Lent: Waiting with God’s Promises

So we're in our second week in the season of Lent.

So Lent's the 40 days of leading up to Good Friday and to Easter.

So today we're going to take three different passages that are in the lectionary, three different passages.

So it's almost like a contemplation type sermon.

So we're going to look at a passage and then we're going to pause mid-sermon.

We've done this before.

It's a little odd.

Pause mid-sermon and just quiet ourselves.

And we're going to pray, just a short prayer.

And then we're going to go to the next passage.

And then we're going to pause, pray, and go to the next passage.

We don't always do that if you're new.

Do it a couple times a year.

But that's how we're going to go through the passages this morning.

These passages, all of them, bring about a contemplation about where do we find our strength?

Where do we find our belonging?

And where do we find our security?

So we begin in Genesis 15.

God comes to Abram in a vision.

God's promised Abram, who later becomes named Abraham in Genesis 17, which means father of many nations.

And in the vision, God has promised Abram that he's going to be a father of a great nation.

There's one big problem.

No kids.

He hadn't had any children.

And he's waiting and he's frustrated.

So of course he starts to build out a plan B.

And he figures, well, just some other member of his household, but not his kid, but some other member of this household will be his heir.

But God's promise hasn't changed.

It's just Abram doesn't like God's timetable.

Right?

God's promise hasn't changed, but we just don't like his timetable.

Happens all the time.

The Psalms are filled with people who don't like God's timetable, right?

It's just a rants.

Or it's just like emotional outburst of people not liking what's going on.

It's good for us to read, good for us to pray.

We're filled with those feelings.

We know what Abram's frustration would feel like because you've been waiting on God for something.

Something.

I don't know what it is.

You know.

Some open door, some healing, some relationship to be restored.

It's off, a little bit of conflict, big conflict, that tension hadn't quite been restored.

Waiting on some money, some provision.

You're waiting on a guy to ask you out.

And he's just really slow.

You're gonna pick up on the hints.

You're waiting on a lady to love you.

You're waiting on respect.

You're you're waiting on some measure of control in your life, right?

And nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.

You're getting nothing.

We've all been in these places where you're just waiting.

And so easily we all start to plan a little bit of a plan B.

Genesis 15, verse 4.

Genesis 15:4

And behold, so this is the situation Abram's in, right here.

Right there.

He's in that frustration, forming that plan B.

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

And he brought him outside.

So God takes 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.

So point number one is this God acts in our lives by reminding us of his secure promises.

It's one of the major ways that God acts in our lives, reminding us.

Now we have amnesia so much to what's already been given to us.

Right?

Promises, blessings, gifts, grace already given to us, secure to us.

We live in amnesia to that so often.

We just look toward and get frustrated with the next breakthrough we want, the next gift, the next open door.

And here we have one of the founders of our faith, and I find this incredibly reassuring.

One of our founders of our faith, Abram, full of doubt.

That's so reassuring to me.

That God moves toward Abram while he's doubting.

And when he moves toward him, he doesn't hit him with a just leg shirt.

How dare you doubt my plan?

Right?

He doesn't even like give him three tips.

Like, here are three tips to be more faithful and more certain than your faith.

He doesn't do that.

And that's reassuring to me.

Because I've had my hand full of doubts.

And I and I will again, it's part of faith.

Some of you are full of doubt.

Full of doubt.

You have huge questions about God.

Who got, where God is, who God is, if God is.

Massive questions.

You haven't told anybody.

But you're wondering.

Very often we can be scared of doubt.

But it's part of the spiritual journey.

Because you're a human.

I'm human.

And doubt does not threaten the relationship that God began with you.

And that he continues with you.

Because he's the one who began the relationship.

And doubt is part of your spiritual journey.

That we don't use our doubt to move into rebellion.

We don't use our doubt to do whatever we want.

But we move through our doubt.

We move through our doubt as part of a spiritual life and part of the journey.

Now there's simply just going to be those times of doubt.

There's going to be dry seasons.

There's going to be dark seasons.

We don't love them.

None of us would love them.

I mean, none of us will be like, I want to sign up for the really doubtful seasons.

It's really dark and depressing.

Like that's the part.

I want the dark season of the night, so I'll be wiser on the other side.

Like nobody does that.

We all know we'll be wiser on the other side, but nobody wants to sign up for that season of life.

But in that season, it's where it's so important to be reminded of and remember the promises already given to you that are already secure by God to you.

His covenant to you, his commitment to you.

And in that way, we're resting in, even in our doubt, we're resting in the objective truth of God's love to us while we're waiting on subjective experiences.

Now we love the subjective experiences, the retreat highs, where you look forward to going to church.

Worship is meaningful to you and emotional.

We love that.

But sometimes you're in a dry season and you're just remembering, I know that's true.

He said it to me.

It is secure.

I don't feel it right now, but I will feel it again.

And I love in this passage, one of the founders of our faith, full of doubt, God pursues him, and the way that God helps him is not a lecture, but takes him outside and shows him the stars.

Remember, remember the promise.

Point number two.

Our relationship with God rests in God's perfect strength to uphold his promises.

This is why we can move through doubt.

This is why we could live the Christian life without being exhausted or petrified.

Is because we rest in his perfect strength to us, not ours to him, and his ability to uphold his promises, not our ability to uphold our promises.

So in the story, God asked Abram to split an animal in two.

Seems weird to us.

In ancient times, a lesser king would make a commitment, a covenant with a greater king by splitting an animal in two, sacrificing that animal, splitting in two, and then the lesser king would walk through the animal as a covenant, that binding relationship with the greater king, and the symbolism was if I don't uphold the promise I'm making to you, may I be like this animal.

Now that's not of our tradition of giving our life to the Lord, just more like walk an aisle, pray a prayer type of thing.

They knew this, though.

They knew this when they read this.

So when in verse 17 they read this, this means a lot to them.

When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, behold, behold, pay attention.

Look, look, look at this, look at this.

A smoking firepot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.

On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram.

So Abram falls asleep, but Abram never walks through the two pieces of the animal.

It's God who walks through the pieces of the animal.

So God is saying, if you break the promise, if you're not strong, you're not loyal, I'm not loyal, I'm not strong, I'm not mighty, right?

Like I'm not the great Christian.

But God is that for you.

But God is that for you.

And he says, I'll be like that animal.

I will be like that.

That's the covenant promise that God sets with Abram.

Now, covenants are throughout the Bible.

We see covenants with Noah, Moses, David.

But this covenant with Abram, this was a central part of the covenant of the Bible.

Because from Abram, we get the people of Israel, from the people of Israel, we get Christ.

And our faith and our faith practices, what we see in that storyline, are never about primarily our love for Him, but about His love, His strength, His security to us.

Listen to Galatians 3, 13 and 14, when Paul tries to connect all this for us in the New Testament.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.

For it is written, cursed is everyone who's hanged on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

So from Abraham, the people of Israel, Christ to us, the covenant to us.

In Christ, the Christian faith just gives all the goods away.

We just give it all away.

Like without obligation to you.

Without payback.

That's not even like, hey, like, Jesus did all this for you, and you're his and you belong to him.

Now here's the list of the ways you need to pay him back.

That's not Christian faith.

That's moralism, if you've ever gotten that in church, it's moralism.

It's not Christian faith.

Christian faith is just like in Christ, you get it all.

You just get it all.

It's free.

It's absurd.

It's so radical.

You just get it all.

Listen to these promises that are ours in Christ.

I just went through real quickly this week and made a few.

You probably come up with a much better and longer list.

2 Corinthians 5, 17, the promise of new creation.

So for all the parts of you that feel old, amen.

Just yeah, you're like, yeah, got that.

Or worn down, beaten up, broken down.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation.

The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come.

And that means so much to some of you that have a pat that has a past that you don't ever want to repeat.

You don't want to say it out loud.

And for you to know that in Christ you're a new creation.

It's powerful.

It's the promise of the new creation given to you.

It's given to you.

2 Corinthians 5.21, the promise of forever forgiveness and imputed righteousness.

So for all that guilt and all that weight of the imperfection that we are, that we carry around, for all of that, seems we can't ever quite get it all right.

For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him, in him, we might become the righteousness of God.

Romans 8, 1 and 2, the promise of no condemnation and freedom from our performancism.

So for that internal battle, that you just no matter how much you perform, you're not getting it right.

And you know you're pretending.

An imposter.

And then you feel condemned by it.

You feel beat up by it, by your mistakes.

And you just hear that.

That's just the tape that plays.

You're a screw up, you're a screw up, you'll always be a screw up.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So you may hear condemnation.

It's just not from God.

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

2 Corinthians 1, 20 through 22 is the promise of favor, God's spirit, and security.

So if you feel insecure, unstable, like the instability that you don't have control of everything.

For all the promises of God find their yes in him.

That is why it is through him that we utter our amen to God for his glory.

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Now, if you just want some good application, some growth in grace application, you can just very quickly Google in Christ verses, in him Bible verses, and you can just start to make a list and just meditate and rest in these types of verses.

Let's pray real quickly.

We're gonna just, for just a moment, we're just gonna pause.

We're in quiet our hearts.

You're gonna think about your grocery list and where you want to go to lunch, and then randomly you think about your girlfriend from seventh grade and how that breakup didn't go good, and then you're gonna jump to like the job you want when you're 50.

Like all kinds of stuff's gonna come up.

This is what happens when we pray.

It's okay.

That's normal.

That's normal, that's how it works.

But in that, you'll you'll hear me praying as well.

So let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, help us to just slow down for a moment here, even in the middle of a discernment.

Slow our hearts, that we might be like Abram and you might walk us outside to gaze up at the promises you have already, already given us.

Forgive us for trying to find strength in our own commitment to you.

Forgive us for pretending to be strong when we're not.

I thank you that you began the covenant with us and you continue the covenant with us.

Help us to find greater strength of heart today and your strength, not ours.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Our second passage, Philippians 3, 18 through 21.

So this is about belonging, our home.

Verse 18, for many of whom I have often told you and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of the Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and their glory and their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

But our citizenship is in heaven.

And from it we await a Savior.

The Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

So point number three is this our heart's true home is in heaven alone.

Maybe you've been on a trip.

Maybe you went on a trip and you went to a mountain cabin or you went to a beach condo, or maybe you went all out and you went to like a Ritz somewhere, or Aunt Betty's house on the lake, and it's such a nice house.

I mean, she has this screened in porch, it overlooks the lake.

It's amazing, right?

And you're sitting on that screened in porch overlooking that lake, and you are thinking to yourself, if my back deck was screened in, I would finally be happy.

Like that's one of the thoughts you have, kind of like if you finally get that crown molding in your living room, like the rest of your house, suddenly everything in your life's gonna be solved.

The crown molding will solve your happiness.

In this moment, you're on Aunt Betty's Screened in Porch, and you're thinking, you're like, if only, if only I had this, if I just had screen, if I just had a screened in porch, they'll solve everything.

I'll be so happy.

My soul will be content.

And you live, you stay there for a while, right?

Because you stay at Aunt Betty's house for say it's a week, say it's a week long trip.

And you stay there for a while.

And the first few days, you're like, this place is amazing.

Like, like I look, but by the end of the week, you're kind of like, I mean, no matter how comfortable and good this place is, it's not my home.

It's still Aunt Betty's house.

And the stuff's in different places, it's not where you would put it, it's not your stuff, it's not really a thing you would pick out.

Because it's Aunt Betty's house, it's not your house.

No matter how comfortable it is, it's not your home.

It's taken me to get to about age 42 to start to realize so much of my discontentment in this world is not necessarily me needing to get something else, it's just the fact that this place ain't my home.

Right?

Paul says, you consume everything in this world.

You can consume it all.

Right?

Your God can be your belly.

And you're gonna know destruction.

But it'll never work.

Because it's just not your home.

You weren't created for this world.

Your belonging is somewhere else.

Your belongings to God.

You were created by God and for God.

Paul says in verse 21, but our citizenship is in heaven.

That word but is the word gar in Greek.

My Greek professor used to say, look for the gars.

And I think he said it that way because he didn't want to say look for the butts.

Because then you're thinking about 1992, you serve mix a lot.

You already know.

It is a good Bible study tip.

Look for the butts.

Because pretty much any time you see a butt in scripture, in the scripture.

Scripture.

It's a good Bible study tip.

You'll remember the rest of your life.

Look for the butts.

There's something going on in that verse.

There just is.

There's something really interesting going on, probably something incredibly life-empowering going on because something's headed one way, but like something, some promise, some life-empowering things there.

Let's pause and pray.

Let's pray together real quick.

Heavenly Father, we confess we are finding, all of us are finding over and over again that there's just nothing in this world that completely satisfies us.

And we just need to say to you, you created us, and we were created for you.

Help us to know our belonging in you.

Help us to define ourselves radically and only as your children.

Amen.

Third reading, very quickly.

Luke 13, 31 through 35.

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.

And he said to them, Go and tell that fox, which is kind of like an insult, go and tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course.

Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.

Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it.

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.

Behold, your house is forsaken, and I tell you, you will not see me until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Point number four is this Jesus promises to be a loving, protective force for your heart.

We could take a whole lot out of that passage.

I just want to point out, and I love verse 34.

Jesus' compassion here.

He says in verse 34, How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.

Jesus says here that he's like a mama chicken, and you're my little chic, and you belong to me.

It's an interesting metaphor for Jesus to give out.

It's not very intimidating, like a hen.

Not really intimidating.

Hens are approachable, they're caring to their little chicks, they're protective.

And Jesus is saying that he secures his promises to you.

But he does it by making himself vulnerable.

See, this is how this connects all the way back to Genesis 15.

It's probably why the lectionary put all this together for us that Jesus walks through the split animal to begin and uphold the covenant.

He fulfills the covenant.

He's the vulnerable.

He protects us by being vulnerable.

And our security and our safety is not by our fight and our work, but by the mama hen's love for us.

I hope this morning, because I think so many of us are waiting on something.

Right?

Waiting on that breakthrough and that open door, waiting on respect or waiting on love.

You're waiting on some peace or security.

We're like Abram.

He was waiting.

He was incredibly frustrated.

But I also hope that we'll be like Abram.

And let God just slow us down enough that we can see the stars in the sky.

That we can see the promises that were already given.

Already secure.

Remember the promises God has for you.

Let's pray together.

Heavenly Father, forgive us for trying to secure in this world, to bring ourselves security by what we look like or who we know or how good we are or what we achieve.

Forgive us for trying to be secure without you, or to be secure by what we do.

Help us to know the freedom of the security of Christ's finished work for us.

That you are the one that began the covenant, and you are the one that secures the covenant in Jesus.

You are the one that walked through the split animals, you are the one that hangs on the cross, and that you have perfect strength for us.

Would you help our hearts to remember the great promises you have for us?

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.