God's Man, God's Plan Series

I want to highlight one recent group’s effort at loving our neighbor. Our church family’s month long emphasis is Won’t You Be Our Neighbor? The Key Bible Fellowship Group shared Christ’s love by providing loose change in a nearby laundry mat. They shared Christ’s love through conversations and serving – I am so grateful for them. Other groups threw a party for our friends who attend ESL. It’s so good to see you embrace people of other nations. You have extended them a warm welcome them into our community and our church. I am grateful for each of you doing your part – so proud of you, church family!

If you have your Bibles, turn with me to Genesis 15, if you will. There are some things that are too good to be true. Have you ever heard of something that was so good that it just couldn’t be true? Something that was so good but so “outside the norm” that you thought to yourself, “There’s no way under heaven that this could be true”? Imagine living in the early part of the 1900s and one of the Wright Brothers says to you, “I am going to take you flying next week. We are going to fly over half of North Carolina. We will cover miles and miles in matter of only minutes?” What would you have said to the Wright brothers if you would have never seen anything but a bird fly?

Some of you are familiar with lifehacks on the web. Now, a lifehack is a trick, a shortcut or a skill that increases your productivity in life or simply makes life easier. There is a lifehack where you can seamlessly repair broken china by simply submerging your broken china in warm milk for two days. Or, can you imagine if someone said to you, “The Cowboys will win this year’s Super Bowl in Atlanta?” Wouldn’t you agree that there are some things that are simply too good to be true?

Today, we continue a series dedicated to the life of Abraham, the father of the faith. Abraham heard something that was too good to be true. All of a sudden and completely out of nowhere, God makes some extravagant promises to Abraham seemingly out of nowhere. The critical question is whether Abraham will trust God? Abraham had to answer a critical question for himself, “Can God be trusted?” I want you to learn from the experience of Abraham.

Think of what you’re about to read as having two halves: the 1st half deals with Abraham’s question about a family while the 2nd half deals with his question about a home.

Today’s Scripture

After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. 7 And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8 But he said, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” 9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 And he brought him all these, cut them in half, and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. 11 And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. 12 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age. 16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, 19 the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, 20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, 21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites” (Genesis 15:1–21).