OPEN: A little boy was walking on the beach, and he saw an older woman sitting under a beach umbrella. And he walked up to her and asked, “Are you a Christian?” “Yes.” she replied. “Do you read your Bible every day?” She nodded her head, “Yes.” “Do you pray often?” he asked next, and again she answered, “Yes.” With that he smiled and said: “Well then, would you hold my quarter while I go swimming?”
Now, why would that little boy ask all those questions? Because he wanted to know if he could trust her! (PAUSE) And that’s what the world wants to know about us: can they trust US? Because, if they can trust us, odds are they’ll trust God as well.
Paul, for example, had been accused by being dishonest by his critics, and he wrote: “As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in Him.” II Corinthians 1:18-20
AS SURELY AS GOD IS FAITHFUL (pause) So, is God faithful? Well, that’s what the Bible says:
Numbers 23:19 says “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? ANSWER: NO! God will ALWAYS do what He promises to do.
Then Hebrews 10:23 tells us “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
GOD IS FAITHFUL! He will do what He promises to do. And because He does that, we can have hope in a world that is too often hopeless. SO, when God makes a promise… you can count on it.
Just a few examples of the promises of God for you are these:
Paul wrote that God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
Jesus said: “do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:31-33
Hebrews 13:5 declares “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
One early church father wrote: “I have read Plato and Cicero - sayings that are very wise and beautiful; but I never read in either of them: ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’” Augustine of Hippo
The Bible is a book of promises: According to one source “The New Testament has 750 promises, but due to the fact that many of the promises are repeated in different books, there are only 250 separate promised benefits.” (https://www.hopefaithprayer.com/scriptures/new-testament-promises/)
SEVEN HUNDRED & FIFTY PROMISES! That’s a bunch. If fact, when I looked up how many verses there are in the New Testament - 7,957 verses. So, there are 750 PROMISES stated in the New Testament, and there are 7957 VERSES in the New Testament. That means that about 1/10 of the New Testament is dedicated to promises. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a Gospel of promises.
Now you might say “Jeff there were actually only 250 promises - the rest of those 750 verses are just repetitions (echoes if you will) of those original 250. WHY WOULD GOD REPEAT HIMSELF? I say, why would God repeat Himself? I say, why would God repeat Himself?
He repeated Himself for the same reason parents repeat themselves to their kids over and over again. He repeated Himself so that we’d pay attention. Repetition is a valuable tool to remind us of something important. In other words, those 250 promises were SO IMPORTANT that God wanted to embed them in our hearts, and cement them in our minds. SO, HE REPEATED THEM OVER AND OVER AGAIN!
Now, I could preach for hours on those 250 promises, but you gotta go home sometime. So I’m going to focus on WHY God gave us those promises. He gave us those promises so that we would know He’s got our back. Those many promises are summed up in ONE promise in Hebrews 13:5 “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” I WANT TO BE THERE FOR YOU!
Now, this is starkly contrasted with how the world thinks. A famous humanist once said: “Man can count on no one but himself; he is alone, abandoned on earth in the midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than the one he sets himself, with no other destiny than the one he forges for himself on this earth.” (Jean-Paul Sartre)
In contrast to that God says… NO! You don’t have to be alone; You don’t have to live your lives without My help; but you DO get to choose your destiny. In fact (God says) if you let me into your life you’ll get a destiny that you’ll WANT - as opposed to one you’ll regret.
A poet once summed it up this way: “Before U were thought of or time had begun, God stuck U in the name of His Son. And each time U pray, you’ll see it’s true, You can’t spell out JesUs and not include U. You’re a pretty big part of His wonderful name. For U, He was born; that’s why He came. And His great love for U is the reason He died. It even takes U to spell crUcified. Isn’t it thrilling and splendidly grand - He rose from the dead, with U in His plan? The stones split away, the gold trumpet blew, and this word resUrrection is spelled with a U. When JesUs left earth at His upward ascension, He felt there was one thing He just had to mention. “Go into the world and tell them it’s true that I love them all - Just like I love U.” (Poem by Laketa)
YOU are not alone; YOU are not abandoned; YOU are not without help. YOU were the reason Jesus came, and bled and died… and rose again. And that is what those promises are all about.
The thing about promises though… they don’t happen “RIGHT NOW.” A promise is usually made about something that is in the distance. For example, a parent might say to his child “put on your coat, we’re going to go get some ice cream.” But that’s not really a promise… it’s a declaration. It’s just something the dad decided to do.
But, if the dad says “on FRIDAY, after I’m off work, I’m going to take you to get some ice cream.” And you know what that child is going to do… he’s going to watch the calendar. He’s going to wait in expectation for Friday to roll around. Because HIS DAD MADE A PROMISE. It doesn’t matter what else happens that week (even if it’s a terrible week) He doesn’t pay attention to that, because he’s looking forward to the promise.
There’s an old hymn entitled “Great is Thy Faithfulness”
“Great is thy faithfulness, O God my father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. All I have needed thy hand has provided. Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me. (Chorus) Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning, by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed thy had has provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.”
Did you realize that hymn was based on scripture? It’s out of Lamentations. The prophet Jeremiah was LAMENTING the destruction of Samaria. Israel has been beaten down and carried off into captivity. And Jeremiah essentially writes: I know what i see with my eyes. I recognize the hardship of God’s people… BUT…
“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him.” The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. (Lamentations 3:21-26)
Jeremiah was like that child waiting for Friday. It didn’t matter what else has happened - God had made a promise, and great was His faithfulness. So Jeremiah (if you will) was looking forward to Friday, because God’s promises are always faithful.
Now, the title of this sermon is called: “The Power Of NEW Promises.” The whole theme of this sermon series is that ALL THINGS ARE MADE NEW! We’ve become a NEW creation in Christ; We’ve been given a NEW song to sing; And now (in this sermon) we’ve been given NEW promises.
But, are the promises in the New Testament really NEW? Well. Yeah. 2 Corinthian 1:20 “For all the promises of God find their Yes in (Jesus). That is why it is through Him that we utter our Amen to God for His glory.”
You see, it’s WITH Jesus that we have these promises – He’s the one that makes them “new.” But WITHOUT Jesus… you don’t have those promises.
For example: 1 Peter 2:24 “(Jesus) Himself bore our sins” in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by His wounds you have been healed.” The promise is that we can die to our sins and live for righteousness. WHY? Because we’re really nice people? NO. The promise is because He “bore our sins” on the cross. It was because “by His wound we have been healed.”
Ephesians 1:13-14 “In (Jesus) you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” The promise is – that we have a guarantee of salvation, because we have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. How did we get that Holy Spirit? We got Him because we believed in Jesus. Without Jesus you can’t have the Holy Spirit! Without Jesus you can’t have the guarantee of heaven.
Acts 2:38-39 “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” The promise is – that when we repent and are baptized - we have the promise of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit. How do we get that? By repenting and being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ!
Now, the thing about promises is that we depend upon in almost every part of our lives. If you work at a factory, there’s a promise that you’ll receive a paycheck. If you buy a computer/ refrigerator or stove… you receive a promise that’s called a guarantee.
But THOSE are promises that you’ve paid for (either by your labor/ or your money). YOU DESERVE THEM! THEY’RE OWED TO YOU! And if you don’t get what you’ve paid for you can go to court and demand what you deserve.
But those promises aren’t like the promises of God. You didn’t DESERVE God’s promises; You didn’t EARN a guarantee from God. God offered us His promises because He loves us. “For God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son.” His PROMISE of salvation was based upon His love.
And once you’ve been saved (believe/ repent/ baptized), those promises are given to you because you’re His child.
CLOSE: A Sunday school teacher told of teaching her students the Lord’s Prayer. But later she overheard one of the children praying it this way: “Our Father, who art in heaven, how’d you know my name.”
How does God know your name? He knows it because He loves you - and that’s why He offers you His promises.
INVITATION
