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Newington Three Angels Church

Eric Walsh

Character Climb

It's good to be in the house of the Lord on this Sabbath day.

As we heard earlier, there is a lot going on in the world.

I'll be honest with you, it seems like this year is just 1 mess after another 1.

I was out for my morning walk and ran into 1 of our neighbors and it's an older retired physician and he was really in a state of depression.

He said by now he is overwhelmed, the year is taking its toll.

He said first it was coronavirus, he said then it was riots, he said the economy looks like it's gonna crash.

And he was really in a state of depression.

And even the former first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, made a statement this week that she's having low-grade depression.

The scriptures tell us that in the last days men's hearts will fail them for fear, for looking after those things that are coming upon the world.

We're in a time when mental health, I did like 3 talks, Zoom talks this week, just about mental health, 1 of them with a state senator from New York around this issue.

And so we're gonna talk today a bit about what God is trying to do when these challenging times come.

I believe that 1 of the ways to stay healthy mentally in these times of trial is to remember that God has a purpose even in our difficulties.

So we're going to go, our scripture reading is taken from the book of James, the second chapter.

James chapter 2, I'm going to read verses 21 to 23.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

Seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect.

The scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God.

And it was imputed unto him for righteousness.

Our message this Sabbath is entitled, The Character Climb, the character climb.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

Lord, once again I ask that you make me just a nail upon the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord, but upon that nail, Lord, I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

Instead, Father, let us hear a word from the throne room of grace.

This is our prayer in Jesus's precious and holy name.

So we're gonna go to the book of Genesis.

Hope you guys don't mind, I'm gonna take off my jacket.

I figured if I can take off my mask up here, I can probably take off my jacket.

Because I really want us to get into this word.

This is a very important thing in end times for us to understand.

Genesis 15, starting at verse 1, the Bible says, And after these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

Abraham was in a time, Abram, it was still Abram here, he wasn't Abraham yet, and he was in a time of perplexity and difficulty.

He had left his homeland and moved to a new place.

He was trusting God in many aspects of his life, yet he was not seeing that God was blessing him.

As Abraham began to wonder if God was really there, the scripture in Genesis 15 1 tells us that God gives Abraham a promise that I want to lay as the foundation of our message today.

God lays the foundation by saying to Abram, and I want you to put your name where Abram's name is.

He says, fear not, Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

The next time you feel distressed, as life is piling on you, when you don't know what's going on on the job or at home, when things are difficult, I want you to go back to Genesis 15, you wanna say, fear not Eric, I am thy shield.

Abraham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless?

And the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus.

Abraham was upset because he had no children and the way that it worked in those ancient times is if he didn't have children his inheritance would go to the children of his caretaker or the manager of his house.

He's developed all of this wealth and here he thinks he's going to have to turn it over.

There's also a spiritual component that Abraham has no seed, he nor Sarah, and in that, Sarai at the time, and in that it appears as if God is not in favor of them.

To everyone around as his cattle and his herds, as his wealth multiplies, he has no children.

And because of this, it doesn't matter how much he has, without an offspring, it appears Abram does not have God's blessing.

And Abram said behold to me thou has given no seed and lo 1 born in mine house is mine heir.

And of course, this speaks to the fact that he's worried that he's gonna have to give everything he has over to Eliezer.

Verse 4, and behold, the word of the Lord came unto him saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

He said, Listen, Abram, you're talking foolishness.

I told you you're going to have an heir and the heir is gonna come from you.

Verse 5, and he brought him forth abroad and said, "'Look now toward heaven.'" I like this verse.

He brought him forth abroad and said, "'Look now toward heaven and tell the stars "'if you be able to number them.' And he said unto him, "'So will your seed be.'" Did you get that?

Abraham is sitting, soaking, wondering if God is going to give him a child.

And God takes Abram outside, out from his tent, out from his place of depression or his place of discouragement, and the God of the universe points to the stars that God created.

And he says to Abram, you've got to get this, Abram.

You will have children, your offspring, your seed will be like the stars in their numbers.

Abraham, still now, and Sarah are not young at this point.

The years of fertility have basically passed them.

A promise like this in the rational, logical, biological, physiological, obstetric mind is a non-starter.

For Abram to be upset, it was because year after year, attempt after attempt for them to have children had come and gone and they realize now that the opportunity from man's vantage point had dissipated.

You're not just gonna have a child you're going to have numberless children.

I want to submit to you that for some of us, this is what happens in life.

We allow what appears to be reality to form our faith.

Well, sometimes what we do is we allow our circumstances to determine how much we believe or how well we believe, how completely we believe.

When we look out of our window and see the conditions around us, when we see the plight that our life is in, maybe the condition a marriage is in or the separation a child has from the religious upbringing that they've had.

We look at those circumstances and logic takes the place of faith.

God never asks you to figure out by your own calculation the possibilities he has for you.

God always says, trust me and I will deliver the possibilities.

Verse 15, chapter 15 and verse 6 is 1 of the most important scriptures in all of the Bible if you're a Christian.

It says, and he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness.

God said, look, I'm going to take you outside.

You're going to see the stars of the sky.

And as you can't number the stars remember they didn't have electric lights back then we didn't this week either somebody say amen some of us and so the sky was nice and dark.

The air was not polluted yet, so Abraham with his naked eye could see what many of us cannot see in the current world condition.

He saw all of those stars, and although it seemed impossible, my Bible tells me in Genesis 15 and verse 6 that Abraham believed in the Lord.

Let me tell you something, When your circumstances get ahead of you, when life seems as if it is impossible, I want you not to trust the outcome that God is gonna give you.

And he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness.

Now the story of Abram is the story that says Abram was not righteous yet.

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