a beautiful song. If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to Genesis chapter 15.
Genesis chapter 15. Benjamin Franklin once wrote in a letter that there are only two things certain
in life, death and taxes. And for some of you, that may not be that funny coming in the week
coming up. But anyway, I want you to see some other certainties in life today.
And we look at a passage that, you know, there's always those folks who write in their Bibles
when the preacher preached a sermon and write the date down. And so if you ever do use it again or
even preach from that passage, they come back and tell you, you know, you preach that back, you know.
So if you're one of those smart addicts, I dealt with this passage before Easter and had planned
to preach this sermon on a Sunday that I couldn't be here and you didn't want me to be here right
before Easter when I got sick. And so then we went into five weeks of emphasis for Easter and talked
about the last week of Christ. But I want us to look at this passage again and I want to point out
a different aspect than I previously addressed. Now, I realize nobody, unless you wrote it in your Bible,
nobody knows I preached this passage six weeks ago. And the reason why is because when I was
with some pastors one time on a retreat, an old sage among us said, all you ever need is five years of
sermons. I said, really? I said, well, after five years, I mean, you know, you preach it again,
they don't know, you know, that you already preached. He said, they don't know what you preached last week,
let alone five years ago. So Genesis 15 verse seven says, 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, oh Lord God,
how am I to know that I shall possess it? And 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 them all. These cut them in half, 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. 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 afterwards,
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. 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'll give this land from the river of
Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. God's covenants are kept and fulfilled by the Lord.
And there are a few of them in scripture. He made a covenant with Noah and promised that the earth
would never be destroyed by flood again. And he put a rainbow in the sky to mark that. In the Hebrew,
that word for rainbow was literally bow as in a hunting bow. And it speaks of the wrath of God
being eliminated. No longer will God point his bow upon the earth in the way that he did the flood.
Instead, he'll hang that bow up. That's the idea behind the idea of the rainbow.
He made a covenant with Moses that actually reestablished and backed up the one that we see
here. He made one with David to establish the Davidic throne, which would be fulfilled through
Christ, which is the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 31 through 34.
This is also an establishment of covenant with Abram and is a promise for the prospering and the
founding of the nation of Israel. And this is a rare, holy moment. And through it, I want you to get just
two certainties. Now, when a preacher says two, people get their hopes up, but I wouldn't if I were you.
Two certainties in life that I feel sure are relevant to us today. And knowing these two
certainties will come and planning for them to come, knowing they'll come, will help us to live a more
focused life on what God would have us to be. First certainty is this. There's going to be troubles
in this world. It's a certain thing. There's going to be troubles in this world. God gave Abram
instructions to prepare animals in a certain way, and he did that. And then he sits down and he waits.
He's not sure what's going to happen. But he waits. Have you ever waited on the Lord?
Not sure of what was going to happen, about the circumstances in your life, but yet you have to
pause and wait upon the Lord. A lot of things can happen as you wait on the Lord. Notice what
happens to him in verse 10 and 11. It says, and he brought them all these, cut them in half, laid each
over, each half over against the other, but he did not cut the birds in half. Listen to this. And when the
birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away as the sun was going down.
There'll be troubles in this world. Two troubles that I want to tell you about today. One of them
is what I call, based upon this passage, worship vultures. As we wait, as he waits to worship,
he has to spend his time waiting to see what God's going to do by shooing away the birds that are trying
to destroy the very setting of his worship. Those evil old birds. Birds are often seen as a sign of
evil in scripture or evil spirits in, in scripture. We see that in the parable of the sower when
the sower goes out and scatters the seed, but it says that those that fell on the hard places,
the birds would come and snatch that. Now that seed being the gospel message. And so anytime the
gospel message is presented, the evil one tries his best to snatch that away.
And then there's that other passage in Revelation chapter 18, when it talks about a wicked Babylon
falling. And it says, and Babylon represents evil in a city. And it says, there are a cage for every
unclean and hated bird. Speaking of the demonic influence in that city. When, when Jesus gave the
parable of the mustard seed, he talked about the mustard seed being the tiniest seed, but yet it grows
into a bush that becomes into a tree. And so, so large that, that even birds go and nest there.
Now, that seed of course is, is the gospel. And he's talking about the kingdom of God there. And so that,
that bush, that tree represents the family of God, the church of Jesus Christ. And some have
interpreted those birds to mean that, that the church will grow. And along the way, there'll be some
birds that come on in that church. There'll be some demonic influence that comes in that. There'll be
some rascals in that church. There'll be some birds. Thank God that's not talking about us. Amen.
I really believe that passage is explaining the fact that the bush grows so large that it's big enough
to house birds. But either way, birds are often a sign of evil influence that happens, kind of like the
birds of the classic Hitchcock movie of sorts, to come down and cause chaos. So I want you to think
about it for just a moment. What are the birds of prey that fly on us when we're trying to worship?
What are they? Let me give you one worship vulture. The pursuits of the world.
Consistent worship is often messed up by the beauty of the things of the world.
And we become guilty of worshiping the created instead of the creator. And instead of worship,
we put things, not necessarily bad things, but we put things, wrong things in the way of worship.
We prioritize Sunday wrongly. Sunday worship is our regular. As long as there's not another offer
that comes up, it's any better. If we get another option, we'll change our priority. When in reality,
scripture points out and shows us that it ought to be a priority, that we ought to give God his time.
And good things and events and such are not bad, but they can serve in a bad way when they take us
away from the place of worship. You have to shoo them away. Now, what I always say is this,
miss for the extraordinary, but don't just miss for the ordinary. Because our schedules are so peppered
with so many ordinary things. I promise you, the birds of prey will try their best to so get us busy
that we no longer prioritize worship in our lives. Don't let it be a distraction. Shoo them away.
The second worship vulture here is the distractions of the soul. For what swoops down upon us often to keep us
from having a real worship experience, I'll tell you what it is most likely. It's the favorite sins that we're
nesting on. It's the favorite sins that we have in our life. We want to keep a firm grasp on this world as well as be
right with God at the same time. And we can't do that because we get too stretched.
We get a bad case of the can't help it's when we're trying to be like the world, but not much like the world,
just a little bit. And yet trying to be in the proper place as well at the same time.
We can sympathize with Paul. In Romans 7, Paul says this. I love this passage. Give me hope.
For I don't understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep doing.
Now, if I do what I do not want, it's no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
You know, you have good intentions. You want to do right, but the reality is too many times
we don't do right. Have you ever been there? Question is, are you there now? I mean, does that
characterize your life? Because I'll tell you, it will distract your soul from worship. Now, admittedly,
that's not Abram's problem as he waited. But admittedly, it's common for us. It's common
to be distracted by our sin. So I encourage you to confess the mess. Confess it.
Shoe the distractions away from your life. Change course where course needs to be changed because
that worship vulture distracts too many from real worship. Third thing is this, the hectic pace.
I admire Abram for preparing a place for worship and then waiting on the Lord, waiting on the Lord.
It takes an effort to do that. It took him an effort to do that. And he had to spend his time
while he was waiting on the Lord, shooing away the vultures. A vulture that you'll have to shoo away
in your life is the hectic pace of your life. I mean, the good things that you do every day to
put food on the table and clothes on your back and good things for your family. Good things that we
ought to be doing, but sometimes that means too much to us. That we sacrifice too much in order to have
those things. When Jesus told us in Matthew 6 verse 33, seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness and all these things will be added to you. You know what he's talking about in that
context? He's talking about food. He's talking about clothing. He'll provide those things. Don't
let the hectic pace of legitimate causes come in the way of worship. And I'll just mention the three
worship vultures that I've mentioned today. You need to shoo away some worldly pursuits. The going and
the seeing and the going and the doing that takes you away from worship, distracts you in your life.
You need to get rid of the soul distractions, the pet sins that you're coddling, you hold on to,
that draws you away from the Lord. You need to watch the hectic pace. Don't be busy building bigger
barns so big that you forget you may not have the opportunity of another day. Shoo those vultures away.
Worship vultures is a trouble in this world. Tell you another trouble in this world.
Genesis 15 verse 12 says this, as the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram and behold,
dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. I'll tell you another trouble in this world is dark nights.
Dark nights. Some wonderful things were about to happen in Abram's life. This experience that he is
about to have is absolutely amazing. But before it comes, he has a dark night.
Have you ever had a dark night?
Dark nights are marked by two things. One is bad dreams.
Bad dreams. When Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.
He also said this in Matthew 6.
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Therefore don't be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
The reality is we toss and we turn about the worries in the night.
The expectations of Abram had not been fulfilled.
Years had passed.
And he didn't have a great nation.
Years had passed.
His name was not great.
He didn't have the land that God had promised him.
He didn't have the offspring that God had promised him.
He's doing what God told him to do.
And he's shooing off the vultures while he waits on God.
And his enemies are breathing down his necks.
He gets so wore out that he falls to sleep.
And in that sleep, it is deep, but it is dreadful.
What about your worries?
It could make for some dark nights.
It is a certainty of life.
You'll have some, but that's not all.
Notice something else about the dark nights.
It says in verse 12, there'll be dreadful and great darkness.
So not only are there bad dreams, but there's also encroaching darkness.
Because the bad dreams are us.
It's the things that we ponder and that we worry and that we deal with.
But it's not just us.
We can come up with enough crazy stuff on our own.
It's amazing to me when I wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning and I've got something on my mind.
It is huge.
I mean, the world's going to collapse.
And I'm going to fall under it.
It's all going to go nuts.
And when I wake up in the morning, my life will be ruined.
And if I can't go back to sleep and I wake up at 6 o'clock, that ain't no big deal.
I'll take care of that.
But somewhere in the dread of the night, the encroaching darkness just does a number.
And I want you to know that the devil and his demons love the darkness.
They love discouragement.
They love depression.
They love dread.
And they feed off of it.
They feed off of it.
Now listen, get this.
That's a certainty in life.
It is common.
Now we may not know that because we don't talk about it.
We don't talk about it.
We put on our Sunday best.
We put a smile on our face.
We go about our way.
And in reality, the demons of darkness too often haunt us.
And we don't want to talk about that.
People don't like to talk about it.
And if you do talk about it, not many listen.
Lou Holtz said one time, don't tell people about your problems.
90% of them don't care and 10% of them are glad you got them.
So you got to keep it in perspective.
And that makes us feel that much more alone.
But I'm just telling you, you're going to have dark nights.
It's going to happen.
Elijah wanted to die.
Look at how God used Elijah.
Elijah wanted to die.
David, King David, the mightiest King Israel ever had.
David had nightmares in caves.
The Apostle Paul.
We get most of the New Testament from the Apostle Paul and the work that he did.
Paul said he was afflicted in every way.
And then Peter, the man who couldn't keep his foot out of his mouth,
but when the Holy Spirit came upon him, had a boldness and a power.
And thousands were saved in one sermon just from sharing the gospel.
And he says this in 1 Peter chapter 4.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you,
as though something strange will happen to you.
Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.
I'll tell you, you're going to have troubles.
You're going to have troubles with worship vultures.
Things that distract you and get in the way of worship.
You're going to have troubles in dark nights.
They're both a certainty.
But that ain't what I come to talk about.
Because there's a second certainty.
And the second certainty, besides the troubles of this world, is the presence of God.
The presence of God.
You are not alone.
I am thankful that at funerals I can tell families that Jesus will not leave them comfortless.
He will not leave them alone.
That he'll come to them.
He says that in John 14, 18.
And it is a truth that I can share with them and tell them that when the food and the family and the funeral is gone,
that God will still be there and he will not leave you alone.
And I'm thankful for that.
I can tell that.
But I will tell you, when Jesus said that, it was not at a funeral.
Jesus was not speaking at a funeral.
He was speaking to men who were about to walk out into a wicked world trying to do the right things of God
and not be applauded for what they do.
And Jesus said, even though I will no longer be physically present with you,
when you go in my name, I'm going to be there.
I'm no longer going to physically be with you, but I'm still there.
And so it is with Abram.
And thank God, even better than that, so it is with us.
God comes in the night.
And we can be assured of that in three ways.
One is he promises.
Verse 13 through 16, basically of this passage says,
Abram, all that I told you that I'll do, I will do.
God's going to do what he says he'll do.
He'll show up.
He'll show out.
And he does it in Abram's life on a dark and dreadful night.
He tells Abram to know for certain.
Now, I will admit, and I'll show you in coming weeks,
that Abram had more hiccups in his life along the way.
But he will be known as a man who trusted God.
He's known as a great example of faith.
I mean, he's Father Abraham, you know.
God promises, thank God, and he keeps his promises.
Not only does he promise, he lies.
I touched on this a few weeks ago, so I'll be quick,
but God shows up in a dark night
and makes his presence known through a smoking fire pot
and a flaming torch.
That'll get you attention.
And this speaks to the fact that God is light,
and in him there is no darkness.
Because in the midst of that darkness,
with the birds of prey coming,
in the midst of that,
God let his presence be known
through a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch.
He brightened the night.
He speaks his guidance.
He led the Hebrews in a desert
with a pillar of fire.
That speaks of his holiness.
The holy presence of God is often seen by light.
You'll see it in the tabernacle.
You'll see it on Mount Sinai.
You'll see it on the Mount of Transfiguration.
You'll see it when God's confronting and saving Paul.
In Revelation 1, it'll really get your attention
when it talks about the white hair,
the fiery eyes, the feet of bronze,
the voice like a raging river,
the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
who, thank God, is walking among the churches
that may have struggles along the way.
He is with them in the midst of their struggles
because the light of God speaks to a holy
and guiding presence.
He promises and he lights.
And this is not good grammar,
but I don't know how else to put it.
He alone.
Abram didn't walk among those animals.
In a normal agreement like this,
both individuals would walk through that.
But God's promises and his presence
is not based upon us.
It's based upon him.
And the thought behind this,
this whole cutting animals in half
and laying them out
and walking between them.
The whole concept of that is,
I'm making a covenant with you
and if I don't keep this commitment,
make me like these animals.
That's the thought behind it.
God's saying,
I alone will keep my promise regardless.
It's based on him.
It's not based on us.
It's based on him.
Hebrews describes this
in Hebrews chapter 6,
beginning in verse 13,
it says this,
for when God made a promise to Abraham,
since he had no greater
by whom to swear,
he swore by himself.
Saying,
surely I will bless you
and multiply you
and thus Abraham,
having patiently waited,
obtained the promise.
For people swear by something
greater than themselves
and in their disputes,
an oath is final for confirmation.
So when God desired
to show more convincing
to the heirs of promise,
the unchanging character
of his purpose,
he guaranteed it with an oath
so that two unchangeable things
in which it is impossible
for God to lie,
we who have fled for refuge
might have strong encouragement
to hold fast
to the hope set before us.
We have this
as a sure and steadfast
anchor of the soul,
a hope that enters
into the inner place
behind the curtain
where Jesus has gone
as a forerunner
on our behalf.
Abram was promised by God
and his testimony is
that Abram trusted
the promises of God.
He trusted him
and you can too
because God's promises
are eternal.
They don't expire.
They're not on a timetable.
They're not on my timetable.
They're not on your timetable.
They're on God's timetable.
He will be
where he says he'll be.
He will do
what he says he'll do
and he'll do it
because of who he is.
It's based on him alone.
He walked through it alone.
What he does for us,
he does by his grace
and he will not let us down.
Yes, Ben Franklin,
death and taxes
may be certain in life
but so are the troubles
in this world
but thank God.
Even though we have
misplaced priorities
that rob our worship,
even though we have
sinful distractions
that we struggle
to walk away from
and even though
we experience dark nights
and sometimes
those that lack faith,
thank God.
As certain as
all those things are,
we're even more certain
of the promise of God,
the holy guiding light
of God
that goes down
the path for us.
And the reality is
that God
and God alone
will get it done.
I don't know
what your troubles are
but I know
you got some.
We ain't gonna talk
about all that today
because we don't need to.
We're on common ground there
and I'll tell you
in the midst
of your troubles,
a certainty
that you can rest in
is God's right there
with you.
He's present.
And he'll be everything
that you need
for him to be
exactly the way
he wants to be
in the time
that he wants to be.
With every head bowed
and every eye closed,
do you need to trust him today?
Maybe when you watch
these three young ladies
be baptized a little while ago,
you realize
there's never been
a time in your life
when you've asked
the Lord Jesus
to come into your life
and to change you.
You've never truly
surrendered your life
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Might be a member
of a church,
might have attended
many times
but the reality is
when you look at your life,
there's an uncertainty there
about a security
and a relationship
with the Lord Jesus
that only comes
when we answer
his initiation.
If you're feeling
a pull at all,
it's not from you today.
It's the sweet
Holy Spirit of God
giving you the opportunity
to respond in obedience
to follow him.
And if you're here
this morning
and you've never
accepted the Lord Jesus Christ
as your Lord and Savior,
I want you to know
that you can just simply
confess your sins to him.
Tell him you're sorry
that you're a wrong sinner.
Don't you want to live
your life from him
from this day forward?
Only by his strength,
only by his presence,
only by his power.
God, I give you my life.
If you've never done that,
I encourage you
to do that today.
I'd love to guide you
in that process.
Maybe you're here
and you have done that
but you've never
acknowledged that
through baptism
like these young ladies
did this day.
And I want you to know
that's the first step
of obedience
and it becomes a hindrance
in our lives
when we don't do it.
So I encourage you
to be obedient
and follow him.
Maybe you're here
and God's guiding you
to this church.
You know that.
God's doing a wonderful
work in this church
and I thank God for that.
It's a blessing
each and every day
in my life.
He's drawing people
unto himself
and if part of that process
is for God to lead you
to be a part of us,
you come.
I'd love to guide you
in that process.
But even more so
there's
those here today
with the troubles
of this world
and the worship distractions
and the dark nights
that have become
such a hindrance in you.
You're not everything
you ought to be
for the Lord Jesus.
And it's not that
he don't give you
the strength
and the ability
to do that.
It's because
you've decided
you've went your own way
in some areas
of your life.
And today needs to be
a day of surrender again.
Lord, I give you
who I am.
You know me better
than anybody does.
Know me better
than I know myself.
But God, I give you
who I am.
I ask you to cleanse me
and let me help me
to walk with you
from this day forward
in a way that honors you
in a way that's steadfast
for you.
I don't know what God's
telling you today
but I know you'll never
be satisfied
until you answer him.
And I'll never ask you
to do more than
what God tells you to do
and I never want you
to be satisfied with less.
Just follow God.
Lord Jesus, I love you
and I thank you
for the time
that you've given us today
and I ask dear God
right now
that you'll lead us
and that we'll follow
as you lead, dear God,
in every part
of this invitation.
And it's only in Christ's name
that we pray
and all God's people said,
Amen.