Sermon Tone Analysis

Alliteration is not my thing… I am more of a practical say it as it is kind of guy.

However it just came out better today as we look closer at part two of Land Love & Legacy.

We took an overarching approach last week to these three chapters of the epilogue of Abraham’s life and I would like us to look just a little closer at several things before we continue through the narrative of the book of Genesis.

Today we are going to look at:

Love Lessons

Living Life

Leaving Legacy

Understanding the overarching way these all tie together we will spend some time making practical application in these chapters.

Love Lessons

Lisa and I will be married twenty years this January.

She happened to be one of my best friends, we dated for several months, I asked her to marry me on December 24th 2000 and were wed January 19, 2002.

Our marriage has not been perfect.

But on that day we made a commitment, a choice to love each other until death do us part.

One of the many things I have learned over the years is that LOVE is about choices… not feelings.

Consider 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 and look at the choices, intentionality that is there...

Abraham has tasked his servant with finding a wife for Isaac.

Consider the choices in the verses here today.

Genesis 24:10-33;49-52 unfold a unique wedding story.

From this story I believe we learn four Lessons on Love…

Lesson 1- Heed Godly Counsel (Godly Mentors and parents) those who know you

Western culture has almost done away with the parents role (marriage success is not that good)

Many eastern cultures still have either parent arranged marriage or strong parent involvement (much better marriage statistics)

Listen to those who know you

Lesson 2- Prayer, Prayer, Prayer

Verse 12, verse 26, verse 52 each reference this servant going to the Lord

Verse 63 finds Isaac praying, meditating before the Lord

Abraham no doubt… the one who taught his son and servant to go to the Lord was praying also!

Lesson 3- Look for Qualities of Character

Uncommon hospitality, hard work, going the distance

Most anyone would offer a sip to a thirsty stranger.

Watering ten camels, on the other hand, took a lot of extra effort—especially considering that each camel could drink as much as fifty gallons in three minutes.

And he had ten thirsty animals!

A five-gallon jar weighed almost fifty pounds.

For a woman to volunteer to water someone’s camels would mean offering to haul five hundred gallons, five gallons at a time.

(Don’t worry, I’ll do the math.)

That’s one hundred trips back and forth from the spring.

(Bear with me a little further.)

If each trip took only a minute, she just added two hours of backbreaking work to her already busy day.

That would be one extraordinary woman!

Opening up her home and welcoming strangers

Her faith to trust the Lord’s leading verse 58

Lesson 4- Observe the family

The family themselves held the Lord in high regard

Willing to serve others

You also marry into that family and most often bring good and bad from them too

Living Life

Some find it difficult that Abraham takes another wife after Sarah.

Genesis 25:1-4

He loved her (only her) aside from the incident with Hagar

Married for over 100 years

Abraham did not just curl up and die, he did not sit in the tent door and watch life go by… he continued to live!

Keturah gave him 6 sons!!!

Mentoring

Training how to hunt, fight, herd sheep, and most of all how to worship the One true God

He learned here from Ishmael… sent his sons off with a gift better prepared

To the older generation… never stop living!

Invest in life each day you are given

let me encourage you to live life to the fullest, and live life so that your life will outlast you… Eternal focus!

Leaving Legacy

There is an old woodsman’s proverbs that says, “A tree is best measured when it is down”.

Our lives while we live are still bearing fruit, building legacy, growing in our walk with the Lord.

Imagine… coming to the end of your time on this earth and hearing “well done good and faithful servant”

So many fall so many fail

So many run the race and disqualify, or simply stop short of the finish line, give up

We have looked at Abraham’s life:

An extraordinary man, yet a man none the less

We saw his faith to leave

We saw his weaknesses, failings, regrets

We saw his faith, his discernment, his God

There is a great deal we have seen and spoken of about Abraham…

In verse 8 we see a beautiful summary… but consider how God measure this man throughout the pages of scripture...

Romans 4:19-21

Hebrews 11:9

Hebrews 11:17

James 2:23

Isaiah 41:8

ABRAHAM THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL

A life that would point a foreign people to the One true God

A life you and I can relate with

A life that showed the importance of trusting God

A legacy left for Isaac, Jacob, the children of Israel… for YOU and ME!

What will your life point to?

Live it fully for his glory, a lasting legacy...

In the words of Jim Elliot i will close, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”