Remembering God's Promises

Remembering God’s Promises

Intro: How would you rate your patience level? How long can you wait before you get fidgety. How many times do you press the elevator button? Once, twice, or multiple times until the elevator arrives?

Do you pace or just stand waiting, knowing the elevator will get there eventually because that is how elevators work. Of course they have to stop at other floors to pick up other people to get them to their destinations or floors as well. If you are on the first floor, you know everyone else eventually has to go back down to the same floor to get out of the building.

We hit the button, the light comes on and we know that means the elevator has promise to show up to allow you inside to take you to the next floor you push the button to.

So it is with God’s promises that he makes with people. God has essentially pushed the button and so we are required to wait on God to arrive to take us to the next location. Sometimes it is a relay long wait and many of us get impatient and start looking for the stairs or another elevator.

This is what today’s story is about. Waiting on God to fulfill His promises.

Read verses; 1-14

MP: We can rely on God’s Promises today, but we must always remember what His promises are

God Gives us a Promise (1-9)

God speaks directly to Abram, his name has not been changed yet. God does so to give Abram the promise directly to him in verses 2-3 “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country[b] and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God tells Abram a few things:

I’m giving you land.

Your descendants will be a complete nation, your name will be remembered/famous,

People who bless you will be blessed, and

People who fight against you will be cursed.

You are going to bless all the families of the earth.

That is a lot of stuff that God is going to do for and through Abram. At first Abram follows god automatically. In verse 4 Abram takes his wife and Lot and leave Haran to go to the land of Canaan. So far so good. He is taking the first promise serious because who doesn’t want free land.

In fact in verse 7, at the oak of Moreh, God talks to Abram again and says to your offspring I will give this land. He builds an altar and he kept moving. Builds another altar and keeps moving.

At this point God has made the promises and Abram heard them, but it seems like he is only focused on the first part of the promise, getting the land.

Now I want to be clear, the promises for Abram, are to bring about God’s redemptive plan. All of this is to eventually establish the 12 tribes of Israel in Jacob’s children, get Israel to Egypt to rescue them with Moses, establish the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, bring about David, and Solomon and eventually bring about the incarnation of Jesus. But all of this happens with one man that God chose, Abram.

But Abram did not get just the one part promise about the land, he was told several things that God was going to do.

The neat thig is that according to some scientists, your brain, just one person’s brain, is capable of storing the entire internet. Or about 2.5 petabytes. To put that into perspective we can somewhat understand that is enough space to hold 3 million hours of TV shows, which to get that much TV, you have to let the TV run for 300 years to collect it. However when I go to the store, my list capacity is about 4-5 items. So if I started off with the list of bread, milk, eggs and butter, and then Veronica calls me and tells me to get steak, I will often times replace one of those items on the original list with the new item. Unless I am hungry and have a real need to remember all of the items.

How many of you have gone into a room and forgot why you went in there. We are so busy doing one thing that we forget what we are doing.

So it is seems this is what happened with Abram. He got busy just travelling around, headed to the Promised Land that he seems to have forgotten what else he was promised.

Application point #1 We can make an effort to remember what God has promised us.

So what has God promised us? Like I said, for us the land promises and offspring promises were specifically for Abram. But did God promise Freedom from persecution? No. Wealth beyond our dreams, No. no more sorrow and no more pain while we are on Earth? No.

But he did promise is unconditional Love for His people, He Sent the Christ to atone for mankind’s sins and reconcile the world. If you are saved, you are saved from God’s wrath

confirms this “And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

More importantly we know that the one who promises will fulfill them. The entire Old Testament leads the reader to read and hear the promises of the messiah coming to establish go’s kingdom. In the New Testament we see this promise fulfilled. We see the victory over death in Jesus’ resurrection.

In Paul says No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. The promise of overwhelming victory is given to us through Jesus’ work.

The writer of Hebrews says this comparing the promises to Abram/Abraham to the new promises of Jesus, In chapter 6 verse 17 In the same way God wanted to demonstrate more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose was unchangeable, and so he intervened with an oath, 18 so that we who have found refuge in him may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast, which reaches inside behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus our forerunner entered on our behalf, since he became a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek

Verse 19 is the Key to our believing God, trusting in God, the Hope we have is the anchor for the soul, sure and steadfast.

No matter what tumultuous times come up, no matter what storms come up around us, we know that if the promise has not been fulfilled, then we can still keep going, because God has not completed it yet. Does this make you invincible or immortal in the physical sense? No, we will still die, we may die before the Lord returns. We might not. When we die, we also know where we are going. Heaven. To live with God in His presence.

On earth we are furthering the God’s kingdom all the same. Because we have the hope and we listen to God’s promises, we know what they are and we more importantly remember them on a regular basis.

TS: Abram seems happy to follow God because he is going somewhere, he is trusting God for the time being, but we will see that the storm comes up and so some of the other promises may fall by the way side if they are not fulfilled right away.

God Takes Time to Fulfill the Promises (10-15)

In verse 10 though a storm comes up. A sever famine hits the land. So Abram reacts, he has mouths to feed and take care of so instead of trusting God, he takes mattes into his own hands.

He concocts a plan that he thinks will keep him alive in case the Egyptians try to take his wife. So standing on the border, probably before they went through the passport line, He tells his wife in verse 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are. Ahhh, nice compliment. But, in verse 12 he goes on When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me but let you live. 13 Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.” 14 When Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful. 15 Pharaoh’s officials saw her and praised her to Pharaoh, so the woman was taken to Pharaoh’s household.

What is Abram worried about? Dying. Or more accurately being killed. He is not worried about his wife, he says “they will let you live”, although he is aware that she will have to be some kind of concubine or something, no worries. So we see that Abram is only really worried about himself here and no one else.

But what did God say to him in verse 2 and 3, I will make you a great nation, I will make you name known, you will have offspring. None of these things have happened yet. You see if we think things through logically, if we trust god to do what he says he will do, and if it hasn’t happened yet, then no matter what, Abram can’t die yet.

But Abram forgets what was promised by God. So far though God had brought him to or towards the Land fulfillment But he hasn't gotten around to the rest of the promises

Application Point #2 Learn to Wait on God. Don’t give up on Him. 

You have to be patient with God and let Him work things out before you give up on Him

What does this mean in biblical language? It means we must have faith which helps us increase our patience.

Warren Wiersbe says Tests often follow triumphs. This principle is illustrated in the history of Israel. No sooner had the nation been delivered from Egypt than the Egyptian army chased them and cornered them at the Red Sea (). Triumph was followed by testing. God brought them through, but then they faced another test: no water (15:22-27). After that came hunger () and an attack from the Amalekites (). Tests follow triumphs.

This goes back to the elevator scenario in the introduction. I know the button has been pressed, the light around the button is on. So I know the elevator knows what to do. I just have to wait for it to get here.

Depending on what it is, I am not always patient. I want to open my Christmas presents in November. I used to let everyone know on January seventh that my birthday was now less than 5 months away. I have to wait to get birthday cake but I was anticipating it for the next five months. I could go out and by my own cake make one, but it means more when it is made by someone else and also when it is my actual birthday

But with this story, and much of the Bible, God is working in the background, but he is the main character. It is easy to see the humans and identify with them and to justify their behavior and want to emulate them, but the person we need to focus on and watch is God.

The remarkable thing about God's call of Abraham and Sarah was that they were childless. Abram means "exalted father," but he wasn't a father at all! They were the least likely candidates to have a family and build a great nation.

Abram had to wait on God to bring about his children. But he was worried he would die because he did not remember or listen to God's covenant promise.

God is working out the details for His story in which we are a small part of. He is orchestrating the movements of the watch to keep the precision time.

Abram is someone we can look to asa normal and we can see ourselves in his actions. He is imperfect and so it is easy to identify with him. But we need to look past that and look toward Christ

says be still and know I am God. We have to master this in our lives because so many times we want to scheme and forget about God because he is not moving fast enough or he has left us somewhere we may not want to be or think we should not be.

But we must do as Jesus instructs his disciples to watch and pray. Watch fro God to move pray to hear from God. Pray to talk with God and then just be still. In our frenetic world, that just keeps moving faster and faster, it is hard to just watch and pray.

It takes discipline to do it on a regular basis but it can be built up over time.

TS: When we do it well, we are rewarded, when we try to go to fast or to slow, God motivates us corrects as He needs to to keep us where he needs us or moves us to where we need to go.

God Deals with our Impatience (16-20)

And for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.17 But the Lord afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife. 18 So Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife? 19 Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her for my wife? Now then, here is your wife; take her, and go.” 20 And Pharaoh gave men orders concerning him, and they sent him away with his wife and all that he had. for her sake he dealt well with Abram; and he had sheep, oxen, male donkeys, male servants, female servants, female donkeys, and camels.

We see Pharoh blessed Abram and Sarai so he could keep and eventually marry Sarai. The Pharaoh made Abram rich.

But verse 17 says that the Lord Aflicted His house. to get Abram moving and to get him to stop lying about who Sarai. Pharoah confronts Abram because they know that these types of plagues or problems are at least caused by the new guests and quite possibly their God.

This is the opposite of what God said Abram was going to be a blessing for all nations and caused problems for Abrams new neighbors.

He moved from bringing blessing to bringing judgment. God called Abraham to be a blessing to the nations (); but because of Abraham's disobedience, judgment fell on Pharaoh and his household (v. 17). This also happened years later in Gerar (). If you want to be a blessing to others, then stay in the will of God. Jonah ran from God's will and caused a storm that almost sank the ship. Like Jonah, Abraham lost his testimony before unbelievers and had to face embarrassment and rebuke.

Application #3 Stay in Fellowship with God.

In verse 8, Abram built an altar commemorating God and then he leaves it. and He leaves God. He strikes out on his own.

We must stay Christ centered. If you have disobeyed and God is disciplining you, go back to the place where you left Him and make things right.

That place is at the cross. Chirst has made everythign right, he has fixed the curse caused by Adam and Eve because he is th eonly one that can fix th eproblem. God is th eonly one that can fulfill God's decree.

24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

1 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Propitiation means our atoning sin.

Remember: "The victorious Christian life is a series of new beginnings." That is not an excuse for sin, but it is an encouragement for repentance.

Conclusion

We can be patient if we keep our lives Centered on God. If we are in fellowship with him, praying to him, watching and listening for his instructions. This does not make us robots or mindless slaves, but we are being obedient to when he gives us commands and promises.

So this week, work on your patience with God first and foremost. because it is proven that you dont need to push the elveator button more than once. A lot of what we do does nt ake antyhig happen any faster or slower. Everything comes when it comes because everyting is on God's timing.

So set your watch to God's central time standard, to His master Clock. Listen to Him, hear Him and see what he wants you to do.

Repent of sins you may have committed this week against God.

As we take communion this week, we are commemorating or covenant fellowship made with God through the blood of Jesus, God the Son.