the Absurdity of Grace.
You Can Go Your Own Way
September 24, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 16
We have already seen ups and downs in Abram and Sarai’s journey. We have seen Abram follow God’s calling and promises with bold faith and obedience. We have also seen him run in fearful faithlessness. We have seen Abram at his peak as he led a campaign to rescue his nephew and the people of the cities of the Jordan River Valley, and as he refused to leverage his victories for political gain but received a blessing from Melchizedek. Last week we saw Abram receive God’s promises again, but this time as a covenant – in a mysterious passage that shows that God’s promises to Abram are not contingent in the least on Abram, but only on God to come through. Just when everything looked like it was headed in the right direction, chaos descended. Abram, who had “believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness,” turned back again to his own solutions and plans. He and Sarai took God’s promises into their own hands, with the best of their ideas for how to bring them to fulfillment. The best of their efforts, though, were not what God had called them to. In truth, they showed a lack of faith, a lack of trust in God’s ability to do the seemingly impossible. Genesis 16 is a dramatic, made-for-Netflix story that reveals impatient hearts that reflect our own more closely than we would like to admit. And still there is hope in the midst of chaos.
Covenant
September 17, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 15
Back in chapter 12 God called Abram with the promise that He would make Abram a great nation and bless all people on Earth through him. We’ve traced some ups and downs that bring us to this point. While God made some promises to Abram along the way, this chapter formalizes a covenant between God and Abram. What may seem a little bizarre to us – cutting some animals in half and laying them out on the ground – follows the pattern of covenant ceremonies in the Ancient Near East. Genesis 15 is a key point in the entire storyline of the Bible, God’s plan of redemption for all people. We will explore exactly what a covenant is, and why the specifics of this chapter are important to help us understand God’s character. We will also see our place in the story, and the importance this covenant has for all who follow Christ.
King & Priest
September 10, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 14
This Sunday we continue our series, Abraham: Journey of Faith, with Genesis 14. This chapter shows Abram at his best. It’s a dramatic chapter that would make for a great movie or miniseries - a riveting plot, villains, a crisis and a hero, strategy, battles, a surprise twist, and character development. We see the man of faith act in great faith both in the risks he took and in the opportunities he passed up. By the end we are also introduced to one of the most mysterious figures in all of Scripture: Melchizedek, the King of Salem. This Sunday we will see a profound example of the ways that the whole Bible holds together with strong threads of a narrative tapestry.
There & Back Again
August 27, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 13
When we started last week, his name was Abram. God came to Abram and called him to go to a place that God would show him, promising to make his name great and to bless all the families of the earth through Abram. In an incredible step of faith, Abram followed God’s call! Sadly, he also was overcome by fear in short order as a famine hit the land. And so we saw the factors that lead us to stretches when our faith fails. Praise God that His promises aren’t reliant on us! This week we continue with Genesis 13. Abram showed faith again, this time in repentance, as he retraced his steps to go out of Egypt and eventually, he came to Bethel. Bethel is where Abram had set up an altar to worship God. His trust in God was renewed and led him right back to old pathways he had left behind. His nephew Lot, on the other hand, had ambition that drove him. We will see the beauty of repentance and the dangers of ambition as we hear from God’s Word together.
Faith & Fear
August 20, 2023 • Pastor Bill Riedel • Genesis 11:27—12:20
In the coming weeks we will embark on a journey into Genesis 12-25 and trace Abraham’s life. Abraham is the Patriarch for the world’s three major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Abraham is called the “man of faith” because he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Abraham believed the promises of God enough to leave his place and people to go to the place God promised to show him. It wasn’t easy, though. Throughout Abraham’s journey we see times marked by fear and failure, long-suffering anticipation and sorrow, and times when he tried to make God’s plan happen in his own strength. For all who follow Christ, Abraham’s story is our story. Abraham is a key figure in Redemptive History, the one God called to be the father of nations, and through whom all people would be blessed. Scripture often calls him “the man of faith,” and he is the father for all who believe (Gal. 3:7-9). And so, Father Abraham is our shared ancestor we are sons and daughters of the man of faith. On Sunday we begin with Genesis 11:27-12:20. As our story begins, we meet Abram and Sarai (their names get tweaked later on). In a major step of faith, Abram and Sarai heard God’s call to leave all they had and all they knew to go to a place that God would show them, with the promise that God would do great things through them. Their faith in following God’s initial call didn’t hold up perfectly, though. When famine hit, Abram spiraled into a series of bigger and bigger mistakes. Right at the top of this Journey of Faith, we are confronted with the competing tension of faith and fear. Like Abram and Sarai, we have heard God’s promises, but reality can make it hard to believe.