The Covenant of Faith

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Good morning Chapel family. Five years ago, I received a phone call that I will remember for the rest of my life. I was up in Massachusetts, just beginning a two-week residency for my doctoral studies. One week earlier I’d had a biopsy of my prostate, and immediately after the biopsy, the doctor said, “Everything looked great. You should be fine. But just to make sure, we have to wait for the lab results. I’ll call you in about a week.” So one week later I was walking around the parking lot of my hotel outside of Boston, and the call came. And the doctor said the words that I’ll remember 30 years from now: “Unfortunately, we found cancer.”

I had been a pastor for 25 years. I had visited people in the hospital with all kinds of cancer. I had wept with people who had cancer. I had prayed for people with cancer hundreds of times. I had seen both my mom and my dad through cancer. I thought I knew my way around cancer pretty well. But I will tell you: when it’s your cancer, it’s different

So in the following days, I experienced a lot of emotions. One of those emotions was doubt. What about my plans for the coming year? Norma Jean and I were planning a trip to Nashville that fall to visit some good friends. Would we have to cancel? And what about my leadership at The Chapel? That was a critical time for the church, coming out of the pandemic; why would God do this now? If I can be completely transparent, my biggest concern was the treatments and the side- effects of those treatments. I didn’t like thinking about it. I mean, I could see all this happening when I was 70. But I was 54. Why would God do that? Those are some of the doubts that robbed me of sleep.
Have you ever been there? Some of you are dealing with health issues that are worse than that. Or some other crisis. It’s in those moments when it’s easy to start doubting. We doubt God’s plan; we doubt God’s love; we doubt God’s timing. We might not admit it publicly, but deep down inside, we doubt. What do we do with those doubts?

We’re taking this fall to walk through the life of Abraham. We’re calling it “Journey of Faith,” because Abraham is known as the man of faith. Last week we saw that he left his homeland and followed God on an unknown journey, because of his faith. And we’ve been saying that God is calling all of us on a journey. As a church, we’re mapping out our plan for the next ten years, and we’re going to follow where God leads, by faith. And if your heart is open, you’ll hear God calling you to take the next step in your journey of faith.

But what happens when you’re on the journey, and you start to wrestle with doubts? Because that seems like the opposite of faith, right? So when we doubt, does that disqualify our faith? Does God get disgusted with us? Or is there a way to address our doubts that can build our faith stronger?
Genesis chapter 15, verse 1. This is God’s Word for us today…

1 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, “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 who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” 5 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 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, “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 for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 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 ancestors 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 Wadi 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.” This is the Word of the Lord.

Back in chapter 12, God had made some big promises to Abram: I’m going to make you into a great nation; I’m going to make your name great; all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you. It all sounded amazing! So he left his homeland and followed the call of God. But now some time has gone by. And there’s been no assurance that God is keeping those promises.
So here in chapter 15, God reiterates his promise, and Abram can’t help himself; he pushes back a little. He basically says, “All this talk of blessing, but I still don’t even have my first child.” I’d say that qualifies as doubt, wouldn’t you? Later in the passage, God repeats another part of his promise: “This land we’re standing on—one day it’s going to belong to you.” And again, Abram dares to challenge God: “Lord, how can I know that I’ll gain possession of it?” In other words, “It sure doesn’t look like it.” That’s doubt. More specifically, it’s doubting particular promises that God has made. That sounds terrible, doesn’t it? Doubting God’s promises! But even Abram did it. And so do we.

In the days following that phone call, I struggled to believe some promises that God has made to me. Let me mention two promises that I wrestled with. In Hebrews 13, God says, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” That’s a promise God makes to his children: I’ll never leave you alone. Right after that phone call, Norma Jean came to visit me in Massachusetts. She stayed for a few days, and then she had to go back home. So then next morning I woke up around 4am, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was thinking about the cancer and the treatments. And I was very conscious that I was alone. I was missing my wife’s presence, and I wasn’t particularly feeling God’s presence. And I thought, “Is it really true that God will never forsake me?” At that moment, it didn’t feel like it.

Here’s another promise: 2 Corinthians 4:16 says Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. I had no problem buying the first half of that verse: my body was definitely wasting away. So I really needed to know that second part is true. Would God really use my suffering to make me better inside? To renew me? Because sometimes it felt like just the opposite—like outer decay was just making me tired and cynical. In fact, I know some people who got sick, and it just made them crankier. So as I lay there alone in that hotel room, I thought, “Man, I hope that promise is true.” But honestly, I was struggling to believe it.

How about you? When do you find yourself doubting God’s promises? Some of you are dealing with an addiction of some kind: alcohol; porn; food; gambling. And you know what God said in 1 Corinthians 10:13…When you are tempted, God is faithful to provide a way out. That’s God’s promise. There’s always a God-given way to resist temptation. But when you’re up late at night, and you feel a little empty, and you hear the call of that bottle of bourbon, or that seductive web site, or that carton of Ben & Jerry’s in the freezer, you can doubt God’s promise. Is there really a way out? Because I feel powerless against this temptation.

Some of you are feeling the squeeze of gas prices and the housing market and how AI is taking away people’s jobs. You worry about paying the bills and paying for college and supporting your family. And we all know the promise, right? Jesus said your Father in heaven knows your needs, and he’ll take care of you. But do you believe it? From the way we worry, I don’t think we always believe that promise.

If we’re brutally honest, most of us have moments on our journey when doubt the promises of God. And the question is: what do we do with those doubts? Because if we’re not careful, our doubts can drive us further and further from God, until our faith grows cold. That’s why Abram’s story is so important. Because in response to his doubts, God does something shocking. Actually, first God does something breathtaking, and then he does something shocking.

The breathtaking thing is this: when Abram doubts God’s promises of descendants, God takes him outside under the night sky. And he says, “Look up the sky and count the stars.” I always think of the first time I stood on the shore of Lake Kivu in Rwanda at night. The Chapel was involved in a ministry there for years, and I was part of several trips. And I’ll never forget standing by that lake that separates Rwanda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And it’s not that they didn’t have many lights in the village; they had zero lights. There was literally no light pollution. And therefore, the night sky was painfully beautiful. First of all, it’s the southern hemisphere, so you could see constellations that we don’t see here. But the depth and the quantity and the clarity of stars was staggeringly disorienting. It was almost scary in its beauty. So all of us just lay down on the beach and stared for a long time.

And I often think that’s how the sky looked on that middle eastern night. God says, “Come out of your tent and count the stars—and good luck with that. That’s how many descendants I’m going to give you.” Whoa. And it says Abram believed the Lord. In fact, that moment is mentioned in the New Testament to teach us about the kind of faith that puts us right with God—it gets credited to our account as righteousness! So at that moment, Abram chooses faith over doubt.

But here’s the thing: even when you have that kind of faith, that doesn’t mean you’ll never struggle with doubt again. And pretty soon, Abram is doubting again! God says, “I’m going to give you this land!” And Abram says, “Mmm…how can I be sure about that?” And in response to that doubt, God does something shocking.

God says, “I want you to get some animals. Cut them in half, and place the halves opposite each other to make sort of a pathway.” What’s that about? Well, there was an ancient ceremony for entering into a binding agreement with someone. You would take animals, and cut them in half, and put the halves on either side of a pathway. In fact, in Hebrew, it doesn’t say you make a covenant; it literally says you “cut” a covenant. So you cut the animals in half and line the pathway with the pieces. And then, both parties entering into the agreement would walk between these pieces, and the symbolism was, “If I don’t hold up my end of this covenant, may I become like one of these animals.” In other words, “I’m willing to die if I don’t keep my end of the bargain!”
Can you imagine what Abram must be thinking? He’s about to enter into a covenant with the Living God. And God is going to make him promise that if he doesn’t keep his end of the bargain, it’ll cost him his life! How would you like to walk that path with God?! What a terrifying moment.
But then something unexpected happens: Abram falls into a deep sleep. And the first thing that happens is that God gives some detail about how this promise is going to get fulfilled: Abram’s descendants will go through years of hardship and slavery before things turn around. So it’s going to require patience. But then look at verse 17: When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces. What just happened?! In the Bible, smoke and fire are symbols of God. So while Abram slept, God Himself showed up and walked between the pieces…alone! That’s not the way you’re supposed to do a covenant! Both people are supposed to walk between the pieces! But this was not like any other covenant. Because in this covenant, God takes all the burden on himself.

And after that shocking moment, God turns to Abram again, and he basically says, “I will give your descendants all of this land. Now do you believe me?” In other words, God’s answer to Abram’s doubts is to guarantee his promise with a unilateral, one-sided covenant. And in the years to come, when Abram would again wrestle with doubts, the solution would not be to beat himself up, or psych himself up into greater faith; all he would have to do is remember this moment when God single-handedly sealed the covenant.

What does this have to do with us? Everything! Because from this epic event, there is an enduring principle for us. Here it is: When you doubt God’s promises, remember his covenant love. When you doubt God’s promises, remember his covenant love.

You know what that means for you and me? We need to remember the cross. Because years after Abram had that dream, one of his descendants was named Jesus. He was actually God in human flesh. And on the day that we call Good Friday, the same One who walked alone between the pieces, walked alone to the cross. And just like the bodies of those animals were torn apart, the body of Jesus was torn apart on a cross. Because he was making a new covenant, and he was guaranteeing it with his own blood.

And if you believe in Him, your faith will be credited to you as righteousness. Look at Romans 4, starting in verse 3: 3 What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” 4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. 5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. So just like Abram, you will be considered right with God, not because you’re good enough, but because you have faith in the One who is. And as members of this new covenant, you are now the recipient of the incredible promises of God. Amen? So when you find yourself doubting his promises, don’t beat yourself up for your lack of faith; don’t psych yourself up to believe better; look at the cross and remember his covenant love. Never forget that those promises are guaranteed by the blood of Jesus.

When you doubt his promises, remember his covenant love.

Today, some of you are going back home, and in the late hours of the night, that temptation is going to creep up on you. You’re going to sense your weakness and vulnerability. God has promised to make a way out! But you’re going to find yourself doubting that promise. But then you’re going to remember the cross. If he did that for you, don’t you realize you can trust him to do this for you? Remember his covenant love.

Some of you are going back to an uncertain job situation, and you’re going to feel that old familiar worry sneaking up on you. God has promised to provide all your needs, but you’re going to find yourself doubting that promise! But then you’re going to remember the cross. If he paid for your sins, don’t you think he can handle paying your bills? Remember his covenant love.

In the months after that phone call, I had several doctor visits and one additional biopsy to confirm the cancer. I had lots of people praying for me, including someone who told me that if I just believed enough, God would take away the cancer. That didn’t happen. Maybe I didn’t believe enough. Or maybe God was doing something deeper in my heart.

I decided the best treatment was to have surgery to remove the cancer. And then I realized how hard it was to find the right surgeon. Everybody had a suggestion. And every time I tried to make an appointment, there was a several-month wait to even have a consult. So one morning I was driving to work, and I was praying, “Lord, would you show me the right surgeon by the end of this week?” As I was praying, my phone rang. And my first thought was, “I’m not going to answer, because I’m praying.” And then the thought struck me: “Maybe that’s God’s answer.” I picked up the phone, and it was the doctor I’d been seeing. He was young, and hadn’t done too many of these surgeries, so I really wasn’t considering him for the surgery. But he called to say he could see me the next day. And I hung up the phone. And I knew: he was my surgeon. I said, “Thank you Lord.” I had the surgery; that young surgeon did a great job on every level, and this past April I was three years cancer-free. Praise God. And that part of my journey has become another reminder that the same God who took care of my biggest need on the cross will take care of all my other needs as well. And therefore, I don’t need to worry. And I don’t need to doubt.

And neither do you. I don’t know what lies ahead on your journey. But I know life can be really hard. So when the stress comes—when those unexpected phone calls happen, and you find yourself doubting the promises of God, remember his covenant love. Remember the cross. He has you, and he will never forsake you.