We have challenges as a church, as every church does, and I praise God that that is not one of our challenges.
! It's a great blessing and privilege to be a church with young, crying children. We're thankful. So we give God all the praise for that.
He grows his church by bringing folks from outside. He grows his church by giving us children inside. We're grateful for all of those.
Good morning.
Good morning, B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
And we are doing that for two reasons.
First, it prepares us to go back into our series in the book of Romans.
Romans chapter 4 will be about Abraham.
And second, it allows us to ask this question,
what does it look like to follow God in faith?
The last several weeks, we've sort of had this side quest.
In chapters 13 and 14, we've been in the story of Lot.
You'll remember that Lot is captured.
Abraham rescues him.
Has a great victory over multiple kings.
And then last week, we saw Abraham comes back.
He gives all praise and honor and glory to God.
Now we're on the other side of the Lot quest,
although we will come back to Lot next month.
This week, though, we're back to the main plot.
The main plot of Abraham and Sarai
and what is going to happen with the promises that God has made to them.
So our question this week is this.
What is the foundation of our relationship with God?
I invite you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 15.
You can turn in your Bible.
You can turn on your phone.
You can turn in your worship guide.
No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's word.
And Proverbs chapter 30, verse 5 tells us,
every word of God proves true.
He is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
And so that's why we read now Genesis chapter 15.
After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.
Fear not, Abram.
I am your shield.
Your reward shall be very great.
But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me?
For I continue childless,
and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.
And Abram said,
Behold, you have given me no offspring,
and a member of my household will be my heir.
And behold, the word of the Lord came to him.
This man shall not be your heir.
Your very own son shall be your heir.
And he brought him outside and said,
Look toward heaven and number the stars,
if you are able to number them.
Then he said to him,
So shall your offspring be.
And he believed the Lord,
and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Verse 7.
And he said to him,
I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans
to give you this land to possess.
But he said,
O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?
He said to him,
Bring me a heifer, three years old,
a female goat, three years old,
a ram, three years old,
a turtle dove,
and a young pigeon.
And he brought him all of these,
cut them in half,
and laid each half over against the other.
But he did not cut the birds in half.
And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses,
Abram drove them away.
Verse 12.
As the sun was going down,
a deep sleep fell on Abram.
And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
Then the Lord said to Abram,
Know for certain that your offspring
will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs,
and will be servants there,
and they will be afflicted for 400 years.
But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve,
and afterward they shall come out with great possessions.
As for you,
you shall go to your fathers in peace.
You shall be buried in a good old age,
and they shall come back here in the fourth generation,
for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.
Verse 17.
When the sun had gone down and it was dark,
behold,
a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch
passed between these pieces.
On that day,
the Lord made a covenant with Abram,
saying,
To your offspring I give this land,
from the river of Egypt
to the great river,
the river Euphrates,
the land of the Kenites,
the Kenizzites,
the Kadmonites,
the Hittites,
the Perizzites,
the Rephaim,
the Amorites,
the Canaanites,
the Girgashites,
and the Jebusites.
I invite you to pray with me
as we come to this portion of God's word.
Our Father in heaven,
we do praise you
for this church that you have planted
and established here
before it was ever known to any of us.
We thank you even more than that
for your word
that you have given to us
to show us
the way to walk in this world
and even more
to show us the great salvation
that you have for us in Jesus Christ.
We ask that you would send your spirit now
to help us do what we can't do on our own,
that we would be able to understand your word,
that you would speak clearly to us in it,
that we would see you
and we would see Christ.
We ask these things
in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
I know of a man
who has four children,
and at one point,
when his kids were young,
they had this ritual at bedtime
when he would ask his kids this question,
do you know that mommy and daddy love you?
It was an easy question,
and so they would just say,
yes, we know that mommy and daddy love us.
And then he would follow it up
with a second question,
do you know why mommy and daddy love you?
And they would go through
this set of answers each time.
The kids would say,
do you love us because we're good at baseball?
No.
Do you love me because I caught such a big fish?
No.
Do you love me because I'm so obedient?
No.
Maybe they're not.
Do you love me because I got good grades?
No.
I'll tell you their final answer at the end.
The real question they're asking, though, is this.
What is the basis of our relationship?
What is the foundation?
Is it your baseball?
Is it your grades?
Is it your behavior?
What is really at the bottom of all of it?
Genesis 15 presents that same question to us.
What is the foundation of our relationship with God?
Why is it that God loves us?
It's going to take us a little bit to get to the end,
the bottom of that answer,
but I want you to jump in with me
at the very beginning of chapter 15.
You have to remember that we're coming off of chapter 14.
And what happens at the very end of that chapter?
Abraham refuses to receive the spoils
offered to him by the king of Sodom.
The king of Sodom offers all of the spoils.
Abraham rejects all of the spoils.
And that helps us understand what's going on in verse 1.
God comes to him and says,
Fear not, Abram.
I am your shield.
Your reward shall be very great.
Which raises the question for us,
why is God saying this to Abram?
And why is he saying it now?
Of all the times in the narrative,
why is it this specific point
that God decides to tell him,
By the way, don't be afraid.
I'm your shield.
Your very great reward.
Well, it's very simple.
Abraham's just sacrificed for God's glory.
He's given up all these things that were his right.
Of course he's entitled to take the spoils
from rescuing Sodom, right?
And so God's saying,
Look, I see you.
I've seen the sacrifices that you've made.
I will take care of you.
Yes, you gave up everything from Sodom.
But, and,
your reward shall be very great.
Don't worry.
You gave it up.
I will take care of you.
Last week I told you about a family trip
that I went on in the year 2000
to Easley, South Carolina.
August of 2000 when I turned 11.
And you'll remember we went to help
an older relative with her house and her yard.
And when we did that trip,
that trip cost my family something.
But my dad took off a couple days of work,
which we know is precious, right?
Cost my parents the money for a hotel and gas.
And we did it.
My parents were happy to do that.
We got back home.
And within a couple of days,
a few days,
out of the blue,
my dad received an award at work.
And for that award,
he was given
two days of vacation
and $200.
The exact amount,
almost to the penny,
of the hotel and the gas.
And my mom said,
God just handed it right back.
Christian,
whatever you give,
God gives it all back.
It may not,
it probably won't be as direct
or immediate as it was
for my parents in that story.
And it may not be in this life.
But he will restore
whatever you give.
Abraham,
you've sacrificed,
you've rescued Lot,
you gave up the plunder,
you gave up the glory.
Don't worry.
I am your shield.
Your reward shall be very great.
Have you lost things
for following Jesus?
Have you given things up?
Have you sacrificed something?
Fear not.
God is your shield.
Your reward
shall be very great.
What does it look like
to follow God in faith?
Whatever we give,
we receive so much more.
If not in this life,
then in the life to come.
It turns out,
Jesus says something like this too.
Mark chapter 10,
truly I say to you,
there is no one
who has left house
or brothers
or sisters
or mother
or father
or children
or lands
for my sake
and for the gospel
who will not receive
a hundredfold now
in this time
houses
and brothers
and sisters
and mothers
and children
and lands
with persecutions
and in the age to come
eternal.
life.
Never underestimate
God's generosity.
The Lord loves his people.
Christian,
he loves you.
Your sacrifice
is not in vain.
There's a foundational question
that we have to get straight
for the rest of life.
If you're a Christian,
this question matters more
than almost any other.
Do you believe
that God will care for you
or do you not?
Do you believe
that God means it
and he'll do it
when he says,
I will never leave you
nor forsake you?
Do you believe Jesus
when he says,
not a hair
can fall
from your head
without your father
in heaven
knowing?
And underneath that,
there's an even more
important question,
which is this.
did Jesus
rise from the dead
or did
he not?
Romans chapter 8,
verse 32.
He who did not
spare his own son
but gave him up
for us all,
how will he not
also with him
graciously give us
all things?
Christian,
whatever you have lost,
do not fear.
God is your shield.
Your reward
shall be very great.
All that is good
and true.
we've been on a mountaintop.
It's now time
to go back
straight down
to sea level
in verse 2.
Abraham says,
okay God,
that is really cool.
I'm so glad
you're going to be
my shield
and my very great reward
but guess what?
That doesn't really matter
and it doesn't matter
because I don't have
a child.
Who cares
that you can replace
all this spoil?
I have no one
to give it to.
I don't have a kid.
This is verse 3
and I don't have a kid
because you haven't
given me one
and so
I have this problem.
Any spoil you give me
it's going to go
to Eliezer
of Damascus
and he's referring
most likely
to a servant here.
Hey,
there's this person
in my household.
Sarai and I
have no child.
What
does it matter?
This takes us back
to the very beginning
of the Abram story.
The very first thing
we learn about Sarai
in chapter 11
is this.
She is not able
to have children.
The promise
in chapter 12
is that despite that
they're going to be
a great nation, right?
And yet we find out
also chapter 12,
Abraham is 74 years old
and none of it
has come true.
And so Abraham says,
so what?
So what that
you're my shield?
I don't have
what matters
most.
And so God
tells him here
in verse 4,
you don't have it now
but you will.
Not only
will you have
your very own son,
verse 4,
verse 5,
number the stars.
And you can
number the stars,
you will know
the size
of your offspring.
And so we get
to verse 6,
one of the most
shocking
and important
verses
in the entire
Bible.
And it is shocking
for two reasons.
First,
I don't want you
to lose here
how staggering
it is
the difference
between the reality
and the promise.
The reality
is that Sarai
cannot have children
and that Abraham
is very old
and they actually
don't have any
children right now.
The promise
is that they
are going to
have more children
than the stars
in the sky.
God tells
this staggering
thing to Abraham
and what does he say?
Oh, okay.
And he believed
the Lord.
Why is Abraham
our great father
in the faith?
Because God
comes and gives
him something
that seems
completely impossible,
right?
And Abraham
says,
yes,
I believe that.
I'll take that,
I'll live on that,
I'll act on that.
Okay,
that's shocking.
What's even
more shocking
is the second
half of the verse.
And he counted
it to him
as righteousness.
Now to understand
how shocking
this is
and to understand
what he means
by righteousness,
we have to go
back in the story
all the way back
to Genesis chapter 3.
Remember,
Adam and Eve
rebel against God
in the garden
and they take part
of the forbidden fruit.
In that moment,
Adam and Eve
lose their righteousness.
They lose their
standing with God,
their relationship
with him.
That lack
of righteousness
as sons and daughters
of Adam and Eve
is passed on to us.
Okay?
We also don't have
right standing with God.
And we don't have that
because we daily
do not love him,
serve him,
obey him,
worship him
as we should.
And so the whole
plot of the Bible
turns on this question.
How will righteousness
be restored?
One man puts the story
of the Old Testament
in this way.
How will God's people
return to God's presence
in God's land?
How will God's people
return to God's presence
in God's land?
Which is a way of asking
how is righteousness
going to be restored
in light of humanity's
rebellion against God?
What's going to happen
now that we live
east of Eden?
And verse 6 says,
you know,
it's actually going to be
really simple.
Believe.
Believe that God's promises
are true.
that is part of the answer.
I've told you before
about the English writer
Samuel Johnson
from the 18th century
who says people need
to be reminded
more often than they need
to be instructed.
And so I'm going to remind you
of some things this morning.
You live in a world
full of voices
that are not
telling you
about various things
you need to do
to be loved
and lovable
and okay.
Some of those voices
tell you that you need
to take Botox
to look young enough.
Some of them
are telling you
that you need
to wear the right thing
and go to the right school
and be powerful enough.
Some of those voices
tell you you need
to be funny enough,
athletic enough,
have enough friends,
hold the right beliefs
for your social group.
hope.
Genesis chapter 15
says something
radically different.
What do you need
to do
to be okay,
to be right with God?
Believe.
That is what God
offers.
Christianity is the only way
to get off the treadmill
of justifying your right
to exist.
Christianity is the only way
to get off the treadmill
of justifying your right
to exist.
I'm going to ask you
to go back with me
to page three
of your worship guide.
Jim already read this
for us.
He's talking about
Abraham and his belief.
Verse 7,
blessed are those
whose lawless deeds
are forgiven
and whose sins
are covered.
Blessed is the man
against whom
the Lord
will not count
his sin.
How are your lawless deeds
going to be forgiven?
Believe.
How are your sins
going to be covered?
Believe.
How will the Lord
not count against you
your sin?
Believe.
Of course,
belief,
our belief,
is not the foundation
of a relationship
with God.
Your faith
is not some sort
of work
that justifies you.
And so we have
to keep digging
even more
into this passage.
God's promise
is believing them
part of the answer.
God calls us
to believe them.
He credits that
to us
as righteousness.
But we also have
in this passage
God's sacrifice.
Verse 8,
Abraham believes
and he needs
assurance.
Verse 7,
God's promised
him to land.
Land and descendants
are part of what's
happening here.
Verse 8,
Abraham believes,
God credits that
belief to him
as righteousness
and as a feeble,
falling,
frail person.
He is looking
for reassurance.
What happens here
in verses 9
through 17,
there's a lot
going on,
so I'm going to
summarize it for you
very briefly.
Abraham takes
five animals.
Three of those
animals get cut
in half.
Those halves
are placed
on opposite
sides
of basically
a path
that someone
can walk
through.
So I want you
to imagine
a path
or a road
and on each
side
there's the
halves
of the animals.
So on one
side you've
got heads
and the other
side you've
got tails.
I'm assuming
that's how
the animals
were cut.
And this
sounds like
a strange
practice
to most
of you.
Maybe some
of you do
this from
time to
time.
The reason
is this.
In the ancient
Near East,
if you were
making a
covenant,
an agreement,
you would
chop animals
in half
like this
and then
both parties
would walk
down the
path.
And you
were acting
out the
consequences
of breaking
your agreement.
So you
were essentially
saying,
if I don't
keep my
word on
this,
may I
be like
these
animals.
If I
break my
promise,
may I
be cut
in half.
Okay,
so that's
what's
happening.
There's a
covenant
being made
between
Abraham
and God,
animals on
each side
of the
path to
represent
the curse
for anyone
who breaks
the agreement.
Verse
17,
a smoking
fire pot
and a
flaming
torch
passed,
between
these
pieces.
So the
fire pot
and the
torch
represent
God.
God is
passing
through the
animals
and saying,
if I
don't keep
my word,
if I
break the
covenant,
may I
become like
these
animals.
Now,
did you
notice
where
Abraham
walks
between
the
animals?
No,
you didn't
because he
doesn't.
Abraham
is
left off the
hook.
That's the
wrinkle here
is that
God
upholds
both
sides.
God
breaks
it.
God
is cut
in half.
If
Abraham
breaks
it,
God
is cut
in half.
Of course,
that is
exactly
what happens,
right?
the story
of Israel
and of
mankind
is that
they
continue
to fail
to worship,
love,
serve,
and obey
God.
God
upholds
his side
of the
agreement.
Mankind
does not.
But who
does the
punishment
fall on?
It
doesn't
fall on
man.
It
falls
on
God.
Because
he is
the only
one
who
walked
between
the
halves.
Mind
blowing.
At this
point,
Abraham
is probably
shaking
with how
overwhelmed
he is.
We
don't get
cut in
half.
God
does.
I invite
you to
turn with
me to
the back
of your
worship
guide.
You'll
see this.
In
Jesus,
God
himself
bears the
punishment
of being
almost
literally
torn apart
by the
whips,
the
thorns,
the
nails,
and the
spear for
our sin
so that
he could
be faithful
to his
promise to
be our
God,
that we
might be
his people
through
simple
faith in
him.
What is
the foundation
of our
relationship
with God?
First of
all,
it's
belief in
his
promises
which he
credits to
us as
righteousness.
Second,
it is the
sacrifice that
God takes
upon himself
that Jesus
dies the
death that
we deserve
for our
sins and
lives the
perfect life
that we
should have
lived.
But I
want you to
dig underneath
that even
deeper because
there is a
deeper
foundation.
If we
say that
Christ's
death is the
foundation
ultimately,
then we have
to say in
some ways that
Jesus was
convincing God
to love
us.
But what
does John
chapter 3
tell us?
For God
so loved
the world
that he
gave his
only son
that whoever
believes in
him should
not perish
but have
eternal life.
You notice
the sequence?
God loved
the world
first,
sent his
son.
I told you
at the
beginning I
know a man
who has
four kids.
and when
he puts
his kids
to bed
he has
a ritual
with them
and he
asks them
do you
know that
mommy and
daddy love
you?
And they
say yes.
And then
he asks
them do you
know why
mommy and
daddy love
you?
And they
go through
all the
reasons that
are not
true.
It's not
because you
bought a
big fish.
It's not
because you're
so obedient.
You're probably
not.
It is not
because you're
good at
school.
It's not
because you're
so funny.
They get to
the end of
the questions
and the dad
finally says
this.
We love
you because
you are
our child
and that
will never
change.
Christian,
what is the
foundation of
your relationship
with God?
He loves
you because
you're his
child and
that will
never change.
love.
Let's
pray.
Our
Father in
heaven,
we do
praise you
and thank
you for
your great
love,
love beyond
what we
can
comprehend
and
understand.
We ask
that we
would turn
to you
rather than
all the
other things
that offer
to make
us okay
because we
know that
you and
you alone
can give
us the
righteousness
that matters.
We ask
these things
in Jesus'
name.
Amen.