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The Last Chapter

{# The tooltip goes through the catalogs so the separator can follow the language - CJK wants a full-width colon and no space, not ": ". #} Children of the Promise - Part 13

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Preacher

Joshua Winters

Date
Dec. 15, 2019
Series
Children of the Promise
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Passage

Genesis 23:1-20
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Transcription

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Well, this morning we're bringing this series that we've been doing on Abraham to a close.

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And it's been quite the journey to look at Abraham's life and to see all that he has been through. And as we've gone through his story, we've seen that this is about so much more than just Abraham.

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This is really God's story. This is the story of our world. This is the story of how God is going to fix the big problem with our world. The story began with the big events that really have shaped our world, with God's creating the world, with the rebellion of humanity against God, the fall of man, with the flood, with the confusion of languages at Babel.

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And in all of this, we see a good world that became broken because of sin. We see how humanity, despite even a fresh start, having a fresh start at a couple points, is spiraling downward, away from God.

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What is God going to do to fix this? And we see a good start at a couple points, with the flood, with the flood, with the flood, with the flood. And we've seen that the start of his plan, of his solution, involves this guy named Abraham in Ur of the Chaldeans.

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God, seemingly out of nowhere, speaks to him. He, with his family, they worshipped other so-called gods over there in Ur.

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And one day, God simply revealed himself to Abraham and called him to leave his homeland and to make the journey to the land that he would show him.

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And at that time, God made some amazing promises to him, promises to bless him, promises to protect him, and the big promise to bless all the families of the earth through him.

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Abraham, by faith, obeyed, and he went to the land that he would later receive as his inheritance. When he entered Canaan, we saw how God, very, very, very soon after he entered, gave him this promise, To your offspring, I will give this land.

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And as Abraham began to settle and live in the land of Canaan, we saw very quickly that Abraham is a man just like us.

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He blew it. He sinned, just like us. He wrestled with unbelief and doubt, just like we do. He tried to take situations into his own hand and deal with it, rather than trusting God's promises at different points, just like we do.

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And yet in the midst of all of that, we watched as God was gracious to him and blessed him again and again and again. And Abraham plundered kings.

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His household grew. His possessions grew. He, in one sense, came to this moment where he has all of this stuff.

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He's got servants. He's got livestock. Everything's going well. Except for one thing. He has no children. Sarah has been barren.

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And as long as they've been married, she's been unable to conceive. And so he's got all of this. But who will it go to when he dies?

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No son. We watched as Abraham wrestled with this. And God made a covenant with him. He made promises to him.

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Your offspring will be as beyond numbering as the stars in the sky. And we saw how Abraham in that moment believed God. And on account of his faith, God gave to him or treated him as righteous, though he was a sinner.

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Finally, this whole thing about the son and the offspring. This was really the key issue in Abraham and Sarah's lives.

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God's made all of this. God's made all of these promises. But almost all of them are connected to this. Having a child. Having a son. How can all of this come true without that?

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We watched as Abraham and Sarah tried to help God out and did the surrogate motherhood thing. Heartache and division came into the family.

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He got a son, Ishmael. And then we watched as 13 years later, God said, no, it's not going to be Ishmael. Sarah is going to bear a son, Isaac.

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And he will be the one to whom this covenant and all these promises will be kept. We watched as God reaffirmed his covenant again and again.

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And finally, as this child of promise was born in Abraham and Sarah's old age. A miracle child. A gift of God.

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And then we watched as well as it came to the moment of ultimate testing for Abraham when God asked him to sacrifice this son. And he passed the test.

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He was willing. And God did not have him go through with it at the end. And in all of this, we've seen how Abraham has been learning little by little to trust the Lord.

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And a little more and a little more. To take God at his word. And to live according to those promises. And we've watched at the same time as Abraham is growing in his faith and trust.

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God seems to be promising more and more. And the promises of what God will do for Abraham and his offspring are growing. Finally, we come today to the last chapter of Abraham's story.

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If you have your Bible with you, please open it to Genesis chapter 23. Genesis chapter 23. And we're going to read this whole chapter.

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Genesis chapter 23. Sarah lived to be 127 years old. She died at Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan.

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And Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her. Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, I am a foreigner and stranger among you.

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Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead. The Hittites replied to Abraham, Sir, listen to us.

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You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead. Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites.

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He said to them, If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me and intercede with Ephron, son of Zohar, on my behalf. So he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field.

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Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you. Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city.

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No, my lord, he said, Listen to me. I give you the field and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.

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Again, Abraham bowed down before the people of the land and he said to Ephron in their hearing, Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there.

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Ephron answered Abraham, Listen to me, my lord. The land is worth 400 shekels of silver. But what is that between you and me? Bury your dead. Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, 400 shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.

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So Ephron's field in Machpelah near Mamre, both the field and the cave in it and all the trees within the borders of the field was deeded to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city.

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Afterward, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.

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After this, it talks about Isaac and Rebekah and Abraham finding a wife for Isaac. We're going to skip over that and go to chapter 25 and read there starting in verse 7.

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Abraham lived 175 years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years.

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And he was gathered to his people. His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre in the field of Ephron, son of Zohar the Hittite, the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites.

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There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. And the story goes on to focus on Isaac after this. This is the last chapter in Genesis of Abraham's life.

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And even as we see at the end, there's a lot here that really speaks about what the Lord is doing in this situation. It all starts with Sarah's death back in chapter 23.

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And it's quite telling what Abraham says when his wife passes away. He speaks to the Hittites and in verse 4 of chapter 23, he says, I'm a foreigner and stranger among you.

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Sell me some property so that I can bury my wife. It says a lot about Abraham and where things have come to until now in the story.

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I mean, by this point, we're kind of expecting that Abraham will have already bought a lot of land. And yet up until this point, he doesn't actually own any of it yet.

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And he freely admits, I'm still a stranger. I'm still a foreigner among you. Sell me a piece of land so I can bury my dead.

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And the response of the Hittites is wonderful. They are the people who would consider it their native land or their homeland.

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And in here, we see the blessing of God on Abraham's life again. They respond very favorably. You're a mighty prince among us. Take your pick. Take your pick of the choicest of tombs and bury her there.

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None of us will refuse you. So Abraham takes his pick. The field of Ephron, the Hittite.

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That's the one that I would like. I'll pay the full price. And again, we see the favor that God has upon Abraham that he's given him in the eyes of the Hittites.

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They're ready to just give the land to him. Three times Ephron says it. I give you the field. I give you the cave in it. I give it to you. Take it.

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Bury your dead. Even after Abraham offers again to pay 400 shekels of silver.

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What's that between you and me? Just take the field. Again, we see God blessing Abraham. He's given him favor in the eyes of the people that this land really belongs to.

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So Ephron's field is given to Abraham. So he buys it. And he gets his first piece of property that he owns in the promised land towards the end of his life here.

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Three times the author makes it clear it was deeded to him as his property. And right about now if we've been really following closely this story we're thinking, yes!

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Finally! This promise about the land is coming true. That's what the Lord said. I give this land to you and now Abraham has his name on some of it.

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But it's at this point that we start to realize and consider that Abraham is near the end of his life. In fact, not long after this he dies.

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And when he does we start to look back over this story and wonder just how has God kept his promises? He's made some big promises.

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How has he kept them to Abraham? Abraham. One of the first things God said was that he would bless Abraham. He certainly has kept that.

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Abraham's household has grown. His servants have increased in number. His animals. His material possessions. His wealth. Lots. He's plundered kings at different times.

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God has blessed him in that way. We read about how God credited righteousness to him. Not a physical blessing but a spiritual blessing. God is dealing with him favorably even though he doesn't deserve it.

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Yes, God has kept this promise. He has blessed Abraham the whole way along and we see that clearly. God promised also to protect Abraham. He said, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you.

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And God has done that too. We saw that when Abraham went down to Egypt and Sarah was taken. We saw that when King Abimelech took Sarah.

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In both situations, God came to Abraham and Sarah's defense and turned the situation around. We saw that when Abraham went to rescue Lot, he ended up going into battle.

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God, as he had promised, was Abraham's shield and protected him throughout his whole life. God promised to make Abraham's name great.

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Has he done that? Well, it certainly seems as though he has. I mean, Pharaoh had to give his wife back and give all this stuff to him.

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Some of the kings of the land revered him and respected him. The king of Sodom and Gomorrah who he rescued and bailed out of the situation that they were in. Yes, God has increased him in fame and made him well known and revered and respected in the land.

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And we see that again here with the Hittites. God promised that Abraham would be a blessing to others. And if the attitude and treatment of the Hittites is evidenced, then we see that he has done that as well.

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He was a blessing to Lot who he went and rescued from the hands of those kings that came to attack Sodom and Gomorrah. And then there was the promise of a son through Sarah, which God absolutely kept.

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And he didn't just, this wasn't a small thing. This was a miracle child born in old age and kept at the exact time that God said he would.

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All of these promises were kept. But what of the other promises? God promised that he would make Abraham into a great nation.

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Not yet. Not something that we could say is true yet. At this point, Abraham has Isaac.

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That's it. He's, this is a promise that isn't fulfilled yet. There's still more to come. And it's dependent on Isaac.

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He promised that Abraham's offspring would be beyond numbering, like the stars in the sky, like the sand on the seashore. Another, not yet.

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It's just Isaac. It's pretty easy to number. He's married, but they don't have any kids yet at the time that Abraham dies. There's the big promise. All families or nations on the earth will be blessed through you.

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Not even, not even a hint of how that's going to happen. I mean, that's quite the thing to say to Abraham, the guy who at the time was married to a barren woman and was living in a foreign land.

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All the families of the earth. How was that going to happen? We don't know yet. Abraham didn't know yet. God promised that he would be the father of many nations or a multitude of nations.

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Again, not yet. Not something that, that has happened yet. And all of these promises, they, they really seem to pertain to Abraham's offspring, to Isaac.

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And so, there is, there is still much to anticipate or look forward to from Abraham's perspective if God is to be faithful and keep his promise.

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And then finally, there's the promise of the land. The promise of the land. This one seems pretty obvious.

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Has God kept this promise? Well, it remains to be seen. I mean, the land is supposed to be an everlasting possession for, for Abraham and his offspring.

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They're in it right now. But if we're honest, all they've got is this little burial plot. That's a start. That's something.

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But it's not even close to the whole of what was promised. When Abraham initially arrived in the land, this is what God said, to your offspring I will give this land.

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And so in one sense, yeah, this remains to be seen. How will God do this? But then in all, most of the other times that God speaks of this promise, this is what he says in Genesis 13, verse 15.

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All the land that you see, talking to Abraham, I will give to you and your offspring forever. Verse 17 of the same chapter, walk through the length and breadth of the land for I am giving it to you.

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Referring to Abraham. Again, in chapter 15, verse 7, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you, referring to Abraham, this land, to take possession of it.

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And again, in chapter 17, verse 8, the whole land of Canaan where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you, Abraham, and your descendants after you.

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So you've got to wonder, Abraham has got to be wondering, to me or just to my descendants?

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How does this work here? In fact, we know he was thinking about it because he says that he was. He asks the Lord about this in chapter 15, verse 8. This was the time when God made a covenant with Abraham.

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Abraham. He said, Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it? I mean, think about this.

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I'm going to give this land to you. And he looks around and he sees this land is occupied. It's full of people. And they've been here for a long time.

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They've got fortified cities. There's kings in this land. They have armies, militia. How is God going to do this to me?

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What does the Lord say in response? Well, he says, let's make a covenant. There's your proof. There's your guarantee that it will happen. And then the Lord gives this word in the midst of this covenant ceremony, which we read earlier, but I'll read it again.

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He says, Know for certain that for 400 years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

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You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.

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And we imagine that Abraham is probably wondering, so what is it? Am I going to possess this land myself?

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It doesn't seem like it from this. It seems that it's going to be my descendants that will possess it and not for quite a while. 400 years. The Amorites are going to stay in the land until their sins pile up to the measure and it'll be 400 years.

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But Lord, you said to me, you would give this land. Did you only really mean to my descendants, to my offspring?

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Are they going to kind of receive it on my behalf? Did God keep this promise? it seems like he started to by the end.

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He's got this field now, this burial plot. But is that it? We're kind of left to wonder, did God fail to keep this promise to Abraham?

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It's at this point that we're going to flip to the New Testament, book of Hebrews, chapter 11. Thankfully, we're not left to just try to figure this out for ourselves.

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We actually have inspired commentary that points back and helps us see a little bit of what's going on here. Hebrews, chapter 11. The author of Hebrews is writing to Jewish believers to encourage them in their faith.

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And he's giving examples of people who have demonstrated faith. And Abraham is one of them. And it's here that we learn some things about Abraham and what we're meant to really take from Abraham and his life.

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Verse 8. By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.

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that's interesting. You hear those words? A place he would later receive as his inheritance. Was that a mistake?

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You mean he didn't receive it? He died. He got the burial plot. What do you mean a place he would later receive as his inheritance? Let's keep going.

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Verse 9. By faith, Abraham made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents as did Isaac and Jacob who were heirs with him of the same promise.

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For he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. the author of Hebrews is putting the emphasis here on faith.

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That's what he wants us to see of Abraham. His faith. By faith, he did this. And what did he do? He made his home in the promised land.

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Literally, he lived among the people of the promised land and he did it as a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents.

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But he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. What is the author of Hebrews saying here?

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He seems to be contrasting the whole tents and foreigner with city. And if you think about it, it makes sense. A tent is a temporary thing.

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It's not a permanent dwelling. I mean, Abraham, this is not a perfect analogy, but Abraham is like a guy who brought his camper into the Davidson campground and has been living there for half a lifetime.

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There's a sense of this is temporary. This is not a permanent kind of dwelling. thing. Why did Abraham pitch his tent in this country in which he was a foreigner and a stranger?

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That's the author of Hebrews point by faith because he believed the promise of God, which was I will give this land to you and to your offspring.

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God said it. I believe it. And so I'm going to pitch my tent here. It's not comfortable to be a foreigner, a stranger, to be the one that doesn't speak the native tongue, all that's involved with that, to be the guy who worships Yahweh and not Baal and these other gods who stands out like a sore thumb.

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But he pitched his tent there because God gave him that promise and he believed it that one day this will be my everlasting possession, this land.

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The author of Hebrews says he was looking forward to the city who's a city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

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And I think what we're meant to take from that is that Abraham was in faith. He heard the promise of God and he looked at the land around him and thought, look at all those cities.

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One day I'm going to live in the city. I'm going to be the one who has the permanent dwelling situation here. This will be my homeland and the homeland of my descendants.

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But how is this going to happen? These cities are already occupied by other people. I think it was very clear to Abraham that this was not something he could just bring about for himself.

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No, if he was to live in a city, a permanent established dwelling place in this good land, it would be God who would have to bring that about.

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That's what I think is meant when he says he was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. He was looking for God to do it. He couldn't do that for himself.

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The author of Hebrews continues on in verse 13. After talking about Abraham and Sarah and the son, the offspring, he comes down in verse 13.

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He says, all these people were still living by faith when they died. All these people refers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who he mentioned in verse nine, and perhaps more, but at the very least those ones, they were still living by faith when they died.

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Right up to the day that Abraham died, he was trusting that the Lord would do the very things that he had promised. And here's the amazing statement which follows.

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They did not receive the things promised. You hear that? Abraham did not receive the things promised.

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Well, we looked at the promises and we saw that some of the things he already did receive. And so he's not talking about that. He's talking about the things that he didn't. And in this context, he's talking very specifically about the land.

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Back up in verse eight, a place that he would later receive as his inheritance. There's been all this reference to him as a stranger in the promised land, living in a tent rather than in a city, a permanent dwelling.

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He did not receive the land. And that's what we saw as we looked at Genesis. I'm going to give you this land, Abraham. Did he receive it? Abraham.

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The author of Hebrews helps us to just admit, no, he didn't. He got a little piece. And that's it.

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But even though he acknowledges that Abraham did not receive the things promised, at the same time, and back up in verse eight, he says a land, a place he would later receive as his inheritance.

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How does that work? How can you not receive it and yet later receive it? What's going on here?

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Let's continue on in verse 13 and see what the author of Hebrews says. He says, they did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.

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Admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. Again here, the author of Hebrews is making the point that they had faith.

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Even though they didn't see in the physical sense how this would all come about, how this land would be theirs, they saw through the eyes of faith that this would be the reality.

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They trusted that the Lord would do exactly what he promised. They welcomed it from a distance. They knew it was for a future time. For the present, in verse 13, it says, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers.

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We just read that back in Abraham said to the Hittites, I'm a foreigner. I'm a stranger among you. He admitted that.

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What does all this mean? Verse 14, the author of Hebrews is going to make the point. He's going to draw the parallel.

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He says, people who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.

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Instead, they were longing for a better country. So what's the lesson in all this? What's the principle? And I think that the author of Hebrews is trying to draw it out and make it clear.

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People who say such things, who admit that they are foreigners and stranger in the land, when God has promised that it will be their land, they show that they are looking for a country of their own.

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Literally, the word there in the original language is a homeland. A homeland. That's why Abraham stayed there. That's why he pitched his tent there, because he believed God's promise that this would be his homeland.

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That's what God promised. This land for an everlasting possession for you and your descendants. The author of Hebrews makes the point.

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If he was thinking of the homeland that he came from, Ur of the Chaldeans, he had opportunity to go back. But he didn't.

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And it was evidence of his faith. He pitched his tent here because God said, this is going to be your homeland someday.

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But notice how, let's maybe just finish that thought in verse 16.

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It says, instead of going back home to Ur of the Chaldeans, they were longing for a better homeland, a better country. That's why Abraham didn't leave.

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He knew what was back in Ur, but it didn't compare to what God had promised he would have here in this land. And so in faith, he stayed, even though he was a foreigner and a stranger.

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But as we read through this, we notice that there's a few things in here that kind of might maybe strike us as interesting here. verse 16. Instead, they were longing for a better homeland, a heavenly one.

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Hmm. Admitting in verse 13 that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. He was looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God.

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And at this point, we almost wonder, is the author of Hebrews saying that Abraham was actually heavenly minded, that he was looking not for the land, but for heaven.

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Some people see that here. And if you see that here, I bless you in seeing it that way. That's a, it's a valid interpretation. It's tough when we go back to the story of Abraham.

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Is that what he was thinking? I mean, everlasting possession. He believed that Isaac could be raised from the dead. So, I mean, he, he, he believed that these kinds of things were possible, but was he thinking about heaven even back then?

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I think there's another way to read this. And I think it's really through the lens of the author of Hebrews, the point that he's trying to make. He's, he's drawing on Abraham's life as a, as an example for us.

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He's a model for us, not just him, but, but, but all the saints of old, Isaac and Jacob. They admitted that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.

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As it pertains to them, they admitted they were foreigners and strangers in the land, but he's drawing out the principle. People who say such things show that they are looking for a homeland of their own, a heavenly one.

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As it pertains to Abraham, he was looking for, for a homeland of his own here in Canaan, where he pitched his tent. That's the promise that God gave. And it was a heavenly one, I think, in the sense, not that it's, it's up in the stars, it's in the place of heaven, but that the only way this homeland would come to pass is by the promise and, and the work of the God of heaven.

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It was God's work to, to give him this home. Not that this place came from, from heaven. If he was to have this land, God would have to establish it.

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The God of heaven. I think that's what's meant by a heavenly one. As it pertains to Abraham. Did he admit that he was a stranger on earth? That heaven was actually his real home?

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I think that he admitted he was a stranger in the land that he was. But as the author of Hebrews kind of weaves this letter and points us to how we should think today and how generations of his people should think, I think he's steering us in a bit of a different direction.

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Abraham, he trusted the Lord's promise about the land, the land of Canaan. But as it pertains to us, there is something far greater that God is doing here.

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If we flip over on some, you might not, it might be on the same page to verse 39 and 40, we see some, some confirmation of this. These were all commended for their faith.

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He goes through the whole, picks up the whole list. All of these people, they were commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. Since God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

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So Abraham was promised the land. The author of Hebrews tells us he didn't receive it before he died, but he will receive it.

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Only together with us, with the larger people of God throughout the ages. God has had a bigger plan right from the beginning.

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He's going to bring it all together for all the children of Abraham. And I think that's why the author Hebrews puts in these words, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth, longing for a better country, a heavenly one.

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At the end of 16, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared a city for them. They're not going to miss out because they died. Abraham will receive his inheritance.

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He will receive a city, a permanent dwelling to live in as an everlasting possession. He and his descendants. But God's plan was that it would come at the end, that it would come later together when all of the children of Abraham together would receive it.

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It will be a heavenly homeland, a homeland that God establishes for all his people. The God of heaven brings it.

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It will be the city, the permanent dwelling that God builds and establishes for his people. And the author of Hebrews goes on in this book to really steer us in that direction. Chapter 12, verse 22.

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You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Not the city of the earth that comes from earth, but the city that comes from heaven.

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You can picture that that moment that John sees in his revelation, the new Jerusalem descending down from heaven. What is what is the author of Hebrews saying here?

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His point is this to the Hebrews specifically who are going through persecution and suffering. He's saying, hold on to the promises that God has given by faith.

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Hang on to them just like Abraham hung on to them to the day he died. Even though he didn't get what was promised, all of it in his lifetime, he will.

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We all will. God is going to bring that day. When he, when, when he will build this, this homeland, this place for all of his people to dwell.

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It's coming. Abraham had troubles, difficulties that he went through in his life. We have troubles and difficulties that we go through in our life.

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And yet Abraham chose to stick, stick it out, to plant his, to pitch his tent here because this is what the Lord promised. We have promises too.

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In fact, we have the same promises as we've talked about in this series. Who are the children of the promise? The children of Abraham. They are those who have faith in Jesus Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female.

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Hold on to them. Don't give up on them. Hold them right to the end. God is planning something wonderful. A time in which he will keep all of the promises.

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From the very beginning to the very end. He has something prepared for us. Something special. A city. A permanent dwelling.

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For now, we live in a world that just like Abraham doesn't feel like home. We feel at times as though we're strangers.

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We're foreigners. We stick out like a sore thumb. People may ridicule us or mock us for our faith. Things may not be prospering along as well as we hoped.

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There's brokenness. There's all kinds of problems in our world. But one day when Jesus returns, it won't be that way. He will make all things new.

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He will make the world that we live in new. And it will be our home. Where righteousness will dwell forever.

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We look forward to that day. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you.

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Lord, you're coming soon.

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Lord, you're coming soon. Lord, you're coming soon. We ask that you would strengthen us in our faith in you and help us to hold on to those promises that you've given us. Lord, you're coming soon.

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We trust that. We believe that. We want to make that known, that hope that we have to the people in this community here in Davidson.

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And so help us. Strengthen us. Teach us to trust you just as you taught Abraham to trust you. Teach us to live by faith. We ask this in Christ's name.

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Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.