Promises Of God

Your Experience with Promises

Question:

Have You ever just say you’ll do something just for the sake of saying it..maybe it gets your kids to stop bothering you. Or to get your parents to leave you alone. Or you knew that saying it would make someone else feel good? Or maybe you’ve said you’d do something, and really had the intention of following through, But along the way something interfered with the promise you made?

Promise - Definition: a declaration that one will do or refrain from doing something specified.

- legally binding declaration that gives the person to whom it is made a right to expect or to claim the performance or forbearance of a specified act.

The Office: “I DECLARE bankruptcy” You can’t just say it, you actually have to do it.

OUR LIFE IS BASED ON PROMISES

Our truth is this, our entire life of faith, our relationship with God is based on Promises. Our future is tied to a promise. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life”…It’s a promise of eternity with Him.

Living faithfully as a Christian, in obedience, is all tied to promises. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will not leave abandoned. Just wait in Jerusalem and you’ll receive the PROMISED Holy Spirit, and oh by the way He will help you live effectively.

Over the next few nights I want to talk about the promises of God, promises He’s made to you and I and how that can impact our everyday life, and even those around us.

But first I want to talk to you tonight about what can we expect in regards to the promises of God.

1- General Promises

- These Promises are for every believer for all times

1 John 1:9 “If we freely admit our sins, He is faithful and just, trust to His own nature and promise, and will forgive our sins continually.”Philippians 4:7 “and the peace of God, that peace which reassures the heart, that peace which transcends all understanding, that peace which stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus is Yours”“In this life you will face difficult times, but fear not, for I have overcome the world” now this one is great, but also a littler nerve wracking because He might have overcome the world, but I still have to go through tough times.

It’s during those tough times that we need to be reminded of the promises of God that are for us, because if we don’t know what is available to us through His promises, we will quickly find ourselves alone and discouraged.

2- Promises for specific people and specific moments:

You will find some promises in scripture that sound amazing, and we wouldn’t mind if they applied to us, but they were specific to a moment and person. This can be hard to hear because we think that just because we are a child of God that we are entitled to everything everyone else gets, that thought is not a child of God way of thinking, that is a “I’m only child” way of thinking.

I have this rule with my kids, when you use the reason “They got one” you are immediately disqualified from receiving what it is you are asking for. Because THEY GOT ONE will never be a reason to get anything.

“Don’t be afraid Mary, you will conceive and give birth to a son. yes you are a virgin, but the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power…..” You get the point. That’s not happening today. We can’t just claim that kind of promise that was made to someone else at a specific time.

Now God still speaks to us today, and promises things to us individually, and its why we as believers are to tune our ear to Him, and know His voice, and Know Him so we can better understand what He is saying, so we can better understand the promises He might be making to you about your situation.

So How Can I know that I can trust God’s promises?

A sad truth is that most of us have been on the bad end of a promise that was not kept, and the level of pain or frustration that we experience is represented by how important the person or thing is that has made the promise. The unfortunate effect of a broken promise is the ability to trust which in return affect our ability to act and move forward.

Numbers 23:19 “God is not man that He should lie, or a son of man that he should change his mind. Has He said, and will not do it? Or has He spoken, and will not fulfill it?

1- God Does Not Lie

Disney story- God’s character won’t allow Him to lie. He is not like man. What makes you or me so special that God would break his First promise for?

2- He Does Not change

Malachi 3 “For I am God and I do not change”

Conclusion

Many of the promises of God that you will find, that applicable to your life are conditional. I need you to hear this, just because you are a child of God doesn’t mean you GET everything that is promised. There is a reaction to every action.

Let’s not be mistake, even though God’s promises are conditional, His love is not. Whether you are following through on your end of the deal, God’s love for you does not change. He loves you. John 3:16

You can’t make Him love you less, and you can make Him love you more. It’s unchanging.

But Even though God says that “He so loved the world” he says you will receive eternal life only if you believe in Jesus.

The final thing about promises is this, they are not in your timing or necessarily how you envisioned it.