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Creekside Church || Wasilla, AK

2.23.25 || A PEOPLE OF GOD || Week Three

2.23.25 || A PEOPLE OF GOD || Week Three

Weekly Sermon Notes

Locations & Times

Creekside Church || Wasilla, AK

2201 S Knik-Goose Bay Rd, Wasilla, AK 99654, USA

Sunday 9:00 AM

Sunday 11:00 AM

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WEEK THREE: A PEOPLE OF GOD

A LOOK BACK…

1. We learned all humans sin—chose themselves over God in their hearts. God looks at the heart, not just actions. God shows mercy and grace even while justly punishing human rebellion.

2. We saw that self and sin lead to separation and death, while obedience leads to life and relationship with God. God also says life is in the blood, and all life belongs to him.

3. We saw that God’s redemption plan was set into place and he started by saving Noah and his family through the Ark…a type/shadow of a future salvation
INTRODUCTION…

Promises. We’ve made them/we’ve had them made to us/some are small and come with a “pinky promise” and some are quite big and significant and come with documentation and signatures…and some even come with rings and vows; some of those promises have been kept, and sadly some of those promises have been broken. A promise is important and can have lasting consequences whether kept or broken. In our stories last week, we learned that God had made mankind in his image but because of their wickedness they chose to follow their own ways, rebelling and sinning against a holy God. He judged them because of their wickedness and sent a catastrophic worldwide flood to wipe all living things off the face of the earth. But Noah found favor with God, and in his mercy and kindness and love, He saved Noah and his family and some animals in the Ark. God had made a promise to Noah (a covenant) that he would save him and his family and promised he would never destroy the earth and its inhabitants by a flood again. He sealed that covenant with a sign…a rainbow…to remind us (and himself) of that promise. Today we are going pick up the story many years later…we are going to talk about another incredibly important promise that God made with a man named Abraham. This promise/covenant is a very significant promise that God made that would eventually be a fulfillment of Genesis 3:15…but it starts with calling and preserving a people for himself. Today we will see the love of God work through a specific person and family, to eventually be a blessing to all people (through the Messiah)
BIG PICTURE FOR TODAY…

- The big ideas I want you to understand more deeply today as I share God’s ongoing love story…

1. Our identity as the Family of God.

2. God chose His people by grace (not by any merit of their own).

3. God is looking for a family to trust Him—not trust in their own ways.

4. The people He chose to work through were messy and sinful yet by his grace and mercy towards them, he kept his promise, he kept the covenant that he made…and all of us have been blessed by his covenant!
SOME BACKGROUND...

-- Last week ended in GN 9 with the salvation of Noah and his family
-- GN 10 gives us some genealogies and lays out the table of nations after the flood
-- GN 11 tells us about the tower of babel and how God confused their language and dispersed mankind all over the world...we also have the genealogy of Shem all the way to Abram (key character in our story today)
-- GN 12-14 we learn about Abram and his family including his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot. Lot and his crew lived near Sodom and Gomorrah, were captured and then were rescued by Abram and his crew. We are introduced to a character name MELCHIZEDEK…a king of Salem and a priest of God…who blessed Abram
-- GN 15 we begin to see God pursue a relationship with Abram…so lets pick it up there…
…SCENE ONE...GOD’S COVENANT WITH ABRAM (ABRAHAM)…

<GN 15:1-6>
LOVE THREAD…PROMISE OF DESCENDANTS
-- God revealed to Abram his COVENANT in a VISION
-- he would have a son…that son would be the beginning of a family that would be so numerous it would outnumber the stars

LOVE THREAD…MADE RIGHTEOUS
-- Abram believed God…that faith was credited to him as RIGHTEOUSNESS

<GN 15:13-16>
-- He had Abram bring animals and cut them in half then said to him a few things about his descendants
-- His offspring would be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years (Egyptians) so he knew it would not be fulfilled in his lifetime
-- God reassured him he would die in peace and buried at a good old age
-- That his descendants would return here again after a time

<GN 15: 17-21>
LOVE THREAD…PROMISE OF LAND
-- God made a COVENANT with Abram and gave land to him & his descendants

<GN 16>
Abraham Did His own Plan…
-- 10 years later...We are introduced to another character, Hagar (Egyptian slave of Sarai) and the story of her and her son Ishmael
-- there still is no son born to him via Sarai, so they came up with their own plan (not a good idea, sin/rebellion always leads to death and separation) and we see that in this story
-- After Hagar had Ishmael, Abram was 86 years old
-- It did not go well with Hagar because Sarai was cruel to her

LOVE THREAD…PROMISE TO BLESS ISHMAEL/HAGAR
-- God cared for Hagar and Ishmael and blessed them

<GN 17:1-8 >
-- 13 years later...Abram is now 99 years old!
-- God appears to him to remind him of his COVENANT and to fill in the rest of the details
Vs 2-4…He will multiply his descendants greatly (LT) (it has been 23 years, I'm sure Abram is wondering when…) and he will be the Father of many nations.
Vs 5…He renames him…from Abram to Abraham (father of many nations) || God called him a father of many nations before he was a father…what God says is true is true!
Vs 8…He gives his future offspring the land of Canaan (LT) as a permanent possession
Vs 8…He will be their God

<GN 17:15-22 >
-- God renames Sarai to Sarah
-- Abraham laughed at the thought that 99 year old Sarah would now bear a child
-- vs 18…he asked if Ishmael would be acceptable as this son
-- God said no…that he would have a son (LT) with Sarah and they would call him Isaac. I love the grace and mercy of God to Ishmael and Hagar

<GN 21:1-7 >
FINALLY! The awaited promised son arrives
-- Abraham is now 100 years old
-- I love the words “appointed time”
-- Gods timing is uniquely his, not ours
-- God’s promise of a son (LT) was true…this was the start of his COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM
…SCENE TWO...ABRAHAM AND ISAAC…

<GN 22:1-14 >
SHOCKING! God was testing Abraham, and wow, what a test.
-- But Abraham passed the test
-- Sacrifice your son Isaac to me || ISAAC was the fulfillment of the COVENANT…the only one who was accepted by God…the future descendants that were supposed to come through him…that Isaac
-- Abraham’s faith seen in vs 5 “…then we’ll come back to you”...He planned on Isaac being alive at the end of all of this
-- Also in vs 8 “…God himself will provide the lamb…”
-- The drama of that moment…arrived…built the altar…arranged the wood…bound his son…placed him on the altar…took the knife
Angel of the Lord stopped him…

LOVE THREAD…PROVISION OF A SACRIFICE
-- God provided the sacrifice to fulfill his covenant…the Ram was caught in the bushes…wow

<GN 22:15-19 >
-- Again this COVENANT God made with Abraham was binding
-- And because of Abrahams obedience…he did not choose his own way or rebel against God (which would have brought death and separation) instead he obeyed (which brought life and relationship).
-- vs 16 “because you have done this thing and have not withheld your only son, I will indeed bless you…”

LOVE THREAD …CONFIRMATION OF A PROMISE...
-- This COVENANT was again confirmed

[GENESIS 22:17-18]
“17 I will indeed bless you and make your offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your offspring will possess the city gates of their enemies. 18 And all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring because you have obeyed my command.”

-- Three Parts of this Covenant:
1] Vs 17 bless you and make your offspring numerous
2] Vs 17 offspring will possess the land
3] Vs 18 all nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring [ALL OF THE EARTH = US!] (Through the promise of Jesus…GN 3:15)
…CONTINUES: The Thread Of God’s Love…

LOVE THREAD…CONFIRMATION OF A PROMISE TO ISAAC…
<GN 26:1-5 >
-- God again reaffirms the COVENANT with ISAAC
-- Vs 3 “I will be with you”
-- Vs 4 “I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars”
-- Vs 4 “I will give your offspring all these lands”
-- Vs 4 “and all the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring” || because Abraham listened and obeyed

<GN 26:24 >
LOVE THREAD …CONFIRMATION OF A PROMISE TO ISAAC…
-- Once again God confirms his COVENANT with ISAAC
-- Vs 24 “I am the God of your father Abraham”
-- “Don’t be afraid because I am with you”
-- “I will bless you and multiply your offspring because of my servant Abraham”

<GN 27-36> a lot happens in these chapters…
Ch 27: Jacob Steals Esaus blessing from Isaac
Ch 28: Blessing given to Jacob(vs3)(LT) “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you so that you become an assembly of peoples. May God give you and your offspring the blessing of Abraham so that you may possess the land where you live as a foreigner, the land God gave to Abraham.”
Ch 29-30: Jacob meets Rachel_Jacob is deceived by Laban_
-- Jacob had sons:
---- Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dinah
---- Bilhah (Rachel’s servant): Dan, Naphtali
---- Zilpah (Leah’s servant): Gad, Asher
---- Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin (she dies giving birth in Ch 35)
Ch 31: Jacob and Laban separate and fight and come to an agreement
Ch 32: Jacob prepares to reconnect with Esau_Jacob wrestles with God
Ch 33: Jacob meets Esau
Ch 34: Jacob’s daughter Dinah is captured and defiled by Shechem _ Jacob’s sons Simeon and Levi avenge her
Ch 35: the whole clan eventually return to Bethel_Rachel (Jacob’s wife) dies giving birth to Benjamin_Isaac dies
Ch 36: Esau family tree_other family trees

<GN 37-50>
-- These Chapters are the Story of Joseph || and the eventual miraculous saving of Jacob (Israel) and his people (LT)
Genesis 47:11-12 Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s family with food for their dependents.

<Exodus 1>
-- God’s people are eventually enslaved just as he told Abraham

<Genesis 15:13>
“13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know this for certain: Your offspring will be resident aliens for four hundred years in a land that does not belong to them and will be enslaved and oppressed.” [Egypt]

<Exodus 1:11-14>
“11 So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. 13 They worked the Israelites ruthlessly 14 and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.”
We need to remember the enemy is at work too…

Quote:
“…our greatest challenge (according to Scripture) is in fact a spiritual war that is raging, one in which the enemy is extremely competent and unrelenting. We often think that the enemy is working to try and tempt us and derail our behavior so that we will be ineffective and feel guilty and shamed. The Scriptures paints a much darker picture. The enemy does not care about these things. The enemy cares that you are dead— spiritually dead, physically dead, emotionally dead, dead to the gospel, dead to God, dead to life and freedom, dead to belief. He wants our families dead. He wants the church dead. He hates God, he hates you, and he hates me. This is war. Guarding our inner life is our single greatest responsibility.”

“What Great Ministry Leaders Get Right”
by:Jimmy Dodd & Renaut Van Der Riet
WALK IT OUT…

Q: What has God revealed in his Word today about who he is?
-- A plan maker [his timing, not our timing]
-- A caller of his people [he initiates]
-- A pursuer of his people [he doesn’t give up]

Q: What has God revealed in his Word today about what he has done or is doing?
-- He is a promise keeper
-- He made a covenant and kept it
-- He is still fulfilling the covenant he made with Abraham [both to Israel and to us]

Q: What has God revealed in his Word today about who we are?
-- As followers of Jesus…We are his blessed children…his called people…adopted into his family with a new identity [like Abraham]

Q: What has God revealed in his Word today about what we have done or are doing or should be doing?
-- We can either follow him (life and relationship) or we can go our own way in rebellion against him (death and separation)
-- We need to live as his people, following the example of Abraham
-- We need to be acutely aware of our enemy because his ways lead to rebellion, sin and death…But God’s ways lead to life and relationship
RESPOND, REFLECT & COMMUNION

I would like to give you a chance to respond to God…

—> LETS TAKE A MINUTE TO THANK HIM, RESPOND TO HIM, CONFESS OUR SIN TO HIM, EXAMINE OUR HEARTS BEFORE COMMUNION…

—> WHAT IS JESUS SAYING TO YOU TODAY?

—> WHAT IS JESUS ASKING YOU TO DO?