The Blessing: Promise, Participation, and Providence (Rev. Shawn Wallace)

Andrew Meher: Morning, Church. you probably don't remember me. I was here in November. I think actually, so I'm an Assistant Director of Church Health for the Metropolitan District of the Christian Missionary Alliance, which is what you're part of. And my role is to come alongside our developing churches, which is what you are, and and just help you come to that process of finishing with accreditation. And you're getting there. You're getting there. And this yeah. And it's exciting, and so I'm working with Andrew a lot on that, and but it's it's an exciting Exciting thing. And so I'm here for you on that. And have, yeah, so that is who I am as far as my job goes. I am a father of four. My wife Heather and I celebrated 30 years in May, and we have we have four kids and an almost two-year-old grandson and two more on the way. So that's that's pretty great. I get to and we all live together. So I actually get to go home today. And my grandson will want me to pick him up and he put him on put no, he's not gonna put me on his shoulders, but I'll put him on my shoulders and we live near a farm and we're gonna go, you know, he checks on his cows every day. So, anyways, pretty exciting stuff. But so that's my family, and it's exciting to be here with you today. And so back in 2010, my wife and I were called again, we had been overseas before, but we were called again to go overseas. And we were called to go to South Sudan. And so in starting in end of 2010, into 2011, we began this process of fundraising, which is Not the most fun thing in the world, although God shows up in it and it's good to see that. But you know, we learned a lot in that process. We fundraised for three and a half years. I mean, believe me, there were a lot of people who are like, are you sure you're called? Should you maybe give up? And we learned a lot about stubbornness and we learned a lot about those kind of things. And and guess what? It was a lot of effort on our part. We actually did need to put in effort. But in that we always had to remember who was doing what. And so we were reminded of that right near the end. It was the beginning of the summer of 2014. And we were still quite a bit of money short. And we were just like, God, we have exhausted everything we know how to do. And so you know what? We decided we're gonna go away for a week. We went away to a week of camp in upstate New York, where I'm from, and You know what, we're not even gonna think about fundraising. We're just, God, you know. And so about halfway through that week, we we get a phone call from our mission, and they said, Hey, we got you got a really huge donation. And is that like we wanna make sure, is that real? because sometimes people put wrong numbers in by accident, and so they were like, we need to confirm that. so it was fifty sixty thousand dollars or something like that. And and they were like and we were like, well, did they did they was it anonymous? No no no, they don't care if you know well who was it? And so they told me and were like, This is an old kid from youth group. He's a teacher. No, it's you know, he a you know, the decimal part, something in the wrong place. We no, that can't be right. So they were like, Well, we'll I mean we'll go ahead and call them and just to make sure. They got back to us about an hour later and they said, Yeah, that's real. Quarter of it. It's like and so literally we went from saying, God, I don't, are we actually going to do this? What are we going to do? and then that same week, all of a sudden we get that phone call, and now they're like, Well, you can buy plane tickets. We learned a lot in that process. Believe me, we went through the ups and downs of of just the struggling of God. What are we, you know, maybe we misheard you, all of the doubts that come when we're Trying to do what the Lord wants us to do, and we feel like we've heard from the Lord, but maybe, you know, the doubt of, but maybe we didn't. But anyways, persevered through that, worked hard, but ultimately it was all about God and his work and his promise, which ultimately, what was his promise? He wants all nations to know him. And so we could be sure in that promise that we were called because we knew that God, well, really, has called all of y'all to some aspect. You may not you may not be called to rural South Sudan. But you're called to some. And we can we can be sure of that. So today I'm I'm preaching right in line with what you've been preaching. Andrew got a hold of me and said, Hey, we've been doing this series out of promises of God, and so we are right there still in Genesis chapter 25. And so if you want to turn there, it'll also be on the screen. We're gonna be in Genesis 25, verses 19 to 34. So let me go ahead and read. Genesis 25, 19 to 34. This is the account of the family line of Abraham's son Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aramean, from Paran Aram, and sister of Laban the Aramae. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. The babies jostled each one within her. And she said, Why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two people will be within you, will be separated. One people will be stronger, the other than the other, and the older will serve the younger. When the time came for them to for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first one to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment, so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out with his hands grasping Esau's heel, so he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when Rebekah gave birth to them. The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay home among the tents. Isaac, who had a taste for wild game, loved Esau, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once, when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country famished. He said to Jacob, Quick, Let me have some of that red stew. I'm famished. That's why he's called Edom. Jacob replied, First, sell me your birthright. Look, I'm about to die, Esau said. What good is a birthright to me? But Jacob said, Swear to me first, so he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright. Let's pray. Lord, as we come to your word, thank you. Thank you that you have already spoken. That you are a God who loves to speak to people. And so would you give us ears to hear what you have to say to your church? In Jesus' name. Amen. And so today we are looking at God's promises and our responsibility. And we're gonna see that in this passage. And so in order to do that, there's three things we're gonna look at. and listen, obviously you don't know me, I've been preaching for a number of years. In 25 years of preaching, I don't know if I've come up with five sermons that are three points starting with the same letter. That's just not that's not how I work, but you know what? It just happened today. As I was pre- So here you go. So there's three things we're gonna look at. Yeah, any any homiletics professor would be happy with me right now. But, anyways, so there's three things we're gonna be looking at about this, and that is promise, participation, and providence. And so, first of all, let's look at the promise, the promise God made. So, back, Genesis 25, 19 to 20. This is the account of the family line of Abraham's son Isaac. Why? Why did the Holy Spirit, while writing this through Moses, why? Did he word it that way? Why you just say this is this is, you know, kind of Isaac. Because where did God's promises start? With Abraham. Genesis 22, just back a few few chapters. Genesis 22, 17 to 18, God says this to Abraham, known as the Abrahamic covenant: I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring, Abraham, all nations will be blessed because you have obeyed me. That is known as the Abrahamic covenant. All nations, just the Jewish nation? No. All nations will be blessed through your offspring. Now we know from the genealogy of Jesus in the New Testament who that offspring was that was going to bring about at least the earthly genealogy of the Messiah. Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob. So The promise was through that line. That is why the Holy Spirit, writing this, says this is the account of the family line of Abraham's son, Isaac. Abraham became the father of Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when all of this happened, when he got married, and then when he eventually had children. You see, one of the things though, when we're talking about the promises of God, whether here or promises God's made to you. made to us as the body of Christ. Do we deserve those promises? You don't think that. We don't deserve those problems. Matter of fact, when you look at the genealogy in the New Testament, it's full of people that didn't deserve anything from the Lord. It is full of all sorts of people. From prostitutes to Gentiles to, you know, these guys. I mean, we're gonna see in this story, if you read Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, I mean, they're not the greatest guys in the world. Matter of fact, if you compare Jacob and Esau, I prefer Esau. But God's promises through the undeserving. It's how God gets stuff done. Matter of fact, look at Romans 9, 10 to 13. Really talking about this passage. Romans 9, 10 to 13. Not only that, but Rebekah's children were conceived at that time by our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose and election might stand, not by works, but by him who calls, she was told, the older will serve the younger, just as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. This promise was way made before any human being could do something to deserve it. It is a beautiful thing, though. It is a beautiful thing to rest in the fact that God loves this world and is working in it to redeem and put back into relationship lost, broken, unworthy sinners like you and me. That's what he promised to do through Abraham. All nations will be blessed through your seed. Eventually, who is that referring to? Jesus. All nations are going to be blessed. Because God so loved broken lost people that he said, I am going to make a way in order to redeem you and put you back into right relationship. I'm going to do that. That's my promise. But here's the crazy thing. He gives us a role to play in it. And if he didn't use imperfect people, I mean, who would he use? And so God has made this promise. But then that brings us to our second P, participation. Genesis 25, back to that passage, verse 21. Sometimes we read through the Bible too fast and we miss things. Genesis 25, 21. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was childless. The Lord answered his prayer, and his wife Rebecca became pregnant. Question. And especially for those of you here, Johnny, I'm looking at you, my friend, who are really philosophical, deep thinkers. That's not a bad thing. But there's a warning to us deep thinkers. Because I'm guaranteeing you, if you took time to think through this, here's a question that would come up. If a if Isaac hadn't prayed, would God's promise not have been fulfilled? That's that's a real question. God made a promise. Can God's promises be thwarted? No. But why this? Isaac prayed to the Lord. I mean, I kind of get it for Isaac because he's just a confused, broken human being that so yeah, I get it. He prayed even under even though he understood the promise was there. He prayed to the Lord because his wife was childless. But but then that phrase is really important next. The Lord answered his prayer. It wasn't just like the Lord was like, yeah, yeah, whatever. You I'm gonna do what I'm gonna do, anyways. The Lord answered his prayer. Here's this crazy thing. God's sovereignty and our responsibility are one of the great mysteries. Matter of fact, I'm gonna say this: beware any teaching or teacher that leaves out the mystery of a holy God, okay? If you're coming to church because you want every single answer to every little thing so you don't have to trust God one little bit. You're serving a pretty lame God. There's a mystery about our God, and that's not an excuse for us to not use our brains. But God is infinite and we are finite. And now, as it says in First Corinthians, we see as in a glass darkly. So learn to be okay with some of the mystery of a holy God. So I don't know exactly how it works. God's sovereignty, our responsibility. But somehow Isaac's prayer was part of God's promise. Somehow. Here's an interesting passage that Paul wrote, Philippians 2, that I think sums this up really well. Philippians 2, 12 to 13. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purposes. That right there, work out your salvation, for it is God who works. That sums it up. Is there mystery in that? Yeah. Well if God knows, then why listen, we gotta stop sometimes. Why should I pray for this if God already knows? Sometimes it's alright. We just talked about it this morning with kids, right? Sometimes you say to your kids, because I told you so. You're too little to understand right now. Now that doesn't, you know, you shouldn't always parent that way. So do your best to explain it to your kids, but there comes some point in time where you have to say to them, because I said so, and you don't understand that right now. God sometimes says that to us. So we ask questions like why pray? Why share Jesus? Why do acts of kindness in his name? Listen, yeah, sometimes our philosophical commands can get us caught in a cycle of passive disobedience. I'm not blatantly denying Jesus, but your actions are saying something different, or your lack of action. I mean, we are called to make disciples of all nations. I w one of the things I love about my job is I get to come and hang out with all of our church plants. It is exciting and fun. It really is. I don't have to deal with all those lame churches. It's fun. I mean but there's a reason church plants tend to be effective. It's because we've kind of understood that hey, we're starting this new thing. We're not we're not here to like keep status quo. We're here to actually go and reach people. Be careful. It doesn't take that long to get stuck in concrete, so just be careful about that. But listen, we are called th th this is the thing, again, I can't fully explain it. We are called to an amazing partnership with a loving father who somehow uses our efforts to bring his plans to fruition. Funny story, maybe you've heard it, but our our founder of our denomination, A. B. Simpson, he he well known, obviously well known in New York City at the time, in particular, for preaching, especially about end times things. And and so he he was getting ready. There was there was a there was a Sunday night revival meeting that was going to be happening happening in in Manhattan. And you know, in those days, there was a fairly large religious section in the newspaper. And the the the the writer for the religious section was I mean he was religious but kind of in a mocking way of of these weird Christians. And so he he when he before before the event happened, he he kind of came up to A B and he said, Hey, listen, when's Jesus gonna come back? In a mocking way. And Dr. Simpson simply said, Hey, I tell you what, you come tonight. Come tonight to the event and I'll tell you. So this guy was like, okay, and you know, getting ready to come and just mock him for whatever thing he said as he was preparing to, you know, get a date or whatever when Jesus was going to come back. And his whole message that night was Matthew 24, 14. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. You want to know when the end is going to come? When those of us who are called to participation Get out and see it come. You see, God is so loving that do you understand that again, I don't fully understand all of the God's sovereignty stuff and our responsibility stuff. I don't fully understand it, but the reality is God waits. Because why? He desires that none should perish apart from him. He is long suffering. And so he waits. Even in the day of the Old Testament, people were saying were y it said mockers were coming out and saying, Where is this day that you talk about that you say is coming any moment? I mean that was like A few years afterwards, here we are two thousand years. How great and gracious and loving and patient is our God that He's willing to wait at least two thousand years to come back again because he desires that none should perish apart from him. He's called you to it. Yes, sometimes God visits people in dreams. I was a missionary amongst the Muslim community for a number of years, and the amount of dreams that would happen in that community of people seeing visions of Jesus, God loves people enough to do that. But that's actually not the norm. The norm is his people. His people, the church. Getting out there. doing what they're called to do. That's what God does. He made a promise to bless all nations, right? Amen, thank you. He uses our participation in that. Amen, thank you for that privilege. He doesn't just call you to participation, he also gives you the authority and the gifts and the power to fulfill it, right? It's time we as a church stop like thinking that we're nothing. We are called people of God who have been given authority to go and make disciples of all nations. That's something. So, How does God's promises, our participation, how again, how does that all how does God do that? And it's the third point. Providence. Providence. Back to Genesis 25. The rest of this passage here that we're looking at today is really just this it's weird in some ways. I mean, again, these messed up. You're like, God, what I don't even understand this. But you see, we see God's providence through all this. So the babies, back Genesis 25, starting 22, the babies jostled each other within her. And she and Rebecca said, Why is this happening to me? Hey, when God's fulfilling his promises that you don't quite see them yet, you ever ask that question? Why is this happening to me? And yet she did what too often we don't do. She went and inquired of the Lord. And the Lord told her things. Now he y you know, remember when I said sometimes we say to our kids, Do this because I told you to do it and you may not understand right now why you're doing it? Well, here God is explaining to Rebecca what's happening. The Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, the older will serve the younger. Did she really understand that? He pretty much said to her, Something's going on inside you you don't understand, and that's why this is what's happening to you. When God has delayed the fulfillment of his promise to you, trust. Something's going on inside of you you don't understand. So we then and I'm gonna kind of fast forward through this part. We see, you know, they're they're born and you know, Jacob, you know, Esau's born first, Jacob's grasping on his heel, that's his name, the grasper, the one that's constantly trying to manipulate in order to see God's promise come. And yet even in that God was still sovereign and still used Jacob. So then the whole story and Esau goes out and he's a hunter and he comes back hungry and here's here's Jacob and has made soup. I mean, would this this wouldn't be the first thought that would come to my mind. My brother comes home, he's hungry, I've made soup. Can I have some? First sell me your birthright. I don't Okay. Esau, look, I'm about to die. What good is a birthright to me? But Jacob said, Swear to me. So he swore an oath, selling him his birthright. And Jacob gave Esau some bread, some lentil stew, he ate and drank and got up. So Esau despised his birthright. I mean, look at these guys. How how in the world can God get his his work done through such messed up humanity? Passage you guys know well, I assume. Romans 8, 28 and 29. And we know that in how many? All things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purposes. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. This is providence. God will accomplish his good no matter what. Somehow using even broken, sinful people. Sometimes even in their sin, he's still getting stuff done. Does that mean he's condoning that sin? No. So some of you I I I assume especially if you're a little bit older, not looking at anybody right now. maybe you know the story of Johnis Johnny Erickson Tata. So she she was grew up in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay, and she was 17 years old and dove into the bay into shallow water and broke her neck and became a quadriplegic. Now, 50 years later, or more, you know, she runs Johnny and Friends, a minister worldwide ministry helping people with disabilities. She has thought a lot about God's sovereignty through really difficult things. She has this quote and and it man, I heard it. I was at a training w of hers a few weeks ago and I heard that it man, this quote killed me in a good way, killed me. She said this, God sometimes allows what he hates in order to bring about what he loves. Because she spent time saying, God must hate me because this happened. She said, I learned over the years. No, sometimes God does allow what he hates, but he doesn't. He does it to bring about what he loves. And what is it that he loves? Verse twenty nine back in Romans eight, what is it? To be conformed to the image of his son. God causes all things to work together for that purpose. He does not cause all things to work together for your wealth, for your for your success, for you know, those kind of things. And that's where we get, you know, God, this thing happened and I lost my job. It must mean you don't love me. And he said, no, no, no, no, because I'm doing something you don't understand right now. I'm conforming you to my image, and I will use whatever it takes, even those horrible things, to bring about what I really love, and that is you being conformed to the image of Jesus. And that is why Charles Spurgeon Lunt said, I love this, I heard this quote this week in another one where I'm like, man, wow. He said, I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me against the rock of ages. Hmm, I have learned to kiss the waves that throw me against the rock of ages. Those horrible things that I would say, God, why? If they throw me to Jesus, which he promises they will, then I can learn to be thankful and say thank you for them. Nothing can hinder God's promises. And his greatest promise to bring people into relationship with him and to have them be conformed to his image. God is doing that. No matter what. Now, before we finish, humble reminder here even in his sovereignty, even in the midst of all of these things, even in our failures and sins, God still does hold us responsible for our actions. Hebrews twelve, again referring to this whole Genesis twenty-five, Hebrews twelve, fourteen to sixteen. Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy. Without holiness no one can see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritant rights as the oldest son. But I mean it w How in the world can you blame Esau? I mean, it was God's plan that the promise would go through Jacob. That's not fair. But we see that throughout Scripture. In Isaiah, it describes the Assyrians as the rod of discipline to God's people. God used Assyria to discipline Israel. And yet, in that same passage in Isaiah, he holds Assyria responsible for what they did. I just I don't Judas. I mean, was Judas not part of God's plan and yet held responsible for what he did? See, that's where some of that mystery goes. I don't fully understand that. I just know this. God will fulfill his plan, but he will also hold us responsible in this world for the things we do or don't do. So I want to finish. There's some things on the screen here I want to finish with. Some reminders for you. As we talk about God's promises and our responsibility, I want to remind you what each of the roles look like. First of all, God. What's God's role? He does the promising, okay? He is the promiser. He is the one who fulfills those promises. He is the fulfiller. Listen. He's responsible for being God, okay? This whole thing, when I say this whole thing, I mean life, the world, everything, history, all of it. It's all about him. But again, he does give us this mysterious responsibility and a profound authority. And so what is man's role? First of all, trusting. Now the second one, resting, really goes right with it because if you're trusting God, guess what? You're also resting. Anxiety is one of those signs that your trust is kind of out of whack. Yeah. It's not out of condemnation. It's just God saying, Hey, hey, hey, hey, I've offered you rest, but so if you're not, there must be must be something you're you're you're you're struggling with trusting here. And so ultimately are we trusting a God who does fulfill his promises and he's good. There is a trusting, there is a resting, there is an obeying. You know, again, this whole thing of making disciples of all nations, you understand in Second Corinthians 5 we're we i we are told that we are ambassadors, as if Christ is making his appeal through us. And so we have been given that plus the authority to pull it off. So obeying is a pretty important part of what our role is. And then there's a humbling, a constant humbling and a repenting, which those again go hand in hand. God, yeah. The truth is, yeah, I've not been obedient. And God isn't beating you up in that. He's simply saying, hey, recognize it, and then just I forgive you. Now let's go. Too many of us are actually stuck also in that place. yeah, we know we've been failures. We've we've not, you know, listened to God. We've been disobedient. Good, admit that. But guess what? Receive your forgiveness. And then let's get going. There's a lost world that is, even though they don't know it yet, is waiting for Christians to receive what they've been given from God, forgiveness. And then let's get off our butts and go get to it. Not because of pride, but because of what God has given us. Let's go do it. And so we're gonna come to the communion table today, and we're gonna remember this awesome fulfillment. That came through Abraham and his descendants. We're gonna we're we're gonna remember what Christ has done for us. But I want to give you some time. So as as as we as we come to the communion table, there is also your your the prayer team is gonna be up here. I I don't know what area. God has prompted it or been who has and and has spoken in your heart today. Maybe maybe you do need to remember a bit more of who God is and what his role is, that he is good, that he is a promiser, that he will fulfill his promises, and maybe you've forgotten a lot of that. You just come to him and say, Yeah, God I have. Here I am. Maybe you've forgotten some of your role. Maybe you're struggling in trusting. Maybe you're you're you're full of anxiety and because the trusting is there. Maybe maybe again you're caught in that cycle of of of of overthinking and you've you've you've stopped obeying. I I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is, but would you come to a loving God and simply receive from him today? In all of these things we've talked about today, there is a loving God. And He is simply calling you to come to Him and receive what He's promised a great love, a great forgiveness, a great calling, a great promise, a great assurance. Would you come and receive that today? Lord, I pray blessing over each and every one this morning. Would you pour yourself out on them? Open their eyes to see things they need to see today. Lord, where there's conviction, thank you. But I pray that there would not be a spirit of shame in that. But in that conviction, would you give everybody the gift to turn right to you and receive grace and forgiveness? That there is no shame and no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Would you, would you, would you help? Would you do that? We receive what you've given to us, Lord, a great calling. And then a great equipping to do what you've called us to. So Lord, wherever anybody is today, wherever anybody is, may they come to you. We know you are faithful and will meet every person right where they are. So do that, Lord, we receive today in your name. Amen. With a communion table. On the night before Jesus was betrayed, he sat with his disciples. And he said, This is my body. He took bread and broke it and said, This is my body. Broken for you. You understand this plan, Jesus was always plan A? God didn't say, no, man messed up and now what do I do? It was always his plan. That's how much he loves you. He created human beings knowing it will bring the death of Jesus. And he did it. Because he loves people. So God takes into consideration all this junkie you're coming with today. That's why Jesus came. And so he took bread and broke it. He said, This is the body, this is my body, broken for you, broken because of all of your sin that should bring brokenness. I took it instead. And so take this and do this in remembrance of me. And likewise he took the cup. This is the blood of my new covenant. The old covenant, do this. God will receive you. The new covenant. In one sense, still do this and God will receive you, but what is that? Trust Christ. I trust you, Jesus. You've done everything for me. There's nothing I can do. I trust you. And that's what we come and celebrate. What God has done for us. So it's freely given. Would you freely receive it today?

Genesis 25 · chapter mention Genesis 25:19–34