The Cave Before The City

You have your Bible, go and make your way to Genesis chapter 23,

Genesis 23 · chapter mention

Genesis 23 as we continue in our series in the book of Genesis.

If you're new to the Bible, Genesis is the very first book,

so it's the easiest to find. Find your way to chapter 23, the

big numbers, and we're going to work through the entire chapter

this morning. We are close to the end of our

series that we've been in for several months now in the book

of Genesis. We'll return to the where we

left off at some point, but for the month of July, for four

Sundays. Where we're headed is on a short

series just to examine and celebrate and look through the

lens of Scripture at such a time as we are like this at the 250th

anniversary of our nation. And just to see what guidance

the Word of God would have for us as citizens of our nation, as

stewards of such blessings from God, and how God's Word would

guide us to live in these days that we've been given as a gift

to stewards. I'm really excited about that.

Before we turn to the New Testament for a few weeks or a

short series out of the book of Titus, I'd also just like to say

happy Father's Day to the dads in the room, the grandfathers or

those watching online. What a privilege it is to be a

father. And guys, may we remember the

stewardship from God that we have.

We had this incredible opportunity.

All people, every human being is made in the image of God.

But dads, when you think about it, our Father, our God is a

good, good father. And it is through earthly

fathers in so many ways and mothers, but it is through the

earthly father in so many ways that we get a privilege of

seeking to steward and to translate in an earthly way the

goodness of God through an earthly father.

The reality is in a world of sin we live in, some have

experienced that, some have not. There are no perfect fathers on

this earth. But I pray that whatever your

experience has been is that you would know the love of God the

Father for you, who has a plan for your life, has given you

life, longs for you to know Him through his Son Jesus.

If you don't. But if you are a dad or the

privilege of being one, I pray you're reminded today of the

amazing stewardship that you have to image the Heavenly

Father in the life of your children and grandchildren so

they get a small taste of heaven on earth through you before they

get to see and stand before their Heavenly Father.

Genesis 23 would not make a list of the most popular chapters in

the Bible. You might call it one of those

fly over chapters. You know, we have 50 states in

our United States and many of them are referred to as fly over

states, those states that airplanes typically fly over

more often than they land in. Well, Genesis 23 would be

considered one of those chapters.

In fact, I'd be honest with you, I'd not be telling the truth if

I didn't tell you that I was tempted to fly over it myself.

I honestly thought, God, it's Father's Day.

I really, this is really the text that lands on Father's Day.

This is really what we're going to do.

And I'll tell you that God just gave me some confirmations along

the way. And already even the first

service has given confirmations that this, this message is for

some somebody and more than one. And I, I know that, but quite

honestly, when it comes to topics that are not easy with

truth, that is hard. You just don't naturally want to

embrace or talk about those things.

But I feel like we've known each other long enough now.

And I love you and I think you love me.

And about seven years in now that you trust me enough that we

would love the word of God, that we're going to just press

forward, know that God uses his word even on things that deal

with difficult things that are good for us.

And I think you're going to discover that as we walk through

this chapter today. We're going to begin by reading

the first two chapters. This is the first.

This is the first death and burial.

This is the first funeral in the Bible.

And so we're going to begin by reading the 1st 2 verses and go

from there. Sarah lived 127 years.

These were the years of the life of Sarah.

And Sarah died at Kiriath Arba. That is Hebron in the land of

Canaan. And Abraham went in to mourn for

Sarah and to weep for her. I think it would be true to say

there's no way to possibly describe the impact that Sarah's

death would have had on Abraham. These two had said yes together

to the call of God on their lives and have walked faithfully

in that call for over 60 years together now.

I just want you to get this. They had probably been married

for over 100 years. Now you laugh because some of

you, well, I won't go there anyway.

We'll keep going. Now Abraham has to figure out

how to do life without his bride by his side.

Some of you, some of you know precisely what Abraham is going

through. Sarah was a woman who had said

yes to God and His call on her life.

She was a woman of great and mighty faith.

And oh she she definitely had her moments, did she not?

She definitely had her times when she made mistakes.

She definitely had things she did that she regretted.

But haven't we all? But the essence of her life was

a life of faith following God's call.

Listen to how the book of Hebrews commentary on Genesis 23

and other chapters describes Sarah.

Chapter 11 verse 11 and 12 says by faith Sarah received herself

power to conceive even when she was past the age since she was

considered, since she considered him faithful, who had promised

therefore from one man. This is how her husband's

described and him as good as dead.

He was that old we're born descendants, as many as the

stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand

by the seashore. Genesis 23 Y all is really a

real life living illustration of the truths of of Hebrews 11,

specifically verses 11 through 16 which I want to read that say

this. These, including Sarah, all died

in keyword faith, not having received the things promised,

but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having

acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the

earth. For people who speak thus, make

it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

For if they had been thinking of that land from which they had

gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

But as it is, they desire a better country.

That is a heavenly 1. Therefore God is not ashamed to

be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city.

Hence the title of the sermon, The Cave before the city.

When Sarah dies, the son that she was allowed to miraculously

conceive was approximately 36 to 37 years of age.

By God's grace, God had allowed her.

Y'all remember that sermon I mentioned the fourth quarter of

life? You've never let me live that

one down. She's in like fifth or sixth

quarter. All right.

The one that she was able to live to 5th or sixth quarter by

God's grace. By the way, this is the only

woman in the Bible who dies that says her age.

I think all the rest of them are like, don't say that about me.

So anyway, she was miraculously allowed by God to concede and

live to see her child to adulthood.

And yet, when she died, she'd only seen to consider this.

She had only seen the tiniest tip of the iceberg of God's

promises that she had heard God say to her and Abraham say,

Kyle, what do you mean? Consider the fact that she heard

God promise them land. How much land do Abraham and

Sarah own to their name right now?

Not one inch. She had heard God promised them

offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky.

How many offspring does Sarah have right now?

Uno. She had heard God promised them

that they would become a nation. They're still living as

sojourners and as foreigners in a foreign nation.

She heard God say to them that through their family, He's going

to bring blessing to all the nations of the earth.

To be honest, there's days Sarah struggles to be a blessing to

her own family. Remember those some of those

days we've read about? We've all had those days,

haven't we? Not by perfection, but by faith.

Sarah has said yes to God and lived her part in God's plan,

knowing the best was yet to come.

Sarah died in faith and friends, here it is.

These are hard but true truths that do us good, just like you.

You eat some things, probably not because you love the way

they taste, but because they do your body good.

God is going to call, Danny says.

I don't do that. Well, I'm trying here.

I'm trying. That's all I can say.

Just like God calls Sarah to die in faith, friends, the deal is

should Jesus Terry. God is going to call you and I

to do the same thing. Point #1 is this God calls us to

die by faith. I had that point shortened to

die by faith, but I thought that came across a little strong, so

I just extended it to God calls us to die by faith should Jesus.

Terry, what kind of faith do you mean, Pastor Kyle?

Should we die in faith that death is not the end?

Faith that we are only strangers and sojourners in this life?

Faith that in this life we only see a tiny fraction of all that

God has promised us. That God has prepared for us a

place forever with him. A faith that the best is yet to

come. This is the kind of fate that at

the time of our death, whenever it comes in God's plan for our

lives, it should be the time, one of the times of the greatest

demonstrations of faith in our lives, knowing the best of God's

promises are beyond the grave, not before it.

I'm going to say that again, the best of God's promises are

beyond the grave, not before it. And there's going to come a day,

should Jesus, Terry, when we are going to be asked to put that

kind of faith into practice. So this begs the question, how

should we as Christians think about death?

We don't want to really talk about this, but they'd be be

quite honest. Everyone thinks about it.

In fact, if you want to have a little question in your back

pocket to pull out whenever you're looking to have a gospel

conversation with somebody and share your faith and to try to

share your testimony and the good news of Jesus with

somebody, maybe they're a stranger, maybe they're not.

But one of the best questions you could ask is, hey, you ever

think about life after death? No, I realize that's not

typically what people ask, but quite honestly, that's not that

of a confrontational conversation.

You ever think about life after death?

If anybody has a stitch of honesty, guess what?

They're going to say yes. Because ever since sin entered

the garden and death followed it, mankind has thought about

death and life after. You can go back and study every

form of civilization you can, and mankind just thought about

death. Ancient Viking warriors thought

about death. They thought about it in this

way, and they desired to die valiantly in battle so they

would live their eternity. And Valhalla, one of the gods of

the Norse gods, they followed Odin in Asgard so they can fight

all day, have their wounds healed by night, feast and drink

all night, and be served by female Valkyries for the rest of

their eternity. They thought about life after

death. Did you know that the ultra rich

in our day you can read about our thinking about life after

death. You know why?

Because they are pouring billions.

As we speak into longevity startups, biological

reprogramming and cellular rejuvenation tech, founders and

investors are backing high stakes research aimed at halting

the human aging process. Now there's probably some good

in that that may benefit us all to help our fourth quarter go

better. All right, Amen.

But let's just be honest, what's behind most of that is when you

don't believe there's any life after death, but you're thinking

about death, guess what you're going to do when you believe

this is all there is? You're going to try to make all

there is last as long as you as long as you can with as much

money as you can. People are thinking about life

after death. The question I'm asking is, how

should we as Christians think about life after death?

I'm struggling with the Lord this week.

God, do you really want to preach this?

And I'm just reading a book for fun right now, and the first

story in it is the story of a man by the name of Dag

Hammerschold. And when I read his story, it's

just one of the ways God confirmed this week.

This is exactly what I was supposed to preach.

Why? Because his story is exactly how

Christians ought to think about death.

This guy was a Swedish diplomat. He served as the Secretary

General of the United Nations from April the 10th, 1953 until

his death in September 18th of 1961.

What we know about DAG, we know most from his private journal

that he kept. I love the title of his journal.

He titled it My Negotiations with Myself and with God.

You ever negotiate with yourself or with God?

This is how he titled his journal, and we know he was a

man of faith by what he wrote here.

And when his nomination came for Secretary General, he admitted

in his journal that he had strong feelings of personal

insufficiency. And yet he concluded that he

could not refuse to accept the task that God had imposed upon

him. But see, what the world didn't

know about him and what most of his even personal friends didn't

know about him, was that Dag had long prayed that God would give

him some life defining task. He was praying that God would

call him to something significant that would mark his

life. Confident confiding privately in

his journal at the time of his nomination, he wrote and I love

this statement. When the hour strikes, he takes

what is his Speaking of himself. What have I to say your prayer?

He's Speaking of himself. Your prayer Dag has been

answered. As you know God has a use for

you. Even though watch this.

I love this. Even though what he asked

doesn't happen to suit you at the moment.

You ever had God ask you to do something that didn't suit you

at the moment? If you haven't, you hadn't been

following the leadership of the Holy Spirit because those so

often he doesn't ask you. He doesn't show up money like

Kyle what you want to do today. That's never the way it's rolled

for me. But he's often brought me to the

brink of things that I really wouldn't think would have been

my choice that I had to trust. That's what he's saying.

Two days later he wrote not I but God in me.

He was 47 years old. On September 26th, 1957, he was

reelected for a second five year term.

He writes this. I love this statement.

He says the best and most wonderful thing that can happen

to you in this life is that you should be silent and let God

work and speak. That'll preach right there.

Dag would never finish his second term.

Dag indicated in his journal that he for weeks had been

feeling a sense of impending death, but that it was not an

end to be avoided, provided it came in accord with God's will.

He then wrote this line that defines how we as Christians

should think about death. Listen to it closely, he says.

Do not seek death. Death will find you, but seek

the road, which makes death a fulfillment of God's call on

your life. That's exactly how every

Christian should think about death.

In some ways not even to really think about it.

Because we've said yes to God's call, knowing one day we'll

breathe our last. But whenever we do, we're going

to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that when we die, we're

going to be smack dab in the middle of God's will.

And it will be the day that is the final fulfilment of our yes

to God when it comes. Shortly after midnight,

September the 18th, 1961 Dags UND 6 plane with 16 people on

board crashed in the forest 7 miles north of the runway in

Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. An estimated 250,000 people

gathered to mourn his death. Dag was a man who rightly

thought about death as the final fulfillment of God's call on our

lives. You see, the deal is, by faith

we as Christians should say yes to God in life, and by faith we

as Christians say yes to God in death.

And did not Jesus, the Son of God, exemplify this very thing?

Was his death not the final fulfillment of exactly what God

had called him to to do? And what did he say?

Expressing that in three words, It is finished.

What was finished? The mission that God had given

him, the call of God on his incarnation and on his living on

earth in our shoes. It is finished.

And then how does he die In faith?

Into your hands I commit my Didn't Jesus exemplify the very

thing that we learned from Scripture and from his example?

The way we should think about it, God calls us to die by

faith. Now pick up in verse 3 through

9, And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the

Hittites, I am a sojourner and foreigner among you.

Give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury

my dead out of my sight. The Hittites answered Abraham,

hear us, my Lord, you are a Prince of God among us.

Bury your dead and the choices of our tombs.

None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from

burying your dead. And Abraham rose and bowed to

the Hittites, the people of the land, And he said to them, If

you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight,

hear me. Entreat for me Efron the son of

Zohar, that he may give me The Cave of Makpala, which he owns.

It is at the end of his field for the full price.

Let him give it to me in your presence.

His property for a burying place.

As you would expect, Abraham is mourning and grieving the death

of his wife. And what is most surprising is

not what Abraham does, but what Abraham does not do.

Because what you've had expected Abraham to do is hitch up the

camels to the hearse and make the 500 plus mile journey back

home. Because that's typically what we

do, right? We tend to go back to that place

where we have our lives most anchored, what we consider truly

home, that place that maybe we even go back to for burial.

That's not what Abraham does. He continues just the opposite

from going back. He continues forward in the call

of God, the same call that Sarah had been with him side by side

in now for over 60 years. This is huge.

This is Abraham saying yes to God in the face of the good

times and the bad times. This is Abraham saying yes to

God in life and in death. Hebrews 11/15 through 16.

If you missed it when I read it earlier, it's worth hearing

again because this describes the mentality Abraham could have

had. Listen closely to it.

If they even Speaking of Abraham had been thinking of that land

from which they had gone out, they would have had an

opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a

better country. That is a heavenly 1 Therefore

God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he is prepared

for them a city. In other words, had Abraham's

heart been stuck on the past, on the things he had left behind,

if Abraham's mind and thinking, if his longings, if his living,

if his heart's greatest desires would have been what he left

behind instead of what God called him to, he would have

turned and done a 180. But that's not what he does.

He continues forward in the call of God because he was thinking

and living by the promises of God.

What? What were those promises?

God, You called me to this land. You promised to give it to me

and my descendants. That would be like stars of the

sky. You promised to make me a

nation. But God, my wife just died.

I'm without my bride. I don't even own enough land,

God, to bury my bride. To put yourself in issues,

surely you'd have thought it's time to go home.

That's not what Abraham does. Facing pain and loss, Abraham

kept trusting the promises of God.

This is the second thing I think we learned that God not only

calls us to die by faith, but listen closely #2 God calls us

to mourn the death of loved ones by faith.

God calls us to mourn the death of loved ones by faith.

You know, the truth is, and as many of you know first hand,

I've already spoken to a number after the first service that are

going through this very thing. You know, and I know and some of

you even experienced right now, the fact that times of sadness

and loss and grief come our way. This is part of life in a sin

cursed world. The question is, what keeps a

Christian from despair? What keeps a Christian from

plummeting into depression? What keeps us from spiraling

into emotional dysfunction? What is it?

It's one and only thing. It's called hope.

This is why the Bible says we must have a living hope in the

promises of God, because when facing death, only a living

hope, a living faith in the eternal promises of God, will

keep us from despair. You see, a living hope is

expressed like this in Paul, from Paul in First Thessalonians

4 or 13 through 18. You know this, but I read it

again to remind you. But we do not want you to be

uninformed. Brothers and sisters, church

family, about those who have died, those who are asleep, that

you may not grieve. He doesn't say don't grieve.

He says don't grieve as others who have no what no hope for.

Since we believe Jesus died and rose again, Even so through

Jesus God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

How can Jesus bring with him those who have fallen to sleep

asleep? Because to be absent from the

body is to be present with the the Lord, because they're with

him as we speak, those who've gone on before us.

For this we declare to you by word from the Lord, that we who

are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord will not

proceed. Those who have died.

For the Lord himself would descend from heaven with a cry

of command, with the voice of an Archangel and the sound of the

trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise

first. Then we who are alive who are

left, we call up together with them in the clouds to meet the

Lord in the air. And so we will always be with

the Lord. Therefore encourage one another

with these words. That's how we don't spiral into

the lies of the enemy, that this world and this life is all there

is because of the promises of God and His plan for those who

love Him. I thought this week about

examples that I was aware of that have gone before us and

have mourned the loss of loved ones and mourned and grieved,

and yet not without hope and done so under some extreme

circumstances. I've mentioned to you one of my

favorite missionary biographies is A1 by about Adnaram Judson.

And in his story, one of the things I love about all the

stories of those who have faced incredible things and walked

before us is it. Again, it just puts steel in our

spiritual spine. It reminds us we're not alone

and that there are faithful shoulders of those we stand upon

as we seek to do life and living for Jesus Christ.

In fact, there was a time in America when almost every

Christian home had two books in it.

Number one was the Bible. Number 2 was John Fox's book of

how people died for their testimony following Jesus.

You know why that book was in the home?

Because that's like spiritual Wheaties every morning right

there. Because it it it, it puts a

little fearlessness in you when you realize people have gone

before me and given their all for Jesus.

And parents would raise their kids hearing the stories of

those who had died for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ.

Why? Because it was worth it.

Adnaram's story is pretty similar.

Let me just tell you a little bit about how they grieve, but

not without hope. His ministry was marked by

unimaginable sacrifice. If you remember, Adnaram was the

first America's first foreign missionary and he's poured

nearly 40 years of his life sharing the gospel, translating

the Bible into Burmese and planting churches in Burma,

modern day Myanmar. And as he did so, he mourned the

loss of six of his thirteen children died on the mission

field. Six and two out of the three

women that he married all at one time, not at one time in in that

came out wrong, one at a time, two died on the mischief.

And I just want to tell you about these ladies for a second.

Number one, Ann Nancy Haseltine Judson, married in 1812.

She died in 1826. She was the first American woman

to serve as a foreign missionary.

She was a brilliant linguist, A fearless advocate for her

husband. When Adnaram watched this was

falsely accused by being a British spy and thrown into an

infamous Burmese death prison for 17 months, where he was

often hung by his ankles from the ceiling and lived in a tiny

shack outside the prison walls to bribe the guards, beg for his

life and tend to him. Shortly after Adeniram was

freed, she contracted severe tropical fever and smallpox and

died at the age of 36. He then married eight years

later, Sarah Hall Boardman Judson.

He was immersed in Bible translation.

The widow of a fellow missionary named George.

Her name was Sarah. She was a gifted writer and

translator who quickly learned the Burmese and Penguin

languages. She bore 8 children in 11 years.

But her health broke under the harsh climate and while

attempting to sail back to the United States, she trying to

recover. She passed away aboard ship and

was buried in a remote island in the South Atlantic.

His third wife would live to see Adiniram pass away at sea.

After his death, she her own health deteriorated and returned

to America, where she died of tuberculosis at age 36.

How do people do that? How do people do that?

Unless you believe that the best of God's promises don't come

before the grave, they come after you.

Don't do that. Unless you believe that we only

get to taste and see the tiniest fraction of the promises of God

in this life, that the best is yet to come, that no eye is seen

and no ear is heard, nor the heart of man.

Imagine what God has in store for those who love him.

Unless you really believe that God works all things together

for our good, for those who love Him and are called according to

His. Unless you truly believe that

the gospel is worth giving everything you got for people to

hear it. Unless you really believe

there's a heaven and there's a hell, you don't live like that.

Unless you believe the promises of God.

And they, because they did their collective legacy watch this

became a foundational pillar for American Protestant missions,

establishing thousands of believers in Myanmar.

The first overseas mission trip I ever went on.

I wanted to go to Burma, and God gave me a chance to go to those

golden shores. And I watched and saw churches

and met Christians. Why?

Because some people were willing to give their all so those

people could know Jesus. Unbelievable, right?

God calls us y'all to die by faith, and God calls us to mourn

the death of loved ones by faith.

God calls us to mourn the death of loved ones by faith.

I want to pick up in our next set of verses, 10 through 20.

Now Efron was sitting among the Hittites, and Efron the Hittite

answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went

to the gate of the city. No, my Lord, hear me.

I give you the feel, and I give you The Cave that is in it, in

the sight of the sons of my people.

I give it to you. Bury your dead.

Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land, and he

said to Efron in the hearing of the people of the land.

But if you will hear me, I give the price of the feel.

Accept it from me, that I may bury my dead there.

Efron answered. Abraham, my Lord listened to me,

a piece of land worth 400 shekels of silver.

What is that between you and me? Bury your dead.

Abraham listened to Efron. And Abraham weighed out for

Efron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the

Hittites, 400 shekels of silver according to the weights current

among the merchants. So the field of Efron in

Makpala, which was to the east of Monterey, the field with The

Cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field

throughout its whole area, was made over to Abraham as a

possession in the presence of the Hittites before all who went

in at the gate of the city. After this, Abraham buried

Sarah's wife in The Cave of the field of Makpala, east of Mamre,

that is, Hebron in the land of Canaan.

The field in The Cave that is in it were made over to Abraham's

property for a bearing place by the Hittites.

On the surface. What we have here is an ancient

real estate transaction. Abraham has voiced his desire

for a piece of property in which to bury his wife.

When he asked for a plot, Everyone who hears him basically

responds to him is like, man, you're such an honorable

resident among us, pick out which one you want.

Feel free to borrow it. But Abraham's not looking to

borrow a burial plot. The locals, of course, don't see

Abraham as a permanent resident. He doesn't own any land.

But Abraham knows something these locals don't know.

That is that God has promised him this whole land.

He's not going anywhere. And so Abraham goes about this

real estate deal for the long haul.

Abraham already has the burial spot he desires picked out.

He just needs to purchase it, which he offers to do.

But when Efron hears the offer, Efron responds in what you might

think was this Oh man, Efron must be a wonderful, generous

guy. He just says, hey, just just

take it. Well, that's kind of a little

bit of some surface level hospitality that is veiling

something that's a little different.

What's a little different is this, number one, had Abraham

just borrowed the plot legally, he would have never owned it and

it would have always remained in Efron's possession for his

descendants and not Abraham's descendants.

And Abraham's looking for the long haul here, not the short

haul. OK.

But it would have sounded really generous for Efron to just say,

hey, use it. You're not long term among us.

If you're going to be moving on, which he probably thought he

would be, use it. That's not the plan.

But then when he realizes Abraham really wants to buy it,

it's kind of like he sees here an opportunity to kind of make

more bang for his buck, right? Maybe he thinks, well, if I sell

The Cave, I can't really sell the field.

Nobody's going to want the field unless they get The Cave.

So I better just go all in and ask for as much as I can.

And he puts it out there as if Abraham's a, you know, wealthy

man, which he is. And Efron's a wealthy man, which

he is. And he's like, hey, just what's?

What's 400 shekels of silver between wealthy men?

That's kind of what he slyly names his price, but you get the

idea. If you study the worth of a

shekel and the price of land at this time, it's pretty obvious

that Abraham is not getting a steal.

In a way, Abraham is getting price gouged a little bit, which

begs the question, why would Abraham be willing to pay such a

high price? Well, think about it like this.

Efren says, hey, what's 400 shekels between two wealthy men?

Who can pay it but Abraham's thinking, What's 400 shekels as

a down payment on the whole thing?

God has promised me, I think I'll pay it.

You don't know it, but this is a good deal for me #3 Y'all, God

calls us. This is what we learned, I

think, practically here. God calls us to press on in this

life by faith. God calls us to die by faith, to

mourn the death of loved ones by faith.

And then to press on in life by faith y'all?

My guess is Abraham. Just just think about this.

I guarantee you when God called Abraham and Abraham said yes to

God, Abraham never thought that he would be in a spot after

hearing the promises of God. He never thought he'd be in a

spot where he would be a widower and the only piece of land he

owned was the cemetery where his wife would be buried.

I guarantee you that scenario never crossed his mind.

But let's be honest, did God ever say, hey Abe man, this is

going to be easy? God never said Sarah wouldn't

die one day. God never said Abraham wouldn't

die one day. God just told him his promises

were true and could be trusted. And that's what they did.

What God's call made clear was that death would not be the end

of his promises. The question for Abraham when he

found himself in that scenario, in those circumstances, is did

he believe God or not? And this is where this gets very

practical, not very fun, but very practical.

There's going to come a day when life is going to look you in the

eye and it's going to ask you point blank, do you believe the

promises of God, or do you want to go back home or do you want

to move forward by faith? Are the promises of God truly,

truly true? Is the best to come beyond the

grave? Is God really going to work all

things out for my good, for those who love him?

Even though it doesn't seem like I never imagined God, I'd be

here. I never imagined I would go

through this. I never imagined I would

experience this. But there you are, there He is.

And the question is, do you believe that the life is going

to ask you? Do you believe the promises of

God? And you will give an answer one

day, and you won't have the right answer unless you have a

living hope, which only comes to trusting the Son of God, who is

alive, who's conquered death, who's defeated sin, who paid for

your debt, hung on the cross for you, went to the grave for you,

defeated death. For you.

Offer salvation and hope and life to you, if you'd receive it

by faith calling on His name. So no matter what comes your

way, you know and have the promises of God anchoring your

soul deeper than any earthly circumstance could ever cause

you to question the promises of the truth of God.

The question is, do you believe them?

Abraham presses on because he believes the promises of God

even when he only owns a tiny sliver of lamb.

Here's the deal in this Put it all together.

You ready? This is what this chapter is all

about. Success in the Christian life

looks like faithfulness in life and in death, knowing the best

is yet to come. That's what faithfulness looks

like. It looks like fate.

That's what successful looks like.

It is faithfulness, y'all in life and in death, in the

promises of God, knowing the best is yet to come.

You say, Kyle, what do you mean the best is yet to come?

You remember how Paul puts it. If we are living only for this

life, he says as Christians, if we are living only for this

life, are living for the next, Rather, the way he puts it, we

are of all people, most to be what?

Most to be pitied. In other words, if God's

promises are not bigger and better beyond the grave, we're

in trouble. We're in trouble but because

they are. Here's the honest truth.

Your life and mine ought to look different in light of the fact

that the promises of God are bigger and better beyond the

grave than they are before it. In this way, we ought to live in

such a way that our lives don't make sense to those who watch

us, to those who witness the way we talk, the way we spend our

money, the way we spend our time, the risk we take on what

we choose to value, how we choose to respond when

mistreated, and how we live our week, how we go about our work

and how we raise our kids. And all the things ought to look

strange and light to someone who doesn't know Christ, right?

Because that doesn't make sense because we're living for

eternity. I've heard eternity described as

a if it was laid out as a rope. If we could roll out a rope this

morning, and that rope represented eternity, how long

would that rope be? Longer than you can imagine.

Now, if you just imagine marking on the front of that rope what

this tiny, short earthly life would look like physically

represented on that rope representing eternity, how much,

how big a spot on that rope would you mark as an accurate

representation of how short this life is compared to how long

eternity is? You'd have to try to mark it in

a spot where you could barely even see that you've made a

mark. That's how small a mark you'd

have to be in light of how long eternity is.

And This is why no matter what happens in this life, we can

live it by faith, we can die by faith.

We can mourn those who go ahead of us by faith, and we can press

on in faith, knowing the best is yet to come.

You know, I can just imagine a conversation maybe that Abraham

had with his family that went like this.

They buried Sarah and maybe somebody asked Abraham, Abraham,

did you think you'd be in this spot?

And maybe he looked over at The Cave and he said, do you see

that cave over there? Do you see that tomb?

You see where Sarah's laid? Every day I look at that cave

and I remember that's the evidence right there that God's

given me a down payment on all that's to come.

That's evidence to me. Every day I wake up that the

best is yet to come, that God has bigger and better promises.

I may not live to see them all, but he's promised.

And he started with that right there.

And Can you imagine God the Father maybe?

And when life looks at us and ask us, do we believe the

promises of God? What do you think God the Father

might point us to? Do you see that tomb?

Not the one where Sarah was laid, but to see the tomb where

my son was laid, that tomb that's not occupied, but that

tomb, that's what that's tomb that's empty.

Everyday evidence for over 2000 years that the best ladies and

gentlemen is yet to the guts. Promises are bigger and better

beyond the grave than they are before it.

And that's how you can live different.

Knowing every day is worth it, no matter if it's 36 years, 12

years, or 127 years. Because eternity is long and

life is short. The gospel is worth it.

And every day God gives you. If you say yes to God when you

die, it'll be the final fulfillment of God's call on

your life. That's the way I want to live.

That's the way we want to die. And that's how we can press for

knowing one day we'll be gathered around the throne

together forever with Jesus our Savior.

Do you believe the promises of God?

These are not truths we want to talk about, but these are truths

when you're alone, when life asks you the hardest questions,

you need to have an answer. And God's Word gives us that

answer. Heavenly Father God, I ask that

in His our as we have heard your word that you would give us

faith to receive and believe that it would penetrate our

hearts, that you would have your weight.

And I pray for anyone today who doesn't have that living hope in

Jesus Christ that had ever called on you for salvation,

that today would be the day that even right now they'd feel

confident and unashamed to step out from where they are and just

come tell us, I need to trust Jesus.

Maybe someone's here and it's been living for the things of

the world and needs to let them go and live for the things of

eternity. Maybe somebody's here who needs

to grieve, but not without hope, or someone here needs to believe

the promises of God. God help them with all their

heart to say yes to you, to know your goodness, Father, to have

you give them the peace that passes understanding that comes

from a living hope in Jesus Christ.

Help us say yes. Help us trust you.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen. Would you stand with me?

I'm going to stand here if you need to come and talk with me

about salvation, trusting Jesus. If you need prayer, this altar

is open. Our encouragers will be close.

You come as we sing and worship together.