"How many times do I have to tell you?"

Dear Friends in Christ,

The word of God that engages us this morning is from the Old Testament previously read. Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16.

            Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I think I’ve said it a hundred times. Maybe two hundred times. Maybe I’ve said it four bazillion times. I don’t remember exactly how many times I have said it, but in a few seconds, I’m going to say it again. When you go fishing, NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER reel your bait all the way up to the tip of your fishing pole. Here I go again, NEVER EVER reel your bait all the way up to the tip of your fishing pole.

            Why do I tell you this? Because one of these days, and maybe today is the day, someone is going to listen to me.

This past summer I went camping in northern Minnesota with a group of friends. And before we went up there, I told my friend Dennis, who had never been fishing before, “Dennis, I’ll help you catch some fish while were up in Minnesota. Just keep this one thing in mind. NEVER reel your bait all the way to the tip of your pole.”

            So, three days into our camping trip, Dennis and I are fishing on a lake called Lac La Croix, and Dennis makes a beautiful cast with a white spinnerbait I lent him, and bless his heart, he stopped reeling before the bait slammed into the tip of his pole. But then the unexpected happened. Out of the depths came a northern pike and it latched onto the white spinnerbait. And you’ll never guess what Dennis did next. In a panic, Dennis reeled the bait, fish and all, right to the tip of his pole. And with a single wave of its mighty tail, that northern pike decided it was time to go. And before you could blink the line snapped and away swam the big fish, with my $2 bait still stuck in its mouth never to be seen again.

            Today when I look back on that situation…I laugh. But at the time…at the time I reacted much differently. Ignoring the serenity of a calm lake with the sun shining in the remote lands of northern Minnesota, I had one thing to say to Dennis, and I said it very loudly, “Dennis! How many times do I have to tell you? Do NOT reel your bait to the tip of your fishing pole.”

            “How many times do I have to tell you?” *slide* We’ve all said it. Spouses say it to each other. Bosses say it to their employers. Teachers say it to their students. Parents say it to their children. And if you read between the lines, God says it to Abraham in today’s Old Testament text. Today’s Old Testament reading sounds like God is on a broken record. In seven verses, God says the same thing to Abraham seven times.

1.      Verse 2: that I may multiply you greatly.

2.      Verse 4: you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

3.      Verse 5: I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

4.      Verse 6: I will make you exceedingly fruitful.

5.      Verse 6: I will make you into nations.

6.      Verse 7: I will establish my covenant between you and your offspring throughout generations!

7.      Verse 16: I will bless [Sarah] and she shall become nations.

God has promised to give Abraham lots and lots of offspring. And this wasn’t the only time God had made this promise. In Genesis 12:2 God says, “I will make of you [Abraham] a great nation. And again in chapter 15:5 God says, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. So shall your offspring be.” After chapter 12 and chapter 15 and the many verses in chapter 17, you can almost hear God screaming, “How many times do I have to tell you!?”  And yet Abraham still doubted him. In fact, the very next verse after God promises to make Sarah into nations, Abraham falls on his face and laughs. What a preposterous idea! God, you can’t be serious, I am 100 years old! Abraham says. But God is serious, and within the year, Abraham is the proud father of a healthy baby boy named Isaac, whose name, ironically, means, “he laughs.”

And that’s when it sinks in for Abraham. Because it’s hard to deny God’s promises when you’re holding the promise of God in your arms.

What promises has God made for us? He certainly hasn’t promised to make us into nations like he promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He hasn’t promised us wealth beyond measure and wisdom beyond comparison like he did for Solomon. He hasn’t promised us victory over our earthly enemies like he did for Gideon. So where do we hear God say, “How many times do I have to tell you?”

We hear it concerning the judgment. Over and over again we hear about the Last Great Day of the Lord. We hear about the second coming of Christ. And on that day there will be a judgment, and in Daniel 12:2 we read, “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt” There will be punishment.

The gospel writer Matthew likes to talk about a “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” In Matthew 8:12 he says, “But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And again in Matthew 13:42, “They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be a weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And again in Matthew 13:50, And throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And again in Matthew 22:13, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ And again in Matthew 24:51, “He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” And finally, Matthew 25:30, “And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

This righteous judgment and punishment on the evil doer is a real place. And it’s not something you want to be a part of. Unfortunately, if statistics are true, eight out of our ten children will lose Jesus Christ before they graduate from college. And when Jesus Christ returns, if your child is one of those who have lost Jesus Christ from their lives, you will witness your child roughly tossed into a lake of burning sulfur where there will be a weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And we act a lot like Abraham. After hearing the Lord tell us over and over and over again, that unbelief will send us to hell, we still doubt. We laugh. What a preposterous idea! What a silly notion, that God, who is loving and kind, would send someone, or ANYONE into that place. Yet, when that time comes, there will be no laughing. On that Last Day it will finally sink in. God was serious, and sadly, at that point, there are no second chances.

Thankfully, God was not satisfied by just telling us of this place we call hell. He also provided us with a means to avoid it. All throughout the Old Testament you can read the messianic promises; those promises of a coming savior who will rescue his people from their sins.

The Israelites grew tired of waiting on God to deliver this messiah, this savior. They waited and waited and waited and waited. And while they were waiting, God kept telling them, ‘He’s coming…he’s coming…he’s coming.” Until that first Christmas morning, when he finally arrived. The promised savior arrived and his birth was proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds.

The shepherds talked about it. The wise men talked about it. The disciples talked about it. Lepers talked about it. The sick and the blind talked about it. Tax-collectors and prostitutes talked about it. Jesus himself talked about it. And he was killed for talking about it. He was crucified. He was pinned to a tree, and while he was on that tree he suffered hell itself. Jesus Christ took your sins, and my sins and all the sins of the world, and he suffered the pain for each one. He suffered that place of weeping and gnashing teeth.

And then he emerged victorious. Jesus was not confined to the depths of hell for all eternity. He rose again from the dead and spoke first to the women at the tomb, commanding them to tell the disciples to meet him in Galilee. And they do, and while they are there Jesus says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.”  Jesus knew that telling people about his promise to be the savior was the most important thing anyone could do, because only by faith in Jesus are we able to avoid that place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.

And so here we are. Thousands of years later and we’ve never stopped talking about it. And yet people still don’t believe it. We tell them as kids, we tell them through movies, we tell them through dramas, we tell them through songs, we tell them through sermons, we tell them through books and newspapers, and STILL they don’t believe. We go to their houses, we talk about it at work, we invite them to hear it from others who may be able to explain it to them in clearer language and STILL they don’t believe. Until finally, we throw our hands up in the air and we shout, “How many times do I have to tell you?”

            I think I’ve said it a hundred times. Maybe two hundred times. Maybe I’ve said it four bazillion times. I don’t remember exactly how many times I have said it, but in a few seconds, I’m going to say it again. Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life, NO ONE, I repeat, NO ONE escapes the torments of hell, except through him. Here I go again. Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life, NO ONE, escapes the torments of hell, except through him.

Amen.