1 00:00:00,750 --> 00:00:03,737 Genesis 15 one through 21. 2 00:00:04,704 --> 00:00:08,191 After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. 3 00:00:08,341 --> 00:00:10,610 Fear not Abraham, I am your shield. 4 00:00:10,610 --> 00:00:12,679 Your reward shall be very great. 5 00:00:12,679 --> 00:00:15,598 But Abraham said, O Lord God, what will you give me? 6 00:00:15,598 --> 00:00:20,120 For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. 7 00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:23,840 And Abraham said, behold, you have given me no offspring, 8 00:00:24,057 --> 00:00:26,576 and a member of my household will be my ear. 9 00:00:26,576 --> 00:00:29,396 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. 10 00:00:29,396 --> 00:00:31,164 This man shall not be your heir. 11 00:00:31,164 --> 00:00:33,566 Your very own son shall be your heir. 12 00:00:33,566 --> 00:00:36,352 And he brought him outside and said, look toward 13 00:00:36,352 --> 00:00:39,589 heaven and number the stars, if you are able to number them. 14 00:00:39,723 --> 00:00:42,709 Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. 15 00:00:42,776 --> 00:00:46,763 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. 16 00:00:46,796 --> 00:00:49,649 And he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out 17 00:00:49,649 --> 00:00:53,002 from earth of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess. 18 00:00:53,369 --> 00:00:57,323 But he said, O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? 19 00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,711 He said to him, bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat 20 00:01:01,711 --> 00:01:06,483 three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon. 21 00:01:06,750 --> 00:01:08,268 And he brought him all these. 22 00:01:08,268 --> 00:01:11,604 Cut them in half and laid each half over against the other. 23 00:01:11,971 --> 00:01:13,790 But he did not cut the birds in half. 24 00:01:13,790 --> 00:01:16,893 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abraham 25 00:01:16,893 --> 00:01:19,879 drove them away as the sun was going down. 26 00:01:19,879 --> 00:01:21,631 A deep sleep fell on Abraham. 27 00:01:21,631 --> 00:01:24,984 And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 28 00:01:25,351 --> 00:01:28,938 Then the Lord said to Abraham, know for certain that your offspring 29 00:01:28,938 --> 00:01:32,725 will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants 30 00:01:32,725 --> 00:01:35,728 there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years. 31 00:01:35,929 --> 00:01:38,848 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, 32 00:01:38,848 --> 00:01:41,851 and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 33 00:01:42,152 --> 00:01:45,171 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. 34 00:01:45,321 --> 00:01:47,757 You shall be buried in a good old age. 35 00:01:47,757 --> 00:01:50,276 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation. 36 00:01:50,276 --> 00:01:53,279 For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. 37 00:01:53,363 --> 00:01:56,549 When the sun had gone down, and it was dark, behold, a 38 00:01:56,549 --> 00:02:00,086 smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 39 00:02:00,537 --> 00:02:05,358 And that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying to your offspring, 40 00:02:05,358 --> 00:02:09,112 I give this land from the river of Egypt to the great river, 41 00:02:09,212 --> 00:02:12,849 the river Euphrates, the land of the keynotes, the Canisius, 42 00:02:12,982 --> 00:02:17,420 the cabinet, the Hittites, the parasites, the Rahim, 43 00:02:17,420 --> 00:02:21,841 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Gargash, and the Jebusites. 44 00:02:26,029 --> 00:02:26,396 Everybody, 45 00:02:26,396 --> 00:02:29,399 good morning and welcome to Christ Community Chapel. 46 00:02:29,399 --> 00:02:32,402 Really, really glad that you are here. 47 00:02:32,635 --> 00:02:32,902 All right. 48 00:02:32,902 --> 00:02:36,439 This is the third week of our ten week series in the Old Testament. 49 00:02:36,439 --> 00:02:40,426 We're looking at the life of Abraham, and we're calling this series 50 00:02:40,426 --> 00:02:43,429 Promises made, promises Kept. 51 00:02:44,180 --> 00:02:48,651 The story of Abraham begins in Genesis chapter 12 and goes 52 00:02:48,651 --> 00:02:53,973 all the way to Genesis chapter 25, in the economy of the Bible. 53 00:02:53,990 --> 00:02:56,993 That's an enormous amount of space 54 00:02:57,093 --> 00:03:00,079 dedicated to a single person. 55 00:03:00,446 --> 00:03:04,434 But the story of Abraham really moves throughout the whole Bible. 56 00:03:05,702 --> 00:03:09,239 A couple of weeks ago, when we kicked off the series, we talked about the promise 57 00:03:09,239 --> 00:03:13,009 that God makes to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, 58 00:03:13,009 --> 00:03:16,346 where he says to Abraham, I'm going to make your name great. 59 00:03:16,980 --> 00:03:21,451 And through you all the families of the earth will be blessed. 60 00:03:22,285 --> 00:03:27,290 In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter one, verse one, it starts out like this. 61 00:03:27,290 --> 00:03:30,293 The genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, 62 00:03:31,377 --> 00:03:33,596 son of Abraham. 63 00:03:33,596 --> 00:03:38,001 The coming of Jesus Christ into this world was connected 64 00:03:39,018 --> 00:03:39,652 to Abraham. 65 00:03:39,652 --> 00:03:44,123 And Jesus, of course, is the center of what the Bible calls the gospel. 66 00:03:44,691 --> 00:03:49,345 The good news that God was not going to let the world go to hell in a handbasket. 67 00:03:49,379 --> 00:03:53,666 It wasn't going to let you go to hell in a handbasket or me, but instead 68 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,086 he was going to send a Savior to rescue us. 69 00:03:57,503 --> 00:04:02,058 And that rescue began with a man called Abraham. 70 00:04:03,142 --> 00:04:04,460 Right? Right. 71 00:04:04,460 --> 00:04:07,530 So today we are going to look at a wild 72 00:04:07,530 --> 00:04:10,516 and mysterious, story. 73 00:04:10,516 --> 00:04:13,653 It's where has Abraham slaughtering 74 00:04:13,653 --> 00:04:18,691 and sawing animals in half, creating a path between the haves. 75 00:04:18,992 --> 00:04:22,111 We have a deep and dreadful darkness that falls. 76 00:04:22,111 --> 00:04:25,098 We have a smoking fire pot, a flaming torch. 77 00:04:25,231 --> 00:04:30,003 It is wild and a little weird, right? 78 00:04:30,803 --> 00:04:33,756 But we have this story and we're going to look at it. 79 00:04:33,756 --> 00:04:37,427 It's something that none of us have done, but it's really a story about what 80 00:04:38,211 --> 00:04:41,214 we have all experienced because it's a story about doubt. 81 00:04:42,598 --> 00:04:44,701 Faith is hard 82 00:04:44,701 --> 00:04:47,687 for everyone, even for kids. 83 00:04:48,137 --> 00:04:50,456 Over Memorial Day weekend, I had, 84 00:04:50,456 --> 00:04:53,459 two of my youngest grandchildren at a pool. 85 00:04:53,843 --> 00:04:57,080 And my youngest grandchild, Malachi, had never been in a pool before. 86 00:04:57,080 --> 00:05:00,800 He desperately wanted to get in the water, so I brought him into the water, 87 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:02,068 and as soon as I had him in the water, 88 00:05:02,068 --> 00:05:04,470 he desperately wanted to get out of the water. 89 00:05:04,470 --> 00:05:06,055 So I had him. 90 00:05:06,055 --> 00:05:09,559 There was nothing that was going to happen to him, but he wasn't so sure. 91 00:05:10,376 --> 00:05:12,111 That's doubt 92 00:05:12,111 --> 00:05:14,247 that what happens? 93 00:05:14,247 --> 00:05:17,066 What do we do when we find ourselves 94 00:05:17,066 --> 00:05:20,069 doubting God? 95 00:05:20,153 --> 00:05:23,156 We find ourselves afraid of where God might take us. 96 00:05:23,156 --> 00:05:26,009 That's what this story is about. 97 00:05:26,009 --> 00:05:29,012 So if you have your Bibles, you can turn to Genesis chapter 15. 98 00:05:29,729 --> 00:05:30,780 Genesis chapter 15. 99 00:05:30,780 --> 00:05:35,518 If you could use one of our Bibles, it's on page ten, page ten. 100 00:05:36,569 --> 00:05:37,737 And here are the three points 101 00:05:37,737 --> 00:05:41,874 that I want to pull out of this great and mysterious story. 102 00:05:41,874 --> 00:05:44,994 I want to talk about Abraham and doubt 103 00:05:45,678 --> 00:05:49,399 God and doubt you and doubt 104 00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:53,302 Abraham and doubt God and doubt 105 00:05:53,302 --> 00:05:56,989 you and doubt first Abraham and doubt. 106 00:05:56,989 --> 00:05:58,191 Now I'm going to be. 107 00:05:58,191 --> 00:06:01,110 I'll probably make some mistakes throughout this message. 108 00:06:01,110 --> 00:06:02,311 I'll call Abraham. 109 00:06:02,311 --> 00:06:05,698 Sometimes I'll call him Abraham, sometimes I'll call him Abraham. 110 00:06:06,566 --> 00:06:07,550 His name is Abraham. 111 00:06:07,550 --> 00:06:09,685 Here in chapter 15. 112 00:06:09,685 --> 00:06:12,688 In chapter 17, God changes his name to Abraham. 113 00:06:13,673 --> 00:06:15,324 The name Abraham means father. 114 00:06:15,324 --> 00:06:18,327 The name Abraham means father of many. 115 00:06:18,594 --> 00:06:21,381 That's a promise made promise kept by God, 116 00:06:21,381 --> 00:06:24,384 which we'll get to go first point 117 00:06:25,068 --> 00:06:29,605 Abraham and doubt the story begins with Abraham being afraid, 118 00:06:30,506 --> 00:06:34,127 and you have to ask why was he afraid? 119 00:06:34,127 --> 00:06:37,430 This is the first verse of Genesis chapter 15. 120 00:06:37,430 --> 00:06:41,701 After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. 121 00:06:41,701 --> 00:06:44,754 Fear not, Abraham, I am your shield. 122 00:06:44,754 --> 00:06:47,190 Your reward shall be very great. 123 00:06:48,558 --> 00:06:51,144 It says, after these things. 124 00:06:51,144 --> 00:06:53,813 Now the reason that Abraham was afraid. 125 00:06:53,813 --> 00:06:56,699 We covered chapter 13 last week. 126 00:06:56,699 --> 00:06:57,917 This is chapter 15. 127 00:06:57,917 --> 00:07:00,269 We skipped over chapter 14. 128 00:07:00,269 --> 00:07:04,891 In chapter 14, Abraham's nephew lot has been kidnaped 129 00:07:05,458 --> 00:07:09,228 by some marauding tribal chieftains. 130 00:07:09,896 --> 00:07:12,682 Abraham goes and rescues lot, and he does it with a military 131 00:07:12,682 --> 00:07:14,700 kind of operation. 132 00:07:14,700 --> 00:07:18,654 And now he is concerned about possible retaliation. 133 00:07:18,654 --> 00:07:21,407 That's why he's scared. 134 00:07:21,407 --> 00:07:24,527 Sometimes dread of the future, 135 00:07:24,527 --> 00:07:27,830 of what the future holds can make us doubt. 136 00:07:29,031 --> 00:07:30,299 So Abraham is afraid. 137 00:07:30,299 --> 00:07:33,302 God shows up in a vision and speaks to him 138 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:36,239 very, very unusual. 139 00:07:36,239 --> 00:07:39,542 This is the way God speaks to prophets in the Old Testament. 140 00:07:40,226 --> 00:07:42,211 It's unmistakably God. 141 00:07:42,211 --> 00:07:46,015 Abraham knows that, and God says, fear not. 142 00:07:46,015 --> 00:07:47,600 Abraham calls him by name. 143 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:49,802 And then he says, I am your shield. 144 00:07:49,802 --> 00:07:53,189 Your reward shall be very great to Maisie. 145 00:07:53,189 --> 00:07:54,774 Incredible. What's interesting is 146 00:07:55,758 --> 00:07:58,494 it doesn't do the trick for Abraham. 147 00:07:58,494 --> 00:08:00,947 Like Abraham doesn't respond by going, oh yeah, thanks. 148 00:08:00,947 --> 00:08:03,483 Oh, that that solves everything. 149 00:08:03,483 --> 00:08:03,833 It's great. 150 00:08:03,833 --> 00:08:05,184 I feel much better now. 151 00:08:05,184 --> 00:08:07,286 You're my shield. Nothing's going to happen. 152 00:08:07,286 --> 00:08:08,521 I'm not afraid anymore. 153 00:08:08,521 --> 00:08:10,473 That's not what he says. 154 00:08:10,473 --> 00:08:12,408 What Abraham says to God. 155 00:08:12,408 --> 00:08:14,327 This is amazing to me. 156 00:08:14,327 --> 00:08:17,997 He blows right past that and he says, you mentioned reward. 157 00:08:18,197 --> 00:08:20,449 I want to talk to you about that. Right. 158 00:08:20,449 --> 00:08:22,101 That's what he says. 159 00:08:22,101 --> 00:08:26,239 If you've ever struggled with doubt, this story should make you feel better. 160 00:08:27,390 --> 00:08:29,091 What happens with Abraham is he. 161 00:08:29,091 --> 00:08:32,612 He blows past God saying, I am your shield. 162 00:08:33,296 --> 00:08:37,300 And he says, listen, God, you you've made a statement. 163 00:08:37,316 --> 00:08:39,569 You're going to make my name great. 164 00:08:39,569 --> 00:08:41,370 My reward will be great. 165 00:08:41,370 --> 00:08:44,423 But what good is reward if I don't have a son? 166 00:08:44,423 --> 00:08:45,808 That's verse three. 167 00:08:46,909 --> 00:08:48,211 And Abraham said, behold, you 168 00:08:48,211 --> 00:08:51,981 have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my. 169 00:08:51,981 --> 00:08:57,086 And that's the first type of doubt Abraham brings to God. 170 00:08:57,086 --> 00:09:00,990 He says, God, I'm not so sure you're going to do what you say you're going to do. 171 00:09:01,224 --> 00:09:03,609 I'm not seeing it 172 00:09:03,609 --> 00:09:04,794 right. 173 00:09:04,794 --> 00:09:09,782 And God deals with that doubt in verses four through seven. 174 00:09:09,782 --> 00:09:14,237 And you say wonderful way, which I'll get to my second point. 175 00:09:15,571 --> 00:09:19,008 But then Abraham, after God deals with that doubt, 176 00:09:19,008 --> 00:09:22,011 Abraham introduces a different type of doubt. 177 00:09:23,062 --> 00:09:25,831 The first doubt is about God, right? 178 00:09:25,831 --> 00:09:29,268 I'm not sure God will do what he says he's going to do. 179 00:09:30,236 --> 00:09:32,455 That's in verse two 180 00:09:32,455 --> 00:09:35,424 where it says, And Abraham said, O Lord God, what will you give me? 181 00:09:35,424 --> 00:09:40,279 For I continued, childless, in the air of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. 182 00:09:41,397 --> 00:09:44,400 But the second kind of doubt is different. 183 00:09:44,450 --> 00:09:47,453 The second doubt is in verse eight. 184 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:52,825 And Abraham said, O Lord God, how am I to know that I will possess it? 185 00:09:53,793 --> 00:09:55,011 The first doubt is about God. 186 00:09:55,011 --> 00:09:57,363 The second doubt is about Abraham. 187 00:09:57,363 --> 00:10:00,449 He said, how do I how do I know I won't mess it up 188 00:10:00,783 --> 00:10:04,637 so badly that the promise won't come true because of me, right? 189 00:10:05,037 --> 00:10:09,141 Two types of doubt that we can have in our relationship with God. 190 00:10:09,742 --> 00:10:13,496 God deals with both types of doubt and he deals with them differently. 191 00:10:13,980 --> 00:10:17,700 And that brings me with my second point God and down. 192 00:10:18,651 --> 00:10:22,021 God is incredibly patient with Abraham. 193 00:10:22,772 --> 00:10:25,908 Now the story starts out with Abraham being afraid of a possible 194 00:10:26,876 --> 00:10:29,879 attack retaliation attack. 195 00:10:29,879 --> 00:10:34,050 God shows up and speaks to him in an audible voice 196 00:10:34,517 --> 00:10:37,820 and says, I am your shield. 197 00:10:38,988 --> 00:10:40,890 How incredible would that be? 198 00:10:40,890 --> 00:10:43,893 What God is saying to Abraham, you don't have to be afraid. 199 00:10:43,943 --> 00:10:47,747 Anyone who comes after you will have to go through me, 200 00:10:48,447 --> 00:10:50,966 and that's not going to happen. 201 00:10:50,966 --> 00:10:53,102 And Abraham doesn't even acknowledge that. 202 00:10:53,102 --> 00:10:56,238 He doesn't even acknowledge the amazing thing 203 00:10:56,238 --> 00:10:59,241 that God has done to quell his fear. 204 00:10:59,458 --> 00:11:04,080 Be like, if you were having trouble paying your bills, 205 00:11:04,730 --> 00:11:07,917 and then you get a call from an enormously wealthy 206 00:11:07,917 --> 00:11:11,220 person who has more money than you can even imagine. 207 00:11:11,220 --> 00:11:13,105 And the wealthy person says, listen, 208 00:11:13,105 --> 00:11:15,141 I understand you're struggling with paying your bills. 209 00:11:15,141 --> 00:11:17,276 I want you to know you don't have to worry about that anymore. 210 00:11:17,276 --> 00:11:19,862 I'll pay all your bills from now on. 211 00:11:19,862 --> 00:11:21,747 Send me every bill. I'll take care of it. 212 00:11:22,948 --> 00:11:24,266 And you, 213 00:11:24,266 --> 00:11:28,971 without even saying thank you, you say, oh, now that I have 214 00:11:28,971 --> 00:11:32,091 you on your on the phone, I have another issue you can help me with. 215 00:11:32,942 --> 00:11:34,944 That's what Abraham does to God. 216 00:11:34,944 --> 00:11:37,463 And when he says to God, he brings up these two doubts. 217 00:11:37,463 --> 00:11:38,931 The first doubt is about God. 218 00:11:38,931 --> 00:11:41,934 When he says, God, how do I know? 219 00:11:42,802 --> 00:11:44,186 How do I know you're going to? 220 00:11:44,186 --> 00:11:48,140 You know, sometimes people think that guy gets frustrated when we doubt 221 00:11:48,741 --> 00:11:51,677 he does it because he deals with Abraham 222 00:11:51,677 --> 00:11:54,680 in such a gentle and tender way. 223 00:11:54,930 --> 00:11:57,299 Abraham called God into question. 224 00:11:57,299 --> 00:12:00,352 How do I know you're going to do what you say you're going to do? 225 00:12:00,986 --> 00:12:03,989 And what God does is this this is verse five. 226 00:12:05,157 --> 00:12:06,926 It says, and he brought him outside 227 00:12:06,926 --> 00:12:10,012 and said, look toward heaven and number the stars. 228 00:12:10,012 --> 00:12:11,931 If you're able to number them. 229 00:12:11,931 --> 00:12:14,934 Then he said to them, so shall your offspring be. 230 00:12:15,084 --> 00:12:17,670 You can almost see God putting his arm around 231 00:12:17,670 --> 00:12:20,906 Abraham, taking him outside, and say, look up, Abraham, 232 00:12:22,007 --> 00:12:23,726 look up at the stars. 233 00:12:23,726 --> 00:12:27,413 Very few things can fill my my heart with all 234 00:12:28,431 --> 00:12:31,467 like a star filled night on a cloudless night. 235 00:12:32,368 --> 00:12:34,620 There have been times where my wife and I have been 236 00:12:34,620 --> 00:12:37,790 in a place where it's completely dark, you know, ambient light. 237 00:12:37,823 --> 00:12:40,493 We've taken a blanket and laid it on the ground 238 00:12:40,493 --> 00:12:45,297 and just laid down and looked up at layers upon layers of stars. 239 00:12:46,198 --> 00:12:49,201 That's what God does to Abraham. 240 00:12:49,802 --> 00:12:50,753 He takes him outside. 241 00:12:50,753 --> 00:12:51,954 He says, look up at the stars. 242 00:12:51,954 --> 00:12:58,277 Let your heart be filled with all of what I can do. 243 00:12:59,161 --> 00:13:02,031 Then the second thing he does is in verse 244 00:13:02,031 --> 00:13:06,619 seven he says, I am the Lord who brought you out 245 00:13:06,619 --> 00:13:10,339 from ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land, to possess. 246 00:13:11,123 --> 00:13:13,459 The second thing he does with Abraham, he says, 247 00:13:13,459 --> 00:13:17,029 remember what I've already done for you, right? 248 00:13:17,029 --> 00:13:20,749 Remember, I'm the one who brought you step by step from here of the Chaldeans 249 00:13:20,883 --> 00:13:21,534 to here. 250 00:13:21,534 --> 00:13:24,003 You are here because I brought you here. 251 00:13:25,554 --> 00:13:27,623 When Abraham doubts God 252 00:13:27,623 --> 00:13:30,626 whether God's going to do what he says he's going to do, 253 00:13:31,577 --> 00:13:34,380 God tells him to do two things 254 00:13:34,380 --> 00:13:36,081 look up 255 00:13:36,081 --> 00:13:38,934 and let your heart be filled with awe, 256 00:13:38,934 --> 00:13:44,790 and look back on my faithfulness in the past and what I've already done 257 00:13:44,790 --> 00:13:46,225 for you. 258 00:13:46,225 --> 00:13:49,228 It's the way God deals with the first kind of doubt. 259 00:13:50,095 --> 00:13:54,033 And then Abraham, after God does that and Abraham says, but what about me? 260 00:13:54,917 --> 00:13:58,521 What if I mess up this whole thing, and I mess up so badly 261 00:13:58,521 --> 00:14:01,524 that you can't fulfill your promise? 262 00:14:01,891 --> 00:14:04,226 And this is where it really gets interesting, 263 00:14:04,226 --> 00:14:07,229 because something mysterious happens there. 264 00:14:07,646 --> 00:14:10,082 God tells Abraham, 265 00:14:10,082 --> 00:14:12,001 go get some animals. 266 00:14:12,001 --> 00:14:14,003 Go get a heifer, a goat, a 267 00:14:14,003 --> 00:14:17,006 ram, a turtledove, and a pigeon. 268 00:14:17,273 --> 00:14:17,990 Right? 269 00:14:17,990 --> 00:14:23,162 And it sounds so strange to us for God to say that, but but Abraham knew 270 00:14:23,162 --> 00:14:27,449 exactly what God was doing when God told him to go get those animals. 271 00:14:27,449 --> 00:14:30,536 And the reason I say that is that he doesn't ask any questions. 272 00:14:30,753 --> 00:14:31,337 He doesn't go, 273 00:14:32,388 --> 00:14:32,872 tell me. 274 00:14:32,872 --> 00:14:34,857 Tell me that list again. 275 00:14:34,857 --> 00:14:36,659 Why do we get those animals? 276 00:14:36,659 --> 00:14:38,961 He doesn't bring them on a rope. 277 00:14:38,961 --> 00:14:41,597 Like to go and say, now what am I supposed to do? No. 278 00:14:41,597 --> 00:14:45,267 He immediately goes, gets, gets the animals, slaughters them, 279 00:14:45,568 --> 00:14:48,571 saws them in half, right? 280 00:14:49,521 --> 00:14:53,392 Because he knows what God is doing, what God is doing. 281 00:14:53,392 --> 00:14:58,998 Is he saying to Abraham, if you doubt you, this is what I want you to do. 282 00:14:58,998 --> 00:15:00,950 I want you to prepare 283 00:15:00,950 --> 00:15:04,203 to make a covenant with me in the ancient world. 284 00:15:04,203 --> 00:15:08,757 That's the way a covenant was made, you know, now we call them contracts. 285 00:15:09,291 --> 00:15:12,745 Like if if you make a promise with someone else, like, 286 00:15:12,745 --> 00:15:15,748 we're about to go through a building program here at KCC, 287 00:15:15,864 --> 00:15:17,750 every Minute Matters is going to be awesome. 288 00:15:17,750 --> 00:15:21,620 We're going to have a lot of contracts, contracts that we will sign 289 00:15:21,620 --> 00:15:24,924 where somebody will say, I promise to do this work. 290 00:15:24,924 --> 00:15:28,460 And we say, we promise to pay you this amount. 291 00:15:28,460 --> 00:15:32,364 That's what you do to make sure somebody fulfills their promise. 292 00:15:32,898 --> 00:15:35,901 In the ancient world, they didn't have contracts, they had covenants, 293 00:15:36,468 --> 00:15:39,622 and it was literally meant to cut a covenant. 294 00:15:39,622 --> 00:15:41,690 What they would do is take animals. 295 00:15:41,690 --> 00:15:45,594 They would slaughter them, cut them in half and make a path between them. 296 00:15:46,462 --> 00:15:49,098 And then if you were if you were making a covenant 297 00:15:49,098 --> 00:15:52,284 with somebody, you would say, I promise to do this. 298 00:15:52,651 --> 00:15:55,921 And then you would walk through the path, and by walking through the path, 299 00:15:55,921 --> 00:16:00,476 you would say to everybody around, if I do not fulfill my promise, 300 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:04,196 may this be done to me, may be slaughtered 301 00:16:04,196 --> 00:16:07,199 like these animals may be cut off. 302 00:16:07,383 --> 00:16:08,400 Right? 303 00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:12,321 So when when God says to Abraham, go get these animals, 304 00:16:12,805 --> 00:16:15,658 Abraham knows he's about to cut a covenant with God. 305 00:16:15,658 --> 00:16:17,242 So he prepares everything. 306 00:16:17,242 --> 00:16:20,162 And then something very mysterious happens. 307 00:16:20,162 --> 00:16:23,932 First, a deep and dreadful darkness falls. 308 00:16:23,932 --> 00:16:26,935 It's a supernatural darkness. 309 00:16:27,453 --> 00:16:29,905 Then a flaming torch, 310 00:16:29,905 --> 00:16:32,908 a smoking fire pot appear 311 00:16:32,992 --> 00:16:38,213 and those two things are really hard to translate from the Hebrew to English. 312 00:16:38,731 --> 00:16:42,985 It's better to go to the book of Exodus when when God leads the people 313 00:16:42,985 --> 00:16:48,240 out of Egypt, he leads them with what is called the Shekinah glory. 314 00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:53,212 It's is his visible presence, and they describe it as a pillar of fire 315 00:16:53,912 --> 00:16:56,899 by night, a pillar of cloud by day. 316 00:16:57,633 --> 00:17:00,152 That's what appeared for Abraham. 317 00:17:00,152 --> 00:17:03,422 And that that visible presence of God 318 00:17:03,689 --> 00:17:09,378 pulsing with energy and power and danger, appears 319 00:17:09,378 --> 00:17:15,417 and then goes through the piece, the path, the, the, the pieces of animals. 320 00:17:16,468 --> 00:17:18,287 And there are two surprises. 321 00:17:18,287 --> 00:17:21,290 The first surprises, that is that God goes through. 322 00:17:21,557 --> 00:17:25,127 And I say that because if you made if you're in the ancient world, 323 00:17:25,127 --> 00:17:28,881 you made a covenant with a neighbor, you would both walk through, right? 324 00:17:28,881 --> 00:17:31,700 You would walk through, they would walk through. They you'd both promise. 325 00:17:31,700 --> 00:17:34,770 But if you were in the ancient world, you made a covenant with a king. 326 00:17:35,270 --> 00:17:36,955 Only you would walk through. 327 00:17:36,955 --> 00:17:39,892 The king wouldn't walk through the king and say, I don't need you. 328 00:17:39,892 --> 00:17:41,093 You go through. 329 00:17:41,093 --> 00:17:42,411 I'm not going through. 330 00:17:42,411 --> 00:17:44,430 But instead God goes through. 331 00:17:44,430 --> 00:17:47,733 And what God is saying to Abraham, if I don't fulfill my promise to you, 332 00:17:48,417 --> 00:17:49,585 may this be done to me. 333 00:17:49,585 --> 00:17:52,588 May I be slaughtered, may I be cut off. 334 00:17:53,388 --> 00:17:56,391 The second surprise is Abraham doesn't walk through 335 00:17:57,409 --> 00:18:00,813 a God doesn't make Abraham make that same promise. 336 00:18:00,929 --> 00:18:06,018 What God is doing is saying, my promise is solely dependent on me. 337 00:18:06,752 --> 00:18:09,738 If I fail, may this be done to me. 338 00:18:10,022 --> 00:18:12,808 Abraham, if you fail, may this be done to me. 339 00:18:12,808 --> 00:18:14,543 I will walk through. 340 00:18:14,543 --> 00:18:18,781 For both of us is a covenant of grace. 341 00:18:19,698 --> 00:18:22,101 That brings to my third point, 342 00:18:22,101 --> 00:18:25,104 which is doubt in you. 343 00:18:25,637 --> 00:18:29,908 Faith and doubt are closely connected, 344 00:18:30,242 --> 00:18:34,346 and God knows that faith and doubt are like cousins. 345 00:18:34,830 --> 00:18:36,932 You can't have one without the other. 346 00:18:36,932 --> 00:18:41,937 I remember reading a quote years ago and that it was something like this. 347 00:18:41,937 --> 00:18:46,141 In order to believe greatly, in order to have great faith, 348 00:18:46,141 --> 00:18:48,527 one must doubt greatly. 349 00:18:48,527 --> 00:18:51,146 And I looked for it all week and I couldn't find where 350 00:18:51,146 --> 00:18:52,731 I read it or who wrote it. 351 00:18:52,731 --> 00:18:56,752 But it's helped me through the years when I found myself 352 00:18:56,969 --> 00:18:59,905 in doubt of anything that has to do with God. 353 00:19:01,373 --> 00:19:03,559 Doubt will happen 354 00:19:03,559 --> 00:19:07,646 because faith and doubt ebb and flow in all of our lives. 355 00:19:08,664 --> 00:19:10,532 It will ebb and flow in your life. 356 00:19:10,532 --> 00:19:15,120 What do we do when when doubt seems like it's getting the upper hand? 357 00:19:16,188 --> 00:19:19,224 If you're doubting today, this is what you do. 358 00:19:19,224 --> 00:19:23,428 If you're doubting God, do what God said to Abraham. 359 00:19:24,029 --> 00:19:26,431 Look up and look back. First. 360 00:19:26,431 --> 00:19:27,933 Look up. 361 00:19:27,933 --> 00:19:30,802 Find a way to fill your heart with. 362 00:19:30,802 --> 00:19:35,390 Or it may be laying out on a cloudless night, 363 00:19:35,390 --> 00:19:39,444 looking up at the stars and just saying to 364 00:19:39,444 --> 00:19:42,981 God, this is amazing right there. 365 00:19:43,015 --> 00:19:47,102 There are things that God has given to fill your heart with all. 366 00:19:47,102 --> 00:19:51,657 The great poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning said, Earth is crammed with heaven 367 00:19:52,007 --> 00:19:55,677 and every common bush of fire with the glory of God. 368 00:19:55,677 --> 00:19:58,463 For him who has eyes to see. 369 00:19:58,463 --> 00:20:02,217 There are things all around this part of what a worship service is intended to do. 370 00:20:02,217 --> 00:20:05,037 That's why we create the worship services that we do. 371 00:20:05,037 --> 00:20:06,922 With all that's going on. 372 00:20:06,922 --> 00:20:10,525 It's is to create a sense of awe in you, 373 00:20:11,627 --> 00:20:14,897 because all is the way that God says 374 00:20:14,897 --> 00:20:18,567 you deal with the doubt that you might have about him, 375 00:20:19,101 --> 00:20:24,773 that your heart be filled with on what God can do, but then also look back. 376 00:20:25,591 --> 00:20:28,727 Look back on God's faithfulness to you. 377 00:20:29,544 --> 00:20:33,048 If you're here today, God has already done a thousand things, 378 00:20:33,048 --> 00:20:37,803 10,000 things to get you right here, right now. 379 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:41,940 Pastor Zach calls it building the Resumé of God, 380 00:20:41,940 --> 00:20:46,561 and it helps tremendously for me to take the time to look back on 381 00:20:46,561 --> 00:20:47,396 what God has done. 382 00:20:47,396 --> 00:20:48,931 That's why in the Old Testament, 383 00:20:48,931 --> 00:20:51,950 the prophets are constantly telling the people of God, look back. 384 00:20:51,950 --> 00:20:53,635 Remember what God has done. 385 00:20:53,635 --> 00:20:56,638 Remember, don't forget, 386 00:20:56,972 --> 00:20:57,923 that's the first thing. 387 00:20:57,923 --> 00:21:01,677 But the big thing is to look to Jesus, right? 388 00:21:01,710 --> 00:21:04,730 The greatest thing that God did for Abraham 389 00:21:05,747 --> 00:21:06,348 is that he 390 00:21:06,348 --> 00:21:11,870 he cut this covenant with him, a covenant solely based on himself, 391 00:21:12,387 --> 00:21:16,041 where he was saying to Abraham, I will walk through for me 392 00:21:16,041 --> 00:21:20,128 if I fail to fulfill my promise, may this be done to me. 393 00:21:20,128 --> 00:21:23,515 But if you fail, may this be done to me. 394 00:21:23,515 --> 00:21:29,087 I will take responsibility for my failure or for your failure. 395 00:21:29,087 --> 00:21:32,090 It was a covenant of grace. 396 00:21:32,507 --> 00:21:34,826 In Mark chapter 15, 397 00:21:34,826 --> 00:21:38,780 when Jesus is being crucified, this is what it says. 398 00:21:38,814 --> 00:21:41,967 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness 399 00:21:41,967 --> 00:21:44,970 over the whole land until the ninth hour. 400 00:21:45,654 --> 00:21:47,889 That's a deep and dreadful darkness. 401 00:21:47,889 --> 00:21:50,809 That's a supernatural darkness that fell. 402 00:21:50,809 --> 00:21:52,194 Isaiah 53. 403 00:21:52,194 --> 00:21:54,980 The prophet, talking about the suffering servant, 404 00:21:54,980 --> 00:21:57,833 says he will be cut off from the land of the living. 405 00:21:57,833 --> 00:21:59,901 That's covenantal language. 406 00:21:59,901 --> 00:22:03,739 He will be cut off when God, when Jesus cries out 407 00:22:03,739 --> 00:22:07,559 on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 408 00:22:07,559 --> 00:22:08,360 What's he doing? 409 00:22:09,745 --> 00:22:11,997 He's paying the price 410 00:22:11,997 --> 00:22:14,066 for your failure. 411 00:22:14,066 --> 00:22:16,735 For my failure 412 00:22:16,735 --> 00:22:18,620 because it's a covenant of grace. 413 00:22:18,620 --> 00:22:23,642 That's why Paul will write in Galatians chapter three, Christ redeemed us 414 00:22:23,642 --> 00:22:26,628 from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. 415 00:22:27,512 --> 00:22:30,532 For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree, 416 00:22:31,350 --> 00:22:34,436 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham 417 00:22:34,653 --> 00:22:37,639 might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive 418 00:22:37,773 --> 00:22:40,759 the promised spirit through faith. 419 00:22:41,693 --> 00:22:43,412 Two types of doubt 420 00:22:43,412 --> 00:22:46,398 you can have in your relationship with God 421 00:22:46,398 --> 00:22:48,750 when you're doubting God, and whether he will 422 00:22:48,750 --> 00:22:51,737 fulfill his promises to you. 423 00:22:52,104 --> 00:22:53,672 Look up. 424 00:22:53,672 --> 00:22:54,923 Look back. 425 00:22:54,923 --> 00:22:58,794 Find a way to fill your heart with awe. 426 00:22:59,511 --> 00:23:02,814 Look back on his faithfulness to you in the past 427 00:23:03,331 --> 00:23:06,318 so you know you can trust him in the future. 428 00:23:07,819 --> 00:23:09,287 But when you're worried about 429 00:23:09,287 --> 00:23:14,242 messing up your life to such a degree that God will not be able 430 00:23:14,242 --> 00:23:17,245 to fulfill his promise to you, then you look to Jesus. 431 00:23:18,413 --> 00:23:20,632 Because what God did for Abraham, 432 00:23:20,632 --> 00:23:23,635 he did for us through Jesus. 433 00:23:23,702 --> 00:23:28,440 For God said, my promise is solely dependent on me. 434 00:23:29,124 --> 00:23:32,127 It's a covenant of grace 435 00:23:33,361 --> 00:23:34,980 through Jesus. 436 00:23:34,980 --> 00:23:37,983 It's a promise made and a promise kept. 437 00:23:38,750 --> 00:23:41,520 Do you pray with me? 438 00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:44,523 Father in heaven, we come to you. And, 439 00:23:44,573 --> 00:23:45,807 I pray for all of this. 440 00:23:45,807 --> 00:23:50,061 I pray that sometime this week, for every one of us, 441 00:23:50,061 --> 00:23:53,064 you would fill our hearts with, 442 00:23:54,032 --> 00:23:56,218 help us to remember all that you have done 443 00:23:56,218 --> 00:24:00,288 in your faithfulness in our past, so that we can trust you in the future. 444 00:24:00,288 --> 00:24:04,342 When doubt enters in and if doubt is creeping into anyone's 445 00:24:04,342 --> 00:24:07,345 heart right now, I pray that you'd help them 446 00:24:07,462 --> 00:24:09,931 to look up and look back. 447 00:24:09,931 --> 00:24:11,283 But more than anything, 448 00:24:12,567 --> 00:24:15,003 we thank you for Jesus, 449 00:24:15,003 --> 00:24:17,939 the one who who cut the covenant 450 00:24:17,939 --> 00:24:22,711 for us so that regardless of whether we fail or not, 451 00:24:23,478 --> 00:24:26,248 your promises stay true 452 00:24:26,248 --> 00:24:29,818 because the promise is solely dependent on Jesus. 453 00:24:30,685 --> 00:24:34,556 Thank you for giving us such a wonderful Savior and we pray this in his name. 454 00:24:35,340 --> 00:24:35,807 Amen.