Whereby Shall I Know? – Part 4

We are, s- still looking at Genesis chapter 15 this morning And, I wanna keep walking you through some of the things that are, are here. And, and really, I, I think what this has developed into as time has gone on i- is a study on, Abraham and his maturing of faith, Abraham coming along and learning how to trust God. 

Now, I don't know about you, but I can speak for me and say that that is a progression that I always need to be developing in my life. being better able to put my trust in the Lord and then leave it there. sometimes we can be pretty good through the circumstances of life of, like, it driving us to put our trust in the Lord, like, "I got nowhere else to go, so I'll go to you." 

But where the battle can really come in sometimes is leaving that trust there. Like, I'm... "No, I'm sticking with this. I'm not letting it slide, I'm not letting it slip in any way. I wanna stay committed." And in the last few weeks we've been looking at, at this chapter to really understand kinda where Abraham has begun his journey with the Lord. 

By the time you come to Genesis 15, he knows who he is, but it's really in this chapter where, it moves to a whole nother dimension. And, what we'll see in the coming weeks is even after this episode, this whole interaction between Abraham and the Lord, there's a ton of failure still gonna happen in his walk. 

He's not gonna get it all right. He's gonna trip and fall and do things that to, to our vantage point would- we would think, "Well, that would disqualify you." Like, okay, God would be justified to say, "All right, you're done. Y- you're on the side now. Now I'm gonna pick somebody else and work with, because you just couldn't keep up with what I wanted from you." 

and while we think that way, aren't you glad the Lord doesn't think that way? Because if his grace couldn't overcome our faults, then there's no salvation. There's no hope of eternal life, because our faults were many, but his mercy is? Where our sin did abound, his grace did much more, right? So we, we have to have our- we have to let the scriptures program how we think, and not be so, ... 

put ourselves on these things. We gotta let the scriptures teach us how to think. Now, in the last couple weeks as we've walked through this chapter, there's one overarching theme that I've been trying to unpack for you through these, these passages, and it's this: God had sovereignly established, in his sovereignty, his right to decree. 

In other words, he's God, and by everything he is and his place and position, what he decides is right. It, it flows from his nature, it flows from his purposes. But what God in his sovereignty, his right to rule, had decreed with Abraham- That he would have, a nation descend from him, that he would inherit a land, and that he would be a blessing to all the world. 

That these promises that God made to him back in chapter 12, Abraham's lived 10 years so far, and there's really not a glimpse of those promises becoming a reality. And you and I, we, we would be exactly where we need to be with the Lord if 10 years had gone by and nothing, right? We, we would just be like, "Oh, yeah, I'm good. 

I, I... My confidence, my strength is in the Lord. 10 years, I can handle 10 years. I can handle 20." No, we... You know how. If we don't see... If we pray in the morning about it and don't see the answer by the afternoon, by lunchtime, we're over here just, like, spinning ourselves in circles. can you imagine 10 years of, of tr- keeping this in the Lord's hand? 

Th- this battle that he's going on. But what this chapter will establish is that what God's sovereignty established, God's providence would bring it into reality through time and circumstances. That God's providence is his ability to govern the situations and circumstances of life. So when things feel like they're going out of control, you've started towards the Lord, you're taking those steps, and they feel like they're going out of control, it's God's providence that tells you, no, it's not out of control. 

He is still working. He is in control. And though you can't see it now, when you get to where he wants you to be and look back, you'll see that hand that was guiding you all the way along. And so that's what the, the overarching lesson of this chapter is. And that's this lesson of faith he's trying to teach him. 

The first question that we looked at in this chapter was in verse number one, or verse number two, where Abram asked God, "What will you give me, seeing I go childless?" In other words, "God, you promised that a whole nation is gonna come from me." But I'm borderline elderly at this point, and there's no child that's come from... 

I, I have no descendant. So remember Abraham offered, God another plan, right? And, and that's something that we all can identify with where when we don't see God working, we start trying to come up with our own plans and our own ideas to help God accomplish what He's trying or what He said. And, and we looked at that. 

It- we don't need to help God. Okay? If you nee- if your view, if your view of God is someone who needs your help, then you need help in your view of God. God can and does accomplish what He sets out to accomplish, and He's never not, okay? so God is able. We must rest in His promise. We must give ourselves to do what He's given us to do, but we, He doesn't need our plans. 

He's got far better ones for us. And that's what really that first section dealt with, this back and forth. Abraham offers God another plan to make it a reality. God takes him on that walk, shows him the stars, and said, "Look up there. This is what I'm gonna do through the natural, give you a natural descendant." 

In verse six it says, "Abraham believed in the Lord." We know what believe means. It means like, "Okay, I, I take you at your word." But there's a word picture that we looked at in that Hebrew word. It means to rest your whole weight upon one. So to, to rest your weight. So in other words, here's the promise that God said, "I'm gonna do this, and I'm gonna do it my way." 

And upon hearing that, when Abraham was faced with do I still try to make it happen my way and trust my plans, or do I trust in the Lord's plans, he decided to lean all he had on what God told him He would do. And to that faith, God counted it to him for righteousness. What does that mean? It was pleasing to God's sight. 

When the sinner places their trust on Christ. They have their own ideas, they hear the world's philosophies about how you can attain salvation, how you can be a better person, but then you come to the scriptures and it says, "There's none righteous, no, not one." You come to the scriptures and say that a- apart from Christ we are all condemned in our sin. 

But you come to the scripture and you say that Christ died for the ungodly. Christ loves the sinner and gave His life for them as the payment for their sin debt. And you are faced with a choice. Do I continue to lean on my own ways, or do I put my trust on the word of Christ? If you listen to the songs we sang today, we put our trust in Christ. 

We don't lean on our own ways, we lean on Him. And so Abram places his trust on the Lord, and the Lord made it a reality. Then we got to what sets up the second question, beginning of verse number seven. Right on the back of this, the Lord introduces this next scene. He says, "I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to inherit it." 

There's three things in that verse that you need to key off of. The first, it begins with, "I am. I am the Lord." Who's the one that is instigating this process? Jehovah God, the self-existent one, okay? In other words, God has decided that this is the moment to help Abram's faith grow, and he's pushing the circumstances and the situation on him to bring him to the place where he can learn this lesson. 

And aren't we glad when God pushes His things on us so that we can learn the lessons we need to learn? He says, "I am the Lord that brought you out. I brought you out so that I could give you this land so that you would inherit it." And Abraham asked God a question in verse number eight, "Whereby shall I know that I will inherit it?" 

This last phase that we got into last week deals with assurance. In other words, "Okay, God, I believe you. I've trusted you, but now we're not talking about the descendants anymore. Now we're talking about the land, the land portion of it." And he asks God for some sort of guarantee that now he could have and possess that all the land from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, all of that land that we call the Promised Land, all of it will be his. 

And God's gonna take him on a journey to build assurance in him, to give him confidence, to give him trust. But it's gonna come down to one concept And if w- if you as a believer don't get this, then everything about living as a Christian is going to be puzzling to you. What is the guarantee that God gives for a future reality? 

You ever deal with the uncertainty and the weight of that uncertainty, the pressure that it brings on you? You ever struggle under that weight and, and you're, you're, you know that there's something out there, but it's presently unseen, and because it's presently unseen, you therefore feel the, the weight of that crushing down on you. 

Is it gonna happen? Can I, can I truly trust that, God, you're gonna bring this into a reality? The weight, look, that weight is what builds in all of us as we don't know where the steps of the journey are gonna take us. Sometimes it presents as anxiety and fear, worry, stress, and a million other isms that come along with it. 

But Abraham is asking God to give him some type of guarantee, and God's gonna answer with one phrase for a guarantee on all His promises. Here's what it is. "Abram, this will be a reality by me and all that I am." That's God's answer to him. You want a guarantee? Here's the guarantee. It's by me. In other words, I am the Lord that brought you out to give you this land to inherit it. 

By me and all that I am, the sovereign self-existent one. I- the, the assurance you need rests in the person of God. And that's what this second question gets us to. So it really kind of points us in this direction. Abraham is asking, "How can I possess assurance when I cannot see how God will bring it to pass?" 

You ever been there? I want assurance, I want trust, I want confidence, but I can't see how God's gonna bring this to pass. And God's gonna answer this by saying, "It's by me and all that I am." Because here's what assurance ultimately in its final form does. Assurance rests the weight of what is unseen on the revealed character of God. 

Assurance comes when you rest the weight, the burden, the fear, the anxiety, the, the stress. When you, when you rest all of that on the revealed character of God, then you can have certainty that what He has promised, He will bring a reality. 

But that's tough living. It's easy preaching, it's tough living But you know why it's so tough? It's only tough because of our limited understanding of who he is Like, you know, you s- you hear the little boys run around and they talk about how great their dad is and how big and strong their dad is, and like there's nothing dad can't do. 

And then they get to like 16, 17, 18, and then they realize like, "Oh yeah, there's a lot I can do better than him." Right? especially when you're looking up at him, that's a whole new reality that we're working through. But that little k- little boy mentality of like, "There's just nothing my dad can't do. 

He's just able." And girl- I'm sure girls too. Like, "There's just nothing my dad can't do. He's the strongest I know. He's, he's all those things." Why did those kids think that? I'll tell you why Because they spend time getting to know that individual. They watch that individual do things that they think are the most mind-blowing things in the world, like open the jar. 

Or, or have the right answer that solved the problem, or put the arm around them when they needed it, or w- the variety of different things. The kids come away convinced that that parent has all the answers and can fix everything because of their experience with them. Do you know why we get so full of doubt and fear and worry and anxiety on stuff? 

It reveals the weakness of our understanding of the character of God. Now, sure, we could, we could s- we could probably rattle, rattle off and say, "Oh, I know he's all-powerful." Great. I know God knows everything, and we could probably pull vi- Bible verses from it, and we could, we could say this, and we could say that, and, and we can list off all these characteristics. 

But I'm not just talking about your mental exercise. I'm talking about you've got to find that He is those things. Do you know where you find that? When you walk through the trials, when you are at the end of yourself, when every effort you're trying to put into it to make it a reality is broken and you have to just stop. 

And it's almost like when you stop, God says, "All right, you ready?" 'Cause remember what Paul said? "In my weakness, I see His strength." But we don't like that. None of us like talking about our weakness. None of us like it. We all try to hide it. We do everything we can to hide our weaknesses because we think that that's gonna let somebody else see us in a light we don't wanna be seen in. 

Let me just remind you, God's seen you in every light. He knows your frame. He remembers you're just dust. And we think, "Oh, I can, I can bear up." Yeah, for a little while, and then it crumbles My friend, Abram is being brought to a place to be a, a lesson for all of us We must continue to push deeper into the Word so that we understand who God is You can't just show up and, and hear somebody get up here with me and James, Alex, or somebody else, get up here and talk about who the Lord is and expect that that is going to be enough for you to have this apprehension of the character of God. 

No, you have to walk with him. But we live in an instant result society. Get me a microwave and all my problems are solved. I got 10 different food options with it right around me. I can solve all my problems just like that. And if I don't have the money, I just put it on a credit card. You know, like it's instant gratification society. 

And we think that God works like that. He does not. He doesn't. Because he knows that the real way we live in this world as his people is when we are assured of his character. And so that's the journey he's taken Abraham on in this passage. Now, last week we talked about how God builds this assurance. He began with the idea of obedience. 

Remember we talked about how he made the covenant, he took the animals, that, that way of making a covenant. He took them, split them so they can make the path, and the covenant would be that two parties would walk between those pieces, and it would say that if I don't live up to my end of the bargain, you get to do this to me. 

Okay? That's... Your word was your life in whatever covenant you made. So God gave him, assurance in this first step by obedience. In other words, if we want to gain assurance, if we want to grow stronger in our understanding, we've got to start obeying what we know to do. You can't, you can't say like, "The price is right. 

No, I don't want that one, Lord, give me the one I really want to obey." No. He says, "No, obey here, right where you are." The problem isn't what I don't know, it's what I do know that I'm not presently doing for him, and that obedience always springs out of the gospel's work in my life. So obedience. Number two, assurance comes when we realize that the result does not depend on us. 

All right, so nine through 11 walked us through the, the laying of the pieces. In 11 we talked about driving all the birds away, the worry, fear, and all the stuff that was descended on the carcasses. And I think it was, Dave Bolger last week said, "I'm going bird hunting after church." You know, just shoot all the birds. 

You gotta deal with the birds that are coming in to tear down what you're doing, okay? Look at 12. It says this, "And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. Lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him." Now, you look at that and you, you might scratch your head a little bit and start feeling like, well, what is... 

What happens? Abram has, he, he's done the work and, and the dirty work of, of obeying God's command. He's done the hard work. And then he's done the even harder work of protecting it from all the things that wanna come in and pull it away and destroy it, and now he lays down and takes a nap. How does assurance come when you take a nap? 

Well, this isn't necessarily a volunteer nap. This is a nap that God forced on him. How, how do you see that? Well, let me show you verse 12. It says, "When the sun was going down." In other words, this started during the early part of the day, and we've now progressed, this laying out the pieces and this, this protecting it from the birds, all that has progressed throughout the entire day. 

No doubt he is worn out, and this deep sleep falls upon him. And in this deep sleep, this, this idea comes, this horror of great darkness. Well, what in the world is that about? Very simply, God himself visited Abraham on that field God came down to him So what was that like? A horror of great darkness scared him to death. 

He was filled with such awe, all he could be is just as a dead man. Now, that's not an unfamiliar picture. Remember when Isaiah had his vision of the Lord? What did he do? Fell down on his face Remember when Christ was transfigured and his glory appeared to the disciples? What did they do? They fell on their face We have this idea, like when God shows up, it's all these like fuzzy feelings and, you know, dance around and run around. 

And look, we can be joyful for sure, but when God truly shows up, I'll tell you what it looks more like. A bunch of people on their face rather than a bunch of people acting like they're possessed with something. Why? Because God is holy. He is separate for sinners. His mere presence is terrifying Then how in the world could any sinner ever stand before him? 

Jesus Christ and our union with him. God comes to, to this scene, and God places Abram in this deep sleep to make him passive to what follows. Remember I say assurance comes when you realize that the result doesn't depend on you. Remember the two parties are supposed to walk through the pieces together? 

Not happening here. God makes this man passive to what is getting ready to happen. Abram has done what God required. That's verse 9, 10, and 11. That showed us what Abram had to do while he waited on God to do. What follows in 12 on is what only God could do. So he learned that faith obeyed what he was given, and now he's gonna learn to leave the rest with God. 

Abram becomes a bystander to the covenant process. Now why is that so significant? Because the lesson in all of this is your assurance is gonna come when you understand the revealed character of God, that all that God has promised depends on him and all that he is. So if Abram is a participant in some way in the final outcome, then it's not only by the Lord and all that he is that it became a reality. 

It has something to do with Abraham. It has, he has some contribution he has made. But God makes him passive in this moment. You ever have those seasons of life where you're marching on, marching on, things are going, you're trying to do right, and then all of a sudden it's like God just takes you out of the game? 

Sometimes it's sickness. our bodies break down. Sometimes it's a, a, a, a relational circumstance that almost cuts you out and you feel like, "Wait a minute, I thought we were moving in this together, and now all of a sudden I'm completely distanced from what was happening here. There's a curveball that has been presented to me. 

Lord, why are you throwing curveballs? Lord, I want fastballs right down the middle at the perfect speed so I can knock them out of the park and get all these things right." No, friend. Because then we think the result has something to do with us. But Abraham is made passive here. It doesn't depend on him. 

You say, "Well, he's supposed to obey." He has obeyed, but now we've moved to a whole nother phase of God's work. The obedience for this moment is done. He has checked off the box. He's done what he was supposed to do, and now it's time for God to do what only he can do. And when that happens, you and I have to be passive. 

You and I have to be set aside so that we have a front-row seat to watch God work and do what we could not do on our own We have loved ones that are going through the most terrible things in life. Sickness, their body's hurting And we're completely passive. There's not a thing that we can do to fix it. 

Because if we could do it, we would. If we could make this correction, if we could put it in, we would do it. We would fix it in a heartbeat. But guess what? If we would fix it in a heartbeat, we'd be fixing it like we studied early in this chapter according to our own ideas. We'd be trying to put our solutions in God's way. 

And he says, "No, I'm gonna make you completely passive. There's not a thing in the world that you can do in this moment to assure the outcome." For us, that is the scariest place to be But in the big picture, it's the best place in the world. Because it's truly at that moment you learn the result doesn't depend on you It depends on who he is and all he's going to do. 

God makes him passive 

But this passiveness comes as part of being in God's presence. Because we have to obey, we have to realize that we're passive in this, and the result depends on the Lord. But assurance also comes from the mere fact of being in God's presence. In a sense, God made him still in this moment so he could absolutely overwhelm him 

There are things that overwhelm us in life, but probably fewer and fewer are the times where it's truly the Lord Himself that overwhelms us Can I give you a thought as to why God in his greatness doesn't overwhelm us like it should? Psalm 46:10. Familiar words. "Be still and know-" 

But you know what? I, I can't speak for you. I'll tell on myself. The worst thing I do is not be still. I'm always trying to work an angle I'm always at it. And then I, "Well, Lord, when, w- if you just show up, I'd understand." Thank God for grace One day we get to heaven, we're gonna understand, like, probably a better degree of how much grace we were truly given. 

And, and He'll just be more glorious that He gave it to us But what's the connection in Psa- Psalm 46:10? Without stillness like this in this text, you don't get overwhelmed with the Lord. So when we live constantly in front of the screens all the time, guess what we're not being? Well, I'm physically still. 

Yeah, maybe physically, but everything else is stimulated. Everything else is going. Everywhere we go, we got a million people around us. We got noise on constantly. We fill all the gaps in with some type of activity. You say, "Well, I'm just really not good if I... If it, if it's just, you know, me and my thoughts. 

It's just really not good." It may be true But now let me tell you what's worse. To never be still before the Lord because you will not know Him. He won't be able to give you the assurance that comes from knowing Him and the confidence to say that word for the gospel and, and to stand firm in your faith because you don't know Him 

His presence had to be there, and God came. Because here's the reality, the more clearly I see who God is, the less assurance I need from knowing what God is doing. The more clearly I see who God is, the less assurance I need from knowing what God is doing Like there's times, she's not in here. I'll, I'll be all right for a little while. 

There's times, like I, I'll come home and, and like Valerie's running through the list of things she did in the day, and it's almost like she's trying to like, you know, tell me, this list and like, "I did all these things today. Like I did do something today." I did you. And, and I just sit there and think like, "Woman, you kept four chaotic boys alive all day long." 

And you're not in jail tonight I have no doubt that you are far busier than anybody else I know. And the worst part is those boys are too much like me 

That's why We don't need assurance from knowing what God is doing when we are so assured of who He is Now we move to this part, beginning in verse 13 Let me give you this. Assurance comes as the result of recognizing God's providence. It comes from recognizing God's providence God is going to show him parts of the journey ahead, but honestly, it's gonna scare him to death 

But here's the thing I want you to take away from it. You won't get the assurance you're looking for by knowing every turn in the journey. You ever, you ever think that? Like, "If I just knew what was gonna happen in the future, man, I'd just be..." You won't get the assurance you need from that. But you will get assurance when you know the God who governs it. 

The God who governs it. Look at verse 13. He says this, "Know of a surety." So in other... Does that sound like an answer to the question? Right? Abraham says, "God, how am I gonna know?" And the first response is, "Know of a surety." In other words, without any doubt, here's what's gonna come. He says that, "Thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them 400 years." 

Well, that sounds like a terrible way to start. That makes no sense. Imagine Abraham, he's sitting here, and he hears about these descendants that God has promised him, and the first word on them is they're not gonna be the people in the land that we're, I'm hearing about, and they're gonna be afflicted. 

Now, if you just look at that from Abraham's perspective, you think, "Well, why would... W- God, why would you do that? Why would you start talking about these afflicted people?" Can I tell you why God told him this? Because Abraham was gonna tell his kid, and tell the next generation, and the next generation, and the next generation. 

And then there was gonna be the generation that would live through that affliction, that was gonna need a promise from God that he would rescue them one day. And guess what? God was giving it to them right now. The same lessons that Abraham is learning of trusting God, that generation is gonna have to learn to trust God with. 

And when they see God fulfill the promise made through their great, whatever back- through their lives Their confidence in who God is is only gonna grow and what he's promised. So you that God has given some responsibility over in whatever capacity, kids, grandkids, whatever it may be, let me just remind you, your walk in trusting God is what future generations are gonna look to. 

Dads and moms and grandmas and grandpas that truly know how to trust the Lord and walk with him even when they can't see what steps are next, but they put their confidence in him who is and was and is to come He talks to an afflicted people and he says that their suffering was gonna be permitted so that they would learn to lean on God's word. 

This is Deuteronomy chapter eight all over again, where he says, "You will live by my word alone." But this is gonna get tough. Can I show you something? Let, let me just walk you through this. From the time that God makes this promise to Abram, it's gonna be over 600 years before it becomes a full reality. 

From Genesis 15 to the time at the end of Joshua when it becomes a reality, over 600 years 

Generations are gonna die and go on before this becomes a reality. This land promise moved from a covenant pledge to a visible possession through generations of God's providence, but my friend, 600 years of waiting. What does that look like? Well, year one would be when this covenant is ratified right here. 

That's Genesis chapter 15. But in Genesis 46, we learn that it's over 200 years before verse 13 is fulfilled, when they go into Egypt. It's over 200 years, I think like 205 years, something like that, before they enter into the land of Egypt, Abram's descendants. Then once they're there, it's 430 years In Egypt. 

We're 600 plus just right there. Oh, and by the way, when they do come out, they're gonna march right in, and God says in Exodus 23, "As you go in, I'm not gonna give you the land in one year. I'm gonna give it to you by little and little." So even in the generations that start to experience what God has promised to do, even then, it's still gonna go slow. 

It's still gonna be a battle. And then what happens after the spies go into the land? 40 years they had to wander around again But guess what? Joshua 21:43-45 becomes a reality eventually. "And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which he swore to give to their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. 

And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought any of the good, which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel." You catch that last part? 

Everything that God promised, none of it failed. He fulfilled every word of it. Well, it's because they were so faithful. Excuse me? It wasn't because they were faithful at all. It was because who he is accomplished it. God's providence brought it into a reality. Let me give you one more verse from Joshua 23. 

This is at the end of Joshua's life. He said, "And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and you know in all your hearts and all your souls, that not one thing has failed of all the good which the Lord your God spoke concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed." 

Is God able? Yeah, he fulfilled it. He did it. He did every bit that he promised, every last bit of it. But it took over 600 years to bring it into pass I mean, I'm good for a couple days, but I need to see it quicker than 600 years No, God has his ways and his timetable to bring it all into reality. Then he promises a redeemed people in verse 14, "And that nation whom they shall serve will I judge and afterward they will come out with great substance." 

In other words, God's gonna redeem his people. And you remember how God would redeem them? Through the 10 plagues. He would deliver Israel from Egypt's bondage by breaking Egypt's back through the plagues and bring them out. And that last final plague through which he brought them out was the Passover when there was a sacrifice and the blood applied to the doors. 

And when it happened, the people came out Then there will be a fulfilled promise. Verse 15, he speaks back to Abram, "You're gonna go to your fathers in peace. You're gonna live in a good old age." In other words, everything that I've promised concerning you, Abram, I'm gonna fulfill all of that. You'll have peace, and you'll go to your fathers in a good old age. 

But then look at this. We gotta remember this part. Look at 16. "But in the fourth generation they shall come hither: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." Now, why is that line in there? Because there's something you and I need to really understand with this The delays are not only to do with you and me. 

When God looks like he's moving slow, it's not just about you. I know that's breaking news. It's not just about you. It's because God has other works that he's doing. In this season, God would extend 600 plus years of time. One of the main reasons for it is so that those people would repent. It was a period of mercy he extended before the period of judgment. 

What does all that say? God's providence is gonna bring that into reality. Let me show you this last part. Assurance is the result of realizing the Lord in all he is is the guarantee that we can rest our confidence in. Now look beginning in verse number 17. "And it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces." 

Now, we're back to the covenant ceremony, and Abram is still passive. He's still laying on the ground. And all of a sudden he sees this furnace and this lamp that pass between the pieces. Now remember the covenant. The covenant said that the individual parties in this would join arms and walk together, and it was a dual thing. 

But Abram is passive. But these two symbols go between the pieces. Why those symbols? What is that all about? Those symbols represent God himself. The smoking furnace symbolized the smoke that became the cloud that led Israel through the wilderness. The burning lamp is the fire that by night guided them as they went and stood on guard for them. 

Just like in verse number 1 when the Lord said, "I am your shield and your exceeding great reward." These two images passing through the pieces were the images of God himself passing through. And basically it says, "Abram, all this is gonna happen, but it's not gonna depend on you, it's going to depend on me Abram is a recipient, but the fulfillment rests on the Lord. 

It does not rest on Abram's effort, his strategy, his understanding, or his performance. God speaks of this inheritance as settled. He says in verse number 18, "In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, 'Unto thy seed have I given.'" At this moment, when God passed through the pieces, it was done. 

It was done. So can I tell you something? When his descendants were being afflicted for 400 years in Egypt, they already had a land. They already had a place to call home, but it wasn't their possession yet, because God's providence had not brought it into reality. And somebody would say, "Well, that's not fair. 

They already had a place, and look at all their suffering." But they suffered, they went through all of it because they had to learn that they do not live by bread alone. The things around our lives are not enough to get us through. We are upheld by the Lord and all that He is. You don't want it to rest on you. 

I don't want it to rest on me. Because the moment it rests on us, it's gonna fail. But what God has promised to bring into reality, it has nothing to do with your ability to forecast it and make it a reality. But I'll tell you what it does, it is guaranteed by the Lord and all that He is. We think of His promises, that my soul one day will stand face to face with God and be holy and without blame, not under condemnation, not to be cast into hell under the judgment of my sin, righteously so, but as forgiven. 

What does my confidence come in that? By Him and all that He is. That Jesus is coming again one day. That one day, as we sang earlier, He is gonna come down, and He's gonna receive us to Himself. What's our confidence in that in? By Him and all that He is. Where, where do we rest for our needs to be met? How do we know that the food's gonna be on the table? 

How do we know that the power grid's not going down, or if it does go down that we're gonna be okay? What do we rest on, friend? It has nothing to do with our bank account. It has nothing to do with how prepped we are for the disaster. Because all of that can fail, all of that can go away. And you know what we still have? 

The Lord and all that He is, and that's enough Because if that's not enough, it's all empty. It's all empty. There's nothing to this. We're just a bunch of people that created some little thing to help people get a little comfort and get over the struggles of life for a little while, but then we die and it's done 

But God has said otherwise. So here's the question. Are we gonna rest on the Lord and all that He is? Are we going to step forward and say, "I can't see it, I can't figure it out, but I know God's promises rest on His revealed character, and He cannot lie. And if He cannot lie, that means everything He has spoken has to become a reality, and I'm gonna put my whole weight on that." 

If that's where we are, if that's what we believe, then we will be people With the type of faith that God can use. Not just to, like, develop a property, not just to develop ministries, not just to do all those things, but my friend, people that God can use to make his name great in this community, to reveal his glory and his power through. 

That's why God doesn't shortchange the process. Oh, I wish God would work how I want him to. Until I see what he's actually doing. And then I want him as far away in his own ways from my ways as possible. Because I get just a little glimpse, just a tiny glimpse, that his way's better. It's so much better. 

It's so much better. So what does that mean? It means there are times we don't know what the right step to take is, but we take a step trying to understand the best we can and following it. We take a step that may be uncomfortable But we're trying to follow him 

When we go through seasons and it's like God has just put something in front of us that there's not a thing in the world we can do about it, we're okay because we know He's working and that's enough That's, that, that person in your life that you love, that you're trying to get them where they need with the Lord, you can't get them there, and if you'll be honest, you don't wanna get them there. 

You want the Lord to get them there 

These are the lessons So why can I ob- can I obey when I don't have all the answers? The Lord says, "By me and all that I am." Why can I rest when the outcome is beyond my ability? The Lord says, "By me and all that I am." Why can I trust when the path disappears into the darkness? The Lord says, "By me and all that I am." 

Why can I trust God's providence when the journey includes an Egypt in bondage and affliction over 600 years? The Lord says, "By me and all that I am." What finally and fully guarantees all the promises? "By me and all that I am." 

In a sense, God says You can put all of your weight on my presence, my character, and my name behind the promise Let's be people that live like that, that let God do the work to whittle us away from our own ways so that we walk in His. Father, as we now bow before you and take time to respond to you and- 

Notice what your spirit points out 

We desperately need you We must have your power. We must have your ways 

But we will not get them by trusting ourselves or in our plans 

All that you promise is by you and all that you are And that's enough. Now, as we respond, by your Spirit point out to us where we are placing our trust in things that are less than that, where our confidence rests in something else and not who you are 

Anna's gonna begin to play, and I wanna invite you to just respond to the Lord. If you're here today and you've never placed your faith in Christ as savior, let me just tell you, God has made it clear that there's one name given, to us whereby we must be saved, and it's Jesus Christ. You must have your sins forgiven or else you will spend eternity separated from God in hell. 

That's not me giving you some thought. That's directly from the scriptures. But I stand here to tell you today Jesus Christ died for sinners. He paid your debt so that you could be forgiven. Today, if you will rest your weight for salvation upon the finished work of Christ, God says He'll make you righteous and make you His own 

There are so many things beyond us, and it seems that that list gets bigger and bigger as time goes on. Place your trust in the Lord Rest on His goodness. Let's respond to the Lord 

us enough goodness for us to rest in, and that goodness has come directly of yourself Now as we move forward in our lives living for you and our families and this church as a body, may we be people That have come to understand your greatness, your goodness, and who you are. Trusting fully Because you have matured us 

And by this work, maybe it'll be a tool in your hand by which you can magnify yourself in this community and around the world.