FBC Eternal Issues Bible Conference

Well, good evening. Welcome back to the last session of our Bible conference in the Book of Genesis. Some good messages, Genesis 1 -1, Genesis 3, Genesis 5. Tonight we'll be in chapter 15, so it's going to be quite a jump.

But we're going to begin tonight with number 458 in your hymnal, Now I Belong to Jesus is the hymn, and we'll stand together as we sing, 458. You know, a wonderful theological truth about that last word, not for time alone, but for eternity, is when you realize that those who are Christ were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, that is, from eternity past.

Try to figure that, wrap your head around that. So there's a sense in which you belong to the Father who gave you to the Son, and then the Son took possession of you in the new birth. What an amazing, amazing grace.

Let's open in prayer tonight. Our Father, we are so grateful this evening that we can be called your children. We're thankful that we belong to Jesus, and we're thankful that He belongs to us, that we are in Him.

When we are in Christ Jesus, we have come to faith in Christ and called upon Him to save us. We therefore have that confidence that we are in Christ. We belong in the family, and we thank you for that work of Christ that has made all of that possible.

We thank you tonight for this time of meetings, a series of meetings. Thank you for Pastor Holk and his good messages, the challenges to us, the encouragement from your word. And we thank you for our time together this evening and the truth of Scripture that we will be hearing tonight that will also be a great blessing to those who belong to Jesus.

So bless this service, we pray. Meet with us, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. A couple things. Continue to pray for Michael, Harold's son, Michael. He has shown some improvement today, but he's under really kind of constant watch.

Moved to a regular room, still up in Rockford in the hospital, so pray for him. And remind you about the arrangements for Priscilla, that those visitation is Friday, May 5th. It's not this Friday, it's a week from Friday at McDonald and Sterling from 5 to 7, and then the funeral here at the church the next day.

All of those details in the bulletin Sunday, but, you know, Friday is two days away, and you hear Visitation Friday, and, you know, it could be easy to go to the funeral home Friday evening and say, where is this?

And you'd be a week early. Didn't want you to do that. Genesis 15 for our reading tonight. Genesis 15, the reading and the message will come from this passage. Read the whole chapter. Seems a little darker up here.

I turned on that spotlight up there that helps us read better at the pulpit, and it just went poof. So I told Pastor Hoke, you're in the dark tonight. He said, well, make me all dark so you can't see me.

Okay. Genesis 15 verse 1 says, After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward. But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus?

Then Abram said, Look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.

Then he brought him outside and said, Look now toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your descendants be. And he believed in the Lord, and he accounted it to him for righteousness.

Then he said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it? So he said to him, Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtle dove, and a young pigeon.

Then he brought all these to him and cut them in two, down in the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other. But he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then he said to Abram, Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them 400 years.

And also the nation whom they serve, I will judge. Afterward, they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation, they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces. On the same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the Kenites and the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.

Now may the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. So in this chapter, and I'm sure Pastor Hoke will bring this out, there is great promise. So I want to sing in your supplement book, number 22, about every promise in the song.

We too are blessed with abundant promises upon which we can count just as much as Abram and all his descendants could count on. Every promise, and so we shall. This is the last opportunity I'll have to open God's word.

With you. And so before we turn to that word, I just want to thank you all tonight. Thank you for your warm reception of me. Some of you have had me in your homes and cared well for me. I've enjoyed the fellowship with you over food and here at the church building and getting to know you and to be able to minister God's word to you.

Thank you for your hunger for the word, for your desire to hear the truth, for coming out three weeknights of a week to hear the word preached. That's a pretty remarkable thing. Thank you for your love for each other that I have seen demonstrated even in this week.

So thank you for welcoming me. Thank you for making me feel at home and for receiving the word of God. I didn't know this before I came here, but Route 30 connects our communities. So Route 30, I found out, goes through Rock Falls and Route 30, U .S. 30, goes through Warsaw, Indiana.

My house is less than half a mile from U .S. 30. I do not recommend taking U .S. 30 all the way from here to there. That is not the quickest way to go. But I think there's something even more that connects our communities.

I know now there's a faithful church in Sterling Rock Falls. I knew it existed, but I didn't know much about it. And now I know a little bit more about it. And I know that if I'm ever here, I'm coming to this church.

If I'm ever here on a and I want you to know that the invitation is always open for you. If you're passing through Warsaw, Indiana, you are welcome at Grace Baptist Church there and appreciate the bonds that we share, even without really, for me, knowing that very much before this week.

I'm thankful for how God has revealed it to me and the time that we've spent together here. So thank you all so much for receiving me this week. We'd be glad to return that favor if you're ever in our neighborhood.

The Promise to Abram in Genesis 12

In turn with me to Genesis, not 15, where our pastor read from, but Genesis 12. We'll get to 15 in a moment here, Lord willing. For our last message of the Eternal Issues Conference, we're jumping far ahead after the flood, Noah, the ark, the things that we saw yesterday, to the days of Abraham.

Now, I'm going to call him Abram tonight, if I remember, because that's where... See, I'm further than this in our series in Genesis back at our church, and he's Abraham in our series back home. But he's still Abram tonight in Genesis chapter 15.

So I'm going to try to call him what he's called here, which is Abram. But if Abraham comes out every now and then, oh well, that's okay. You know who I'm talking about. We've jumped ahead, though, from the time of the flood down to the time of Abram.

And in between, Moses, the author of Genesis, has traced for us the descendants of Noah. There were more genealogies. We could have done another genealogy. I thought maybe one in the week was enough. But there's been more genealogy since then.

And Moses has traced for us the descendants from Noah down to a man named Abram from the east. He's shown us how God called Abram out, brought him to a land he's promised to give to his descendants. And it's from this man, Abram, that God will grow his particular chosen people into the nation of Israel.

The people that God is dealing with all throughout the Old Testament. They descend from this man, Abram. And God has said this to Abram. Look here in chapter 12 at verses 1 through 3. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And then look down at verse 7. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said to your offspring I will give this land.

So God has promised things to Abraham. See I just called him Abraham. Promised things to Abram. But the fulfillment of those promises is slow in coming. As we sometimes find the promises of God ourselves, they don't always fit our desired timetable.

God promised this and we want it right now. And the fulfillment may be a ways out yet. Well that was true for Abram. God promised these. He's gonna, you're gonna have this land. You're gonna have descendants.

You're gonna be blessed and you all the nations of the world will be blessed. And Abraham, just roll with it. Okay, Abraham, Abram. Abram doesn't see almost any of that fulfilled in his lifetime. He's got a burial plot in the land by the time he dies.

That's it. He's got a son. But he sees very little of the promises of God. And so God comes to Abraham more than once to reiterate and confirm these promises over the course of his life. And we want to consider one of those occasions this evening.

So we've seen the promises made here in verse 12. He appears to Abram various times and then we come to the the appearance here in chapter 15. So you can turn over to chapter 15 that Pastor Bice read for us a few moments ago.

I have received real help in studying and looking into Genesis 15. Particularly tonight we're going to look at the first six verses. But I wanted us to see something of the context. But I pray that tonight I can relate to you something of the comfort and help and encouragement that is found in these verses for the people of God as we conclude our time together this week.

I pray God comforts, encourages, challenges, and speaks peace to your heart today as he has to my own in looking at these verses together. There are some reminders in this passage which should nourish the souls of all of God's people today.

There are things to challenge us here as well I trust we'll see. But this is rich. May the Holy Spirit help us to to come together and see it tonight. Now just before we dig into some of these promises that God makes to Abram, these profound blessings and promises are only for God's children.

They are for those who are the, as we saw, the seed of the woman. Those who are in the ark. Those who are in Christ. Those who are trusting in Him. Those who are descendants of Abraham by faith. And if that's not you tonight, if you're not trusting in Christ, then the rich blessings that we're going to dig into here, God helping us, are not for you.

They're only for the people of God. And so my prayer for you is that you would see something of the sweetness of what is held out here for God's people and find joy and peace in coming to Christ in faith yourself and receiving these blessings and then getting to live out these challenges with us as we walk the road that leads to to glory with our Savior Christ.

And so let's look at these things. The first six verses of Genesis 15. I'm not going to reread them. We'll read some of them as we go here. And here's what we want to see. I don't expect you to remember all this.

We'll repeat them as we go. There's a word from God. There's a call or a command. There's a promise. There's a question or a complaint. There is a promise with a picture and then a response. Now some of these things are from God to Abram and some are from Abram to God, and I trust we'll make that clear as we go.

But the first thing is a word from God here in verse one. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Now God has already spoken to Abram previously. We just saw some of that in Genesis chapter 12.

You could look back at chapter 13 and see another word from God to Abram. This is Genesis 13 verses 14 through 16. The Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, lift up your eyes and look from a place where you are northward and southward and eastward and westward for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever.

I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth so that if one can count the dust of the earth your offspring also can be counted. So God has spoken to Abram at various points reminding him of the different promises that he's making to him.

Those were covenant promises. That word covenant wasn't used before chapter 15, but here in chapter 15 that word is used. Look down at verse 18 again. So we're back in chapter 15 verse 18. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying to your offspring I give this land and he starts to define the boundaries of it and the inhabitants of the land as it was then.

So this chapter is focusing on God's covenant promises. Two of them in particular about offspring for Abraham and the land. His offspring and the land. The people in a place. I think maybe I heard a pastor by saying recently Is that your two?

People, place, and then or posterity. Posterity, place, and purpose. Yeah so I don't alliterate as well as he does. So yeah here's two of the promises. Posterity and a place. And we're not going to focus on the place promise.

That comes in the second part of the chapter. We're going to focus on the the promise of offspring and descendants in verses one through six. How does God communicate that promise? Well God speaks here to Abram by way of a vision in verse one.

God has a word for him and so what's communicated in the vision is the word of the Lord to Abram. So there is a word from the Lord here. Now before we get to the content of that word that God has for Abram, just be encouraged by this.

And we saw this back in Genesis 1. God is a God who reveals himself. He has not stayed silent. He has spoken and that should encourage us. We don't have to figure out this life on our own with no direction from the the one who made us and put us here.

No he communicates exactly who he is, who we are, what he expects of us, what he provides for us, and it's so kind and gracious and good of him to do that. Now I suspect that most of you in this room have probably always had a copy of God's word, a copy of the Bible in your hands, in your home.

It's commonplace for us. It's ordinary. I can't remember a moment in my life when I've never, when I've not had access to the word of God. But don't let that make you take it for granted. So easy to take it for granted.

Instead we should thank God every time we pick this up to read it, hear it read, hear it preached. Thank you Lord that you have spoken. But there's a word from God that we're not in the dark. So God has spoken.

But what does he say to Abraham? Well it's deeply comforting. So we come second. So there's a word from God. That's the first thing. Second there's a call or a command. Fear not Abram. Fear not. Why does he tell Abram not to be afraid?

Maybe some troubling circumstance that Abram is facing? Sometimes that just comes with the appearance of an angel. Comes the reassurance. Don't be afraid. You read all the appearances of the angel surrounding the birth of Christ.

And in every one of them I think it says don't be afraid. Because the appearance of an angel is, it's a fearful thing. Some of our ideas of angels are kind of cuddly and not really fearful. They're just bright and shiny and nice.

And when an angel appears in scripts you sort of take a step or two back. Maybe you fall on your face and they say don't be afraid. Maybe that's what's going on here. God appears to Abram in a vision.

Fear not Abram. Maybe given the dialogue that follows here. Maybe Abram is fearing the reality that he doesn't have any offspring. And he doesn't have any land. He's still a sojourner. Even though God has promised those things.

Maybe that has Abram somewhat afraid. Whatever the source of his fear. How gracious of God to meet him with this challenge. This call. This encouragement. This command. Fear not. In some ways I want to spend the rest of the night here.

Fear not. It's my understanding that fear not. Do not be afraid. Don't be anxious. Don't worry. Some variation of that is the most frequent command in all of scripture. It depends on how you count. I'm not going to give you a number tonight.

But man, it is in there a lot. And even when it's not directly a command or an encouragement to not be afraid. You've got things like Psalm 56 3. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. The Bible has lots to say about our fear.

That's encouraging to someone like me. You all have gotten to know me a little bit this week. I'll just tell you. I do battle daily with anxiety and fear. I hate it. And I love though that God reminds me again and again and again and again.

You start watching for it as you read. You'll see it. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. Now should that make us feel guilty or should it make us feel hopeful? It is a command. And we, or at least I, fall so short.

We fear when we should not. We fear the wrong things. We're afraid of men when we should fear God. And so we're reminded here when we're commanded to not be afraid that we do need to repent and grow in faith as we see Abraham I think do before our very eyes in this passage.

But I think that this is as much an encouragement as it is a command. God gives us a steady drumbeat of fear not, fear not, fear not. I think to lift us up not to beat us down. What a kind heavenly Father.

He knows our nature. He knows our fearful nature that he knew that that I was going to need to be reminded again and again and again. We could keep going for all the fear nots in scripture. And God is kind to come and remind us.

Why do I think that? Well the command to not fear is often accompanied by a reason that is designed to stir us to strong faith. Watch for that too as you read. Just listen to some of the reasons God gives us not to be afraid.

The ones in this passage are powerful reasons. I'm your shield. Your reward is great. I want to get there in a moment. But just listen to some of the other ones that if you read through you're going to see it says fear not for, because, and then there's a reason that, and it's almost always centered on God.

Fear not for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go. Listen to some of these promises that are attached in scripture to the command to fear not. Sometimes they're before the command don't be afraid.

Sometimes after. Watch for that as you read. So here's some of the promises that are attached to don't be afraid. Fear not. I am with you and will bless you. See the salvation of the Lord. The Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

The Lord will be your confidence. I am the one who helps you. I love Isaiah 41 3. For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand. It is I who say to you, fear not. I am the one who helps you. You see how that sounds more to me?

It's a command. Fear not. But how God uses that to encourage us. It's I who say to you, you don't need to be afraid. There's more. I have redeemed you. I've called you by name. You are mine. Fear not.

Your prayer has been heard. Fear not. You've found favor with God. Fear not. This is Jesus. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Fear not. Behold, your King is coming. Don't be afraid.

I am the first and the last. Those reasons all have God at the root. Fear not. Why not? God. That's why not. Because He is and He is with us. You notice God isn't saying we don't have reasons for fear.

We do. That's why we need the constant reminders. But we have greater reasons not to fear. God is greater than your greatest fear. Before we zoom in on the promises He gives here, that He attaches to it here, we should note that there is absolutely reason to be afraid.

If God is not your trust, the one in whom your hope lies. The people in Noah's day, they needed to be afraid of the coming wrath. If you're not trusting Christ to forgive your sin and your rebellion against God, you should be afraid.

What reasons does God give us here for Abram to not be afraid? Thirdly, we've got a promise, right? A word from God, a call, or a command, and now a promise. It continues in verse 1. Fear not, Abram. I am your shield.

Your reward shall be very great. Your translation might be a little different. Hang on. So he's a shield to Abram, and either, like the ESV has here, his reward will be very great, or the Lord Himself is Abram's very great reward.

There's no verbs in that phrase in Hebrew, and so you kind of got to supply them, and so it's kind of tricky to... Let me just read it without the verbs. This is kind of a literal translation here. Do not fear, Abram.

And here's where the verbs disappear. I shield to you your reward powerfully great. So it's either, I am a shield and your reward, or I'm your shield and your reward is great. And I think it could go either way.

And either way, God is the source of his great reward. Either it's God Himself, or God is providing it to him. Let's think about the shield part for a moment. Shield is exactly what you would expect in scripture.

A literal shield is used in battle to protect the one who wields it against sword, arrow, or it's used of God as the shield of his people. A vivid picture of protection. In Genesis, we're not working our way through all of it, so we haven't covered chapter 14 here, but Abram has just returned from a battle where he likely would have seen shields.

Maybe he had wielded one himself, and God says, I'm your shield. Oh, that's vivid imagery because he had probably just been protected by a shield in the battle that he had just been involved in. God repeats it later for his people.

Psalm 28 and verse 7, the Lord is my strength and my shield. In him my heart trusts and I am helped. Second Samuel 22 31, this God, his way is perfect. The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

What a comfort to Abram and brothers and sisters for all of us. These promises are not just for him, but I believe for all of Abram's children by faith. That's you and me. Read Romans 4, Galatians 3. It's inescapable that the children of Abraham are not just physical descendants of Abraham.

The true children of Abraham are those who have the faith of Abraham. And so if you have faith in Christ like Abram did, then these promises are for you, for God's children, the children of Abraham by faith.

And then, of course, God's repeated them. We just read from the Psalms and from Second Samuel that he is the shield for his people. Brothers and sisters in Christ, he is your shield. When life threatens to overwhelm you, the Lord is your shield.

When a court case threatens your religious liberty, the Lord is your shield. When you are cheated, he is your shield. When you're falsely accused, the Lord is your shield. When you are abused, the Lord will be your shield.

When a friend or loved one or family member betrays or hurts you deeply, you can find shelter in the Lord who is your shield. Some of those are pretty heavy. Here's one that's a little bit lighter in the middle, some of the heavy ones.

When there is no coffee, the Lord is your shield. It's true. When you endure another sleepless night, he is your shield. When the bill comes and there is no money to pay it, he is your shield. When the medical diagnosis comes and there is no hope, he is your shield.

When just sort of the normal, ordinary pressures of life become big and not so ordinary because they've all piled up, the Lord is your shield. And your reward. God is or will provide your very great reward.

What a comfort again to Abram who has not yet seen the fulfillment of God's promises to him. Like where's the offspring? Where's the land? I'm your reward. Your reward will be great. Don't worry. Don't be afraid.

Your reward will be great, powerfully great. And you, friend, may be missing out on the wealth and pleasure of this world. Maybe legitimate things in this world or illegitimate ones. God's got your reward.

Your inheritance is secure in him. And that's where you want to be looking for satisfaction and fulfillment. You don't need that sinful pleasure. You have him. And when you don't get what you could legitimately deserve or have that's not necessarily sinful and you don't have that, he is or will provide your very great reward.

When life is deeply unsatisfying and miserable, he is or will provide your very great reward. When sickness robs you of health and vitality and energy and strength, he is or will provide your very great reward.

When you're frustrated by the hard and the bitterness of life, he is or will provide your very great reward. Don't be afraid. When it seems his promises are not coming true, he is or he will provide your very great reward.

Drew comfort in this passage. There's some challenge here too, I think, for us. Where are your joy and your satisfaction? I am convinced there is a direct link between our fear and how attached we are to earthly comforts and protections.

I wish I lived like I believe it. Let me say it again. I think there's a direct link between our fear and how attached we are to earthly comforts and protections. The more taken we are with the pleasures, even legitimate ones, not necessarily sinful ones, of this life, the less peace and more fear we will have.

How are you if you don't get your coffee? How are you if you can't have your music playing? How frustrated are you when you find your earbuds aren't charged and you can't have your music or your podcast or whatever you like to listen to going?

How are you doing? How are you if your team doesn't win? I don't know, we've got some sports fans in our church. Maybe there aren't any here. It can be a thing. I'm one. How are you if a certain person doesn't affirm you?

How are you if dinner isn't ready on time? When we seek satisfaction apart from God and his reward, that will leave us unsatisfied and anxious. The more dependent we are on other things, the security offered by health care and IRAs and bank accounts and budgets, the less peace we will have.

Listen, I have all of those things, okay? I'm not saying we shouldn't. But how are you when the stock market is down? How are you when you have to visit the doctor because you just can't get better? How are you when there's more money that needs to go out than you can see coming in?

The more we're resting on God, our shield and reward, the greater our peace will be. The more we are resting on those, again, legitimate earthly comforts. Enjoy that cup of coffee. The more we depend on earthly comforts and security, the greater our anxiety will be because those things are all uncertain.

God is shield and great reward. That is certain. Can't be moved. So if you put your trust on things that are uncertain, you can be afraid. Put it on things that are certain, no need for fear. The other things are a false foundation for confidence and peace.

But God is never a false foundation. He cannot be moved. He may not move at the pace we would like, but he will move according to his plan in his time for our good and for his glory, period. And so if your faith is in the things of the world and not in Christ, no peace and great fear.

That's further reason for you to flee to Christ if your hope is not in him tonight, as we've been seeing all week. So God tells Abram, fear not Abram, and the next word out of his mouth is I. He is the answer to your fear and to mine.

And if you're looking to feed your joy and alleviate your fear some other way, something else, you're looking in the wrong place. And so what a comfort that should be to us as God's people. I want you to feel the challenge of it tonight.

We've got our security in the wrong place. We need to we need to more and more be shifting that security into God, into Christ. But I want you to feel the comfort as well. God is your shield and great reward, even when, listen, it's true even when we don't believe.

Our weak faith doesn't change the nature of God. So he's your shield, a great reward, whether you're at peace with that reality or not. And that should comfort you. He's got you the whole way. And he's not going to leave you or forsake you.

Don't be afraid. I, the Lord your God, am with you forever. Always true, whether we believe it in that moment or not. Take heart, people of God. Abram has a question, though. And so a word from God, a call or a command, a promise, and now a question or a complaint from Abram.

God's words prompt maybe a sort of surprising reply from Abram here. I think it's an honest one, though, and I think it's instructive for us. Speaking of reward, Lord, what about the one that you promised?

Here are verses two and three. But Abram said, Oh, Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless. And the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir.

And later he's going to ask him about the land. Verse eight, Oh, Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? He's got questions. God's made the promise. You ever had questions about God's promises because they haven't been fulfilled yet?

Abram does. He knows the promise that he would be a great nation, that he would give the land to his offspring, that his offspring would be like the dust of the earth we saw in chapter 13. But he has no son yet, no heir.

One from his household, probably one of his servants is going to have to be adopted by Abram to be to be like his son, to be an heir, as things stand now for Abram. So, God, what will you give me? Where is this reward?

It seems like God's promises are not and will not be fulfilled. That's what it seems like to Abram. What's up? I love Matthew Henry here. He says true believers. Abram's a true believer. True believers sometimes find it hard to reconcile God's promises and his providences when they seem to disagree.

You ever been there? God's promise says this and everything in my life says no. Sometimes hard to reconcile. It's okay to admit that. So Abram brings his question or complaint to God. For Abram, the lack of offspring directly challenges the truth of God's promise that he would have offspring.

But he goes to the right place with this question. God has come to him in a vision. So he asks him, what do you do when you doubt? We've questioned God's promises before, if not out loud, then perhaps inwardly.

And before we see God's response to this, I just want you to be encouraged to come to God with your question. And yes, even your complaint, rightly understood. A whole bunch of the Psalms are given to Psalms that they're called laments.

And at the heart of lament is a complaint. There's something that doesn't match between God's promises and his providence. And so the psalmist is like, why have you hidden your face from me? Take that to God.

God already knows what you're thinking. You're not going to tell him. He's not going to be surprised like, oh, oh, you're doubting? Oh, we got a problem. He knows. Tell him. Talk to him about it. Tell him, bring his promise to him.

Say, Lord, you promised this. This is what my life looks like. And I don't know how to make sense of that. Bring it to him. God welcomes Abram. He welcomes the psalmist's laments. Jeremiah's laments. And he welcomes yours.