Salt + Light Fort Worth

So, um, we are gonna be in
four chapters of Genesis today,

uh, starting in chapter 18.

If you want to grab a Bible or
open an app and follow along.

Um, and as we get into it, there's
a word that every parent knows.

Parents, what's the first word that
comes to mind when I say there's a word?

Every parent knows.

No.

Interesting.

It's, but so very similar.

It's not, it's not positive either way.

It's not Yes, absolutely.

Whatever you say that's
not, that's not a word.

It's, but.

But mom, but, but dad.

But what if, but what if?

But they did it first.

He did it first.

He did it first.

But, but, but yes, most
often when we hear the word.

But in that sense, um, parents
are the ones who know best, right?

Parents wanna look at your kids and
say, parents are the one who knows best.

Parents are the ones who know best kids.

Do your parents know best?

Yes.

Yes, yes.

There you go.

Always.

Wow.

There you go.

Um, parents can see maybe a
little bit more of a bigger

picture of what's going on.

Parents, kids, you need to hear this.

They always have your best interest
in mind, but from kids', limited

points of view, without having the big
picture, without maybe knowing some

of what all's going on, pushback makes
sense, some other ways seems better.

True.

And so today we're gonna be
in four chapters of Genesis.

We're gonna write lots of stories.

We're not gonna be able to dive into
every detail, but, but I wanted to do.

All four of these can cover a
lot of ground because there's one

theme that that, that is captured
in each one of those stories.

And it is a, A, but it is a, but
not mom and dad, but rather, but

God right now, grownups, have you
ever said, but God to God with our

limited point of view makes sense.

We don't know fully what's
going on our way seems better.

Surely this can't be it.

So we, we do the same thing.

Yes.

To God as kids do to us.

Raise your hand if you've
ever pushed back on God.

Mine went up first.

Yeah.

Um, we think our way is better.

Think another way is better.

And so we don't know best.

We don't see the big picture.

And yet from our limited point of
view, we think our way is better.

Okay, so there's this pattern in
these chapters that are formative

for us today and, and here's what the
pattern is, is that in each of these

stories, God is gonna make a promise.

Then people are going to say, but
God, so kids, I need your help.

Every time we do this, every time
we come to the second stage in the

pattern, we're all gonna say together.

But God, can we practice ready?

People say, but God.

All right.

And then third, though, God
engages each pushback differently,

but in every instance.

God keeps his promise, displays his
character, and then goes above and

beyond what he said to remind us
that his way is better than ours.

So this is the pattern we're
gonna see at least six times.

I think there's more, but I compiled
them into six in Genesis 18 through 21.

So while we're looking at four
chapters in one week, we're

gonna do it all in 30 minutes.

Uh, it's a lot to cover.

We're gonna jump in.

But first I just want to give
you 15 seconds just to pause

and ask God two questions.

Um, and hopefully we'll come up.

The screens will be wonky today.

All right, I think you
get hit a screen for me.

If you go to the next slide, if you
don't mind, two questions as we ask.

Just 15 seconds.

God, where do I push back on you?

And then ask, God, will you form me?

Will you form me through these chapters?

Where do I push back on you?

Will you forward me
through these chapters?

Take 15 seconds.

All right.

God, my prayer is that you would do that
in each of us, that you would meet us.

Help us see tangible ways we do this,
not just theoretical and that you

would form us more into trust of you.

It's in your son's name.

Amen.

All right.

Genesis 18 starts with God
visiting Abraham, Abraham now

and doing so in the flesh.

So you go to the next slide for me.

Um, here is what God
tells us through Genesis.

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the
oaks of Mom Ray as he sat at the door

of his tent in the heat of the day.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and
behold, three men were standing in

front of him, and when he saw them, he
ran from his tent door to meet them,

and he bowed himself to the earth.

All right, so we mentioned this,
uh, on the week before Memorial Day.

This is called a
theophany, it's a big word.

Uh, we've seen it before in Genesis,
we'll see it again in the Bible.

Uh, but, but it is, it's a
reminder that the spiritual realm,

the world of the angelic, the
world of God is, is more like.

A veil that our human senses can't see
beyond, unless in this completely other,

like out of the world, angelic cloud
city, like Asgard or something like that.

Like the, the, the
spiritual realm is, is here.

God is working in this
world, the spirit is working.

There's, there's his messengers
and, and are just human senses.

Can't see them.

But every now and then,
God pulls back the veil.

And let's us get a glimpse, a
temporary visible manifestation

of the spiritual realm.

So God, and a couple of messages, God
and a couple of angels are appearing

in a form that humans can perceive.

Now, we could spend hours trying to
plumb the deaths of that, but for

today, I just wanna draw out two things.

First is that Abraham recognizes
one of these visitors, ASCO.

Uh, Abraham goes, bows
down, worships God as God.

What happens next?

If you know the story,
hopefully you read ahead.

If not, you'll have to catch up on some
of the, the stories 'cause we're not

gonna again have time for all the details.

But Abraham hosts God, he sacrifices
his best for God as hopefully

we would when we recognize God.

And yet God also tells us in the
gospels, whatever you do for the

least of these, you do for me.

So what does it look
like to host and bless.

And sacrifice our best for God
following Abraham's example.

That's the first thing that happens here.

The second thing is that God's visit sets
up the first instance of this pattern,

the first instance of this pattern.

So God makes a promise.

The Lord said, I will surely return
to you about this time next year.

And Sarah, your wife, will have a son.

Is that good news?

Now, if you've been tracking for
the last few weeks in Genesis.

God has been promising.

Abraham and Sarah a son for about 25
years now, and so Sarah's response,

which we'll see in a moment is
very understandable, but what's

the change in God's promise now?

Six years.

He gives a timeline.

He's gonna give a timeline.

We have the next slide for me.

He's gonna give a timeline of one year.

God makes a promise.

And then that leads to the second
step in this pattern where Sarah is

going to say, can we say it together?

Sarah's going to say, but
God, next slide please.

I'm gonna make you do a lot of
slides with me today 'cause I

can't control 'em for some reason.

Um, Sarah laughed to herself saying,
after I'm worn out and my Lord

not, not God, but Lord Abraham Lo,
lowercase hell, my husband is old.

Shall I have this pleasure?

Shall I have this pleasure?

Sarah's?

But God, her pushback
is based in disbelief.

There's no way that you could do this.

It's illogical.

It's out of natural ways.

And so she says, there's no
way you ever said, no way, God,

there's no way you could do this.

There's no way this could happen.

Thankfully, as in each instance
of this pattern, we'll see God's

promise and his faithfulness are
not reliant on our faithfulness.

Second news, God's faithfulness to us
is not reliant on our faithfulness.

It's not reliant on our belief in
his promises, even in verse 14.

Next slide, please.

Oh, it's right there.

Um, the Lord, uh, God says to,
to Sarah, is anything too hard?

For the Lord and maybe
for someone in the room.

Like that's, that's the verse to cl
to today, that you're facing something

that you go, there's no possible way.

And God might look at you and say,
is anything too hard for the Lord?

So he says, again, at the point in time,
I'll return to you in about this time

next year, and Sarah will have a son.

And if you skip to chapter 21 to some of
the verses that Nicole read, God kept his.

Promised the Lord did to Sarah as
he promised, and Sarah conceived and

bore Abraham's son in his old age at
the time, which God spoken to him.

God kept his promise.

God gave Sarah a son.

This Barr woman 90 years of age.

What a, what a blessing.

And baren and barrenness at the time
we talked about this before, carried

a, a massive social stigma to it.

It was, it was, it was a whole level of
society looked at as God's punishment.

It says a redemptive story here.

God gave Sarah a son, but
there's more than that.

God didn't just give Sarah a son,
God fulfilled part of his covenant.

If you remember multiple times now
we've seen God say you're gonna have

offspring that that outnumber the stars.

God promises to bless
the world to Abraham.

All that is all of a sudden possible
now in a way that it wasn't.

God doesn't just give a
son, he's doing more here.

He's keeping his promises.

So that's the first cycle in this pattern.

And then immediately afterwards, halfway
through Genesis 18, the next one starts.

We hit the next slide for me.

Genesis 18 verse 20.

The Lord told Abraham because
of the outcry against Sodom and

Gomorrah, because it is so great
and their sin is very grave.

I will go down to Sodom and
Gomorrah and see whether they have

done all together according to
the outcry that has come to me.

If you've ever read this part of the Bible
before, you know that God is not just

going down to these two cities to visit.

He's going down because their sin is
so grave he's going down because he's

going to judge their grievous sin.

What does the Bible tell us?

The wage for sin is.

The wage for sin is death, and so if God's
first promise, the promise of a baby,

that might sound like good news to us.

Does this one sound like good
news, the promise of judgment?

Nope.

Not at first glance.

Yes, but as we've seen already
through Genesis, God is

consistent and God is always good.

God has been consistent and God
has always been good in every

generation, in every story.

Since we started walking through
Genesis in January or so, God is

consistent and he's always good,

and so church is a just God a good God.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yeah.

If you've ever faced injustice,
if you've ever faced brokenness

at the hand of someone else or
seen it carried out, you know how

important and how good justice is.

And as much as we can fight for justice as
humans, God's justice is always consistent

as human justice, always consistent.

It is not.

God's justice is always good, is
human desire for justice, always good.

No, God's justice is consistent
and it's always good.

And so step one of the pattern
is that God promises justice

for Sodom and gomorrah's sins.

But Abraham says something back to God.

What's he gonna say?

Kids?

He says, but God, I'm so
glad y'all are in here.

This morning, Abraham drew near
and said, will you indeed sweep

away the righteous with the wicked?

Suppose God that there are
50 righteous within the city.

Will you sweep away the place
and not spare it for the 50

righteous who are in it for far?

Be it from you to do such a thing, to put
the righteous to death with the wicked

so that the righteous fair as the wicked
far be that from you shall not the judge

of all the earth do what is just you
feeling like challenging God a little bit.

And the Lord said, if I find in Sodom
50 righteous in the city, if I find in

Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will
spare the whole place for their sake.

And if you know how this
story goes, Abraham and God go

back and forth a little bit.

Abraham seems to consistently whittle God
down to the point where in verse 32 he

said, oh, oh, let the Lord not be angry.

And I'll speak again, but this
one, suppose 10 are found there

and God answered, for the sake of
10, I will not destroy the city.

So Sarah's pushback
was based on disbelief.

Talk to me for a minute.

Why do you think Abraham
is pushing back on God?

What do you think his motive is?

Lot in his family.

Yeah, his family's there.

Some of his own, his own lineage is there.

His own heritage is there.

He's appealing to God's character as well.

He says, God, this is
how I know you to be.

This is who I know you to be.

Lot has this deep care for his family
is a deep care for God and integrity.

He has this desire to protect even.

There's a few godly people there.

Abraham has this great
desire to protect them.

He has a care for people protecting
them from some injustice.

Don't, don't punish them.

You see what he is doing.

I wanna submit that Abraham's
pushback is based on deep hope.

We hit the next slide form with leads.

It's based on deep Hope.

Hope that God will find even
just 10 righteous people.

Spoiler alert.

Does God find 10 righteous people,
not according to the next chapter.

Does God keep his promise and judge
and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah?

Yes, he does.

And so next slide.

God is just, and as we've said, God's
justice is com consistent and always

good, and yet also God is full of
compassion, got us full of compassion.

What's gonna happen is in the midst of
the destruction, the men, the angels, the

messenger from God are gonna say it a lot.

Do you have anyone else here,
sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or

anyone else you have in the city?

Bring them out of this place.

We'll come back to the whole
destruction in just a moment.

But God saves just one family.

He went beyond the promise
that he had made to Abraham.

And if I find 10 people and he's
willing to just save one family,

I love Abraham's hope in this,
but God sees what Abraham can't.

God sees the whole picture.

He knows there's not gonna be 10 there.

And yet God, in his compassion,
was willing to save even just.

And I think so many of our, but gods so
many of, so much of our pushback, so much

of our even confusion is, is simply that
we don't know all the factors going on.

Can we admit that in most situations
we don't know all the factors going on.

We don't have the whole picture.

This is this image I was, I was
told about in in high school.

That always keeps coming to mind
in situations like this where we

see the top of the quilt, but we
can't see all the threads that are

holding it together underneath.

We don't know all the factors, but
God does, and God is always good.

If you believe that, can
that help you trust him?

So that's Genesis 18.

In Genesis 19.

Before, before the Angels pulled
lot out, the angels visited Sodom.

Um, and through lots of details that
we're going to skip because there's

kids here today, um, what angels find
is that the city and the people are

just as wicked and sinful as God knew
that they were, they're just as wicked

and sin as God knew that they were.

And yet lot this family who we've
already seen God promised to save.

Lot stands in contrast to the city.

He's hospitable.

He brings the, the
angels, the messengers in.

He protects them from an angry and
very sensual mob and does so at

great risk to his family and does
so at great risk to his reputation.

And so in Genesis, uh, 19,
starting in verse 15, we see the

clearest a, b, C of this pattern.

There we go.

As morning dawn, the angels urge lot up.

Take your wife and your two daughters
who are here, lest you be swept

away in the punishment of the city.

So, so he is promising them.

Salvation from judgment.

Does lot say immediately.

Sounds great, let's go.

No lot says kids, but God wanna try again?

Yeah.

Lot says, but God, and we
see this in 16, he lingered.

But then the men seized him and his wife
and his two daughters by the hand, and the

Lord being what merciful to him brought
him out and set him outside the city.

Again, there's, there's a
ton of nuance to this story.

This is the main part we're skipping
for a lot of reasons, given little ears.

Here's some of the nuance.

Even in protecting the angel's
lot, compromise his own daughters.

Um, lot is going to obey and
leave the city, but even in this.

Verse we see he's gonna linger.

He's gonna wait like Abraham
did with lot or, uh, excuse

me, like Abraham did with God.

Lot goes back and forth with the angels.

He pushes back on where he should flee to.

He pushes back on when he should flee.

Maybe most famously it's not lot, but
it's his wife looks behind, looks back

at the city and becomes a pillar of salt.

So much about that, that I would love
for God to give us more details on,

but he gives us no more details on it.

Except that the word look is
not a glance, it's a yearning.

She's looking back as
if she wants to go back.

She's looking back as if that
old life is what she wants.

So there's lots of pushback.

There's lots of, but Gods in this
story, and I wanna submit that most

of 'em are based in self preservation,

even in protecting.

The angels, even in obeying God
lot and his wife are still relying

on their power, their will, their
timing, their desires, their yearning.

Lot protected the angels, but did
so at the expense of his family.

Lot went but wanted his way, his
timeline, where he thought was best,

and I think this is where Lot and
his family's example is helpful.

In your heart, do you
genuinely want to obey God?

I can go with most of the time
that fair most of the time.

But in your heart, do you also
really like things to be the

way that you like them to be?

Uh, a few more nods on that one.

A little bit easier to grasp that one.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Do you, do you want, do you
wanna do things your way?

What God's saying here is my
power, my way is better than yours.

I will say, I will
preserve, I will protect,

and my way is far better than
your desire for self preservation.

And on the next slide, God saved
yes, but God also shows mercy.

God also shows mercy.

He didn't find 10 righteous people,
but he saved four, three by the end

of the lot and his two daughters,

God did more than he
said he was going to do.

He gave lot in this
family, multiple chances.

And this is how Genesis
summarizes Lot's story.

So it was when God destroyed the cities
of the valley that God remembered

Abraham and said lot out in the midst.

Of the overthrow when he overthrew
the cities in which lot had left.

Again, God is always good going
above and beyond showing mercy.

Do you think you could believe that
in whatever situation you face today?

Whatever situation came to mind when you
asked God, where do I push back on you?

All right, so I'm gonna pause.

Here's the, the cycles so far the
same pattern over and over again.

Um, in addition to this though,
um, I wanna ask a question.

So God judged Sodom and Gaura for their
sin, and yet God preserved one family

and brought them out of his judgment.

Does that remind you of any other
story we've seen so far in Genesis?

Noah, Noah.

Sounds like arc.

Sounds like God's saving
the world from a flood here.

He doesn't, doesn't destroy
the whole world here.

He doesn't use water.

He uses fire.

And it's very specific to a
specific place, but again, it's an

example of God being consistent.

God is always good.

He's holding judgment in one hand.

He's holding justice in one hand and
holding salvation and mercy in the other.

But similarly, do you remember what
happened right after the flood?

Noah leaves the ark.

They sacrifice, they worship God,
and then he drinks of the fruit of

the vine has a little too much, and
then his son's sin against Noah.

Guess what happens next to lot?

We're back in the pattern.

God saved lot.

God saved his daughters.

He gave them a place to live.

He provided for them.

He preserved them.

Verse 30 lot went out out of Zore and
lived in the hills with his two daughters.

He was afraid to live in Zore, and so he
lived in a cave with his two daughters,

but then his daughters similar
to Noah's son's sin against

lot, and so his daughters
essentially say 1, 2, 3, but God.

But God, one daughter says to the other
in verse 32, come let us make our father

drink wine and we will lie with him that
we may preserve offspring from our father.

He had the next slide for me.

Maybe his daughters were
influenced by the perverse.

City sensuality, everything
that they've experienced.

Maybe they were self
preserving, like their father.

We don't know a hundred percent what
led to them making this decision,

but whatever the reason was, they
took matters under their own hands.

God promised to preserve and provide,
and yet they decided to provide

by their own hand self-provision.

And their sin, their immorality would
then lead to two, not just sons, but two

entire tribes who would oppose Israel
throughout the entire Old Testament.

The firstborn who his son
called, his name Moab.

He's the father of the
Moabites to this day.

The younger, also Bo Bora
son called him Ben Ami.

He's the father of the
Ammonites to this day.

And if you know the rest of the Old
Testament, you know, there's a constant

conflict between the people of God
and the people of these two tribes.

And yet again, God is consistent.

God is working not only in our
good choices, but y'all, he's

working in our bad choices as well.

He's always good.

His promises are always
true if we fast forward.

The best known Moabite in the Bible
is a young woman named Ruth, and she's

the main character in this beautiful
redemptive story and she becomes part

of own lineage and, and so the hope here
is that God is not just seeing the big

picture and not just preserving his.

Promise in your specific life?

In, in the, in the 80 ish years, give
or take, that God gives us on earth.

He's also doing so for
generations in the future.

Is that really good news?

God works not just in our good
choices, but our tough things

for things that are gonna happen
hundreds or thousands of years later.

And that's hard for us to see.

That's hard for us to believe.

But that would, that's what God is doing.

He didn't just preserve,

he also redeemed you go back one for me.

He didn't just preserve, he also redeemed.

It says Genesis 18 and 19.

We're halfway done.

Just kidding.

I'm gonna really fly through
these next two, basically

Chapter 20 and chapter 21 each.

Give us one more example of this pattern.

So there we go.

In Genesis 20.

In Genesis 20, um, Abraham
pulls this old trick.

We've already seen it, so I'm not gonna
go into it, but God had promised to

protect Abraham, but then an attempt
to self-protect Abraham lied to a local

king about his relationship with Sarah.

Do you remember us
talking about this before?

He said, she's not my
wife, she's my sister.

Which is kind of true, but mostly a lie.

Okay?

And so essentially Abraham is saying.

But God, you're getting it.

Abraham's saying, but God, you promised
to protect me and yet I'm scared.

You promised to protect me.

So I'm gonna, I'm gonna protect
myself in my own, in my own power.

I'm gonna do so while not
being kind to my wife.

And yet God protected Sarah and
work despite Abraham's lie, not

just to protect, but then to bless
Abraham and Sarah with wealth.

The king and apologizing for taking
Sarah into his home, kept everything

clean, but an apology to Adrian
and Sarah gave them great wealth.

Again, there's so much in this story
that's like, man, God, I wish I

could see what was going on in there.

But at the end of the day, God
didn't just keep his promise.

He went above and beyond.

He protected and gave great wealth
despite, and even through Abraham's lie.

And then in chapter 21, Nicole,
read this for us already.

If you'll go to the next slide for me.

Isaac is born.

God's promised heir is born.

God had promised to bless both Abraham
and Isaac and also Ishmael, the son that

we talked about before Memorial Day.

He had returned Hagar and
Ishmael to Abraham and Sarah.

They lived a happy life for a little
while, but then Sarah gets jealous and

says, last time, let's say it together.

But God, I don't like that this
messed up family is living with me.

I don't like that.

My son has competition.

I don't like.

I don't like, I don't like, and so Sarah
sends Hagar and Ishmael away this time.

God says it is good for you to go.

You said last time God had returned them.

That sounded really hard for some
of us, but in this situation, God

says, yes, go and God protects Hagar.

God protects Ishmael, and God
fulfills his promised blessing.

Yes to Isaac and Abraham and Sarah,
but also to Hagar and Ishmael,

and providing for them and blessing
them while still giving Abraham

and Sarah their promised heir.

Because you blesses both and
fulfills his great promise.

This is what I hope you're seeing.

God is always good in every situation.

We make a huge mess of things, don't we?

But God is working and redeeming and
restoring and doing what only God can

do in every one of these situations.

That's Genesis 18 through 21.

We did it four chapters, six situations.

Again, I think there's more than
that, but there's this one pattern

and, and, and, and hear me.

There's different motives for every
one of these bits of pushback.

There's different motives.

Here's, I go to the next slide for me,
and here's all six of them lined up.

There's different motives, different
reasons, different heart things

going on, and yet, six times people
say, but God, you promised this,

but I think something is different.

I think something is better.

Six times there's pushback.

Isn't that just like you
and me does every day?

Does every bit of pushback, does every
time you say, but God, does it look

exactly the same as the time before?

No.

No.

It is just like you and me.

It's just like the different things
that we face every day, every

relationship, every situation looks
different, but like Abraham and

Sarah and Lot and his daughters,

we are similarly driven to question.

We're sim similarly driven to distrust?

We're similarly driven
to push back on God.

Is that true?

So before we close, I wanna ask,
have a little, little quick, open

conversation with you, which means you
have to talk what of God's responses.

What of this third column over here,
what helps you trust God today?

The way that God interacts, the
way that God engages pushback.

What's just one or two things
that help you trust God?

As you see him engage these people
who are not that dissimilar from us,

anything.

I think for me it's, um, discussing
with him sort that negotiation,

even though he knows what's going
to happen, there's not, but just

letting him ask, saying, yes, I will.

Yes, I will, I will not, you know.

Putting on his stop questioning.

Why are you asking you that?

He just lets him.

Yeah, he know.

Yeah.

God lets us ask questions.

God lets us engage him and
brings us to an understanding.

That's good.

What else?

I think I'm not gonna be
an accepted to character.

He's not gonna.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If he's treating all these people the same
way and has a history and a Bible full and

a history full of treating people the same
way, you're not gonna be the one that he

goes, nah, I'm not gonna be consistent.

I'm not gonna be always goods.

Really good.

One more.

I think for me, the preservation and
redemption, I feel like, um, I feel

like God will redeem like what I feel.

Some wasted time in my life where
it just felt like, I don't know, all

this time has passed and wants to show
for it, but I know God can redeem.

Yeah.

Yeah.

God can redeem the time we think
has slipped away or is lost.

Right.

That's good.

And I'm sure there are others if we
went around the room, but of these kind

of things, if this is how God shows up

with Abraham and with Sarah.

And with lot and with Hagar and
Ishmael and Isaac and the the

local king who got also protected.

It's part of the story we skipped
and to Abraham's offspring and

generations later and Ruth, and

if God shows up in those ways,
and if God is always consistent

and always good, then my prayer in
this pattern is that God would help

us see and help us believe that.

Like Ava said, the same
is true for you today.

That whatever you're facing, whatever
you're walking in, whatever your butt

God pushback is, whatever you think
you know best, whatever you know

you don't know in every situation,
even if things seem out of control

or confusing or hard or painful,

that God is who God says he's, and
that God is working for the ways

he says he's going to work and
that God has your best for you.

True.

And that even as you say, but God, God
would help us trust that he has a plan.

That he is consistent that not just
in Genesis, but, but in 2025 in Fort

Worth, Texas, he's still consistent.

He's still always good.

And if time and time again in these
chapters, don't prove that God's way

is better and don't, don't, don't prove
to you that God keeps his promises.

I.

Then I want to close by reminding
us of the final and greatest

promise that God both made and kept.

And it's the promise that we celebrate
every single time we take communion.

'cause when we approach the table and
remember Jesus' death and remember

his resurrection and remember his
forgiveness and remember his blood shed,

for us, we, we do all these things.

We're in repart.

In part, we're recalling God's
greatest promise and his greatest

plan and his greatest salvation.

If, if you follow Abraham's pushback
on God, if, if you find 50, if you

find 45, if you find all the way down
to 10, even lot in his family who

God saved were they fully righteous?

Romans reminds us that
there's none who is righteous.

No, not one.

And yet there was one person who
walked the face of the Earth who was

fully righteous and God in his mercy
poured out our punishment on him.

So that we who are not righteous
can be saved out of our brokenness.

Jesus arrived after a longer
wait than Abraham's and

Sarah's weight for their son.

Jesus is a, a better promised
offspring than Isaac or Ishmael.

He's a fulfillment of a greater
covenant, not just to Abraham,

but the entire world to you.

And he's an heir.

Jesus is an heir in Abraham's
line and in Ruth's line, but,

but he's not just Abraham's son,
he's, he's the very son of God.

And Colossians one Paul the Apostle,
reminds us that it's in Christ that all

things hold together, so that quilts,
it's in Christ that we can trust that

there's an underside, that all the
threads are being perfectly woven.

Paul tells us again in two
Corinthians that in Christ, all

God's promises are yes and amen.

I love that we sang that song today.

It's in Christ that all God's
promises are yes and amen.

It's in Christ that we can trust.

That third column that was up there
is true, and so Genesis 18 started

with this temporary appearance of
Jesus, but later, before his death.

Jesus.

Jesus promises Holy Spirit, so that God
is with us and present, always in part,

reminding us that it's in Christ, that
God is always consistent and always good.

Amen.