Abraham is one of the super heroes of the Old Testament really of the entire Bible. He is a hero because of the legacy he left to his children.

God had promised that despite their old age that Sara would conceive and bear a son. So when Abraham was 100 and Sara was 90 their son was born. It was a miracle of course and they named him Isaac which means “laughter.” Now they named him “laughter” for a couple of reasons. First of all it was funny to think that Sara could have a child at this time in her life. But they also named him “laughter” because of the joy he had brought into their lives. They had been childless for all of these years and now God has blessed them with a son.

In verse 22: 1, says God tested Abraham. It wasn’t a test so that God could find out if Abraham had enough faith and devotion to Him. God already knew that Abraham was devoted. Abraham needed to see it. We never really know for sure what we are capable of, how we will react, how tall we will stand or how faithful we will really be until a moment of crisis arrives. We may be able to talk a good talk, put on a good front but when the crisis arrives how we handle it will show our level of faithfulness. So God gives this command so that Abraham will have to examine his heart and decide what his priorities really area.

This is one of the difficult passages of scripture where we question God if we don’t look at this carefully. In some ways it reminds me of the story of the rich young ruler who seemed to have everything. Wealth, youth, power and he came to Jesus and said “Good Master, what I must do to get eternal life?” Jesus said obey the commandments. He says Jesus I’ve done that. He says well one more thing. Sell everything you have, give the money to the poor and come and follow me. Scripture says he then became sad because he had a lot of money.

There are plenty of people who come to Christ in the New Testament who were never required to give away everything they had. That’s why I think this was simply a test. The rich young ruler, if he had passed the test would know that he truly had a heart for God. If he said OK I can picture Jesus saying... you passed the test. Keep it. And I believe that is what we see here with Abraham. Would God really want him to sacrifice his son to prove his faithfulness. I don’t think so but he would want to see if He is willing. You see Abraham was really being asked a critical question and here it is ... “Do you love Isaac more than you love me?” Now God doesn’t want us to love our children less than we already do, he just wants us to love Him more.

There is a principle we must remember: Our love for God must take priority over our love for other people, even our family. We are to love God more than anything or anyone.

Gary Ezzo says that one of the problems with families today is that the husband and wife join hands to forma a family circle and then a child comes along and they placed the child in the center with the husband and wife still forming the circle. But now everything revolves around the child. Then a 2nd child comes and that child is also placed in the circle. And now everything revolves around two children. And as the family becomes larger the center becomes so big that the hands of the father and mother are pulled apart and the circle is broken. He says that what we must do is form the circle but with Christ in the center. Then as each child is born, they join hands with Mom and dad to make the circle bigger. And the result is that the circle is never broken as long as Christ is the center. Here’s the deal.

Over 40 years ago Dr. James Dobson wrote a book titled Dare to Discipline. Dobson went against what everyone was saying at that time. He dared to say that the Bible teaches that we ought to discipline our children ... this book has now been revised and reissued, updated. It is full of solid advice for parents on discipline. Every parent should read it.

1. The absence of love in a family. It will destroy a child. Perhaps you grew up in a home that was cold, without emotion, and you never felt love there and as a result your spirit, your emotions were damaged.

2. Excessive love can be unhealthy.

1. Over protection. When a child is 1st born the first thing we want to do is to hold them and protect them from all the evil in the world. But we can do it to excess. You see the goal of good parenting is to raise your child to become an adult who can be independent. You release them gradually. When they are old enough we let them ride a bike. They may fall down. They may get bruised, they may get a bump or two but it’s OK. When they’re old enough we let them go to summer camp, get a part time job, a driver’s license and date. Allow your child to grow up.

2. Over indulgence. Giving your child too much. It’s interesting that I see this in parents who have wealth, have plenty to give but I also see it in parents who really don’t have it. Parents who will almost do without food so their child can have an ipod. One of the important jobs of parents is to teach our children that there are more important things in life than just material things. If we constantly give them everything they want-if they have every toy, all the designer clothes, go anyplace they wish-they will never learn the value of things.

3. Being too permissive. The world’s philosophy says that you just love your child and eventually they will do the right thing. But you see this leaves out one very important ingredient. The sin nature of man. All of us have a sin nature. Young children can be sweet and innocent but if they are left free to choose eventually they will make wrong choices. You don’t have to tell them how to do the wrong thing. Children in fact will never know the difference between right and wrong unless you teach them. Just ask an educator today what his or her biggest problem is and they will tell you it is a lack of discipline.

4. Over activity. John Rossman says we have created a “frantic family syndrome” We think our kids need to be involved in virtually everything. They have music lessons, dance lessons, t-ball, soccer, karate, scouting and then we wonder why they never have time to get their homework done and why they never have time to participate in church activities and we feel like we are neglecting them if we don’t let them do everything. Listen if you have children you need to schedule at least 5 meals every week where all of the family sits down together. No phones allowed. No texting at the table. No interruptions. You look each other in the eye and you actually talk.

The story has a much better ending than the beginning. When you read it for the first time you gasp at what you think is about to happen. But Abraham passes the test.

God was telling Abraham that he would always keep His promise to him since he had done what God told him to do. His promise is the same to us. Raise your children in the Lord and God will bless their families. You probably can see the similarity in this passage and what God did when he actually did sacrifice his son on the cross. We see Isaac carrying the wood up the hill to be sacrificed and we cannot help but see Jesus carrying the wooden cross up to Mt . Calvary. We see Isaac being laid won on the altar and we see Jesus being laid on the cross. But there is one difference. When the knife was about to fall on Abraham God shouted stop! When the hammers came down to put the nails in the hands and feet of Jesus there was no voice from heaven. God’s son died for you and me right then. As a result we have a new promise ... the promise of eternal life. This morning if you have never received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior I want to invite you to do so.

Father Abraham, often referred to as the father of our faith, grew up as one of three ordinary sons of Terah (eighth generation descendant of Noah's son, Shem). His parents named him Abram and when he was a young man he married Sarai. It was almost 100 years into their lives when God gave them the names Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 17). Their lives before that moment had prepared them for the historical covenant God made with Abraham making him the father of many nations and promising to be the everlasting God of Abraham and his descendants.

Before that day, Abram and Sarai had made their fair share of notable good and bad choices. Abram's first recorded personal encounter with God happens at age 75, when the Lord tells Abram to leave his home town, his father, and his relatives and go to a land that God will show him. In short, God told Abram to move and he'd tell him where when Abram had already packed up and hit the road with Sarai. Many of God's children since that day have taken great steps of blind faith in response to God's call on their life because of Abram's first example of obedience.

For just a moment, picture your family in this situation: the father of the household says, "God told me that he wants us to move, so we're moving." Certainly, rolling off the tip of someone's tongue is the question, "Where does God want us to go?" Then the father says, "He'll tell us more when we're on our way." Would your family respect this father and begin packing? Probably, most of us would have to admit that our family's story would not follow the pattern of Abram's. Honestly, many of us claim to want great men of faith leading our households, but when it comes to this kind of leadership, we put on the brakes.

Sarai may have always been a wife who trusted her husband's lead (as was customary of the age), but she also saw evidence in Abram's character that unmistakably resulted from his personal encounter with Almighty God. Many of you have had a similar experience yourself and easily recognize the workings of the Holy Spirit when He touches someone's soul. Because the Bible tells us that the Lord spoke to Abram, it's believable to picture Sarai and Abram's departure as one made in an awestruck, compliant demeanor.

God also gave them encouragement.

MAKING MISTAKES AND AMENDS FOR THEM

They arrived in Canaan, God appeared to Abram and told him He was giving this land to his descendants, and Abram built an altar there to honor the Lord. Time passed and a famine drove them to Egypt. When they approached the Egyptian border, Abram's confidence in God had evidently left him because he feared that the Egyptians would kill him and take his beautiful wife; so he lied and said Sarai was his sister. What a mess! Sarai was taken into Pharaoh's harem and Pharaoh gave Abram tons of gifts because of her.

Snapshot this situation into your family: the father of the household brings the family to a place where they can get food, senses that the locals want to kill him and keep his wife; so he lies and says she's his sister. The locals take her for their leader's pleasure and the husband gets a bunch of money and fine gifts. Wow, talk about from hero to zero! How would this likely pan out for your family? Again, probably not like Abram's. This family would likely be heading to divorce court and the head of this household would never be trusted again!

Abram's focus turned from God to his circumstances. He made terrible choices out of fear and selfishness that jeopardized his family. However, because God is faithful and true, He did not allow this to be the end of their story. The Lord had promised Abram that he would make him into a great nation. He brought a plague on Pharoah and his household. Pharoah somehow figured out that the plague was related to taking in Sarai, confronted and scolded Abram for lying, took back the gifts, and sent them out of Egypt.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Abram and Sarai knowing that the Lord had promised Abram a son and since it hadn't happened in their timing, Sarai had the bright idea for Abram to take her servant, Hagar, as an additional wife to bear him a son. What another mess! Hagar gets pregnant. She and Sarai become bitter enemies. Hagar has a son, Ishmael, when Abram is 86-years-old.

Now we have enough history on this family to label them dysfunctional by our modern standards. Would you say that you would like to have a father like Abraham? You just might have one. He's the dad who has heard from the Lord, answered the call, made mistakes, returned to the altar, made more mistakes, all the while trusting that God will keep his promise to love him with God's covenant love.

Hopefully, this puts fathers and their families at ease; remembering that Father Abraham - the father of our faith - made plenty of poor choices along with his good ones. No one is perfect but Almighty God. His anointed men, the prophets of old, King David, all made mistakes. Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh, was without sin. But, mankind is sinful! For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard

When you think of your earthly father, you may have such great love and respect for him that you've put him on a pedestal. He may indeed be worthy of your respect, but he's an ordinary man. If he loves the Lord, he would much rather you put Jesus on the pedestal and let him stand shoulder to shoulder with you as humble servants of the Lord.

Families can be messy! Your earthly father may have been distant or unkind. You may not even know him. You may have resentment towards him. Maybe he didn't live up to your expectations. Wherever pain lingers in your soul over your dad, you can be sure that our heavenly Father cares deeply for you and longs to show you His truth and love. It's pure and everlasting.