Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / December 13, 2020 | A Thrill Of Hope - Israel's Hope (Connor Kraus)

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December 13, 2020 | A Thrill Of Hope - Israel's Hope (Connor Kraus) · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Connor Krause.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I have the privilege of being the student pastor here at TBC.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hello to everybody online and over in CAB.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Excited to continue this series with you.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: A thrill of hope has been a really encouraging thing for just us as staff to be talking about and for us as TBC, you know, to be looking forward to a time of hope, which really seems to be a good thing right now.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a question for you though.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you over the age of 10, uh, when you were over the age of 10, have ever voluntarily eaten a bug?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I need the okay.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the honesty, by the way.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um how many of you, if you were on a stranded island and bugs were the only thing you could eat, would decide that it was now the time to eat a bug.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then some of you are like, Jesus, take me home.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not eating a bug.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so there's an aspect of our human nature, right, that that is sort of baked in uh for survival.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: We like to be in control.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We like to control things.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's why we love some of those shows about survival, like Man vs Wild, where Bear Grylls goes out.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, the original one was Survivor Man, but anyhow, where Bear Grylls goes out and he, you know, drinks his own pee, and you're like, I'm watching this show because when I'm stranded in Africa in the desert, now I know what to do.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's an intrinsic sort of desire within us to understand survival and to not be caught up in anything that can hold us down.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes that's a really good thing.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes that that bears itself out in positive ways, but it can also bear itself out in negative ways, that desire to succeed and be in control.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no better example of it than the TV show Survivor.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know how many of you have watched this.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're on like season 40 now or something like that.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the ageless vampire Jeff Probst takes 16 people to he's not actually a vampire, nobody laughed at that, but he just doesn't get wrinkles.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So they go to an island and 16 people, they're vying for a million dollars for 40 days, and they have to survive, and every three days somebody gets voted off the island, right?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: I've never seen more backstabbing, lying, vindictive, secretive alliances being made than in this TV show.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And it's super entertaining, okay?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: But this is also a way that our nature can play itself out in a way that's not so positive.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the problem is that God has invited us to be a part of his plan.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not the problem, but the problem is how we relate to God's plan.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: See, every single day, all of us have been invited to be a part of this plan.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: But being a part of God's plan every single day means that we have to let go of an aspect of this control.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of like the Bible school Sunday children's song, you know, God's, he's got the whole world in his hands.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Being a part of God's plan means that we're acknowledging that, and that, and that we're willingly being co-opted into this process where we sit shotgun instead of in the driver's seat.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So this morning, I want to talk with you about this sort of human nature that we have, this desire to be in control and what it looks like when we sort of have to set it aside to trust in the plan that God has for us and how good that plan can be.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: And this morning we are going to look at a story you're probably familiar with.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the father of Israel, Abraham and Isaac, his son.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: But hopefully we're gonna look at it from a bit of a different angle than maybe you're used to.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, a map, like all good Bible lessons start with, a map, right?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, Abraham in Genesis 11, we're introduced to actually Abram.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I promise you, before this lesson is done, I'm going to uh mix up Abram and Abraham and Sarai and Sarah multiple times.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: But just so you know, at this point in time, it's Abram and Sarai.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: 75 years old, and Abram is called out of this place called Ur over in Babylonia.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: And in Genesis 11, we get his genealogy.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: He's descended from Noah, he's a descendant of Shem.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're introduced to him, and he is called out of a region that is not really worshiping God at all.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: He is he's called out of that to basically be the seed that starts what we later see to become the nation of Israel.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, in Genesis 12, when he's called out of Ur, God gives him a promise.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I will make you into a great nation.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And see, this is a problem because Abram and Sarai have not been able to have children.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Abram's 75, Sarai's about 65, and they haven't been able to have children.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: But Abram goes ahead with this and he travels along sort of on this um arc of a path around the desert.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And when he gets to Canaan, in the land of Canaan, he's brought Lot along with him, his uh nephew.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And in Genesis 13, God gives him a reminder of the promise.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: I will make your offspring as plentiful as the dust of the earth.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: The reason he's using this kind of language is because the scene, it's really neat.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: God sort of shows Abraham this all the land.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: He's basically like every it's kind of a Lion King Simba moment where it's like everything you see is going to be yours.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: And not only yours, but your generations and the generations after that.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to belong to them.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: This is my promise to you.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so Abraham keeps moving forward, and he's a faithful man.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: But this promise that was made, it's not fulfilled immediately.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And see, later on, there's a gap in time of about 10 years before we get to Genesis 15, where God says, Don't fear Abram, I'm a shield to you.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: Your reward shall be very great.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's super clear in the text that Abram is concerned about this thing that God has told him.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Your reward shall be very great, sounds somewhat vague, but immediately Abram responds with, Well, how am I going to be a great nation if I don't have an heir?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: My heir right now is this guy named Eliezer.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: He's not even of my household.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's a relative of mine.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you've said, I'm going to be a great nation, and it's not happening just yet.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: But importantly, this moment here, God sort of takes him along and shows him everything.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Abram does trust and has faith in God.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where we see that it's that phrase that it's credited to him as righteousness.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: He had faith in the promises of God.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: But as you can imagine, though, this promise was weighing heavy on him.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: God says, Do not fear Abram, I'm going to carry it out.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: But back at home, Abram and Sarai, they were struggling with this a little bit.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And in Genesis 16, Sarai suggests a plan that Abram should sleep with Hagar, their Egyptian servant, and that this was how they were going to fulfill God's plan to have an heir, to become a great nation, to have descendants that were as numerous as the dust of the earth.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: But beyond the very obvious problem that that presents, there were a couple other sort of underlying problems when they decided to take this into their own hand.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, once Hagar was pregnant with the child later, they would name Ishmael, once she was pregnant, she began to be very dismissive towards Sarai.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: She had been able to get pregnant, Sarai wasn't.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: You can imagine how that would hurt somebody who had gone, at this point, she's about 75, has been told that she should be able to have a child, but hasn't been able to yet.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Then, in retaliation, Sarah, or Sarai, sorry, see I messed it up, right?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: I told you.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Sarai becomes very angry towards Hagar and actually sends her out of the camp.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Abram sort of steps back from the situation, sort of recuses himself.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: He says, This is not my thing.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is for you guys to handle.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: But an angel of the Lord sends Hagar back to the camp.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Says, No, go be with them.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so then Ishmael is born and he is raised as Abram's child.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: And Abram raises him as his child.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: And Abram puts a lot of faith that we're gonna see later into who Ishmael is.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: He actually thinks that Ishmael is the fulfillment of God's promise.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's not, spoiler alert, but Abram thinks that.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, though, Sarah, she has discontentment.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: She has resentment towards Ishmael.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because as he's growing up in their household, and she is raising him, and Abram is raising him, every single time she looks at him, it's a reminder of the fact that she has still not been able to have a child.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then fourth and finally, the other problem that this brought up is we read in the text, though they weren't totally aware of then, the descendants of Ishmael end up becoming enemies of Israel.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Though God ends up blessing Ishmael with many children, they, throughout the Old Testament, they kind of harry and attack the Israelites.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: So there are a lot of these problems that take place.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Interestingly, though, God doesn't really say anything to Abram.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: You'd think that if the promise had been fulfilled, that God would come down and be like, there it is.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: But God doesn't say anything to him.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: We actually get another gap in time, and now Abram is 99 years old, and the floodgates open.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: In Genesis 17, we have a bunch of there are a whole lot more than I was able to put on here.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And God is like, now is the time.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: I will multiply you exceedingly.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be a father of a multitude of nations.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: You get a name change.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Your name shall be Abraham, which means father of nations, and you will be exceedingly fruitful.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: All of these things God is still saying to him about the future that hasn't even happened yet, because Abram still doesn't have his son.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he thinks he does.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: So now to that.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: See, God speaks to him and says, Abram, you're going to be fruitful, you're going to multiply.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be amazing.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: You're going to have a kid.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: And Abram actually says, Well, what about Ishmael?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: What about him?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't he going to be the one that fulfills all of these things?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, No, no.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: If it probably should have been obvious already, but it wasn't, it's going to be through you and Sarah.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: You and Sarah are going to have the child that is a part of my plan.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's not what you decided to do, but it's my plan that I'm carrying out through you.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: We often attribute Isaac's name, which is the name of their child, to Sarah laughing, but actually Abraham laughs first.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Here in this passage, it says that Abraham basically laughed within himself, and God said, Okay, now the kid's name is going to be Isaac.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next chapter is when Sarah is visited.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very obvious that God wanted to speak to Sarah separately as well.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Or make sure that this message was communicated very clearly because when the angels arrive, there's sort of this really interesting scene where these three people who Abram somehow knows is God, they come and they're like, hey, where's Sarah at?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then they let her know she laughs.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyhow, let's track forward.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Isaac is born.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Abram, Abraham's a hundred, Sarah's about 90, and it is everything that they could ever dream of.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's exciting.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: They see that God is really carrying out his plan in their lives, and it's wonderful.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham is is hopefully finally able to see everything that God had promised him was being carried out.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: But remember, it took 25 years for this to take place.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: We have the initial promise when he is called out of the land, uh, actually a couple reminders, but a specific reminder of the promise about 10 years later, and then now we have the fulfilled promise, which got cut off in the TV.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: But that's what it says.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fulfilled promise.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: Isaac has been born.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: But halfway through, right after they had been reminded, Abram at the time and Sarai sort of hatched this plan, they were going to fulfill God's will in their own way, and that they were going to have the child.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: I believe they had great intentions, but it should have been pretty obvious to Abraham that God was talking about him and Sarah all along.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: Technically, what happened with Hagar could have happened at any point in time.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: God was promising Abraham and Sarah that they were going to have a child.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now we're going to pick up on this later, but like I've already mentioned, Ishmael was not a part of God's plan.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: So now, later on, Isaac is born.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: He is being raised in their household.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: But Ishmael is growing up too, and he's about 13 years old when Isaac is born.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the next time we read about him in the story, he's probably 16 or 17.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it's time for Isaac to be weaned, okay?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: And um probably it was probably Sarah's idea.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: They throw a huge banquet for his weaning, okay?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody's invited to this banquet, and Isaac is there, obviously.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's his party.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: But Ishmael is also there.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: And Ishmael, who you can probably understand is feeling a little um like second best, begins to mock Isaac, make fun of him for whatever reason that was.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Probably that he was firstborn, and Sarah gets really angry.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: And this is sort of the last straw.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: She has her own child now.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Hagar and Ishmael have have you know tap danced on her last nerve, and she sends them out of the camp.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, for the r for us right here, this is where Ishmael sort of exits the story.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um interestingly, he apparently stays connected with the family because in Genesis 25, he appears again when Abraham dies.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And it says in the text that Abraham, who was buried with Sarah, was buried by his sons, Isaac and Ishmael.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a little fun factoid, but whatever.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: As we move forward, the thing that we need to focus on is Abraham has been given this promise.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it's through Isaac.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: And Isaac is this like physical manifestation of everything that God had said was going to happen.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Everything is good at home, everything is good in their life.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you know the rest of the story, in Genesis 22, we get God's command.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: How old is Isaac at this time?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he's old enough to climb a mountain with his dear old dad.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, Abraham's no slouch.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is like a multi-day hiking trip.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's carrying the firewood up the mountain.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Isaac is old enough to understand whatever sacrificial customs were there, because at the top of the mountain he asks, Where is the ram that we're going to sacrifice?
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: But God here, he wanted to ask Abraham a question, a very important question.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Take now your son, your only son, if you didn't know already, the one you love, and yeah, I'm talking about Isaac.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Abraham, I have a question for you.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do you hope in me, or do you hope in what you can see?
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do you hope in the fact that I have made these promises to you, that I have said that you're going to be a great nation, that all of these things are going to carry out from your line?
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: Or is all of your hope resting in Isaac, the one in whom he loves, his only son, the one that he cares about.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the story is they go to the top.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: Isaac is faithful, submits to his father Abraham, is bound and put on the altar, and before Abraham is able to sacrifice Isaac, the angel holds his hand and provides the ram and the thicket that they are then able to sacrifice.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: And you might be thinking, man, what was going through his head?
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: What was going through his mind, Abraham's mind as he was challenged by God in this way?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: And really what becomes the turning point in everything, God after this, after Abraham sort of agrees to be faithful to his commands, God is like, okay, everything that we have said is going to happen with you because you have truly shown to be faithful.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: So what was going through Abraham's mind?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we find out in Hebrews 11.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: It says, By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the one who had received the promises, I love this language.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: We've been talking about it.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's not lost on Abraham that God has made these promises to him.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: He was offering up his only son.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: It was he to whom it was said, Through Isaac your descendant shall be named.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: He considered that God is able to raise people, even from the dead.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's what was going through Abraham's mind.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: He was like, I will carry out God's will because I know he is able to do impossible things.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I trust in his promises so much that I guess if Isaac is supposed to die in this moment, I know God is going to raise him up because this is everything he has promised me.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham went from everything he could see and trusted and hoped in something that was promised to him, that was foundational, that was deeper, that was everlasting.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: That is the faith that God wanted to see from Abraham, and it played out.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: So why do we bring up this story?
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's really important for us this morning because, see, God has made us promises.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's made us a lot of promises.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: But things like that you will find peace, you will find rest, that God is in control, that He's got a plan for your life, that He loves you dearly, and that He wants you to know these kinds of things, and that He is going to take care of you.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: God has promised us this and much more.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: But oftentimes we can ask the question: are we there yet?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Are we to the part where you fulfill the promise?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I know, I know we have a little bit more to go, but like how much longer until we get to the nice part where we don't have to struggle and wait anymore, and we just get to where the good stuff happens.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: When I was growing up, my um my mom uh made me, well, we lived in Illinois for a time, but we had family back here in Topeka, and uh I was I was this kid 100% uh because we had to take the six-hour van drive from where we live near Chicago to Topeka.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And my mom, she took a cookie sheet and made a little magnet for it.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so instead of me having to ask this question, she would just slowly move the magnet along the cookie sheet so I could see exactly where we were at.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes we wish that God would give us something like that to let us know exactly where we are in the process.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: But it requires that we hope in something greater and deeper and more foundational.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so this morning I want to show you three lessons from the life of Abraham that we've already talked about that can help us live with hope even when we are in that sometimes awkward waiting period.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: The first thing is that we have been given the reminder.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: What do I mean by that?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, if you'll remember, right, like we talked about, Abram and Sarai, they were reminded of God's promise.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just when he was told initially and then when it was fulfilled, but along the way, God says, remember, I know that you're feeling fearful that you're not going to have a child.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: I know that you're stressed, you're feeling anxiety about this whole situation.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: I've got to let you know, Abraham, Abram, man, Abram, that this is going to happen.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: That I am going to do this in your life.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: We are going, he was reminding him of what was happening.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: So what is our reminder?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it relates directly with what our series is about.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it happened in that manger 2,000 years ago.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, the incarnation, it was more, far more than just a reminder, but it was also that.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: That all of these Old Testament promises, all of these things about God making sure that he was going to save his people, that there would be a sacrifice, that there would be something that defeated death and that allowed us to have an eternal relationship with him.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Truly, the promise of the new covenant was born in a manger that day.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so we can look at this reminder and see that even though technically we didn't see it with our own eyes, we have still been reminded of God's promise.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: He hasn't forgotten us.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: And while Jesus accomplished those things fully on the cross, he is also the thing that we look back to and say, you know what?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: We are somewhere around here.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have maybe the magnet on the cookie sheet, but we have been reminded of our promise, and we know that we are heading at a breakneck pace towards that fulfilled promise.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that should give us a lot of hope, a thrill of hope.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because we see that God is working out his things in our world.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Second of all, God's plan works better than ours.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is the 2001 movie with Jake Young, Jake Gillen Hall, Bubble Boy.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: How many of you have seen Bubble Boy?
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: All right, okay.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, I'll tell you what Bubble Boy was about.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: So Bubble Boy was this this guy, this kid, who was apparently born without an immune system.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so his mother, who is extremely overbearing, um, they put him in this bubble.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: They have to feed him through.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: A hole in the bubble, and he has all these tools, right?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: So that he'll never touch the outside world.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: He'll never, you know, experience the grass beneath his feet because he's allergic to the grass.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, come to find out at the end, he finds love, naturally, and he wants to go and chase after her, and he realizes at the end of the movie that actually he wasn't allergic at all.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: That all of these things that his mother and he had kind of done to protect him, that they had done nothing but hamper his ability to experience life to its fullness.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when we create our own plan, when we become dissatisfied, like Sarah did, unhappy with the speed of things, God reminds them of the promise, and then as we read in the text, it seems very soon after that, Sarah says, I want you to meet Hagar.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to be with her so that we can have this child.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to contrive our own way to fulfill God's plan.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we're not going to continue to wait.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so for some of us, we create a plan because we've got that nature.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Remember the part that makes some of you guys want to eat bugs?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: We've got that nature within us that says, we're going to do whatever it takes to survive.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to do whatever it takes because this feels really uncomfortable, and I want to get off the hot coals.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so we create our own plans.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we do this in a lot of different ways.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a lot of things that we put in our life that we think are going to satisfy us.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: And without just, you know, going through a list of them, if you have ever had the thought, if only X, then I would be fine.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: If only I was in this certain relationship.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: If only I had this level of success.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: If only I got this promotion, or I had this amount of money in my bank account, then I am going to be fine.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: These are the kinds of things that we do, this substitution that we put in place.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: We say, God, I trust, I am a Christian, I believe in your promises, but I'm having a really hard time living out those promises, living with hope.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: There's a great quote that I think summarizes this from the Deeply Formed Life.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: It says, the troubling reality is that believers can be deeply committed to being Christian without ever being deeply formed by Christ.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like Bubble Boy, like Bubble Boy, we prevent ourselves from experiencing God's presence to its fullest extent.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: We protect ourselves in this little shell and all of our plan B's and backup, you know, sort of contingency plans, so that in the back of our minds, even though we know that Jesus Christ has saved us and we can trust in God's promises, that the thing we don't want to mention is that if he fails those promises, then we've got something to fall back on.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: But that prevents us from being, as he says, deeply formed by Christ, and not only that, experiencing the joy that can be found in trusting in those promises that God has given to us.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to do that.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know if you can put yourself in Abraham's shoes.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: There's some of you who probably can and can feel exactly that pain and that anxiety that he probably experienced as he was waiting 25 long years to receive Isaac.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And why, when God comes to him and says, Now's the time for the promise to be fulfilled, he looks back 15 years earlier and says, What about Ishmael?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: I thought we sort of took care of that.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: And God says, No, no, no, that was you.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't me.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: But the third and final thing that we can learn from Abraham's life is that we need to give up Isaac.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to explain that in a second.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: But first, there's a scene from 2020 movie that came out, Pixar, called Onward.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: Onward, it's a great movie.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: And there is a scene in this movie that encapsulates what I'm trying to talk about perfectly.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: The heads of Pixar called me up.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: They said, Hey Connor, what's a great illustration we can give you in our next movie?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, This one, and they said, You got it.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Got a direct line.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: So in this situation, these two brothers, it's Ian and his name's Barley, they're heading on this sort of quest to sort of um uh connect with their father again.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And there's this, as you can see, this giant chasm here.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the themes of this movie is that Ian has to believe in the magic that is real but unseen in the world.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And Barley, his brother, believes in it fully, and people think that he is a fool for doing it.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's this chasm, and there's this spell that Barley is telling Ian, but only Ian can do it because he's the only one that can use magic.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: Just bear with me.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: So to get across this chasm, he has to use this spell.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it requires that he believes, step by step, that he is going to make it across.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: But you can also see here that there's a rope.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And see, Ian, his theme, his character arc through the whole movie is that he doesn't believe in the power of magic, and that he doesn't truly trust in it until at the very end of the movie.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so he has Barley wrap this rope around his waist in case the magic fails, in case he's not going to be make it all make in case he's not going to be able to make it all the way across.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so he starts out step by step over this chasm that he's walking across, this thing that terrifies him.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: He's not a very confident kid, and he sees that it's working.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And as it keeps going, he becomes more confident in it.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: He keeps moving forward.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: He forgets that the rope is even there.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Barley is having like hand over fist to just unwind the rope.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually, a problem comes up that the viewers can see, but not Ian, which is that about three-quarters of the way across this chasm, the rope runs out.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: And Barley knows, he trusts in magic, that Ian can make it across, but he doesn't want to tell his brother that the rope ran out because he knows that he will begin to doubt and the magic will fail.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Ian gets really excited, he gets kind of cocky, and so he looks back.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the this is the screen grab, this is the scene, when he realizes that he is not all the way to the edge, but his rope has run out.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, he realized two very, very important things.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: One is that it's scary when the rope runs out, and two, that he never needed the rope in the first place.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's scary when the rope runs out, and he never needed the rope in the first place.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so Ian, eventually, as the story keeps going on, becomes a great user of magic and all of that stuff.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: But what do I mean when I say that we need to give up Isaac?
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the reason I believe that God wanted to test Abraham with this amazing challenge to go and sacrifice his only son is because I think there was a chance, and God wanted to make sure that Abraham was answering this very important question, like we already talked about.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham, do you believe in hope in me and my promises, or do you believe in hope in this good thing that I've given to you?
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you believe in hope and what you can see in front of you?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: Abraham passed that test with flying colors, and God made him into the nation of Israel.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: But for us, there is something in our lives that probably looks like an Isaac.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: What do I mean?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's probably something in our life that is a great example of God's goodness and faithfulness to us.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Something that we cherish deep down, something that we love and right, like I want you to give me your son Isaac, your son, your only son, the one you love.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: The deepest thing to Abraham was Isaac.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: And for all of us, we probably have that too.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when I say that we need to give up our Isaac, I don't mean that we go and sacrifice it.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't God's intention anyway.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: But rather, he wanted to test Abraham's heart to see what he was truly hoping in.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a really kind of interesting question that is posed to us when difficult things happen, or if that good thing, if we ever think that it might be taken away or it never happened in the first place, and that is, do I hope in the promises of God that have been guaranteed to me, or do I only think God is as good as the amount of good things in my life?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do you judge God's goodness based upon how well your life is going?
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Or can you look beyond that, into the deeper sense where God has said, My promises to you have been guaranteed?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the wonderful things about the Bible ending with the book of Revelation, is that we can see that John was transported to a future where God has already taken care of death and the devil and evil, that we can see that there is already a future guaranteed for us where there is no more pain and suffering, and we are heading towards it.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: In a sense, it is here, but not fully.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so do we look to those kinds of promises, the ones that are guaranteed, or do we just trust what is immediately in front of us?
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: In our series this morning, and as we're continuing through a thrill of hope, I hope that you would see God as not one who is there as a genie to give you just good things, but rather that you would understand that God wants you to be a part of his plan every single day, completely committed to it, and that we have to fight against that human nature within us that says, I want to control, I want to manage, I want to enact my plan B when God's plan isn't going the way that I want it to.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really hard thing to do.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: But also it helps us to draw deeper into the fullness of Christ.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're able to do that, if we are able to draw into the deepest sense what God has promised for us and what he has for us in Jesus Christ, we will end up realizing that that is where all the fulfillment happens anyway.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's not in the good things of our life that God has given us because he loves to do it, but rather it is in the relationship we get to have with the creator of the universe.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: And in those moments, like Abraham realized, that is where fullness is found.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: A thrill of hope.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: We hope in what was promised to us in this manger, that Jesus is going to return again, he's going to make all things new.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: And until that time, we share the gospel with the world because they need to also hope in something that is greater than what they can see in front of them.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Would you guys pray with me?
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you that He is so good.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for reminding us of your promises to us.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you that we can rest assured that you have already defeated death and that we are heading towards a future where you have already conquered and been victorious.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Father, please help us as we are going through life, waiting in the midst, waiting for the good things to happen, waiting for your promises to be fulfilled.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, that you would help us to continue to hope in you.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: To not create our own situations, Lord, that often hurt us more than they help us, but to trust in your promises, Lord.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: These things will fulfill us.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I pray that by the power of your spirit that you would help us to realize that.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_00: God, once more, thank you during this Christmas season for that baby in the manger that saved the world so that man no more would more would die.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we love you and we thank you.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: All right, have a great Sunday.