God Keeps His Promises

God Keeps His Promises

Promise - A declaration assuring that one will or will not do something; a vow. Indication of something favorable to come; expectation. Indication of future excellence or success.

This is the vow God made to Abraham in the book of Genesis. Not only did God give him the promise but He showed Abraham what he must do to receive the promise.

You may can recall some time in your life when God has spoken to you and He made you a promise. He told you something that would come to pass. He shared some insight as to what was to come for you.

As we take the life of Abraham, let us learn from his mistakes but also from his good choices. My prayer is that you will be encouraged on the fact that God has not forgotten about you.

Before we can start viewing the life of Abraham, we must first look to see what seven promises God made to this man.

Gen. 12:2

Gen. 12:2 – God told Abraham:

1. I will make you a great nation

2. I will bless you

3. I will make your name great

4. You shall be a blessing

5. I will bless those that bless you

6. I will curse those that curse you

7. In you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed

Not only will I allow you to dwell in Canaan but also one day you and your family will possess it. It will be yours.

Gen. 15:7 – The Lord said to Abraham

“I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to posses it.”

In today’s message you will see:

1. Abraham’s Instructions

2. Abraham’s Incentive

3. Abraham’s Impatience

4. Abraham’s Isaac

Abraham’s Instructions:

When God gives you a promise you must understand there will come a testing time to see if you are going to be faithful to Him and deserving of the promise.

When God gave Abraham his promise, it also came with some instructions.

Read Gen. 12:1 and notice Abraham’s instructions.

Leave your country: comfortable surroundings

At home, you get complacent. Get into a routine that is hard to break. Abraham had to get to the place where He was going only where God instructed him to go.

Maybe you are in unfamiliar territory, be encouraged that God knows exactly where you are. You are never too far that He cannot reach out His hand to help you.

Leave your relatives: influence

Family has a way of influencing you to do what they feel is best for you. Abraham had to get away from those who influence him so he could just concentrate on what God was leading him to do.

When you receive a call on your life from God, your family and friends will not understand it. They will try to discourage you from it because God’s way never falls into the understanding of this world.

2nd Corinthians 6:17 – “Come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord”

Leave your Father’s House: security

God wanted Abraham depending solely on Him. When you start depending on others, they will:

Let you down

Discourage you

Try to tell you how to make decisions.

The first test that God puts on Abraham is with these instructions. If Abraham is serious about receiving this promise from God then he will forsake all and follow God’s command.

Isn’t that exactly what God is calling us to do? Even with the disciples, In Luke 5, Christ told Matthew, “Follow Me”. The Bible says that Matt got up and left everything he had to follow Christ.

(Let the dead bury the dead)

His response: Gen. 12:4 - No questions asked,

I can hear him singing:

Wherever He leads I’ll go, Wherever He leads I’ll go. I follow my Christ, who loves me so, Wherever He leads I’ll go.

Abraham’s Incentive:

Read Genesis 13:14-17

Notice God promises Abraham descendants (kids). Remember he is now 75 years old. What in the world could God be thinking? But Abraham keeps on going.

Again in Gen. 15:2 – Abraham calls out to God:

“O Lord God, what will Thou give me since I am childless?”

v.3 “Since Thou has given no offspring to me?”

Notice: God knows what He promises you. But He also knows how to perfect it into your life. We may not understand His timing or His ways of doing things, but God is in control.

God tells Abraham in Gen. 15:4

“the one who shall come from your own body (seed) shall be the heir” (v.5 ) “look at the stars – these represent the number of your descendants”

But Abraham didn’t even have one much less a thousand.