All right, good to make sure that we're going live. Almost there. This morning was one of those mornings I woke up and it took me half an hour to drive to three quarters of miles church. It took me half an hour to get all the ice off the Suburban. So it was cold out there this morning. Thank the Lord for coffee. Oh, this is where everyday you and I we get together. We get into God's word and we grow and I love the Lord together. And this year 2023 Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Genesis to the Book of Leviticus. Well, we have some coffee, we'll pray I might sneeze and we'll get into God's word Yep.
Pardon me, let's have some coffee. We'll pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for the state. Lord, we thank you that the changing in the seasons reminds us of your covenant mercy that will never fail. That you are a God who brings us the winter, the spring, the summer in the fall, the hot and the cold. Lord, we pray that you would please help us this morning. As we come to another chapter in your word. Please, Lord, teach us. Father we pray that your spirit would be with us to change our hearts and to conform us more and more to who we're supposed to be in Jesus's name. Amen. All right, so we're Genesis chapter 21. Genesis chapter 21. We only have seven verses this morning. Genesis chapter 21. The first seven verses here we go. And the Lord visited Sara, as he had said, And the Lord did for Sarah, as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and born Abraham, a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him, and Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him whom Sarah had born to him, Isaac. Then Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, who are when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Now Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him and Sarah said, God has made me laugh, and all who here it will laugh with me. She also said, who would have said to Abraham that Sara would nurse children, for I have bought him a son in his old age. Oh, this is an amazing story. A wonderful story of God's grace. And if God's keeping his word, his promises, see God. What is this about? Right? God fulfills His covenant promises to Abraham. He had promised Abraham he would bless him and make him into a great nation didn't know how that was gonna happen. He tells him go out another chapter go out and look at the stars of the sky. Your descendants are going to be no more numerous than those. They even tried to take things into their own hands and the whole incident with Hagar and Ishmael and that's not done yet. We're gonna see tomorrow more of what happens there. But we see that Avery messes stuff up. Right, just last chapter. He tried to tell the king of Baroque era that his wife Sarah, it was Sarah was just like his, his sister, right telling half truth, a half white lie so he might save his own skin and he almost took him as took Sarah as his wife and hit Sarah and him had to be rebuked for this. And you might think with all the screw ups, all the mess ups, all the failures, and some of these are deep moral failures. We can't whitewash them. We can't make them sound any better. We would think that maybe Abraham would say I don't I don't know. Maybe God's finally done with me. Maybe I have messed up so bad that it's over. But God does this is what I have underlined. I'm just gonna go ahead and say I have first one underlined in my Bible. And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, And the Lord did to Sarah as he had spoken. When the Lord speaks, he keeps his promises. He had made a promise to Eve. He had made a declaration to Satan. telling him that someday the woman would have a seed and that seed would crush the head of the serpent. And that serpent would bruise his heel. And this whole from from this point of the hope of redemption, moving through we've been waiting for this promise seed waiting, waiting, waiting, and Abraham didn't lose faith. When they have the baby. They named him Isaac. This is a name God had told him to give to the baby. And now it's come to pass. A miracle has happened. Of 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman have had a child and Sarah laughs and everybody around her laughs because who would have said she would be nursing a baby when she's 90 years old? This is a miracle of God's continued grace. What are we called to do? It you're going to, most likely in your life. If I speak from experience here from my own life, we're going to fail. We're going to mess up. Thank God it's not based on our faithfulness, but on his right just yesterday. I get in a fight with my wife. I'm too harsh with my children. I don't deserve the kingdom. I don't deserve the things of God. But thank God is not based on the promise not based on our faithfulness but on his faithfulness. The Lord has done it and will he not make it so? The Lord has promised and will he not make it good? This is the hope that we have when he comes into covenant. It's not based on our keeping of the covenant. He kept the covenant. He walked through the animals in that covenant ceremony. He swore on his great name and there was no name greater. He keeps his promises he is a covenant keeping God and here we find in Genesis chapter 21. The Lord brings Isaac because the Lord is working out his plan of redemption. The covenant of grace is going to continue to unfold. It's going to continue to open up before their very eyes. And here it comes in the form of this child. Now, Isaac wouldn't be the answer to Genesis chapter 315. He wouldn't be the Messiah. But he'd be the father in the lineage of David, who would be the father in the lineage of Jesus Christ. And it is Jesus Christ. Who is God with us? The one who ultimately fulfills the full covenant of grace. Take HOPE Christian and your weaknesses and your trials and your failures. Know that God is faithful to His promises. And what he says he will make good. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your faithfulness. We thank you for your love. We thank you for your wonderful promise. Lord, we pray that you would let us when we fail, confess our sins Lord, we need to be honest about who we are for Father, we pray that we would look up to heaven and know that you are faithful. comfort us, Lord, with who you are, and what you have said in Jesus's name, Amen. Amen. Lord bless you. May you walk in the joy and peace of Jesus Christ. And I'll see you next time. Bye.
You
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