The Things God Says and Does

Good morning. The introduction is brief.

It's turning your Bible to Genesis chapter 17. Pretend there is a seat belt

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

attached to your seat and buckle yourself in for 42 thrilling verses about what God says and does.

Now, as we get started, I know that school is about ready to start.

You can either cheer or moan about that as however you'd like to,

but it is good for us. I'm going to help you students a little bit.

All right, parents, you can play along as well as we go through this thing.

I want to start with a math equation.

Nothing too hard. I understand you've been off all summer long,

but it's a math equation that will help us as we start this morning. And it's this.

What is the difference of 99 minus 86? Answer?

Okay, I heard a lot of adults and one child. All right, so that's good though.

13, super. That is right.

Maybe some of you are still on your toes part, but that is the answer.

13 is there. That's important because last when we were reading last week,

Abram was 86 years old when Ishmael was born, as we're going through verse by

verse, chapter by chapter, through the book of Genesis.

And now when we come to Genesis 17 verse 1, it starts with saying, Abram was 99 years old.

Genesis 17:1

So 13 years have passed in Abram's life in just one verse. So if you think time flies, it flies here.

We are going to read chapter 17, and I'd like for you to do this.

I'd like for you to try to keep up with three categories. Actually,

the first group could not do it, so we're going to do this.

You guys keep up with this question right here, right? I want you to see how

many times the phrase that is said, and God said.

All right, you keep track of that one. You guys here in the middle,

I want you to keep up with the phrase, Abram fell on his face.

That's the phrase I want you to keep up with. And this side over here,

I want you to keep up with the word and the number of times the word covenant is used.

I'm hoping for better results because right now everyone got an F in the first service.

Not everyone, but a lot. So here we go. Ready? Got your assignments.

I'm going to read through this chapter, stop some requiring you to remember,

and then start again. So here we go. Verse 1 of chapter 17.

When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty.

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.

I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make you into nations and kings shall come from you.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after

you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you

and to your offspring after you.

And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings,

all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.

Now don't lose your counts, but if you have been chugging along this summer

in this series with us, a lot of things should be sounding pretty familiar by now.

Numerous times, God has been promising to give Abram land and promising to make

him a great father of a nation.

And chapter 17 really is building on a couple of chapters ago, chapter 15.

But here, God says some things for the very first time about the covenant,

like Abram's name, which means exalted father, is being changed to Abraham.

Meaning father of many nations. That's new.

As Abram, he was promised a nation.

As Abraham, he's now being promised nations, plural.

Another first mention is that his offspring will consist of future and coming kings.

Well, that's very significant. It will help us even in understanding history,

but it's also paving the way for the Messiah, King Jesus.

And perhaps most significantly, this covenant, it is all about God being Abraham's

God and his offspring's God.

Like that is the top priority of the covenant. better than the land,

better than the nations. It comes here with God committing himself to be Abram's

God. So let me again read verse seven.

And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after

you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. Why?

To be God to you and to your offspring after you. That's the top priority of this covenant.

Okay, remember your number. Here we go, verse nine.

And God said to Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant,

you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you.

Every male among you shall be circumcised.

You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign

of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.

Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought

with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring,

both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised.

So shall my covenant be in your flesh, an everlasting covenant.

Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised than the flesh of his foreskin

shall be cut off from his people.

He has broken my covenant.

Well, verses 9 through 14 might raise an eyebrow or two if you didn't know this

kind of stuff was put in the Bible.

And I also want to say, if you are visiting here at Good News,

we don't always talk about circumcision.

But we are today because we are going through verse by verse.

So come back. It won't be about circumcision next week. But here's what we got.

I did warn you, like, I don't know if this was thrilling verses or not, but here it is.

We have this first time in God's covenant, God says, as for you,

verse nine, God said to Abraham, as for you.

Now, I wanna come back to these circumcision verses in a little bit,

but don't lose your count yet. There's more reading to go. Verse 15.

And God said to Abraham, Abraham, ask for Sarai, your wife.

You shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.

I will bless her. And moreover, I will give you a son by her.

I will bless her and she shall become nations.

Kings of people shall come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed

and said to himself, shall a child be born to a man who's 100 years old?

Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?

And Abraham said to God, oh, that Ishmael might live before you.

God said, no, but Sarah, your wife, shall bear you a son, and you shall call

his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant

for his offspring after him.

As for Ishmael, I have heard you. behold, I have blessed him and will make him

fruitful and multiply him greatly.

He shall father 12 princes, and I will make him into a great nation.

But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.

So another name change. Sarai, which means princess, is now changed to Sarah,

meaning mother of many nations.

And I don't know if you know this or not about Sarai, but it's a good trivia

pursuit for you, if nothing else.

She is the only lady in the Bible who gets a name change, and she is also the

only lady in the Bible who gets her age told when she dies, which is 127.

All right, so for nothing else, you got trivia pursuit answers.

But the real significance of what God is saying in these verses is that I think

it's something that most of us would already be presuming.

But for the very first time, God tells Abraham that Sarah would be the mother

of this chosen coming son.

Two weeks ago in Genesis 15, God promised Abram a son without saying that Sarah

would be the mother. But that should be a.

And maybe that's what they originally thought. But then year after year of Sarah

not having any children.

And then last week in Genesis 16, we saw Sarah and Abraham making this completely ridiculous plan.

A sinfully stupid plan for Abram to sleep with Sarah's servant Hagar with the

hopes of getting this son.

And he does. It's Ishmael.

But here, God is making it clear. Abraham would have a son and Sarah would be the mother.

And Abraham falls on his face, which is the true way that worship looks like.

And he's prostrate in God's presence.

And when he does, he has himself a chuckle. He has a good laugh.

Maybe he's got one of those big belly dad kind of laugh.

Maybe he's got a Ron Lynch kind of laugh that happens out in the foyer and the

whole building kind of shakes a little bit.

Whatever the laugh was like, it was this.

I believe you, God, but I'm a confused laugh.

And he falls down on the ground to worship.

You can look this up on your own, Romans chapter four. It confirms that Abraham believed God.

The laughter wasn't in doubt. It was something else. It wasn't doubt.

You can check that out for yourself.

But he is still somewhat confused because after all, he's an old, old man.

And Sarah's an old, old lady. God, are you sure about this?

Maybe God, maybe we should go with Ishmael. Have you thought about that?

But God is very sure. No, Abraham, Ishmael, he's gonna be well cared for.

He's got a lot of blessing coming his way. A lot of tremendous common grace

is coming from me to him. He's going to have his own people,

12 princes, and he's going to have his own great nation in their own right.

But the covenant, it's going to run through your son, Isaac,

whom Sarah, your very old and perhaps still gorgeous wife,

will conceive and bring into the world.

But wait a minute. I thought he was already faced down in worship.

How did he get back up and now he falls back down again?

I think it went something like this. When God showed up to Abraham,

he came and he presented himself declaring, I am God almighty.

And on a statement like that, he had Abraham's undivided attention.

And then he goes on to say, I am here to talk covenant talk.

I want to bless you mightily. I'm gonna multiply you magnificently." And when

Abraham heard that kind of talk, he goes down face to the ground.

Just worshiping God. And God doesn't stop talking. God keeps going.

And he says, and Abraham, I want you and all of the men that are under your

authority to be circumcised.

And I think that's when Abraham said, huh?

We're doing what? But then God doesn't break.

He keeps on talking. And he says, and Sarah, your wife, she is going to have a child.

And Abraham again, And with laughter of overjoyment and overwhelmed,

believes and says, oh God, this is great.

I think that's how it happened.

Verse 22.

When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham.

Then Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all those who were born in his house

or bought with his money,

every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of

their foreskin that very day, as God had said to him.

Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

And Ishmael, his son, was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

That very day, Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised. You get the point?

And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with

money from a foreigner were circumcised with him.

Well, if all that happened on one day, like how many are we talking about? Thousands?

If you remember a few chapters back, we already know he has 400 trained warriors

and he's got this huge herd of livestock,

which means lots and lots and lots and lots of servants are there to take care

of him. And that was a number of years ago.

By now, there's a good chance I said that number has exponentially grown.

Maybe the real question is, did they get the next day off from work?

Who did all the farm chores? Who fed the animals? Did Abraham post a signup sheet?

But no, the guys were like, uh-uh, this is alphabetical. Hey,

Abraham, you're up first, buddy.

So there's a little fun to think through as this whole process goes.

It does say that Abraham did it, but did he have help? Like,

was there a doctor in the house?

Or was it just a sheep herdsman with his sharpened shears?

Like, they're in the back of the barn. Next.

I don't know what it was, but it was quite a significant moment.

It was the sign of the covenant.

Okay, a little drink of water here. we are going to answer your reading comprehension questions.

Remember those from a little while ago? All right. How many times was the phrase, and God said, used?

All of you at once.

No one's going to answer on this side. I'll help you. Three, baby four.

Depending on how you count verse one, where it says, and said to him,

if you count that, then it's four.

Otherwise, three times in verses three, nine, and 15, and God said,

all right, teachers, be lenient this year when you grade.

Give them credit for stuff, okay? How many times did Abram slash Abraham fall on his face?

Look, two.

Abraham did it once and Abraham did it once. That's a total of two because it's

the same guy. So again, here, teachers, no trick questions.

Just be straightforward with kids, all right? As they go, kids,

can you really help? I am trying to go to bat for you.

Especially your homeschooling group. Your parents, man, they're great.

And then this side, how many times? It's a big number.

Well, I don't even finish the question and they're answering it. That's like jeopardy.

All right, 13, that is correct. 13 times in 27 verses means the covenant is

a main part of this chapter.

Okay, we're not done. Chapter 18, it begins with another God appearance to Abraham.

And this time it's gonna be in the form of a man.

Remember, no one has ever seen God. So this is a form of a man.

However that worked, maybe it's pre-incarnation of Jesus.

Somehow it works. But the first part of chapter 18, it goes with chapter 17.

So we have to keep reading. Here we go.

Then the Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre while he was sitting

in the entrance of his tent during the heat of the day.

He looked up and he saw three men standing near him.

When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to meet them and bowed

to the ground. So more face plant worship going on.

Then he said, my Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, please do not go on past your servant.

Let a little water be brought that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.

I will bring a bit of bread so that you may strengthen yourselves.

This is why you have passed your servant's way.

Later, you can continue on.

Yes, they replied, do as you have said.

So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, quick, knead three measures

of fine flour and make bread.

Meanwhile, Abraham ran to the herd and got a tender choice calf.

He gave it to a young man who hurried to prepare it.

Then Abraham took the curds and the milk and the calf that he had prepared and

he set them before the men. he served them as they ate under the tree.

Where is your wife, Sarah? They asked him. There in the tent, he answered.

The Lord said, I will certainly come back to you in about a year's time and

your wife, Sarah, will have a son.

Now, Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.

Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in the years.

Sarah had passed the age of childbearing, so she laughed to herself.

After I have become shriveled up and my Lord is old, will I have delight?

But the Lord asked Abraham, why did Sarah laugh, saying, can I really have a baby when I'm old?

Is anything impossible for the Lord?

At the appointed time, I will come back to you, and in about a year, she will have a son.

Sarah denied it. I did not laugh, she said, because she was afraid.

But he replied, no, you did laugh.

Isn't this a great story that God has given to us?

Like the Lord appears again to Abraham, this time in the form of a man,

and he has two angels with him.

I'm telling you that they are angels. I've read ahead already.

Later in this chapter, they are identified at, in chapter 19 as well.

They are called and identified as angels. So we have God and two angels.

They show up in the heat of the day. maybe it's midday and Abraham is finished.

He's finished all of his duties. They've all been completed.

And he's kicked back and he's finishing off like a 20 minute power nap.

And he's sitting there in the shade of his entrance of his tent.

His baby's got a little breeze going on, getting some relief from the heat.

When he discovers three people are approaching him.

And notice that this starts a chain reaction of hustling and moving for a 99-year-old guy.

So one, it looks like he's recovered nicely from the circumcision.

But two, what a sight to see a 99-year-old running out to meet his guest.

And then he motors his way back to the tent. Quick, Sarah, quick, get cooking.

Not stopping to explain because that's what we don't do as guys.

But because we explained, because no sooner are his words reaching Sarah's ears,

and he's out the back door to find a choice piece of beef.

He gives it to a guy to prepare it, lickety split, and he wants it back like

as fast as he can, like going through a McDonald's drive-through fast.

I would have said the Christian Chick-fil-A store, but here Abraham asked,

he got beef, not chicken, right?

And again, I get McDonald's beef, might not exactly match the quality of Abraham,

but the point is he is hustling.

Not even DoorDash can provide better service than 99-year-old Abraham as he

desires to be a gracious host, over-the-top hospitality.

Remember, he offered a little bread, but he's giving them this royal spread.

Like it's meat and cheese and milk to eat all underneath the shade tree.

From there, the conversation is about Sarah.

Where's your wife, Sarah? Oh, she's in the tent and she's eavesdropping.

Like she's as quiet as a mouse listening what's going on behind the scene.

And when God makes the big, big announcement, Sarah's going to have a baby, a baby.

Like, put it on the calendar. Plan on the gender reveal party.

Like, I already know that it's going to be a boy, but still,

it doesn't change the fact that there is something about blowing that blue smoke

into the sky with those little cannons, and the confetti goes everywhere.

Yes, it is a great time. Let's celebrate.

And do not forget, Sarah, make sure you set your registration up at Target.

And I know, Abraham, the nursery theme can be Noah's Ark.

Nailed it. Yeah.

Those are not her thoughts, mostly because they didn't do that kind of stuff in the ancient world,

but more so because for 24 long years, Sarah has never been able to conceive, Never been pregnant.

And now not only is she old, she's 1000% past childbearing years.

She's on the post post menopause side of life.

So there is no hallelujah in the tent and a little happy dance going on when

she hears this news about the baby.

Instead, she laughs silently.

Maybe a bitter laugh, a sarcastic laugh. Sure, we're gonna have a baby when

I'm all shriveled up. And have you seen my man?

Like at this point in life, it is fair to ask, biologically,

it may not even be possible for intercourse, let alone sexual intimacy. Those days are gone.

God hears Sarah's silent laugh and he hears her comment questioning his abilities.

What a great reminder that nothing escapes God's knowing.

And God asked Abraham a question that he does not expect Abraham to answer because the answer is obvious.

Is anything impossible for God? Is anything too hard for God?

Is anything too miraculous for God?

And then the story ends with God calling Sarah out. He gives a little rebuking

here for her tone of laughter.

And Sarah makes things worse. She was afraid and she lies to God.

Like she flat out denies it. I didn't laugh.

Yes, she did. I didn't laugh. Yes, you did.

God has the last word here. Like how ironic that the baby born to be born in

a year from now, his name is Isaac, whose name means laughter.

And so often fear can cause a person to sin, which then gets compounded with another sin.

And we've got the proverbial digging your hole deeper and deeper into more sin.

I find myself like Sarah a lot, maybe you do as well, instead of simply owning

up to it and saying, you're right, God.

We often brazenly stand before God denying what he already knows.

And then we make matters worse.

That's really a dumb idea. And yet it shows the extent of our sin nature.

So here is Genesis chapter 17 and part of 18. And what do we do with it?

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

I think there are three things in conclusion that I wanna bring together here. One.

Maybe you know this or not, maybe you don't. The word baptism was not used at

all in Genesis 17, but this is one of the chapters that is highly emphasized

in the debate on should infants be baptized or not.

The idea of those favoring infant baptism, they see a really,

really strong relationship between circumcision and baptism.

And I don't disagree with that. I think it's true.

And the thinking goes something like this. Since babies were circumcised on

the eighth day, so babies should be baptized.

Advocates of infant baptism in the New Testament, they use references like this.

They will use Acts like this.

In Acts, there are verses here. When she and the members of her household were

baptized, he and his entire household were baptized without delay.

1 Corinthians, yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas.

And they take words of members, household, entire household,

and they use that to include, oh, that's infants as well.

Personally, I think that's a little bit of a reach. I think it's a big leap.

I agree that there are spiritual connections to circumcision and baptism.

I'm gonna give you an example of that in just a little bit, but here's what it is.

The Bible has zero explicit examples of infant baptism.

Like that might be, but it's not explicitly.

It's silent on that topic.

So I wanna give six quick comments on infant baptism.

One, you need to know that Good News Church, from a pastoral leadership position,

there are three of us on staff,

we do not endorse infant baptism, but we believe believer's baptism. We endorse that.

Good News does have child dedication, baby dedication, if you will, but not infant baptism.

Two, you need to know infant baptism and other debated topics are the types

of things that get discussed at Intro to Good News. Sign up now.

Like this is a great time where we have longer conversations,

give fuller answers on this.

If you have questions, it'd be great to come to this as well as other debated topics.

That is why we really cherish Intro to Good News. And I'm also going to say this.

There is a group that meets, I think it's on Monday nights, Daryl Stevens,

who comes with the first service. he's the leader of the bunch.

He leads a group that's called, ta-da, T-D-A, and it stands for Text,

Doctrine, and Application, and they regularly handle topics like this.

They discuss all of this out, right?

Now, I will say it's a group for only men, so whether you are circumcised or

uncircumcised, you can go, but that, and to be clear, circumcision is not a

requirement to be a Christian, or uncircumcision.

Third, you need to know this. I have dozens of friends and some of my favorite

preachers hold an infant baptism position and it does not break unity or fellowship with them.

Actually, it makes for some great conversations.

They are my brothers in Christ. I appreciate their passion and their zeal and

maybe some of you would fall into that camp as well and that is fine.

But fourth until scripture convinces

me otherwise and moves me to believe differently

the pattern explicitly seen in

the new testament is a person believes that means they make a profession in

jesus christ as their lord and savior and then they get baptized without a question

that is the pattern that is seen in the new testament jesus taught his disciples

to baptize those people who repent of their sins.

And obviously, it's impossible for a baby to do that without first understanding the gospel.

The pattern that is seen is make disciples, then baptize, not baptize and see

if they become a disciple.

Now, there's a lot more that can be said for, and I appreciate the infant baptism position on it.

Like I said, come to intro to good news. But it seems that scripture presents

physical circumcision as a prefiguring or a foreshadowing of the truer and greater

circumcision that God desires,

which is a spiritual circumcision.

The phrase that we see in the Bible is a cut heart circumcision.

And fifth.

Circumcision and baptism, I said that they are connected. I believe they are.

And one example we see is right here, just like it says here in Genesis 17,

remember that chapter a little while ago, that if a person refuses the physical

circumcision, he would be cut off from the Abrahamic covenant.

Likewise, it is a problem if a person confesses faith in Jesus,

but refuses to get baptized.

Like there is something wrong with that situation.

And six, and I say this one most carefully, and I know it's not true across

the board, but in many cases that I personally know of,

infant baptism causes confusion and is misleading, especially to a lot of my Catholic friends.

Like they are banking on their infant baptism as what makes them right with God.

And that is tragically wrong. As a matter of fact, physical circumcision doesn't

matter, and any kind of baptism doesn't do you with that.

Only faith in Jesus Christ is what makes a person right with God.

So I say point number one of conclusion is this.

Know what you know about baptism and why you believe it. It's important.

Second thing, for several weeks, the covenant has been a major theme of God

making promises and keeping his promises to Abraham.

And again, that happens here. But this time in chapter 17, the covenant involves

Abraham as a participant.

Up until now, he has been the receiver of God's blessing with little to nothing

stated about his obligations to the covenant.

That changes here in chapter 17.

Go all the way back to the beginning. Look at verse one. When Abram was 99 years

old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty,

get your attention, walk before me and be blameless.

Now, if you were here two weeks ago, if you might remember chapter 15,

one of the greatest verses in the Bible, Abram believed and God counted it as righteousness.

In chapter 15, the focus was on God and justification.

Justification, just so you remember, it is when God puts his own perfect righteousness

upon a person who believes in God.

Of course, they are not righteous at all, but he puts it on them and he credits

his own righteousness to him so that they become righteous in him.

Like that's justification.

And now here in chapter 17, there is a focus on Abraham walking before God and being blameless.

So yes, God is on the hook for the promises that he made to Abraham.

There is no doubt about that. And there's no doubt that he's going to keep his promises.

But chapter 17 makes it clear that it would be wrong to think God calls,

God chooses, God saves, God justifies, God does everything. All that's true.

But what's not true is that now Abraham is just free to live his best life now.

Get to call all your own shots, Abraham. Live in day in, day out.

Do whatever, pure leisure.

Do whatever pleases your little heart, Abraham. That is not true.

It is 100% true. We do nothing to contribute to our own justification. That is entirely of God.

But when that happens, but when that happens, justification comes with a summons

and obligation to follow God,

to walk before Him,

to be blameless before God Almighty.

That is the summons for Abraham and for every person who believes in God and

puts their faith and trust in Him.

Now that phrase, walk before me, it's an old ancient phrase and it denoted loyalty to the King.

Walk in front of him in a way that the king is gonna be honored and like it.

God summons Abraham to walk before his sovereign king and be blameless.

Now, don't let that phrase trip you up.

We hear that and we think, perfection? God's expecting me to be sinlessly perfect?

No, that's not what it means. It doesn't mean never sin, but means we live a

life that is marked with integrity and transparency and wholeness.

Be blameless like that.

In other words, God is now saying to Abraham, follow me, follow my ways.

I've made promises to you, Abraham. I'm going to keep those promises, Abraham.

You believe in me. And part of believing is obeying.

And what do we see when we get to the end of chapter 17 at verse 23.

That very day, as God had said to him,

Abraham, 99, Ishmael, 13, and all his household manpower gets circumcised the very same day.

Abraham immediately obeyed. And there is an application for everyone who professes

to follow God, for everyone who walks before God, the almighty God.

And what is that application?

Obey immediately.

Is, in a room, is there a relationship that needs to change because God has a command about that?

Is there a lifestyle that needs to change because God has a command?

Is there a change of priority that needs to happen because he has commands?

And maybe that sounds painful. Oh, Doug, if I do that, that's going to really

hurt. That's going to cost.

Perhaps it will be as painful as 99-year-old Abraham being circumcised.

That pain, like I think this, you get a picture here that sometimes when God

commands things, it is to be immediately obeyed even when it hurts.

Now, of course, Abraham has a lot more walking before God to do over his life.

But the one thing we see here in this chapter, chapter 17, is that he is listening

to God, he is following God, he is walking before God.

And a takeaway for us needs to be, is God pressing a command on us,

regardless the cost or the pain?

Because you have to know, we have to know, this is the calling of a Christian.

This is what it's meant to be a disciple of God.

So that's point two that we see from this chapter. And number three,

in chapter 18, it is clear.

It is biologically impossible for Sarah to have a baby.

Like there are dozens and dozens of reasons why on this side,

there is no way Sarah can have a baby. But if God is on this side, does it matter?

He's the God that does impossible things.

It's a big point for us to consider.

I think it would be very helpful for us to start thinking now,

while we're in this moment of thinking, God doing the impossible things,

and I've got some impossible things in my life, to start thinking about those.

To be clear, he has not given a sure promise in the Bible.

Like, you can't open up a Bible verse and find that he is going to do this impossible

thing. But there are impossible things in our life.

And I think it would be wise for us to think about them, maybe even start journaling

down and listing them, and then looking at the list and going,

all right, God, can you do these? Do I believe in that?

Because I think there's a tendency that we have, which goes into defensive mode.

Like God might do it and he might not do it.

And often when it happens, what I find happening so often is we stop praying for the impossible.

And that's a trap because God does the impossible things.

So make your list. Look at the list.

Do you believe God can do the impossible?

Can he do the hard stuff that's in your life? Certainly we will pray, God, your will be done.

And we will trust whatever he says, but don't sell him short in asking for the impossible.

There's also something else we need to think about this week or start journaling it, and that's this.

There are sure 100% promises that God has told us, and we need to know them.

Maybe write those down. It could be a long list as well.

I'm gonna start the list for you, and by God's grace, you start adding to it

and keep it going the rest of your life. Here's the first one.

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

Not one teensy-weensy smidge of condemnation is attached to your name if you are in Jesus Christ.

That's a big amen.

Now you keep the list going. Let's pray.

Father, you are so gracious to reveal yourself as God Almighty.

You have no rivals.

Nothing can compete with you.

May such truth get our undivided attention the way it did Abraham here,

that we consider that we are walking before you in an honorable, loyal way,

thanking you for sending Jesus,

who makes a relationship with you possible by his death on the cross.

Father, it is true, we are born with this sin nature all around us,

we are bombarded with sin, sin things happening all around our culture.

Father, help us, help us with your Spirit's help to be people who obey.

And even better than that, immediately obey.

I reminded him of another phrase that teachers will say, to delay is to disobey.

Like, that is true, Father. Help us to be immediate, obeying people.

Lord, we've lived long enough to recognize that there are some really hard,

difficult things about living.

Grow us in our faith to trust you to do the impossible.

What is too miraculous for you to do?

What is too hard for you to do?

And help us to trust. Trust that your way is perfect, it's always perfect.

Do this for your glory and for the good of your people. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Psalm 111, verse nine, he has sent redemption to his people.

He has ordained his covenant forever.

Holy and awesome is his name. That's good news.