Sermon Tone Analysis

Who Do You Say That I Am?

This is God’s part of the covenant.

Notice the ‘I will” statements made by God in this part of the passage.

Abram waited another 13 yrs for God to speak to him again.

Can you imagine waiting 23 years for someone to keep a promise to you?

I think some of us have literally waited that long for our kids to clean their rooms, 23 years is a long time!

I can’t imagine waiting that long for anything!

We get angry when our internet is slow and the page doesn’t load immediately or when someone is doing 25 in a 30!

We are not know for our patience are we?

Abram waited another 13 yrs for God to speak to him again.

Can you imagine waiting 23 years for someone to keep a promise to you?

I think some of us have literally waited that long for our kids to clean their rooms, 23 years is a long time!

I can’t imagine waiting that long for anything!

We get angry when our internet is slow and the page doesn’t load immediately or when someone is doing 25 in a 30!

We are not know for our patience are we?

But it was his fault wasn’t it?

Finally, God appears and begins to speak, and Abram is joyful!

Have you ever gotten something that you’ve been waiting a long time for and it was the best thing you’ve ever had?

Pineapple Upside Down Cake.

I love what happens here in verse 5.

The world will give us many names, but it is God alone who tells us who we are.

God uses the same words for Sarah in verse 15.

It’s through that identity that we we are blessed with the everlasting possession of heaven, truth, love, salvation, grace and mercy.

Shedding Skin

Let’s continue reading at verse 9. Now we read through what Abram must do.

Genesis 17:9-

This was gonna cost Abram and his people something.

It wasn’t just an empty gesture of faith, but something that would not soon be forgotten.

They literally had some skin in the game!

I can’t help but wonder, how many of us here today would go through with it?

It’s easy to repeat a prayer or to get dunked in some water, but to actually sacrifice your body in a painful and permanent way!

There is no way to get that back.

Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

You couldn’t put it back on.

Because of Jesus Christ, we are no longer required to do this.

But that’s what God wants from us.

He wants us to forsake everything for Him!

All that we have, all that we are, all that we love, all that we strive for, He longs to be more important to us than all of it!

That we would let it all go so that we may receive His blessings.

If we don’t have that kind of surrender, we will be cast out as we were neither hot nor cold.

Why do we keep coming back to the same body of sin that we have already been delivered from?

Look at what happens in verse 17.

Let’s pick up there and read till the end of the chapter.

In Spite of Us

Abraham was happy and felt great joy because of God’s promises.

But he still had doubt.

He still questioned in his heart the method.

Last week we talked about being worthy vessels.

It’s not our questions that make us unworthy, its our unwillingness to move forward out of our doubts and into God’s promises.

God addresses everyone here.

Even though Sarah didn’t listen, even though Abraham didn’t respond, even though Ishmael was a product of disobedience, even though it took you all these years to get to a place where we could move forward, my will will still be done!

Isaac was my plan from the very beginning and he is my plan still.

There is nothing you and I can do to stop God from fulfilling His promises to His people.

His kingdom will come, His will will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

The question for you and I today is, “do we want to be a part of His plan or do want to continue to push our own agenda and miss out on the best that God has for us?”

I don’t want to miss out.

I don’t want to be luke warm and spit out.

I want the best that God has for me.

The beautiful thing about it is that God’s best is available to every single one of us.

Even here in the Old Testament, where foreigners were included in the covenant, we can see that God’s promises extend to us all.

But we must be willing to accept the identity He gives us, sacrifice the body of sin we are born into never to return to it, and move forward in spite of our doubts and into His promises.

Prayer

Invitation