Genesis 15:1-21

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Our second reading is Genesis 15.

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. But Abram said, sovereign Lord, what can you give me, since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eleazar of Damascus? And Abram said, you have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir.

Then the word of the Lord came to him. This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir. He took him outside and said, look up at the sky and count the stars, if indeed you can count them. Then he said to him, so shall your offspring be. Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness.

He also said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land, to take possession of it. But Abram said, sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it? So the Lord said to him, bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half.

Then the birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, know for certain that for 400 years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation. They serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said to your descendants, I give this land from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, Kadmonites, Hittites, Perizzites, Rephites, Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Thanks so much, Bea. I'll read the Bible. She says Great Genesis 15, bunch of names. Well done. That was great.

Let's pray, shall we, as we look at that Word of God together? Father, we've prayed already. Speak, O Lord, and we pray now. Speak by your spirit. Speak.

If you don't speak, Father, we have no hope. And so, Father, speak to us through this passage, especially today, I pray. Amen. Do you ever think God's got a sense of humour? I do.

As I was sort of thinking about this morning and I was talking to him about today and I was sort of laying out all the things I was slightly anxious about or fearful of. And then I was like, what's the first verse in the passage that you're preaching today, Ben? Look at it after this. The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. Do not be afraid.

Do not be afraid. That's what God's saying to us today, essentially. Do not be afraid. We just watched a video sending a bunch of people trying to get an extra £20,000 a year. That's just to keep things going.

That's scary, isn't it? And yet we have a God who says, do not be afraid. Do you know one of the strange things actually about God saying this is it's kind of an odd time to say this to Abraham. Like, we've been following Abraham's progress and last week we saw as he took 318 men and he goes out and he battles against the mighty king Kido, Leoma and his mates, and they've obliterated a bunch of different nations and Abraham's taken just 318 guys and they've gone out and they've won the battle. It's incredible.

And back he came and he got to just outside Jerusalem. That's what. Why the king of Salem, this king, this prince of righteousness comes out and he blesses them and he reminds Abraham of the promise that God's made to him. He's going to be blessed to be a blessing, that he's going to have a people and a land. So why is God saying, do not fear?

He says, do not fear. I am your shield. I am your great reward. I'm the one who's bringing you that blessing, that reward, those possessions. You don't need the King of Sodom's stuff because you've got mine.

And then Abraham speaks and you see why he might be afraid. Abraham said, sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer, Eliezer of Damascus. He says, it's all Very well, you being my shield and my possessions, but what's going to happen after me? Where are they going to go? It's all very well, you're making this promise to me, but it doesn't look like I'm going to have descendants.

Eliezer's going to get it all. You see, what Abraham is doing here is God speaks. And Abraham's almost kind of triggered. He promised descendants. It doesn't look like it, God.

And it's possible for us this side of history to look back at Abraham and think, oh, come on, Abraham, God's made a promise, just trust it. But it's interesting. God doesn't rebuke Abraham for speaking his hurts and his worries out loud. In fact, we see God speaks once and Abraham, he speaks twice. It kind of feels, doesn't it, like this is written by a sort of a year four person.

And he said, and he said, and he said, and he said, why? Because God speaks once, Abraham speaks twice. He's pouring out his hurt. Eliezer's going to get it. You've given me no children.

And we know, don't we, that his situation is an incredibly painful one. Childlessness is incredibly painful. And there are times in life, especially where we think God has promised us something and it doesn't seem to be coming forth when that wrath wrestling is hard, especially as those of faith, we know that God is good and yet it doesn't kind of feel like it. And this passage is saying, you can pour out that pain to God, you can pour out those questions to God. It is okay to say, God, I don't know what you're doing.

Just look at the prayer chain from the last few weeks. God, I don't know what you're doing. It's okay to pour out your hurt. It's interesting we've got our year nines upwards with us. It's great to have you.

I was listening to an interview with Peter Fongeny. I think I'm saying his name's right. He's the professor who's doing this study into adhd, autism and childhood mental health. And he's got out ahead of the thing being published to talk specifically about mental health. And he said it is really hard to be a 16 year old at the moment.

He said they live in a world where they're told you've got to plan for a job, but they've got so much economic uncertainty. And at 16, when you've got the whole of your life ahead of you and you don't know what's coming. It's really hard. He said they used to be able to go to youth clubs and be physically together. Now it's all online and actually there's no place to belong.

Certainly that's some of the money's going to that we're giving to the church. We want to be an answer to some of these things. We want to be a place of belonging that actually there's so much comparison online and identity forming that's formed as who's got the most TikTok followers and who's following and saying the right thing, who's using the right language. And at the end of the day, where it used to be when you were 16 that you would go to bed and the telephone would be downstairs and you could sleep and rest, but that recovery time is not there for the 16 year olds of today. And Peter Fongeny, he looked at this and he said this is a big problem.

It's a worrying thing, it's a fearful thing and perhaps if you're in year nine up it's a good thing to bring some of those worries before the Lord to say, lord, I don't get this, I don't understand what you're doing having me growing up in a world like this.

But then something remarkable happens. Abraham pours out his heart and then God speaks to him. He says, basically, come outside, look at the stars. Your descendants are going to be like those stars, so shall your offspring be. And verse six, Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Now that's a bit weird, right? Like Abraham's there pouring out his heart, his pain to God. God takes him for a little star gaze and then he's like, oh yeah, I believe you. Now this side of history, we look back and we see that this is a promise that's been fulfilled, right? Like this side of history, we look back and we see that everyone who has faith is a child of Abraham.

Remember we saw that and we sung. You know father, Abraham has many sons, many sons. We did that a few weeks ago and we've seen that throughout history and around the world and, and in every place we've seen people turning to faith, turning to Christ, becoming children of Abraham. And so we've seen this answered. In fact, we've also seen that the star bit.

I love this. I'm going to try, I'm trying to be brief today. You might have picked up but I can't not say this so it's interesting. He says, like the stars social, your offspring be right and we always think in terms of number, like lots and lots and lots. True.

But he doesn't just say. He says the count them thing, which is, yeah, definitely, it's there. There's more than that. Isn't that like, as you go through the rest of the Bible, why is it that you find shiny people all shining? Why is it that last year as we were looking at Philippians, we were told that by living like Jesus, we should shine like stars as we hold out the word of God to a crooked and depraved generation.

What's he saying? He's saying not just you can have multiple loads, but they're going to shine with the reflected glory of God. Another sermon on that one coming up at some point. But we've seen that answered, we've seen this promise answered. And we look back at that and we go, oh, yeah, of course.

But why is it that Abraham, he's just been pouring out his heart? It's just so quick to say, oh yeah, I believe God in the midst of that pain, that very real pain.

Well, I said it sounded a bit like a year. For a year, four assignment. We've seen God spoke. Then Abraham speaks twice. But between verse four and verse and the end of verse five, how many times does God speak?

Let's count it. Then the word of God came to him. One, verse five, he took him outside and said, two, end of verse five. Then he said to him three times, in other words, as Abraham is speaking and pouring out his heart to God, God speaks to Abraham even more. Abraham speaks twice, the Lord speaks three times.

And what happens is it's absolutely good and right for us to pour out our heart to God. But sometimes it's right for us to stop and listen to God speaking his promises to us. And as you spend time listening to God speaking his promises to us, what happens is we begin to say, okay, I can trust that these. I can trust what you're going to have to say to me.

Take Peter Fongeny's words. A world that's uncertain. We can pour out our hearts about how hard that is. But we can also hear God saying again and again, I have every day of your life as written in my book before one of them came to be. I have plans for you.

I have a sure and certain future before you belonging. I've made you part of a family, a church family who loves you. I've adopted you as my own. I've given you an identity that is bigger and better than anything you can get online, like Andy In Toy Storey, when he writes his name on the bottom of Woody's foot, God says, I've written my name on you, I've given you an identity and I can give you rest. So pour out your heart to God, but also listen to him speak.

And as we believe God, it's credited to him as righteousness. Verse 6. How is it that we, as a church, are in the right with God? How is it that you're ever in the right with God? Answer is really simple.

You listen to his promises and you trust them. What is our hope for the people of Greenhill, Low, Edgerton, Totley listen to God's promises and believe them. That's how you're in the right with God, trusting God's promises. I need to move on because I'm trying to be brief. Oh, there's so much in this.

I'd love to spend longer. But anyway, so God's spoken, Abraham's poured out his heart, God has spoken three times. And then God speaks again. He's dealt with the people thing and now he's going to do the place thing. So God speaks.

He said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave you this land to take possession of. And that's triggering to Abraham because he's been in that land and he's seen the fact that this land is full of all sorts of people and he definitely doesn't have the land. So verse eight, Abraham said, sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it? And God says, bring me a heifer, a goat, a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon. That's important.

We'll come back to that in a moment. So he brings all these different animals. Sorry, if you're vegetarian, the next bit's not nice. And then he slices them up, all except for the birds that are too small to slice up. And he sets them out.

Now, that's weird to us, but to them it wouldn't be. You see, back in those days, this is how you would draw up an agreement between a king and another king. If you want to geek out, it's called a suzerain vassal treaty. Go look it up on Google later. But basically what happens is you get these two kings and they say, look, we're going to make an agreement and if either of us is unfaithful to the other, then may it be to us like it is to these animals.

So they literally walk through a bunch of carcasses. I mean, this is a way of bringing it home. Okay? If you've ever been gazumped on a house and somebody else take it, like, take this and walk through some dead animals, and suddenly it hits home a bit more than just a pen on a piece of paper, right? This is two kings who are saying, look, may it be to us like this if either of us is unfaithful to these promises.

And so he sets out this set, and then he makes these promises to Abraham. And what's hilarious about this is it's so realistic. Like, Abraham's having to shoo away birds. Like, it's not always sort of really nice. He's shooing away the birds.

And then God speaks to him. He sends him to sleep. Big darkness. We'll come back to that in a moment. And he says to him, know for certain that for 400 years, your descendants will be strangers in a country that's not their own.

And they will be enslaved and mistreated, treated there. Wow. I mean, don't fear, Abraham. All your descendants are going to be a bunch of slaves. Wow.

That's that. Like God, what are you doing? How can I know that we're going to get this land? Well, your descendants. Now, God's doing this because he's saying, look, I'm going to be really clear with you that my promise is going to come to pass.

We'll come back to that in a moment. But you need to know that when my promise comes to pass, it doesn't always look straightforward. It doesn't always follow the ways that you expect it to. It doesn't always look exactly like you want it to do. Sometimes my promise is coming to pass.

Even through tears and brokenness and hurt. Sometimes my promise is coming to pass, even when it looks like pathetic and you're shooing away birds from this, like this moment, As we think about partnership, as we look forward to that, it might look different, it might look messier than we're expecting. And that's okay.

God warns them and he makes a promise. It kind of sounds a bit like Exodus, doesn't it? Because it is Exodus. It's where it's going. And he says, you, however, will go to your ancestors in peace, and you'll be buried at a good old age in the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here for the sin of the Amorites, yet reached its full measure.

There's another sermon there. We'll wait on that another time. And then he basically says to your descendants, I will give you this land from the Wadi of Egypt, the river Euphrates. And then to all the ites, he says, look, I'm going to give you this land. But in the middle, there's a funny thing that God does.

You see, Abraham at this point is asleep and he's asleep at a really key moment. He's asleep at the bit where the two kings are meant to walk through the dead animals. You know the bit where they're saying, look, if either of us is unfaithful, it's going to look like this.

And Abraham's missing out on that. Instead, what happens? Verse 17, when the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared. That's a picture of God. And passed between the pieces.

In other words, at the time when Abraham and God should walk through the middle of these animals, God walks through alone. God saying, do you know what? I am so committed to this covenant that if either of us is unfaithful to it, that brokenness, that death, that bleeding, that's going to fall on me alone. It's going to fall on me alone. As a student at university, I had a George Foreman grill.

Anyone have a George Foreman grill? Oh, they were great. And there was the George Foreman, who I think was a boxer or something. The marketing didn't really work on me because I didn't know who George Foreman was. But anyway, he did this advert, didn't he?

I'm so proud of it, I put my name on it. God says, do you know what? I'm so faithful, I'll put my blood to it. I'll stake my life on this covenant.

How can Abraham know that God's promise will be fulfilled while God stakes his life on it? And again, we're in a place where we can see this all the more clearly, aren't we? Because as you go through the Old Testament, you see again and again there's all these animal sacrifices. You turn up in Leviticus and at the start of Leviticus, there's this animal sacrifice where it's going to be burned completely. Remember this, we did it a couple of years ago and it's going to be completely burned in the fire of God's anger at unfaithfulness and the brokenness of this world.

And you're going to take an animal, it's going to be completely consumed. Why? It's going to be consumed in the place of the people. What are the animals that you could bring? Well, you could bring a cow, a goat, a ram, a dove, a young pigeon.

Recognise these animals? It's as if throughout the Old Testament, you get all these sacrifices that are pointing back and it's God saying, yeah, we're killing an animal here, but it's pointing back. Somebody's going to have to deal with this broken covenant. It's like another animal that's laid up there and you see it again and again and again. Until one day, once more outside Jerusalem, once more in darkness, there is God himself as Jesus Christ dies on the cross.

And there he says, every promise I make to you is met and fulfilled here and now.

I am so committed to you that I stake my life on you. And when you're unfaithful, it's not going to fall on you, it's going to fall on me.

Every promise he meets, certain future. Why? Because it rests on him, not on me belonging. Why? Because I belong to him and he's died for me.

Identity. Why? Because I'm dressed in him and given him rest. Why? Because he has completed it for me and not me.

And Romans 8, I think it's verse 31 says, if God did not spare us his Son, how will he not graciously give us all things? If God has made a promise and he says, I am willing to go to the cross for it, I've staked my blood on it, then you need not fear. For if he's paying that price, then all of his promises to us are, yes, our men. So on Partnership Sunday, as God calls us to costly generosity, to financial generosity, to giving away people, to standing up as perhaps we're full of fears, what do we do? We remember that we have a God who keeps his promises forever and we trust in Him.

Neil's going to lead us in prayer as we respond.