What are the Promises and Who Receives Them? God Did Not Change His Mind

Greetings and Salutations

Honor to:

Restoration Church of Christ Family

Pastor Wender Gavin and Sister Callie Gavin, Gavin Family

Dr. Timothy Beard and Sis Wendy Beard

Bishop Hicks and all the clergy

New Life Apostolic Church Sumter

My mother, brother and sister

My wife and children

Introduction: The First Great Awakening and The Perseverance of George Whitfield

Some of the greatest promises are delivered through our most difficult struggles.

During the 1720s God began doing something in the American colonies that would change the way individuals would experience God. And by the 1760s people would have identified this revival experience as the [First] Great Awakening.

It was a time where preachers began to challenge the stale and traditional religious living that demonstrated no serious pursuit for God or any fruit of a transformed life. Preachers such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, John Wesley, and many others called the Anglicized church to a new move of God’s presence in their life. They were not targeting the experience, itself, but the heart of men that seemingly treated their relationship with God too casually. However, the result was an emotional and expressive response at the preaching of those voices that spoke on the fear of God and the fate of eternal judgment. One of the most famous preachers of this time was George Whitfield.

George Whitfield was born in 1714 in England and was ordained as an Anglican minister. His ministry would leave a transformative impact on the world.

He would preach to thousands of people at a time.

Traveled on several missionary trips throughout the American colonies.

Crossed cultural and societal barriers—preaching to the rich and poor.

Established an orphanage in Georgia to cater to those in need.

His ministry impact was tremendous. But though he would have an amazing ministry impact, it would not come without a share of struggles.

Whitfield was banned from preaching in the Anglican Church because of his dramatic style, so he preached in open fields and on the streets of England.

He angered the upper class who thought his preaching style was inappropriate. So, he preached to the poor, enslaved, and working class individuals.

He endured being mocked in the newspapers, threatened by mobs, and hit with stones, rotten food, dirt, and even pieces of dead cats. But he kept on preaching.

His body began to fail due to constant traveling, fasting and preaching outdoors. As a result, he suffered from severe asthma, exhaustion, and constant illnesses.

When encouraged to slow down and take care of himself, he would respond, “I would rather wear out than rust.”

George Whitfield would preach up until the last day of living.

Whitfield lived on a promise to all who dared to share this message about Christ to a dying world. He understood,

God’s promises are granted by His grace, but it is obtained through perseverance.

Abraham and the Promise

This is precisely Paul’s point in Hebrews 6:9-20. He is drawing from Genesis 22 when Abraham was tested after receiving the promised son, Isaac. It is here that Abraham is commanded to take was supposed to deliver the promises God made and sacrifice it on an altar.

Principle 1: Sometimes, God commands you to sacrifice what is intended to bring you your promise.

Sometimes, you have to take what you labored through, waited for, and cultivated, and even birthed and sacrifice it on an altar.

And sometimes, unlike this circumstance, God even puts us in a situation like the one He endured. He does not allow there to be a ram in the bush. He allows this promise to go through the same sort of hardship He submitted His Son to, because even God had to persevere with the effects of a fallen creation until His Son completed the mission that was set before him.

And if God had to persevere, we surely do!

This is what Abraham understood and embraced when being told to take his promise son to the altar to sacrifice. Surely, he could have taken Ishmael, but that would not have meant anything to him. God wanted the one that meant the most to Abraham. Yet, when he obeyed, God gave him the following promise (Hebrews 6:14).

Hebrews 6:14 KJV 1900

Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.

I will bless you in blessing you

I will multiply you in multiplying you

Now, this is not a new promise. This is the same promise God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. So, it was not a way of making Abraham a new promise. It was simply a way of reminding Abraham, I have not changed my mind.

Principle 2: Whatever God has promised, no matter what you’re going through, He has not changed His mind.

Because we are the people of God; children of Abraham; believers of Jesus Christ—God’s promise to bless us and multiply us still remains.