SPEAKER_00: Well, this morning we turn again to we've been looking at the life of Abraham, a man of faith, over the past several weeks now.
SPEAKER_00: For those of you who are new to us this morning, we've been looking at this man who walked with God.
SPEAKER_00: And we're reminded that faith comes through hearing.
SPEAKER_00: Just as it did to Abraham, it comes to us through his word.
SPEAKER_00: And so we turn once again with me to Genesis 15, 1 through 21.
SPEAKER_00: Here now the reading of God's holy word.
SPEAKER_00: After these things the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision.
SPEAKER_00: But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me?
SPEAKER_00: For I continue childless, and the ear of my house is a laser of Damascus.
SPEAKER_00: And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my ear.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, the word of the Lord came to him.
SPEAKER_00: This man shall not be your ear, your very own son shall be your ear.
SPEAKER_00: And he brought him outside, and he said, Look toward heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be.
SPEAKER_00: And he believed the Lord, and he counted to him as righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to him, I am the law Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, Our Lord God, how am I to know that I should possess it?
SPEAKER_00: He said to him, Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.
SPEAKER_00: And he bought him all these, cut them in half, and laid them half over against the other.
SPEAKER_00: But he did not cut the birds in half.
SPEAKER_00: And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
SPEAKER_00: As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Lord said to Abram, Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.
SPEAKER_00: But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
SPEAKER_00: As for you, you shall go back to your fathers in peace.
SPEAKER_00: You shall be buried in a good old age, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Emorites is not yet complete.
SPEAKER_00: When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the pieces.
SPEAKER_00: On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizites, the Cadmonites, the Hittites, the Pyrrhites, the Riphaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gergeshites, and the Jebuzites.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, would you grow us in our need of you and your word?
SPEAKER_00: Lord, will you strengthen us, we pray this morning as we hear from you in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, so we've seen over the past several weeks that Abraham, who we've been studying, was a man who lived by faith in the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: And at this point, we also ought to have a growing appreciation, at least, that at this point there was a lot of life involved with Abraham that involved waiting.
SPEAKER_00: For many of us, slowing down and waiting can seem like a little bit of a waste of time.
SPEAKER_00: Whether we'll admit it or not.
SPEAKER_00: You know, waiting is hard.
SPEAKER_00: And we only need to think about perhaps purchasing something special for us to realize this tension.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us have had the experience of buying something online that we really want.
SPEAKER_00: And wrestling with a sense of anticipation.
SPEAKER_00: So what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you're anything like me, you have at least considered sending that thing overnight and paying just a little bit extra to have it a little sooner in your grasp.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We want to automatically cut down the time of waiting to narrow and restrict the amount of tension involved in the anticipation of having it in our position.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just when we purchase something, much of life involves waiting, and the challenge remains the same.
SPEAKER_00: But I like what Eugene Peterson writes about waiting.
SPEAKER_00: He says this, he says, waiting does not diminish us any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother.
SPEAKER_00: We are enlarged in the waiting.
SPEAKER_00: To think of the ability to be enlarged as you're called to wait.
SPEAKER_00: But for that to be the case, waiting needs to be understood not as going to sleep or pushing pause on life, but intentionally relying on God.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting on God requires making use of the time under his command until a new command is given.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are very familiar with that kind of waiting in your vocation.
SPEAKER_00: Making use of the time while waiting for new orders, perhaps.
SPEAKER_00: What do we do with that?
SPEAKER_00: You know what that's like.
SPEAKER_00: God uses our time in waiting, our waiting in hope for our benefit.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why faith is very much tied to hope.
SPEAKER_00: However, there is a flip side to this.
SPEAKER_00: The challenge of waiting in the Lord rarely ever goes unopposed.
SPEAKER_00: Someone else has intentions for us in the waiting.
SPEAKER_00: The devil has his own darts.
SPEAKER_00: He has his own purposes to achieve.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as Tom preached on that last week, there is a thief who comes only to steal and have his own purposes.
SPEAKER_00: And so, that being the case, we have a lot that we can learn then about waiting and about Abraham's faith in the waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And I would suggest that there are three basic beliefs that we can hold on to this morning that emerge from this encounter between God and Abraham to strengthen us in our walk as we are called to wait and hope.
SPEAKER_00: And that's that third strand of faith, hope, and love that I want to focus on this morning.
SPEAKER_00: To believe that the love of God pursues.
SPEAKER_00: The second is to believe that the love of God serves.
SPEAKER_00: And the third is to believe that the love of God secures.
SPEAKER_00: And so, first, to believe the love of God pursues.
SPEAKER_00: These words begin in the passage we just read saying, after these things.
SPEAKER_00: And that alerts us to the fact that this is a period of transition.
SPEAKER_00: Something significant had just occurred, and now we're into a new situation.
SPEAKER_00: But the question, of course, is that it raises is what things?
SPEAKER_00: And as Tom preached last week, they refer to Abraham's rescuing of his nephew Lot.
SPEAKER_00: Four kings had come and they had started to draw near to the land of Canaan, and they decided to make a quest into the land and made war with the king of Sodom, where Lot lived.
SPEAKER_00: And so, in response to this threat, five kings, the kings of Sodom, the kings of Gomorrah, the king of Adma, Zebuim, and Bala, they go to battle with them, joining forces.
SPEAKER_00: But in doing so, they're overpowered and defeated, and Lot is taken captive.
SPEAKER_00: This news soon comes to Abram.
SPEAKER_00: And so Abram takes 318 of his trained men, and they go in pursuit of Lot on a mission to take back his nephew.
SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, they defeat them and they reclaim Lot and the positions along with the women and all the others who are held captive.
SPEAKER_00: All of that is a great source of praise.
SPEAKER_00: But it also comes with new problems.
SPEAKER_00: The problem being that now that the dust is settled, now that Abraham has time to perhaps think about what has just taken place, realizes that he has gone from someone wandering in the land of promise, aiming to keep a low profile, to a position where he now has a target on his back.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's in danger and no doubt feels it.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't have to think too long just to imagine how exposed Abraham might feel in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: He knows he has no fortified city walls.
SPEAKER_00: He knows he has no great alliances formed.
SPEAKER_00: He is just a man dwelling in tents.
SPEAKER_00: And so you can imagine how vulnerable and fearful he must have felt as he now comes to terms with the cost of this mission.
SPEAKER_00: And on one hand, we could say, well, these fears are quite normal.
SPEAKER_00: A natural response to fear, to danger, I should say.
SPEAKER_00: Fears alert us to potential dangers.
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to the spiritual life, fears are also often related to our uncertainty and insecurity about what God intends for us and who he is toward us.
SPEAKER_00: And it's into these fears that we read the word of the Lord came to Abram.
SPEAKER_00: A God pursues him.
SPEAKER_00: And he pursues Abram right when and right where he needed it.
SPEAKER_00: Words that speak right to his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Abraham, fear not, I am your shield, your great reward.
SPEAKER_00: Now we can only imagine, as we think about that for a minute, just how wonderful these words would have been to his heart to receive them.
SPEAKER_00: How they must have pricked up his ears and warmed his heart.
SPEAKER_00: Hear God speaking to his fears like that in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what God does.
SPEAKER_00: He is a God who pursues us.
SPEAKER_00: God would have us to be a people of faith, not fear.
SPEAKER_00: And I like what Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Stanley Jones says in speaking to what God would have of us.
SPEAKER_00: He says this, he says, I am inwardly fashioned for faith, not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Fear is not my native land.
SPEAKER_00: Faith is.
SPEAKER_00: Never forget that God, by his spirit, intends to speak into your specific fears.
SPEAKER_00: He knows your name.
SPEAKER_00: And so, since God is determined to be a shield for us, he will protect us from the darts that are thrown to challenge our faith.
SPEAKER_00: We need to believe that, or else our courage will weaken.
SPEAKER_00: And God would have us to be a courageous people who through faith and confidence breathe freely our native ear.
SPEAKER_00: And so I asked this morning, how has God's pursuit met you?
SPEAKER_00: Today it may be as a shield, but tomorrow it might be a door and a green posture.
SPEAKER_00: In the past it may have been as a lamp to give you certainty, or a shepherd to lead you through dangers, or a sovereign king to empower you.
SPEAKER_00: You, like me, have an ocean of needs.
SPEAKER_00: And God in his grace, he comes to us in a thousand ways to pursue us in these needs in order to orient us back to himself as the center of our existence and as our great Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Let's trust the love of God who pursues us.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, let's also believe that his love serves us.
SPEAKER_00: Abram being comforted in his fears with these words goes on because he's still not sure about how the promise would actually come about to fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: He believes in the what, but he doesn't yet have clarity about the how.
SPEAKER_00: And to get a sense of this at this point, we need to remember that ten years or more have passed since he left his land and came to Canaan.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, three successive promises have caused his hopes to soar and anticipating what God was going to do, how he was going to go ahead of him, how he was going to bless him.
SPEAKER_00: But none of them at this point were realized.
SPEAKER_00: Ten years later.
SPEAKER_00: No territory had yet been secured, no sign of a child.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about waiting.
SPEAKER_00: This is a man that had to wait.
SPEAKER_00: And so Abraham, no doubt, having many questions at this point, he asks God in effect, he says, Yes, but how is all this going to play out?
SPEAKER_00: How is this all going to unfold?
SPEAKER_00: It's a pressing question on his heart, no doubt, because the longer that things go on, the harder things it appears that this promise is going to be answered.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Sarah isn't young anymore, his wife.
SPEAKER_00: Things are more complex by the day with having made enemies.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he does have a few possessions, but now he's even aware in this circumstance with his nephew Lot that those possessions could go overnight.
SPEAKER_00: How is all this supposed to pan out?
SPEAKER_00: And so he has questions.
SPEAKER_00: And I found that whenever waiting is involved, it often raises a new set of questions.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because what's clear in God's eyes is not always clear to our own.
SPEAKER_00: But God has his purposes in the waiting as we bring them to him in the spirit of, Lord, I do believe, but help my unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: Richard Hendricks reminds us wisely, he says, second to suffering, waiting may be the greatest teacher and trainer in godliness, maturity and genuine spirituality most of us will ever encounter.
SPEAKER_00: I say that again.
SPEAKER_00: Second to suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting may be the greatest teacher and trainer in godliness, maturity and genuine spirituality most of us will ever encounter.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is important for our formation spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: What is it that we learn in waiting on God?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it's in the waiting that we're given space and time to search our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: We're given time to analyze our motives and our motivations.
SPEAKER_00: We're given time to lean on and trust God's word more ruthlessly.
SPEAKER_00: And in our desperation, to find that God meets us in ways that speak into our hearts deeply.
SPEAKER_00: That's how God uses time in waiting.
SPEAKER_00: That's the power of God working through seasons of waiting.
SPEAKER_00: I know a number of you know this to be true, and particularly in seasons where you've experienced vocational change.
SPEAKER_00: The sense of, Lord, what do you want to do as I wait and I consider what you might have for me?
SPEAKER_00: Searching, analyzing, testing the Word of God, being met in ways that warm our hearts and encourage us as we anticipate and wait for his blessings on the horizon to be realized.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to be clear here that God's delays are not denials.
SPEAKER_00: You may have asked something of God.
SPEAKER_00: You may receive a delay on that answer.
SPEAKER_00: What we need to be clear about is his delays are not denials.
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to wait with open eyes and a trusting heart, however long his blessings may take to arrive?
SPEAKER_00: Are you willing to be shaped by patiently waiting in hope?
SPEAKER_00: That's the question.
SPEAKER_00: And I can only imagine how Abram's soul must have been given new wonder as God revealed even greater richness to him through this promise.
SPEAKER_00: As he unfolded more of this promise to him.
SPEAKER_00: Because he says, he says, look up, Abram, look out.
SPEAKER_00: Count the stars.
SPEAKER_00: If you're able to number them, so will your descendants be.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure, no doubt, every night that he sat under those stars took on a new sense of wonder and meaning.
SPEAKER_00: What this teaches us is that although our trust is to be in the person of God, there's more richness in God's promises for us to enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us know a promise right now, and yet not necessarily be resting in that promise.
SPEAKER_00: Not necessarily having come to see or experience its full reward.
SPEAKER_00: That can often be the case.
SPEAKER_00: It's one thing you see to know a promise, it's another thing to rest in it.
SPEAKER_00: I came across an article on the Old Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon, this week, speaking this very thing.
SPEAKER_00: And Spurgeon found that in wave upon wave that battered him in life.
SPEAKER_00: Certain situations that he faced, depression that he experienced, that the promises of God were especially precious.
SPEAKER_00: And on one occasion, a particularly contr a particular controversy came up where he truly understood some of God's promises for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: And he asserted on that occasion, he said, How much more wonderful is the Bible to me now than it was only a few months ago?
SPEAKER_00: In obeying the Lord and bearing his reproach outside the camp, I have not received new promises, but the result is the same as if I'd done so.
SPEAKER_00: For the old ones have opened to me with richer stores.
SPEAKER_00: How that resonates with me.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of power that waiting and hope can have.
SPEAKER_00: In studying these promises every month this year, have they taken on fresh meaning to you?
SPEAKER_00: None of them may have been new.
SPEAKER_00: But may they be like new to you.
SPEAKER_00: And being opened up with richer, fuller meaning.
SPEAKER_00: I know they've had that experience in my own heart, that impact of enlarging me.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's where we sometimes struggle with the promises.
SPEAKER_00: We we see them there in the scriptures, and we don't sometimes know what to do with them.
SPEAKER_00: We fail to see their present benefit to us.
SPEAKER_00: You see, the promises of God are like a blank check.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a blank check that has been endorsed by Christ and given to us.
SPEAKER_00: And God would say to us, He says, I would have you spend that.
SPEAKER_00: Spend that promise.
SPEAKER_00: As precious as it is, God says, I want you to spend it.
SPEAKER_00: And so all we need to do is write our own name on it and cash it in.
SPEAKER_00: And yet for many of us, many times we we leave them in the checkbook and fail to cash them in for present strength, for present hope, for present life and benefit.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I can't go a week and preaching and preparation for preaching without being reminded of the promise of God that he provides seed to the sower in order that he might provide food for the eater and that he might multiply and intend to multiply that for a harvest of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: That's what allows me to get through a week.
SPEAKER_00: I'm that needy.
SPEAKER_00: I need, you see, the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: I need to cash them in.
SPEAKER_00: And so do you.
SPEAKER_00: Such is the love of God that serves us.
SPEAKER_00: But we also need to trust the love of God that secures us.
SPEAKER_00: Abram was still lacking confidence about how he would know when these things would be realized, and so God has him prepare a covenant ceremony.
SPEAKER_00: A darkness comes over Abraham, and he's given to see a more complete picture of what will happen in the future.
SPEAKER_00: His descendants would need to wait 400 years because the sin of the Amorites wasn't yet complete.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning, because God judges justly and not in retribution, there was a need to wait until their sin was of a nature that required judgment, their judgment, and therefore removal from the land.
SPEAKER_00: And knowing that Abram wouldn't be alive to see it, God makes his love known by assuring him of his promise through covenant.
SPEAKER_00: A covenant is basically an agreement between two parties.
SPEAKER_00: And the typical practice at that time in ancient Near East was of ratifying a covenant was to take these animals and to cut them in half and to lay them down side by side, except for the birds, and they would be placed on the ground, and both parties would essentially walk between these two pieces, so as if to say, so may I be like them if I break this promise.
SPEAKER_00: But what we note in this case is that only God in the form of a smoking pot and a flaming torch pass through these pieces.
SPEAKER_00: And what it communicates to us is that God would be the one who keeps the promise.
SPEAKER_00: God is saying to Abram, I'm gonna secure this promise.
SPEAKER_00: I will bind myself to it.
SPEAKER_00: I alone will be faithful to see this through and to see you blessed.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, we know that the promise did come true.
SPEAKER_00: But there was more to it.
SPEAKER_00: Because in time, the time in Egypt wasn't the ultimate darkness.
SPEAKER_00: God needed to deal with an even greater darkness owing to our own slavery, to sin.
SPEAKER_00: And it points to the need of the one who would need to pass through death itself, not in the form of a smoking pot or a flaming torch, but by flesh and blood.
SPEAKER_00: To secure an even greater eternal covenant for us in the person of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And as such, there's no greater security for us to enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: Because Christ passed through death, ours is the joy of waking up each morning to a love that all along has determined to see us through, to see us restored in fellowship, to know and enjoy his delight over us.
SPEAKER_00: So as to say, I will take care of this.
SPEAKER_00: I will do this on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: Secure in sharing all of his blessing, secure in being with him as his delight.
SPEAKER_00: God's love is a love that pursues.
SPEAKER_00: It's a love that serves.
SPEAKER_00: It's a love that secures.
SPEAKER_00: And there is no greater security than Jesus Christ and giving his own life for us.
SPEAKER_00: May his love be a love that we trust.
SPEAKER_00: And thank him for it and give him all the glory.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Oh Lord, we praise you and we thank you for this precious gift of your Son.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you that you're the God who does indeed pursue us.
SPEAKER_00: Father, may we be those who feed on your gracious pursuit of grace each day.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may we be a people who trust you to give us all that we need.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that you're a God who serves us, who serves us in our fears, who serves us in our deep needs, who serves us in our struggles.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for the precious promises that you've given to us.
SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we ask and we pray, may they indeed grow richer.
SPEAKER_00: May they grow and have the ability to enable us to be strengthened, encouraged, and shaped more and more into your likeness.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, may they fuel our love and devotion toward you.
SPEAKER_00: That you might be given the glory and the praise.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.