Sermon Snippet

Here's a snippet from my sermon this morning. If I am going to post everyday in November... I might as well post snippets of the writings that I spend the most time on these days... This sermon is about what God did in Abraham's life... both by changing his name AND transforming his heart:



Where Abram means ‘exalted father’… the name Abraham literally means: ‘Father of Many.’ God changed Abraham’s name to represent the very promise that Abraham had such a hard time believing. God has a sense of humor, doesn’t He? Here’s Abraham… with no legitimate children… and his new name is ‘Father of Many.’

You can almost imagine people snickering when they started calling him by his new name. Hey Abraham… hey father of many.’ Was it awkward, perhaps, to be called something that didn’t yet apply to you? I’m sure at times it was.

But, thankfully, it doesn’t matter what other people thought about this new name… all that mattered was that from this day forward… God made sure that Abraham was reminded of the covenant that was made. From that day forward, Abraham’s very identity was tied into what God had in store for him.

In his book, Visioneering, Andy Stanley made a few observations about Genesis 17 that I found fascinating, and wanted to share them with you... He writes:

“On the day God instituted his covenant with Abraham, he changed his name to signify the certainty of his future. His name change was part of the vision he cast for Abraham and his descendants. God renamed Abraham as a way of pointing him in a specific direction for his life. Their names were a reflection of what could be and what would be.” (Andy Stanley)