Remember The Promise

Hey, y'all. Listen, it's great to be here with you. Always great to be able to come together and gather and worship together and even study God's Word together. And so I'm just very delighted to be here, and I appreciate the opportunity and just everything that this church is doing to help us to plant churches.

For those of you who don't know me, my name is Louis Tambora. I'm actually on staff here as a church plant pastor, as he said. And now we're actually going to be planting in East Orlando. And so we're going to leave in about two months.

My wife and I, we have three children, and we're going to uproot our lives. We're going to go to Orlando. We're going to plant there. And that's actually our hometown. So we're from there. We moved up here in July just to be a part of the church and to be a part of the residency program.

And then we're going back and we're going to plant a church for King Jesus down there. And you know, one of the number one questions that I've been asked since I've been up here, I mean, literally, it's not like not about theology or soteriology, you know, just been sensationalism, anything like that. It's, hey, bro, what do you think of Disney? Like what do you think of Disney?

And so I'm learning that that's kind of a really big deal outside of Orlando, much bigger deal than what I ever expected. And for me, my answer, I mean, honestly, I have like these flashbacks, I tend to have some nightmares when it comes to Disney. And the reason is because I had one of my worst, most horrific experiences of my life when I was there one time, okay? Just one time. I love Disney.

I'm not hating on it. And I had one of the worst, most horrific experiences of my life there. And it was when I had to take my four-year-old son to the bathroom, all right? So I had to take him to the bathroom, right?

And while we're there, man, I put the seat on lockdown. So I don't know how, if there's parents in here, bro, like I'm a bit of a germaphobe when it comes to public restrooms, my kids don't like me taking them to the bathroom because they say it takes too long, man, to prep the seat and all that, bro. I'm telling you, I put toilet paper on the seat, under the seat, so they don't touch the side of the bowl. It's all, germs are on lockdown, right? So I put them in there, I'm like, all right, bro, let's go, we'll take you to the bathroom. I put the germs on lockdown, you know, seat's covered, he does his business, and then I've been down to help him to pick up his pants, right? I've been down to pick it up, man, and the automatic flush goes off, all right? Listen, no, water splashes, and it hits me in my eye, dude, literally in my eye, like I got potty business in my eye, man. No joke, like everybody knows you cover up the automatic flush, right?

Such an amateur move. I forgot it, I got ambushed, and so I'm like stressed, and I'm running, I'm literally running out of the bathroom with my son, I grab some sanitizer, I start shoving it in my eye, it's burning, I'm blind for like five minutes, but at least my eye's clean, amen? All right, listen, my eye's clean, and everybody's looking at me like I'm crazy.

Like all the people, they're like, bro, what's this guy doing, like he's putting sanitizer. My wife's thinking I'm crazy, she goes, what are you doing? I said, man, I got potty business in my eye, and she's like, well, how'd you do that?

And I said, the automatic flush got me. So she starts laughing, like literally, I mean, tears flow, why are y'all laughing at me right now, even to hear, I mean, this is horrific, all right? I mean, literally, I'm traumatized, I mean, I can feel it right now in my eye. So she's laughing, and I'm starting to get angry, I'm ready to cage fight the next Disney person who says to me, have a magical day, but I ain't having a magical day, all right? There's nothing magical about it. And so we go from that to literally having to wait in an hour long lines, I mean, if you've been to Disney before, you know what that's like.

You're waiting in line for like an hour in hot Florida, no AC while some dude's rubbing up his sweaty bird flu all over you, it ain't magical, it's nasty. Listen, I start getting grumpy, and my wife will tell you, okay, my wife will tell you, I start walking around and I try to make space in the crowd this day, like I'm getting grumpy, so I start ramming people with the stroller, like I'm going, I'm doing one of these jobs, not right there looking at them, I'm like, boom, oh, sorry, excuse me, excuse me, sir. And she's like, hey, you're a pastor, man, like, why are you ramming people to stroller? Because today I'm being sanctified and it ain't going well, all right, it just ain't going well.

It was a rough, listen, nightmare. When I think Disney, I love it, but I have these flashbacks of that day, which was no Disney fairytale, there's no Disney fairytale. And today we're gonna be continuing the series called the whole story, where we're going through the entire Bible in a year. In fact, if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn them to Genesis chapter 16, okay? We're gonna be in Genesis chapter 16 today, some of 17, and today we're gonna talk about the story of Abram, also known as Abraham.

And let me tell you, his story, his life was no Disney fairytale, all right, there's no Disney fairytale. A lot of times we tend to skip to Genesis chapter 22, where we see Abram having this great faith, such faith that he's willing to hand his son over to the Lord. And we tend to skip Genesis 12 to 21, where we see the faults, failures, and sins of Abram.

And so today I wanna take us to Genesis 16. I want us to be able to see the faults, the failures, the sins of Abram, but more importantly, above all else, what I want, this is the big idea, I want you to see that despite Abram's sins, God remembers his promise. And despite his sin, God remembers his promise, and he's gonna do the same for you. Listen, he'll do the same for you.

He'll remember his promises, all right? Let's pray, let's pray, and then I'll preach, all right? Father God, we thank you so much that you have not left us empty-handed, that you have given us your word. And so would you allow the gems of scripture to pop out right now? Would you allow the gems of scripture to shine forth, shine brightly into the person here who's already a Christian in such a way that they would walk away from here today having greater confidence in the truth of your word, knowing that they can trust in every promise you've ever said? Would you allow the non-Christian, the unchurched person, the de-churched person, the person who might be a skeptic in this room here today, would you let the gems of scripture shine forth into their lives so that their heart and their minds would be illumined, and that they would repent of sin, believe in the good news of the gospel, and receive every promise that you've ever written? Father God, would you allow the gems of scripture to shine brightly in this place today, brighter than the mouthpiece that's speaking in them? We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

Let me give you just a little bit of context. Pastor JD did just such a masterful job last week in talking about Noah and the flood and how Noah and the flood was God's way of rebooting the world because of sin. And so God comes in, He reboots the world because of sin, and then He makes a promise to the world. He makes a promise that He promises that He'll never flood the entire earth again, and God's kept that promise. Even though we still sin today, God's remembered that promise, and He's kept that promise, and He's never flooded the entire world again.

In Genesis chapter 12, we learn that God makes another promise. He makes a promise to Abram, and He promises this to Abram. He promises that Abram's going to make a great name, a great nation, and a great blessing out of Abram. Those are the promises that He gives Abram. He's going to make a great name, great nation, and a great blessing out of Abram. Now for Abram, when he hears this, this is music to his ears, I mean, he gets all fired up and excited to where he just grabs his bags, and he's like, all right, bro, we're in.

Like me and Sarah and my wife, we're in. He's excited because at this point in his life, he's broke, he's married, but he can't have kids, and so this is all promises, man, and it's just dear to his heart. So he takes off, and he goes to the land where God promises him, where God shows him. He goes there, and then famine strikes the land, and what we see is Abram's sins, all right? He sins.

He trusts in the provision of Egypt over the provision of God. He sins. And then he also sins by basically pimping out his wife, literally, all right? Supposedly, his wife is like this gorgeous supermodel kind of lady, and he's like, hey, man, she's so hot that I'm worried that the Egyptians are gonna come in, they're gonna kill me to get to her.

So instead of saying that she's his wife, he says, she's my sister. He sins. He sins. Yet despite his sin, God remembers his promise, and in Genesis chapter 12 to 15, what we would learn is that God comes in, he saves Abram and Sarai, Sarai before she actually, right before she's about to marry Pharaoh, he saves them, and he starts to build and grow their faith and continually reminds them of the promise. That's what you get in Genesis 12 to 15. Let's pick it up from there.

Here we go. Genesis chapter 16 says this, now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children.

Go into my servant, it may be that I shall obtain children by her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So after Abram had lived 10 years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram, her husband, as a wife.

And he went into Hagar, and she conceived. Basically they both sinned. They both sinned. I mean, you've got Abram is pimping out Sarai, Sarai is pimping out Abram, and they're both not trusting in the provision of God. They sin. In fact, what they're doing is they're trusting in their own works rather than in the works of God. This is about works righteousness versus faith righteousness. They are trying to obtain the blessings of God by their own works.

We see that. Look in the text that it actually says, Sarai says, that I may obtain, that I might obtain children. She is trying to obtain the blessings, the favor, the promise of God through her own works rather than through the works of God.

And Abram goes along with it. They both sinned. They both sinned.

But despite their sin, God remembers the promise. Verse four, and he went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. So there's Hagar's sin. She looked with contempt on her mistress and Sarai said to Abram, may the wrong done to me be on you. Listen, I love this part of the text, all right?

Because it's so accurate when it comes to like dating and marital relationships, right? Like you notice what's happening. I mean, Abram's got to be confused. He's got to be like, I don't get it. Like this is what you asked me to do.

Like you asked me to have married Hagar, to have a baby with Hagar. And so I did like, why is she yelling at me, right? She's got to be confused. Listen, I've been married to my wife for 12 years and I still get confused. There's times when she says something, I'm like, you meant something different, but I didn't catch that, right? I'm just not that smart as a dude.

So for example, one time I remember when my wife was pregnant and she came up to me and she says to me, hey, hey baby, you, you, you want to go, you want to go to the store with me? And I'm thinking as a guy, I'm thinking that's an option, right? There's an option. I could go or not. I could go or not go, right? So I said, no, honey, listen, I'm going to stay here. I got to preach tonight.

So I'm going to kind of do some last minute things on my sermon and then I'm going to preach. So I'm not going to go. Fine. Fine then. Fine then. Fine then. You just stay here.

I'll go by myself. So after 12 years of that, like I'm learning, right? I got to think before I speak. So I'm thinking in my head, I'm like, I don't get it. Like she asked me a question.

It was an option. And where do I, Oh, she's pregnant, hormonal. She's hormonal. I'm like, bro, I can't tell her that right.

You don't tell a pregnant woman she's hormonal, right? So I'm looking at my dog, my 85 pound Doberman, and he's, he's like, Hey bro, that's your fight. That ain't mine. And he takes off like some guard dog, right?

He's gone. So I just come out and ask her. I'm like, honey, listen, I, I don't want to, I don't understand like what you asked me a question and, and I answered it. Look, if you want me to go, just tell me you want me to go and I'll go. She's like, it's not about that. Well then tell me, like, what's it about?

She's like, I want you to want to go. Oh, come on. Really? Like, bro, I'm not that smart as a guy. Like I don't get that.

So in my household, ever since that moment, we have this thing where we're like, bro, you just talk guy, talk, talk guy, talk. Just shoot me straight. All right. I can't read the subliminal messages.

I just can't do it. But in this case, Abrams should have known, right? We can't put the blame just on Sarai. Abrams should have known. In fact, I would put a greater blame on Abram for not stepping in and saying, Hey, listen, no, this isn't good. We got to trust God here. But he didn't.

He went along with it. And they both sinned. Again, verse five says, and Sarai said to Abram, may the wrong done to me be on you. I gave my servant to your embrace and, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt.

May the Lord judge between you and me. But Abram said to Sarai, behold, your servant is in your power due to her as you please. Then Sarai dealt harshly with her and she fled from her. Listen, you see the imperfection of Abram. I mean, we go right to 22.

This word harshly here means that she literally, Sarai literally beat Hagar, beat her to the point to where she had to flee, to where she had to run. And this is what sin does to us. Sin beats us, beats us. And we should be fleeing to the cross, fleeing to God because we need him.

We can't do it on our own. We can't conquer it on, flee to him because sin will tear us apart. Sin hurts. You don't have to be a Christian to know that. Sin hurts.

It hurts you and everybody else around you. And what Abram, Sarai, and Hagar are experiencing are the consequences, painful consequences of sin. Yet despite their sin, God remembers his promise. He remembers his promise that if we were to read the rest of chapter 16, what we would learn is that God comes in and he saves Hagar and allows Hagar and Abram to have that child Ishmael. But Ishmael's not the promise. God reminds them of that Ishmael's not the promise. The promise wasn't supposed to come through Abram and Hagar. That's works-based. That's works-righteousness.

The child was supposed to come through Abram and Sarai. And so God in chapter 17 reminds them yet again of the promise. And in chapter 17, listen, the anticipation builds. If we were to really study all of chapter 17, you would see in there that God uses the word covenant 13 times in this chapter alone. In all of Genesis, the words used 26 times, half of them are in chapter 17. So what's happening here is God's basically saying, hey, listen, the promise is coming.

It's coming. In fact, in chapter 16, he's going to tell them by this time next year, you're going to have a child through Abram and it's going to be Abram and Sarai's child, Isaac. And so the anticipation for Abram, if we were to read this text as this man is building and it says this in chapter 17 verse one when Abram was 99 years old, listen, he's 99. That's 25 years. Over 25 years since God first gave Abram the promise, man, that's a long time.

Listen, I have a hard enough time waiting 25 minutes, let alone 25 years. No wonder why the guy's struggling, right? I'd be struggling too.

I'd be struggling too. Some of you in this room here today, some of you are struggling. Some of you are struggling with waiting, waiting for the promises of God for your life to be fulfilled. Some of you have stories like Abram and Sarai where you want to have kids, but you haven't been able to, and so you're left waiting. Some of you are in here today and you want to get married, but you're still single and you're struggling with waiting.

Some of you in here today, you want a career change and maybe you've prayed that and maybe you've discerned that and you feel like, man, I'm going to be doing something different, but you're still at the same job and you're struggling with that waiting period. Listen, some of you in this room here today are struggling with waiting, and it's hard. It's very hard when we're in a place of waiting, and nobody knows the pain of struggling with waiting regarding your situation than you. Nobody knows that pain more than you, and so I'm not going to stand up here and act like I know the pain that you're going through.

I'm not going to stand up here and act like I know your struggle. I'm not going to stand up here and act like I know why God is making you wait because I don't. I don't know why God's making you wait, but what I do know is that God has very good reasons for making Abram wait. Very good reasons, and I'm going to give you one of those reasons, and maybe that reason speaks to your situation, maybe it doesn't, but God has very good reasons, many reasons for making Abram wait.

I'll give you one. It's because he's not ready. He's not ready yet. He's not ready for the promise. The things that God's going to ask of Abram in chapter 22 are going to be very difficult, and Abram's not ready yet to handle that promise. He's not ready yet to be able to actually handle that blessing, and so God says, wait, I need time. I need to grow your faith. I need to grow you to a place to where you can actually handle that blessing and handle that promise, so for now, wait.

I'll put it to you like this. There's a lot of joy and freedom that comes with being able to drive a car, okay, a lot of freedoms, a lot of joy that comes with being able to drive in the blessing that we would call a car, but that doesn't mean I hand my four-year-old the keys, right? I don't hand my four-year-old the keys.

Why? Because he's not ready yet. He's not ready yet, so as a loving father, what I do is I basically go and I give him a trike first, and then after the trike, I give him training wheels, and then I start to take the training wheels off, and I give him a bike, and little by little, he's starting to enjoy more blessings, more of the freedom, and I'm growing him in the process of that so that one day he can come to a place where he can actually handle the blessing of the car.

How unloving would it be for me as a father to hand him the keys at four years old? Listen, that wouldn't be a blessing. That would be a tragedy, a tragedy, because he's not ready. Sumit, God's your father, and he loves you, and he loves you tremendously, and as a loving father, he's going to come in sometimes, and he's going to see what we cannot see in our limited four-year-old perspective, and sometimes he's going to say, wait, wait, not because he's trying to deny you from a blessing, but because he's trying to protect you from a tragedy, a tragedy that you can't see from your limited four-year-old perspective, but that he sees from his eternal perspectives, from his omniscience, and so sometimes he says, wait, and for 25 years, he said to Abram, wait, wait, man, you're just not ready yet. So for now, as a loving father, Abram, I want you to wait, but the time is finally coming where God is reminding him of the promise again, and he's saying, man, it's almost here. Listen, hang on, it's almost here.

By this time next year, it's going to happen. And so with great anticipation, the promise is coming again, 17 verse one says, 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. He says, man, I'm going to multiply you greatly. And so listen, the promise is coming 13 times in chapter seven, God says, man, I'm making a covenant with you, I'm making a covenant with you, I'm making a covenant with you.

And so with great anticipation, Abram's like, all right, man, listen, it's on, I've been waiting 25 years for this thing, man, come on, let's go, I'm ready for this, come make a great name, nation and blessing out of me, man, I'm ready for this, God. And then in verse 11, God says this, you shall be circumcised. Verse 11, you shall be circumcised. How does he even respond to that?

I mean, really? He's been waiting 25 years for the promise, and God says in verse 11, hey, bro, you got to get circumcised. And as if that's not bad enough, God says later on, a little bit later, he says, not only that, but you need to circumcise every male who's going to become a part of your tribe, every dude who wants to be a part of your tribe, you got to circumcise him well. Man, try getting people to sign up for that new member's class, right? Hey, you want to join our church? Great, man, I'm 99 years old, I'm going to have a baby. And by the way, we need to circumcise you.

In a period when when this wasn't happening, it may have been happening in some of the surrounding regions, but it wasn't for Abram. He's 99 years old, still not circumcised. So this is a hard sell for him. Now listen, I'm a church plant pastor, we are recruiting people right now, man, you get an invitation right here, someone is so open handed, they allow us to give you have an invitation to come with us back to Orlando and help us plant. We need that we want that we need young and old to help us to go back to Orlando to be a plant to be able to plant a church for King Jesus. But I'm pretty sure this strategy isn't the best strategy to do that, right? Like who wants to join a launch team of a 99 year old dude who's walking around claiming to have a baby wanting to circumcise people, anyone?

Anyone? Like, this is madness, right? I mean, it's complete madness. And years ago, I was an atheist, and as an atheist, I would have challenged this text, I would have been like, bro, this is crazy. But if it's crazy, if it's crazy, then why are we still talking about him today? Christian, let this strengthen your faith. If you're not a Christian, if you're a skeptic, if you're kind of off on the fence, I don't know what to believe or what not to believe.

Listen, think about that. If this is all madness, if this whole story is crazy, then why are we still talking about him today? It's been 4000 years since this text happened. How many names do you remember from from the year 2000 BC? How many names do you remember from 4000 years ago? Listen, there is absolutely no reason for us to still be talking about Abram for us to still be talking about a guy who is walking around at 99 years old, claiming to have a baby and wanting to circumcise people.

There's no reason for us to still be talking about him. Unless God made a promise, and he kept it. You can't manufacture that type of a of a legendary status with your name, not what the criteria Abram was given. It took the works of God, not the works of humanity.

For Abrams name to be preserved to 2016 to where we're still talking about him today. Despite Abram's sin, God remembered his promise, and he reminds him yet again verse 19, this time even giving his son a name, Isaac verse 19. God said, 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. Notice that he says it's an everlasting covenant. He's giving Abram an everlasting covenant, meaning that it's never going to expire and it's going to come through his son Isaac. This word covenant literally means contract. It's a contract.

It's a binding contract between two people. In this case, a binding contract between God and Abram, between God and us. We should be astounded by that. We should be astounded, moved by God's graciousness, by his love.

The fact that he would actually, I mean, this is how loving our God is and how gracious and gentle and merciful he is, that he would actually come and make a covenant with us. I mean, he's the creator of all things. He's the creator of the heavens and the earth. He's the creator of the six sextillion planets that exist in the known universe. Do you know how many planets that is?

A lot. It goes millions, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintillions, and then sextillions. And astronomers today believe that there's roughly six sextillion planets that exist in the known universe.

Actually recent studies, some astronomers are claiming maybe even as many as 300 sextillion planets that exist in the known universe. And yet God created all of that in existence by a simple spoken word. He simply spoke a word and roughly 300 sextillion planets came in and said, listen, he did it all without breaking a sweat.

Try cross fitting that without breaking a sweat. He simply speaks a word has done 300 sextillion planets created. He has no reason to be talking to us. He has no reason to be conversing with us yet out of his great love, he comes and he comes to us and he comes to Abraham and says to our four year old perspective, I'll make a covenant with you. I'll make a covenant and I'll put my name on the line.

I'll put my name on the line. Some of that's what he's doing here. He's putting his name on the line. He's, he's putting his name and his reputation on the line. I mean, if you're, if you're not sure whether or not to believe the story, think about what God's doing here. He's making an everlasting covenant. He's putting his, his name and his reputation on the line because if the promise doesn't happen, if the covenant doesn't happen, if the contract doesn't happen, if he doesn't fulfill his end of the deal, then, then it means he's a liar. We can't trust him and there's absolutely no reason to be worshiping him. If the covenant doesn't come true, then there is no reason for us to worship him.

His name is on the line, but, but if it does happen, if it does come true, then it means he's trustworthy and we have every reason to worship him. And so the question we have to ask ourselves here in 2016 is did it happen? Did the covenant happen? Did it come true? And the answer to that is yes, it did come true.

Yes, it did happen because here we are 4,000 years later, 2016 still talking about his name. God promised he would make a name out of Abram and he has. God promised he'd make a great nation out of Abram and he has. Today we have roughly 2.2 billion Christians that exist in the world today who can trace their lineage back to this promise.

That's not including the billions of Christians who have come before us. God promised he would make a great name out of Abram. He has.

We're still talking about him. He promised he would make a great nation out of Abram and he has. There's over 2.2 billion Christians in the world tonight today who trace themselves back to that promise. They also promised that he would make a great blessing out of Abram and he has through Jesus Christ.

He has through Jesus. Jesus is the everlasting covenant that's promised here in the text. He's the everlasting covenant. He's going to come 2,000 years later, a part of the descent, a part of the lineage of Abram and he comes and he gives us the everlasting covenant. He gives us the everlasting promise that through his life, death and resurrection, we will receive eternal forgiveness of sin. We will receive eternal salvation. We will receive eternal security. We will be able to be a part of the eternal family of God.

Yes, a part of Abram, but eternally a part of the family of God. Jesus is the everlasting promise and if you're a Christian, you're a part of that family. If you're not a Christian, repent of your sins. Believe in the good news of the gospel, who Jesus is and what he's done for you on the cross.

Become a part of that family. Be a part of this 4,000-year-old promise. Those of you who are Christians, listen, you are the fulfillment of the promise. You are the living proof of this 4,000-year-old covenant, which means that yes, he is trustworthy and he's worthy of all our worship.

You're living proof of that. He's trustworthy because the covenant happened and he's worthy of all of our worship. And so let's get to the heart of message and let's get to the heart. Despite Abram's sin, God remembered the promise. Despite Abram's sin, God remembered the promise and listen, he's going to do the same for you and I. He's going to do the same for us. He will remember every promise he's ever made for us, every promise.

If God can fulfill this 4,000-year-old promise with the criteria Abram was given, if God can fulfill that promise, it means he could fulfill every promise that has ever been written in these scriptures, every promise. And so we're going to end on that. We're going to end on that. We're going to end by remembering some of the many promises that God's made. We're going to end by remembering some of the many promises of King Jesus, because it all points back to King Jesus. Every promise is fulfilled through him. It's always about Jesus and we point it back to King Jesus.

He's the everlasting covenant. And so we're going to end today by pointing it back to King Jesus, by pointing back to the promises that we have in King Jesus, the promises about who he is, his character, and the promises regarding what he's done and what he's going to do. So I'm going to just read to you some of the promises, they're paraphrased and we have scriptures for them.

Some of them will be on the screen, some of them won't be, but we're going to point this back to King Jesus. And I'm going to read to you some of the promises that we have in him, the unchanging promises in his character. Some of them are going to be promises regarding what he's done.

Some of them are going to be promises regarding what he's going to do, but we can trust every single one of these promises. Some in church listen to who he is, listen to who our God is, listen to what he's done, listen to what he's going to do. This is King Jesus. He was never created. He is the creator of everything. He is God. He is God incarnate, fully human and fully divine.

His essence never changes. He is all powerful. He is all knowing. He is all loving.

He is ever present. He is holy. He is righteous. He is just.

He is sinless. He is gentle. He is merciful. He is forgiving.

He is humble. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the great physician. He healed a man from leprosy. He healed a paralyzed man. He healed a blind man. He healed a man with a withered hand. He healed a woman who was hemorrhaging. He healed many other sick people.

He walked on water. He calmed the storm. He fed 5,000 hungry people. He raised Lazarus from the dead. He came to save sinners like you and I. His death on the cross reconciles us with God. He justifies us. He sanctifies us. He redeems us. He gives us victory. He gives us eternal life. He gives us everlasting righteousness.

He rose again on the third day, proving it all to be true. He is alive, and he is well, and he's coming back in power and in glory. He's coming back in power and glory, and he's going to take you with him. He's going to take me with him.

He's going to take us with him. He's going to take us to heaven, and he promises that after he's come back and after he's taken us with him, in Revelation 21 verse 4, he says, I will wipe away every tear from their eyes. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. The tears of waiting. The tears of depression. The tears of mental illness. The tears of the health issues you have, the tears of losing people we love. The tears of our struggles with sin. He will wipe away every tear we've ever experienced in our life. You know how we know it's all true? Because despite our sin, he remembers his promises. He remembers his promises.