Faith and Life Lessons in Genesis, Part 11: Waiting, Faith, Obedience, Blessings

Heavenly Father we praise you because in Christ Jesus we have new life you give us new life for all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved and in that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ we are now reconciled to you and able to have that relationship with you that we were created for father to walk with you to live for you to to have a life now that is set on the right trajectory to have a life of meaning of purpose to live our lives for your glory father you have called us to far more than most of us dare imagine and by that father I know we're not talking about prosperity or this that or the other but father you have called us to live our lives fully alive with you and for your glory and not just to settle for the external forms of religion God raised all things that we stuff in our head but that are somehow separated from or divorced from our everyday life father Jesus Christ is to be our life so ask him pray Lord as we look at your word and your spirit would take your word and open our eyes and I pray that you would help us to leave here today changed in Jesus name Amen it's good to see this Labor Day weekend glad this year here I'm just so we're going to start off actually with a quote from dr. Tony Evans that really grabbed me and it fits perfectly with him what we're actually talking about as we look at Abram who is now who yes it took a while right but we're there dr. Evans said this I want you please write this is worth writing down this is good stuff right information without right action is wasting everybody's time hear that again right information we're talking about knowing things up here about God right information stuffed up here in your noggin right without right action in other words it doesn't believe me to do anything that's wasting everybody's time faith believes faith trusts faith acts faith is willing to wait faith trust God but faith trust the Word of God faith trust the timing of God faith trust the power of God faith trusts and when that happens it's useful to everyone but if all we do is stuff information here and we justify compartmentalizing in which we all do in various ways here how we live how we relate to one another how we act so on so forth it's useless does that make sense we could probably stop right there and meditate on that and maybe we should our culture our world does not need simply more theological information I think the ology is very important don't get me wrong I am very serious about that but if all that ever happens is that we accumulate stuff up here and it does not change what's going on here and in here it's useless or as James might say faith without works is dead a few questions and these are obviously things that we have to answer privately but observation I believe that over the years that I have seen and/or heard through various means various ways raised conversations so much to the point what I think yeah I'm pretty sure there's a pattern so many professing Christians don't have many stories of God working in their lives right now for a few reasons one their faith has stopped growing they have settled for what's up here it's not sunk into here it's not sunken into relationships it's not sunk into action so their faith stops growing well my face stop growing whoa I would just encourage you go back to here first get plugged in amongst the people of God you're saving new community spend time in prayer and just see what happens how the Lord might renew your faith some people don't have any stories or about adventures about the things that God is doing in their life because they're maybe you can identify impatient impatient you ever get impatient with God I waited patiently for the Lord he inclined and he heard my cry he lifted me out of the miry clay and he set my feet on a solid rock and he put a new song in my mouth is what the psalmist says in Psalm 40 but that requires waiting patiently on the Lord some of us don't have these stories these adventures these these things where we said well this is what God has done in my life this is what he's doing and I would ask you right now what is he doing in your life right now not what he did when you were a child not what he did ten years ago five years ago one year what's he doing now and for a lot of us that that stresses us because we don't want to be asked that question because if truth be told were saying I don't know because we're just really not spending much time with God we're not falling by faith we're not walking with him our stories were all things from way back when we get impatient with God so we get frustrated with God God you're not coming through the way I want you to win I want you to how I want you to so now I'm angry you won't put your fit we're coming you're a kid and you ever pitch a fit in the grocery store line I like when you can say things and people laugh because like I know some of you are very compliant children god bless you and so you're thinking no I didn't do that I guarantee there's stuff you pitched the fist about somewhere I mean I've been the grocery line man your parents are taking you through the grocery store and everything looking at whatever boring cans of this food this that but then they're so strategic right they place this stuff that kids are gonna want right there at the checkout line where you're all jammed up your part I remember when my kids were small and you're like there's a part of your thinking okay you're trying to teach them and you're wanting to teach them and I didn't want everything she just wanted to experience the touch of everything what would that feel like that feels really cool I mean Titan no no no no no we're not gonna do that Christian on the other hand he'd be the kind of person that would be like he might just slip something in the cart no we're not doing that we put it back we don't need that dad so you may not be a grocery car person but a lot of us treat God that way if we don't get what we want when we want we start getting weird we start trying to manipulate or we throw a fit or so I've heard some of us don't have stories because we stopped growing in our faith or we become impatient some of us have no stories right now in terms of how God is working in our life because we've become somewhat domesticated I am a pupper Church person who goes to church to the proper time does the proper things and therefore tada and we have reduced this whole radical concept of following the Lord Jesus Christ and me simply being an occasional Church person you can be a great churchmen and absolutely not be a follower of Christ I'm not trying to make you mad at me I'm trying for us to be alert right now okay some of our stories have stopped because we've kind of told the Lord you know what I and somebody else's turn yeah there was some pretty cool stuff and I was younger those were pretty wild time but you know I got a family now or I'm older now I'm retired now or I'm getting ready to retire I got a grandkids or I got kids well I've got this and that and the other going on I got schedules and this set and so on so forth and so you know here they are sending them God sends someone else if you're here you and I are so called to follow are you here okay one thing guess what you're still supposed to be following and you know when you stop you keep following until you see him face to face now have you seen are any of you currently I just need to know in heaven right now seeing him face to face you sure okay so I'll make sure we're good on that so we can all say that we're all supposed to be following now right okay good good good just you never want to assume these days you never want to assume we are called to follow to run well to finish well until we see him face to face and sometimes our stories stop because of all the complexities that happens in a fallen and broken world become larger in our life than God self now I know no one here struggles with that I'm sure I'm the only one who at times faces things we were seeing Lord I just don't see how and you freaked out right there's no way God there's no way and then you've got a whole list of things why whatever the issue is it can't be solved it might be family problems might be it might be relational problems with people it might be your work it might be financial needs it might be your health it might be any number of things you're looking at we're saying this is just too big nothing is bigger than God so now that I hope that we're awake I know I'm awake now I've had a lot of coffee so I may talk really fast today review of where we have been because all of this leads up to where we are with Abraham in quick review Abraham is now 99 years old it's been 24 years 24 years older than a lot of you here it's been 24 years since God first called him and made these promises to him 24 years of waiting waiting 24 years that's a lot of your life waiting God shows up and reminds him we saw this last week I am God Almighty nothing is impossible for God all if we believed that man this world would be turned upside down and he calls Abraham to walk with Him in holiness to be obedient Abram fall Abraham falls on his face the worship and God reaffirms this covenant promise in God changes Abraham's name to Abraham from the father of many to the father of multitudes and we saw that God gave Abraham the sign of the Covenant circumcision and we discussed all that that meant and it was a sign that was to point to a greater reality a changed life a new relationship to and with God the sign was not the main thing the sign point is something far greater when we saw how we often ourselves will and prefer signs as opposed to the substance of that which is even greater and now we see at this man and his descendants we're in covenant relationship with a living God those who refuse the sign we're refusing God those who reject the covenant were rejecting Lord and were to be cut off from the community and it's here that our story continues again Abraham is 99 years old has waited some 24 years and you'll remember from last week we talked we discussed whether the purpose of semitic names or the importance of semitic names they're not like our names when you and i name each other or say hi to each other we're not thinking about oh the meaning of john's name and i'm just pointed you out i honestly don't remember the names i don't know the english it means what god is gracious okay so it's the same great so when I look at John I don't go hey God is gracious but guess what in the semitic days they would that that's how you would think in the ancient days whether the semitic peoples so i was so - so here's father of many with no child father of many not with one child now he's a father of multitude with one child multitude so know the name was to know the person's identity their blessing their character and now God is going to change his wife's name Sarai finally becomes Sarah today this is really cool for him because I keep stumbling over the names back and forth like that's gonna probably take two to three weeks for me to reprogram myself to calling them properly after all of this Sarai means my princess and in this context I grew up in all kinds of different things from different scholars in it and I think the general the broad think they could agree at plumb is there probably was a name that was given at Birth some kind of a blessing that's how her parents saw her and our equivalent might be I still see my daughter ISM and my little princess that kind of a thing so something a blessing like that but God's gonna change her name now Sarai at this point still has heard Abraham Abraham talk I did it again talk a lot about God's promises but she hasn't seen how this is gonna involve her she doesn't see how this is actually gonna work with her she is old you know at her age it's it's very logical from our perspective to say yeah I haven't seen many women in the nursing home giving birth I just haven't so how so how right so you don't look at Sara and go Sara you have no faith I think she'd look at us and go are you kidding me you're telling me that you who walk nothing but by sight you're telling me so here's Sara lie and she's trying to figure out she's gonna finish her years she's heard this promise doesn't know how it's gonna work she is my princess which is an honorable name but she lacks one thing that will give her the greatest of Honor in that culture and that was a child but God continues to work in this family to shape and to form them and to call him to themselves to call them to faith to adventure to walk with him to trust him to wait on him we've already seen 24 years of waiting let's look at what happens in chapter 17 verses 15 and 16 and God said to Abraham as for Sarai your wife you shall not call her name Sarai but Sarah shall be her name I will bless her and moreover I will give you a son by her I will bless her and she shall become Nations is that sound familiar it should this is what God has told Abraham write kings of people shall come from her so God's gonna honor Sarah he says you're gonna call her Sarah and now that simply means princess because that's what she's going to be known as no longer my princess as a father and mother might refer to her but princess's name as Titleist fitting from the Lord as declared as such and just as he has said nations will come from you Abram Kings will come from you Abraham the same is going to be true for her and when you put all this together this immediately removes the question that there is any other way this promise is going to be fulfilled unless Sarah personally gives birth to this child of promise and again you look at that you're going that's that's crazy that stuff doesn't happen guess what you know what God's about God is all about that doesn't happen now when you believe that take a little bit of stress off of you but the moment remember we talked in the very beginning of Abraham's story when circumstances or people or things get bigger at our eyes than God that's when the trouble starts I'm gonna ask you this several times in different ways throughout the message today as an application point now some once you start thinking about it now what or what it may be one thing it may be several things are in your mind right now larger then God himself now your Sunday School answers are nothing let me help you find out what that is these are those things that cause you anger or stress or despair to the point when you look at them you just don't see how anything good can come how guy could ever deal with that you'll pray but even when you're praying it's kind of like a lord I'm just praying I known as opposed to but I just I just don't see how anything and change so that's your thing or your things so you think about whatever that thing or things is we all have them but we don't need to keep them matter of fact before we leave today I'm gonna ask that we lay those things down Abraham's response is amazing to me as he is processing all of this look at verse 17 and following Abraham fell on his face and he laughed and he said to himself so it's hobby born to a man who was a hundred years old so Sarah shall Sarah tongue-twister who is 90 years old so she bear a child so you pictured this in Hanna's on his face and he's he's Allah happening he's saying to himself he's overwhelmed how could this be I mean if this has happens I'll be a hundred she'll be ninety now in Scripture there's a laughter that gets you in trouble with God and that's the laughter of skepticism cynicism mocking the idea that God's gonna do what he says he's gonna do and you find instances of that in Scripture God it's not pleased by that but that's not much happening here we have a couple of clues as far as why one Abraham is on his face he is worshipping - he this is the context this is a laughter that is mingled with joy a relief amazement aw overwhelmed he just like your hide your soul I can't believe this I show that this is gonna be a hundred she's gonna be 90 this is not cynical this is not skeptical this is not mocking this is just overwhelmed by God and so the next question follows when was the last time you were so overwhelmed by God's activity in your life you just fell on your face and whether it was laughed or you cry or you did both or you just hide you're so amazing some of you are saying well that's not my personality type and I granted we all have different personality types some are more emotional than others Bob will simply tell you this when you encounter the presence of the Living God I have never met a person who has truly encountered the spirit the presence of the Living God and remained stoic hello God yes no every single time you'll see it in Scripture and I will tell you personal experience bears that when you encounter the presence of God and you take in all that he is doing as best as your finite mind can grasp it is traumatic it's overwhelming it is so much but it's not one of those yeah that's not my personality types I'm sorry even the most Spock like a person here where he or she to encounter the presence of the Living God right now would be traumatized Abraham is just blown away so I shall be given to me when I'm a hundred and Sarah's ninety we have waited so long and that's the other part of it of all of this we've waited so long a lot of you have waited on things haven't you maybe the salvation of a loved one and we ride to say and I don't want you to embarrass cuz that loved one may be here with you if you've ever agonized and prayed over and waited and waited and waited for someone in your family to come to faith in Christ or to stop playing games of God and is just surrender and you prayed and you prayed and you prayed and you waited and then when that came you just you didn't know what to say you were blown away I would bet that some of you have stories right now you would raise your hand and go man yeah I prayed and I waited in the Lord he took a lot longer than I thought but God came through and I was just so blown away by that some of you about circumstances where you thought well I might it may be a lack of a job or I'm wrestling with my job and and I'm wrestling with how are we gonna make ends meet and I prayed and I prayed and I wait and it seemed like God at the very last minute I think God came through I was at the point I kept wrestling back and forth god you're gonna come through or you're not I'm doing all that you're telling me to do and I'm believing I'm trusting you and I'm and then he comes through and you're just yet you're at a loss for words the people who know their God who walk with their God who learned to trust in him and wait upon him will have stories like this in their lives I'm not saying your life is one continual parting of the Red Sea because the scripture doesn't even paint that idea you will have many trials and troubles but if your stories in terms of the great things that God has done in somewhere way back then well that means there's a relational problem right now are you following are you trusting are you believing when was the last time we often draw a blank because we don't persevere in prayer we don't believe we give in to cynicism we lack faith we don't get we don't wait on God we get angry we get frustrated if God promises something I will tell you this he will do it so here's the next part of the question that I'm asking you to think about those things or that thing in your life that you're wrestling with you might say well could you just like email me a verse no I want you to do something really crazy as a Christian to move from being spoon-fed milk to you go in here and you eat some spiritual meat and you can go open God's Word I'm not we're not I'm not a priest I'm not the mediator between God and man come here to teach to equip to do those things Domenic encourage you to go dig and you go find there are promises given to all believers that are universal okay and what I mean by that is don't take something out of context now if you have a question about context I'll be honest I'd love to help you I sure don't want you taking there's very specific promise given to let's say Elijah in one particular moment saying God does promises to me I was like waxing no that was what he told Elijah but there are universal promises in context for all believers to address those things in our lives I'm gonna ask for you to dig and write those things down and to start praying those and saying Lord you said in your word and I want to trust you but I'm going to tell you this you can't separate that from actually walking with God and that's what we also tend to do - right god I want you to fix me but but I want you to stay out of my business nope he is our life and so as a surrender Lord I'm yours I lay everything all my junk all my stuff all these complexities almost all my stresses everything here and I ask you to please create in me a new and a clean heart give me clean hands and a clean heart and Lord I want to I want to build my life on your ward on your promises and so Lord I'm gonna our praying and just trusting in you and I will wait upon you God what are you willing to do that we're talking at this point 24 years at Abraham and Sarah's life how long will you wait will you wait anyway 24 minutes will you wait maybe 24 hours will you wait maybe a few months in 24 years we are very impatient people here life moves at a very rapid pace we have to get 99 things done before noon right I mean a lot of time for those that don't patience is a virtue matter of fact patience is required for our faith to grow verse 18 look at what Abraham says and it's a very interesting response this is not a lack of faith this is something else as really miss actually it's very very beautiful Abraham said to God oh that Ishmael might live before you while he's wrestling with all this you might see what wait a minute is he suddenly like like doubting or wanting to change that we know what this is I want you to think with me Abraham is is human okay Ishmael his only son he's 13 years old he loves his son he's asking something really interesting you know I'll tell you there's no doubt Ishmael if you were in your youth group he'd be a handful I mean he remember when Hagar was pregnant with him he will be a wild donkey of a man his hand against everyone this kid was a handful I'm guessing but Abraham loves him just like you fathers I pray love your children and so he's he's asking after all these years of waiting and now he has this sign him for 13 years he's had this father-son relationship and and he has honor and he loves his son this is a request for Ishmael to be given a special place of promise could Ishmael receive the the same kind of blessing that God has promised here that's why he's asking and God answers Abraham and I want you to notice the graciousness God said no but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him as for Ishmael I've heard you behold I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly he shall father twelve Prince's and I will make him into a great nation but I will establish my establish my covenant with Isaac whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year oh we're on the clock here we go a few things about what we just read first know this smile is not the child of promise this child of promise is going to come from the union of you and Sarah and you're gonna have this other son and you're gonna name him Isaac and that means he will laugh then as a double meaning of source both Abraham and Sarah will laugh before it's all said and done and no doubt there would be great laughter and joy as they look this 100 year old man in this 90 year old woman at this child how improbable that was and God says of Isaac he will establish his covenant with him and with his offspring in other words the covenants gonna go the line of Abraham and Isaac and to his descendants but as for Ishmael he's not forgetting Ishmael God said I will bless him as well he's not going to be in this covenant aligned but you'll notice something if you're paying attention in verse 20 when the Lord talks to Abraham and he talks about Sarah and he talks about multitudes coming from him he also says Kings you notice you notice that will come from your line do you notice the difference here princes as for Ishmael I have heard you behold I have blessed him I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly he shall father twelve princes and I will make him into a great nation a great people in other words Abram Abraham I've heard your desire I understand your father's heart but I have chosen to bless Ishmael and he will be fruitful as well so if you're Abraham soaking all of this in you're thinking oh my all of my life father many father many who has no child then I have one child and now the sudden I hear this with my wife now we're hearing a multitudes and multitudes coming from both of these lines it had to be mind-boggling this is he will father twelve Prince's PRI NCES I didn't articulate that well princes will come from Ishmael these are also Semitic peoples largely the Arab desert dwellers this is not a direct reference to the house of Islam Islam does not come into being until seven centuries after Christianity now are most of the sons of Ishmael today Muslim yes but let me just affirm to you again because I think it always bears repeating the Lord Jesus died for the children of Ishmael at all and when you look at how it all ends you can do that in Revelation for the Lord will redeem for himself people from every nation tribe and tongue there are people who are practicing Muslims now who will become followers of Christ soon there are people all around the world in fact in a house of Islam who are turning to Christianity and the really amazing part about that is if you're familiar with what's going on with our missionaries overseas in places where a lot of our missionaries can't quite go into these restricted countries is that the Lord says you know what the government may prevent me from you guys from sending people in the military may be able to prevent you but Noah stops me from doing what I want so he is appearing to Muslims and visions I am ISA I am Jesus Christ I am the son of God I am Savior this is happening now let me just tell you something when God wants to do something he does it you either get on board with him and you follow more you get out of the way because he's gonna accomplish his purposes he will redeem for himself people from every nation tribe and tongue and just a throw one more monkey in the wrench God has bought Muslims here yeah but you know and I don't know if I feel comfortable talking to Muslims are coming to faith here you ever stop to think that God has brought some here so that they might encounter the gospel here we had my wife and I had dinner with a missionary on Friday and I was awesome and she was so much she's at the gym and she was talking I was laying I thought yeah that's the kind of person I love hanging out with she's like yeah I'm at the gym and I'm working out and Jen I'm running on a treadmill and she goes and there's this lady and and this the person who is sharing with this is real vibrant person and she said and I guess the lady was wearing a colorful kind of like a workout hijab or whatever those right so all her eyes is always showing and she's running and she's running running you know and she's like wow how was she I would be so sweaty and just miserable I'm dying in my gym shorts in my t-shirt you know that's ladies gotta be and still the lady gets off and she says she walked over and she introduced herself and she said oh I'm so I started talking give her a hug that guess what they're doing and now they're talking about Jesus she go figure they're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ because she just my faith just took a walk across the room and I only bring I'm kind of camping out here because I think a lot of us need to get past that yes our government needs to deal with any military threat that's the government's job romans 14 the christians you and I are called to do something radical make disciples of all the peoples and maybe your Muslim neighbor your Muslim co-worker would you at least pray about it would you pray for them these sons and daughters of Ishmael need to know the Lord Jesus Christ if you want to see a transform people you let the Lord Jesus loose amongst them verse 21 I will establish my covenant with Isaac whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year a very specific redemptive plan is unfolding it's a covenant with Abraham and his seed Isaac and God tells Abraham this time next year you're gonna have a son the son of promise that will mean 25 total years of waiting but now that time is drawing near so you can imagine the excitement the wonder the magnitude so now we come back to this central idea again I would ask you what you're saying 25 years man a hundred years old and 90 years old that's crazy well so is being swallowed up as we have talked about by a great fish and vomited up on the shore and saying now go preach God is the God for whom nothing is impossible because He is God all I've seen it some of you have seen it I don't mean I've been vomited personally up on a shore but I have seen God do things that I have no explanation for because he's got other than that's God your story your thing your things that are bigger than God the things that are are doing this or or or have you in that despair may I mean I encourage you mean I challenge you to consider here is Abraham and Sarah after waiting 25 years a hundred year old ninety nine year old nine year old brother and God says yes she's gonna have a child and I'm gonna take care of it cuz God specializes in this kind of stuff guess why because when he comes through guess who gets all the glory God there's no way that Abraham and Sarah can say oh yeah you know we've been eating correctly and yeah I'm taking good care of ourselves it's impossible a hundred and ninety the only explanation is God and the same goes for whatever those things are or that thing is in your life right now that you may be saying is too big for God can you just give it to him it might be your past some of you were wrestling with things from the past that of her so very much or you messed up so badly and your can imagine of God's so big who would forgive you may I tell you this God's grace is greater than all your sin you see you got our very real enemy and he loves to whisper lies and his whole purpose is to he can't if you're if you're as God's child you can't take your salvation what he wants to do is to paralyze you so some of us are paralyzed by circumstances some of us are paralyzed by people some of you are paralyzed by the past can you give these things to God because he's greater and bigger than all of them leave here changed leave here changed he's so big and he's so great that God the Son lays down his life to pay the penalty for our sins on the cross and that sacrifice so sufficient that it completely covers all of my sin shame and guilt that sacrificed so glorious the Christ cries out it is finished he does not need my help and I am pronounced justified not because of anything that I've done but because of what he has done his righteousness imputed to my account applied to my account I am justified by grace through faith in the Almighty Son of God who saves me not so I can sit soaking sour but he says denier so take it because I'm follow to follow him to live for him to walk with Him I want to be with you on those great adventures but we're following the Lord Jesus saying yeah and we're encouraging each other along the way to do just that because the other reason some of us have stopped with our adventures and stop with the story so to speak or we get stuck sometimes it's the circumstances are bigger in our eyes and God sometimes it's people sometimes it's the past sometimes it's for a lack of encouragement in other words people speaking grace and truth into you gonna step out in faith you know what happens a lot in church someone's supposed to get excited about Jesus they started get ready to go do stuff and want to befall whatever it is Jesus is like walk back in line you're making us look bad don't do that or you hear this really weird thing now they're young in their faith they'll settle down sooner or later okay Wow this passage verse please where is that we should be Fanning into flame the gift the Lord has given us and we should be encouraging each other along the way not playing spiritual whack-a-mole let's go this is not all there is two out there out there the fields are ready for harvest me they're ripe let's come together let's talk about it no let's pray let's go let's calm let's get recharged let's go let's come back get refreshed let's fellowship let's go but it's scary but it's hard my mind yeah but he's greater I think some people's stories stop because they think Christianity simply is meant to be boring and it's not we've made it that we're gonna close by looking at what Abraham does next which is actually really a very vivid thing to try to imagine but it ties in with faith faith leads to obedience again going back to that that quote that I wrote down when I heard write information without right action is wasting everybody's time well Baberaham has got information see how things go verse 22 and following when he had finished talking with him God went up form Abraham then Abraham took his smile his son and all those born in the house are bought with his money every male among the men of Abraham's house and he's circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day as God had said to him Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin and Ishmael his son was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin that very day Abraham and Ishmael were circumcised and all the men of his house those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him God goes up this is the theophany the presence of the Lord goes up and leaves Abraham there now with all that he knows that he is to do but now Abraham has to act and he doesn't delay it says that day that day can you imagine this announcement we know of Abraham when he's called out of Earth at he already had many many men men who worked for him who wore his he leaves Egypt with even more men and now Abraham goes to them and he has to say something along the lines of this God has made a covenant with me this is what we are to do to obey Him and I am going to obey Him and this has implications for every one of you so every male in the camp including himself and his 13 year old sons circumcised set apart to the Lord on that day if you look at it I don't think that's an announcement this may where people like okay all right first I would imagine there was a measure of tension and even the possibility of a little bit of rebellion but Abraham is locked in this is what the Lord has told me I must do I will be obedient and so he makes the announcement and God takes care of all of those potential really upset men and makes everything work out just fine and on that day by the end of the night rather there was not one male in that camp who had not been circumcised so now that we've ended the chapter we're gonna close in the last minute with our synopsis wrapping up the key points that we need to act on today one what's impossible for though I'm just gonna ask some of these inform question what is impossible for the Lord God Almighty and just believe that to God's timing is not our oh we struggled there God's timing is not our yeah yeah it's not sometimes he delays so that there can be this one glorious explanation this is what the Living God has done so you hang on to that three in that delaying he is also working in our lives as shape to teach to mold us and to sanctify us even the waiting has a purpose can you embrace that and rest in it for God calls us into covenant relationship and he takes that relationship very seriously this is not just some kind some kind of a contract because five in this case within the confines of that covenant relationship he calls us to walk in holiness to be set apart to trust him to believe him six God is faithful God is faithful God is faithful to keep his promises seven God is absolutely faithful even when we blow it because we're going to see while you're looking at Abraham not going wow this guy's really got it man he's rolling he's gonna blow it spectacularly pretty soon just like us I am so blessed and I pray that you are to to realize that my salvation is not dependent upon me being perfect enough for God to say yeah I'll keep you he's faithful always faithful eight for those who wait on the Lord while there may be trials and testing for those who wait on the Lord there will be times of awe wonder laughter and joy nine all of these promises are ultimately fulfilled through Christ if you are a born-again Christian you are heirs of that promise that was given to Abraham his offspring through faith in Christ Jesus Christ is your only way to have relationship with the Father my only way we are sons and daughters of a Living God by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ we are sons and daughters of Abraham and Sarah through Christ galatians 3 6 through 9 just as abraham believed god and it was counted to him as righteousness know then that it is those who are of faith faith in Christ who are the sons of Abraham it's not your ethnicity it's not your background it's not any of that it is those who have been born again and the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying in you shall all the nations be blessed Christ is the fulfillment of that and if you are his child you are one of the multitudes that was promised to Abraham so very long ago so we're going to bow we're going to pray I'm going to ask you one last time as we approach this time what do you need to lay at the feet of the Lord today the Lord God Almighty what scripture promises are you going and yet what are you going to need to do to dig in the scriptures to find those things that relate to those things you're wrestling with and what are you going to do in terms of being either all-in in terms of your walk with Him or will you continue to waffle or waver back and forth between two things because all of these missus talk about us praying and about us waiting on the Lord definitely means that we are actually walking with him in relationship so so where are you today one if you've never trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior this is where it has to start because if you have not yet done that you can search through the Scriptures all you want and start just saying oh yeah here's a promise that was given to two people but if you've not yet been born again this isn't apply to you okay you must be born again that's the first thing so if you've not yet given your life to Christ today when we stand and sing can you be so courageous as to leave where you're standing and just to come forward and say yeah I want to give on life of Jesus we'll set up a time to meet we'll pray yes let's talk about that if you're looking for a church home and you and you believe this is where the Lord wants you to plant yourself to to be on mission with this community you can come forward and say yeah I want to plant myself here or we want to plant ourselves here and we'll set up a time to talk about that or maybe you just want to come up here and either rededicate your life or just come up here and pray and say Lord I'm gonna lay these things down you're the Lord God Almighty right now it doesn't feel like I know I can't see it I don't know how sin will work out but I'm gonna trust you I'm gonna trust you however you need to respond you do so maybe it is we need to do that for our church this is respondent's the Lord may lead father I thank you for your Ward and I thank you Father that because we as we walked through your word father from Genesis to Revelation we we don't see a puny God who is limited whether we see a God who is beyond our wildest imaginations who is sovereign over all things that God who holds all things together a God who spoke all things together a God who formed every single person here in their mother's womb a God who loves so much that God the son comes to lay down his life to save as a God who was able to redeem us and make the spiritually dead spiritually alive a God who says if you will follow me and trust me not only is your present change but your eternity is secure Lord you've promised us many trials and troubles in this world we know that but you've also said that we were to take heart because you have overcome the world well this is where the intersection of faith and doubt is for so much of us or so many of us are struggling again it may be people circumstances things that pass whatever it may be and some of us today just need to lay that down and say Lord Here I am you are God and I am NOT in their grace as you give I want to trust you I'm tired of carrying around things that I cannot control although I just pray that as we have our time of invitation that we would each respond to you as you lead and I pray this in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Stonebridge Media

Views: 32

Rating: 0 out of 5

Keywords: Faith and Life Lessons in Genesis, Part 11: Waiting, Faith, Obedience, Blessings, Genesis 17:15-27, September 2 2018, Dr. Kevin Prather, Stonebridge Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas, 78253, Worship Service, Sermon, www.stonebridgesa.com, StoneBridgeSA

Id: -i2PckYLkFY

Length: 51min 2sec (3062 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 03 2018