The Fulfillment of God’s Promises
Good morning for some of you, it's the first time being out of house in a few days. So I hope you made the drive and was okay walking. That seems to be the the biggest issue is I had to teach my children what ice looked like. Went frozen over ice pathways, because it's been seven years since I've had to walk on anything like that. And so anyway, so how to show them what that looked like and where to step I want to reinforce this Chili Bowl we have coming up. The chili cook off one of my favorite activities. I started it when I came here 11 years ago, and we did it at church prior as well, when I was pastor. So it wasn't something that I came up with, but it's a great opportunity to just hang out with God's people for both services and to watch the game on two big screens we have in the fellowship hall, and we have never had we've had 10 of these one year. We didn't do it because of COVID, but we've never had a repeat winner. So if you have thinking about making chili never won, it could be your year. And if you are repeat, if you're a previous winner, at some point there's got to be a repeat winner. I would think so it might be your year to repeat. And if you don't know how to cook chili, or don't want to cook chili, but want to come anyway, just bring some crackers or something and show up, and we just have about 100 people or so, which is a good time. And by half time, everybody leaves, so you don't have to worry about church appropriate halftime shows or anything like that. So usually by then everybody's eating and they go home and finish watching the game. But it's a good time. So that's in two weeks and and hopefully see, a lot of you don't remember this, but before the Panthers were around in the south, we cheered for the Redskins. That was our team, and now they're called the commanders, or something silly like that. So I'm hoping the Redskins will make it to the Super Bowl, because they haven't had a good team in about 30 years. So, but anyway, we'll see what it's like. And so that's in two weeks. So, but I hope you're thought out from the snow. And the thing about a forecast of snow in the south is that when any type of accumulation is expected, people just, they kind of, they kind of lose their minds a little bit. You know, children lose their minds because it's, it's a dream for them to play in the snow. They they get to miss school. That's a dream as well. I know for my six year old, it started to snow right about his bedtime. And so he knew that when he woke up, there would be snow over the ground. And so he kept waking up during the night. Every few hours, we get less sleep on that night than we did Christmas Eve. I mean, we really did. And because he just wanted to wake up, can I go outside and play yet? Not until the sun's up. And so he was out there. Thankfully, our 12 year old went out there with him. But parents lose their minds as well, because they know that they'll be stuck in the house with children maybe for a few days. They're worried about having enough food and supplies to get them through the period. And then, you know the poor meteorologists, they get grief if they call for snow and it doesn't snow, and then they get grief if they call for a little snow, or it snows too much, or if they don't get the timing right, they get grief. Everyone just kind of loses their mind a little bit, because in the south, we don't handle this kind of thing very well. Now, hurricanes and stuff like that, we can handle all that, right? And you know, category three is coming, and we're evacuated. And some of the old timers around here will say, why are we evacuating? It's just a three, you know, things like that, but snow and everyone kind of loses their mind. But this week, the weather did pretty much what most weathermen predicted. It snowed. We missed school for a few days, and we did need to have it was good to have some food and supplies. Now, if you had all wheel drive, you could probably draw around a few places, but it wasn't the safest thing in the world to do, but the predictions came through, and there was a fulfillment of the prediction, a fulfillment of the promise of snow. Think of how the children been so disappointed if it hadn't snowed. But there was a fulfillment of that. You know, I was a little surprised, quite honestly, that that everything turned out pretty much the way the weatherman said it was. I was trying to tell my wife, don't worry about it. Let's just take it day at a time. If we had taken it day at a time, we would have had no food at the house, right? So I said just, we're just going to live in the now. And she's like, No, we gotta, we gotta get some stuff. We made two or three different I think she got me the grocery store three times in one day, which is a record. So, you know, just, oh, we need this. Oh, let's go back and get this, and let's go back and get that. And we were prepared, and so she gets a gold star for being a great mom and wife for that. But the thing about promises, the thing about predictions, is that when they do come true, sometimes we have a hard time believing that they did. You know, when people say, I promise you something, we kind of expect them to not live up to it. In fact, when someone comes to us and tells us they really are going to do something, and they really promise and we can trust them, we start wondering, why are you being so insistent about this? What are you really up to? And so we have a hard time believing. Sometimes the promises actually happen, that they happened. It really did snow four inches. Can you believe that over the past three weeks, we've been looking at the life of Abraham and the promises God had made him, and today, we're going to finally see a fulfillment of one of those promises. And even though God promised to Abraham and Abraham and Sarah several times about what was to come. They still had a hard time believing it had happened when it was fulfilled. Genesis, 17. Today, I'm just going to read 15 through 21 as we get started. And God said to Abraham, as for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name, and I will bless her. And moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations, Kings of people shall come from her. And Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child, and Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you. God said, No, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him, as for Ishmael, I've heard you, Behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father 12 princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year, Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us here today and for keeping us safe during the snow and the ice and how difficult it is to drive in a walk. Sometimes we take it for granted when we're able to do so freely. Lord, I, as we look at this passage today, I pray that you would impress upon our hearts just how faithful you are in doing the things that you say, that you'll do for your children, that as I preach these words, Lord, that they are an accurate reflection of your heart, that your Holy Spirit speaks through me and then and then The hearts of the those who hear this today that we were all in agreement upon what your word has said today, Lord, we have nothing to say outside of what your Word says, and we will believe it and we preach it, and we read it and we live it. Help us do that, Father, we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen, I want to show you today, three things about the fulfillment of God's promises that we can see in this passage, three things about the fulfillment of God's promises that we see in This passage. First, God fulfills His promises in His timing. God fulfills His promises in His timing. Now in the first half of this chapter, God appears to Abram, again, tells him his name is now Abraham, establishes a covenant with him. And he says, Your name is now Abraham, which means father of a multitude. And he then also establishes the covenant of circumcision as a sign of this promise. So every male in Abraham's household, including himself, at 99 his descendants, his servants, must be circumcised as a symbol of their commitment to God and His covenant. And God assures Abraham that through this covenant, his descendants will become a great nation. They will inherit. Of the land of Canaan. Then God tells them this in verse 15. And God said to Abraham, as for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sariah, but Sarah will be her name, and I will bless her, and I will bless the people from her. Now you would think that would make sense, but they thought maybe that wasn't going to be the case, because before this, Abraham had thought possibly his lineage would come through his son Ishmael, who was his son through his maid servant, Hagar. Earlier in the account, Abraham and Sarah got impatient. They got doubtful. They got frustrated, waiting on God. So Sarah had the worst idea ever, and Abraham agreed upon the worst idea. He was equally as guilty, and Sarah urged Abraham to take matters in their own hands and procreate with their maid servant, Hagar. So Ishmael was born, but now there was enmity between the two women, But God, being true to his promise, also blessed the descendants of Ishmael, because Abraham was the father, and so they too would become a great nation. Now, incidentally, the descendants of Ishmael became known as what we call the Arabs, which basically means Nomad, a nomadic people. So from the beginning, the descendants of Ishmael were a war like people, and they lived in hostility toward the tribes related to them, as the Bible was said that they would we still see this playing out in the Middle East today, and we can look back upon Abraham's rash decision with the nomadic people and the Israelites and all the enmity they have there today. But at this point, Abraham didn't realize this promise included his wife until now. So verse 17, he fell on his face and he laughed, and he said, You're going to tell me that I'm going to have a child and at 100 years old, and Sarah, who's 90, you would laugh too. Every now and then, people will say, Well, you know, some of the the years in the Bible aren't like our years. And No, that's no, they already are years. This is a 99 year old man, a close to nine year old woman, being told they're going to have a child. Now, most of us know that that doesn't work like that anymore. When they get that old, we know that and that is virtually impossible. So you too might laugh. Now, when he was first told this promise, he was 75 and then they had the issue with Hagar and Ishmael. This point. Was a teenager, 13 or so years old. They thought the promise would come through Ishmael, but they didn't quite understand God's whole plan. And God said, no, no, no, it's coming through Sarah. And he laughs, and he says in verse 18, what about Ishmael? Basically, what about Ishmael? And he loved him. And God says no, Sarah is through whom the covenant will come. I will bless Ishmael, but Sarah is who it's going to come from. Verse 21 I will establish my covenant with Isaac. You try to do things your own way, and I'll make it right for that. It's part of the family. But that was never my intention. My intention was always Isaac, you and Sarah's child. One of the things about the snowstorm that we had, I keep calling it a storm, I guess it kind of was, I don't know, was the timing. Six year old Johnny kept asking me, when was it going to start to snow? And so I was like, I don't know. The weathermen think around four. And so after 430 starting at like, 11am Is it four yet? One o'clock, is it four yet? No. Three more hours, is it four yet? When's it going to snow? And then finally, four o'clock came and it hadn't snowed. And we said, maybe around five, well, it hasn't snowed yet, and around six it hadn't snowed yet. And he said, y'all are lying to me. I said, No, we're. We're not lying like we don't. Are trying to explain to him they don't really know when. They know it about the time frame, but they don't really know when it's going to snow. It's just going to snow in in God's timing. Just look out the window and watch. And he says, that's boring. I said, go look at the window, and you'll see flakes eventually come. We don't know, but it's going to snow in God's timing, just like everything else takes place, and just like Abraham, we struggle sometimes to believe in the fulfillment of God's promises, and we wonder if God is lying to us. Well, God, you said this, that hasn't happened yet. Well, maybe you really meant this, maybe you said this, but didn't mean that we are to trust in God's promises, even when they seem. Possible for He's faithful to fulfill them. God does not break a promise, even as outlandish as it might sound, or the guarantee that he gives us that doesn't seem like it's even possible, we can trust it because of who he is. So when you're waiting on God, in addition to to reading His word, in addition to prayer, what are some things you can do when you're waiting on God to fulfill his promise? Well, number one, focus on the present, which is what I kept telling my wife to do, which was bad advice this week, but, but in many times it's the best advice. Focus on the day to day, instead of getting caught up and worrying about the future or the or the fulfillment of these promises, focus on the present moment and live as Christ would have you to live every day of your life. Keep doing what God's called you to do. Secondly, cultivate a spirit of gratitude, acknowledge, appreciate the way God has blessed you in the past. Think about the family you have, the children, spouse, friends that you have, church, community, employment, whatever it is you have, the ability to travel, the ability to to love people, to to do whatever it is you enjoy that God's blessed you with. Think about those ways God has already blessed you and not and in ways you didn't deserve and say, Lord, I've seen how you've worked before. I've seen how you've worked in the past. I don't know what the future holds. I know you've told me certain things, and I'm going to trust for you in the future. And then finally, three, engage in service. When we are ministering to others, we forget about how God is supposedly not working in our lives. We forget about why God hasn't done X or Y or Z in our lives when we're serving people, when we're checking on people, when we're helping people, then we see God working in our lives through us working for the Kingdom. So use your time waiting to focus on meeting people's needs in the kingdom of God. Secondly, God fulfills His promise on his terms. He fulfills His promise on his terms. Look at verse 22 when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Then Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him, Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael, his son, was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very day, Abraham and his son, Ishmael were circumcised, and all the men in his house, those born in their house, and those bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him. The term of the covenant to give Abraham a son by which the whole world would be blessed. The term was this would be accompanied by a sign, a symbol, if you will, circumcision. Why in the world? Would God choose this? Well, there's several reasons. One, it was a physical reminder, at least to the men, an everyday reminder of the covenant between God and Abraham. This reminder was constant. This reminder was permanent, and it showed through the reproductive system the lineage that would come through Abraham, a sign that that that just as the foreskin was physically separated from the body, Israel would be separate from the world. It was a difference maker, a very, very private, if you will, difference maker to show that these all of God's covenants had signs. These signs acted as a visible representation of God's promise. For Noah, God made a promise to never destroy the world through a flood again. And his sign was the rainbow. So whenever you see that rainbow that is God's promise that he'll never destroy the world by a flood again. And I'll tell you what, a few years ago, when we had that flood that rained for four or five days, I trusted in that promise. It felt like it would never quit raining. It just sat right above monk's corner. Never moved. Me, and I said, Well, it's not going to be for 40 days and 40 nights, and it's not going to be just a total destruction, because God's promised us that. For David, God promised that his descendants would always sit on the throne of Israel. And the sign for that was that physical throne, that that kingdom of David's lineage by which Christ would come. Even marriage is a covenant. And in marriage, the wedding ring acts as a sign of the covenant between two people and God. And as Christians, we are in what's called the New Covenant. The Sign of the new covenant of Christ is typically seen taking the Lord's Supper, which Jesus instituted the night he was betrayed. We believe that the bread and the juice, the Southern Baptist version of that consumed during the supper, it represents the body in the blood of Christ, and it symbolizes the new covenant between God and mankind, which was sealed by Christ's death and resurrection, baptism as well as a sign. It's a sign of the New Covenant, in that it symbolizes the believers identification with Jesus, Christ's death and burial and resurrection, as well as their commitment to him. It's a cleansing of sins. It's a new life in Christ. It's an entryway into the new community of believers. So why do we always baptize? Why are we stirring the waters? Why are we giving the supper? Not because it's some thing we have to do that we did to reach people. We do it because God says this is what you will do. We're not making up things as we go. We're doing what said. This is the sign of the covenant community, baptism, Lord's Supper. So God fulfills His promises on his terms. As Christians, part of that agreement is that we believe in the work of Christ, that we are saved through that and as as is the case, we will then be baptized, and we will take the Lord's Supper when offered. So we see that God fulfills His promises by on his terms. And finally, number three, God fulfills His promises by his faithfulness, by His faithfulness. So now we skip ahead to chapter 21 in this year, a lot happened, Sodom and Gomorrah was completely destroyed for their wickedness, more wicked than any place on Earth. Lot's wife looked back and turned the Bible says into a pillar of salt. And finally, chapter 21 we see the fulfillment of the birth of Isaac. It says the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, And the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. What a wonderful verse. The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, And the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. Amen, the phrase visited Sarah This did not mean this was some sort of Virgin Mary, like pregnancy. Clearly, at 90 years old, Sarah was past what we would call child rearing years. The Lord miraculously enabled her to give birth through Abraham as well. It says verse two, Sarah conceived and bore Abraham, a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him, Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him whom Sarah bore him. Isaac Moses writes this for a reason. When he says who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, it was his. It was Sarah's. The Lord certainly worked a miracle for people that age to have a baby, but it was Abraham's and it was Sarah's, and his name was Isaac, verse four. Then Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him, Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him, and Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me. I'm sure they did. And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age. Sometimes, when God fulfills His promises, all we can do is laugh with joy. Amen. We can laugh. You know, when I pray for things and write them down, and my wife does the same thing, sometimes I'll go back and look at them on my little app, and sometimes I'll be like, Why was I praying for that? That seems silly, but. It, I'll see where God answered it, and I'll just kind of smile like, that's funny that he did that. And I'll tell my wife believe I prayed for this, and this happened, and it's so hard to understand. And at the time, I was worried about it or anxious about it, and God provided, or he prayed, or he answered it. And then when I look back on I just have to laugh about it sometimes, because at the time when you're praying, sometimes you don't believe it's actually going to happen. I don't know. Lord, I know you're gonna make this happen. I give this to you, and it happens, and it makes sense to us, and we look back and say, Oh, why did I doubt? Why was I worried? Abraham, Sarah, laughed about it. When was the last time you look back on your life and just laughed about how faithful God was to you, about how faithful he was to you and and just thought about that. Look at limitations three. Again. This is a book where the author is lamenting. He's lamenting of the destruction of Jerusalem, and he says this, The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Amen never cease. Every morning is a new day for God to display his promises, display his love to us, His love never ceases, no matter the circumstances, no matter the tragedy, no matter what you're going through, God's faithfulness is there? First, Corinthians, one nine, God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of the Son, Jesus, Christ, our Lord. Second, thesis, three, but the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you because evil one, three times the Bible here tells us, and there's more, but these three times that God is faithful, why does the Bible continue to tell us that because the Bible doubts the faithfulness of God. No, because we do. We need to hear it, not because God's character changes or who he is changes, but he's faithful. We are prone to forget the fact of how faithful he is. So the Bible drills at us. He is faithful. You aren't, but he is. He is the faithful one. How does he? How is he faithful to us quickly before we leave? First, God always keeps His promises. He always keeps them, no matter what the Word says. He keeps his promises. You know, I was doing a funeral yesterday, in the passage about in John 14, about God preparing a place for us. It's a wonderful promise, a wonderful promise that He's given us, a wonderful promise that that he always keeps, that God has prepared a place for us, that we will see our loved ones again. Amen, the Bible is filled with filled with promises of it. Secondly, he provides for his children's needs. He provides for his children's needs, just like a father provides for their children, your heavenly Father provides for your needs. I didn't say wants, doesn't I didn't even say desires, needs. If you're here today, God has provided for your need in every way, in every way he provides, always for our needs. Third, God is always present, even in the midst of difficult circumstances. Circumstances can be so difficult sometimes we get so wrapped up in our feelings, our worries, our griefs, our anxieties, we forget that God is has not left he's there. He is present. He never leaves us. The Bible tells us one of his promises, I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. But see, we all know people in our life who have left us, who have forsaken us. So sometimes it's hard for us to to really trust in God's faithfulness, but he is the Bible completely tells us that over and over again, fourth, God offers forgiveness and grace to those who seek it doesn't matter who you are, where you were born, how rich or poor you are, what you look like, how smart or unsmart, whatever that is like, doesn't matter anything about that. Those who seek forgiveness and grace will. Find it Amen. It's so easy to be saved, yet not everyone is Bible just says, seek my face. Say, Lord, forgive me my sins. I place my faith in you, and you're saved. That's it. And even now, it's still hard for us to fathom. That's all I have to do. Just believe in the work of Christ and turn from my sins and say, Lord, I'm falling. That's all I have to do to be saved. Yes, he doesn't say, well, make sure you attend worship four weeks in a row. Well, make sure you make a good pot of chili for the cook off. Make sure you say these seven prayers every day for two months in a row. No, your forgiveness. My forgiveness is available to you if you believe every other system of religion, every other philosophy in life, it's a whole formula for you, but God says there's nothing you can do. That's why I came. That's why Jesus came, because only I can make a way, because there is no way. There's nothing you can do during my salvation, I give it to you for free, and it seems too good to be true, because we're sinners, and we sin every day. But number five, his promise is that he offers eternal salvation for us. There is nothing if you if you KNOW Jesus Christ, there's nothing you can do to be taken away from his hands, nothing. And that seems almost too good to be true. There's nothing you can do if you place your faith in Him through Jesus Christ, now you may not be saved, but once you're saved, the Bible says you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. Nothing can take you from the hands of God, if you are His child. God gives eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, He always keeps His promises, because he is a faithful God. As you close your time today, maybe you've never truly placed your faith in Jesus. Maybe say, Well, I just don't it just doesn't feel like it worked, or I don't know what I'm doing. Do you believe Jesus Christ? Do you believe he came to this, to this world, was sinless and died on the cross for your sins, and that through His death and resurrection, you've been made right with God. You believe that in that work of Christ, if you believe that the Bible says you're saved, that's his promise to you. If you believe that maybe today, you've just had a difficult week or few weeks or months or year already, maybe you're like, I'm ready for February to get here. It's been a long January. Maybe you don't feel the faithfulness of God today. My prayer for you is that you would feel today God's faithfulness to you as he works in your life. We're always we're not always going to know when it's going to snow. Amen. Sometimes we might look out the window and wait for the snowflakes to fall, but in my experience, that's never happened. I never see the first snowflake fall, usually, because it's sleet first, but you know what I mean. But I hear it hitting, and I look out and there's all the snow. God fulfills His promises and his timing, we just have to wait on them, Heavenly Father. We thank you so much for what you've done in our lives as we close our time together today, we thank you that something like the promise of snow can be a visible reminder that when we're waiting for something, it finally happens, that we can laugh, not that we doubted you, but that when you fulfill your promises, they bring so much joy into our lives. So Lord, as we close our time together today, I pray that we give back to you today, our sacrifice, our offerings of worship to you, that we give you our hearts for the thankfulness today, Lord, We love you. We thank you for how you've worked in our lives in the past. We're thankful for how you're working in our lives right now, and we look forward to laughing at the days that you work for us in the future. Lord, we love you again. We ask these things in Jesus name Amen.
