Sheryl Brady - Retrace to the Place of the Altar

On your way down, touch somebody and tell them to retrace to the place of the altar. I want to give a big shout-out to all of the people who served last Sunday. We had an amazing Easter service, and I want to say thank you to all of you because we could not have done that without you, especially to the parking lot team for getting everybody on and off the property. That was excellent, and I am grateful for all of you who have served. After the fall of Adam and Eve and after the floods of Noah’s day, God erected a plan to redeem the entire world. Yes, His choice to lead the people toward that redemptive plan was a man we know by the name of Abram. We just read about him today; we know him actually as Abraham, but he was born Abram. At a very critical point in his life story, God changed his name. For the first 99 years of his 175 years on earth, he answered to the name of Abram. Abram was just an ordinary member of society; he was no different from those who were his neighbors or his family. As a matter of fact, like his relatives and neighbors, he worshipped idols; he was into idolatry. Yes, this is Abraham; he worshipped idols and accepted mythology as truth. Yet it was to Abram, this sinful, superstitious idol worshipper, that God appeared and said to him, «Leave your country, leave your kindred, leave your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you.» He made promises to him in Genesis 12 about the things He was going to do in his life, and because you and I are the seed of Abraham, those promises in Genesis 12 also belong to us. It would do us all good to read that every now and then so that we would know the blessings of Abraham that God has appropriated for all of us. He made promises like, «I will make you a great nation.» Never mind that he hadn’t even had a son at that point, but God said, «See if I won’t bring a nation out of you.» He then continues, «I will bless you. I will not only bless you but bless you to be a blessing.» So, I am going to bless you so much that you will have to be a blessing to somebody else. Then He goes on and says, «I will bless those who decide to bless you.» He continues, «I will curse those who try to curse you, for through you, all families of the earth will be blessed.» Why Abram? Why did God pick him? Look at somebody and tell them, «It was just grace.» It was just grace, the grace of God. He did nothing to earn it; he did nothing to deserve it, and only Heaven knows why God chose Abraham. God simply wanted to use him; He appeared to him. He was chosen out of the crowd by God, and because he was chosen by God, he believed God. As a result of the relationship he had with God, he became someone to whom God would reveal His secrets. God had secrets, and He would not reveal them to everybody but would reveal them to Abraham. He became someone whom God Himself would turn around and say, «He’s not just Abram, he’s not just Abraham; he is My friend. I am the friend of Abraham.» He was one of the first great intercessors of the Bible. How many of you here know what I mean when I say intercessors? Yes, you know that God has called you to intercede; you know that your prayers make a difference. You know that when you pray, you step in between destruction and calamity and hold things at bay. It’s intercession. He was one of the first in the Bible, and because of his prayer life, it enabled him to know God. People who pray know God in a profound way. It enabled him to know God, and knowing God is what gave him the faith to step out and believe. Abraham was a man who had many great promises, but he also had many great convictions and principles that he lived by. He was also a man who was very wealthy, and yet his hope was never in the promises; his hope was in the Promiser. Here’s what I want you to understand today: I know that many people fall in love with the promise but fail to develop a relationship with the Promiser. The Promiser is so much greater than the promise that if you’re going to grab hold of anything I just said, let go of the promise and grab the Promiser. If you get Him, you get it all! I said if you get Him, you will get it all. He also said that if you will keep your mind stayed on Me, I will keep you in perfect peace. Abraham was greatly blessed by God, but he taught us that as long as we cling…