City Church Sheffield Podcast

Abraham mourned the death of Sarah. It is appropriate to grieve. Like Abraham and Sarah, we are aliens in the world who do not really belong anywhere. We are citizens of heaven - it is important to remember where we're from and where we're headed.

Unbelievers may think this passage shows a cruel God, but they are missing the bigger picture. Abraham may not have been angry with God, but he would have experienced emotional turmoil, and yet he obeyed God. It was God who miraculously gave Isaac to Abraham in the first place. God did not withhold his only Son. Isaac lived because a ram died in his place; we live because the Lamb of God died in o...

Abimelech saw that God was with Abraham. God is with us too, so let's let our light shine, showing love and kindness to those around us, being open with one another and dealing with conflict well.

God makes specific promises to individuals. God provides for us whether we are like Hagar and Ishmael who have reached the end of their resources or whether we are like Abraham who is distressed for others. Abraham entrusts Ishmael's life to God, just as he later entrusts Isaac's life to God.

Jesus is transfigured as he prays. Moses and Elijah, both men of prayer, represent the Law and the Prophets, the whole of the Old Testament, and they discuss Jesus' departure, the cross, the fulfilment of all God's promises. Peter had an old way of thinking, but the Father tells him and us to listen to Jesus. We are also being transfigured into his likeness.

God speaks because he wants to relate to us, not because we've earned this but because of his grace. He fulfils what he says, even with flawed human beings. And God makes us laugh - we can revel in our weakness because it shows God's strength and power.

Abraham has huge promises from God, but his driving force is fear. Fear can make us do things that we shouldn't do, and not do the thing that we should do.

We can look at Lot's life and think "Why did God save him?" But if we do that then we also need to ask "Why did God save me?" It was because of his grace and love. We need to live by faith rather than fear, and live God's way rather than the ways of the world.

We might be shocked at what the men of Sodom wanted to do and what Lot suggested doing and even what God is prepared to do. But we should take this passage as a warning and example of what God will do when he ultimately destroys the wicked. There are different ways of responding - like Lot's sons-in-law, who saw judgement as a joke, or like Lot, who hesitated when urged to escape, or like Lot's wi...

Like Abraham, as chosen people we can have a relationship with God. We can see Abraham's heart for the strangers, the alien, the lost and the outsider, and we can see the mighty sovereignty and graciousness of God, and so we can trust him as Lord of all.

Abraham's seed is the one through whom the nations will be blessed. This is not Isaac or the people of Israel but Christ. God's promises will be fulfilled at the appointed time.

God's covenant is a binding and contractual promise between God and Abraham. There are many blessings promised to Abraham, and all Abrham has to do is to walk with God faithfully and blamelessly and to circumcise all males. Abraham's ultimate response is obedience. Physical circumcision is no longer required but circumcision of our hearts is required.

Abraham and Sarah got tired of waiting for God's promise to be fulfilled and tried to take control. They began to focus on themselves, they stopped caring for others, such as Hagar. But God cared for her, and unlike Abraham and Sarah, calls her by her name.

When God makes his covenant with Abraham, he makes his promises on his own terms, and he kept his promises when the Israelites came out of Egypt. We too have promises from God, and just as the promises to Abraham weren't fulfilled for 400 years, we also have to wait for our promises to be fulfilled. In the meantime, what steps of faith is God calling us to take as individuals?

It can sometimes look as if worldly powers are king, but the Bible says that we reign in life. Abraham recognised Melchizedek as greater than he himself was, and Melchizedek points to Jesus. Jesus is king. We say that with our mouths, but is he really king over our lives? Do we really submit our entire lives to him?

The women physically looked up and saw the stone was rolled away. We can figuratively look up and see Jesus. We are all searching for different things, but the women were searching for Jesus. What are we chasing after?

How do we get back on track with God? By repenting and putting God first, by being willing to make hard decisions rather than drifting when we meet with challenges and by walking by faith like Abraham, rather than walking by sight like Lot.

Jesus is the good shepherd. Biblical shepherds led their sheep from the front, and knew each one by name, and the sheep knew his voice. We are invited to come and feed. Good shepherds lead by example, protect the flock, encourage the whole church to be a shepherding community, anoint with oil, and lay down their lives for the sheep.

Abraham and Sarah saw famine and there were hard decisions to be made, but they also saw the grace and sovereignty of God. Living in God's promises doesn't make us immune to hardship, and the grace and sovereignty of God doesn't mean we are free from sin and bad choices. God's grace can come through very strange means - it sees the vulnerable and covers over all sins.

We are encouraged to exalt and elevate God, to humble ourselves by seeking his will not our own, and to pray for a renewed spirit within us.

We are called to be fishers of men, ambassadors of Christ who attract people to him by letting his light shine through us in their midst.

We need to learn how to lament. We can do this by using our own words or by using some of the lament psalms that have been given us to help us pray. We need to make a deliberate decision to turn to the Lord, bring our complaint to him, make definite clear requests, and choose to trust him.

Like Abraham, we must face the facts - the facts make us more aware of our need for God. Yet we should continue to believe God, so let's look up and be strengthened in our faith.

God delights in restoring those who have wandered away. We should be a people of real concern, who care for those wandering from the truth; a people of real discretion in confronting them; and a people of real zeal for bringing them back.

James encourages us to pray. He tells us to pray for ourselves and for one another, and the sick are to call for the elders to pray for them. We are to come to God in faith, in repentance, in honesty and in humility.