I met Bobby about three weeks ago, no, about a month ago, a month ago, I found a really nice dark, it was a dark gray, it was used, it only had maybe 30,000 miles, it was an SS Camaro, and I told him that, man, Pastor Appreciation Month is coming up, and it's a six-speed, and if you're going to get a Camaro, it's got to be the SS, you know, with the 6.2, the Corvette engine in there, right, I said, listen, I need you to be the elder to drive this for me, okay, and get in so I can get to the

church quicker, I can make hospital visits faster if I have this thing, and Bobby sent me a thing back, and I said, do I have to, do I, do I, can I depend on you, or do I have to talk to Jill about a loan? He said, you'd probably be better off talking to Jill. I said, well, that just means it's not happening, so there you go.

Hey, good morning, if you're here visiting with us, please take the time to fill out a visitor card in the chair in front of you, I tell you this every week, and some of you get tired of hearing me, but that's okay.

If you fill that card out, we'd like to find some information out about you, please drop it, the little church is here on the front stage, there's also a little church in the back, and that's also where we receive our financial gifts and offerings as you give to the Lord.

We're really glad that you're here this morning, thank you for being here, thank you for making this place a part of your worship.

At this time, we want to dismiss our children pre-K through fifth grade, pre-K through fifth grade, if you will follow Mr. Taylor, and Ms. Jean is already back there, awesome.

All right, let's grab our Bibles real quickly, and we're going to turn to Genesis chapter 15.

Genesis 15, we continue our study through the book of Genesis, expository study through Genesis, and today we have a promise repeated.

A promise repeated is today's sermon title.

You know, every single thing has a beginning, every single thing and every single person has a beginning, save for one person, and that would be God.

God is eternal, He didn't begin, there's no beginning, there's no ending to the Lord, He is eternal.

But everything has an origin.

In the book of Genesis, we have seen a lot of origins, as we have studied through this, and as we continue to study through this.

We have seen the origin, the beginning of the universe, creation in Genesis.

In the beginning, we have seen the origin of mankind.

Mankind is brought into existence.

We have seen the origin of marriage.

We have seen the origin of sin in the Garden of Eden.

We have seen the origin of salvation, and how God immediately went to work with His plan of salvation from the beginning,

that He knew from the beginning of the world, where He would bring His Savior into the world,

and fulfill the words that it says in Genesis, that there would be one who would come and crush the head of the serpent.

That was predicted to come, and so through that would be the fulfillment of that with Jesus Christ.

And to do that, God's plan was to begin a nation, alright?

And so we have the origin of the nation of Israel as well, too.

And that's really the scope of our consideration as we get to Genesis 15 this morning,

and really it's the life of Abram.

Abram, okay, he's a pagan worshiper.

It's been a...

Last week...

Last week...

Last week...

Last week...

Bobby preached last week.

My, my, things are just flying.

Thank you again for covering last week,

and thank you again for just the heart of the message that the Lord laid on your heart to bring us as well, too.

And two weeks ago, we were in Genesis 14,

and in Genesis 14, we saw that, you know, Abram is from Iraq, okay?

Ur of the Chaldeans, that's where he's called from.

He's called to leave his hometown and go to the land of Canaan.

And Canaan was inhabited by the Canaanites, obviously, chiefly the Amorites.

And he was called to go there, and he was called to obey God's command.

And at that invitation, he would be blessed.

He would be blessed with land.

And it's, and, and it's in that blessing and in that calling,

this is what we call the beginning of the patriarchal era, okay?

Or the patriarchal stage of history from around 2165 B.C. to about 1804 B.C.

It's the patriarchal stage, and where, where Abram comes into, into, and onto the scene,

who will become Abraham, and his son Isaac and Jacob and the 12 tribes.

That all begins the patriarchal era.

So, we're finding the nation of Israel, the beginning of the nation of Israel.

And that's important because it's important to God's plan,

because they're going to be the receptacle of the Messiah, all right?

The Jewish Messiah, he would fulfill the scripture, the Savior of the world.

And all of this is found in Genesis.

And this is why we painstakingly go through Genesis.

And we go chapter by chapter, verse by verse.

This is all very, very important stuff.

In verse 14, as we ended last week, we saw that Abram has this very heroic operation.

And he goes into...

All right? They were...if you were the mayor of that city, you were considered a king. All right? And then, so they controlled the town, but they were the king of that town, and so they formed coalitions, and these coalitions became nations. So you had these four kings, they were from the lineage of Ham, and against these five kings, they were from the lineage of Shem. And so, the four kings had dominated, and for years dominated over these five kings, and these guys all

paid taxes, they all paid taxes. Remember? They paid all these taxes, and a tribute to all the four kings. And these four kings were under the headship of one guy. Do you remember his name? Cataleomer. Okay? Remember, I couldn't spit it out two weeks ago. I was like...

It was Cataleomer. He was the head guy. But the 13th year, they rebelled. And they said, that's enough. We're not going to pay taxes anymore. And so, it caused this big fight. And so, they said, we're not going to pay taxes.

So, Cataleomer brings his four kings, and they lay siege against these other guys. And man, did they ever get taken. They lost all their goods. They lost all their people. And so, these other guys took the spoils of war with them, and all these hostages. But caught in the crossfire, caught in the first international conflict, was whom? Lot. Lot was caught in there. So, he gets taken captive. So, what does Abram do? Remember?

He does this unpredictable thing. And he has this very brave, tremendous, courageous thing, where he takes his 318 men. That's all he had. 318 men against these four kings. All right?

And so, they were really servants, but they were servants who were also trained to go to war. And he's like, it's time to go to war, guys. And he takes them in under the cover of night, and he has this huge victory.

And he brings back all the spoils, and he brings back everything, including Lot. And he lets everybody go free, remember?

And so, this is all important as we get to 15, verse 1, because we're only going to get through the first few verses of 15 this morning.

But when he returns from this battle, he meets this unusual king. First, he runs into this unusual king.

You remember his name? Melchizedek. That's right. He was Melchizedek, the king of Salem, which would eventually become what? Jerusalem.

Okay? So, Melchizedek is this king, this very mysterious guy. And he meets Abram. And Abram brings out cheese and wine.

Yeah. Wine and bread. There may have been some cheese, too. Who knows? Yeah.

But he brings out wine, and he brings out bread. And Abram pays tithes to him.

He pays tithes to him, eventually honoring him. But in essence, he's worshiping him as well, too, this priest.

And so, we went through a lot of painstaking things to really uncover who is Melchizedek.

We looked at Genesis. We looked at Hebrews. We looked at Psalm 110.

But at the very least, Melchizedek was a type of Jesus Christ.

Some believe that he was Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, as a theophany or a Christophany,

meaning that the appearance of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.

I'll let you debate that among yourselves as to who he was.

We really don't know, so have fun with that, and you can argue back and forth all day long.

But he meets Melchizedek, this monarch of Salem.

But he also meets another king.

And this is important where we left off when we get to 15.1.

The second monarch he meets was what?

Bera. Very good.

King Bera of Sodom.

And we said that Sodom, Sodom means what? Burning.

And Bera, his name means what? Gift.

Gift.

So he's trying, Bera tries to come in here and entice this relationship with Abram,

because Abram's just gone in with 318 men and kicked some tail and taken names.

So he tries to get this relationship with him.

But we said that Abram rejects that.

And we also said that this is a great example for us,

that the world is always trying to bargain for your heart.

The world is always trying to make a move to get your heart, to get your allegiance.

Okay?

Bera says, hey, come on, I'll give you all this money, all these spoils.

Okay?

The king of Sodom.

And Abram says, no, I don't want it.

So he meets Melchizedek, whose name means righteousness, the king of righteousness.

But he also runs into King Bera, who...

It would be said that anyone made Abram rich. I don't want it. I don't want someone to say that I did it for the money. So he refuses the reward. And that's important as we get to chapter 15, because it begins after these things. After these things. Okay? So after all these things happened. I go through this because it's been a couple weeks since we touched base on this. But 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. Now, this is beautiful to me. Abram's like, I refuse the reward of any man. I don't want the reward of any man. I don't want anyone to say that you made Abram rich. And then God turns around and says, fear not. Fear not. I am your protection. I am your reward. I am your exceedingly great reward.

Now, why did God begin right here, this very next step, with the words, fear not? Well, it's pretty obvious. For one reason or another, Abram was what? He was afraid. I mean, you don't walk up to somebody and say, Steve, I'm here to tell you. Don't be afraid. Steve would be like, you know, I'm not afraid. Why do you say that?

Obviously, when you say that to someone, there is fear in them. There's something going on in here, okay?

And so, so far in Genesis, every time we got to something that I said was a first mention, we talk about this.

This is the first time it happens in Scripture. First time it happens in Scripture.

First mentions are very important. This is the first mention of a very familiar biblical phrase, the fear not or do not be afraid.

This is the first time this phrase is mentioned in the Scriptures. And you'll find it's mentioned 70 plus times within the Scriptures.

So, it begs the question, what would Abram have to be afraid of? Okay?

Let me give you a few suggestions, all right? First of all, let me just notice that it says, God spoke to him in a vision.

All right, now, right there, have you ever noticed that whenever an angel or angel of the Lord or somebody comes along in that capacity and they come in the presence of someone, boom, the angel of the Lord or somebody comes along?

What does the angel of the Lord have to say to that person? Fear not. Don't be afraid.

Now, that tells you, that should tell you that if a real angel stood in front of you, it wouldn't, it would not be a female in a flowing thing.

It looks so beautiful that we depict on all these cards. It would look like a warrior and it would scare the snot out of you.

Fear not. Okay? That's, that, whoa, you're in the presence, so it could, it could be that.

I mean, think about Daniel chapter 10. He has a vision, okay? He has a vision and an angel appears to him and gives him this message.

What's going to go on in the future? All these things. And Daniel says, I grew weak and my face went pale as death.

That's what happens when you come into the presence of the Lord. When you come into the presence of, of, of an angel.

He was so fearful. John, in Revelation 1, he gets this vision of the glorified Lord, the beautiful picture of the resurrected.

He's the, the resplendent Christ. And it says, when I saw him, I fell on my face as dead.

Okay? That's the fear of the Lord. And so, I suppose it could be that maybe he has this vision and hearing this voice, something happened and he saw this and he was afraid.

And God just begins by saying this, Abram, fear not.

The second possibility I want to, I want to bring to the table this morning that could be is that he had just won this victorious battle.

He had just won this huge battle. And, and he'd been very courageous.

You know, I, I've talked with a lot of, a lot of people. And I've seen a lot of documentaries.

Uh, people who are, uh, maybe have a, uh, going to battle or something.

And they had this unbelievable courage when it starts to take place.

You know, there's something wells up in him.

They're able to stand up against his impossible odds, do these amazing things.

But then as soon as it's over with, this letdown takes place.

And they're like, oh, then all of a sudden they, they, they, they, uh, they realize the magnitude of the moment.

And they, they, they were like, they fall into like these doldrums, uh, sometimes depression.

Psychologists call it post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Okay?

After the fact, you, you had the, you had the strength to go through it at the moment.

But then all of a sudden you realize what you went through and you're like, holy cow.

I, I, did all this really just happen.

He's standing there. He's standing there. He calls fire down from heaven. Boom. What a brave man. He stands up against it. But then the next chapter, what's happening? Jezebel chases him through the desert and he's hiding under a broom tree and he says, I just wish I was dead. And it's, and it's in those times when God gives us a great victory that Satan will attack you at times and bring you to a place of fear.

You ever felt that? It's real people. It is real. So it could be that Abram had just won this big battle. He's going through this and God says, fear not, fear not. The third possibility I just want to put out, and this is just kind of me. Oh, this is just Curtis. It's not thus saith the Lord. This is kind of where I lean. Okay. On this, it could be that Abram at this point is just, he's just exhibiting the fear of man. All right. Uh, the Bible tells us that, that,

the fear of man brings what? A snare. All right. And so he's just had this, this victory, this, this huge victory against these four Kings. Okay. Uh, these four Kings who were able to subdue these other five Kings for 12 years. He goes in there into the cover of night with 318 men and he's victorious. But perhaps Abram is thinking, what if Cataleomer decides

he's going to retaliate with these five Kings? And I mean, with these five Kings who used to pay tribute? What if he comes back? I've only got 318 men. I went in under the cover of night. I had the element of surprise.

But what if he gets his act together? And what if he rounds up to everybody around there and he comes back? What do I, I know you were with me, Lord. I know the Lord was with me and I know all those things. And I, and I know that, but next time it could be all over with.

Yeah. And see the reality is he had just been, he'd come back from the battle and he was in front of King Barah of Sodom. Sodom wanted to give him all these spoils, spoils from the war.

But what did he do? He refused the spoils of the war. He refused to take the money from him. So in doing so, what he's doing is he's severing any possibility of an alliance with him in the future.

Barah ain't going to have your back now. You just shut the door on that. No, thank you. I don't want anything to do with you. I don't, I don't want anything to do with you.

And it says, it says, um, um, um, um, fear not Abram. I am your shield, your shield. The shield of the old writers called it. The shield of the, of that city was what would be to protect, to protect Abram. Okay. In case he was ever attacked again. That city will be your shield, Abram.

If you make an alliance with Barah, Sodom will protect you. But he basically says, I don't need your protection, Barah. That's what he said in the, in the heat of the, the pretend thing starts setting in.

Thus, the Lord says, I am your shield. I am your protection. I am your exceedingly great reward. I will be your great reward. So that's probably what's going on.

And he's just afraid of maybe of the, the retaliation. But you know what? You should, you should know something about fear here this morning.

And I know most of you, most of you probably already do. But fear is one of the most destructive emotions you could ever, ever, ever manifest.

Fear is so destructive, isn't it? And it's illogical too. You ever, you know, you ever get the, it's so, it could be, it can paralyze you.

And it defies logic. You can go with you all your reason. I know, I know all things look this way. I know this is not going to do this, do this, do that.

But sometimes your emotion eclipses your logic and fear sets in and then you have what that wells up? Panic.

Even if you don't show it outwardly, inside you're going, you're panicking. You're losing your mind.

But for whatever reason, Abram is fearful. So the Lord gives him this beautiful promise.

Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment.

Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not is the commandment. Fear not the commandment. Fear not is the command

To hear, Abram, you are stupid. Or you are just like Curtis, one or the other, okay? But he says, I am your protection. I am your reward, Abram. I am that. What are you going to give me? What you got for me? Look at this. But Abram said, O Lord, what will you give me for? I continue childless. And the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring.

A member of my household will be my household will be my heir. 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. The chapter begins with Abram in fear, okay? He's in fear. And he's in panic mode. How does God deal with his panic? Okay, follow it carefully. God gives him a promise.

He gives him a promise. Fear not. Fear not. I'm your shield. I'm your great reward. And how does Abraham respond to that promise? With perplexity. You see this? Okay. So we go from panic to promise to perplexity. Okay? What are you going to give me? I got no children. I got no kids. And he mentions this guy, Eliezer. We'll get to him in just a second. But this is very important for us to understand.

Because go back with me to chapter 12, verse 2. And remember the promises. Chapter 12, verse 2. God says, And I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

To be a nation, you got to have kids, don't you? I'm just going to be a nation all by myself. All by myself.

This guy has no kids. He didn't even have one child. God makes him a beautiful promise.

And he says, Yeah, that promise is beautiful. Thank you, Lord. But I got no kids. I got no kids.

Read a little further down. Chapter 12, verse 7.

If I can find it. There it is.

Then the Lord appeared to Abraham and says, To your offspring I will give this land.

So he built an altar there to the Lord who had appeared to him.

So again, to your offspring. That speaks of many descendants.

It's not just one. Many descendants.

Offspring. Many of them.

Chapter 13, beginning in verse 14.

The Lord said to Abraham, After Lot separated from him,

Lift up your eyes and look to the place where you are,

northward and southward and eastward and westward.

For all the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.

I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth.

So that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, your offspring can be counted.

These are wonderful promises. Glorious promises.

But God, where's my children?

This is all good stuff.

Thanks for being my shield.

Thanks for being my exceedingly great reward.

Where's my kids?

How's all this going to happen?

And by the way, the clock is ticking.

I mean, put yourself in Abram's sandals for a second.

Look at God calls him to leave Haran in chapter 12.

And in chapter 12, when he does that, he's 75 years old.

In chapter 16, we find out he's 86 years old.

So right here in chapter 15, where we are this morning, he's about 85 years old.

I was old then, God, when you called me.

Guess what? I'm older now.

I'm getting as old as dirt.

And Sarah ain't getting any younger either.

Brother, what are the possibilities of us having kids?

Do you not know that the clock is ticking, God?

How am I going to have kids?

And then he points.

Abram points and he goes,

the only heir I have is Eleazar of Damascus.

Now this is interesting.

The only heir I have is Eleazar of Damascus.

Now, who did Abram take with him because his brother had died?

Come on, people.

There we go.

He took Lot with him, right?

He doesn't mention Lot.

But so in effect, Abram adopts Lot.

Takes him.

Makes him his own.

He's raising him.

He's raised him.

Now he's out on his own.

So according to the law of that era and that geography,

Lot would become the heir of Abram.

That's the way it is, okay?

But he doesn't mention Lot.

And it was thought that Eleazar of Damascus was a man who was in charge of one of the houses of commerce, or one of the banking houses, alright? At this point in time. So to say the phrase, Eleazar of Damascus, is like saying, all I have is Bank of America. All I have in my house is Wells Fargo. That's the only heir I got. That's all I got left. So he might be simply saying, these are great

promises, Lord, great promises, Lord. This is cool stuff. I love your words. Thanks for the vision. This is really neat stuff. And I appreciate all the wealth and all the promised land. But what good is it if I don't have any children? Because when I die, the bank's going to get it anyway.

It's all going to go to Wells Fargo. What kind of promise is this? This is the lamest promise. It's going to go to Eleazar of Damascus. What will you give me? What will you give me?

But I love how this flows. Look again, beginning in verse 3. And Abram said, Behold, you have given me new offspring as a member of my household will be my heir. And the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir. Your very own son will be your heir.

So this chapter begins in fear. Abram's fearful for whatever reason. And he has this fear and this panic. But the fear and the panic is met with a promise. God gives him a promise. Abram hears the promise of God and he offers perplexity to God. He says, okay, this is cool. Okay, I understand that. But I don't have any children. I don't have any kids. And so how does God deal with his perplexity? This is important, guys. Listen.

He deals with it. He deals with it with a promise. Not an explanation. Not an explanation. You know, this is beautiful. He doesn't say, Abram, this is why it's taking so long. This is why I'm doing what I'm doing. I know it's taking all these years. But here's the explanation as to why all this goes on.

God, listen, God gives no reasons. God gives no explanations. God gives another promise. A promise repeated. Why? You know why? Because when you are going through life and things are hard on you, your world is spinning out of control.

You don't know what's going to happen next. You don't know where your next meal is going to come from. You don't know where your next word, your encouragement is going to come from.

How your family is going to get through this. What you need right then is not an explanation. You need a promise.

An explanation is not going to get you through this. A promise will get you through this.

I don't need the Lord to explain something to you. He's God. He's sovereign. He's above all these things.

I shouldn't ask Him to explain it to me. God, if you just explain to me the Ten Commandments and why you did all this, then I'll really follow you.

Really? How about I give you the promise that if you follow these, you'll be blessed.

That's the easy part. But we mess it up. Let me give you an example.

Okay? And this is so awesome because a few weeks ago, I'm such a creature of habit.

I get here at 6 o'clock in the morning on Sundays and it's dark. I'm going over my sermon. I'm going over my sermon.

I pray over all this in here, blah, blah, blah, blah. But anyway, I'm over there. I'm going over my sermon.

Going over my sermon. All of a sudden, this isn't an example. This is something different.

But here we go. Someone comes in the door and it's Angel. She comes in the office and she goes,

Pastor Curtis, were you preaching to yourself? Because I'm in my office. I'm going through it, man. I'm going through it.

And I'm like, well, I guess I am. Yeah. I never really thought about that. Yeah. But that's right.

So I'm going up. But this morning, she put the fear of the Lord in me because she came in.

I didn't know she'd come in. I heard some rustling around. It was still dark in the office.

I walked out. She was over in the corner. I couldn't see her.

She was like, she goes, hey, come on. I said, whoa.

That's what I would ask my wife. If I ever get scared, I don't want to say this.

I go, whoa. But here's the example. Here's the example.

Here's the example. Listen to me.

Why would you say this?

I was the oldest out of like six of us. We go to the top of this mountain up here. Because we're going to carve our initials in the rock with this big knife I got. That was a great plan. Anyway, we get up there. We get about halfway through. It was like stupid. They can't get nothing in this. So anyway, we start to go down the mountain to get back to the camp. We're going down the mountain. And we're halfway down. My sister decides she's going to run the rest of the way down. It was so steep. She started running. She had so much momentum. She couldn't stop. And she just fell.

And she kept touching. She looked like a rag doll. My heart was with rocks everywhere. And you could just tell her arm was broken. She was screaming. Her arm was dangling. And she was screaming. And so I told everybody, I took the knife out of my, I just had it in my belt. Luckily, it saved my life. I took it. I stuck it in the ground. I told everybody, I said, make your way down the other side and get to parents. And I started going down sideways, trying to get down fast. My foot got caught in the rock and I had to take a couple steps forward, you know, to get my balance. By the time I did that, I'm running. I can't stop. I run.

I run past my sister who's crying with a broken arm. I'm just waving to her. I can't stop. And so I hit, I hit a rock that catches my feet. I go up in the air, fly over, and I land on the back of my head, boom, on this boulder. And everything just feels so warm because that's the blood flowing down my head. I split my head wide open.

My dad comes. He finally makes it up the mountain. He's about to have a heart attack because they had to run up there with the waders on. And he looks, he says, we've got to get you to the hospital. Obviously, the fear in my face is I hate the hospital. I've had so many surgeries as a young boy. I hated the hospital.

But so they're taking me in this car. My sister, they put a, they split in my sister's arm. And so they had the smelling salts. They won't let me go to sleep. I can't, I want to, I want to, I just want to go to sleep, you know.

And so my head's just pouring with blood. If you get cut anywhere in your head, you just bleed profusely. So anyways, my dad broke every speed limit in the world getting to the hospital, gets us to the hospital. The doctor, the doctor comes in.

And what do you think he said to me? Curtis, let me tell you. We're here today. Let me give you an explanation as to what's happened.

You have taken a fall, okay, which has created trauma to the back of your head. You're suffering from a severe concussion, which has laid open the back of your head.

And you've got a goose egg the size of Texas back there, right? And he didn't say any of that. I didn't need the explanation.

Curtis, he said, Curtis, look at me. He could tell I was there. Look at me.

See, seven stitches, maybe nine, two weeks of rest, you'll be okay. That was a promise I could hold on to.

Okay, I settled down. And oh yeah, we have to shave a bald spot in your head about this big.

Little did I know my whole head would turn to a bald spot.

I'm going to save myself a lot of time.

That's what we live off of. We don't live off of explanations.

We live off of promises.

Taylor and Caitlin are getting ready to get married.

Do they live off the expectations of what we should do with one another, husband and wife?

No, because those expectations, they're sliding expectations.

They're moving expectations.

They're changing expectations.

Are they not?

Well, we live off of other promises.

I will never leave you or forsake you.

For better, for worse.

For richer, for poorer.

Till death do us part.

That's the promise that we make.

For friends and family and God.

It's a covenant.

And God makes promises to us.

That's the covenant that he did.

Let's get back to this.

So he gives the perplexity and God answers it with a promise.

But there's something about the promise.

It's the same promise he's been given him.

Isn't it?

It's the same promise, only it's exactly the same, only a little bit different.

He basically repeats the same promise.

He takes the same promise and gives it to him again.

Okay?

All about the kids.

We read it in the other chapters.

But this just shows me that God is loving and God is patient.

I love this, you know.

He's not harsh with Abram.

Abram, you're a knucklehead.

I've been giving you this promise for ten years.

How long do I have to keep telling you the same stinking promise?

He doesn't do that.

He repeats it.

He's gracious.

I mean, haven't we come across promise?

Thank you.

And it's like, oh, yeah, that's the same promise he gave me 14 years ago. But God is gracious, and he's loving, and he's willing to walk with us through this. You know, before I was married, way before I was married, I was working for a land development company. And early on, it was really hard, because I did sales and marketing and project management for them.

And it was, first of all, first of all, it was commission only at first. Work a commission only basis, and that's tough sometimes. And I remember things were really lean, and I was running out of money. I didn't have any money. I was going to church. I was reading my Bible. I was volunteering. I was singing in the choir. They sang the most boring songs, but I was there every, every, every Wednesday night for choir practice,

and every Sunday. And every Sunday, I sang it like I meant it. Because I did mean it, but I was like, I was washing dishes on Wednesday night supper. The elderly people were cooking. I'm washing the dishes because it's something I can do. Lord, look, I'm serving. And I'm reading. I'm involved in Bible study. I'm reading the Word. I'm reading the Word. I'm reading the Word. I'm reading the Word. And you know what?

I got done. I'm eating peanut butter and jelly. That's all I had. And then things, did things get better? No, they didn't get better. Next thing you know, I'm just eating peanut butter. I didn't have any jelly.

And then I ran out of bread. I'm just eating spoonfuls of peanut butter. Anybody been with me? Amen? Come on. Yeah. Jiffy. That's the best.

I'm eating peanut butter. I'm eating peanut butter. And I'm living it. I'm going. God, God, you know, I'm doing all these things.

But then on one day, I went. It was a few months after tax season. I would go to the post office back there where I lived in the middle of nowhere.

You had to go to a P.O. But all your P.O. boxes were like one mail room or one mail whatever. You know what I'm saying. I'm getting too crazy.

But anyway, so I go in there, and there was a letter from the IRS. And I opened it up, and it was a check to me from the IRS.

Yes! It's finally come. I know everybody in that post office looked at me like I'd lost my ever-loving mind. Praise the Lord.

I'm screaming in the post office all over the place. And then I'll send something encrypted into my mind.

God, is this check really good? I mean, the government would never write a bad check. Would they?

I mean, I'm thinking, you know, what, wait, you know, I think this check is the answer to my prayer.

And the Lord said, what? What about all those promises I gave you in the Word you've been reading?

You weren't jumping up and down for joy with those promises, but the government sends you a little check that gives you a breath in your sails,

and you're doing praise the Louise in the post office?

I was busted.

I wasn't really trying. I'm doing all the right things, but I wasn't really trusting in the promises of the Lord.

But God was gracious to me.

Let's get through this. Okay, I'm taking too long.

But the other thing that God does here is He clarifies the promise for Abram.

He says, Abram, listen carefully.

You're going to have a child from your own body.

It's like Abram has to redo the virgin beads of Abram.

This is how it happens.

Okay?

From your own body, it'll come.

Okay?

And it's like God gets down to Abram's level.

Okay?

It's not going to be from somebody from a banking situation or anything like that.

From your own body.

And God, so God, He repeats the promise.

He clarifies the promise.

But the last thing He does is He expands it.

He expands it.

Look at verse 5.

And we'll end on this verse this morning.

And He brought him outside and said,

Look toward heaven.

Number the stars.

If you are able to number them.

Then He said to him,

So shall your offspring be.

You know, I can imagine God taking Abram out on some Middle Eastern night.

Crescent moon.

Perfect evening.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Go ahead. Just start counting, Abram. One. Oh, gosh. Yeah. That's the number of your kids. Really? That's the number of your kids. I'm going to, I'm blowing your mind with this promise, Abram. And I just want to suggest to you this morning that, you know, next time you feel like God's promises aren't coming on time for you. God has maybe forgotten you. Maybe you just need reminding of the goodness of God.

This is the Lord and His promises. Take a drive out to the country somewhere. Take a drive to one of the beaches that doesn't have a lot of light pollution out there. And just get out of your car and walk and look at the skies. Wow. My dad did this. My dad did this. This is amazing. The one that I'm trusting in. The one that I put my faith in. And sometimes it's the up look that gives us a better.

Your outlook. You know? And some of us need to take a refresher in our outlook. Because our outlook has gotten a little stinky. We've gotten a little rotten. You know, I just want to end with this this morning. I just, because I've done this with you before a couple times. But I just want to remind you, I love thinking about the expanse of the universe. And just, we live in a very, very

tiny portion. We live in what's called the Milky Way galaxy. Okay? That's our little home. That's our address. That's where we live. But it's just one universe out of billions. Not hundreds, but billions of other universes.

One universe out of billions. And the Milky Way is quite large by our standards, right? When you think about it and you look into it. It's 10,000 light years by 100,000 light years. Size wise.

It's a little flat. It's a little flat. Sort of flat if you look at it in scope or whatever. And relatively flat. But that means that traveling the speed of light, light goes how fast?

186,000 miles per second. Right there was 186,000 miles per second. Speed of light. If you were able to travel the speed of light, it would take you 100,000 years to go from one end of the Milky Way to the other end of the Milky Way.

And that's just our address. That's just where we, there's billions of other, billions of other galaxies. That should blow your mind.

If you could travel the speed of light, just think about this for the moment, and you could travel 186,000 miles per second, you could circle the earth in seven and a half times in one second.

Seven and a half times you went around the earth in one second. Okay? But traveling that fast, you could sail past the moon in one and a half seconds.

If you wanted to go to Venus, it would take you two minutes and 18 seconds to get there. And you keep going four minutes and 30 seconds.

You sail past Mercury, seven and a half minutes, you're going 186,000 miles per second, you get to the sun.

Think about that. You're going 186,000 miles per second, and it still takes you seven and a half minutes to get to the sun.

And if you go from one end of the Milky Way galaxy to the other, it takes you 100,000 years.

And in Isaiah chapter 40, God talks about how big our God is.

And he says that God can measure the universe, the universe. That's all, all the galaxies, all of them.

Not just the Milky Way, all the billions of them. He measures the universe in what?

The span of His hands.

Now, why do you have a hard time trusting in the promises of God?

He measures the universe and the span of His hand.

And yet, He inclines His ear to hear your heart.

And yet, He knows the number of hairs on your head.

Billions and billions of galaxies. And you know what? As the worship team comes this morning,

We're just going to be reminded of that thought, and that's how we're going to draw this tune in this morning. And as they lead us in the closing of Psalm, let me just read a couple of verses.

Stand. Matt, can you take a lifestyle course, Matt? Let's do this. Just close your eyes where you are.

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and marked off the heavens with a span, and closed the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

Who has measured the waters? Who has measured the waters? Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord? Or what man shows Him His counsel?

Whom did He consult? Who made Him understand? Who taught Him the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding?

Who taught Him the way of understanding? Behold, behold, all the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are counted as dust.

And the scales, behold, He takes up the coastlands like fine dust.

To whom, then, will you liken the Lord?

Or to what likeness will you compare Him?

Or to what likeness will you compare Him?

And the inhabitants are all like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in,

who brings princes to nothing, and makes rulers of the earth as emptiness.

To whom will you compare me?

That I should be like Him, says the Holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these, who brings out their host by number, calling them by name, by the greatness of His might,

because He is strong in power, no one is missing.

He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, He increases strength.

Even youths shall fail and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.

But they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings like eagles.

They shall run and not be weary.

They shall walk and not faint.

For the Lord is good, and the Lord is gracious.

Let's Corners and the Lord bless you my deeds.

Let's pray.

Let's pray for you tonight.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.