God Keeps His Promises: Lessons From Genesis

The book of Genesis. If I were to summarize the book of Genesis, here's what the book of Genesis is about is about. The book of Genesis is about God's promise to his people. And the passage that I think of as being most significant or at least least one that that communicates this in especially clear way is Genesis chapter 12. So let's take a look there and see what Genesis 12 says about God's promise to his people. [00:51:47] (30 seconds)

And one of the things that's always stood out to me well, Abraham does it. I mean, he's he's obedient, which is impressive. But one of the things that stood out to me about that is that God doesn't tell him exactly where he's going. God doesn't say there there's a region of the area over on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea near Africa, but you're still in Asia. The Canaanites are dwelling there. I want you to go live he doesn't tell Abram that. He says, Abram, I want you to get up. I want you to leave everyone that you have ever known except your immediate family who's gonna be traveling with you, and go to a land, and I'll I'll show you the land when you get there. [00:53:56] (37 seconds)

And that's the way it works sometime with God. Sometimes God tells us to move in a certain direction. He doesn't necessarily tell us where we're going or what his ultimate plan is. He just tells us to move in that direction. I'll talk with students a lot who sense that God is calling them into the ministry. They don't know if they're gonna be a pastor or a missionary or what sort of minister they're gonna be, but they know that God is calling them into the ministry. And so they they enroll in a program at Carson Newman to study to do that. And and and what a really neat place to be. I know that God has called me to do something. I don't know what it is yet, but I'm gonna obey what I know. God God sometimes, you know, he doesn't show us the whole journey that's ahead of us. He just shows us what we need to take those next few steps, and that requires faith that can be a little disconcerting because if you're like me, you'd like to know where things are headed and where things are gonna end up. [00:54:42] (53 seconds)

There are challenges, however. It it might not be apparent at this point how exactly God is going to do this. For instance, Abraham and Sarah were were very old at this point. At least by childbearing standards, they were old at this point. Abram was 75. This is past the time when Abram and Sarai Sarai is probably around 65 at this point. This is past the time when they would generally yeah. They they decided at that point, okay. It's not in the cards for us to have kids, and God's gonna make them a great nation. How is God gonna do that? The Canaanites, as I said, Canaanites currently live there as well. How is God gonna give them this land? And so Genesis is about whether God is really going to keep his promises or not. [01:00:25] (57 seconds)

Or or she's been taken away from him. Is God going to keep his promise? Now, here's the deal. God does. In this story, God absolutely keeps his promise. And what's interesting is God doesn't just get out of this by the skin of his teeth, or Abram doesn't just get out of this by the skin of his teeth. God actually, not only does he save the day, but God makes forward progress toward to to use a bit of a football analogy. He he actually makes progress toward blessing Abram. [01:07:28] (30 seconds)

``does God keep his promise to Abraham here, but he does so in a way that says, Abraham, there's something even bigger that I'm gonna do one day. Something even bigger for Israel that I'm gonna do. I'm gonna keep my promise to you. I'm gonna keep my promise to your family. I'm gonna keep my promise to my people, and I'm not only committed to doing it. I'm not only able to keep my promise to you, but I'm willing to go to whatever links necessary to do what I've told you that I'm gonna do. I'm gonna go to whatever links necessary to bless you and to keep my promise to you. That's how faithful God is. [01:11:15] (42 seconds)  #Do you want one hashtag for this entire passage or multiple hashtags for separate quotes? If multiple, please tell me how many quotes you intended or re-send them separated so I can match the count.

God is able y'all know this. God is able to keep his promise. Right? There's God is all powerful. He has the power that's required to keep his promises. God is is all knowing and all wise. God knows what needs to be done to keep his promise. Not only that, this is where we kinda kinda question God at times. Not only is God able to do it and and knows how to do it, but God is willing to do whatever it takes to keep his promise to us. There there's no obstacle that that God is gonna say, hey, know, this is too big for me. Or there's no obstacle where God says, well I could I could handle this obstacle, but you know what I yeah I've I've been deterred. I've been convinced not to not to do this. God is willing to do whatever it takes go to great lengths to keep his promise. [01:12:19] (45 seconds)

But but take this opportunity to reflect on what God has promised you. You know how important that is? That that God keeps his promises? It's the first thing when God had the book of Genesis written that the the one thing that he wanted to get across us is that God is a God who keeps his promises to us. We can trust God. We can relax. [01:17:28] (20 seconds)