Sermon Details
- Pastor Name: Jonathan Cornell
- Date & Time: February 2, 2014 | 10:00am
This week, when I looked back at the schedule I came up with for these messages many, many months ago and realized that my task this week would be to cover the entirety of Genesis 12-50 in about twenty minutes, I did what our great mother Sarah did—I laughed. Then I laughed again because I realized that after looking at this amazing and also very dysfunctional family, we would all feel a lot better about our own families in the process. Maybe things aren’t so bad after all.
So let’s not waste any time, shall we? These are rich accounts, stories that have profound impact on our lives because the questions they pose are questions that we need to ask today. Can God still do the miraculous? Can God bring faith out of dry places? Can God bring life out of barrenness?
Given the fact that all three matriarchs in the stories of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs struggle with infertility, we can see that the rest of Genesis is a story about barrenness and God’s promise of blessing and the struggle to believe in the face of waiting and doubt and hardship. God makes promises; does God still keep those promises? What is the promise God has spoken over your life, what is the promise God has spoken over my life, and will God keep these promises? Maybe it’s a relationship that has dried up, or the hope of a job or spouse that feels like it will never come. Maybe your hope is for your children to come around to a realization of hope. Maybe your worry is whether your children will know the love of God.
These are the questions that Genesis 12-50 asks over and over again, the struggle to live in faith in the midst of hardship and struggle and to keep the promise alive.
Download the entire transcript here: Genesis 12-50 Called
Download the study guide here: Study Guide 2 Patriarchs
