The Way: Promised (B) Series

The Way: Promised (Part B)

When I was a child I, like many others, received promises from multitudes of people. Mothers promised good dinners, coaches promised winning seasons, friends promised they would never forget you, and RAID insect spray promised it could kill roaches.

Many of those promises were fulfilled, many were broken and many, by their very nature, remain as yet unfulfilled. And, we still have roaches, by the way.

Our lives are built on promises. We promise to work 8-12 hours a day and our employers promise to pay us for our work. We make the promise of marriage [do you promise to love…] and we make the promise of friendship. Some kids even pricked their fingers or gave necklace or bracelet charms that had a split heart, one for each recipient.

We call the cable TV and make the promise that we will pay for our cable if they install it. They, in turn, promise to install it correctly and to deliver the programming they said they would.

Promises! Promises! “Cross my heart and hope to die.”

Where would we be if we hadn’t the capacity for promises? What would we do without the ability or the method of promising? What if up to this point we’ve never had in us the desire to follow through on any promise?

The tax office calls you up and tells you they want to see you tomorrow. You say, “Okay.” But, you don’t go and nothing happens, why? Because promises don’t exist anymore, because there is no promises! Employers don’t give you your weekly or monthly salary because there are no promises. They don’t mean anything.

The world revolves around promises. Without promises, without assurance, without guarantees, without warranties, without pledges, there is no hope…

The world has no hope. The world holds no promises for anything but what you can get in this world. The world holds no promise for your future, your eternal future. The world cannot solve your eternal destiny. The world cannot solve our innate passion to know a god. That hole in your heart is reserved only for HIM and can only be filled by HIM.

Last week we talked about the first part of The Way: Promised. Most of our discussion dealt with promises that had been fulfilled.

In way of review let’s look at some of the promises that were made and fulfilled that we covered last week.

-Noah’s Faith

-The record of the Flood demonstrates that few will be saved.

-God made great promises to Abraham because of his faith

· -Jesus Christ can save from eternal death all those who, like Abraham, believe and obey God.

This week we will discuss more promises that have been fulfilled and finish with those that are yet to be fulfilled. Today we will look at:

A promise of a new way

A promise of a new life

A promise of a new kingdom.

A promise of a new earth

A promise of a new way

Since before the Garden of Eden, God devised a plan to reconcile the people of the world to Him. It began with The Preparation for the Cross (Old Testament) and The Cross (New Testament)

The Preparation for the Cross

The People

Beginning with Genesis 3:15, we are able to see God starting His redemptive work, though [according to scripture], we know that it was all worked out before the creation of the world. The people are easy to distinguish. Those that fear God and those that do not fear God. Right away, from Cain and Abel we are able to detect the sin nature that is beginning to manifest itself in Human beings. Cain made an offering to God, but because of his heart condition, God rejected it. Rather than getting his heart right with God, he becomes jealous of his brother Abel, because Abel’s sacrifice was accepted. We see Cain becoming the first murderer. He didn’t kill his brother because he was threatened with bodily harm. He killed his brother because of what goes hand in hand with the sin nature, selfishness.

With the mistake made in the Garden of Eden, self entered our relationship with God. We became aware of sinful desires such as pride, jealousy, and power over people. From the very moment of this awareness, God began His work of reconciliation. His goal was to bring man back into fellowship with Him. The Bible is all about God reaching out to man. Many people confuse this and say that the Bible was written to show man’s pursuit of God. There is nothing further from the truth.

There was a problem, however. He needed to start somewhere and He chose to start with Abraham. He took Abraham from Ur of the Chaldeans and moved him to Canaan.