Sermon Tone Analysis

Greetings Lifehouse!

For those who don't know me, my name is Benjamin Hankin.

Our family has enjoyed being a partner here for just over 2 years and we are so thankful God has called us to serve here with this wonderful body of believers.

With Mark being away on vacation, I was given a promotion for the week from children's ministry and Team Kid Jr, to what we call over you all over here across that hallway, Team Adult.

Sorry there are no snacks or drinks being handed out.

And if your looking for a craft, as we normally do over there, afterwards I can show you how to turn your program into a paper airplane or something.

I want to invite you to open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 15, where this morning we will be looking at the whole of this amazing and important chapter.

It is here that we see a God who was quiet, is now about to get extremely personal again with His creation.

-----Lets Pray----

So lets dive in!

Unfortunately we are not going very far, we have these three words right off the start, “After these things”.

We as an audience reading need to ask the very simple question, after what things?

To appreciate where Abram is at during the beginning of this passage, we need to take a look back before moving forward.

And in the interest of time I will give the super fast cliff notes version since we have a lot to cover today.

In Chapter 12 and 13 God spoke to Abram and made promises to him.

Make a nation of him, give him the land that he sees, bless those who bless him, curse those who curse him.

Then we come to 14:1 Roughly 10 years after the first contact from God.

These 5 kings from the area around the dead sea, say that they want to rebel, these 4 kings from Mesopotamia utterly obliterate the area.

All of this would have been a footnote in history if not for the words “and they took Lot”.

Abram gets word, saddles up 318 men who are like his private green berets, grabs his allies and they ride off like a old western posse to the rescue.

They dont just win, one version translates the word defeats as “slaughters” the armies of the kings.

They take Lot, his whole house/family, and all the loot and head back.

In response to this victory as he is heading heading home, he meets two kings.

In response to the great victory that they had, Abram celebrates giving a tithe to the Lord through Melchizedek, while denying the self seeking King of Sodom a foothold in his life.

So from there we move on to our passage chapter 15.

where we see a beautiful and powerful interaction between God and Abram.

During this interaction we will see these three things

God’s Covenant, it is here that God is going to set forth what He is going to do for Abram

God’s Confirmation, here we will see God not just making promises, but Him confirming to Abram that He will be the one to fulfill every part of those promises.

God’s Covenant Continues, here we are going to see how we today are apart of this great family that God is bringing unto Himself, How we today are apart of this promise to Abram.

I.

The first point is that we will see God’s Covenant.

These are the promises that He is making to Abram.

First off we are going to see Him address Abrams physical safety, followed by his line of succession, and then lastly God address his future home.

----So Read continue in verse 1,

After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.”

One aspect of this passage that is amazing, is the number of firsts that we see happen in this passage.

This is the first time we see the words, “Fear not”, the first time for “The Word of the Lord came to..” and “also the first for God to say that He will be a “shield” for someone.

While this may be the first time seeing them, as you see from the slides, it certainly is not the last.

As for this verse, if you think about it, it's kinda crazy that God would start off that way in His conversation with Abram.

Abram is coming off this major victory!

He is coming off of the great victory over the kings, rescued his family, stood up for God in the face of a self seeking king, joyfully gave of his riches to a priest king as a tribute to God.

The last thing that we would ever expect to hear from God or anyone are the words “fear not”.

But God knows His people, and being that He created us, He certainly knows us far better than we know ourself.

God knows that when Abram returns home and when things settle down, he is going to begin thinking about the safety and security of the people, he may be thinking about the possible revenge that will come from the 4 kings whom he defeated.

Questions like: Will they come back, what are we going to do?

The human side of him may also begin thinking about the great sum of money and spoils that were handed over.

Remember he is nothing but a house that is traveling in another's land, rendering him essentially homeless.

What and why God feels the need to tell him to not fear, the Bible does not state.But one thing that is certain is this.

All too often when we have mountain top experiences in serving or meeting with Him, we need to be on guard because on the other side of that mountain top there is a valley.

And it is during these points when we are most susceptible to attacks from the enemy.

And so I can almost see God wanting to head off that valley before Abram ever hits it.

----Lets read, verse 2 and 3

But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"

And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir."

And Abram in his response shows not one of unbelief, but Abram shows himself to be at a point of doubt.

For him, the problem of a promise of a great reward or anything else that God has for him means nothing if there is no one to continue it.

Abram looks at his age and sees he is long past the years of childbearing.

Abram does a very human thing, and “offer God a way out” he is going to try and help God out as if HE needed it.

And for us today looking at this passage, I want you all to think about something.

This is an extremely rough place to be in life.

You may have felt God’s leading at some point, started to follow and then end up waiting with no answer.

You have been praying for something for a while, and find that there is no answer or reply.

You know that God is clearly guiding your steps in a certain area, but there is no end in sight to where He is leading.

It is this spot where our doubts can turn to fear and anxiety.

Its here where if we are not careful and look to God for the answers, they will turn to unbelief.

I want to share with you this from writer Henry Drummond: “Christ never failed to distinguish between doubt and unbelief.

Doubt is I can't believe; unbelief is I won't believe.

Doubt is honesty, unbelief is obstinacy.

Doubt is looking for light; unbelief is being content with darkness.”

Keep looking to the one who is light and keep trusting that He is faithful to guide you, allow Him to be your strength during these periods of unrest that occur in our lives.

As we look back at Abram, we the reader see him turn to the world for an answer to this problem.

He offers up to God a solution, the culture of the day allowed for a couple with no suitable heir to adopt into their family someone who was in their house and continue the line through them.

Thats why we see him offer up Eliezer to God as an option.

So God responds.

And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir."

And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them."

Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

We have to give God a lot of credit here.

The amount of patience He shows in dealing with those who serve Him is amazing.

His reply is very simple and practical.

He meets Abram where he is at and tells him it is not going to be Eliezer, and reassures him that he will provide an heir of his own line.

And God tells him to open his eyes and look up.

I have to imagine that He did not just mean the starlit sky, but look up to God.

Because if I am Abram at this point, the rest of my life I now have a practical reminder from God every evening that God is going to provide.

My eyes during the night would not leave that sky.

And I feel in all of this, God is simply telling Abram this… Abram, you could never realistically count them, you only look up and see them as something beautiful in the sky.

But Abram I created them, I know each star by name, they are precious to me.

And Abram, each star that represents one of your descendants, I know them too.

I knew them in their mother's womb, I even knew them by name before I laid the foundations of the world.

At this moment, there were no words from our forefather.

Not from his mouth, he spoke from his heart.

And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

If this were after the time of Christ on the cross, we would use terms like “he accepted Christ into his heart” or that he is a “Believer” now.

And here is the something for us today to look back on.

For Abram none of his previous actions were considered to have been counted as righteous.

It was not his faithfully leaving Haran at God's call, it was not the heroic act involving Lot, it was not his tithe to Melchizedek who served God, and it was not the altars that he built for God.

It was his faith, it was him simply believing that God is who He claims to be.

Paul writes in

In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be."