God of the Promise Hebrews 6:13-20

-God keeps His promise of rest to us through Jesus

A dying man got his three best friends together at his bedside (his doctor, lawyer, and pastor) and he handed each of them an envelope with $250,000 in cash inside.He made them each promise that they would place the envelope in his casket because he was determined to take it with him.A week later, he died.At the visitation, the doctor, the lawyer, and the pastor each placed an envelope in the man’s coffin before it was shutBy chance, the three men met about a month later. The pastor, feeling guilty, confessed that there was only $100,000 in the envelope that he put in the casket. He told them that rather than waste all of that money, he had sent $150,000 to a mission effort in Africa and asked for their forgiveness.The doctor then told the other two that the envelope that he left only had $80,000 in it. He had given the rest of the money to cancer research.The lawyer was outraged. He told the two men how disappointed he was with both of them. He said, “I’m the only one who kept their promise to our friend. I want you to know that I put the full amount in my envelope in the coffin. I wrote out a personal check for the entire $250,000.”

I. God Makes Promises vv. 13-15

Our passage for tonight builds off of last week, where the author encouraged us to imitate those who have inherited the promises of God

Now, he goes on to give us a little more insight into those promises

First, we see that God makes promises to Abraham; in some ways these are fundamental to our entire faith

Out of all of the people of earth, God chose Abraham and made a promise to him that God would give him a son, make him a people, and bless all of the people of the earth through him

God doesn’t have to do any of this; He doesn’t have to commit to anything

However, that is exactly what He does. He intends to bless Abraham completely and commits to do so

Even beyond the sense of general commitments, God enters into a covenant with Abraham to bless him

There are expectations for Abraham and for his descendants that they need to keep

However, in spite of their insufficiency, God will keep His Word to Abraham

Abraham will sometimes get it wrong, but he does endure as an example of faithfulness and we see God keep His promises to Abraham

He gets his son Isaac

He gets his numerous descendants

His family gets a homeland to call their own

He becomes a blessing to the whole world through Jesus

We don’t need to lose sight of this: God makes promises to us and it is not a casual thing

He promises us His presence and His provision

He promises us His rest for our souls

He promises us eternal and abundant life

We receive these as we walk by faith with Him!

One stormy night an elderly couple entered the lobby of a small hotel and asked for a room. The clerk said they were full and they would probably find so were all the hotels in town. "But I can’t send a fine couple like you out in the rain. Would you be willing to sleep in my room?" The couple hesitated, but the clerk insisted.

The next morning when the man paid his bill, he said, "You’re the kind of man who should be managing the best hotel in the United States. Someday I’ll build you one." The clerk smiled politely.

A few years later the clerk received a letter; the letter invited him to visit New York. When the clerk arrived, his host took him to the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street, where stood a magnificent new building. "That," explained the man, "is the hotel I have built for you to manage."

The man was William Waldorf Astor, and the hotel was the original Waldorf-Astoria.

II. God Keeps His Promises vv. 16-18

That sort of leads us to a next question though: How can I trust God to keep His promises

The author here makes an interesting point: God swears an oath, but He swears by His own name

Why does He do this?

Because there is nothing higher, greater, or more sacred than His name

It would lessen the importance of the oath to swear by anything else

This tells us something really important here:

When God makes a promise, He is putting His own character on the line

When we believe God’s promises, we are believing Him

We are trusting that He is righteous, He is holy, He is wise, and He is good

God made a promise, He sealed it with an oath

These are two unbreakable facts that we can trust in!

We find ourselves in need of a refuge, in danger and afraid

In those moments we can hold on to God’s promises, certain that He is going to keep them.

Imagine the thrill of opening your mailbox and finding a crisp, white envelope waiting for you. The anticipation builds as you tear it open, as you discover a check nestled inside. It's more than just a piece of paper; it's a tangible promise that money is waiting you when you cash it. The check might be from an employer, a tax refund, or an unexpected birthday gift from a grandparent.

While writing checks may be less popular than it used to be, 54% of Americans still wrote a check in the past year. In fact, according to a recent survey by GOBankingRates, 17% of Americans are still writing checks on a monthly basis — and 23% of Gen X Americans are still sending checks on a monthly basis. In 2021 the Federal Reserve reported $27.23 trillion in checks were written.

We can trust God when He gives us a promise. We can be certain that it is good!

2 Corinthians 1:19–20

[19] For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. [20] For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (ESV)

III. Jesus Fulfills God’s Promises vv. 19-20

The author goes on to describe “what” we are holding onto

He describes it as a steadfast anchor for our soul

We can hook ourselves to this anchor and we can be sure that we will not be tossed around in any way!

This hope goes beyond the curtain.

It goes into the holy place in the Temple, where God is actively present

We have a hope that has entered in and is able to stand before God on our behalf

This hope is Jesus; all God’s promises are fulfilled in Him!

This ought to cause us to do two things:

Cling to Jesus

For a generation that was facing the temptation of turning their backs on Him, this should be a wake up call

We are not trusting in an abstract principle or a God who is far from us; we are trusting in a very personal way a Savior who enters God’s presence on our behalf and trusting in Him

Look to Jesus

When the doubts come, and they will, we look to Him

The sacrifice of Jesus illustrates beyond a shadow of a doubt that God will keep His promises to us

If He would not spare His Son for the sake of saving us, there is nothing that He will not do to sustain us!

I love being out on a boat. And, I love taking the boat down to a beach that you can only access by boat! We will ground the boat there on the west end of Dauphin Island and throw out an anchor off of the bow to hold it a bit more, but some times it’s not enough. We throw a bow anchor, sometimes we add an anchor off of the stern, and now we also have a power pole to set down in the water attached to the boat. It’s a lot of solution, but there’s a lot of problem. If the boat isn’t anchored it will blow away. Our soul needs an anchor that we can trust and Jesus is that anchor that keeps us from being blown away!

Romans 8:32

[32] He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (ESV)