Trust is one of those things we often deal with in this life. God trusted Mary and Joseph with a baby who would change the world. Jesus trusted his disciples—a mixed bunch of people—to go out into the world and preach the gospel. And even now, God trusts us to be his faithful people … while God also remains faithful to us. Trust goes both ways…
And the whole idea of trust starts early on. I look at our new grandson, Henry, and see the way he’s developing these days, learning to smile, learning to interact with his parents and others, and you can almost see the trust developing in those relationships. Henry, I believe, has come to fully trust his parents to care for him; when he wails, they come running … and his needs will be met!
But for many of us, we’ve gone through difficult times in our lives where we feel like we’re invisible … or our difficulties in life are known to nobody but us. When those we thought we could trust seem to bail on us just when we need them the most and we feel like ‘Does anyone really care anyway?’ I’m sure we’ve all had those feelings at some time in our lives. And when we feel like that, who is it that we can trust? Even if we’re the most faithful people in the world, to our friends and family, sometimes we need someone to be faithful to us, too! Do you know what I mean?
In these moments—in the midst of life’s many challenges—we need to be reminded of who God is and what God has done for us. The season of Advent is a time to do just that. And we find these truths in the Word of God, as we turn to it to be reminded that God is a God of faithfulness and one who keeps his promises, no matter what the cost! And that’s what I want to get into today: God is faithful … and here’re some things you should know about that: First…
Our God is a Covenant God. The whole story of the Bible tells us that God is faithful and serious about the promise—the covenant—that he’s made with us, his people! And scripture tells us about this covenant in a powerful story that begins in Genesis 15 … with a man by the name of Abram; listen (Gen. 15:1-21, NIV)…
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” 2 But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars–if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
7 He also said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to take possession of it.” 8 But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?” 9 So the LORD said to him, “Bring me a heifer, a goat and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” 10 Abram brought all these to him, cut them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other; the birds, however, he did not cut in half. 11 Then birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away.
12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. 13 Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates– 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.”
So, here God tells Abram to leave his homeland and his family, not knowing where he’s going, and to trust God for the future. God makes a covenant with Abram, promising that he’ll give Abram a land to live in, many descendants, and he’ll be their God—no matter what, making Abram a blessed man who will then bless others…
What exactly is this covenant God made with Abram? It’s a word that’s used often in the Bible, but it’s a word that’s never used lightly. It’s reserved for formal agreements of the most serious nature! A modern-day wedding would be a good example of that. I like to remind couples that they are going to be meeting with each other and with God, making a covenant with one another—not just signing a contract. There’s a huge difference between the two and we need to understand this in order to understand God’s faithfulness to us…
Basically, it’s this: A contract says, “If you do something for me, I’ll do something for you; but if you fail to live up to your end of the bargain, I’m no longer obligated to fulfill my part of the deal.” That’s a contract. And you can see already that if couples were to enter into a marriage as if they were entering into a contract, the marriage would be in trouble from the get-go! Wouldn’t it?
A covenant, however—at least the way the Bible describes it, is altogether different. It’s a commitment to fulfill an oath, even if the other person fails in his or her commitment. In many areas of life, contracts are preferable to covenants. For instance, when you work with a contractor to build your house, you don’t want a covenant. Like, regardless of whether the contractor builds the house on time … or according to spec … or at all, you pledge to pay the contractor the full amount by a particular day. That wouldn’t’ be good, would it? So, when you’re building a home … you want a contract. But, you don’t want that in a marriage. “If you love me, then I’ll love you back. I will love you as long as you’re easy to love. I will love you as long as you’re pleasing to me. I will love you as long as you make me happy.” No! You want a covenant marriage that says, “I will love, honor, and cherish you, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part!”
In Genesis 15 God says, “Abram, I make a covenant with you. I will bless you and your descendants, I will give you land, I will be your God, and I will do something through your descendants that will be a blessing to the whole world!” And Abram says to God, “But God, I don’t even have a real descendant, and already I’m an old man. How can I know that you’ll keep your promise? How can I know that you’ll be faithful to the covenant you’re making with me today?” And here’s where God instructs him in what to do in today’s scripture—the laying out of the animals to be sacrificed—and what happens then (vv. 17-18): “When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. 18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram….”
So, what’s going on here? Remember, often times a covenant involves an elaborate ritual—symbolic of what was taking place between the two parties. Animals would be sacrificed and the carcasses divided. And Abram would have understood what was happening like this: It’s as if God said, “May what has been done to these animals be done to me … if I fail to keep the covenant I’ve made with you.” In other words, God was saying, ‘I’d rather die than be unfaithful to the promise I make to you today.’
Folks, it’s important to remember … our God is not a contract God, who will love us ‘if’…; rather, our God is a covenant God—a for-better-or-for-worse God, who says, ‘I will love you and be faithful to you, even if it kills me!’ But, we also need to know that…
Our Relationship with God is an Unlikely Love Story. Unfortunately, God’s people (and this is seen all throughout history) are often quick to test God’s faithfulness. The Old Testament is basically one long story of a faithful God and an unfaithful people…
- Remember, God sends Moses to Egypt to rescue the Israelites from slavery, and they’ve barely gotten into the wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula before they begin to complain and grumble: “Are we there yet?” Actually, they were saying they wanted to ‘go back to Egypt’ (slavery), because there they knew what to expect! So even though God had seen fit to rescue them, they were more interested in familiarity than freedom; they just didn’t get it, did they?
- Forty years later, God finally brings the Israelites into the Promised Land, a land of prosperity, and they forget God’s graciousness and begin to worship the gods of that land. And through Judges, Kings, and Prophets … God is still faithful to them no matter what (law & grace, in the OT)…
So, when the people of Israel begin wondering, Has God forgotten us? Has God forsaken us? God reassures them through the prophet Isaiah (49:15-16a, NIV):
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! 16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands….”
Now, think about this for a moment. If you’re a parent, what would have to happen for you to walk away and forget the child you love more than life, the child you once carried, the child you dreamed of and prayed for even before they were born? What would your child have to do in order for you to say, “I forget you; I no longer care”? In this passage from Isaiah, God says to the Israelites (and to us), “Should you act in ways that even your mother or father would abandon you, I will not! I will not leave you. I will not forsake you. I will not forget you. There is nothing you can do that would make me run away. I will be faithful to you.” It’s a most unlikely love story, isn’t it? So, folks, here’s the reality we need to remember today…
Christmas is About a Bigger Story. Yes, we celebrate that Christmas is about a baby & young mother & shepherds & wise men; but God has always known that Christmas is about something bigger! Christmas is about keeping a promise—about being faithful…
We always use this phrase, but let me talk about ‘the reason for the season’ for just a moment. Now, there are many benefits for Jesus coming into this world—all of them important:
- We needed to know more about God and how he wants us to live, but if that was the only reason for Christmas Jesus could have come as a teacher, nothing more…
- We needed God’s healing power to heal up the broken places—our physical and emotional wounds, but that’s the only reason Jesus came he could have come as a healer, nothing more…
- We needed God’s help to get along with one another—strengthen our relationships, but if that’s the only reason Jesus came he could have come as a counselor, nothing more…
You get the idea… BUT, the problems go much deeper than that; we needed something more; God knew that. When the angel appeared to Joseph to announce that Mary would have a child, he said (Matt. 1:21, NIV): “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” The name ‘Jesus’ has significant meaning; it’s Hebrew for ‘the Lord saves.’ So the baby born that day was not just a teacher, a healer, a counselor, or a prophet; he was more. When the angel had to pick one title to describe God’s why for Christmas, he said, “A Savior has been born to you.” And in Jesus, God made a way to fulfill his covenant with us! So, this is the ‘why’ of Christmas, God’s plan from the beginning—a much bigger story than it first appears. Along with that, folks…
We also need to understand the price of God’s faithfulness. For a long time, when Mel Gibson’s movie—The Passion of the Christ—came out, I really didn’t want to see it. I had people asking me what I thought of the movie. I had to tell them, for a while, that I hadn’t seen it … and really didn’t know if I wanted to. And a common response was: “Why? It’s about Jesus.” Exactly. It’s about the one I love. And who likes seeing someone you love suffer? (If you’ve seen the movie, you know what I’m talking about.) What if my son had to suffer in that way? God paid a real price for us, didn’t he? Don’t ever forget the price of God’s faithfulness, folks… Let me end with this:
A pastor one day told a story of his friend, Tommy. Tommy was kind of rough around the edges. He was a member of the church this pastor was at at the time, but not a typical member. Most of the members of this church were professionals—bankers and doctors and lawyers and dentists. But Tommy was different—he was a farmer, a blue jeans and t-shirt kind of guy. He’d had a very rough life, but somewhere along the way Jesus had become real to him; and when he trusted in Jesus for the first time, his heart was changed. He was a good husband and a good father. He was a good friend and a good church member.
As the pastor tells his story, he says that he’ll never forget the evening he got a phone call from Tommy … saying that his daughter, Suzy, had been in a terrible car accident and she’d been taken to a nearby hospital. When the pastor got there, he found her on life support. After about a week, the decision was made to let her go. The pastor had seen the family at the hospital and prayed with them. But he dreaded this last visit. What would he say? How could he help them process what’d happened to their little girl? They prayed in a private waiting room, prior to going in to see Suzy for the last time. As they opened their eyes at the end of the prayer, Tommy looked up at his pastor and he said, “Pastor, there’s something I can’t figure out.”
Oh man, here it comes, the pastor thought to himself. The question he dreaded the most, the question pastors often face in these situations, and the one that none of us have an adequate answer for: Why?
“I’m about to go in there and let my daughter die,” Tommy said. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. Just thinking about it rips my heart out. I wouldn’t do it if there was any other way. And what I’ve been wrestling with, Pastor, is this: God did the very same thing with Jesus. He let his Son die because he loved me. I just can’t figure out why he would love me the way he does.” Folks, have you ever thought of that?
So, why would Jesus come, knowing that the world would hate him, they’d torture him, and eventually send him to a horrible death on a cross? Why would the Father let the Son die in pain and shame? Why Christmas? And the answer is … because God loves you! Our God is a faithful God! He’s faithful to the promises he’s made, like his covenant with Abraham (just look at Israel today)! And knowing the price that he’d have to pay to redeem us from our sin, God the Father allowed Jesus the Son to die … for you! The beautiful truth of Christmas is that you’re not alone…
- At the heart of the universe is One who’s faithful and true…
- At the heart of the universe is a heart that says, “I promise” and means it…
You can trust God because … he’s a covenant God! Our God is a till-death-do-us-part kind of God. The one thing in this life you can count on—you can trust—is this: Because of what God did for us at Christmas, we know he’s always and forever … faithful!