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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Genesis Napod

The Promise

So we are 8 days into the new year And so when I was asked to share a message, that's the thing I always struggle with the most is coming up with a title for the message.

Because a lot of times I don't come up with what I want to talk about until maybe the night before.

And it's not because I don't have contents, because I don't know what punchline I want to bring about.

And so I'm thinking like, what do I want to talk about?

And a lot of times the sermons are, the titles are very generalized, like God is love.

I mean, you could do any sermon with that, right?

But you do want to be a little bit creative.

When you're presenting a message, you want to have a little bit of captivity.

So some preachers, they use stories, or they use a fact, or they use a title.

So 1 time I was preaching at this church, I never spoke there before, and they asked me to come and share a message and I'm used to speaking to like, you know a younger demographic and I figure you know what I don't know this church But I want to have a catchy title because I actually know what I want to talk about So let me put a catchy title and I thought it was kind of catchy.

I don't know, you guys can be the judge of it.

But when they asked me to submit it, I submitted this.

And it might have sounded kind of like, well, a little bit intense.

Like, what do you mean destroy your enemy?

But the intention was destroy your enemy in a sense that you love your enemy, bless those who curse you, and as the Bible says, heap coals of fire, and in essence, you turn an enemy into a friend.

Well, today I was also struggling with what I should talk about, or rather the title, and I was asking Jake actually for some help, like, hey, what do you think I should actually title this?

Because I have an idea what I want to talk about, and we agreed we're going to call it The Promise, Amen?

And so with that being said, why don't we go ahead and bow our heads for prayer and then we're gonna get into the message.

Loving Father in heaven, we thank you so much, Lord, for this opportunity to worship you and to study your word.

I pray that your spirit would be present with us and that Christ would be glorified through this message, in Jesus' name, amen.

So we are 8 days into the new year, so I'm gonna ask you a question that you might have heard many, many times.

How many of us have made a New Year's resolution?

And you don't have to raise your hand, but how many of us actually kept those resolutions?

You don't have to raise your hands for this 1.

How many of us have not kept the resolution?

And so 8 days in, and a lot of people have made these resolutions, these promises that they want to do.

Because the past year may have not been that great or maybe the past 2 years with the pandemic.

And so we're thinking, you know what, 2022, this will be the new year.

And in this year, I want to do things a little bit differently.

I want to succeed in my goals, whatever those goals might be.

And so I just wrote down a bunch of random different goals that we might have.

We might say, you know, this year I want to go to the gym and I'm gonna either lose weight Or I'm gonna gain some weight whatever the case might be or I'm going to change my diet I'm gonna eat a little bit healthy eat more vegetables or whatnot and drink more water Or maybe we might say things like, you know, I want to this is the year.

I'm gonna attack my debt I want to be debt-free.

I want to pay off my student loans, pay off my credit card.

Or I'm going to travel more, learn a new instrument, new hobby, or maybe even pray more, go to church more, go to do more of my devotions more consistently.

You might say, this is my year, this is the year of the Genesis, you might say, or maybe put in your name.

This is my year, and this is the year that I'm going to start something new.

And there's nothing wrong with that in and of itself, because the Bible says, I know the context of this is more spiritual, but the Bible says, without a vision, what happens?

And so In order to fulfill your goals or your dreams, you have to know what you're aiming for, right?

And so we have these new goals, we have these dreams, and all these different things, but we're gonna focus more on the spiritual aspect of things.

We're gonna focus more on the spiritual aspect of things.

Now we have made promises maybe to ourselves or maybe to others, but how many of us have ever been disappointed before?

Someone made us a promise, but they did not fulfill their promise.

Or, you don't have to raise your hand for this, how many of us have made the promise and we ourselves did not fulfill that promise?

And so When there is a break in the promise, what happens to trust?

And so what are some examples of promises that we could think about in practical everyday life?

Maybe promises to ourselves, like I promised myself I'm going to be a new year, new me, right?

Get debt free or whatever the case might be.

Or we might make promises when we buy a car.

You buy a car, you sit in the dealership and you say, you know what?

They'll give me this car in exchange I will pay for this.

We make these promises but sometimes we don't keep those promises.

Our promises as inspiration taluses are sometimes like ropes of Sand.

How many of you guys have ever done like a Tough Mudder before?

And you know, when you're doing like a Tough Mudder, it's all about teamwork.

And sometimes there are these obstacles in which you have to climb and you need some kind of rope, and otherwise it's almost impossible.

But imagine these ropes made out of sand.

How disappointing, how discouraging would that be?

And so we are told that our promises can be like ropes of sand.

Now here's a verse I want us to take a look at, and we will come back to this as well, but it's in 2 Timothy 2, verse 13.

The Bible says, if we believe not, what happens?

He abides faithful, He cannot deny himself.

And so, when it comes to a promise, or when it comes to a covenant, or when it comes to some kind of contract, how many parties are there?

So if you're going to buy a car at a dealership, the dealership is contributing the car.

The money, the monthly payments or whatnot.

If you go for a job interview, you are contributing your services, your time, and your effort, and what are they compensating you with?

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The Promise

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