Latest / Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st / By Faith

Transcript

By Faith · Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st

0:09
You have your Bible. Go and make your way to Genesis
0:11
chapter 15. We're going to split this
0:14
chapter into two sections this week and next week as you turn
0:18
to Genesis 15. I know this might sound odd for
0:21
me to say, but I I do think you're turning to one of the
0:24
greatest chapters in all the Bible.
0:26
That may sound weird because all of it's inspired, all of it's
0:29
perfect, all of it's profitable, and yet there are sections,
0:33
there are times you come to pieces of it on which the whole
0:37
message, the whole landscape of Scripture hinges.
0:41
And that's one of these places in Genesis 15 specifically.
0:45
When we get to verse 6, is it, is it going to give us a
0:48
viewpoint of the landscape of the message of the Bible?
0:52
That's going to help everything be clear and make sense.
0:55
And I think you'll see that as we get there to kind of help
0:58
maybe set up what I mean by that Genesis 15 verse 6 and what it's
1:01
going to do for us. Let me just introduce it with a
1:04
with a little story. As I've told you before, I like
1:07
stories of survival. And here is 1.
1:10
I got asked after the first service, did these young boys
1:12
survive this? They did all right.
1:13
If I don't say that at the end, they made it.
1:15
It was January 1991 and 19 year old David Scott and 20 year old
1:21
Scott Power had a lifelong dream of going to the far north, out
1:27
in the wilderness and living off grid for one year.
1:31
Now you may just think they're crazy and they probably were all
1:34
right, but that was their dream. That was their goal.
1:36
They prepared, they planned, and they took a Bush plane into the
1:40
northern far reaches of Manitoba, Canada.
1:43
The closest town to where they were was Hudson Bay, which is
1:48
also known as the polar bear capital of the world.
1:51
So this is what they're encountering.
1:53
All right, so when they get dropped off, the plan is to land
1:57
by a small lake and then take a three mile hike from that
2:00
landing spot to the cabin that they anticipated being about a
2:04
three hour hike. The problem was after 8 hours of
2:08
hiking, it's now the middle of the night and no cabin.
2:14
Well the terrain they're in is flat, trees are thick, snow is
2:21
deep, and it's 30 below 0 where they stopped.
2:26
They only had their sleeping bags and not their tent because
2:29
they plan to sleep in the cabin and not their tent.
2:31
They thought they'd go back for them later so they put one
2:35
sleeping bag on the ground and they both get in the other one
2:38
doing what they had to do to survive.
2:41
They continue to search for the cabin and finally on the 6th day
2:46
only one of them is able to search.
2:49
That's David. Because Scott's feet have turned
2:51
black with frostbite. David finally has an idea.
2:56
He sees up in front of him this large group of massively tall,
3:00
high rise spruce trees. And he thinks if I can just get
3:04
to the top of one of those, I might could see far enough to
3:08
Orient myself to the landscape. I might be able to get an
3:11
orientation and a handle on where I am and where the cabin
3:15
is, and we might could have a chance of survival.
3:17
But this might be my last decision because if I fall from
3:20
that tree, it's over. But it was the only option that
3:24
he had. So he climbs to the top and sure
3:27
enough, he gets to the top and he can look out and see about
3:29
1/2 mile away there's a tiny lake.
3:32
And he says, surely I'm going to climb back down and then find
3:35
that lake on my map and then Orient where we are on this
3:38
river, where that lake is versus where the cabin is.
3:41
And sure enough, he does. They had been searching for five
3:44
days about a mile north of the cabin up river, but he had no
3:49
idea he was in the wrong spot until he could see from the
3:54
height of a tall spruce tree. Genesis 15-6 is like a massive
3:59
high rise spruce tree of the Bible.
4:03
It's like a navigational beacon, if you will, allowing you to get
4:06
a site of the landscape, and not just the landscape of the Bible,
4:10
but maybe even to see where your own soul is in relation to where
4:13
the Bible says it should be. And if lost or disoriented,
4:17
figure out where you are in relation to where God wants you
4:20
to be in order to return to that place where God has His plan,
4:25
His purpose, and His will for your life.
4:27
The question this morning is really twofold #1 have you
4:30
believed by faith? There's a question I want you to
4:33
answer. And then #2 having believed by
4:35
faith, if you have, are you living by faith?
4:38
Have you believed by faith? And are you living by faith?
4:43
Listen to Genesis chapter 15, beginning in verse one.
4:47
After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a
4:52
vision. Fear not Abram, I am your
4:57
shield. Your reward shall be very great
5:03
if we just stop right here and answer what?
5:05
What is after these things? What are these things?
5:08
Well, these things are a little thing that Abram plus 318 men
5:14
did against an army of a coalition of four kings, if you
5:19
remember, from the east that had swept through the Jordan Valley,
5:22
reclaiming the land and the people that had rebelled against
5:25
them. That included the abduction of
5:28
Lot, his nephew, and his entire family.
5:30
So Abram plus his 318 against an army of no doubt thousands
5:35
miraculously as an underdog in a stunning should never happened
5:40
by night raid and all the next day doesn't just say they
5:43
slipped in and slept out, it's and slipped out.
5:46
It means that they went in and wiped them out and then
5:49
slaughtered them all the next day.
5:51
Why? Because Abram was with God and
5:53
God was all Abram needed. You remember us saying that last
5:56
week Lot was away from the will of God and about lost
5:59
everything. But Abram is with God and God is
6:01
with Abraham, and God is all that he needs.
6:04
So after these things, and of course these things include the
6:07
fact that Abram, if you remember, took all those things
6:10
that he had and gave a tent. He gave a tithe to the king and
6:14
priest of Salem by the name of Melchizedek in an honor, in an
6:19
act of honor and blessing to the Lord who had provided him the
6:22
victory. And then perhaps even more
6:25
stunning is he takes the 90% that's left and gives it back to
6:30
the wicked king of Sodom, basically saying, listen, I'm
6:33
not going to let any wicked man take any credit for what God
6:36
could only provide me. Take all your stuff back.
6:38
That's not what I'm after. It's not what I want.
6:40
I'm not after earthly riches. I'm after heaven's blessing and
6:44
God's promises. So it's after these things.
6:48
And then it says the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision.
6:51
Fear not Abram, I am your shield.
6:53
Your reward shall be very great. Abram with 318 men versus
7:00
thousands should have been afraid y'all.
7:02
But he wasn't. Abram and his men saw were
7:10
reward and he could have sought reward from an earthly reward
7:13
standpoint from a wicked king. But he didn't.
7:16
And as a result God speaks to confirm his promises to Abram.
7:20
And it sounds like this, Abram, keep living fearlessly.
7:26
Abram, as I promised you, I will protect you.
7:30
I am your shield as you succeeded with as a group of 319
7:36
against thousands. Because Abram, I'm your
7:38
deliverer. I am your protector.
7:41
The promise, the reward that I promised you is infinitely
7:44
greater than any earthly reward you gave back to that wicked
7:48
king. So Abram, the word that Abram
7:51
hears here from God is a word also that God wants us to hear,
7:55
that He has spoken to us as well as Christ followers.
7:58
As the New Testament makes clear, and this is the first
8:01
thing in your notes I want you to see, the Christian life is a
8:04
call to live fearlessly. The Christian life is a call to
8:09
live fearlessly. God is looking for men and
8:14
women, boys and girls, who will fear not.
8:19
In fact, the Bible makes it very clear.
8:21
Second Timothy chapter one, verse 7.
8:24
The Bible says I God says I've not given you a spirit of but of
8:30
power and of love and a sound mind.
8:33
I've not, I've not verified this, but scholars say that fear
8:37
not or do not fears written approximately 365 times in the
8:42
Bible, once for every single day.
8:44
I've heard one person say, well, they counted 366, including once
8:47
for leap year. I don't know.
8:48
I haven't done that myself, but I just know it's close enough
8:51
that that's got to that, that that's no accident that God's
8:54
looking for people who will fear him and fear nothing else.
8:57
For that is the secret of living fearlessly when you've been
9:01
conquered by a greater fear, which is a fear of God.
9:04
That's the secret to living fearlessly in the face of
9:07
anything else. Can I ask you this morning, what
9:11
do you fear? Do you find yourself living with
9:15
worry or facing anxiety? Is there something that you
9:18
dread? What do you fear you see?
9:21
To fear God is to see God for who he really is.
9:25
It is to see him as holy and completely trustworthy.
9:29
It is to see him as the one who is all powerful and in total
9:32
control. And if he's if he's in control
9:34
and he's good, which he is, he can be trusted.
9:37
We fear, are called to fear God alone, which allows us to live
9:40
without fear in the face of anything else.
9:44
Y'all as believers, let me just remind you, we can live
9:46
fearlessly because God has promised to be our shield.
9:52
Jesus remember, is our shield. Don't forget against the wages
9:57
of our sin, which we deserve, which is death, and yet Jesus is
10:02
our shield. Jesus is our shield against
10:05
death. Death for the believer is just
10:07
now a doorway into life forever in the presence of God.
10:10
Something that the sting has been taken out of, something
10:13
that we no longer need to walk in fear of because the best is
10:16
yet to come. All the Gods promises forever
10:19
all come as a result of not just living in this life, but the
10:23
life to come that yet death is just a doorway into to fear God,
10:30
to fear him. We know that Jesus is our
10:33
protector, our deliverer and strength, the one through whom
10:37
we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength,
10:41
who strengthens me. As Paul writes y'all, we can
10:45
live fearlessly, not just because Jesus, God has promised
10:48
to be our shield, but we can live fearlessly because God has
10:50
promised to be our reward. God tells Abraham you notice his
10:55
reward will be very great. Did you know that Jesus promises
11:00
you as a believer the same thing?
11:03
That your reward will be very great?
11:06
You say Kyle, what kind of great reward has Jesus promised me #1A
11:11
Kingdom that is coming that will last forever?
11:16
Jesus has promised you to be with him, a Co heir of all
11:21
things. Jesus has promised and invited
11:24
you into sharing in his glory forever.
11:27
Jesus has promised you a personal relationship with him.
11:31
The presence of God dwelling within you now is a down payment
11:34
of what's to come, heaven and participation in God forever.
11:38
The call to follow Jesus is a call to live fearlessly.
11:43
Could you honestly say, would you honestly say right now, just
11:47
within your heart and mind, am I living fearlessly because my
11:51
greatest fear is fearing God alone?
11:55
Or do you have any fears that compete with your fear of God?
12:01
And to be honest, when our fears compete with our fear of God,
12:04
it's because our view of God is too small.
12:09
Our view of our fears are too big and our God is too small,
12:14
which is why we daily go back to get in the word of God to see
12:17
God for who He truly is so that we fear Him alone.
12:22
And seeing God for who he truly is shrinks all our other fears
12:28
as we fear Him alone and nothing else.
12:30
Are you living fearlessly because of the fear of God?
12:33
Abram hearing confirmation of the promises of God, you got to
12:38
think. I just want you to kind of think
12:39
about this for a moment. We haven't read the next few
12:42
verses, but you got to think, just look back at verse one.
12:45
Think about what Abraham's just heard, and he's just heard the
12:48
renewed promises of God. He's just heard God say, Abram,
12:51
I'm your shield. Can you imagine if God appeared
12:54
to you and you heard this audibly from God?
12:56
Can you imagine how you might be feeling?
12:59
I'm your deliverer, I'm your protector.
13:00
Your awards going to be very great.
13:02
I heard one preacher say, surely, Abram, this is the time
13:05
he goes and gets his guitar and a sheet of paper, starts writing
13:08
worship song lyrics because he's just going to sit the rest of
13:10
the day and play and sing and worship to God.
13:12
He's got to be feeling so good. Is that what Abram does?
13:18
Listen to the Bible, verse 2. But Abram said, oh Lord God,
13:22
what will you give me? For I continue childless, and
13:26
the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus.
13:30
And Abram said, behold, you've given me no offspring, and a
13:33
member of my household will be my heir.
13:36
Abram doesn't worship. What does Abram do?
13:39
He whines. Can you imagine hearing what he
13:44
just heard from God and talking back to God like that?
13:49
Surely God's going to kind of throw down a little bit.
13:52
Surely God's a little aggravated.
13:53
Surely God is going to, you know, maybe hit reset here.
14:00
And yet God is so gracious and kind and patient, is he not?
14:05
Abram has not totally lost his faith in God, but he's
14:10
expressing honestly some doubts. Have you been there before, not
14:15
lost your faith, but just quite honestly struggling to believe
14:18
the promises of God? Maybe facing some doubts based
14:21
on your circumstances or situation or the odds that are
14:25
happening in your life? Struggling to hold confidently
14:29
to the Lord God? How are you going to give me
14:32
anything when you haven't given me the one thing that you've
14:34
promised? God?
14:35
How are you going to give me any reward when I don't have any
14:38
offspring yet, God? How are you going to make your
14:40
promises come true when I haven't seen them yet?
14:43
God, in case you haven't noticed, I'm still childless.
14:46
God, in case you haven't noticed, the lawyer who's done
14:48
my will has an employee as my heir right now.
14:56
God, what's taking so long? God, I'm trying to hold to your
15:02
promises, but I feel like you are holding out on me.
15:09
Somebody ever owed you money, said they would pay you, kept
15:14
saying they pay you, but never paid you.
15:20
Remember how you felt? Maybe in that moment that's how
15:24
Abram feels towards God. God, you, you've said this, God,
15:30
you've promised this God you, you keep saying this, but I, I
15:37
feel like you're holding out on me.
15:41
Listen to verse four and five and behold, the word of the Lord
15:44
came to him. This man that is Eleazar shall
15:48
not be your heir. Your very own son that is
15:52
literally one from your own body shall be your heir.
15:57
And he brought him outside to do a little show and tell.
15:59
And he said, look toward heaven, Abram, and Number the Stars.
16:03
If you're able to number them, then he said to him, so shall
16:08
your offspring be. God again, is so gracious,
16:13
patient and kind with Abram. You would think this might be
16:15
where if Abram needed a little discipline, maybe this is where
16:18
God was going to give it. And God just patiently pulls up
16:21
alongside Abram, says Abram. No, no, a son, as I've promised
16:25
is going to come. Let me show you a little
16:27
demonstration. Walk outside with me.
16:29
I want you to look towards heaven.
16:30
And Abraham. If you can number all of those,
16:34
then you'll be at a number, all the offspring as a result of my
16:37
promise that I'm going to give you.
16:39
And again, this is fascinating to think about.
16:42
Guess who one of those stars, metaphorically speaking, Guess
16:46
who one of those stars would be as an offspring?
16:49
Promise to Abraham the bright and the morning star, Jesus
16:55
Christ, a son of Abraham, promised all the way back in
16:58
Genesis 12 that would be born and be a blessing to all the
17:01
nations, all the families of the earth.
17:04
Abram, believe me, look at the stars and believe me, trust me
17:07
and wait on me #2 you know, the Christian life is not just a
17:10
call to live fearlessly, but it's also a call to live
17:14
patiently. We don't like to talk about
17:17
patience a lot, but the call to follow Christ in walking with
17:21
the Lord is an exercise in patience as we hold to the
17:24
promises of God, not necessarily realizing all of them in this
17:28
life, realizing the best is yet to come.
17:30
In fact, we don't think about, we don't talk about, we don't
17:33
actually even discuss this a lot, but we realize the very
17:36
best, the greatest results of the promises of God are not
17:43
actually coming in this life. We're strangers in exiles, not
17:48
citizens of this world, but our full reward is coming in the in
17:53
the next. Why don't you listen to how the
17:55
Bible puts that in Hebrews 11 Speaking of Abram, This is
17:59
Chapter 11, verses 8 through 10. Because you see, believing God
18:03
includes waiting on God. It says in these verses, by
18:07
faith Abram obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that
18:13
he was to receive as an inheritance and he went out not
18:16
knowing where he he was going by faith.
18:19
He went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land,
18:23
living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the
18:26
same promise. And watch this for he was here's
18:29
the patient part. He was looking forward.
18:33
He didn't have it all right then.
18:36
He was holding to the promises. He was living patient.
18:38
He was looking forward to the city that has foundations.
18:41
That's that Kingdom that we've been promised as followers of
18:44
Christ, whose designer and builder is God.
18:47
That's that place with God forever.
18:48
That's that all things made right.
18:50
That's that finally and fully in God's presence, reality he was
18:53
looking forward to. He didn't watch.
18:55
He didn't experience in this life knowing it was coming in
18:57
the next verse 13 is even more explicit.
19:00
These, including Abram, all died in faith.
19:05
Did you realize in a very real way, we as believers should
19:08
Christ tarry and not return before we take our last breath?
19:11
There's very much still for us a taking of our last breath that
19:14
must be done in and by faith, right?
19:20
That God's promises are true, that the sting of death has been
19:24
removed. That to be absent from the body
19:27
is to be present with the the Lord.
19:29
That when we see Him in that moment, face to face, we shall
19:31
be changed and be like Him. These all died in faith, not
19:39
having received the things promised, but having seen them
19:41
and greeted them from afar. That is, knowing them, realized
19:44
them, believing them, and having acknowledged that they were
19:47
strangers and exiles on the earth.
19:50
Y'all, Abraham's entire life in one way was an exercise in
19:54
patience. It was an exercise in hearing
19:58
and believing the promises of God, realizing that on this side
20:02
of heaven, not all of them he would see the full fruition of.
20:06
That is an integral, required, critical part of the Christian
20:12
life. It is living fearlessly.
20:16
It's also choosing by faith to live patiently in the promises
20:21
of God. What does Abraham do?
20:23
Well, here's where we get to verse 6.
20:28
And he believed the Lord, and he, God counted it to him as
20:35
what? This verse is what you might
20:39
call a North Star of Scripture. It's what I would compare to a
20:45
Mount Everest of the mountain peaks of the Bible.
20:48
Why is that? Because y'all, it reveals the
20:51
essence of salvation. Here we have a verse that
20:54
clarifies the message of the Bible.
20:58
It is the answer to the question, how could a human
21:01
being possibly be made right with God?
21:06
It says Abraham heard the word of God, specifically the
21:09
promises of God, and did what believe.
21:12
That means he trusted God to be true.
21:15
It means he placed his confidence in God's word.
21:18
He accepted the promises of God as good as done.
21:22
He put his faith in God. That is, God spoke, Abram
21:25
believed and God did what the Bible says.
21:27
He counted it to him as right. To what does that mean?
21:30
He counted it to him as righteousness.
21:32
It means he credited a Sinner with undeserved righteousness.
21:38
It means that he granted Abram a righteous or right standing with
21:43
him. He imputed as a word that
21:46
scholars will use, which means he transferred A righteousness
21:49
that belonged only to God and gave it to Abraham, gave it to
21:53
him as his He considered an unrighteous man righteous in his
21:58
sight. Was it because Abram earned it
22:04
or deserved it? No.
22:07
Was it because Abram worked for it?
22:11
Was it because Abram obeyed the law?
22:15
No, the law hadn't been given yet.
22:17
Was it because Abram was circumcised, baptized, observed
22:20
the Lord's Supper, or joined his local church?
22:24
No. No.
22:28
Was it because Abram believed God by faith?
22:32
Yes, Abram was made right with God because he believed God.
22:38
Here we learned the message of the Bible.
22:41
So clearly, here's where we're at the top of the spruce tree,
22:44
and we see how all these things come together to make sense from
22:47
the old covenant to the new, and Jesus as the answer, right?
22:51
And we see that a right relationship with God requires
22:55
the righteousness of God. And we see that the
22:58
righteousness of God is only acquired by faith, which means a
23:02
right relationship with God only comes by faith.
23:05
Here we see the landscape. Here we see the message of the
23:07
Bible. Here we see why Jesus had to
23:09
come. Here we see where we stand on
23:11
our own, separated from God and our sin and our unrighteousness.
23:14
Unless somebody steps in and provides for us what is not
23:17
natively ours, as we say oftentimes, what is the world's
23:21
greatest problem? Lostness.
23:28
Cat, you should have said it loud and proud.
23:29
All right, I heard you. I heard you whisper.
23:31
It's lostness. It's when people are not in a
23:34
right relationship with who? With God.
23:37
That's the essence, that's the core, that's the source of all
23:39
our problems on the planet, is when men and women, boys and
23:42
girls are not in a right relationship with God.
23:47
We call it lostness. And without a right relationship
23:51
with God, we have no righteousness of our own.
23:55
This is our problem. Separated from God and our
23:58
unrighteousness, we stand in an wrong relationship with God.
24:02
We're lost. This is why John Newton wrote so
24:04
eloquently in a song you know so well in 1779.
24:07
I once was lost, but now I'm found.
24:11
I've I've been brought into a right relationship with God by
24:14
fate, and I've received the righteousness of Christ.
24:16
That's what John Newton is expressing.
24:18
I once lived one way. It was a horrible way.
24:21
Jesus changed my way of living. Why?
24:23
Because John Newton earned it. Because John Newton worked for
24:25
it. Because John Newton started
24:27
doing what was right, or because John Newton believed the word of
24:30
God and like Abram, it was counted to him as righteousness.
24:36
The question of all questions is how could unrighteous, sinful
24:39
human beings ever be made right with God?
24:42
But I can, before I answered the question, can I be honest with
24:45
you and just say the world really doesn't even believe?
24:47
That question needs to be asked, which is part of the blindness.
24:54
When people are lost, often they don't know they're lost.
24:57
You ask the world and they don't believe that they're naturally
25:01
or natively unrighteous before a righteous God.
25:04
You ask the world or you, you go out and ask the culture and
25:08
you're going to hear this lie in so many different ways or terms.
25:11
We're, we're, you know, we're, we're fundamentally good and we,
25:15
we got a few issues here and there, but you know, deep down,
25:19
deep down, we're, we're righteous.
25:22
You just give us the right circumstances or the right
25:24
situation, we'll do the right thing.
25:29
Is that how you've acted in your life?
25:35
If you, if you searched your heart and found native natural
25:38
righteousness? Let me ask you to examine your
25:42
family. How hard is it to find
25:46
brokenness somewhere? Let me ask you to walk in at
25:51
local schools, in any community, and guess what you'll find
25:53
there? Security to prevent the greatest
25:57
of what tragedies you want to you want to you want to examine
26:05
the paperwork and the doings of any institution on the planet,
26:08
including those of faith, you're going to find them corruption
26:11
free. You look around the the globe,
26:16
you find find freedom and righteousness and liberty
26:19
reigning. Who do we think we're fooling?
26:25
Certainly not God, none but ourselves, right?
26:29
And yet the world doesn't even realize the right question to
26:32
ask is how can we be made righteous before God because
26:35
we're unrighteous. And yet some have been honest at
26:37
some points. I've told you this, but the
26:40
famous atheist Woody Allen said this, Woody, if there was a God,
26:43
what would you want him to say to you?
26:45
To which he responded, I don't want him to say to me, you are
26:49
Mr. Allen forgiven. Why?
26:55
Because he knew there was a God and that God was righteous.
26:57
He was in trouble, we are. This is why God sent His one and
27:03
only Son, the way, the truth, and the life.
27:08
What has Jesus done for you so that you could be made right
27:11
with God? He lived sinlessly in your
27:13
place. He died sacrificially in your
27:17
place. He rose victoriously from the
27:20
grave in your place. This is what Jesus has done.
27:24
The Bible doesn't say all who live a good life will be saved.
27:27
It doesn't say all who contribute to the good of
27:29
society will be saved. The Bible says all who call on
27:33
the name of the Lord will be saved because all have sinned
27:36
and fallen short of the glory of God.
27:38
Can I ask you, has there been a moment in your life and you got
27:41
to top of that spruce tree and you looked at the landscape of
27:44
your life and the Bible and who God is, and you realize I'm
27:47
separated from him. I'm unrighteous on my own and by
27:50
faith. You called out to Jesus to save
27:53
you, and your life was reoriented to living rightly
27:58
with God by faith #3 the Christian life.
28:04
The Christian life is a call to live by faith.
28:11
Some people ask the question, how were they saved in the Old
28:15
Testament? The same way they're saved in
28:19
the New Testament by faith. By faith in the old looking
28:24
forward to the cross in the New Testament, by faith, looking
28:27
back to the cross, we're only saved mankind, man or woman, boy
28:31
or girl, is only made right with God by by faith.
28:36
The Bible says if you have never called out in faith to Jesus
28:40
Christ, it says if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is
28:43
Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
28:46
you will be saved. That is, you'll be counted
28:48
righteous, you'll be made right with God, you will be found.
28:53
Have you been saved by faith was my first question.
28:55
The second question is, having been saved, are you living?
28:58
Are you walking by faith? Or maybe have you kind of gotten
29:02
off track a little bit like Abraham was in verse 2 and 3,
29:07
where he had heard the promises of God.
29:08
He knew the promises of God, but quite honestly, he started
29:11
living by sight. God, I hadn't seen the promises
29:14
of God. God, I'm not seeing them.
29:17
God, I've heard them. I'm struggling to believe them
29:19
because I'm not seeing them. And so often we get down where
29:23
the Land's flat and the trees are thick and the snow is deep
29:25
and it's super cold, and we kind of start walking by sight rather
29:29
than faith. We get disoriented and maybe
29:32
start falling into fear or refusing to live patiently and
29:35
wait on God. We get ahead of God or get
29:37
behind God and we lose the what we started with.
29:41
We lose the reality that our lives as Christians, not that
29:45
just begin by faith, but we're called to live out our salvation
29:48
by faith. And this is what Abram was
29:51
reminded of here and what we see here as how God caused us to
29:55
rightly relate with him. Y'all, the call of God can only
29:58
be answered by faith. The call of God can only be
30:03
answered by faith. One of the ways that we remember
30:09
this truth is by observing the Lord's Supper.
30:15
I want you to think about the Supper in this way.
30:17
Coming to the table. We're coming to something that
30:23
we could not provide for ourselves.
30:27
We're coming to something that we could not prepare for
30:30
ourselves. I'm in the throes of with my
30:34
wife of raising a 1311 and 9 year old.
30:39
I'm not sure how many. Lauren does the lion's share of
30:42
it, but there's just some days where you're like, I'm not sure.
30:46
I'm not sure how many more dishes I'm going to wash in my
30:49
life or, you know, when the meals are going to stop or when.
30:52
I mean, you know, the grocery shopping, the meals that I mean,
30:55
just the cycle of life. He just keeps coming, right?
30:57
You're constantly preparing. You're constantly providing.
31:03
The meal of the Lord's Supper is one that when we participate in,
31:10
the right way to approach it is to realize the only way you can
31:14
participate is by completely receiving, by faith that your
31:19
salvation was not something you work for, was not something that
31:23
you could earn or that you could deserve.
31:26
That the righteousness that you have as a child of God is not
31:29
native to you. It's not natural to you.
31:33
It's actually alien to you. It's what Jesus has provided you
31:39
the day you called by faith in him to save you.
31:45
As you prepare to partake, John and praised him are going to
31:49
come out and I want to invite you to just bow your head and
31:52
close your eyes and I want you to consider for a few moments
31:57
what Jesus has done for you. You know, when we sit down at a
32:02
table to partake in a meal, one of the things we do, and I pray
32:06
that you do, no matter whether you're in public or private, is
32:09
you tell you, tell the Lord thank you for what you're about
32:11
to partake of. How could we come to the Lord's
32:16
table? One we could have never
32:19
provided, one we could have never prepared without saying
32:22
thanks. So I, I want to invite you just
32:26
to prepare your own heart for a moment, whether that's saying
32:30
thank you to the Lord silently or whether you're bold enough to
32:34
say it out loud verbally. In fact, I just want to give us
32:38
a moment or two here for several of you to say thank you out loud
32:43
for what God has done for us through his Son, Jesus Christ.
32:47
If you're willing to pray out loud, I want you to do it.
32:48
Just say a sentence prayer of thanks that I'm going to, I'm
32:52
going to close this after you pray, and our deacons will then
32:56
serve us and we will participate together.
32:57
Somebody start us saying thanks for the meal that only God could
33:01
provide. Father, thank you is
33:04
insufficient. God, it's all by your grace and
33:09
your power, your love and your incredible provision that you
33:16
sent your one and only Son as whosoever would believe in him
33:19
should not perish but have everlasting life.
33:23
Remind us, Father, the depth, the length, the breadth that you
33:28
went to to show us your love by sending your one and only Son.
33:34
Thank you for his broken body. Thank you for his shed blood as
33:38
the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin
33:43
of the world. Father, I pray that you allow us
33:47
as we participate to reminded that what starts by faith in
33:51
You. You call us to everyday walk out
33:54
by faith in you in Jesus name I pray.
33:57
Amen. Deacons, if you would now
33:59
position yourself to service this morning, invite you to
34:02
participate. If you're a follower of Jesus,
34:05
you've called on Jesus to save you.
34:09
It's OK to let the elements pass if they need to.
34:11
If you're not in the right state of heart or mind.
34:13
The Bible says not to partake in an unworthy manner.
34:16
And if it's a day that you're not ready to do so, then you
34:19
just pass the plate to the person next to you.
34:21
But if you've chosen to trust Christ by fate, I invite you to
34:24
participate. And I'll return to lead us in
34:26
participating in just a moment.