Numerous as the Stars

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December 9, 10, 11

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Introduction

December of last year, NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope

It has a 21 foot mirror on it - bigger than Hubble’s 8 foot mirror

Capable of seeing infrared light that Hubble couldn’t see

After $10-billion, COVID launch delays, and a micrometeoroid strike...

The telescope released these images from space deep into the universe

Show images

1. Carina Nebula

2. The Phantom Galaxy

3. Tarantula Nebula

4. If you saw the saw the moon, and took a closer look at that little square next to it

Let’s zoom in: Look at all those galaxies and stars...

And imagine that that little image was duplicated in every direction!

Do you know how many stars there are? 200 sextillion

A “2” with 23 zeroes - that’s more than you can imagine

Compared to this - take a measuring cup and scoop out the oceans of earth

How many scoops would that take? Might take some time...

Now take that number and multiply it by 10 - that’s about 200 sextillion

I think we can agree, there are a lot of stars

Keep that in mind as we learn about God’s promises to a guy named “Abram”

YouVersion: Numerous as the Stars

We’re in Genesis 15:1-6

Remember last week

Abram chased a bunch of kings who captured his nephew

He attacked at night and took all the people who were captured back home

He met a very special king/priest named Melchizedek - probably Jesus

He worshipped and gave him 10% of everything

After all that, here’s what God says to Abram:

Genesis 15:1 (ESV)

1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”

Some translations don’t say, “your reward shall be very great.’

They say, “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

It can go either way, the Hebrew is ambiguous

Remember, last week Abram returned from a sneak attack

Probably terrified Chedorlaomer was going to jump and get him

I’m just looking for a reason to say Chedorlaomer

I realized this week his name is probably Chedorlaomer, but I like Chedorlaomer better

Abram is probably very uncomfortable

He just attacked kings - guys strong enough to overthrow other kings

He’s probably waiting for some massive army to come over the hills any minute

6th grade, I “went out” with Renee

I later heard that a baseball buddy named Chad was not happy

Someone said, “He’s going to beat you up for going out with that girl he wanted to go out with”

I remember being so scared

Maybe I could go ask my mom to move to another city

Maybe I could go find a gang and buy a gun

Maybe I could go to his house and beg him for forgiveness

That sounds ridiculous to me now, but then it was real

We’ve all had moments in our lives like that

You might be in one right now

Feeling like you have no hope, like you’ve gone too far, just waiting for everything to fall apart

You can remember these words that God said to Abram

“Fear not, I am your shield, your reward is great.”

God gives us no reason to fear

We have to run our situations through the lens of God’s promises

God gives us a million reasons to have hope

But that doesn’t make it easy at all

That’s where Abram is too

Remember what God has promised Abram:

Land that I will show you

I will make of you a great nation

I will bless you and make your name great

I will bless those who bless you

I will curse those who curse you

All the families of the earth shall be blessed

God promised Abram so many great things!

And yet he finds himself struggling!

Why else would God say, “Don’t fear, I’ll protect you, you’ll have a great reward.”

Look at Abram’s response:

Genesis 15:2–3 (ESV)

2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.”

I sure know what that feels like

Look at the pattern of the conversation:

Abram was likely scared, sure he was going to die

What’s God’s response, “No Abram, I’ll protect you! I’ll even reward you!”

What’s Abram’s next thought? “No you won’t. You say I’ll have descendents but I have NOTHING!”

Andrena Sawyer: “The ultimate act of surrender to God is rebellion against lies: the lies that the enemy has spoken to you, and the lies that you might have told yourself about you.”

Seems to me he’s caught in one of those negative spirals

And maybe he doesn’t want out

I do that to myself too

This week started out great

I left Sunday seeing everything going well

Told Tash, “I feel like God is bringing me to a place where I’m doing well

I told Tim the same thing

Then, Tuesday happened

All day was just mistakes, criticisms and accusations

I left feeling totally run down

My first thought?

Okay God, I finally feel good about what I’m doing...

And the next day it’s all stomped down to nothing

How can I be fulfilling my calling when I don’t see fruit!

Here’s what I needed in that situation:

Don’t let the past/present cultivate your doubt

As I kept think about the situation and read this passage, God made something clear

God said, “I didn’t give you encouragement on Sunday/Monday to stomp you on Tuesday/Wednesday.”

“I gave you that encouragement on Sunday/Monday to give you strength for Tuesday/Wednesday.”

Pastor Mark told me, when a big sum of money comes in for some reason

His first thought is, “Okay Lord, whats about to break that You just gave me money to fix.”

That’s about recognizing provision, rather than complaining about loss

When things are hard, remember and trust this:

Isaiah 41:10 (ESV)

10 fear not, for I am with you;

be not dismayed, for I am your God;

I will strengthen you, I will help you,

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

All of those promises bring comfort because He is the one doing it

I am with you, I am your God, I will strengthen, I will help, I will uphold...

You have to trust that church, don’t let your doubts creep in and take over

Look at what God says to Abram:

Genesis 15:4 (ESV)

4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.”

God is reminding him of his promises here

Why? God expects us to be constantly building towards His will

When things are good, we are supposed to be building ourselves up

Teams practice when there is no opponent to face

Armies train when there is no enemy on the field

Bands rehearse when there is no audience to watch

They do that, because they know a day is coming when they will see opponents, enemies and audiences

If they don’t practice, train and rehearse, they will likely fail when the challenge comes

Our walk with God is the same way

When things are good we should be developing ourselves

What do we do when we’re discipling each other?

K4 - We have goals!

Scripture, prayer, loving extravagantly and worshipping

If you don’t do those things when life is good… you won’t be ready when things get hard

Here, Abram is struggling - I know you promised me descendents, but I don’t see anything!

Then, sometimes in desperation, we start doing foolish things

But let me tell you something:

God doesn’t need you to fix His plan

His plan is already perfect, it’s working fine, and it will achieve what God wants

Sometimes we have doubt, we panic and try to take over

But there’s not actually a problem in the first place

Magic Card Trick

God promised Abram a son

In hindsight, we know that God follows through

But in the moment, he can’t see it

So he turns to God with doubt

And that’s okay! God can handle your doubt...

If you’re confused, don’t be afraid to ask questions!

If you feel hopeless, let Him be your hope!

If you’re struggling, be honest with God!

He loves you and cares so deeply for you

He knows life can be hard and doubts want to challenge you

And if you let Him, He can take the most shattered portrait and put it back together

You just have to trust Him

Jim Cymbala: “Satan wants us to focus on the problem, not the Provider. He constantly points to what seems to be rather than to what God has promised to do. If we stop spending time with the Lord in prayer, the concerns of the physical world snatch our attention and dominate us, while the spiritual senses deaden and the promises fade.”

Look at how He responds to Abram

He doesn’t strike him with leprosy and burn him in the fiery pits of Mordor

He continues to love him, watch:

Genesis 15:5 (ESV)

5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

God says, “Let me remind you of what I said - you will have what I promised.”

He doesn’t say when or how, because all He’s asking for is trust

Something God earns from us over and over again

Now, remember I said we have 200 sextillion stars?

I don’t know if that’s exactly how many descendents Abram will have...

But I know this, Abram was afraid his children would end up at flat zero

But God says, “You won’t even be able to count how many children you will have!

Today, we still can’t count it - but right now we have to be in the billions

There are 15 million Jews alive today! Imagine over history...

We must remind ourselves of God’s promises

Again, we know God came through in the end

But for Abram this is a hard promise

Eventually, he will have Issac, but he’s going to have to wait 15 more years

God’s okay with letting us simmer a bit

He promises us that everything is going to be okay

Ultimately, we will stand before God and viewed as clean and righteous

But for now, you might start to wonder

What if I go to hell?

What if there is no God?

What if God isn’t everything Scripture says he is?

That’s the enemy talking - he wants to use this waiting period to mess you up

Don’t let him do that to you, cling to God’s promises

Hebrews 6:11–12 (ESV)

11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Abraham is one of those guys we can imitate

Is he perfect? No - not even close

But he is continually working out that process and growing in the Lord

Look how this ends today:

Genesis 15:6 (ESV)

6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

This is the right thing to do:

Trust God

Think about how all this played out - it’s a picture of our walk with God!

He gives us promises and reinforces us

But we’re attacked by fear and doubt

So God subtly reminds us of what His promises are

D.L. Moody: “God never made a promise that was too good to be true.”

In that, we have to avoid trying to take control or make excuses

Instead, if we simply trust God, that is living out our own righteousness

Simply trusting His plan and putting one foot in front of the other

There’s something that’s not lost on me here

Abraham was thankful for the material blessings and protection

But he was hung up on more important thing: he wanted God’s promise of people/family

When God puts challenges in our life, He often uses people

During this special month when we decided to celebrate pastors, I have recieved so much

Some decided to send cards, some money, some food, some messages, etc.

It has truly been such an encouragement to me

When things get hard in my life, God sends people

When I turn around, there is no shortage of people to love and share in my struggles

That’s why we have the church

I encourage you to see people as one of your greatest blessings as well

Don’t allow Satan to isolate you or make you think no one cares

God pulled all of us together to love each other

But maybe that’s not where you are, maybe you don’t even know who Jesus is

I promise you this, knowing Him is the best thing that can happen to you

Please, talk to me after service if that’s you

Maybe you know him, but you’ve fallen so far back into sin you doubt He could every forgive you

Please, talk to me

For now, let’s pray for God’s promises to be fresh in our minds

Prayer