Can God Be Trusted?

I'm not sure I'm going to get the opportunity with many of you, yet if I did have the privilege of officiating your wedding, I would do with you what I would do with many couples I choose to officiate the weddings of. I would sit down with you and your fiancé, and I would run you through a whole list of questions, because I want your wedding to be everything your Pinterest says it should be.

I would make sure I asked you things like, "Well, tell me your love story, because I need to know how the two of you met and where you were. Did you see each other across the room and lock eyes, and you decided to walk across the room?" Or I would want to know, "Hey, what are you going to do for your first act of marriage? Are you choosing to do a hymn or Communion or unity candles?" That was something back in the 90s, but it's kind of making its way back around. "Or do you want to do the sand, where you pour some in together and kind of mix that thing up, even though we're not really sure where it came from?" That's something you could do.

I would also ask you, "What do you want to do with vows? Do you want to do traditional vows or…? Oh, you want to do personal vows. Okay. Well, how are you going to get those personal vows onstage? Are you going to handwrite those or are you going to print those? Okay, perfect. Do you want me to carry that? Oh, you want to put it in a vow book. Well, that's cute. Who's going to get that on stage? Is it in the altar? Oh, it's in my jacket pocket. Thanks for letting me know."

Then, I would even ask you, "Hey, are there any particular sensitivities in your family that I need to be aware of? Any crazy Karens who are showing up upset that you didn't invite the grandkids?" I would ask you all sorts of stuff like this, because I genuinely want your wedding day to be the stuff of your dream, ladies.

But then I would move past that, and I would tell you a few convictions I have; namely, three convictions. Now, these convictions are not going to catch you off guard. At least two of them won't, because most often, when I share these convictions with the happy couple, they expect them.

The reason is, I guess, it's typical for the pastor to look at you and say, "Hey, first, you should go through premarital counseling. Secondly, you shouldn't sleep together until you actually do the deed and say your 'I dos' and decide to go off on your honeymoon. You should wait. It's worth preparing not just for the wedding day but for the marriage after." Can I get an "Amen" from the people? That's actually more important than your wedding day.

The third conviction I would offer to you often catches people off guard. The reason for it is because they assume they've already done it. Here's the conviction. I tell them, "I want you to be completely honest about your story with one another." It's interesting. Whenever I tell couples that, even though it seems relatively obvious, you can see them squirm in their seats, because they're operating under the expectation that they already know everything about each other.

I'll look at the bride, and she'll look at me and say, "But I already know everything about him. He has told me all of his hopes, all of his dreams. I've met his family. At least, most of his family. There's still some family, but that family doesn't matter as much. But I feel like I know this guy pretty well." Yet, as I'm asking the question, his eyes grow wide, and she wonders, "Wait. What don't I know?" It just feels like the tension rises in the room.

I tell them this not because I want to advocate for someone to get cold feet before the big day comes; I ask them to do this because when the big day comes and you find yourself standing at the altar, I want you to be able to look at the other person and commit all of yourself, vow everything you have to them. I want you to commit everything you have to the whole of them, including the busted, broken, and bruised parts of who they are.

I want you to be able to feel someone look at you and say, "Yeah, I know everything about you. You've been totally honest with me, and I'm in this for richer or poorer, better or worse, in sickness and in health." That's what I want for the couples I officiate weddings for, and I want that for you. But here's the reality: that only happens by way of honesty. Honesty is the key to intimacy. And it's not just the key to intimacy in marriage, though it is true; it is also the key to intimacy in any relationship you have in life.

It's impossible to have a good relationship with your doctor if they don't come clean to you with all of the facts of your lab results. It's difficult to have a good relationship with your accountant if they fudge the numbers on your tax return. It's difficult to have a good relationship with a friend who won't be honest and tell you, "Yeah, you look bad in those jeans." Good relationships depend on honesty.

In your stage of life, your young adult years, you're making some of the biggest decisions you will ever make that will impact the rest of your trajectory. So, you need to decide this biggest decision: "What am I going to do with the person of God?" Because the truth of the matter is God doesn't want someone to live halfway in and halfway out with him, though many of us choose to live that way. He wants either all of you or none of you.

The truth of the matter is God wants all of you if you will willingly offer it to him. He doesn't want a percentage; he wants the whole pie. He wants the entirety of who you are. The reason you have to come honest with him is because he has a lot of things he wants to be true of your life. He has a lot to say about how you speak and where you spend your money and who you spend your time with and what you decide to do with your future and what you find entertaining. He wants to input so much truth into your experience. It's going to change the whole of who you are.

So, you need to figure out, "Do I really trust you, God?" The only way you get the answer to that question is if you come honest to him. The reason I know that is because as we look in Genesis, chapter 15, we're going to meet a guy who decides to figure out, "Do I really trust you, God?" and the process to identifying if he does is he has a really honest conversation with him.

So, if you have a Bible, you can grab it and turn with me to Genesis, chapter 15. If this is your first time here at The Porch this year, then you need to know we've been journeying through the book of Genesis. The reason is because we want to know who God is. We believe if I know who God is, then I can know who I am, because everything about him dictates everything about me.

As we've journeyed to this point, we've worked through chapters 1-11, which is really all the primeval history of the world. It's the creation, the fall, the flood, and the Tower of Babel…all of those things that kind of hit humanity at large. When you turn to chapter 12, which comes before 15 and yet impacts where we are tonight, you find yourself not looking at primeval history; you find yourself looking at patriarchal history. It's where God decides, "You know what? I have this redemptive plan to bless all of humanity, but I'm going to do it by way of one specific family."

So, he comes to this guy named Abram. The reason he comes to Abram is because everyone in the world is going a different direction, yet as he pulls Abram out, he looks at him and tells him, "Hey, I have bigger plans for all of this. I have something better in store." Abram (or Abraham, as many of you know him) looks at God and says, "I get it. I'm on. Let me come with you." So, they partner together, and it's through Abram that God is going to bring about a blessing.

He looks at him, and he promises in chapter 12, "Hey, I'm going to give you kids, I'm going to give you a land, and I'm going to make of you a blessing that's going to change the landscape of humanity forever." What you have to know is, though Abraham was faithful, he was not perfect. He had moments that would have made his mama proud, but he had moments that certainly wouldn't have.

Yet, despite the fact that his walk with God looks so much like ours (it's not perfect), we read this about him in Romans 4:20-21: "No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." Which is just wild when you consider that. Nothing caused his faith to waver. He was fully convinced of the promises of God. How the heck do you get to a place like that? We're going to find out, because tonight, we're going to figure out the path to trusting in God completely.

So, Genesis 15. We're just going to take it from the top, and we're going to work our way through. It says, "After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision…" Now, you have to ask yourself, "If it's prompting us to consider 'After these things,' what things is it speaking about?" It's talking about the things that took place in Genesis 14.

In chapter 14, you see Abraham's nephew Lot is kidnapped by these four kings in the land of Canaan. So, he goes on this whole Liam Neeson Taken-edition, rescue-style mission. He springs into action to bring his nephew Lot back into safety. As he comes out of that moment, what you realize is he's kind of public enemy number one. So, chapter 15 turns, and he just has this adrenaline dump. He has lived through this harrowing experience, and now he comes to God and is just kind of pouring stuff out.

So, the Lord, knowing this is his experience, comes to him to comfort him. God says this in verse 1: "'Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.' But Abram said, 'O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?'"

You see, Abram does the very first thing you have to do if you want to trust God. He just comes honest to him. You have to do the same. You have to come honest to God. That's the first thing you do. If you want to build a trusting relationship with God, then you need to come honest to him.

By this point, it's important to know Abram is probably a few years into his journey with God, yet despite having lived through some pretty wild circumstances… Like, by this point, he has left his home. He has left his family. He has faced a famine in this foreign land. He has encountered foreign armies. He is currently in conflict with the king of Sodom. Despite all this and having done it for the sake of being faithful to God's promise, he looks up, and he still has no kid to show for it. The very thing God said would come he doesn't have.

So, he comes to God, and he doesn't do what many of us do whenever we find, "You know what? My circumstances aren't what I expect." When things go sideways, he doesn't do the Christian game. He doesn't put on a right face or decide to say the right words or do the right thing. Instead, what Abram does is he comes real. He gets really honest. Have you ever done that before? Just got really honest with God about the things in your life that are frustrating, that are irritating, that are aggravating, that you can't make any sense of? Have you ever done that?

I just did that a couple of weeks ago. Not in prep for this message, yet it ironically set this up so that the text applied to me personally. A couple of weeks ago, I was driving back from Ouachita Baptist University. You really have to emphasize the "Ouach," because the people know. You know, the Tigers live four hours up in Arkadelphia, Arkansas. So, I made my way up there to speak at a chapel, and it was a joy. It was so great to be there.

Yet, on my drive home, I just felt this agitation in my spirit. There were some things I needed to personally unpack with God, some frustrations I had. So, what I decided was "I'm not going to turn on the music. I'm not going to download the pod. I'm just going to spend time with God and unpack this. Then, once that's done, I can go about my merry way and do whatever else I want." By the end of my trip, I had gone four hours in complete silence because I had just been word vomiting everything to him.

Now, I don't say that to you because I'm trying to make myself out to be some sort of example. I say that to you because I want you to learn from my experience that bottling all of that up for so long… It took me four hours to unwind when that never had to be the case, but I was unwilling to come honest. God doesn't want you to be that way. Whatever it is, he wants you to know you can come to him on it.

Here's the thing. I think so often we fear if we do come real, God is going to want to check the return policy on you and me. That's just not the case. You're not going to come and tell him something he hasn't already known about. He's omniscient. He knows everything. So, he's not going to turn to the left and be like, "Gabriel, hold on, man. What did we bite off here? It seems like it's a little bit more than we can chew." He's going to look at you and be like, "I know!" Yet, though God knows everything, he wants to hear about everything from you, because that's what relationship looks like.

So, all that sadness you feel about your singleness because by this point you thought you'd be married, have a family, and have moved on with your life…he wants to hear about that. All that frustration you feel with your parents, because no matter how hard you try or how much you give, it's still never enough…they're perpetually disappointed in you…he wants to hear about that. All that shame you feel for what you did, that habit or addiction you constantly hide in secret and can't seem to upend… He wants you to come and talk to him about it.

That weariness you feel from your depression that no matter how hard you pray, no matter how much you trust, no matter how much you surrender, still seems to never end… God is like, "Come talk to me about it. Come be honest with me about it. I know already." Let me ask you, then… What's keeping you from talking to him? What's keeping you from being real with him? What's keeping you from being honest?

I think, for many of us, if I were to kind of throw out a singular answer, though I know there's a variety of exceptions here… Generally speaking, the reason we don't talk to God honestly about the things we struggle with or are frustrated by is because, for fear of being wrong, we never come real. We don't want to be wrong in the sight of God, so we come completely fake. We look phony. We act false in front of him.

That's not the way Abram does it. Abram comes completely honestly. Yet, I love that as you read this, you see he doesn't come disrespectfully. He calls him Lord God. That phrase Lord God are the words Adonai Yahweh. It's similar to what we talked about earlier in the series. The idea here is he looks at God and says, "Hey, you're Adonai. You're my Master. You're my Lord. You're the sovereign supreme over everything. At the same time, you're Yahweh. You have a personal relationship with me. I know your name."

So, he comes, and he is respectful to him. He acknowledges who God is. Yet, though he is respectful, he is simultaneously real with him, which we agree is possible, don't we? Isn't this the idea of tough love, that someone would deal straight with you even if it's hard to receive for your own good?

This is what happens every morning when I come out of the bedroom, look at Brooke, and say, "Hey, does this look okay?" If she tells me "No," I don't think it's because she hates me and is trying to sabotage my street cred. I think it's because she loves me and is trying to save my street cred. She's being honest for my good. The reason is because she respects me. You can be honest with God because you respect him. You see, honesty is a way of honoring someone.

So, the first thing you have to do is to come real to him. You have to be honest with him. Again, I'm not telling you to just kind of pop off on him or be disrespectful, because the two of you are in very different weight classes, and you can't handle that, son. Yet, you do need to know you can come very legitimately sincere if, in fact, you find yourself frustrated with something in life.

Now, does that mean he owes you an answer? If you come and ask him your questions, does that mean he's going to tell you everything you want to know? No. It's interesting. Abram comes, and he does ask God a question, yet what you see is God gives him the silent treatment. He does not give him a reply at all, so much so that when you get to verse 3, it's like the beginning of a new dialogue.

It says, "And Abram said, 'Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.'" Then, finally, "And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: 'This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.'" Why doesn't God answer Abram the first time? He shows up and asks a legitimate question. Why does God choose to plead the fifth and not engage with him?

For this reason: You don't have to understand everything to trust God. He doesn't owe you an answer, because an answer doesn't make him trustworthy. His character does. If you've ever wondered, "God, why aren't you answering my questions? Why, God, aren't you answering my prayers?" I'll tell you why he isn't. It's because you're not ready for it. It doesn't mean he wants to leave you where you are for long. Maybe he's trying to grow something up in you or maybe he's trying to grow something out of you.

If he's not answering your questions, responding to your prayer, it may be because he's wanting to do something in you before he does something through you, and you just may not be ready yet. Which, ironically, is exactly Abram's situation. Abram asks God, God doesn't reply, he asks again, and God is like, "Okay, fine. You want to know? Guess what? Your heir shall be your own son." He tells Abram, for the very first time, specifically where the blessing will come from. It's not through a general descendant. It's not through his offspring. It's not through some seed. It's through his son.

What you see is Abram takes this information, and he absolutely ruins his story with it, because he does not choose to receive that news and trust God by continuing to remain faithful to his wife who has a barren womb. Instead, he decides to take matters into his own hands, and he sleeps with his servant Hagar. What he does is he prolongs the fulfillment of God's promise by 12 years. You see, God knows, "Hey, you may not be ready for the information I'm wanting to give to you." We need to trust him that that may, in fact, be true.

It's fascinating. God called Abram to follow him in Genesis 12. When you look at it, five different times he tells him, "All of the promises I'm giving to you are not going to come through you; they're going to come through me." We see it. God says in chapter 12, "I will show you the land. I will make you a great nation. I will give you a name. I will bless you, and I will curse those who dishonor you."

So then, let me ask you this, because I think it's going to finally make its way home for us here in the room. Why doesn't Abram choose to trust in God? Why does he take matters into his own hands in this moment? If he has God's promise, if he knows what God is going to do, why then does he circumvent the process? Not because he doesn't think God can do it but because he doesn't think God will do it. You see, he questions his character, which feels really shameful to say out loud.

We all hear that and are like, "How dare he do that?" Yet, we all do this in the secrecy of our private lives. We all look at the things God has said, and in some way and at some time, we feel like we're the exception to that rule. Yeah, sure, Christ has come that you might have life and have life abundantly. "That may be true for everybody else, but the thing is you don't know my family. You don't know my history. You don't know my hope. You're not going to be able to lead me into abundant life because you haven't seen the mess I've made."

Or we know his promise to work all things together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, except we look at us and are like, "Dude, have you seen the mistakes I've made, how wrong I've gone? There's no way back for me. That may work for other people. That's not going to work for me. I'm the exception to that." Or we know the reality that nothing can separate us from the love of God. "But the truth of the matter is, Jesus, you don't know what I've done. You don't know how deep the stain actually goes."

So, we look to God, and we claim what Abram claims in this moment. We say that we're the exception. But here's the thing: there are no exceptions to God's promises. Every promise in the Scripture is true for those who believe in Christ. That includes you. That's why God shows up in this moment and rebukes Abram. He shows up and says, "Behold…" That word behold is the idea of, "Hey! Whoa! Hold up." He's trying to get Abram's attention, like, "Hey, wait. You're off track. Let's get back on track, because what you're saying is crazy. It doesn't make any sense."

I love that it says, "The word of the Lord came to him." It's the first time that language, the word of the Lord, ever appears in the Bible. The reason it appears in this moment is it's the word of the Lord that Abram forgot, so that word comes to him. Here's the truth for us tonight. Many of us don't trust God because he hasn't told us the answers to the questions we've been asking. Because that's true, we let our feelings tell us who he is rather than letting his Word do all the talking instead.

It's typical. I visit with people all the time. I myself was one of them. We get so hung up on God's unrevealed will, those things that are out in the future which we know nothing about. "What am I going to do for my job? Who am I going to marry? Are they the one? God, am I always going to struggle like this? Am I ever going to get over this pain? Am I ever going to find that this shame actually is subdued?" We start asking all of these questions about the future.

What we do, being so focused on the unrevealed will of God, is we forget about the revealed will of God. We become so transfixed on what's going to happen in the future we forget what God has said about the past, even though it was he who was in the past who has everything to say about what's happening in your future. You see, so many of us struggle to trust God, because the truth of the matter is we're willing to come to God, and maybe we're even honest with God, but we don't want to receive God's honest word in return to us.

We want to say our piece, but then we don't want to receive what he has to say in response. Yet the reality is there's no relationship in that sort of situation. God has much he wants to say to us, and that's why we have to get into this book. That's why we have to spend time in this Word. This is not just an archaic text, something locked away long ago from a time well spent. No. This is a book that is speaking live today to you. It's relevant. It is a timeless truth.

So, you need to read its words. You need to marinate in its Scriptures. You need to spend time learning what it says, because these are not just principles to know; this is evidence as to who God is. The reason you find yourself struggling to trust in God is because you're questioning his character. He's like, "No, no, no, no, no. Don't question my character. Remember who I am. Yeah, your circumstances may be sideways. Things may feel crazy, but the truth of the matter is everything can be falling apart, but I'm not. I'm still in control. I'm still sovereign supreme. I'm still on my throne. You can trust in me."

So, we have to be willing to admit the fact that we don't have to understand everything to trust him. That's why God tells Abram to do what he does next, because even though we have doubt, there is something we can do with it. It says in verse 5, "And he brought him outside and said, 'Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness."

I love this. God looks at Abram, who is questioning his character, and knowing, "Hey, you're struggling to trust me in this moment," God doesn't plead his innocence. He doesn't grovel for him to understand, because God knows, "Okay, if it's my character in question, character is not proven by way of what I say; character is proven by way of what I do."

Like, you can say you're kind, but you actually convince someone you are whenever you take the time to talk to them even if it means you have to go out of your way. You can say you're humble, but it's way more convincing to lavish praise upon other people even though you did the majority of the work. You can say you're reliable, but it's way more convincing to actually follow through on the promises you make. See how that works?

It's why when you apply for a job, they want character references. Why do they want character references? Because they may be able to get a good impression of you, but they cannot ascertain the quality of your character in a single interview. They have to talk to people who have spent time with you, because the truth of the matter is character is proven through consistent evidence over time.

That's why God takes Abram and is like, "Let's go look at the stars," because he knows, as Abram stands before those stars, he (and we) will remember who he's dealing with. You'll remember who you're dealing with. That's the third thing you have to do if you want to build a relationship of trust with God.

I love it. He doesn't come to Abram all punitively. He doesn't look at him and say, "Okay, son. You're going to doubt me? Let's step outside then. Take a look at those. What do you think of them? You want to go and start counting them? Yeah. You want to be really serious about this sort of…" He doesn't do that with him.

He takes Abram, walks him out, and says, "Hey, look up. I put all of those where they are. I'm the star maker." The Scriptures say that God breathed them into existence. "I'm the Creator of the cosmos. If I can do that, don't you think I can take care of your boy? Don't you think I can provide a son for you?"

I love it. David, in Psalm 8, references a similar sort of situation where he had to come face to face and gain a new perspective on who God was, and the way he did was by looking at the night sky. It says in verse 3, "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?"

I think that's why God tells Abram to step outside and look at the stars. Not just because he wants him to get to counting but because he wants him to get a new perspective. You see, he wants Abram to go from telling God all about his problems to telling his problems all about his God. He wants to shift his perspective.

Now, I know it's not feasible for all of us to do this, to jet-set to some desert nearby and get underneath the night sky and look at the cosmos above. I know that's not feasible for us, yet it is feasible for us to block some time on the calendar, to take a day off work, to set aside some time every single month so we can not only work for God but we can actually walk with God.

I remember, as a student in college, I would sit on the front steps of the administration building at Texas A&M, and it was there that I regularly found myself meeting with God and, under the night sky there, learning who he was and what he was like, what his heart beat for, what in fact he cared about, what he had to say about me, and what it looked like for me to actually internalize those truths. It was by way of me setting aside time to be with him that I was able to learn who he was and thus who I am. God wants to do the same thing for you.

The truth is we don't often set that time aside, but it's much easier to do than we think. We just have to commit ourselves to doing it. The thing is when we do this, what happens is our trust rises, because even when we can't make sense of the world around or the situations we find ourselves suffering through, we can still look at God and say, "Man, this may all feel like chaos, but you don't. This may all feel disordered, but you aren't. You, God, are still good. So, even though it may feel like all of my reality is spinning into disarray, you, God, are still here. You, God, are still good. You, God, are still committed to me."

Interestingly, that is where this story ends. We see in verse 6 that Abram believed in God and it was counted to him as righteousness. So, he believes in God according to his character. Again, God takes him out, shows him the stars, and it evidences to Abram who God is. Yet, as we keep going, we find ourselves in this moment that is honestly kind of strange. Like, you read through it, and you're like, "What is happening here?" God wants to ratify not only his character but also his commitment to Abram and to us.

It says this in verse 7: "And he said to him, 'I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.' But he said, 'O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?' He said to him, 'Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.'" See how it gets odd?

"And he brought him all these, cut them in half…" It gets a little bit more odd. "…and laid each half over against the other. But he did not cut the birds in half. And when birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away." The Bible is just odd sometimes. You know, you read this stuff, and you're like, "What on earth is happening?" There's good reason for why all of this is happening.

While, admittedly, we have no category for what's happening in this text, Abram does. You see it. God starts asking random stuff, and Abram is like, "Yes, sir," and he just starts going. He finds the animals, he starts cutting them in half, and he starts splitting the pieces. Clearly, he understands what God has asked and we do not. So, it begs the question…What was happening in their context to help us realize what this means?

Well, Abram knows the minute God starts giving all of the instructions what God is wanting to do is he is wanting to set up a blood path covenant, which was a ritual ceremony in the ancient Near East where two parties would enter into an agreement with one another. They would walk through the pieces of these animals, one after the other, testifying to each other that if they don't keep their oath, "As was done to this animal, so shall it be done to me." It's declaring a consequence if they fail to keep their commitment.

The reason God does it with Abram in this moment is because he knows Abram is questioning, "Hey, can I trust you, God?" So, God looks at him, by way of his own suggestion, and he's like, "Hey, let's make a covenant. Get the animals. You know what to do." The reason for it is, fourthly, you can trust God's character when you trust God's commitment to you.

It's fascinating. This idea of covenant can feel distant to us, but we experience this today. The primary place where we see covenant in our modern world is in the form of marriage. I know, for Brooke and me, we talk often about the covenant of marriage that we share with one another. Not because we love to reminisce on that day long ago that was so very wonderful, though I think we did, in fact, have the best wedding. We talk about that covenant because we often have to rely on it.

We look at each other, and I'll do something stupid or she'll say something she regrets, and we're like, "God, I'm so thankful for this covenant, because the truth of the matter is, even though we're untrustworthy toward one another, I can believe, by way of your commitment to me before God and all of our family and friends, that you're not going anywhere." You see, there's something in a commitment to another person that allows us to find a deep level of trust.

That's what God is trying to do with Abram right now. He's like, "Hey, I want to give you even more reason to trust. I've given you enough. My character is flawless. There's nothing concerning about me. There are no questions you could ask that would ever bring me into any kind of reproach. I don't lie. I don't cheat. I don't steal. I don't sin."

God is perfectly good, yet he looks at Abram and is like, "But, so you have even more reason, let's make this covenant," which is really interesting to think about, the fact that God is the one who suggests it, because here's the truth. Covenants are used as a sort of safeguard in relationships that may experience distrust. The reason that's interesting is there's nothing untrustworthy about who God is.

God is the one who comes up with this idea, yet he is not the one who runs the risk of creating any distrust between him and Abram. Abram is the one who poses all the risk, yet God says, "Hey, let's strike this thing up, because the reality is I will enter into it, though I don't need to, because I want to assuage your fears, though you have no reason to fear."

This is the compassion and kindness of God toward people like you and me. He sees us in our insecurity and tells us, "Hey, that insecurity in no way invalidates my trustworthiness, but it nonetheless matters to me, so let's deal with it. Let's put something in place that helps us to make sure you feel safe with me."

Here's what's interesting. As Abram gets all the stuff together, you find that time passes. That's the idea of these birds of prey that Abram starts to fight off and shoo away. It feels like such a weird detail, yet it speaks to us this thought that he had these animals, yet no action has taken place…so long, in fact, that these buzzards have come to roost. The reason nothing has happened is because, according to this covenant, it was always the lesser party in the relationship that would go first, which in this story is Abram.

So, what he's doing is he's stalling. He knows, "If I go through this covenant, I'm going to eventually fail God, and that's going to mean the end of me." Is that why you might be stalling in your relationship with God? Is it because you fear that if you take another step with him, if you go deeper with him, he's eventually going to find out the fraud you are, the failure you are, and he's going to want out, he's going to move on, he's going to find someone better? Is that the reason you're hesitant to step into a relationship, a real relationship with God?

If it is, then you can know Abram never went through the covenant. It says, actually, that God put him to sleep. Yet, though Abram never went through with the covenant, God did. Verse 17 says, "When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram…"

A smoking pot and a flaming torch feel like another odd detail, but it's representative of the presence of God. All throughout the Old Testament, fire and smoke were symbolic of his presence among his people. This presence of God moves through the pieces by himself, declaring, "If I fail the oath, then let me be ripped apart, and if Abram (if humanity) fails to keep the oath, let me (let God) be ripped apart."

It is crazy to consider that is, in fact, what happened. As you keep reading through the Bible, you find that God was ripped apart, not because he failed to be trustworthy but because we did. So, let me just speak honestly to you here in the last couple of minutes I have. I don't know where in your life you feel like you can't trust God, but let me challenge you.

If you're here, and you feel like, "Man, I can't trust God in that place," let me just ask you. Would you take a hard look in the mirror and ask whether he should trust you, because the truth of the matter is there's not a single person in this room, myself included, who could stand before a holy, righteous, and good God and say, "Yeah, God, I'm worth it." Not a single one of us can do that. All of us know, in the honest place of our hearts, we are all untrustworthy people.

Yet here's the amazing thing, Porch. I need you to listen to me if you're checked out. If you find yourself staring into that part of you that is, in fact, untrustworthy, that should convince God to step aside, what you need to know is in the place you are untrustworthy, God's trustworthiness shines most brightly, because in your area of sin, Christ came in. What you see in Jesus is a character by way of his life that proves, as he fulfills every command of the law, he's perfect. He's without blemish.

You see in Christ, through his death, a commitment that he would go the greatest lengths to get to you. It doesn't matter how much you've done, what wrong you've committed. He has died for it. And as you look to his resurrection, you see in him a king, one who is victorious over everything that has rendered the world wrong. So, can God be trusted? He can be. The place you can begin is by trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Let me pray that you would.

God, thank you for just being here with us. Part of me, God, didn't want to come up here because you were ministering by way of your worship, yet another part of me thought, "Yes, God, but your Word wants to speak to your people," because there are people in this room, God, that if they could just be honest, they don't trust you. They look at their life and think, "What a mess. It's not what I hoped for. This isn't what I intended or dreamt of or thought I'd achieve. I feel stuck. I feel stagnant. I feel way left behind. This isn't what I wanted."

So, God, in the face of their disappointment, they have grown to distrust you. Yet here tonight, God, by way of your Word, you're telling them, "You can trust in me. You can trust in me. You can trust in my character. By way of Christ, you can see one that was perfect where you were imperfect. You can trust in my commitment. By way of Christ's death, you can know there is no length I would not go. By way of Christ's resurrection, you can see a king who has, in fact, conquered. So, your trust is well placed if it's placed in me."

I pray, God, would you communicate that to these people? Would we stand and would we worship in a continuation of where we were at the first, but even more so now, God, as we have heard from you, would we respond in rejoicing? Would we raise our hands? Would we linger a little bit longer because you're in the room? Come, God. We want to meet with you. We love you. It's in your name, amen.