Promises Promises

Well, guys, if you've been here for the last month, well done.

We're out of Sodom and Gomorrah.

We've escaped.

We escaped Sodom and Gomorrah.

Unlike the people in Sodom and Gomorrah.

We did it.

In fact, I bumped into a friend yesterday at Home Depot and he hasn't been here in a little bit.

He had a good excuse because they just had a baby.

And he was like, hey, we're gonna be back.

First Sunday back tomorrow.

And I was like, oh, I see what you did.

You just skipped Sodom and Gomorrah.

You know, and he's laughing.

We're having a good time.

No, like we spent a month in Sodom and Gomorrah.

By the way, if you've been here, my apologies if that was too long.

I felt like we needed to stop and really like dig into that.

And uh we did.

We did, whether it was good or not, we did it, and now it's done.

So we're gonna keep going through the story of Abraham now.

We might actually finish this story eventually.

We started this just for context.

If you're new, back in January, we started a series on the life of Abraham.

We've called this series Getting to Know God.

What we do at his hands is we teach through Scripture.

Sometimes it's an entire book of the Bible, sometimes it's a story, it's a large section of Scripture.

And in Genesis, we get the story of a man named Abram.

His name is later changed to Abraham, and he is someone that God calls to walk in faith, to live by faith.

God makes him promises.

And when Abram begins his journey with God, he knows who God is to some degree.

He believes in God.

He can clearly recognize that God is speaking to him and he obeys God, but he doesn't really know God.

He's not intimate with God.

He doesn't know God's character and God's nature.

And we see this time and time again in Abraham's life because he struggles and he questions God and he's confused at times by what God is doing.

And time and time again, God shows up, and over the course of his life, Abraham develops a very close relationship with God, and all of us can develop, we can all develop a very close relationship with God.

Abraham's life serves in some ways as kind of a blueprint.

What it looks like to just stay in it with God.

Through the ups, through the downs, you stay in it with God.

You learn who he is, he encourages you.

You get closer to him, you get stronger through being closer to him, and we want to be closer to God.

Nothing else matters more than that.

We want to get to know God this year better than we ever have before.

And that applies to those of us, by the way, who are brand new to the whole God thing in church.

It also applies to those of us who have been following him for decades.

You are not as close as you're meant to be, wherever you're at.

I promise you that.

So, as I said, we spent the last few weeks looking at this really tough story about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and what that teaches us about God and maybe about ourselves and about the world.

You can go back and listen to that if you want to.

Chronologically, we would be in a story today where Abraham makes one of the dumbest decisions that he made in his life, and there's a few of those, but this is like a repeat of a really dumb decision.

But Madison actually taught on this before we started the Sodom and Gomorrah series.

I was out of town and Madison was like, please don't make me teach Sodom and Gomorrah.

Not really, he would have done it.

But I was like, yeah, I should I should take that one for sure.

That would be a cop-out if I was like, we'll have the fill-in do it, you know?

Hey, good luck.

I could have come back the next week and been like, guys, I'm so sorry for that.

Uh no, no, Madison, he was right.

I should do that.

So he actually went a little out of order, taught that story.

Go back and listen to what Madison taught.

He did a phenomenal job several weeks ago if you want to learn the story of Abraham and Abimelech.

Today, we get to actually a pretty sweet moment in the story.

Like a really beautiful moment in the lives of Abraham and his wife Sarah.

But like in all these moments, good or bad, sweet or intense, there's something really powerful to learn about God.

And so with that said, I'm going to open up Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

We started in Genesis chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

We've come a long way, so here we go.

It says, The Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised.

She became pregnant, she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age.

This happened at just the right time, at just the time that God had said it would.

And Abraham named their son Isaac.

Eight days after Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded.

Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.

And Sarah declared, God has brought me laughter.

All who hear about this will laugh with me.

Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse a baby?

Yet I've given Abraham a son in his old age.

So let's give a little bit of a background here, just so we understand what's going on, because this promise fulfilled is a promise that has been made for a long time.

This is a promise that Abraham and Sarah have been trying to believe in and trying to stay faithful in believing in for a while.

Twenty-five years before this, quarter of a century before this, God appears to Abraham in Genesis 12, and we read this.

This is how we started our whole series.

He says, Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family.

Go to the land that I will show you, I will make you into a great nation.

There is a promise of having descendants, and at the time, Abraham has no children.

I will bless you, I'll make you famous, and you'll be a blessing to others.

I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt.

All the families on the earth will be blessed through you.

And then God reaffirms that promise to Abraham and he promises him a child.

He says, You will have a son, you will have descendants.

There are times when Abraham questions that.

In fact, once Abraham complains and he says to God, Hey, my servant, the lead servant in my household, he's going to inherit everything that I have because I don't have a son.

And God affirms, you will have a son.

I promise, you will have a son.

At one point things get really bad because, and you can understand this if you're Sarah, years and years and years have gone by, and Abraham and Sarah decide to take matters into their own hands.

It's actually Sarah's idea.

She says, Abraham, why don't you sleep with my servant and have a child through her, like a surrogate, essentially, and then that will be our child.

Maybe Sarah was thinking, well, God promised Abraham a son, but he didn't necessarily promise me a son.

And maybe I'm just not the one that's going to be able to fulfill that promise for Abraham.

It's kind of twisted thinking, but when you're desperate, you can think crazy thoughts.

And the Bible's good enough to record all of that for us.

Not everything that the Bible records is it condoning, by the way.

It's like it just tells the truth, which is beautiful.

And so they have a child named Ishmael.

And Abraham's happy, he's satisfied, he has his son.

He is he's fine at this point.

But God comes to him, and he actually has this conversation with him.

We read this in Genesis chapter 17.

Genesis 17 · chapter mention

God said to Abraham, Regarding Sarai, her name hasn't been changed yet to Sarah, your wife.

Well, here we go.

Here's the name change.

Her name will no longer be Sarai.

From now on, her name will be Sarah.

And I will bless her and give you a son from her.

Yes, I will bless her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations.

Kings of nations will be among her descendants.

Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief.

How could I become a father at the age of a hundred?

He thought.

And how can Sarah have a baby when she's 90 years old?

So Abraham said to God, May Ishmael live under your special blessing.

He's like, I already got a son.

Let's just put the blessing on him.

We're good.

I'll make this easy for you, God.

But God replied, No, Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you.

And you will name him Isaac, and I'll confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.

As for Ishmael, I'll bless him also, just as you've asked.

I'll make him extremely fruitful.

I'll multiply his descendants.

He'll become the father of twelve princes.

I'll make him a great nation.

But my covenant will be confirmed with Isaac, and we'll be born to you and Sarah about this time next year.

And so then we get to that moment next year.

Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

And there Sarah is, and she's holding this child.

And it's a promise fulfilled.

It says God kept his word, did exactly what he promised.

And it's interesting because Sarah's pretty shocked.

I mean, she's holding the baby and she says, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah will nurse your child?

And you know God had to be like me.

I said it to both of you multiple times over the course of many years.

In fact, remember that time I kept saying, No, no, no, remember, you will have a child.

I'm gonna give you a child.

I said it.

God has to feel like that so much.

Like me, I said it.

Jesus said that all like when Jesus rose from the grave, his disciples were surprised, and they should not have been.

Because there were times that they walked with Jesus and he's like, look, here's what's gonna happen.

I'm gonna be handed over to the authorities, they're gonna kill me, but don't worry, three days later I will rise from the dead, and they're like, cool.

And then Jesus dies, they all freak out, he raises from the dead, and they're like, I can't, I don't even believe it.

This is exactly what he said.

Sometimes it's like God can speak to us and it just goes in one ear, out the other.

Doesn't matter how clear he is, but you can have compassion for Sarah to be in a state of disbelief because she's 90 years old.

This should not happen.

It's a miracle.

I mean, Isaac is a true miracle child, but God has kept his word, he has fulfilled his promise.

Promises.

God makes them all the time.

I don't know if you're aware of how many promises God has made to you.

But you have been made promises.

God has promised things to you.

The struggle often is to believe those promises.

Because I don't know if you guys have noticed this or not.

We live in a world where uh people break promises all the time.

Like, all the time.

So much so that whether it's a political campaign or a marketing campaign, we don't even really believe half of it, and we're not even that shocked when we get lied to.

Like, have you ever been lied to and had a promise broken to you and it really like caught you off guard?

I had that happen once at a restaurant.

Do you guys remember Groupon?

Is Groupon still a thing?

Is that still around?

Well, in like 2009 or 10 or whatever, it was all the rage.

And if you're not familiar with Groupon, it's like you buy coupons, but like a group of people had to buy the whole coupon before it activated, and so it was like a it was a thing.

And so you you buy the group and then you print it out from your printer, take it into the restaurant or wherever you happen to be going.

Well, we found this restaurant that we were really interested in trying.

We we bought it, they had a group.

We bought it, it activated, we went, we printed it out, we ordered our food, they brought us the check, we handed them the group on like ballers, and uh, and the lady just looked at us and she went, Oh no, we're not gonna accept that.

And I was like, Well, no, no, it's vast.

She's like, this literally happened, I'm not lying.

She went, yeah, no, it's just, it's been way too successful, and too many people have brought those in, and so we just decided we're not gonna honor those anymore.

And like, I'm looking at this lady, like, are there cameras around?

Is this is this a show?

Am I on a show?

Because, like, it was just so matter-of fact, yeah, we're not gonna do that.

I was like, but I I we bought this, and you had an agreement with Groupon, and she's like, Yeah, I know, but we're just not gonna do it.

And we just had this game of chicken, basically, at the payment.

What and what are you supposed to do in that?

What do you call the police?

Like, hello, 911, what's your emergency?

This restaurant will not honor the Groupon that I paid$5 for.

I'm supposed to get$15 off my meal.

Get here now.

Like, it's just what do you do?

And I remember, I truly remember being shocked, like, what is the world coming to?

That's how you know you're getting to a certain age in life when you start shaking your head, like, man, back in my day, restaurants honored their promises.

It was like, what's the world coming to?

People break promises.

And so we get very skeptical.

When someone makes you a promise, half the time you're like, we'll see.

We'll see.

And as mad as we might get at the fact that, you know, people break promises, if we're honest, we break them too.

How many of you have broken a promise?

Somewhat recently.

Come on, come on, okay, all right.

And we break them for all kinds of reasons.

Like, okay, I was thinking about this all week long, and sometimes I do a lot of reflecting with Megan, a lot of verbal processing, and and so um, even if she's not in the room, like well, she's on her way to Guatemala, but if she was here right now, she's already she's already heard the message.

So she knows it because we talk about it and all that.

Well, I asked her this week, I a couple days ago, I said, babe, have I ever broken a promise to you?

Which is not a smart question to ask, by the way.

Unless you want to know the truth.

Certain questions, don't ask unless you want to know.

And she just made a face.

You know how those of you that have significant others, especially like dudes, if your girl makes they can just say so much with a face.

You know what I mean?

Like, there have been times where Megan and I have had an argument, and she'll say to me, like, Well, I didn't cuss at you, and I'm like, Oh, you cussed with your face.

I heard exactly what you were saying, and it was bad.

It was bad, right?

Like, well, Megan, she made this face, and she was like, Well, I mean, and I was like, Well, what is it?

I want to know.

I I really do, I want to know, because she seemed hurt.

And she's like, Wow, it's just it's silly, but you know, we started we started dating when I was 18, she was 17.

Right?

We've been married 21 years.

And so she said, You just early in our relationship, you looked at me and you said, I promise you that I will never make you cry.

And I said, Well, two things.

Number one, I'm sorry.

Number two, now that we're adults, like real adults in our 40s, can we just admit that that was a really dumb promise?

Like, and she was like, Yeah, that's a dumb one.

Um, I don't even remember that, but apparently at some point in like a romantic moment, I looked her in the eyes at 19 years old, and I'm like, I promise I will never make you cry.

And look, if you're young and you're in love and you're making those types of promises, like just add clauses to that.

You know what I mean?

Like, just make extra, don't.

That's way too blanket of a promise.

So, like, we make dumb promises as people, and maybe dumb is too strong of a word.

At the very least, we make promises out of ignorance, very often.

And we don't keep them.

We see that in the Bible.

In fact, uh, when Jesus is about to be arrested, he has a conversation with his disciples.

We see this in Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

They're on the way to the garden that Jesus is going to pray at before he's ultimately arrested.

And he tells his disciples, Tonight all of you will desert me.

For the scriptures say God will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.

But after I've been raised from the dead, again, he's like, guys, I'm telling you, I'll go ahead of you to Galilee and meet you there.

Peter declared, even if everyone else deserts you, by the way, the other people are around right now.

Peter declares it, he doesn't whisper it, around the other disciples, Peter.

Even if everyone else deserts you, I will never desert you.

This is that same spirit that I had, and like, I'll never make you cry.

It's like, I'll die for you.

You know, he's doing that.

And Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, Peter, this very night before the rooster crows, you'll deny three times that you even know me.

No, Peter insisted, even if I have to die with you, I'll never deny you.

And all the other disciples vowed the same.

Now, Peter, you can look at and say, okay, broken promise.

I mean, that very night, he breaks the promise.

And let's be honest, a lot of us have had very short-lived promises.

I'm sure many of us have had the 24-hour broken promise guarantee.

Peter, it's like Jesus is upset.

Obviously, he's hurt.

Jesus will end up restoring Peter and his guilt when all this is said and done and Jesus is raised to life again, but Peter is making a promise out of ignorance.

He does not know what's about to happen, he does not know how difficult it's going to be, he does not know the limit to which he's about to be pushed.

And sometimes we make promises out of ignorance.

We mean it.

I think Peter meant it.

When I looked at Megan and apparently promised her that I would never make her cry, I meant it.

I also didn't know how easy it would be to make her cry.

Full disclosure.

She said I could say that, by the way.

I'm just saying, sometimes she'll cry, she doesn't even know why.

Which, as a man, I'm just, I have that is a concept that blows my mind.

Can I just say that?

Like if I if you ever see me crying and you go, Justin, why are you crying?

I promise you I will be able to tell you exactly why I'm crying.

I I don't know that is a weird concept.

If you're like, you're crying, what happened?

My toe was cut off.

Or something.

It's like something like that.

Not like, I don't know.

I just feel like crying.

Like, sorry, rant.

Okay.

Um I meant that promise.

Peter means this promise.

It's just it's a promise made out of ignorance.

And we make promises out of ignorance all the time.

People make promises out of ignorance, and then they don't keep them, and we get jaded because it's a broken promise.

Sometimes it's not that we make a promise out of ignorance, it's that we make a promise that we don't have the authority to even make happen.

Right?

Like we can make a promise that we can't keep.

When I was in high school, we moved around a lot growing up, and I went to two schools in seventh grade in two different states.

I went to three schools in eighth grade in two different states, and then I went to two schools in tenth grade in two different states.

So we just moved around a ton.

And when we got to Memphis, Tennessee, which is where I was before here, my dad promised me.

And dad, if you're watching, I'm not mad at all, it's all good.

Uh, but he promised me we're never gonna move again.

You're good.

You're gonna be able to finish high school here.

And I had friends and I had like an identity, and it's not that I I loved high school in Tennessee.

I just, you know, I'd settled in, it was good, but then there was a job change, and we moved.

And it was very sad, as you can tell.

It's a sad story.

I know broken promises, right?

They're the worst.

No, I mean, we moved, and I was so upset because he promised.

He promised.

Now, God worked it out because if not for moving to Georgia, this is where I met a man who mentored me.

That not for that man, I wouldn't be a pastor.

I definitely wouldn't be here because he's actually the one that connected me here.

Uh, this is where I met my wife Megan.

This is where so many things in my life happened, right?

So that's why I'm not upset with my dad.

But at the end of the day, my dad would admit this too.

It's just a promise that he did not really have the authority to keep.

He wasn't in complete control of life, and a job thing happened, and for the sake of our family, to take care of our family, to provide for our family, we had to move.

Sometimes we make promises that we mean to keep.

It's not that we're ignorant, it's just that we we can't keep it.

People in the Bible do this, by the way.

In fact, in the Old Testament, there's prophets that would make promises to kings they didn't have the authority to back up because they actually hadn't heard from God.

Like there's a story of King Ahab, who's one of the worst.

King Ahab decides to go to war with another nation, and he wants to get another king to help him, and that king's name is Jehoshaphat.

And so he goes to Jehoshaphat and he says, Hey, will you join me in battle to recover Ramoth Gilead?

And Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, Why, of course, you and I are as one.

My troops are your troops, my horses are your horses.

And then Jehoshaphat said, But first, let's find out what the Lord says.

So the king of Israel summoned the prophets, 400 of them.

These are not prophets, by the way, of God.

And he asked them, Should I go to war against Ramath Gilead or should I hold back?

And they all replied, All 400, yes, go right ahead.

The Lord will give the king victory.

These are our false prophets.

But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not also a prophet of the Lord here?

Like Jehoshaphat is like, these guys are not the kind of prophets I was I was thinking of.

These are like some discount prophets or something.

You know, he can just tell.

I don't know what it was about them that made it so obvious, but he's like, these guys, I don't, I need another, I need a second opinion or a 401st opinion.

And so he's like, Well, let's go find another prophet and bring him.

And so they go and they find this prophet, and Ahab's, this is a hysterical story, really, because Ahab is like, Oh, there is a guy, and I hate him.

He says that.

I hate the guy.

He always tells me bad news.

So I don't ever ask him.

So they go and they get that guy, and they force that guy to tell the truth, and he's like, All right, King Ahab, if you go to war, you'll die.

And Ahab's like, didn't I tell you this guy's the worst?

So they go to war anyway, and guess what happens?

Ahab dies.

This is how Ahab's story ends.

Well, these these prophets, they're speaking with authority they don't have.

And they're making promises that they can't back up.

We do that all the time.

Maybe not to the degree that they did, pretending that God has given us something.

But sometimes, guys, we make promises and we mean to keep them, but we just can't.

We don't have the power to do so.

But it's still a broken promise.

And then those that are around us, or we ourselves, we become just a little bit more jaded at the concept of a promise.

How about this one?

Sometimes we make promises that we do not even intend to keep, if we're really honest.

And this can be small, seemingly small.

I'll give you a recent example.

I'll I'll be the one here that just takes the bullet.

Like I uh a couple days ago, my kids were just driving me nuts.

Uh I love them.

There's just a lot of them.

And we spent a ton, I love my kids.

I drive them nuts too, trust me.

And so we were just, we'd, it was just a lot.

And it was on a morning, and they were like, Dad, dad, take us to the pool, take us to the pool, take us to the pool.

And it was early enough in the morning, and I just said, I promise I'll take you to the pool this evening.

Early evening, pool.

And they're like, All right.

I did not want to take him to the pool.

I really honestly hoped they would forget.

Because part of it is that taking my kids, you have to understand, my children, especially my two youngest boys, are not white.

They are seeth.

They have like the complexion of glue.

I mean, it is, it is, so when we go to the pool, it is it is an endeavor to protect them from the harshness of the sun.

My children are very vulnerable to the sun.

And so it is just, it's so much sunscreen, and then it's, and then you know, you get to the pool, and I have this, our neighborhood pool's great and all, but I I just I don't know.

There's a lot of people, and then there's these lifeguards that just I don't think they're working at all.

And I just I get I'm getting old.

I'm just getting I'm just I'm just annoyed.

I'm at the pool and I'm just annoyed.

I'm just grumpy at the pool, so I don't want to go.

And so they came that night, they remembered.

And they're like, Dad, dad, dad, pool.

And I was like, oh, fine.

But I in that moment I had a thought and I didn't do it, but I just want you to know this.

I thought about lying to them about the weather.

I thought to myself, if I just tell them that it's about to storm, I mean, they'll believe me.

That's what I thought.

I didn't do it, but I was tempted to.

Why?

Because I just told them, I'll take you to the pool.

I just wanted them to leave for a few minutes.

I just wanted rest.

I just made them a promise to get them to go away.

Man, do I feel like a horrible person right now in front of all of you.

But I did.

Sometimes the room goes silent and I feel so judged, but it's okay.

Um I did.

I made a promise and I kept it.

I did keep it.

I just didn't want to.

I just I made the promise to get out of whatever was about to happen.

We do that.

People do that to us at least.

Just broken promises.

We just we live in a world full of broken promises.

In fact, we have a national tradition where every four years, generally dishonest people stand up and make promise to us about all the things they're gonna do.

And as soon as they have the power to do it, they summarily fail.

And we call that democracy.

That is our national tradition.

And I can't wait for the next couple of years when those promises come up again, and we'll all be like, yay, and it is come on.

And we're not even shocked, right, when it happens and like, well, they didn't fulfill that promise.

We're like, well, I didn't really expect them to.

I mean, they were campaigning.

You have to lie to win an election.

Come on.

It's the way it works.

Man.

We're sort of conditioned to be at the very best skeptical of promises.

And yet we have a God who makes promises.

Lots of them.

But listen to what his word says, and we'll see if this is true.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 23.

Hebrews 10:23

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm.

For God can be trusted to keep his promise.

Numbers chapter 23, verse 19.

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, so he does not lie.

He is not human, so he does not change his mind.

Has he ever spoken and failed to act?

Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

Worship team, you guys can actually make your way out.

We're gonna just we're just spending time just reading and reflecting on some of the promises that God has made us, because just like Sarah, just like Abraham, you have been made promises by God.

And you may know what some of those are, and you you may not.

There are people out there who will try to tell you that God has made promises he has not made, and many times we get disillusioned with God, many people get disillusioned with God because in their mind God fails to live up to promises that he never made.

You know, God is not a vending machine.

We we don't pray and then make our selection.

I will choose wealth and happiness, and I'd really like a six-pack.

You know, we don't do that, and then we get mad at God when it doesn't happen.

And although it's a silly analogy, and I'm obviously being facetious and reductive, sometimes that is how we pray, and then we feel upset when it doesn't work out.

But if we could actually understand what the promises of God really are and what promises he has actually made, like what did Jesus promise you?

We come to find out that he is not a God of broken promises, that he is faithful, we can trust him, he is gracious, he is good, and he is the God who keeps his word.

So let's look at this one.

John chapter 10, verse 10.

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.

I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

In John 11, Jesus continues this thought.

He tells one of the sisters of Lazarus, his friend who's died, I am the resurrection and the life.

The one who believes in me will live even though they die.

Jesus has promised you life.

And it's really two promises there, very connected.

He's promised you eternal life and everlasting life.

And those are a little bit different.

Even though they sound like synonyms, they're not.

The words in the Greek language are slightly different.

So eternal life, the idea there is that Jesus has promised you a life right now that is defined by heaven and by eternity, not by this world.

That you can have a life on this side of heaven that has a joy and a hope that is unlike anything that can be found here.

It cannot be bought, it cannot be earned, that also means it cannot be sold and it cannot be lost.

You can have eternal life, a life that has a God quality right now.

And maybe you've met someone that has that.

If you've ever been around a Jesus follower who just is maybe further along than you are, and you're like, they have something.

There is something about the way they smile, there's something about their faith, there's just something about them that kind of radiates, and you're like, what is that?

That's eternal life.

They are living in the life that God has for them now.

Like, he's promised you eternal life.

And he's also promised you everlasting life.

That you can have life even after death.

I was actually sitting with a man at the hospital a few days ago, uh, maybe a couple weeks ago, and he was having a tough decision that he had to make.

Um he's facing a pretty tough diagnosis, and he asked me to come visit with him, and we're sitting together, and we'd had lunch before to kind of talk through this a little bit.

But he uh he said, I don't know what to do.

Because I can choose this treatment, which is gonna be really difficult and really painful, and I want to fight for my family and I want to be here for a while, but he's also lived a fairly long life, and he's like, I'm content.

There's another part of me he's like that, just kind of, you know, I'm ready.

He's kind of like Paul in Philippians.

Paul says, I don't know which is better.

Stuff I want to do here, but then to be with the Lord sounds pretty awesome.

And we sat and we talked and we prayed, and really what we talked about was like, either way, it's life.

Either way, you have been promised life.

Eternal life, everlasting life.

So whatever happens to you in this life, all you have to look forward to is life.

That's a promise that he makes.

That's a promise I believe in, that's a promise that he fulfilled when he rose from the grave.

Sometimes that's a hard promise to buy into, sometimes that's a hard promise to hold tight to, but I guys, I'm just letting you know I have been I have been in the room with people at the end of this life.

I've been with them in their last moments, and I've seen what it looks like to have such faith and closeness with God that death does not scare you.

There is a kind of life that Jesus gives that is greater than death.

He's promised you life.

Let's look at another.

Jesus says this in Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 through 30.

Matthew 11:28–30

He says, Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, let me teach you, because I'm humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.

He says, I will give you rest.

I'll give you rest for your souls.

How many of you need some rest?

Right?

Anybody about rest for your soul.

Not rest for your body, although that's nice too.

But rest for your soul.

That's a promise that Jesus makes.

And he says, if you come to him, he will not lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you, which means if you're carrying a heavy burden right now, he didn't give it to you.

But he wants to lift it.

He wants to lift it, he wants to help you.

He wants to come alongside you and carry the weight.

If you are burdened, if you are weary, you have a God who has promised you rest for your soul.

You just have to come to Him.

And I've experienced that so many times in life.

I've had moments where I feel I feel weary, I'm carrying all the weight, I'm stressed out, there's all these decisions that need to be made, and I feel like it's all up to me, and I've got to do this, and I've got to do that.

And it's like I have to be brought to the end of myself and be reminded, oh yeah, God.

And it's that surrender and that peace, and going, Lord, you know, just think about our team this morning.

What are we gonna do?

We're on the side of the road, the tires blown, there, there's a flight, and it's leaving, and we're, you know, there's not like a bunch of flights to Guatemala every day.

There's a few, but we've got work to do, and and like God's like, don't worry about it.

Shuttle.

Like he's just you can rest in him.

You can rest in him.

He says this in Matthew chapter 28, verse 20, and and you guys actually did a great job this morning uh leading us in worship, and some of this was actually sung about it.

Matthew 28:20

It was beautiful.

He says, Be sure of this.

I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

He says, I'm with you always.

We sang this morning about God being with us, always with us, that he holds us.

He's our anchor, right?

That he holds on to us.

Matt read a psalm that that talked about that, and then we sang together, you know, I hold on to you and you hold on to me.

Well, Jesus actually furthers that and he says that we're in his hands, and he is in the hands of the Father, and no one can snatch us away from him.

He is with you.

He doesn't promise us a life without struggle or trials.

In fact, he actually promises us trials.

He said, In this world you'll have many troubles, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

He promises you his presence.

Have you ever been with someone and just being near them makes you more courageous?

Makes you a little bit stronger?

Just being near that person?

He says this in John 14.

He says, I'm leaving you with a gift, peace of mind and heart.

And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give, so don't be troubled or afraid.

He says, I'm giving you peace.

The Bible goes on to describe that as peace that surpasses understanding.

Where in the world does peace that surpasses understanding come from?

It comes from the presence of God, from his presence.

He says this to us in John chapter 14, verses 15 and 16.

John 14:15

If you love me, obey my commandments, I'll ask the Father, he'll give you another advocate.

That's the Holy Spirit, who will never leave you.

And this is the promise that I'm telling you.

If there's one promise today that I would just ask you to hold on to, it's that God is with you.

He is with you right now.

His presence is with you.

If you surrender your life to Jesus Christ, he gives you his spirit, and his spirit never leaves you.

His spirit never leaves you.

The New Testament goes on to describe this as us being the temple of God.

You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit lives in you, resides within you, works within you, and that peace that surpasses all understanding comes from the fact that the Holy Spirit is with you.

You are not alone.

You are never alone.

You might feel alone, you might try to be alone, you might try to isolate yourself from everyone and everything and just try to handle life on your own.

You can try your best, but you cannot get away from God.

He will never leave you, he will never forsake you, he will never abandon you.

Even when you fail him, he will not fail you.

And whatever you're going through in life, he has promised to be with you.

He is with you.

And you can believe that.

And again, at times we don't feel it, but man, when you do, there's a peace that surpasses all understanding.

One more.

And actually, let's let's take Lord's Supper as we do this.

Um, if you're new, we do this little meal at the end of every message, every service.

It's a chance for us to remember what Jesus has done, and this connects so well.

Excuse me.

2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 17 and 20.

2 Corinthians 1:17

Paul is writing to a church in Corinth, and he's changed his plans in terms of uh where he's gonna go and visit.

There's a lot of things happening in his life, and he said, You may be asking why I changed my plan.

Do you think do you think I make plans carelessly?

If I asked that question, many of the people around me would say, yes.

Um, not Paul.

He says, Do you think I'm like people of the world who will say yes when they really mean no?

Broken promises, right?

As surely as God is faithful, our word to you does not waver between yes and no.

For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between yes and no.

Think about that.

He does not waver.

When he says yes, he doesn't second guess himself.

When he says yes, I'll be with you, he doesn't go, ooh.

I'm sure we've all made decisions and we're like all in, and then something happens, we're like, less all in.

You know?

He's not like that with us.

He does not waver between yes and no.

He's the one whom Silas, Timothy, and I preach to you is God's ultimate yes.

He always does what he says.

For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding yes.

And through Christ, our amen, which means yes, ascends to God for his glory.

This meal is many things.

It is the fulfillment of a promise.

This is the fulfillment of a promise.

He promised to rescue us.

He promised to rescue us from sin.

He promised to rescue us from death.

He promised to come for us.

He promised to deliver us.

He promised to be with us, and he did it all.

And he didn't waver.

Like, go back to the swimming pool.

I took my kids to the pool yesterday and it was a little colder than they were expecting it to be.

And my youngest did that thing that all of us do when you don't like cold water, where you're like, you put your toe in and you're whoop, nope, maybe not.

You know?

It's amazing to me that God doesn't do that with us.

Where he's like, yes.

And then he sees us and how we live and how we think.

He's like, maybe not.

You know?

Yes, I'll I'll be your God.

Ooh.

I'm not sure if this is gonna work out.

Like, he should he should do that.

That would make sense to us.

He doesn't break his promises.

When he says yes to you, he meant it.

When he said yes to the cross, he meant it.

He did not waver, he didn't pull back, he didn't hold back, he didn't get to the cross and then go, oh, you know what?

On second thought, not sure.

No, he said yes and he fulfilled that.

This is a promise fulfilled.

Jesus promised to save us, to rescue us.

And every time we take this, we remember that we have a God who fulfills his promises.

And so with that in mind, let's do this.

Let's take the bread.

We're gonna pray and thank him for it.

Father God, we thank you for this bread.

We thank you so much, Lord, for what this represents, for what it means.

This is your body.

This is your body given up on the cross as promised.

Lord, this is you dying as a sacrifice for our sin as promised.

You are the God who keeps your promises.

And whether it's Sarah holding Isaac, or it's us in the midst of pain and struggle, holding on to the promise that you've made about being comforted by your presence, you never leaving us, you giving us life, you are the God who fulfills your promises.

And this proves it.

Let's take the bread.

And now the juice.

Lord, we thank you so much for this juice, for what it represents, for what it means.

This is your blood that was spilled to cleanse us from our sin.

We love you, Lord.

We thank you that you're the God who fulfills every promise that you make, always, forever.

And amen.

Let's take the juice.

Well, guys, as we uh as we wrap up, we got a few more people getting baptized.

So, I'm gonna get out of the way.

I'm gonna hand it off to our baptism team, and here we go.

Hi, my name is Michael, and this is my wife Lexi.

We found his hands about two years ago and have been going ever since.

And uh Lexi grew up in the Catholic Church and was christened as an infant, but she's asked a lot about being baptized and has decided she wants to publicly profess her faith in Jesus.

So, Lexi, do you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?

All right.

Based upon your profession of faith, I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Luke 18, 16 tells us that Jesus called the little children to him, and he said, Don't hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.

Avi, you answered that call to Jesus as a little child.

And ever since then you have shared boldly and lovingly your steadfast, unwavering faith.

And I'm so proud of you for taking this step this morning.

Avi, do you believe that Jesus died for you and rose again for your sin?

Then, on this profession of faith, I am so honored to baptize you the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.