Dallas: All right.
Good morning, everyone.
How we doing today?
All right.
Well, those that know me and don't know me, my name is Dallas Kauai.
I currently serve part time here in the campus ministry in North Orange County.
Come up.
And I'm really honored and very privileged to be able to speak
with you guys this morning.
I'm really excited because we are going to continue our series in the journey
of faith and the story of Abraham.
Right now, he's still Abram.
So if I say Abram or Abraham, just know I'm talking about the same person.
Let's just clarify that right now.
But, uh, in a few chapters, in a few weeks, we'll get to Abraham, and so
then all that will be cleared up.
Um, but with that, uh, let's see, do I have my clicker on?
Yes, I do.
Let's see, does this thing work?
Um, so I've been a disciple for about nine years.
Actually, I just turned nine this past, um, Thursday.
Um, so it's been nine years.
I was, I got baptized when I was, uh, uh, fourteen years old.
Sophomore in high school.
Man, I had no idea what the world was waiting for me after that, but it's been a
great hard fought nine years and I'm still grateful for the decision I made today.
So as you can see, there's my dad and my mom, the ones that baptized me,
who are actually still here as well.
Um, and I, here I am, here I am still serving, still giving, still
dedicated to doing God's work.
And so I'm grateful by the grace of God to be here.
Um, but like I said, we are continuing our series called the journey of faith.
And you know, obviously, this is week three, and honestly, I'm glad to
be preaching today, because I don't know how Marcel could have gotten
up here after USC's game last night.
I had to, I'm sorry, I had to let the people know.
You know, we're talking about going on a journey of faith when USC's giving Marcel
a reason to lose his faith in this way.
So, but hopefully we'll turn it around, it's one bad game, one bad
call at the end, you know, that game.
But you know, we're reading about the story of Abraham and Abram, like I
said, and his ups and his downs and his faith and the victories and the
failures that we really want to focus how God really worked through them.
Obviously, Abraham is a great man of faith and he's the father
of our faith, but ultimately it wouldn't be possible without God.
Amen.
And so while we're turning over the title of my lesson today actually is
going to be covenant and confidence.
Alright, Covenant and Confidence.
And today we're going to be in Genesis Chapter 15.
Alright, Genesis Chapter 15.
And so, uh, while we're, while you guys are turning over there, if
you want to check your Bibles, feel free, or you can look at the screen.
It's great.
Let's give you some context.
So, last week, Daniel preached in Chapter 13, talking about Abraham and
Lot going their separate ways, right?
Being able to, Abraham, uh, or Abram, sorry, this is why I clarified in the
beginning, this is a disclaimer, right?
So Abram and Lot have to split up because their, um, their abundance and goods
and resources has been overwhelming to the point where the capacity to spit it
all in one place was becoming too much.
So Abram defers.
Lot says, Hey, you pick one, you pick a land, I'll take the other one.
So Lot decides, Hey, I'm going to choose that landing near the land of Sodom
where, you know, it looks a lot better.
It looks closer, uh, to where there's a lot more city, a lot more business.
I'm going to choose that one.
But in following that in chapter 14, we get into this
place where there's four kings.
They end up going against some five kings.
There's a lot of names that I will not name because I
probably will butcher them all.
But, no, it's four kings versus five kings.
And the land, the army with four kings attacks the land with five kings.
And of course, the one with five kings is in the land of Sodom.
So, and who's there?
Good old Lot.
Alright?
Causing troubles once again.
But, he ends up getting captured by the forces and taken away.
And now he's at a point where Abram catches word of this
and he's like, Are you okay?
Well, where are we gonna go?
Well, we gotta get my nephew back.
Come on, let's go get him.
So, Abram, uh, um, creates an army.
They go and take the land, uh, and take the goods and
the resources that were taken.
And they also bring back Lot.
So, it's great.
It's a great time, right?
But after that, post victory, Abram gets some praises and some blessings
from some kings, especially from a king called, uh, Melchizedek.
Um, and he was offered to keep the goods, um, that he recovered in battle.
Um, but in his commitment to God, He didn't accept any of it.
He, his words were saying that, and I'm probably paraphrasing this,
but basically saying that I'm not going to be made rich off of man or
claim to have this on my own, but I will have God be the one to bless.
So, he denies his great reward.
So that's what we're picking up in chapter 15.
So, all this has happened.
There's a great war.
He rescues Lot, comes back, denies the reward that he was, that he was, in
a sense, that he had gotten himself.
And now here we are.
So, chapter 15, verse 1 says, 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.
You know, it's funny, because if you, look, you check in chapter 14,
in the beginning of this verse, Does Abram ever initiate anything with
God, like does he ever reach out to him, does he connect with him at all?
No.
You ever have that person in your life, whether that's a spouse or
a family member or a friend, that you know like something's going
on with them, but you don't, they don't have to say anything, right?
They're like, you can see it on their face or their body language
or the way they're texting.
You're like, all right, something's going on with this person.
And God, and God is the same way with us.
He knows us.
He knows our hearts.
He knows our minds.
And the fact that I said, like, Abram didn't have to say a word, but God knew.
He says, do not be afraid.
I mean, Abram had just gone to war against five kings.
I'd be fearful, too.
I'm like, man, okay, now I just set myself to be public enemy number one here.
Right?
He says, I am your shield.
I mean, hey, I'm probably, Abram's probably thinking, man, I need protection.
I need some type of cover.
God says, let me allow that to be.
Let me let myself to be that for you.
And I am your great reward.
Now, obviously doesn't say what was what the reward that Abraham had and
the resources that he had brought back, but I'm sure it was a lot though, right?
I mean five five kingdoms worth of rewards and blessing.
That's like that's hard to turn down, but he denies all that.
And so he's probably thinking back.
I said, man, I probably should have taken it.
Like I might be regretting this, right?
But no, gotta say no, but I am your great reward.
And so he has reasons, right, to believe all this and to think all this.
But ultimately, God desires to fulfill his needs, not with
things, but God himself, right?
He says, I am your shield.
I am your very great reward.
Not that I'm going to provide for you in a shield or provide for your
reward, which he knows God has in time.
But think about the greater need, think about how much more sustainable it is.
When God is the one that fulfills our needs.
Amen?
You guys with me on that?
So let's see Abram's response though.
He says, um, Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless?
The one will, um, and the one who will inherit my estate is Eleazar of Damascus.
And Abram said, you have given me no children.
So a servant in my household will be my heir.
You know, Abram's basically saying, God, what good is it that you're my reward?
Who cares?
Maybe that you're my shield.
He's doubting.
He's questioning because he's like, Hey, the one thing that I've
wanted, the one thing I've desired is for you to provide me a son.
And so I'm glad that you're my should.
I'm glad that you're my reward, but I've only ever wanted a son.
When will you be faithful to me?
When will you fulfill your promise?
Now, before we get, you know, very judgmental of Abram's discontentment,
let's, let's, let's be humble real quick and realize that we've
also been in that same place, too.
Amen?
Now, I want to share a quick story.
I was in, uh, sixth grade, and my, my dad sat me down, and he was
like, Hey, if you get straight A's,
we will get you an iPad.
And I was like, come on, I'm a sixth grader.
I'm like, with the iPad, man, I was fired up.
And so I was grinding first semester, didn't do that great, but the second
semester, your boy got straight A's.
Okay.
Now, when I went back for my award, I was like, Hey dad, check out this report card.
And he was like, that's awesome.
We're going to need to postpone the iPad though.
Just, I was like, like, bro, like, what do you mean?
Postpone the iPad?
Like I did what you asked me to do.
I fulfilled what I needed to do.
Where is your end of the bargain?
Respectfully, I love you, but yeah, like, you know.
But like, in my head, I'm thinking that, right?
Like, I did what I needed to do.
Are you going to uphold your end?
In the same way, Abram's like, God, I'm still faithful.
I'm still here.
I'm denying rewards.
I'm, I'm, I've been called out of a land that you, that I called home to.
Wherever you're calling me, When are you going to, uh, fulfill the promise?
When are you going to uphold the end of your bargain?
You know, and sometimes what can happen with us is that we can get into the
state of this being of, well, okay, then if God is not going to provide
the promise that I'm going to go search for it somewhere else, right?
Whether that's in substances, in alcohol, pornography, sex, addiction, social media.
Unhealthy eating habits go into isolation.
We go and desire these things that that give us this temporary gratification.
It's instant gratification, right?
And we constantly have to go back for that's why it's so important guys
for us to have God be the fulfillment of our needs because it's good.
It's very good.
It's it's it's whole is completing and the same way.
We have to understand.
That God is the fulfillment of our greatest needs.
Yes, He might give us certain things to be able to fulfill certain things, but
think about how much more sustainable, how much more rewarding it is when God
is the fulfillment of our greatest needs.
Amen?
You know, God wants to be your best friend
when you feel like you're isolated.
God wants to be your shield when you feel like you need protection.
He wants to be your great reward when the things that you
desire in this life fall short.
God is the fulfillment of our greatest needs.
Now let's pick him in verse 4.
Let's see what, um, uh, God says to Abram's, you know,
discontentment, in a sense.
Then the word of the Lord came to him and says, This man will not be
your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.
He took him outside and said, Look up at the sky and count the stars.
If indeed you can count them.
Then he said to them, so shall your offspring be Abraham believed the Lord
and he credited to him as righteousness.
You know, this is a third time that God reminds Abraham of the
promise that he had, um, given him.
You know, and sometimes, and a lot of times God needs to remind us of his
promises 'cause we forget, or we have selective hearing or selective memory
on when God did or when God hasn't.
Right.
But God responds this time with clarity and certainty.
He says look up at the stars and obviously where we live
stars ain't shining too bright.
But if you go to a place like Joshua Tree, it's a beautiful sight at night.
There's no city lights, nothing blocking the sight, it's just the
stars are too numerous to count.
So I can imagine having the faith of Abram and just being like, wow,
God, if you want me to count these stars and that's the amount of
descendants man, that is amazing.
It's so reassuring.
It is so fulfilling.
It is so inspiring.
You know, and he clarifies even, he's like, it's not going to
be this spiritual descendant.
That's not, it's not something that's just going to come into your life and you're
going to mentor and that will be your son.
No, no, no.
It's going to be your own flesh and blood, right?
It's like, just in case I wasn't clear enough, count the stars,
flesh and blood of your own.
But Abraham was inspired by that.
And what does he do?
He says he believed.
He's in the Lord.
He credit to him as righteousness.
You know, this is one of the greatest statements in the Bible,
especially in the book of Romans.
And you might be asking, well, what does it say in Romans?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
Let's go over there.
Romans chapter four, verses one through three, it reads, this is
Paul talking to the church in Rome.
It says, when they, when then, what then shall we say that Abraham,
our forefather, according to the flesh, discovered in this matter.
If in fact Abraham was justified by works, he had something to
boast about, but not before God.
Amen.
What does scripture say?
Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
You know, Paul was saying that, hey, Abraham was a man of faith,
and it's inspiring to have that.
But he hadn't done anything in his works to prove his righteousness.
The covenant of circumcision that comes later on in about two chapters,
Is the first thing that Abraham does in a covenant as a wart to be
one with God or to agree with God.
Although he's been led by faith out of Ur, and now he's been leading a, uh,
leading a life of trying to figure out where God is trying to take him, right?
But, up until then, he has had no warts or anything that he has done, truly, that
has given him the desire of righteousness, or given him credited righteousness.
Because think about it, there's two types of righteousness.
There's the righteousness that you prove by your own works.
And now there's the righteousness that is proven by faith.
And obviously the perfect righteousness that we desire is God's righteousness.
Amen?
And that's hard to achieve, right?
We're not going to be perfect at it.
We are imperfect people.
Absolutely.
That's why the righteousness of faith is so fulfilling to us.
Because it's not about what we do.
It's about putting our trust and our belief in God's promises.
We're 18 here.
It says, Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed, and so became
the father of many nations.
Just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be.
Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that
his body was as good as dead.
Since he was about a hundred years old, and that Sarah's womb was also dead.
Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of
God, but he was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God.
Being fully persuaded that God had the, had power to do what he had promised.
This is why it was credited to him as righteousness.
Thanks.
Now I want to focus on two things here.
I think it's worth.
Yeah, I love it.
So we got without weakening and yet he did not waver.
I don't know if you guys have short term memory, but what we just read
in Genesis chapter 15, that sounds like a little bit of wavering, right?
A little bit of weakening.
So you might be asking, okay, but why would Paul write that?
Why would Paul say he didn't weaken?
Why did he say that he did not waver?
Well, that's the thing guys.
It's not about the idea of being perfect at it.
We need to be encouraged and inspired that God can work within perfect faith.
Then let's think about it, right?
Like we're not stupid here.
We ask the same questions.
We doubt, we weak, we waver.
We give up hope sometimes, but God still chooses to work with us.
God still chooses to partner with us.
I mean, think of Moses.
Initially, you know, he's called to lead Israel out of Egypt.
He expresses, but he expressed his own is like, I'm not good enough.
I'm inadequate.
I'm not qualified.
God.
He's hesitant to lead God's people, but God still worked to
deliver his people out of Egypt.
Think about King David, despite being called a man after God's own
heart and committing adultery and he faltered many times with Bathsheba,
Jesus is part of his lineage.
God still uses imperfect faith.
God built the church on Peter.
The rock, a man who walked on water, but when he saw the wind,
he feared and began to sink.
A man that denied Jesus three times.
God still uses imperfect faith.
It's not about being perfect, it's not about desiring to be as good
as possible, as much as we want to be, because that's not who we
are in our nature, unfortunately.
We desire to want to be that because we are disciples.
Amen.
But the idea is that God can still work with us even when we are
choosing not to work with him.
That God still wants to put hope and faith in us when we
want to disqualify ourselves.
So I know for me in my life, like I said, nine years.
A lot can happen in nine years.
Going from high school to college, and now college to post grad.
A lot happens in 9 years.
And I don't know where you're at in your walk with God.
You could be 10 years, 20 years, 30 years.
But, you know, it, it, we'd be, we'd be foolish to say that
we've had moments where we wanted to, we've, we've, we've not had
moments where we wanted to give up.
We'd be foolish to say that we, we disqualified ourselves at times.
We'd be foolish to say that we hadn't had moments where we
desired to not even show up.
But hallelujah, amen, and thanks be to God that He doesn't give up on us.
That He desires to work with our imperfect faith.
And it's not by the works that we do.
It's not about showing up to church and just, you know, doing everything
you need to do here and serving and giving and being in Bible
studies and sharing your faith.
Like, that's all great.
But what God desires and what He credits for us because we can't be
perfect in our works is our faith.
So we need to understand and just drill into ourselves that God can
and will work with imperfect faith.
Now, that doesn't give us the green light to go make stupid decisions, right?
It's like, well, hey, I'm imperfect, you know, it just happens how it be.
It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Right?
It's thinking, thinking, exactly.
But even though we are people who have our doubts and our fears, it an incomplete
trust at times that doesn't disqualify from God's plan as long as we choose
as you choose to engage and put your trust in God and his perfect promises.
You know, so while Abraham had or Abram had his moments of human vulnerability
as we all do, the narrative emphasized in the overall arcing story of Abraham
that he desired to put his trust in God.
And, and, and endure his faith in his prophecies.
Amen.
So let's go back to Genesis chapter 15.
We're going to be in verse 7.
So it says, He said to them, this is God, back to Abram.
He says, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur, out of the Chaldeans to give
you this land to take possession of.
But Abram said, Sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it?
It's like, bro, Abram, don't you get it, bro?
Like, come on, like, but like I said, like, it's a short term view.
For us, like, we see the whole picture, but for Abram, in the
moment, we are like him sometimes.
Like, yeah, okay, but how for sure, God?
Like, I want to trust you, but how for sure?
And it's like, Abram, God's probably like, Abram, do you
want me to spell it out for you?
Like, come on, like, what do you, what do you need?
But God, like I said, works in perfect faith.
So therefore what?
He does spell it out for him.
He says, So the Lord said, Sir, bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each
three years old, along with a dove and a young, and a young pigeon.
Um, Abraham brought all these things to him, cut them in two, and arranged
the halves opposite each other.
The birds, however, did not, he did not cut in half.
You know, when God tells Abraham to come and bring all these, these
animals and sacrifice, he knows exactly what's about to happen.
The cultural, uh, background of this is that, um, this, there was a contract
or a covenant about to be made, okay?
So in those days, the contracts were made by the sacrificial cutting of
animals with the split carcasses of the animals lying on the ground.
And the covenant was made when the parties in agreement would walk between
them, through the animal parts together, repeating the terms of the covenant.
And the symbolism was very plain.
First, this was a covenant that was very serious, because it was sealed in blood.
And it was also sealed, and secondly, if you break the covenant, let the
same bloodshed be poured out from the animals out onto you as well.
So it's a very serious covenant that God is setting with Abram right now.
And so Abram had his doubts and wanted assurance from God.
God said to him clearly, He said, Let's sign a deal right now.
I have a dot in line.
Go get me these things.
We're gonna sign it, seal the deal.
So let's jump on over here, um, and continue on in verse, uh, verse 12.
It says, As the sun was setting, Abraham fell into a deep sleep.
Thick and dreadful darkness came over him.
Then the Lord said to him, Know for certain that for four hundred years your
descendants will be strangers in the country, not their own, and that they
will be enslaved and mistreated there.
But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they
will come out with great possessions.
It says, You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and
be buried at a good old age.
In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here,
for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.
It says, And when the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire
pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.
On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, To your descendants,
I give this land from the Wadi to Egypt and to the great river of the Euphrates.
You know, it's super, man, God is so cool, guys, you have
no clue how cool this man is.
Oh, man, it's so inspiring because.
The significance of this section, like, goes beyond just reading the text.
Like, there's just so much that God has already put in store and put in the
plan, that when I, as I was studying this out, like, it just inspired me.
Because the significance of the fire pot and the blazing torch was the
same way that God led the Israelites who were out of slavery in Egypt.
For 400 years, like I said, 400 years, they would be in
a land, enslaved to Egypt.
But as, once they were freed and God led them out, God led them by a
cloud in the day and a fire at night.
And so the smoking fire pot is basically the cloud that was led during the day.
And the blazing torch was the fire that led the Israelites at night.
So God is like, basically like, he's like, I'm giving you some foresight
here on what's going to happen.
Like that's how, like you have to understand like God's plan is so perfect.
God's plan is so intentional.
That there's things that he does that may not seem, that seems super
random and seem coincidental or lucky or weird, but it's very intentional.
It's very genuine.
And so that God has already, has already gone before us here and is
passing through with these two things to show us that what is to come.
And I love, I love this idea.
Why?
Because think of the covenant that we have to sign or that Jesus signed for us.
Think about it, and then look at verse 18.
Um, or in, uh, sorry, verse 17.
Does it say that Abram passed through the pieces?
It was just God.
The certainty of this covenant was locked in.
And this, it would not fail.
Why?
Because God cannot fail.
And then on, on top of that, God is the one that signs it for both of us.
Because why?
Because we weren't good enough.
Why?
We weren't righteous enough.
We weren't worthy enough to be able to sign and set a deal that
puts us in a place of, well, we're going to be faithful to you, God.
We're going to be, we're going to be all in for you.
When God has always been all in for us, because we weaken, we waver, right?
Just like Abram.
We're human in that way.
We have imperfect faith.
So why would we make a covenant with God to be faithful for him forever?
When we can't even, we can't even stand on our own two feet sometimes.
God is the one that steps and passes through this covenant to show us that
he is the one that will not fail.
He puts his deity on the line for us.
He puts his sovereignty on the line.
Why?
Because he understands that if, like I said, if we were the ones to
do it, it would not be fulfilled.
But with him, it is always possible with him.
There's always hope in the same sense.
Because think of God the Father walking through the broken body of Jesus.
to establish his covenant with us.
God signed it for both of us.
Like I said, we merely enter into this covenant by faith because we
didn't make the covenant of God.
God made it with us.
Jesus went ahead of us and before us to make this covenant and sacrifice
himself for us because we could not, we could not be the perfect sacrifice.
God desires our redemption.
That's been his plan all along.
Since the moment that man fell in the garden of Eden, since we got kicked
out of the garden because we had things that we had desired other than
Him, God has been fighting for us to get us back into the garden, to be
in peace, to be at harmony with Him.
God has been orchestrating everything for us to be with Him.
And think about it, we enter this new covenant today that we live
in because of Jesus, because of Jesus sacrifice on the cross.
And the trust and the confidence that we have that God will and
still and always will love us and that his promises will never fail.
I want to encourage you.
This is your first time hearing about this.
You're like, what is this redemption that he's talking about?
It's the idea of you being one with God and you being surrendered to
living a life for God that Jesus is Lord and understanding that you
couldn't pay the price for your sin.
So he did it for you.
Yeah, whether you were aware of it or not, whether you like it or not,
it happened, but it's not because it's like, Hey, I'm gonna show you
how much greater I am than you.
No, it's just 'cause how much he loves you, how much he desires to be with you.
The creati, the creator, desires to be with his created, even though we decide
sometimes that we don't want to be, but we need to have faith at some capacity.
To know and to trust that God desires our redemption.
God desires to see us all with Him.
God desires us all to be with Him.
But you know what?
He loves you so much that He lets it be your choice.
He puts it on you to decide.
That's the kind of love that has no boundaries.
That's the kind of love that we need to have with one another.
The kind of love that doesn't control, that doesn't speak out of, of a place
that, you know, that fills our own desires, our own needs, but from a
place that desires to see each and every one of us redeemed before God.
That's why we're here.
That's why we're gathered.
I mean, think about it.
Each and every one of us comes from different walks of life,
but God has redeemed so many of us in this room from things that
we couldn't save ourselves from.
And like I said, even when you didn't believe in him, even when
you didn't believe in yourself, God desired your redemption.
And so we must find the faith and the confidence to
trust in the covenant of God.
That's where we get our confidence from.
Why do we, it's like some of us will be like, you know, asking like Dallas,
why are you so confident that, you know, God will come through for you?
Why are you so confident that God might be faithful to you?
Because of his promises.
Because he put his deity on the line for me.
He allowed himself to be the one to set the record straight that he is so in love
with me and with us that he doesn't give up on us even when we give up on him.
So I want to encourage us today, church that the confidence you feel
shouldn't be coming from your own self.
It shouldn't come from your works.
Like I said, showing up to church is great.
Being in Bible studies is great.
Having devoted times with God in prayer is great.
Absolutely.
But it's all for naught if we don't have faith in the one that is unfailing.
In God, who is unwavering.
Who doesn't weaken or lower his love for us.
Amen.
So just to recap, God is the fulfillment of our greatest need.
Amen.
God can work with imperfect faith.
And God desires our redemption.
Let us have confidence in the covenant that God has gone before
us to love us and to be redeemed and to have us be redeemed with him.
Amen.
Before we have a final song, I'm just going to go on and pray and then
we'll have the worship team come up.
Father God, thank you so much for today.
Father, we are so grateful in the ways that you have redeemed us.
God, we know and we, we continue to fight to know and to
understand how much you love us.
And though it may be an infinite scale, an infinite spectrum, God, that we see it on.
And though we're finite beings, I pray that we can just continue
to grasp how much you do love us.
That you want to be the fulfillment of our needs.
That you work with us, even in our imperfect faith.
And God, that you desire to see us redeemed.
And I know, God, that sometimes we, we can count ourselves
out and want to disqualify us.
But Father, I just pray and hope that we can be confident,
not in ourselves, but in you.
And in your promises.
Father, we are so grateful to be here, and that you have chosen
us to be redeemed with you.
God, I pray that we can just take this into our weeks, God, as we just, we
really focus on our lives and our actions and the way we think and the way we
speak, God, and speak not from a place of our own confidence, but confidence
in You, and to live out our faith, and to live out this journey of faith, God,
because of Your great and unending love.
We love You, God.
Thank You for this day and this service.
Please bless the rest of it and bless our days.
We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.