Summary

Transcript

speak through eric is now in jesus nine
uh...
one
it's dark green
now it's dark green
jensen i wonder if you could put up that song
once again i look upon the cross where you died
that first
jesus christ i think upon your sacrifice
just made me smile i had that song for such a long time and i tell you why it
made me smile
uh... was because when aiden was very little how old was he
probably about
three
uh...
it was probably about three and he uh...
he used to love that song and he used to sing the second bit i'm humbled by a
mercy but
he would sing
humbug mercy
and and and and and and and and i broken inside was how we saw it
and uh... and this morning i was just uh... thinking about that song it's an
absolutely brilliant song but i just remember this little three-year-old
going humbug mercy and and and and and and and and and and and and and and
and and and and and and and and broken
broken inside so i thought i'd share that with you
uh... just as my introduction to
powerful really really powerful he did a solo as well
uh... once
a wedding
only once
uh... but i was i have to say i just thought that by the grace of god uh... he
spoke really clearly uh... last uh... sunday
from genesis chapter fourteen
and i just kind of want to recap the three points that he spoke about
or the god spoke through him
and remember the title was when a lot is at stake
and a real lot
person lot was at stake
and it would you mind getting me a glass of water please thank you
and and abraham when a lot is at stake there were three things one of them was
the first one was keep calm
and factor in god
but god
everything looks impossible
but god the army looks
huge but god the situation looks bleak
but god
the second point was gather your three hundred and eighteen trained men
uh... and maybe that's not literal well it won't be literal for us three
hundred and eighteen trained men but
find your trained people the people that will stand alongside you and battle for
you and with you
and isolation is not
gift from god
it's a strategy of the enemy
it's a strategy of the end
we are much stronger together
then we will ever be apart and so when we are feeling in that place where
things look challenging and difficult
gather
the people around you that will remind you and help you to strengthen your faith
thank you very much
and then the third point was abraham
and rescued a lot
and in the process
he freed all the women and other people
i'm still trying to understand what that movement of the people mean but um...
just to regard again a reminder that our decisions
and the choices that we make have a ripple effect on other people
and uh... abraham decided to save one man
and so many other families were saved in the process don't underestimate
what god can do
through the decisions that you make and the impact
that it can have on the world around you
and so we come to chapter fifteen and abraham has rescued lot and a ton of
other people
and he's also come away from the fight with all the plunder
which is normal all the gold and the silver and everything and by law
all of that stuff belongs to abraham there's no disputing it he won the battle
he gets all the stuff
and he goes to the king of sodom to return his people back to him those that
he'd rescued
and uh... the king of sodom says to him all this plunder is yours
and abraham says i don't want
any of it
and now by right this all belongs to me
but i don't want any of it because i don't want anybody out there to say
that it was they that made me rich
i really
was struck by that
he didn't he wanted all the glory for any success or any prosperity or any
achievement or to go
to god
so when the king of sodom said you can have it all all of this is yours how
amazing really really good stuff
he made the choice to walk away from all of that
so that god would get all the glory
for all the prosperity and all the achievement and all the success
that abraham
would have
and uh... it reminds me that saying from jim elliot you know that famous one
don't you
he is no fool
who
gives up
what he cannot keep
to take hold
of what he cannot lose
it's all rightfully his there would have been nothing wrong to take it it
wasn't theft he wasn't stealing it
but he made a decision he didn't want anyone to be able to say
we made you who you are we played a party wanted all the glory
to go to god
and i just found that really big challenge and asking myself the question
this week is i've been mauling it over and i've been mauling this chapter over
a lot
who do i give credit for the achievements in my life who do i give
credit for the successes of the things that i feel i've done well or
the right choices who i do who do i give credit to
do i give it all to god and say god have all the glory you do i try and share it
a little bit well you know it was some garden some may and whatever
and i want to be like abraham who says you know what lord jesus it's all yours
everything
everything is all yours
and now we come
to genesis chapter fifteen and i'm going to read it if that's all right
you're still with me
sure
okay so genesis chapter fifteen i'm going to read
from the beginning after this
the word of the lord came to abraham in the visit vindict vision
it's given up the plunder
and now he has this vision don't be afraid abraham i am your shield
and your very great reward
but abraham said
sovereign lord what can you give me since i remain childless and the one who
will inherit my state is aliased of Damascus
and abraham said you have given me no children so a servant in my household
will be my air
then the word of the lord came to him
this man will not be your air but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be
your air
he took him outside and said
look up at the sky and count the stars if indeed you can count them
then he said to him so shall your offspring be
make a note in your bible verse six abraham
believed the lord
and he credit it to him
as righteousness
he also said to him i am the lord who brought you out of her the childians to
give you this land and take possession of it
abraham said sovereign lord
how can i know that i shall gain possession of it
so the lord said to him bring me a heifer a goat and a ram
each three years old along with a dove and a young pigeon
abraham bought all of these things to him i love that it's all as if it was
sitting there waiting
uh...
he just went out to the supermarket and came back with it all
abraham said that sovereign lord oh yeah i've done that but abraham brought all
of these things to him cut them into two and arrange the halves opposite each
other
the birds however he did not
cut in half
then the birds of prey came on the carcasses but aden drove abraham drove
them away
as the sun was setting abraham fell into a deep sleep in a thick and dreadful
darkness came over him
and then the lord said to him no for certain
that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in the
country not their own
and that they will be enslaved and ill-treated
but i will punish the nation they serve as slaves and afterwards
they will come with great possessions
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
sins of the amorites has not yet reached its full measure
when the sun had set and darkness had fallen
a smoking brazier and a flame blazing torch appeared and passed through the
pieces
and on that day
the lord made the covenant with abraham and said
to your descendants i give you this land
from the wadi of egypt to the great river the uphrates
the land of the kennesites kennesites kabmanites and hitites
perisites rafayites amorites kennesites and gurgersites
and jebusites are men
so it's given up the plunder and god comes to abraham in a vision and it says
i'd like to paraphrase it i'm not sure that god said it exactly like this but
bear with me says it says i saw what you did back there
and how you valued me more than all the other stuff and all the other treasure
and some people would have thought that abraham was a fool to have passed it all
up but god is saying you made the right decision
don't be afraid abraham i am going to be
your shield not i'm going to be i am your shield
your protection against blows against violence against missiles whatever it
is i am your shield that was a promise that god made
to abraham and to his people and i am your very great reward
what he was saying was abraham you will not be a loser
when you give up everything for me i will more than make up
what you have given up i will more than make up
for you and he says that to us today as i go through
you'll never be the loser for putting your faith in jesus
never you'll never come off worse all the world has to offer and it's got some
incredible things to offer amazing valuable stuff out there
but when we give our lives to jesus we will never be the poorer for it
sometimes we behave like god is a killjoy or he's out to ruin our fun or make
life miserable but what he's actually saying is
when you put your trust in me you will never be the poorer
abraham you'll never be the loser and he says that to you this morning
so he says to him don't pine after all the other joy just know abraham that i am
your shield i am your very great reward the king of
sodden was offering so much amazing and valuable stuff
but god was not saying i'm going to give you more stuff abraham i'm going to give
you more gold and more silver he says i'm actually going to give you
myself wait in the balance all the stuff out there
or god himself
who are we sure yeah well i'm sure this morning
i'm really sure this morning because i'm in the presence of all you lovely
people and we've sung some really amazing stuff about the promises of god
and i feel quite good because i've read this chapter and i'm so excited about
it all that god has said about his promises
and but i know that monday morning is coming
way up all that that is out there or god
himself and i love abraham's reply because he's kind of blunt because he
kind of says oh yeah thanks ever so much god
thank you for giving yourself to me but what about
that what about that other concern i have what about that other thing that you
promised me what about the other stuff that i need you to do
and i just realized how easy it is for us to focus on the dirt and the dust of
daily living that we actually forget that god
himself has promised to walk with us every day god
with me and all the other stuff out there that he's promised it's all there god
hasn't forgotten he's not forgotten me his concern is for me
but sometimes i lose sight of the glorious truth of his promise
and i hold on to the dust and the dirt of today
god with you and abraham reminds god of the promise of a son as if god had
forgotten now to be fair to abraham the promise
was initially given in chapter 12 and there are
there was about 10 to 15 years between chapter 12
and chapter 15 like for us it's just a few pages in the bible isn't there
there's chapter 12 oh look there's chapter 15
but for abraham that was that was 10 to 15 years
that god that god had promised all that time ago and it'd be easy to imagine
that god had forgotten have you ever felt like that
time passes maybe god you've forgotten
maybe god i hadn't heard you properly maybe god is getting older and we know
what happens as people get older don't wait
you think like that yeah god is getting out what do happens when people forget
i say they forget
people can have a conversation with me do you remember i told you about that
thing a week ago
no i told you
no it happens with nicholot actually
sometimes i have to go back to the original conversation and i'll say
it was a sunny day and we were out walking with the dogs and we had quite a
robust conversation about it and we came to the conclusion and this was going
to happen and that was going to happen do you remember
and sometimes i can even see the cogs turning like i know i'm supposed to
remember so i'm going to put my remembering face on and hopefully
she'll think well i've remembered
and remember you said i've got i've got a memory of an elephant
who said yeah that's right yeah
are you calling me an elephant
but sometimes we behave as if god is getting older and we all know what
happens when people get older they forget
and so god is abraham is reminding god about a promise that god hasn't
forgotten about but it's just wonderful to know that god isn't offended
when we go back to him and we say i feel a bit wobbly about this i feel a bit
uncertain about this i feel a bit doubtful about this it's been a long time lord
some of you have been praying over god's promises
for your children for a long time for your children for a long time and
sometimes you think and you can feel like god's forgotten them
because that's what we do we forget don't we
we forget the promises that we've made and i love that god doesn't get offended
or he doesn't get cross and he reiterates the promise and he says to
abraham i've not forgotten and then he takes him outside and i really hope i
can communicate this this morning because it's the most beautiful thing
god takes him outside and he shows in the stars in the sky
and he says to him this is your reminder abraham your children your offspring
that i've promised you they're gonna outnumber the stars in the sky
you know what came to me this morning and i may be wrong
my theology is wrong but i just wonder whether god put the stars in the sky
in order that there would be a reminder for abraham
all those years later
so thought isn't it isn't that what he did with Noah
with the rainbow i don't think a rainbow existed until that point
didn't exist and suddenly there is a rainbow
that is just there to remind Noah that he was never ever going to flood the
earth again maybe god put the stars in the sky
just for abraham to remind him that he hadn't forgotten
and he takes him out 15 to he takes him out and says i'm gonna
fulfill my promise just you look at the stars
now it would be another 15 to 25 years before he would become a father
just like god had said do you know how many night skies there are in 25 years
9 000 night skies to stare at every time abraham had a wobble
every time he had a doubt every time he wondered whether he'd misunderstood
god or not heard properly or that god might have forgotten or they
wouldn't do it because other people had let him down
maybe god would do the same he was human just like us abraham was
and every single time he had that wobble he was able to go out to the sky
and look at the stars and be reminded that god's
remembrances are have been established in time forever
if you remember the story of the children of israel god says to them that to make
halters aren't they so that they can go back to remember
that's right isn't it you know take your children and go back and remember what
god's done and then god would lead him into another thing and he would say
make another altar and bring back your children to remember
how many of those altars still stand none not a single one of those altars
exists today i tell you what exists today though
stars in the sky and the rainbow doesn't that tell you something about the
promises that god makes with us that they are established
that no tsunami or earthquake or as we've heard in Dubai this week cloud
seeding any of you seen that nothing no war
no missile nothing ever can touch the stars in the sky or the rainbows that
will ever come they were established to remind abraham to remind
Noah and to remind us that god's promises
his relationship with us is rock solid i don't know about you that just makes
me so excited when you're on your own
you're on your own and you have in that moment of doubt where is god in the
middle of this look at the sky look at the sky
nine thousand reminders to abraham before the promise
actually was fulfilled it blows my mind
i hope you can see that i'm getting quite excited about this
next time you have the wobbles find a night sky
and look up don't look at the wobble find a night sky
and look up they're easy to find they happen once every 24 hours round about
they're not difficult if you can't find one by yourself give me a ring and i'll
find one with you you know if you've got to go search him
we're not trusting in the night sky we're not trusting in the stars but we are
trusting in the god of the stars the one who flung
it all into space and causes it all to exist now
this is the nature of this god are you still with me
the account tells us in verse six that abraham believed in the lord and the
lord accounted to him as righteousness he didn't believe in the promise
all the stars all the stuff he believed in the lord
and you know what that simple seed of belief did in that moment
it put him in a place of righteousness do you know what righteousness means
what does righteousness mean
right standing before god now it's interesting to go back in time into
abraham's life abraham was obedient to god
he worshipped god he tithed he went to battle for god
he did all of that but it was his belief that putting him in right relationship
with god all of that other stuff didn't none of that other stuff was
accounted to him as righteousness it was when he put his trust in god and he
said lord jesus no i didn't say lord jesus
my god i believe in you it was at that moment
at that moment that god says this is what puts you in right standing
with me
isn't that just so exciting
bible tells us we are saved by grace alone through faith alone
in christ alone and when we put our trust in him
regardless of how fragile it is or how uncertain we are
god credit is that that is a very difficult thing to say that
god credits it it it it to us as righteousness and puts us in right
standing before god hallelujah hallelujah
god reiterates his promise to abraham about it so we've had this you know god
says i'm giving myself and abraham goes yes lord but
what about that other promise and god chosen the sky and all of that and the
remembrance of that and then he comes back again and god says you know
i'm going to give you land and an inheritance for your people
and again abraham comes back and he says okay god thank you very much for that
but how can i know that it will be mine where's the proof
god isn't offended we ask him questions it's not offended
i actually think he enjoys showing us what he's going to do next because he
says to abraham bring me a three-year-old heffa female
go around a turtle dove and a pigeon all sounds really weird to us doesn't it
any ritual that we do today
well we wouldn't do that it would be really messy and steve bode would tell
us off for messing up the carpet
but as soon as god begins to describe the animals abraham knew exactly what he
was talking about because this was a normal ritual when two people were
making a contract or a promise with each other
they would get these animals and they would cut them into pieces and they
would lay them down half of the animal on this side
and half of the animal on that side split into
and the contract was two people would make that agreement and then they would
walk together down the center sounds really weird doesn't it
down through the center down through the center of the minute
if you had to do that in my marriage now i mean the white dress would be a
right mess wouldn't it down through the center two people
together and the implication was is that any of them
that broke the contract any of them that didn't do their part or failed to do
their side of the bargain they were to be put aside
just like these birds and the heffers and the rams and all of that they were
supposed to be regarded as that so making a contract a covenant a
relationship had huge implications if you knew that you
couldn't hold up your side of the bargain
it was a deadly serious quite literally that
deadly serious abraham does exactly what god has asked him to do and i'm sure
in his mind he's thinking to himself this is me and god
walking down this thing together and you know if i was abraham my heart would be
pounding because i know that i am a failure
i know that i fail over stuff i have great intentions about things i'm going
to do but i know how easy it is for me to break my vows
he's making he's preparing himself to walk down this thing
with god and god doesn't turn up god isn't there for ages
and as abraham waits ready to walk down to play his part the carcasses on the
ground begin to dry up and the vultures begin to appear
and then you know what abraham does then has to do he then has to try and scare
the vultures away because they want to come and devour
the carcasses they want to come and devour this ritual
that god that abraham knows needs to happen
the vultures were physically coming to the animals but i also believe that they
were spiritually swirling around abraham's head
doubt i've laid it all lord just as you've asked me to do
and now i'm waiting where are you maybe i misunderstood
maybe i've made god angry any of you's that statement any of you use that
statement maybe i've made god angry maybe he won't come
maybe he's punishing me maybe i've done something and he's punishing me
anybody ever use that statement before yeah
maybe he's changed his mind i bet you know what that feels like when people
have promised stuff and they've changed their mind
the problem is is that we interpret our promises in the same way that we have
experienced them ourselves when i was little
we used to have something called a pinky promise
do you remember those pinky promise i'm just doing it for one four six
they were really important promises weren't they the pinky ones because
there was this thing that was done it's solid
and did you ever have the promise i'm sorry if anybody's offended by this but
that we used to do cross my heart hope to die
stick ten needles in my eye
do you remember those they were like real promises
you know if you said that people were supposed to believe you
a promise was never just a promise you had to like say something else to make
it stick and then you remember the fair weather
promises don't you where somebody's promised you something when the weather
was nice and then when circumstances got tough
i've done that to people made promises that i've not been able to keep because
of different things and i can imagine that abraham is putting all of that
on gardeners the vultures are swirling around
they're swirling around his head as well
bringing in doubt bringing in fear maybe god isn't who he says he is maybe god
won't come maybe i'm wasting my time all the time the vultures are swirling
around well i looked on the internet you know
to work out how you're supposed to get rid of birds of prey from your garden
you know what it says says don't treat them like pets
yelling is good make yourself big and i began to think
about that spiritually what does it mean if vultures
the vultures can't steal the promise but they can steal my joy and they can
steal my peace and they can steal my security
and they can fill me with doubt and all of that kind of thing
if the vultures are coming to steal your yelling is good
make yourself big assert the truth of his promises assert your faith you know
what else works rattle your pots and pans
every time they come close rattle your pots and pans we had thieves come to our
house in zambia one day and i got a saucepan and i ran it down the burglar bars
like this to make a huge noise they never came back again
rattle your pots and pans when the when the vultures want to come in and steal
your joy and tell you that god is not a god of his word
or his promises you remind them rattle your pots and pans
every time they do they come close disrupt the influence
of doubt and negativity worship loud surround yourself with people
the other thing you need to do is remove any perches so they can't settle
don't give them the platform are you all right there Kathy
Kathy sparrow
we don't want purchase the vultures though
do what you need to dismantle dismantle anything that is
that is not creating an environment where faith can flourish
and when doubts and fears come you need to want to make sure that they don't
take root i'm trying to rush through this what a great passage today
so is a Abraham weighted shooing off the vultures god sends him into a deep
sleep basically what god is saying is i am making you incapable
of walking down this thing with me incapable
and as Abraham is asleep god shows him the promise and how it will be
fulfilled but also shows Abraham that they will be
struggle and strife and difficulty and hardship and all of those things
before he would see the the problem filled
why do we think that struggle and strife and difficulty and all of those things
why do we think that those things undermine the promises of god
one of the scriptures in the bible says in this world you will have
trouble but take heart in this world you will have to why do we look
surprised when it comes as if god is not
he's not true to his word he is says you will have trouble but take heart
and as Abraham wakes up he sees god the smoking brazier with a burning
torch passed through the pieces of the sacrifice
together i want you to understand this because this
is really crucial we sometimes live as if the promises
is down the promise that god has made to us is down to us
to maintain and we work really really hard and we forget
that when they walked through the pieces to make the covenant to establish the
relationship it wasn't two people that walked down
each of them making the contract with each other it was god
alone why because he knew that we were frail and we were broken and we wouldn't
be able to keep our end of the bargain and if we aren't able to keep our end of
the bargain that would break the covenant and it would mean all the promises would
come to an end so god took himself down there because he
was the only one that was able but perfect enough to keep the covenant
hallelujah and we're running around frantically
trying to keep our end of the bargain we have no end of the bargain to keep
he made the covenant by himself we struggle with this we struggle with
grace we really struggle with grace because we want to do more
and do stuff in order to earn it god made that covenant with you
all by himself when you were fast asleep and completely incapable
he made a covenant with you oh hallelujah thank you Jesus
he took full responsibility for his promise you see it isn't about your
effort or your faithfulness or your watchfulness that his promise to you is
fulfilled it's about his effort and his faithfulness
and he is determination to fulfill his promise hallelujah
on that day god made a covenant with Abraham that required nothing
from Abraham at all in actual fact he was capable couldn't even get up
he'd been in such a deep sleep i was thinking about this the vows that
i've made to god over the years and i have to say i failed
at every single one of them lord i'm going to get up earlier
i'm going to spend more time with you lord jesus i'm going to be up at four
i'm going to pray longer i'm going to be a new christian and i'm going to be
praying longer any of you said that do you know lord jesus i'm going to be
more loving and kind and patient i do the kind
bit all right the patient bit i still struggle with a little bit
lord jesus i'm going to be more forgiving i'm not going to fail you lord i'm not
going to deny you lord jesus i'll be totally devoted to you lord
fail fail fail fail fail
and if i'd walked down the center of that covenant making ritual
that would have been the end of the relationship because of my failure
i want to tell you something jesus hasn't failed
on his part of the bargain and as he made a contract with himself
means that we are completely secure in his promises i'm almost finished
i want you to shift forward some and i don't know exactly what date it was
but some three thousand five hundred to six thousand years later
and it wasn't the blood of animals
but we're going to be strewn out for god to walk through for the covenant to be
made it was the body of his son jesus
he would be the sacrifice where it was rams and lambs and bulls and all of that
he would be the sacrifice and his body just as abraham
did to those pieces his body was broken
into pieces and his blood was poured out
in preparation for a new covenant a new promise it didn't mean that the old
he got it failed at the old one this was a new one
and as he died on the cross the lord jesus he was completely alone
and i don't know whether the cross is on either side i've done a lot of reading
on this this week maybe the cross is on either side kind of
resembled the picture of the animals in abraham's day
i don't know but i do know that when that covenant was work made jesus
god walked through the center of that sacrifice completely
on his own and he made a covenant with you and with me completely
on his own and he took full responsibility for it
completely on his own and he when he said it was finished he meant it completely
and utterly over your life and even though he knew that you would get it
wrong i love when people say um you know i'm i feel like i might have
disappointed god he had no illusions about what he
was taking on he knew exactly what we're like
you only disappoint someone if you pretend and then they find out who you
really are god knows exactly about each and every one of us
is not phased he made a one-sided covenant because he knew that we
couldn't do it on our own he knew that we would fail and
this promise this promise was the forgiveness of sins once and for all
it would mean that we didn't have to go every five minutes to go and
slot for a ball or a cow or whatever in order to be forgiven again
this sacrifice was a once and for all sacrifice that was made
for your sin in the past for your sin today and for your sin in the future
that's what the new covenant was it was about reconciliation with god
which means that we can walk we walked with god yesterday we can walk with
god today and we can walk with god tomorrow and the indwelling
of the holy spirit the indwelling when i gave my life to jesus i was filled
with the holy spirit the holy spirit took residence
in my life that's part of the covenant that jesus has made
with us he didn't meet us halfway almost of the way
god did it all through jesus because only he gets the credit
for the success and the achievements in my life
we aren't the promised makers or the promised keepers
he makes the promises he keeps the promises and he keeps them all by
himself we don't give ourselves to god he's
already given himself fully and completely to us hallelujah
we don't make covenant with him he makes covenant with us
and at the bottom of each contract at the bottom of the thing to do with your
life there where there should be two names both
playing their part there is one name and it's been signed
the name of jesus in his blood no labor or hard work the bible says
come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden
and i will give you rest no effort involved the bible also says that he
who began the good work in as he's the one that will carry it out
so when you're running around trying to make yourself better go to jesus
he is the one that will carry it out to complete
fission he is the one who works in us both to will and to do his good pleasure
god does it all in us and through us which means we don't get any of the glory
all the glory goes to jesus and i'm always almost finished
so when you have a wobble about your faith and you're worried about your
salvation and afraid that god might forget or be offended or be
disappointed with you or might forget you or might neglect you or might not see
you in the crowd i want to encourage you they go outside and look up
at the stars and remember that god has established a promise in the heavens
that cannot be touched by anybody that reminds us that he is a
covenant keeping god faithful to his promises
even when we are faithless god is still faithful
even when we walk away he has said he'll never leave me or forsake me
even when i've gone and i've looked for my own source of provision
god has still said i'm your provider i'm your protector i'm your shield
i'm your deliverer i'm your strong tower i am all of those things
yes but i get it wrong lord jesus and i don't do it right and i sing
yesterday and he says the promise is still stands
they are yes and amen
the reason we worship and i'm going to ask the musicians if you would come back
the reason we worship is not to make those things happen
they're established they're established all those things
are established we don't have to sing louder for them to happen
they are already established we sing and we worship
because our hearts are grateful and our lives are free
and we've decided that we're going to look at those things
and worship jesus what a privileged people we are
what a privileged people we are
amen