Bulletins - Brookdale Baptist Church

Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee
Joy Has Dawned
I Would Be Like Jesus (Testimonial)
Who Is He In Yonder Stall
Born To Die
Genesis 15:1-21
Ethan was a mountain bike enthusiast who loved taking the most treacherous, black diamond trails. During one of his rides, he misgauged a jump and fell off a cliff. His heart raced as he tumbled down, but he was saved by thick underbrush that cushioned his fall. Lying there, bruised but alive, Ethan re-evaluated his mountain-biking activities.
Rather than viewing this as a sign to quit, he viewed it as an opportunity to prepare for his rides more intentionally. As a result of that experience, he focused even more intensely on his training, studying terrain and safety more carefully ahead of time. Ethan returned to biking with a renewed sense of caution and respect for the sport, enjoying his rides even more while advocating for safe and wise practices to mountain bike beginners.
As Abram examined his expectations, he continued to believe God.
Like Ethan, Abram came through an experience that caused him to reevaluate his expectations. For him, he evaluated not his mountain biking career but his life in general. He had emigrated from his homeland to Canaan, survived a famine, and most recently survived intense physical combat with nearby kings who had kidnapped his nephew. He had gone through all this because he had followed God’s command.
Though he had survived these experiences, he still had not experienced two key promises God made, (1) the promise of children and descendants and (2) the promise of inheriting Canaan. This passage, Gen 15, shows us how Abram felt and thought at this point in his journey of faith, and it also shows us how God responded to him at this juncture in his life.
Regarding Abram’s response, we first see that he was facing the very real possibility of being afraid. After all, he had just come through some intense action in rescuing Lot from invasion by surrounding kinds, and engaging in real hand-to-hand, life-or-death combat is no recreational sporting event. It’s a genuine trial for sure – ask any military combat veteran. If this is what he had been through, would there be more combat to come? This wasn’t what he’d envisioned doing when he left his family behind in Haran.
So, God spoke to Abram to reassure him: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” (Gen 15:1). With these words, God promised to protect him from danger and harm, and he also promised to give him abundant material wealth. With this reassurance to calm and comfort his heart, Abram then asked God two questions that were nagging at his mind.
First, he asked God about the promise of descendants. At this time, Abram was up to 85 yrs. old, so it sure seemed as though giving birth to his own son would not be possible. So, he asked whether his initial expectations had been wrong and whether he should prepare his key servant, Eliezer, to be his adopted, legal inheritor – something which was culturally acceptable in those days.
But God said ‘no’ and reaffirmed to Abram that despite the seeming impossibility, he fully intended for Abram to become father to a son the natural way. Then he instructed Abram to look up at the stars in the night sky and count them (an impossibility). So, God promised, his own biological, blood descendants would be in years to come.
Second, Abram also asked God about the promise of land. God had promised to give him the land of Canaan, in which he was wandering as a nomad. But he had left Haran up to 10 yrs. before, yet despite all this time, Abram had yet to possess any land there. But God reaffirmed his promise to give Abram the entire land.
It is at this point that Abram asked God for some confirmation, because as of yet, he had very little tangible evidence of what God had promised him. He had God’s promise but it remained unfulfilled.
Before we move on, we must acknowledge what God said about Abram here: “He believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness” (Gen 15:6).
This is an important statement because the NT quotes it five times, four by Paul (Rom 4:3, 9, 22; Gal 3:6) and one by James (Jam 2:23). The NT uses this statement to teach that Abram’s faith serves as an example for ours today. Like Abram, we are not saved, forgiven, and given a relationship with God because we are Jewish, obey the Law of Moses, or do good works. We are saved because we simply accept and believe God’s promise of the gospel.
just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham … So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. (Gal 3:6-9)
From this moment in Abram’s life, though, we see that even though he had genuine faith and trust in God’s promise, he continued to ask questions and evaluate his understanding of God and his promises. As he went through challenges, he continued to believe God while seeking greater clarity at the same time. The way this statement by God about Abram’s faith is written does not mean this was the moment when Abram began to believed God. Instead, it means that despite the questions he was asking of God, he genuinely trusted God just as he had from the moment he left Haran in the first place.
The more that Abram followed God by faith, the more challenges he faced, and the more questions were raised. But as Ronald Dunn has said so well, “We learn to trust by trusting.” The more we follow God, the more opportunities, occasions, and reasons we’ll have to ask more serious, profound questions of God that we might grow in our faith. May we be like Abram and “believe God.”
God reaffirmed his original promise to Abram.
As Abram asked questions of God to examine his own expectations, whether they were accurate or needed adjustment, God reaffirmed his original promise to him. He did this by arranging a covenant ceremony. This ceremony resembled covenant ceremonies between people in those days. Rather than sitting down at a table to read fine print, exchange money, and sign documents, as we do today when we formalize an agreement or contract, these ceremonies would consist of two parties offering valuable animal sacrifices, signifying their commitment to one another to fulfill the terms of their covenant.
He explained that the fulfillment would begin many generations later.
During this ceremony, God gave Abram an explanation of what would happen before the fulfillment of the land promise would begin to occur (Gen 15:13-16). First, they would live in a place that was not Canaan for four hundred years (four centuries). During this time, they would become enslaved and suffer miserably. After this long and difficult period, his descendants would leave this place where they had been enslaved, and God would bless them with much material wealth while judging the nation who had enslaved them. This nation would turn out to be Egypt.
Why were these four hundred years away from Canaan necessary? Because four-hundred more years of inhabiting Canaan was necessary for its current inhabitants (the Amorites, etc.), so that their “wickedness” would be “complete” (Gen 15:16). In other words, God required four hundred more years to pass so that the inhabitants of Canaan’s behavior would become so bad (following their current trajectory) that defeating, displacing, and removing them from the land would be justified.
This explanation teaches us that sometimes we suffer or endure challenges and mistreatment because somehow, in some way God is accomplishing something outside of and beyond us, while he is also teaching us to trust in him more deeply.
He took full responsibility for fulfilling his promise.
As this ceremony went on, some unique things happened. First, while Abram waited for God to participate in the ceremony, he had to fend off vultures from eating the animals he had offered as sacrifice. Then Abram fell into a deep sleep, during which God spoke to him. This warding off of the vultures may foreshadow how antagonistic people groups would attempt to steal away the blessing and land God had promised to Abram and his descendants, whereas the deep sleep possibly foreshadowed how Abram himself would die before the promise was fulfilled and how that a long period of darkness would precede the fulfillment of God’s promise.
Yet, while Abram slept, God appeared on the scene to the ceremony. And he not only spoke with Abram, but he passed through the sacrificial animals alone, representing himself with a smoking oven and a burning torch, objects which represented the burning purification and holy presence of God.
In other similar covenant ceremonies, both parties or people would pass through the animals, indicating their mutual commitment to one another in ensuring the terms of the covenant would be fulfilled, much like a groom and bride pledge faithfulness to one another in a wedding ceremony. But here, since Abram was asleep, God passed through the animals by himself, indicating that he – and he alone – took singular responsibility for bring this covenant and its promises to pass.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, “Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” (Heb 6:13-14)
By passing through the dead animal remains, ancient covenant traditions attempted to convey the message that if either party entering into the covenant breached the terms of their covenant, then terrible things might come their way. In this case, though, God prevented Abram from passing through, leaving himself as the responsible party who – of course – would never violate the covenant because he is perfectly faithful.
The implications of this ceremony are simple. What God promised to Abram, including the land of Canaan, was guaranteed. Nothing Abram and his descendants would ever do could annul or prevent this promise from happening, because its fulfillment rested upon God and God alone, and God is faithful to his promises.
This reminds me of how Christ is faithful to his promise of salvation to all who believe on him. As Paul describes:
If we are faithless, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself. (2 Tim 2:13)
He enlarged Abram’s expectations even further.
Not only did God guarantee the outcome of this promise to Abram – though it would begin to occur centuries later – but he expanded Abram’s expectations even further, too. He guaranteed that the land Abram’s descendants would possess would include not only Canaan, but land as far south and west as Egypt and as far north and east as Haran, where he’d originally come from. This kind of expanding generosity reminds me of how Paul describes God’s generous nature to the church at Ephesus:
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph 3:20-21)
So, while Abram re-evaluated and re-examined his expectations of God, considering whether he needed to recalibrate or rescale God’s promises to him in light of his difficult experiences and apparent lack of progress, we see that God only reaffirmed his promises and even enlarged them, instead.
We should learn from Abram’s example.
In Gal 3:7, Paul says, “Know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” Those who follow Christ by faith are considered “sons of Abraham,” which means we will experience and share in the things which God promised to him through Christ, but that we should be like him as well. How can we be like Abraham?
We should also examine our expectations in light of God’s Word.
Though Abraham believed God from the moment he left Haran, he continued to examine and explore his faith, seeking to understand God’s instructions and promises more clearly, ensuring that his understanding was accurate. We must do the same. We should not merely believe on Christ for salvation and then go on our way, as on autopilot or speed control. We should continue to ask good questions and look for good answers in the Bible.
When you have questions about your faith and about your experience as a follower of Christ, how seriously do you go to God’s Word for answers, clarity, and guidance?
Most importantly, we must believe God in the face of great difficulty.
Though Abraham asked questions of God and reevaluated his expectations, he still believed in God. He didn’t doubt that God would fulfill his promise, but he wondered how God would do so. Can you imagine being in Abram’s shoes? 85 yrs. old with a 75 yr. wife, wandering around in land possessed by other people, but being told that God would give it to you and that he would give you so many descendants that they could not be counted?
When you face crises, difficulties, and seeming impossibilities, do you continue to believe God as Abraham did, even when your heart feels afraid?
We must accept that the fulfillment of our expectations may only come after much suffering and waiting.
Long suffering (which means suffering for a long time) and patience (which means waiting for a long time) are important experiences for followers of Christ to accept.
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” (Prov 13:12)
And those this is not always the case, sometimes – if not often – what God has promised and what we are suffering towards and waiting for may not be fully realized or fulfilled until sometime after we die, either in this world or in eternity.
Madison grew up in a middle-class neighborhood where she was one of many children in a family that struggled financially. Despite the economic challenges, her parents worked hard and taught her to believe and follow Jesus Christ. Early in her teen years, she believed on Christ and announced her faith publicly through baptism.
Throughout high school she felt a strong pull towards a life of service, Madison chose not to pursue higher education or a high-paying career, even though she was a gifted student who graduated summa cum laude. Instead, she trained as a nurse, driven by her desire to serve the sick and poor, inspired by the parable Christ taught about the Good Samaritan. After training, she worked in a small clinic in an underserved area of her community.
Madison married a man from a similar background, and soon into their marriage they discovered that they could not to have children. Though this was difficult news for them, since they dearly wanted to be parents, they decided to devote their lives to lives to Christian ministry and community service.
Together, they lived very frugally, being generous givers to their church, to missionaries, and to people in need. They also served in the children’s ministry of their church on a regular basis, assisting parents and pouring their lives into children in their church family.
Madison became known in her neighborhood for her kindness. She would visit shut-ins, help with basic medical care, teach children in backyard Bible clubs, and distribute food to the homeless. Her work was done without any expectation of reward or recognition and was never published in the local news.
As Madison aged and her husband passed away, her community around her changed. Many of the families she had helped moved away, and the new residents didn't know about her history. The clinic where she worked modernized, and she found herself less needed as younger, more formally educated staff took over. Her health began to decline, limiting her ability to serve in the physical ways she once did.
One snowy afternoon, Madison passed away in relative obscurity, sitting along in her living room, reading her Bible and praying for her community. She had no wealth to leave behind, no monumental achievements recorded, and her name wasn't celebrated in the news.
Like Abram, Madison had questions deep down in her heart which she evaluated on occasion in prayer to God and by reading God’s Word. Had she made wrong choices? Should she have followed Christ at all? Should she have turned down higher education and a lucrative career? Should she and her husband have explored creative ways to have children outside of the normal means? Should she have invested as much time and resources into people outside of herself? Should she have attempted to become more publicly recognized?
May we be like Madison today and like Abraham and Sarah so many centuries ago.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. (Heb 11:13)
Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life. (Matt 19:29)
May we not live for those things which we can see but for those things which God has promised – even when the fulfillment of those promises in the present seem elusive.
Bow The Knee

As Abram examined his expectations, he continued to believe God.

God reaffirmed his original promise to Abram.

He explained that the fulfillment would begin many generations later.

He took full responsibility for fulfilling his promise.

He enlarged Abram’s expectations even further.

We should learn from Abram’s example.

We should also examine our expectations in light of God’s Word.

Most importantly, we must believe God in the face of great difficulty.

We must accept that the fulfillment of our expectations may only come after much suffering and waiting.