[00:00:01] Welcome to the River Church podcast. We're all about bringing the life, hope and love of Jesus to everyone around us. For more information, check out our
[email protected]. nobody likes waiting, do they?
[00:00:15] Nobody. It's the one common thing that we all face, that we all have, is that no one likes waiting. Oh, thank you so much. That's wasn't the thing I was waiting for, by the way, but awesome.
[00:00:26] That worked really well. See, we planned that completely.
[00:00:30] Nobody likes waiting. It can be frustrating, confusing, awkward, and even painful at times.
[00:00:38] And you start to ask, why is this taking so long? What is he doing up there?
[00:00:42] Will this ever happen?
[00:00:44] But the good thing, the thing that makes it a bit easier to wait, is when you know and you trust the person you are waiting for.
[00:00:52] Now we're looking at the.
[00:00:59] I'm going really hard to do this waiting thing. You know what I mean? Okay. We're looking at the big story of scripture. And actually it's last year, I think, that atelier looked at how God called Abraham out of the place he lived and with a promise that he will make a great nation out of him that will give him a new homeland and that through this family, all the nations of the world would be blessed. And they've been waiting. Abram and Sarai, by the way. I'm going to end up saying Abraham and I'm going to end up saying Sarah because. Because their name's changed. So do forgive me. But they've been waiting for this promise ever since. And basically, to sum up what we're gonna talk about, we're gonna talk about God being the promise keeper. This morning, I'm gonna break it down into three ways. We're gonna look at God as a faithful father. We're gonna look at man's mistake when we don't trust in him. But we're also gonna look at Christ's covenant.
[00:01:52] So let's turn our Bibles. We're gonna go to Genesis 15. I'm gonna put it up on the screen for.
[00:02:00] I didn't get to say my little blurb at the beginning. I'm Colin, and if you're visiting, I really want to just echo what's been said already. You're so welcome. Maybe it's your first time and actually you're not used to the Bible.
[00:02:10] Please don't worry, you're in a good space here. I was not used to the Bible. I thought it was really out of date and rubbish and not worth listening to. And now I see it as the truth of God. So if this is your first time, we're going to spend a bit of time in the Bible. But I just want to ask you, give it a chance. You don't know what God might do as you listen.
[00:02:30] So let's read from the top. We got after this. The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield. I'm your very great reward.
[00:02:40] But Abram said, sovereign Lord, what could you give me since I remain childless and the one who inherit my estate is Eleazar of Damascus?
[00:02:49] And Abram said, you have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir.
[00:02:56] Then the word of the Lord came to him. This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.
[00:03:05] 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. Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness.
[00:03:20] He also said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans and to give you this land, take possession of. But Abram said, sovereign Lord, how can I know?
[00:03:31] How can I know that I will take great possession of it?
[00:03:35] And then there's another bit. We'll come back to that in a second.
[00:03:39] So here's a few thoughts as we look at this passage now. As I said, time has moved on. Like, they got this promise a bit late in life. I think it's around the sort of 70s. So time has moved on quite many, many years have gone by and they're sit there, sat in there going, when's this going to come, God?
[00:03:59] How many of us can relate to that? How many of us have been waiting a long time to see these promises of God come?
[00:04:07] I think what I love about God is his reaction here. So when they're coming with their doubts, their questions, God doesn't shut them down for being honest with their doubts.
[00:04:18] Instead, God reassures. He takes Abram outside and lifts his eyes, reaffirming his promise that he will have a family as countless as the stars.
[00:04:30] Now, when we think about stars, we might look up at the night sky and go, oh, seven. It's quite a few, actually. There's quite a few descendants. No, no, but we were in Scotland this last year. We were right out in the sticks and it was beautiful.
[00:04:43] I'm a bit of a photographer, as you might know, so I did some astrophotography, even that picture doesn't do credit to the amount of stars that are in the sky.
[00:04:54] When we speak to God, when we bring our doubts, when we bring our fears, God seeks to reassure. He seeks to build trust.
[00:05:03] This is who God is. And then this most wonderful, most important of Bible verses comes. I think it's in verse six, it says, abram believed the Lord and he credited to him as righteousness. Now, to this day, you know, we could spend the entire sermon on this.
[00:05:22] But to this day, we know that our standing before God is not to do with our accomplishments or our ability or even our failures. It's about the trust in the God who keeps his promises.
[00:05:33] It's in the character of God. This is so countercultural. In a world where we live, where our value is tied to what we do, God stands apart. And he says, no, it's about what I've done.
[00:05:50] Now we sing this lovely song. I don't think we sung it today. But God is our waymaker. He's our miracle worker. He is our promise keeper. And we see this across scripture. So in Psalm 145, you see that the Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does. In Joshua 23, it says, you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed in all the good things that the Lord God has promised concerning you. All have come to pass. Not one of them has failed. And so when the Bible speaks about God's promises, it's not wishful thinking.
[00:06:25] It's anchored in something deeper.
[00:06:28] And today, that word we're talking about is covenants. Now in our series, we're looking at overarching themes across the Bible, not just our little moment, because again, this is all one unified story that God is telling us. But you might ask, question, what's a covenant? It's a bit of a weird word. We don't really hear it very much.
[00:06:45] I think you might hear it in sort of contract law when it comes to exchanging land.
[00:06:49] The other more common place you might hear it is in the marriage covenant, the marriage between one man and one woman. There's a deep emotional commitment to one another for the rest of their lives.
[00:07:01] Some people might say it's a contract. It's not actually. It's deeper than a contract. A contract says, if you fail, we're done. We'll work together on this, but we're out. A covenant says, I'm binding myself to you, even if it cost me.
[00:07:16] This is the kind of commitment that God has towards his people.
[00:07:20] And it's the kind of commitment that he calls us into daily. Throughout the Old Testament, we see several major covenants, each building towards God's plan to restore creation.
[00:07:32] Now, I'm not going to spend all day on this, but I have created a little table to help with this. If you would like to have this little table later, please just send me a message. I'll get it over to you. But this lays out five of the big covenants that tell the whole story of the Bible as we go through.
[00:07:51] I'm not going to spend ages on it.
[00:07:53] If you did want to spend more time on it, I would encourage you guys, you're welcome to take a photo, that's fine. But there's also this wonderful resource called the Bible Project. I don't know if you've heard of it. They do these videos that explain different complex themes and philosophy from the Bible. They do a whole video on this, which is well worth watching. But I probably couldn't get away with just playing that video for the whole sermon.
[00:08:15] So I'd encourage. But just to give a little overview, let's start at the top. The Adamic covenant. You might understand us at the beginning with Adam and Eve, it's this commitment, this promise that God gives. God is giving life, humanity, life purpose, dominion over all things. To be called, to be fruitful and to multiply, but also to follow God.
[00:08:37] And the Noahic covenant with Noah actually reaffirms this. The only thing it adds, actually, is that even though we have sins, we have wrongs, God promises, I won't destroy the world in the same way that the flood caused.
[00:08:51] Actually, in that covenant, there's no requirement asked of the people. It's just simply a covenant given by God. And then in the Abrahamic covenant, again, we've got this promised land, this nation that will come out of this one man who will draw all people and bless those people in God.
[00:09:10] And in the Mosaic covenant, you've got Moses, who's given the law, he's given the laws of God, not just ten commandments, there's kind of a whole lot more. But basically it's talking about the way we're going to do this relationship again, as things go on, God is revealing what life is going to be like. He's revealing the journey and the story of him pursuing his people. And in the Davidic covenant, you've got this establishment of a forever kingdom that's going to come through David's line.
[00:09:38] They're all pieces of the story as they build together about this God, this Wonderful God who is seeking his people so that he can be their God and they can be his people.
[00:09:53] Now, going back to what we said earlier, Abram asks this question that we've all asked. How will I know that this will all happen? How will I know God?
[00:10:05] God's response is a little bit odd, actually.
[00:10:11] He says so the Lord said to him, bring me a heifer, a goat, a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and young pigeon. Abraham brought these to him and cut them in two and arranged them in halves opposite each other. And then the birds, though he didn't cut in half.
[00:10:29] It's an odd response.
[00:10:32] It sounds really strange, even a bit crazy. But actually, to Abram, it would have been quite instantly recognizable.
[00:10:40] Now, in the ancient world, when a serious covenant was made, animals were cut in two. They were laid opposite each other, forming a path. And what would happen is the parties would walk in between these animals as a sign of saying, if I break this covenant, if I break this agreement, let what's happened to these guys happen to me.
[00:11:01] This wasn't a casual promise or just like a handshake that then you feel a bit fed up if they don't follow through. It was a binding, costly and life and death serious situation.
[00:11:11] This is the level of commitment that God has to his people, to you and to me.
[00:11:17] Now, we're going to come back to the ceremony a little bit later, but I think you get the idea. God is a faithful father who binds himself to his people through his promises. You might say that the Lord of Lords is also the faithful of faithfuls.
[00:11:33] Do you know this God? Today, when you do your life, when you think about God, is that the God you think of?
[00:11:40] Now, if the story ended here, that would be lovely, wouldn't it?
[00:11:46] That would be great.
[00:11:48] It doesn't. Sadly, we move on to man's mistake.
[00:11:54] Time passes, silence stretches on.
[00:11:59] Sarai and Abram stop waiting for God and they take matters into their own hands. Sarai gives her servant Hagar to Abram and they that they might have a child through her, rather than just waiting on what God's promised. Now, I just want to be really plain and quite serious.
[00:12:16] This is a horrendous abuse of power.
[00:12:18] The Bible doesn't hide things from us. The Bible is always honest, it's always true. This is a horrendous abuse of power and it's a betrayal not just of each other, but of God himself.
[00:12:30] But again, in the ancient world, this would have been seen as completely typical and completely normal.
[00:12:40] It's Important that we beware the fast track options that are offered by our culture, even when the culture says it's all good.
[00:12:49] Following Jesus means that our lives should look different, not just in what we believe, but actually how we live that out.
[00:12:56] How does your life look different as you follow Jesus?
[00:13:00] Where can we see these moments where people turn the other way to try and sort things out themselves? I mean, I think what about anger when in anger people try to bully people in order to get their way?
[00:13:12] What about in relationships where we maybe don't follow God's best, but actually we pursue things that just satisfy our need for love and affection?
[00:13:24] There are many ways, but actually, if we're not careful, we can find ourselves using the tools of the enemy, tools of even the devil, to put our focus onto the wrong thing, to take our focus away from Jesus and trying to build the kingdom of God that way. It's not going to last, is it?
[00:13:44] Now, even here, God's grace is radical and he's radically generous to everyone involved.
[00:13:54] Everyone involved, that's right.
[00:13:58] And actually, you know, the fact that God is there, the blessing that he gives when he actually Hagar speaks to God, he promises, Hagar, she runs away. He promises, I will bless you, I will bless your child, and I will make a donation out of them. I've still got my plan.
[00:14:12] I will perform my purposes with Abraham and the child, I will give him, but I still will bless you. And she calls God, Elroy, which means the God who sees me.
[00:14:25] Even in human failure, God's compassion breaks through.
[00:14:31] So here's a question. Why do we stop waiting?
[00:14:35] Why do we stop waiting? There are. Before I kind of go into this, I really want to say something quite important. There are promises that God has made that all of us are waiting for.
[00:14:47] The restoration of the world, complete healing, justice for the oppressed, all nations gathered around the throne of God in unity and eternal life itself.
[00:15:01] And also many of us are in a waiting season.
[00:15:04] Not because of a promise from the covenant, but just with genuine desires of our hearts.
[00:15:14] Whether that's work, whether that's a partner healing right now on earth or even a child.
[00:15:25] God doesn't promise to give us everything we ask. I want to be really clear about that. That doesn't mean that waiting isn't hard, doesn't mean that we wrestle with our disappointments as we wait with heavy hearts. Sometimes we know we've had that experience.
[00:15:42] It's why, for example, when I'm praying for people about promises, I'm quite cautious not to make promises. That God hasn't made Himself.
[00:15:52] But we trust God, that He will always be the good, faithful God in love for us. We can always bring our desires, we can always bring our hopes, we can always bring our prayers to God and trust that he will do good to us because we are his children. Amen.
[00:16:07] Amen.
[00:16:09] I just wanted to make sure we were clear about that. And there's no sort of mucking around. But I think it's with that same care that I want to highlight some of the things that can lose us, the cause us to lose heart. Whether we're waiting on these promises of God from Scripture or whether we're just waiting on God to answer our prayers.
[00:16:25] And one is control.
[00:16:27] Who here likes control?
[00:16:30] Well done for being honest. Good job.
[00:16:34] I love to know what I'm doing. I love to know what's going on. And what happens is we start to do God's job for him. We start to try and accomplish the things of God whilst leaving him out of the picture.
[00:16:47] You know, prayer gets replaced with hustle.
[00:16:50] Trust gets replaced with that control. It may not look rebellious, it may just look like working hard. But if God's left out of the picture, something's gone wrong. Do you know, the fruit seemed pretty sensible to Adam and Eve.
[00:17:02] That didn't go very well, did it?
[00:17:05] We can fool ourselves when we try and take control. As though our limited abilities, our limited resources can accomplish the great things that God has planned about disconnect as well. Distance, you know, really, really breaks my heart, actually. When you. When you read Genesis 16, Sarai says, the Lord has kept me from having children.
[00:17:28] How many of us have felt that before?
[00:17:32] The thing is, she decides what God is doing without asking Him. In fact, the last time they spoke to God, he just reaffirmed his promise.
[00:17:40] But rather than going to him with her doubts and her worry, she hides them and decides for herself what God is doing. We interpret silence as absence.
[00:17:49] Delay is denial. And the fact is, things go wrong when we stop talking to God.
[00:17:53] That's true of any relationship, actually. It creates distance.
[00:17:58] Maybe that's something you've experienced.
[00:18:01] And that leads us on to pain. One of the most understandable causes that people turn away or try and do things themselves, whether physical or emotional. Pain be a really heavy burden to bear. It can be isolating, can feel like the walls are closing in.
[00:18:18] You can worry that people think, oh, well, you're not being faithful.
[00:18:21] It's not the case at all.
[00:18:24] You're trying hard to persevere, but sometimes it just gets a bit Much.
[00:18:28] One of the hardest things about following Jesus is that we know that he promises us. He actually promises us that we will face trials if we follow him, that we will find things difficult.
[00:18:38] It's really the worst campaign slogan ever.
[00:18:42] But again, God's always honest. That's why I trust him. He's always honest. He never lies to me.
[00:18:49] But in the trial, we must keep throwing ourselves on Jesus, not to give into temptation, even to bitterness, which, whilst understandable, still isn't the way.
[00:18:59] I've learned the long and narrow way that leads to life is still far greater than the open shortcut that leads to disaster.
[00:19:08] Remember that name that Hagar gave God, Elroy? The God who sees me?
[00:19:14] That's who he is today. I don't know who needs to hear that, but that is who he is today. He sees you. He knows you.
[00:19:21] We all face moments like Abraham and Sarai, when we try to shortcut God's plans for various different reasons, whether it's where we're going the wrong way or we're just carrying a heavy burden. Where in your life is there compromise at the moment where you need to rebuild that trust.
[00:19:43] Now, back to our story. We've got Abram, we've got Sarai, and they've not upheld the covenant. Humanity has failed again. The covenant is broken. So is that it? Is it over?
[00:19:56] Maybe not.
[00:19:57] Let's go back to that ceremony I told you about.
[00:20:00] Not that one. Let's go back to that ceremony I told you about, the one where the animals split apart. They're walking through now, as I said, normally both parties who are making this covenant, this agreement, they walk in between the animals, signifying that the cost, this is the cost they would pay for the breaking of the covenant.
[00:20:18] But here's what we see.
[00:20:21] When the sun had set and the darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed in between these pieces.
[00:20:32] I don't know if you know this from the Old Testament, but fire is often a great symbol for the presence of God. You think about the burning bush, or you might think about the pillar of fire that led God's people through the wilderness.
[00:20:48] What we see in this. Get this, guys. What we see in this is that it's God who walks between the pieces making the covenant. There is no mention of Abraham walking in between those pieces.
[00:21:01] God is saying, if this covenant is broken, I will pay the cost.
[00:21:07] We know God's not going to break it.
[00:21:11] But if and when it's broken, God pays the cost. Again and again, God is seen through Scripture as the one who takes responsibility for his people never letting go, never giving up. So even after this transgression, which is a sort of a fancy word for betrayal, he affirms his faithfulness to his people and to his promise. We see it in the New Testament, he says, if we are faithless, God remains faithful because he cannot deny himself.
[00:21:36] It's his character, guys.
[00:21:40] And then centuries later, God promises a new Covenant.
[00:21:47] In Jeremiah 31, it says, this is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel. After that time, declares the Lord, I will put my law in their minds, write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor or say to one another, know the Lord, because they will all know me.
[00:22:07] From the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their wickedness and I will remember their sins no more. Just think about that. Sins, shame, guilt, wiped away, never to return.
[00:22:22] Along with this covenant, we're told that as part of God's redemptive story, there will be this person called the Messiah, the suffering servant, a savior who will take away the sins of the world.
[00:22:36] Jesus bears the cost for us so that we don't have to. Jesus carries our failures so that we can be redeemed. Jesus is the one that we've all been waiting for.
[00:22:48] I think in Hebrews 9, it says, therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called, that's you and me, may receive the promised eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions. Again, that's betrayal committed under the first covenant at the cross. Jesus takes our pride, our shortcuts, our betrayals, our need for control. And he nails them to that cross.
[00:23:13] And through His Spirit, God writes his truth within us. We if you are a believer in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit living inside you. Today, every promise of God finds its yes in Jesus. Amen.
[00:23:28] We talked about some of the pitfalls earlier that we experienced. The way we wait on God. Well, before I finish, I just want to share a few ways that we can wait well in light of Christ's covenant.
[00:23:40] So instead of control, we wait humbly.
[00:23:44] We have to own it and just say we are not in control.
[00:23:48] Even Jesus comes to the faithful Father saying, not my will, but yours. And I realize more and more when I'm willing to let go of control and let God do what he does, the wait ends up being worth it.
[00:24:03] We wait actively. So waiting is not just a Passive resignation.
[00:24:08] But it's a faithful pursuit.
[00:24:10] It says in Matthew, seek first his kingdom and all these things will be added to you.
[00:24:17] And lastly, instead of in the pain, we wait together.
[00:24:22] God never intended us to wait alone. Do you understand that? You guys, we are a gift given to one another.
[00:24:30] It's easier to sit in the waiting room when you've got someone there holding your hand.
[00:24:36] So who knows what you are carrying right now, what you are waiting on right now.
[00:24:41] And if no one does, who could you invite in to wait with you?
[00:24:47] We will finish soon, I promise. But I'd love it if we just spent a bit more time praying together.
[00:24:52] It was so lovely just getting together in groups and praying. So I'd love as maybe we'll turn to maybe twos, threes, fours. But here's some things that we could pray for.
[00:25:03] Do you need to know today that God is the faithful Father who keeps his promise?
[00:25:09] Pray for that.
[00:25:10] Do you need to surrender the areas of your life where God has just been left out of the conversation?
[00:25:18] Let's pray for that.
[00:25:22] Or are you in a waiting season?
[00:25:25] Whether it's to see God's promises fulfilled or just to bring the desires of your hearts to God.
[00:25:33] If you are waiting, if it's rough today, then I just want to say I'm so sorry.
[00:25:38] There is a loving God who sees you and knows you and loves you and wants you.
[00:25:45] He is with you. Abraham broke the covenant.
[00:25:50] Jesus fulfilled it.
[00:25:54] And the good news is this, that the promise does not depend on us getting it right.
[00:25:59] It depends on him being faithful.
[00:26:03] So if you are waiting today, wait with hope.
[00:26:06] If you have failed or turned the wrong way or tried the shortcut, just trust his grace. Bring it back to God. Because the God who made the promise is the one who keeps it. Jesus is the promise keeper who has always been worth the wait.
[00:26:24] I hope that's helpful. Hope that's encouraged you guys. Bless you.
[00:26:33] It.
