"Obeying a Faithful God" Genesis 12:1-9 Sunday Evening Worship Service

God created the world and he blessed the earth's first rulers, Adam and Eve.

He commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth, but he also commanded them to not eat from the tree that's in the midst of the garden.

And they sinned.

They ate from the tree.

But what did God do in response to this?

Well, he covered their sin by the shedding of blood.

And he promised right there in that chapter that he was going to send a redeemer.

Now, fast forward, we're now east of Eden, and the first children of Adam and Eve are still not filling the earth with God's glory, but rather they'll they're filling the earth with the blood of their own relatives.

They're sinning so gravely, in fact, that God floods the whole earth.

And then what does God do?

Well, God places his favor, his grace upon Noah and his family.

And in sovereign grace, he delivers them through the flood, and he repopulates the earth and once again blesses sinners with grace.

This pattern continues as the world fills, once again, with rebels.

And again, instead of filling the earth with the image of God for his glory, the world comes together as one to make a name for themselves.

And they build up, and God has to come down to scatter them as an act of divine judgment.

And thus we have the nations as we have them today.

And what does God do again, fulfilling this pattern in response to that?

Genesis chapter 12, verses one through nine, our text this evening.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

Moses writes, Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.

Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran, and Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.

When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the Oak of Moray.

At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring, I will give this land.

So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev.

As humanity spirals into rebellion, God's glorious grace is only magnified all the more.

And so, in light of this, I want you to leave this evening resolved to faithfully obey our faithful God.

I want you to walk out of this room this evening with resolve, with faith galvanized to walk in obedience to this faithful God of grace.

And the way that our text this evening will get us there is by showing us not only who God is, but also what it is that God requires of us.

Or to put it another way, I want to show you the sovereign grace of God as a way to compel you to live a life of obedience toward him.

Because the God who calls us and commands us is faithful to keep his promises.

Abram didn't follow God faithfully because of who Abram was.

Just look at his forefathers.

Abram followed God faithfully because he believed God was who he promised that he would be.

Just look at God's grace in Genesis 1 through 11.

So the first thing we see tonight, beginning in verses 1 through 3, is that God gives us commands and promises.

God gives us commands and promises.

There's a pattern throughout the Bible of God commanding his people and then assuring them with his promises.

And I want you to see this pattern in the book of Genesis, and I want to give you one caveat to keep in mind.

Believing in God's promises is a command.

God commands us to believe.

So if you would turn with me to Genesis chapter 13 as we follow this pattern throughout Genesis.

Genesis 13 · chapter mention

In Genesis 13, verse 14, the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes, there's the command, and look from the place where you are, northward, southward, and eastward, and westward.

Genesis 13:14

For all the land that you see, I will give to you and to your offspring forever.

In verse 17, he tells them to arise and walk about the land.

He tells him, and he promises him that he will give him this land.

In chapter 15, if you'll turn there, in verse five, God brought Abram 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.

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

In chapter 17, when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am the God Almighty, and here comes the command: walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.

Then Abram fell on his face, and God said to him, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.

No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.

And once more, maybe in one of the most memorable accounts of Abraham's life, in Genesis chapter 22, we read in verse 15 The angel of the Lord, this is after Abram had brought his son, Isaac, up the mountain to sacrifice him in obedience to the Lord, the angel of the Lord called to Abram a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies.

Genesis 22 · chapter mention

We see in Exodus chapter 19, verses 5 through 6, that God says this to his people.

Exodus 19:5–6

Exodus chapter 19, verses 5 through 6, the pattern continues.

Exodus 19:5–6

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Command and promise.

In Exodus chapter 20, we see the Ten Commandments, and we we see in the fifth commandment, Honor your father and mother, and you will live long in the land.

Exodus 20 · chapter mention

In Deuteronomy chapter 28, we see God lay out this contrast.

Deuteronomy 28 · chapter mention

If you obey, there will be blessing for you.

If you disobey, there will be curses for you.

In Psalm chapter 1, we see, Delight yourself in the Lord, and on his law meditate day and night, and that person will be like a tree, planted by streams of water.

Psalms 1 · chapter mention

Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 through 6.

Proverbs 3:5–6

Do not lean on your own understanding, but trust in the Lord, acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will make your paths straight, and in the Great Commission.

Go, make disciples of all nations, and I will be with you.

There are many more verses, many more examples.

But what does this pattern teach us about who God is?

I think it teaches us that while God has the sovereign authority to tell you what to do, he also has the sovereign grace to help you do it.

He does this by giving you promises that fill you with hope.

Because these promises encourage you to look forward to see God fulfill his promises, which you know he will because it's in his nature.

But he also gives you here in the new covenant his spirit in a unique way, that you are filled with his spirit, where you can now understand the word of God and his promises in a new way, in a saving relationship with him.

And in this way, he helps you to do the very thing he commands you to do.

But we're in Genesis 12, so let's go to verse 1.

Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

What Abram is asked to leave in the text zooms in phrase by phrase.

He says, Go from your country and from your kindred, and yes, even from your very father's house, to the land that I will show you.

For someone in this culture to leave their father's household was essentially a departure from social, economic, and even religious stability.

I think in the DC area we have a grid for that, right?

When a family has to move, maybe because of dad's work, or maybe you're relocating for a different contract and you have to find new friends, a new school, a new church, a whole new housing market.

You know, this might have been a little bit different for Abraham than for us, but I think we have a grid for that.

When God calls us to do something that requires us to step out in faith and to not really know what might happen if we obey him.

Visually, the text is extremely cool here because the command says to leave your land, your people, and your father's house, and then God makes a promise where he essentially says, and I will be your father, and I will make you a people, and I will give you a land.

But specifically, God makes seven promises, and I think they're in three general categories.

The first promise that God makes is land.

And before we get there, take note of something.

Listen to verses two through three.

He says, I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse.

And then you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Notice before we look at the specific promises, notice the first person, God, versus the second person, Abram.

God is the one making the promises.

He is the one who will act.

Abram is the recipient of sovereign grace.

Listen again.

He says, I will show you the land.

I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you, and I will make your name great.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who dishonor you.

God is the divine agent of these promises.

He is the one who promises them, and he is the one who will keep them.

This will be illustrated in Genesis 15 when God makes a covenant with Abram and He puts him to sleep.

Because in this covenant, both parties would walk through the animals together, and if either of them breaks their end of the covenant, they would be like these animals, killed.

So God puts him to sleep.

Because he knows Abram.

He knows our fragile faith, he knows our sinful nature.

And so he keeps the promises.

God is the promise maker, and Abram is the recipient.

So the first promise we see here is a promise for land.

We saw this at the end of verse 1.

He said, Go from your father's house to the land that I will show you.

We'll see later in verse 7 that he promises more specifically that I will give you this land to your offspring.

You know, typically land isn't acquired by someone walking into some place they've never been and saying, God told me I can have this.

That doesn't go well historically if you read a history book.

But the promised land was truly set aside by God's sovereign grace to the descendants of Abraham.

God gave it to them.

He said, This is yours.

Secondly, we see nationhood.

In the beginning of verse 2, he says, I will make of you a great nation.

Not merely a nation, Abram, but a great nation.

And what makes this promise particularly audacious, at least to Abram, is in Genesis chapter 11, verse 30, we learn this about Sarai, Abram's wife.

Genesis 11:30

Now Sarai was barren.

She had no child.

This morning I spoke to a couple sitting right behind where Dan's sitting, who told me that they just had their twelfth grandchild.

That's a lot of kids.

And that's a lot of grandkids, and that's a lot of great grandkids.

But you know, in church, there's, I think, in a in a good way, because we believe, you know, that we need to be fruitful and multiply, there's a unique pressure, I think, in church, often for people to have kids.

I think it's a good pressure, but I think sometimes the negative way it comes across is when people are struggling, they they feel like they don't know who to talk to about it.

So imagine for Sarai for a moment, when her husband was promised that they would be a great nation and that their offspring would bless the nations.

And Sarai goes to her Bible study, and they're studying Hebrews, and we see about her faith, but she doesn't have any kids yet.

And what are those conversations like?

I mean, what was going on in her heart as she herself was seeking to have faith in God's promises and she was barren?

But God promised a nation and a great nation through Abram's very offspring.

He also promised, thirdly, blessing.

If you look at the end of verse 2, I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

I see three prongs to this blessing.

The first is that Abram himself will be blessed with a great name.

He says, I will bless you and make your name great.

You know, in Genesis 11, the people got together and tried to make a name for themselves.

But here in Genesis 12, God comes to Abram in grace and says, I will give you a great name.

And I think the lesson there is very simple.

It's always better to do things God's way than our way.

Secondly, Abram and his descendants will be blessed by divine provision and protection.

This is not some abstract promise that God was going to be just kind to them generally.

We actually see in the narrative of Genesis over and over again God keeping this promise.

Abram goes to Egypt in the second half of this chapter, and he totally messes up.

He trusts in his own wisdom, and his wife is taken into Pharaoh's house.

And God actually comes to Abram's aid and delivers them out of Egypt with more wealth than what they came in with.

God was cursing those who had dishonored them, even though it was Abram's fault.

In Genesis chapter 26, the Lord blesses the work of Isaac's hands, and he reaps a hundredfold of what he sowed.

Genesis 26 · chapter mention

God blessed Laban because of Jacob, and then he immensely blessed Jacob through Laban in Genesis chapter 30.

Genesis 30 · chapter mention

God blessed Pharaoh's household because of Joseph at the end of Genesis.

So God blesses his own people with divine provision and protection.

And the third prong of this blessing comes at the end of verse 3.

And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

And this is particularly relevant to us because you guys are in that category.

You are part of all the families of the earth.

All of the families of the earth will be blessed in the offspring of Abraham.

That's why Genesis chapter 22, verse 18, after Abraham obeyed to bring his son to sacrifice him in obedience to God, it said in verse 18, In your offspring, singular, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

Genesis 22:18

In Galatians 3, Paul makes the argument that the singular use of offspring, the promise to Abram, is a prophetic reference to Christ, the one who blesses all the nations, the Savior of mankind.

And so aren't you thankful that God kept this promise to bless all the nations through the offspring singular of Abram?

So we see in these first three verses that God is calling Abram and his barren wife to leave their family and go to a foreign land so that he can turn them into a great nation.

I mean, this is the stuff of faith, isn't it?

Can you imagine?

Your husband comes home, or a good friend of yours comes home and says, Hey, God told me we gotta go.

Let's go.

Just pack up, let's just leave.

I think that if we're honest, we hear the promises of God, and if you took time to write them down, you know, Googled it, what are the promises of God in the New Testament?

From a good literal, grammatical, historical perspective, of course.

And then you started looking through them, as you compared them to your circumstances, I think the lactic acid of your faith muscles would start to build up as you strive to obey this faithful God in light of his promises.

So, what do we do when a faithful God gives us commands and promises?

What do we do in the tension?

Well, it's easier said than done, but we believe.

And we obey.

We believe the promises of God, and we obey God's commands.

If you would look at verse 4, and this is beautiful because there's this epic promise.

You can almost hear the orchestra in the background, and then verse 4 just hits.

So Abram went as the Lord had told him.

You know, Abram didn't merely go, because then it would have said Abram went.

It says Abram went as the Lord had told him.

And I see two implications for us here.

And the first is that when we don't know what to do, we need to run back to the Word because God told us what to do.

When you are in a situation in which your circumstances are beginning to make things fuzzy for you, and it's difficult to know how to act, don't just act on impulse or in your flesh.

Abram's gonna do that in the second half of Genesis 12, and it's not gonna go well.

Go back to the word of God.

So, an illustration, should you take the job that you're considering right now?

Well, I don't know.

But what you need to do is plumb the depths of God's word for wisdom and for guiding principles.

Is the job gonna put you in such a position that you won't be able to serve the Lord?

Well, then don't do it.

That's a helpful guiding principle.

Is the job gonna put you in compromising situations for your faith that aren't gonna help you?

Then don't do it.

Is the job gonna set you up in such a way that you actually can serve the Lord and that you're gonna be able to maybe make more money to give uh to what God is doing in the world?

Then do it.

Use the word of God to guide you and to give you principles.

Ask godly friends for advice, because those godly friends are only godly because they've been reading the Bible, and their mind has been shaped by the word of God.

You know, God's word isn't only a lamp so you can see where you ought to go, it's also a lamp that you're supposed to hold while you're walking.

The word of God doesn't just tell you what to do, it tells you how to do it, it tells you how to act, how to think.

I read recently that if a preacher had the choice between teaching people what to do and how to think, that he should choose to teach them how to think.

Because people who think rightly act rightly.

And so your thinking and your affections need to be shaped by the word of God, and which is what it means when it says Abram went as the Lord had told him.

So, second implication, why did he go?

How come verse 4 after verse 3 is Abram did it?

God just shows up, Abram didn't know who he was, he said, go, and he went.

Why?

Well, I think he believed the promise.

He believed, so he obeyed.

And obviously, this belief developed over time.

If you've read the book of Genesis, you know that, and if you've lived your own life, you know that.

But I take, as the Lord had told him, to not only be a reference to the command, go, but also a reference to everything God said in his promises to him.

He went as the Lord had told him, not just by walking, but believing what he had said to him.

I think that often we equate arriving at the destination as the goal of the journey.

And surely that's true, but when you walk faithfully in God's promises now, you are already accomplishing the goal because God's promises are true.

And he's glorified by your promise embracing obedience.

It will glorify God when you embrace Christ in heaven, but it glorifies God now when you embrace his promises during your pilgrimage.

Look at verse 4.

Going on, it says, And Lot went with him.

Abram was seventy five years old when he departed from Haran.

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan.

Abram was old enough to order off of the senior menu.

At Denny's.

And he just left.

With his wife?

With his nephew?

Interesting.

Interesting choice.

And with all of his possessions.

And I actually talked to someone recently about this because I thought, in my mind, maybe it's just because I'm American, I think if you go out by faith, you're supposed to just take like a sack with you.

You know, like faith.

I'm just gonna, you know, trust.

Even in the New Testament, the disciples are told not to take a bunch of stuff with them.

But this is the desert in the Middle East.

They have to bring stuff so they can eat and so that they can live and survive.

So he wasn't not believing the promises.

He was just doing what any person would have done at that time, which is if you want milk, you gotta bring something that has milk.

If you want to eat meat, you gotta bring something you can eat.

So that was helpful for me.

Hope it was helpful for you.

Anyway, Abram took Lot.

Why?

Well, earlier in Genesis, we see that Lot's father actually died.

And I think that it's possible that Abram felt a responsibility for his nephew to bring him along, but I think more importantly that God and the Holy Spirit had a very specific purpose for bringing Lot along in the narrative of Genesis.

And I encourage you to read Genesis 12 to 25 with this in mind on your own time.

That Lot is actually a foil to Abram's faith.

Because Abram walks by faith and Lot walks by sight.

You'll see in Genesis 13 a vivid illustration of this, where uh Abram says to Lot, hey, you go where you want in the land.

And Abram's no longer holding on tightly to the land itself, but rather holding on to God.

He's not holding on to dirt and trees, he's holding on to the creator.

And so he has free hands, free from materialism, and says, Lot, you go where you want.

And it says that Lot lifted his eyes and looked out.

And then he saw some well-fertilized land, and he went for it.

And then he slowly progresses into living in Sodom, so much so that he's in the gates of Sodom by chapter 19.

But then later, Abram is called to lift his eyes.

God tells him to this time.

And then even though he doesn't have the promises yet, God reminds him, this is going to be yours.

And so as you read the story, and when Lot shows up, I think it's appropriate to think of him as a foil, as a counterexample of living by faith.

So Lot chooses the land that's best for himself.

He lives for his own sensual pleasure, and he seeks an identity in Sodom, rather than dwelling in tents with his uncle Abram, who was living by faith.

He doesn't just bring Lot, he doesn't just bring all of his stuff, but he brings his wife, with whom he's going to endure for twenty five years of barrenness, waiting for God's promises to be fulfilled.

And we see up on the screen here, in 1 Peter, we actually get a commentary, an inspired commentary, on Sarah by the Apostle Peter.

She's almost a silent character in the text before us tonight, but her testimony is loud here.

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives.

When they see your respectful and pure conduct, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.

And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

I think we see here in Sarah's life a quiet, submissive faith.

And I think in that way she's a model to every generation of faithful women.

Think about what she was being asked to do by her husband.

I think it's easy to look at narratives in the scriptures and think, yeah, it's good that they did that, and it's bad that they did that.

But in the moment, I mean, how many of you have been asked to move and you didn't like it?

But here we have a silent testimony of a faithful woman following her husband, trusting God's promises.

And in the midst of this faithful obedience, their first test of faith appears.

The second half of verse five.

It says this when they came to the land of Canaan, and you would think the phrase would be, they got it.

They got there, and he's God.

So it happened.

They had the land.

But no, verse 6 says, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moray.

At that time, the Canaanites were in the land.

And that's when you would hear the dramatic minor key violins playing.

The Canaanites are there.

So the land of Canaan was clearly named after somebody.

Must be the Canaanites.

What are they doing there?

So they walk through the front door of the promised land, and someone's shoes are at the front door.

And there's people at the dining table.

And there's dishes sitting all around because the Canaanites are dirty.

They're not taking care of the promised land.

What are they doing?

This is the promised land.

This is the word promised, which means it was promised to me, which means I'm here now.

It should be mine.

He gets there and there's Canaanites in the land.

They're settled in the land.

They're not on their way out.

There's no eviction notice.

They're just settled in the land.

And I think that this theme, which occurs over and over again in the biblical narrative, is really important.

And I'm going to call it the pilgrim principle.

The pilgrim principle.

The moment you say yes to God's future promises, you say, just passing through to the present world.

The moment you say yes to God's future promises, you say, just passing through to the present world.

We long for a city not built by man.

Pilgrims know this isn't home, so they have tents, not cities.

Pilgrims don't tie their hearts to the things that are passing, but rather they tie their hearts to eternal things, to heaven, where neither moss, moth nor rust can destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

And why?

Why would a pilgrim do that?

Why would a pilgrim not lose heart?

Why should you walk faithfully out of here tonight, even though not all of your circumstances seem to be good just yet?

It's because God is faithful.

God keeps his promises and he keeps us.

We've seen that God is a God who gives commands and promises.

We've seen that our duty is to respond in belief to those promises and obedience fueled by that belief.

And we see, lastly, in the text tonight, that God keeps those promises and he keeps the people that he makes the promises to.

And before we get to verse 7, just recognize for a moment where we are.

It's 2026.

We are on the other side of the majority of the Abrahamic covenant being fulfilled.

God kept his promise.

Israel is in fact a nation.

Abraham does, in fact, have a blessed name.

Israel has a land.

And blessing has come to all of us in this very room tonight through the offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ, our Savior, who came and died for us.

And in that way showered blessing upon us with forgiveness and grace.

And he resurrected.

But I also think we should appreciate that we live in the tension of faith because there are promises that we're still waiting for.

The return of that Savior, the end of our war with internal sin, the resurrection, the fullness of the kingdom on the earth.

No more tears, no more sorrow.

So, what do we do when we see the promised land filled with Canaanites?

Verse 7.

Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, To your offspring, I will give this land.

The land is in possession of the Canaanites.

Sarai is barren.

And then the Lord appeared to Abram and reassured him of the promises.

He didn't even fulfill the promise right there.

He assured him of the promises.

He called him to faith to fuel his obedience.

And I think that God often reminds us of his promises before they are fulfilled because, as I said earlier, he's glorified not only in fulfilling his promises, but in our faith in his promises.

And Abram doesn't ask God to explain himself, he doesn't throw a temper tantrum, he doesn't pull up chat GPT, put all the data in, and then plan an escape route.

He does something that teaches all of us exactly what we should do when we're living in the tension of faith.

The second half of verse 7.

So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him.

We see the same sort of circumstance transcending faith and worship in Job.

In Job chapter 1, Job has been stripped of pretty much everything he has.

Job 1 · chapter mention

And in Job chapter 1, he says, the Lord gives and takes away.

Job 1 · chapter mention

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

By Job chapter 13, he says, Though he slay me, yet I will trust him.

Job 13 · chapter mention

So your obedience to God does not require his promises to be fulfilled even in your lifetime.

Jesus doesn't have to come back tonight for you to obey him and live as if he were coming back tonight.

He is worthy of your obedience regardless of his timing, whether or not it fills your timing or your expectations.

So, Abram takes up his tent and he keeps moving through the land.

In what, if I may co-opt the phrase, I'll call along obedience in the same direction.

In verses 8 through 9, we see this.

From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there again he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord.

And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negev.

He's walking with an eye not merely on the promised land, but on the promise maker.

He's obeying the promise maker, he's worshiping the promise maker, he's believing the promise.

And there's an important question that I think we have to answer as we read this story about Abram.

Why does God allow our pilgrimage to be so difficult?

Why does God allow that?

Well, I think the Bible has answers for us.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 8, this is what the Apostle Paul says.

2 Corinthians 1:8

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experience in Asia.

For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.

It reminds me of Hebrews, where it says that Abram considered himself good as dead.

But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.

He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.

On him we have set our hope, that he will deliver us again.

That's faith.

That's God glorifying faith in the midst of suffering, and God even allowed them to be burdened to that point where they even despaired of life itself.

We have another story in Mark chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

Jesus, while he was teaching, was approached by a man named Jairus whose daughter was near to death.

She was at her end.

And so Jesus comes with him to heal his daughter, and on the way he gets interrupted.

The woman with the issue of blood reaches out, touches the hem of his garment, and Jesus stops.

So if your daughter was dying and you had a guy following you who you believe could heal her, and then he stopped, it would be quite frustrating.

It would be discouraging, but not as discouraging as this.

While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house some who said, Your daughter is dead.

Why trouble the teacher any further?

But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, Do not fear, only believe.

God called Abram with not only all the blessings in mind, but even with the faith-forming, God-glorifying suffering in mind.

When God called Abram at 75 years old, he planned the 25 years of barrenness.

He knew that would happen.

He didn't plan in accordance with it, he planned it for his glory and for their good.

And so that we today, looking at their faith, would see that God is faithful, even when it takes him 25 years, even when it takes him your whole lifetime, even if, like Abram, you don't see all the promises of God fulfilled in your lifetime.

John 8 says that Abram did rejoice to see his day.

God did all of this to bring glory to himself and to teach Abram what it meant to obey a faithful God who lavishes grace upon his children.

And to leave us an example, because Romans chapter 4, verse 19 says that Abram did not weaken in faith when he considered his old age and the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

Romans 4:19

His circumstances did not weaken his faith in the promises of God.

So, what is God calling you to tonight?

You are the very select people that God chose to be here on Mother's Day, to be in this very room to hear this sermon.

What is God calling you to do?

Is it to lead your family?

Is it to embrace your role as a mother with courageous obedience?

Is it to just go to work faithfully as unto the Lord?

Is it to start serving in that area of the church that you've been thinking about?

Like kids' ministry?

Or kids' ministry?

Is it to put a specific sin to death in obedience to his commands?

Or is God calling you simply tonight to just believe his promises?

Whatever it is that God is calling you to, I think we've learned from Genesis 12 that the God who commands you to obey him is also the God who graciously empowers you to obey him, and that he's faithful to keep all of his promises to you.

The one who commands is also the one who keeps by his spirit.

It is not a burden to obey a faithful God.

Let's pray.

God, I thank you that you are a good God, that you keep all of your promises.

I thank you that your Son, God in the flesh, came and He said, Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

That his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

I ask, Father, that tonight, those in this room who have a step of obedience before them, that you would empower them through your promises, that you will finish the work that you began in them, that you are with them to the end of the age, that this would empower them to take that step in obedience, even tonight or tomorrow morning, whatever it is you have for them.

I pray for those who are faltering in their faith, that you would galvanize their faith with a clear sight of who you are.

Because you are not only the God who commands and promises, but you are the God who keeps your promises and keeps those you make promises to.

Help us to believe your promises and to walk in obedience.

Lord, our circumstances don't have to change.

We will worship you regardless.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Pray this all in Jesus' name.

Amen.

And now, for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, ibc.church.

If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to tms.edu.

Now, if you're not a member of the local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.

area, we'd love to have you worship for the Spirit of Manual.

I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.

But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.

Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.