Listen, it is good to see you.
The 11 o'clock crowd, you are here and I'm grateful. We had a great 830 service this morning. We just had a great Bible fellowship Sunday School Hour as well.
God is doing some amazing things here at Union Grove. We are grateful. I appreciate what Pastor David said earlier about the New Here card. Let me just say, if this is your first time or the first time in a while, we are so grateful that you are here.
And we don't consider that lightly. And I understand you could be in a lot of different places and you've chosen to worship with us today. And we just want to show our gratitude for you.
And so if you could take that card and fill it out. Take it our welcome center, which is right back outside that door. If you've never been here before and a volunteer will get a gift in your hands is our way of saying thank you for being a part of the service here today. Well, we are super excited about today. We are starting our what I would call our summer sermon series today. And here's what I'll tell you.
Anytime you're there on week one at the start of a series is super important because you kind of get a little bit of the setup and where we're going to be going for the remainder of the series. And so let me just say, I'm glad that you are here and you're here on a good day. And I believe God wants to use this series to speak to us, but I've entitled this series sinners like us.
In fact, can we say that together? Sinners like us. And if you're like me and you grew up in church and I know many of you have, in fact, let's just by a show of hands. How many of you would say I was raised in the church since I was a kid?
OK, many of us in here. Well, that's my story. And so I've been around the church my entire life. And and as you're going, you know, the church that I grew up in, you know, we had Sunday school. We had Sunday morning. We had Sunday night.
We had Wednesday night and we had tons of revivals throughout the whole year. So we were constantly getting together, constantly around the church. And and so I was as a young kid, I knew all of the Bible stories, all of the different Bible characters. And over time, you kind of learn all these different characters throughout scripture from Genesis really to the New Testament.
And you see these characters and you learn about them, you grow to love them and you kind of have followed their story throughout. And many of us, we ended up having maybe a favorite Bible character, depending on, you know, kind of what yours is or what you loved, you know. And you follow these stories, guys like Abraham, which we're going to look at today, going even further back.
Guys like like Noah. And then you go into Isaac and and Jacob and Joseph and and Moses. And and you go all the way to Joshua and and some of the judges like Samson and different things. And as a kid, you kind of grow to love these stories. And as a kid, here's what I'll tell you, is that growing up and listening to all these different stories, what sometimes that I grew accustomed to thinking was that that particular story was about that person and what I could learn about that person. And and then following God.
And truthfully, it is some of those things. But here, as I've gotten older, here's what I've what I've learned is that the Bible from cover to cover is really compiled with a list of stories. Those guys that I just mentioned, a bunch of Bible characters and different things. But all of the different stories and narratives that you find in scripture, they all are pointing to a grander story of what Jesus has done on behalf of sinners like us.
You see, from cover to cover, all the way back since the very beginning, what you find is that every single one of the Bible characters that many of you grew up loving and that many of you grew up following and learning about, let me tell you this, every single one of them are actually part of a grander story of a Messiah who came and what the Messiah did on behalf of sinners like us. You see, every single one of these characters that we see in scripture, every single one of them were flawed. Every single one of them were sinners. Every single one of them struggled. Every single one of them doubted.
Every single one of them had difficulties and moments of weakness. But what they are all pointing to is this grand story of what Jesus would one day come and do on behalf of sinners like us. All summer long, we are going to look, I mean, we can't look at all of them, but we're going to look at several characters throughout the entire summer, sinners like you, like me, and what God can do through a sinner like us. Our first one that we're going to look at takes us all the way back to the book of Genesis.
If you want to join me, we are going to be in Genesis chapter number 15. Genesis chapter number 15 today, we are going to look at the life of Abraham. The life of Abraham.
And a little bit of background before we dive in here today. Abraham, one of the most famous people in scripture. I mean, in fact, Abraham's life is so famous because Israel would be birthed out of his family. And so if you remember way back, Genesis chapter number 12, God, he shows up to Abram, and he shows up, and by the way, if you're newer to church, Abram, Abraham's same name, where we're going to be in Genesis 15, his name hasn't changed yet, so don't get those mixed up. So Abram and Abraham are the same person. But in Genesis chapter number 12, God, he showed up to Abram and he told him, he said, Abram, I'm going to make of you a great nation.
And I'm going to make your name great. And your family's going to be so, so big, and he gave him all of these promises, and he said, the first thing that you need to do is you need to leave your homeland and you need to come and follow, follow me. And so throughout his life, what you're going to find is that Abraham, God was constantly putting him in situations where he would have to choose God or his own pleasure or God and his own will or God and his family or God and his comfort.
And God was trying to teach him to choose God over anything else in life. Abram, we learn, was the son of Terah. Terah had three different sons, Abram, Nahor, and a man by the name of Haran. You might be familiar with Haran because Haran was the father of Lot.
Well, Terah, two of his sons, Nahor and Haran, ended up dying, and so Abram had to look out for his nephew Lot. We know that story, Abraham and Lot, and so we see that. And so what I love about the story of Abraham is that he was an imperfect man. He was an imperfect man. How many imperfect people do we have in here today?
Raise your hand, okay. Or better yet, because that's many of us in here, how many perfect people do we have in here? Anybody show up, you're just perfect, you do no wrong or whatever.
Well, here's the deal, is that if you raised your hand or whatever, you just actually did wrong, I'll just tell you. But here's the point, is that we love stories of imperfect people from time to time, do we not? Because when we look at lives that are imperfect, we can relate to them, because we see their weaknesses and we can identify and relate with them, because none of us are perfect. So when we look at these characters, I don't want you to elevate these people to think that these were the super spiritual guys that are well above what you and I.
No, these were normal, normal people. Don't believe me, if you know anything about Abraham's life, he struggled from time to time. God gave him a promise that he's going to make of him a great nation. And so we know that Abraham, he just doubted that. And by the way, some of us are no different than that. God gives us a whole book full of promises for you and for me, and from time to time, we doubt what God has already declared you to be and already said you are in his word.
And we doubt those things. Well, Abraham's no different, and so God gave him this promise, I'm going to make of you a great nation. Well, Abram and his wife Sarah, they begin to get older in age, and so they're thinking, man, this great nation that God continues to tell us about is just never going to happen. And so Abram, he comes up with this idea, he decides I'm going to get in front of God, or I'm going to take matters into my own hands, and I'm going to basically take what God has told me, and I am going to just do things my way.
And by the way, every time we try to do things our way, we get ourselves into trouble, don't we? That's exactly what happened to Abram. So Abram comes up with this idea, and these are parts of the Bible, and if you feel bad about your family, all you need to do is go to the life of Abraham, and you're going to feel really good about your family. If you think your marriage is dysfunctional, learn from the life of Abram, and you'll learn very quickly that you might even have it together a little bit better than this guy that we're learning about here today.
Here's what Abram came up with. He said, you know what? He had this idea, and he said, we can't have kids, we're getting old. God says that I'm going to be a father of many nations, and I'm going to have all these kids, and he's told me that, and he's told me to look into the sky at the stars and all these different things, and so I'm going to have more kids than this, and thinking, like, what in the world? How is this going to work? Well, we're getting old in age, and so his promise, I want it now, so I'm going to take matters into my own hands. He came up with the idea that their Egyptian handmaid that worked in their home, that he would actually sleep with her and have kids, so he came up with this idea, and by the way, that's a bad idea, is it not?
That's a terrible idea, and it's wild. It's such a dysfunctional way of thinking, and so they end up through Hagar. He comes up with this idea. He goes to Sarah, and he says, Sarah, you know that promise that God has told us time and time again? And sure, Sarah's like, of course, and he says, well, I got an idea. We're going to make sure that that happens. Hagar, the lady who lives here, let me sleep with her, and we're going to have kids as a result. Now, that's a wild idea, but you know what's even wilder to me is that Sarah, she processes this idea, and at some level, she says, okay.
Right? What a terrible, terrible dysfunctional type of family. What a family that their sinner is like you and like me, and so they do this. They get ahead of God, and we know that God had another plan for them. Well, also, another situation of weakness for Abram. We find in two different accounts that Abraham, when he had to go to Egypt, Sarah was apparently a beautiful woman, and so when they had to go to Egypt, she was afraid that the Egyptians would take his wife away from him, and so he lied about his wife being his sister. Isn't that a terrible thing to do men?
Not a good idea, right? And so he does that. So he does that not just once, but twice he makes that mistake. Well, we know that also not only did he lie and that he was immoral, but then we also know throughout his life that he doubted God. And maybe you can't fully relate with his immorality, and maybe you can't fully relate with him lying, but we can all somewhat relate to Abraham and the way that we have doubted God from time to time. That we sometimes, what God has told us, we just can't get behind it, or we can't believe it, we can't claim something that God has already told us about ourselves and about our relationship with him. Well, in Genesis chapter number 15, Abraham, who has been doubting God and not believing God and trying to get ahead of God and lying and struggling, we find that God is going to double down on the promise of what he is going to do for a sinner like Abraham. Look at what he says, Genesis chapter number 15 verses 1 through 6, and then we'll read some more here in a bit. He says, verse 1, After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus? Abram said, Behold to me, thou hast given no seed, and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
Yea, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Verse 5, And he brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven, tell the stars if thou be able to number them. And he said unto them, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness. So these six verses, and we'll kind of continue reading here in a moment, but so God, remember Abraham is a sinner like you, a sinner like me, and God had told him a promise.
He said, I'm going to make of you a great nation, and I'm going to give you a land that you are going to inherit with your family down the road. And so he was having to just trust God and believe God for what God had already told him. Well, he sinned, he's doubted, he doesn't believe God, and so God here is going to double down on his promise. He does this in a couple of different ways. Well, the first thing was he revealed himself in a vision, and he told him this, Fear not.
Fear not. Now, if you think about this, God is appearing in a vision, it says here in verse number 1. Now, I want you to be honest. Like, if you think about it, I don't exactly know what this looked like. When it says that God appeared in a vision, I don't know if that means that Abraham for a few moments was in a trance and God, you know, appeared himself. If it was like a ghost-like figure, I have no idea what that is like. But here's what I'm going to tell you, is that in my dream, or if I had a dream and a vision appeared in front of me, I would be a little bit fearful. How many of you would agree? Right? We all would.
Everybody would. And God revealed himself, and the very first thing he said was, Fear not. Fear not. Now, let me say this, that over 300 times in Scripture, God tells us to fear not.
And why do you think he tries to double down so much on that? It's because we all fear, don't we? We all worry. Every single one of us struggle with worrying about things, and we fear certain things. Some of you fear personal insecurities about yourself, and you fear things like that, right?
And so when God tells you to do something, your first response is, No, I have an insecurity in my life, and I am fearful about whatever God is telling me or calling me to do. Some of you fear health. Some of you fear your children and raising them in this world. Some of you fear if your son or daughter is going to grow up and become a Carolina Tar Heel fan like myself. That's one of my biggest fears, and so it's a joke, okay? Some of you are like, Really?
And so that's one of my jokes, but here's the point. It's like we fear from time to time, and we fear real things, right? We fear real things, like how are my kids going to make it? How are my kids going to grow up and love God and all these things?
How am I going to take a step and go wherever God is telling me or calling me to go? And we fear, and here's what God's saying. It's God saying to Abram, Abram feared these same things. He was a sinner just like you and a sinner just like me. He was normal, and he feared these things.
And God shows up to him and he says, Abram, here's what I want you to know first of all. Fear not. Fear not. And here's what's interesting about this. All the fears that he had were like completely normal fears.
He had to leave his homeland. That's fearful, right? Some of you have never left Davidson County.
Imagine moving out of this county, right? That's fearful. That's scary for some of you. It's fearful to leave, to leave your family. That's scary. We just had graduation at our Christian school, and some people are going to be moving off.
Some of them are good ways away, right? It's fearful. That's a reason to fear. I mean, everybody has moments like that where we fear. And what God is saying this, he says fear not. But what's interesting is what comes next.
What comes next. So when Abram's fearful, God could have said, Abram, don't fear. You're a really good person. Reach deep within you and deep within yourself and muster up the strength to press forward. In fact, if you were to go online today through Google and Google like something about how to overcome your insecurities or how to not fear your health or whatever, Google's going to come back with many different articles that are going to try to help you, and they're going to say things like this. Hey, before you leave the house every day, look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself how good you are and tell yourself how kind you can be and tell yourself what you can accomplish in your life. And if you keep telling yourself things about yourself, eventually you won't fear.
But here's what I'm going to tell you. Abram did not receive that from God. Abram didn't receive anything about himself to God from God. Abram received only things about God.
You see, not only did he say fear not to him, he then follows that up with this. God reminds Abram who he's talking to. And some of us, that's what we need today. Some of us that are doubting, some of us that are in fear, or some of us that are struggling, realizing, can God really use me or can God really even save me?
And let me tell you this. For some of you, what you need is what God is about to tell Abraham. You need to be reminded who he is, who God is in your life.
And so he doesn't say, Abram, tell yourself every day in the mirror before you leave that you're a good person and that you can do this if you try really hard. No, he says this, hey, don't fear, and here's why. He says, because I am your shield. Don't fear, Abram, because I am your shield, and not only that, I am your exceeding great reward. You see, a shield is protection from the enemy.
It's our defense. A shield goes in front of you. A shield that is behind you is not going to protect you. If you go to battle and you have a shield and you're holding it next to you or behind you, it's not going to do you any good, is it? Why?
Because a shield, the only way it's going to work for you is you have to put it in front of you, and it's going to block the enemy's darts that they are shooting in your direction. So what God was saying was this, Abraham, I get it, you're a sinner. I get it that you're unworthy. I get it that you're undeserving.
I get it that you don't know how and you don't have what it takes to follow me with your life. That's why I'm going to be your shield. I'm going to go before you. I'm going to go in front of you.
I'm going to pave the way. And not only that, he says I'm your shield, but then he said I am your great reward. Now, if you think about this, Abraham in the very next verse, the very next verse when God says I'm your great reward, and you would think Abraham would get it, right? Well, he, like you and like me, struggled to get it. So he says, God, what will you give me?
Isn't that interesting? He says, God, what are you going to give me? In other words, he's looking for stuff from God.
He's looking for stuff. And by the way, in the Christian experience, some of us, that's where we struggle from time to time. You're looking for what you can get from God. You're looking for, hey, God, if I follow you, will you make me prosperous? God, if I follow you, will you give me protection? God, if I follow you, will you fill in the blank, give me financial success, or will you give me a great career, or will you give me a promotion, or will you give me whatever, right?
If I follow you, will you give me something, right? Well, that's how Abraham was. Abraham literally says, he's like, God, what are you going to give me? Here's the thing, is that what you get or what you gain in him is greater than anything you ever give up for him.
So the point is, is this, whatever, Abraham, stop worrying about what you get with God and remember who you have in a relationship with God. For some of us, that's what we need to remind ourselves here today, is that what we get or who we get in Jesus is greater than anything else. Don't look at your relationship with God as a means to an end. Look at God in your life as the end, as the end.
Stop worrying about prosperity and stop worrying about protection and stop worrying about security. Those are great things, but here's what I'll tell you, is that God wants you to find your reward, not in stuff, not in things, but in him, in a relationship with him. And in a relationship with him, we have everything that we need. You see, God's reminding Abram of his covenant with him and he's telling him, he's saying, listen, Abram, my promise to you, it has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with the giver of the promise. In other words, my covenant, my promise with you, it's not dependent upon you, Abram.
It's dependent upon the giver of the promise, which is true for you today. Your salvation, your deliverance, it's not dependent upon you, because we're sinners. We fall short. We're unworthy.
We're undeserving. You see, our salvation can't be dependent upon you or me because we'd mess it all up just like Abram did. It's dependent upon the giver of the promise for you.
It's dependent upon the one who's given the promise. So he's trying to get Abram to understand this, but obviously Abram, we know from the story, he just can't understand it. So in verse number seven, God decides, hey, I'm gonna have to illustrate this a little bit more seriously for Abram because he's not understanding it. And so he says, Abram said unto him, I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees.
Do you not remember this, Abram? You can't get it the first time, the second time, the third time, and here we are again trying to remind you of what I want to do in you to give thee this land inherited, verse eight, and he said, Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? He's still asking questions. He doesn't get it.
He's struggling to believe what God has already promised him, and he's doubting God once again like so many of us in here. And so he said, I'm gonna illustrate it. Look what he says in verse nine. He said, take you a heifer of three years old, a she-goat of three years old, a ram of three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
Okay? And so he says, take all of these different animals, and he took them unto him, verse 10, all these, and he divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against another, but the birds divided he not. So what's happening here is, and let me try to kind of illustrate this as best I can. So he says, Abram, grab these five different animals, and I want you to cut them in half. And I want you to put half of the animal this side, half on this side, and the trail of blood of what you just ripped open is gonna be kind of in the center, kind of this little river of blood, if you would. Now, you say, what exactly was he trying to teach them?
What was he trying to do? Well, this was very common in these cultural days that for them, if they're gonna do an agreement or they're gonna go into a covenant or be under contract with somebody, this was the way that they are going to make their covenant or make their promise good. So for us, it'd be like if you go out of here and buy a house, find your realtor, and you end up closing on your house, you're gonna sign just one or two papers in that process, and so just kidding, obviously you're gonna sign a ton. You sign your name, and then you give a down payment, and what that's saying, your signature and your down payment are saying, I'm gonna make good on the promise that I am making to buy this house, okay? And so that's how we have contracts today is you do a contract, you sign your name, you pay a down payment, and that means that you're gonna keep your end of the bargain. Well, in this day, this is how they did it. So if you made a contract or you went into a contract with somebody, what you would do is you would take these five animals, you'd split them, and you'd cut them right in half.
There'd be a trail of blood right in the middle, and what you would do is you and the person you're making the contract with is you both would walk across the trail of blood together. You say, why would you do something like that? First of all, it's kind of gross, right? It's almost lunchtime.
Hopefully you'll forget this story before lunch. And so, but you would walk across, say, why is that, here's why, is you are saying, when you walk across the trail of blood, you are saying that if I don't keep my end of the bargain, let what happened to these animals happen to me. In other words, you're telling the person you're going into a covenant with, you're saying, if I don't keep my end of the bargain, then you have every right to kill me and to take this for yourself. And so both of them would walk through this trail of blood signifying that they will keep their end of the bargain, they will stay in contract with this covenant, and go from there.
But think about our story. God, this is not unusual for Abraham, because he knew that this is the normal way for contracts to be made. So God tells him, Abraham, here's how I'm going to show you this. I'm going to do this, just like you've probably seen done before.
You're going to split these open. There'll be a trail of blood there. And then I want you to wait. So Abram's waiting. So Abram's waiting for God, because typically they would both go, and this is how they would know that this is how their contract is done. But look at what happens is after, you go down to verse number 11. And when the fowls came down upon the carcass, Abram drove them away.
So he hadn't walked across it or nothing. And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. Lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him. So now he's kind of in a trance.
He's asleep. And he said unto Abram, so now here we go, God's speaking again to Abram in this moment, know of a surety 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. So he's talking about the future and also that nation whom they shall serve.
Will I judge? And afterwards, shall they come out with great substance. Now shall go to thy fathers in peace. Thou shall be buried in a good old age. Verse 16, but in the fourth generation, they shall come hither again for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
Now 17 is where it gets good. Look at what he says in verse 17. And it came to pass that when the sun went down, so Abram's still waiting on God so they can make good on this promise that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. So the smoking furnace and the burning lamp were images of God as he went across in between the two pieces that had been ripped apart. You see some of the same similarities between God's presence on Mount Sinai with the fire on Mount Sinai when God met with Moses. And here you see the same thing as a furnace and as a lamp, here God comes down from heaven and he goes across these two pieces to Abram. You say what exactly what he was, what was going on here in this moment. God was walking through this alone. God was walking through this alone.
You say why? Because Abram needed to go through this saying that I'm gonna make good on the covenant with you God that this is my part in it. You see what God was saying was this, do not miss this. God was telling Abram, he was saying, if God fails to keep his side of the bargain, which we know he won't, he will pay with his blood.
But don't miss this. He was showing Abram that if Abram fails to keep his side of the bargain, which we know he will, he will also pay for it with his blood. You say what was God trying to teach us? God in essence was telling Abram, he was saying this, Abram, I'm responsible for both sides of the covenant. Abram, the thing you gotta learn is this, is that you have nothing to do with the covenant.
I'm making myself responsible for both sides of the covenant. You see, this is one of the clearest pictures of the gospel in all of scripture tucked away in Genesis chapter number 15. Just like Abram fell asleep, the scripture says that we were dead or asleep in our own sin. And when Jesus became our sacrifice on the cross, darkness, just like in this story, swept across the earth, just like we see here in Genesis chapter number 15. And on the cross, Jesus, the son of God's blood was shed for us. But don't miss this. Was Jesus dying on the cross because God didn't keep his end of the bargain?
No. Jesus was dying on the cross because you and I and Abraham and all the sinners just like us had failed to keep our end of the bargain. You see, what you see here is God making himself responsible for both sides of the bargain, not just the covenant and the promise that he gives us, but he's also making him responsible for you and I failing to keep the original promise. He took my sins and my sorrows, not his, yours, mine, and he made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary and he suffered and died alone. How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be.
How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me. You say, what's Abraham having to learn? Abraham's having to learn that the promise that was made to Abraham by God had nothing to do with him at all. It had everything to do with who gave the promise. You see, Abraham was a sinner, just like you and just like me, and the stories in scripture of his life, this isn't just about Abraham and his faith.
This had everything to do with the God of Abraham and everything to do pointing to what God is wanting to do in us. Abram was a doubter. He was a liar.
He was an adulterer. It had nothing to do with him because every time Abram tried to take the reins of his life on his own, he always screwed everything up. He always messed everything up, and what God was saying was this, Abram, I have a promise that I will not fail. I'm gonna give you this, but at the same time, I know that you're a sinner, and I know that you fall short, and I know that you doubt, and I know that you struggle, and here's the good news for you, Abram, is that your doubt and struggle I'm still gonna take and be responsible for your side of the bargain, and the way I'm gonna do that is one day I'm gonna send my only begotten son, Jesus, who's gonna hang on a cross for the sins of Abram and the sins of all sinners just like Abram, and he's gonna hang on a cross for all of us, and he is gonna take what all of us deserve. You say, what can we learn?
Just two quick things as we wrap this up here today about Abram's story that you can learn today. The first thing you gotta understand is this. You gotta understand who has called you. You see, salvation from God, it has nothing to do with you. That's what Abraham was struggling to learn. Abraham kept saying, what do I have to do?
What do I get? And God continuously had to remind him that, hey, it has nothing to do with you. There's five different moments in Abraham's life where he struggled. We looked at those today, and let me just tell you, that's not just hypocrisy. That's humanity.
I hate when people say that church is full of hypocrites, and here's why. It's because every single one of us are hypocrites, right? That's all of us. That's everybody on this planet.
It's not just a few select few in here. Every single one of us are. That's humanity.
We all fall short. We're all sinners, and what we need to be reminded at is this, is that our salvation, it has nothing to do with us. We have to be reminded today that just like Abraham, the promise that God has given to us, it has everything to do with the person giving it and nothing with the person who receives it. There's nothing that you can do to get it. All you gotta do is be reminded who has called you.
Think about it. I mean, here, God didn't tell Abraham anything about, and so like, you're special Abraham. You're a good person. Hey, you've been really good in the things that I've given you, kind of, you know, you've done well or whatever. He didn't tell him anything like that.
He just said, hey, Abram, here's the deal. As you go forward in your life, I'm gonna ask you to do things. I'm giving you a covenant that seems crazy, seems far-fetched, seems unrealistic, but here's what I want you to know. It is all of those things, but the good news is this, is that it has nothing to do with you or your actions. It has nothing to do with your abilities.
It has nothing to do with that. All you gotta do is be surrendered to me, and I will take care of everything for you. That's what you need to be reminded of. Some of you are trying to work your way to God, and you always fall short. On your very best day, the Bible says that you fall short of the glory of God.
There's nothing that you can do to inherit acceptance from your creator. And God, he's saying, hey, don't forget this, I'm God. Don't forget this, I'm creator. Don't forget this, I'm the everlasting one. Don't forget this, I'm your refuge. Don't forget this, I'm your strength when you feel like you can't go forward. I'm your reward. I'm your shield. I'm your deliverer.
I'm your shepherd. And throughout scripture, God has given us promise after promise for us to take and to believe and to claim for ourselves. But for us to take a step towards God and follow him, you gotta realize it has nothing to do with you, but everything to do with who has called you.
The second thing, and quickly, is this, remember all that he has done for us, not only who he is, but also what he's already done for you. You see, this moment, I truly believe this, this moment is probably what gave Abram the courage to walk up Mount Moriah with Isaac later in his life. You remember that story, Genesis chapter number 22, God tells him, this promise of Isaac has been for so many years, right? Abram finally gets it. And now God says, hey Abram, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go up and I want you to offer your only son, Isaac, up on an altar. Can you imagine receiving that type of imperative from God? And you know what Abram did?
Abram obeyed. Abram travels up Mount Moriah with Isaac, ready, he lays him on an altar, and he goes all the way to that point where he had the knife, he was gonna obey God, and he has the knife like this until an angel of the Lord stopped him. How in the world could the man that we looked at here in his life, the same guy who lied twice, the same guy who was immoral with the Egyptian handmaid, which is weird, the same, all these different struggles he had, the same one who doubted God, how in the world could he ever take his son up that hill?
How could he do it? I think the answer is found in Genesis chapter number 15. I think Genesis 15, what God showed him here in our story today, I think it gave him the courage to take a step and to do whatever, and here's why. I think that Abraham learned in this story how far God was willing to go to keep his covenant and his promise with him. I think Abraham realized how far God was willing to go, he was willing to give his own life so that Abram could experience what God had promised for him. And when Abraham finally got that, then he was willing to give everything, including his only son, up to God because he realized how far God was willing to go. You see, for some of us in here, we struggle to say yes to God, or perhaps you think, man, there's no way God could love me, or there's no way that God would ever want to die for me, nobody knows what I've done, nobody knows who I am, nobody knows some of the things in my life, nobody knows my past, nobody knows some of the terrible things that I have. Here's what you're forgetting. Your salvation has nothing to do with your works, whether they be good or bad.
It has nothing to do with you at all. It has everything to do with the one who came to you. And here's the good news for us, is that every single one of us, like Abram, are sinners. And we're in need of a savior. And what God said by sending his son Jesus on the cross is he's saying this, I am offering you a promise of salvation.
And I'm gonna keep that promise. And by dying on the cross, I'm gonna pay for you not keeping your end of the bargain. Not living up to the life that is worthy of a relationship with God, and because of that, I'm gonna die on the cross and I'm gonna pay for the sin that you have committed.
Every bad thing you've ever done, every bad thought you've ever done, I'm gonna pay for all of that. And it's gonna be paid in full so that you can still trust in me and receive the promise, the gift of eternal life, that it's freely given to every single one of us. You see, for us to say yes to God, confidence in confidence, confidence in faith, it doesn't come from you. It doesn't come from you believing you're special or believing you're good or believing that you have the ability to do whatever God is calling you to do. It comes from remembering who God is and what God has done for a bunch of sinners just like you and just like me. That's what God has done for us. Can we bow our heads for prayer?
