Walking with God in Real Life

Greatest and I faithfulness, words spoken by Jeremiah in the book of Lamentations chapter three. What a wonderful testimony of the relationship that God wants to have with us. Faithfulness is the most endearing quality of a friend. A true friend is one who is faithful to you. And through Thicker Thin, whatever you may go through in life, and certainly if our God promises his faithfulness is great, then he is the greatest friend we could ever have. And we're looking on Sunday evenings at a man who is in the Bible three times called the friend of God. His name is Abram. At this point it will later become Abraham. Let's look at Genesis chapter 15 this evening where we find what it means to walk with God in real life. I mentioned one of the most endearing qualities of a friend is faithfulness and oftentimes that is seen in a person listening to you. Friendship has a lot of different levels. There are acquaintances, there are casual friendships with people you may speak to over the backyard fence, that kind of thing. But at its deepest level, friendship is being able to bear your soul with someone, being able to really talk about anything that's on your heart without any fear that you're concerned about what they will think of you. Or any fear that sharing will be compromised in any way. At its deepest level, friendship is a real communion of heart that is not fearful of what the other person will think. Friendship on this level is with someone that you believe and you know you can walk closely with throughout life. There are not many people like that really who can be called friends on that level, hopefully your spouse is one of those kind of friends that you can open your heart to and talk to about anything. And maybe a few other people in your life you have like that as friends, but it really is kind of rare. When I think of that kind of friendship, it amazes me that God tells us in his word that he wants to be our friend. Now be careful with that. It's not a buddy buddy relationship with God, but Jesus said, I no longer call you servants, I call you friends to his disciples. What he was talking about was a close bond of love and fellowship where they could share their hearts with one another and God wants that kind of relationship with us, a close bond of fellowship and love where we can share our hearts with him. In Genesis 15 we have an excellent example of why Abram is called the friend of God. There is a remarkable conversation that goes on between God and Abram in this passage where both are openly sharing their hearts with each other. And that is really the deepest level of friendship and we see that going on between a man and God in this passage. So we can learn some lessons about what it means to be the friend of God, what it means to walk with God but walking with him in real life, not in some kind of mystical plane that is above where we live in this world, but walking with God in the midst of every day, difficulties and struggles, that's what we have an example of here in Genesis 15. So let's look at some of the lessons, but before we jump into the lessons we can learn about walking with God in real life. Let's actually look at the story itself which I would describe the whole chapter as being Abram's conversation with God. Abram's conversation with God. Let's just look at the chapter and read through it and I'll make a few comments as we go through. Verse 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. Now it's interesting to me that God assures Abram of two things here, both of which tie into what Abram has just gone through in chapter 14. If you remember in chapter 14 Abram has pursued some armies, some kings that have kind of come blazing through this area of the country and taken everything including Lot, Abram's nephew and Abram takes off after them at great risk to himself committing his entire household servant staff to a military campaign and God gives him a great victory and he comes back and you remember he was offered reward by the king of Sodom and he refused that because you knew it would compromise his integrity. So these promises come right on the heels of that and God makes two very interesting promises to Abram. First of all he says, don't be afraid, I am your shield. In other words Abram if you fear counter attack from these kings if you fear that you have put your future security in jeopardy by branching out in a military campaign then I want you to know I am your shield. I'll take care of you, I'll protect you. And Abram if you're feeling just a little bit down or maybe second guessing whether or not you should have given up all that reward that all the booty that came from battle then I want you to know I am your very great reward as well. So God's promises to him are very closely related to his life experience here and what he's just gone through. God assures him in that. Look at verse two. But Abram said, oh sovereign lord what can you give me since I remain childless 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. Someone brings up a couple of things or actually one major issue that he is wondering about. Since God is talking with him he decides I've got something I'll talk to you about lord. You promised some time ago remember you promised an heir and I'm still childless. Now it was common in a situation like that in the ancient Near East for someone who had no child to take a household servant, a trusted servant, a very faithful servant and adopt that person as a son and that person would become the heir and that's what Abram is suggesting probably will have to happen because God has not yet given him a son. And so Abram is so concerned about this he repeats it. He brings it up in verse two and says lord I'm still childless so I guess Eleazar is going to be my heir and then a second time he says you've given me no children so a servant will be my heir. He's really concerned about this. He's bringing up a real heart burden, a heart concerned to the Lord and so the Lord answers him. The Lord pokes back and says in verses four and five 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. 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. So God assures Abram no this is not going to be your heir not this servant in your household you will have a son. He reaffirms the promise to Abram that he will have a son and he says I'm going to give you some reassurance of that. I'm going to give you a sign if you will a visible way of strengthening your faith. Come outside. Now look up in the sky. Look at the stars. Can you count them all? Now depending on where you live you probably can each night when you look up into the heavens. When I lived out here in the parsnage the lights of the church were in the parking lots were so bright that we rarely ever saw any stars. I mean if we went out at night we could say yeah there's two. I see them and that'd be pretty big. If you go out in the country where there is no artificial light and look up into the sky on a clear night there are just dazzling with stars all over the place. It is said that we can probably see on a clear night about 8,000 stars with the naked eye without the help of a telescope. And so the point that God is making with Abram here is not okay get out there and count 1, 2, 3, count to 8,000 that's how many descendants you will have. That's not the point. The point is just take a look. Look at how amazing that seems. That's what I'm going to do for you. I'm going to give you those kind of descendants and for a man who is childless that's pretty amazing. So God is talking with him and assuring him that he is going to fulfill his promise. And look at verse 6 one of the greatest verses in all the Old Testament. Abram believed the Lord and he credited it to him as righteousness. Abram just said, amen to God's word. He just said, so be it, I believe you. I believe you. I mean it doesn't seem possible that I would have a son at this age but I believe you. And because he believed God the Bible says that the Lord credited that faith to him for righteousness. And so Abram becomes the great Old Testament example of justification by faith. The word credited is very interesting word. It is a financial term. It means to put on an account, to actually put a credit on someone's account. And this is really a New Testament concept. It's what the idea of justification is all about. One of Paul's favorite words for salvation is justification. Now in the New Testament justification is the fact that God declares us righteous because of our faith in Christ. It has nothing to do with making us righteous. That's sanctification. That's the process whereby God through His word and the Holy Spirit causes us to be conformed into the character of Christ more and more. That's sanctification. And justification is a purely legal, financial type of transaction that takes place at the moment you're saved. And here's how it happens. If you can imagine, and I'm not sure it really works like this in heaven, but this is the way the wording goes, if you can imagine in heaven there's a big ledger book. And on this ledger book there is a debit column for all the debt you owe because of your sin. And in that ledger book there is also a column for the positive side of things, the ledger for it where you are credited with that which might be paid to your account. And what happens when you trust Christ as your Savior is all the bad stuff, all the sin on your debit side is removed. It is wiped off your record book. And you know what goes on the credit side of your ledger in heaven? Not all the good things you've done. Okay, works salvation says we have good things on one side, bad things on one side. Let's hope the good side wins out. Let's hope there's more on that side. That's not what happens in salvation. What happens in salvation is on the credit side of the ledger God simply stamps paid in full righteousness of Christ. And so the positive side, the credit side, our faith is credited to us for righteousness. When you trust Christ you are justified, you are declared righteous in the side of God because Christ's righteousness is placed on the credit side of the ledger books in heaven. And all of the debit stuff is removed. It's taken off. All of your sin is wiped away. Now that's what salvation is about. That's the grace of God in salvation. Now I would just ask before we move on here in this passage. Has your debit side been cleared up in heaven? What does your ledger book look like in heaven? Have you trusted the Lord Jesus as your Savior placed all of your confidence and trust and faith in Him to get you to heaven? Because if you have, then that transaction in the record books in heaven has taken place. And the credit side shows the righteousness of Christ and the debit side has been wiped clean. Do you all think about it in terms of your salvation? Have you trusted the Lord Jesus as your Savior or are you trying to work your way to heaven? Because if you're trying to work your way to heaven, you can't balance the sides of the ledger book. No way you can do that. God can do that when He declares you righteous through Christ. Abram is a great example of that in the Old Testament. Then if you look at verse 7, verse 7 says, he also said to him, I am the Lord who brought you out of the earth of the Caldians to give you this land to take possession of it. God brings up something else in this conversation with Abram. He brings up something else. I want to remind you, Abram, I am the Lord. I've given you possession of this land. And Abram in this heart to heart conversation answers him back with another question in verse 8. But Abram said, oh, sovereign Lord, how can I know that I will gain possession of it? This is not a question of doubt. This is just a question for information. Abram is saying, Lord, I don't understand. I've been living in this land for a while. I've been like a pilgrim in this land, wandering from place to place, living in a tent, haven't built any permanent residence. How do I know? How will you show me that I am actually going to receive this land as a possession? And this is God's answer in verse 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, Abram brought all these to him, cut them into, and arranged the haves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half. Even birds of prey came down on the carcasses, but Abram drove them away. And you read that and you say, what is going on with that? Why does God tell him, bring these animals? And why does Abram take these animals? Cut them in half and lay them out on the ground. Well, you see, this was a very common way of making a covenant agreement in the Old Testament. Lots of ancient Near Eastern cultures did this. And so when God said, bring me these certain animals, Abram immediately knew what God was suggesting. Let's cut a covenant. Let's make a covenant. I'm going to make a covenant with you, Abram. We're going to reaffirm the promises and the covenant I've already made with you. And so Abram did what he knew to expect just by God saying, bring the animals. And what would happen in a covenant like this? You see, there were no lawyers in that day to cut deals and to draw up legal documents. There were no documents that could be notarized and signed and put a seal on them and all that. That's not the way these kinds of agreements were made in the ancient Near East. When you made a covenant agreement with somebody, whether it had to do with land or whatever it was, this is what you did it. You took some animals, you killed them, and you cut them in half. You placed half the animal on one side, half the animal on the other side. And then the two parties making the agreement would walk down kind of like the gauntlet through the middle of those carcasses on either side. And the symbolism was this. May God do this to me if I break this covenant. In other words, I am pledging you on my life that I will keep this covenant and this promise. That's the way they did those legal type of things in this culture in the ancient Near East. And so Abram knew exactly what to do. God is saying, I'm going to reaffirm the covenant. And so Abram prepares everything, shoes the birds off the carcasses and says, okay, I'm ready for the covenant. Now look what happens in verse 12. As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. And God puts him into a divinely induced coma, if you will, kind of like he did with Adam when he created Eve. But this is not going to be to bring him a sun or anything like that. This is going to be to make this covenant with him, this promise with him, verse 13. Then the Lord said to him, no for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country, not their own. And they will be enslaved and mistreated for 100 years. And I will punish the nation they serve as slaves. And afterward they will come out with great possessions. You however will go to your fathers and 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. There's an awful lot being said here, but basically God is saying this. Abram, the land is yours. It's going to go to your descendants, but here's how it's going to work. It's not going to come to you immediately. You're not going to have it now. Neither is your son Isaac or your grandson Jacob. It will not be there immediately. Your ancestors or your descendants will go to a land where they will be servants, speaking obviously of Egypt. And then he says they will come out of Egypt after they've served as slaves there. They will come out with great possessions. And in the fourth generation, the generation a little longer then because lifespan was longer, about 400 years later they will come back to this land. What I'm waiting for is the iniquity of the Amorites, the current dwellers of this land to be full. Once the sin of the people of this land has gone to where I cannot tolerate it any longer, I will bring your descendants back. They will be the ones who will come to possess the land, dispossess the sinful inhabitants of the land, take the land, be my instrument of punishment and judgment on the inhabitants of the land. But that's how it's going to happen. I promise you this, I'm giving you this covenant, the land will be those, will be your descendants land, but this is the way it's going to happen. There is some pain involved here and some joy involved here and we'll come back to that a little bit later. Verse 17. When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot 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 river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates to the land of the keynites, the Kedmonites, the Hittites, the Parasites, the Refaites, the Ammarites, the Canaanites, the Gurgishites and the Jabiusites and the Preacher Jimi used to say the termites, all of them. Here's the deal here. When the darkness had come and sun had set all of that, this smoking firepot and a blazing appear and pass between these pieces of animals. Now the fire pot and the blazing torch those lights evidently represent the presence of God. God himself appears in a visible presence like he often does in the Old Testament as light and he himself passes between the two pieces. Now that's very significant because Abram does not walk with him through these pieces of animals. Now the way a covenant was usually made when it was made between two parties was both parties as I said would walk down this path between these animals but in this case only God does it. Now what that means is the covenant that is being made with Abram is what by what theologians and scholars like to call an unconditional covenant it is made by God alone. It's not God and Abram agreeing to things it is God saying I make an unconditional promise to you Abram this land is yours and it will come to your descendants. In other words it is solely on my faithfulness to keep this covenant that this covenant rests. It's not based on what you do obviously Abraham will be encouraged to be faithful to God and walk with God and all of that but the keeping of the Abrahamic covenant is solely by a promise that God makes and not based on what Abram does is a promise made by God and God alone to him and it's based on God's faithfulness. So the terms of the covenant he lays out the boundaries of the land from the River Euphrates up in present-day Iraq all the way to the River of Egypt which is in the Sinai peninsula near the the border of the Red Sea all of that land is going to be Israel's now by the way Israel has never fully occupied all that land the closest they ever came was under Solomon's reign and some of the northern parts of that land were just under tribute to Solomon Israel did not inhabit the land but that part of the land paid taxes to Solomon so they've never fully inhabited that land now you say why do you bring that up John because it's very important to see that there is still a future for the nation of Israel Israel has never fulfilled this promise this the promise of this land has never been totally fulfilled for Israel and so there must be a future day when a nation called Israel will inhabit this part of the world and will have these boundaries in order for God to keep this covenant and what that tells me is that someday Jesus is coming back when he sets up his kingdom as we know in other parts of the Old Testament Israel will be the nation that is the center piece of Christ's kingdom on this earth and these boundaries will belong to the nation of Israel then so there is still a future for the nation of Israel still promise to the Jewish people now having seen Abram's conversation with God this very interesting and two-way conversation I think there are some lessons we can learn about walking with God having the kind of friendship with God that is give and take sharing your heart with him walking through life with him sharing the deepest issues and questions and burdens of your heart which is exactly what Abram was doing there are some real lessons here about walking with God isn't it isn't it great that God gives us the opportunity to kind of eavesdrop on their conversation and see what it's like for a man to actually talk with God like this and ask him the questions on his heart because I think there are some great lessons to be learned let's stop and listen to this conversation once again and learn these four lessons lesson number one God relates to us on the basis of promises God relates to us on the basis of promises there are three promises in this chapter made to Abram one of them has to do with protection remember it back in verse one I'm your shield I'm your reward I'll protect you I'll protect you from attack I'll protect you from any financial problems you incurred because of your military expedition I'm protecting you so God made him a promise of protection second promise was a promise of posterity verses four and five this is going to be your descent you will have a son and your air will not be the slave you will have a son that's second promise third promise has to do with possession this is the land you will possess an Abram as well how how do I know I will possess it it had to do with him possessing the land and even giving him the boundaries of that land so protection posterity possession those are the three promises that God makes to Abram isn't it interesting that those are the very three things that Abram is worried about at this point in his life he's kind of concerned about what this military expedition may mean to him in the future God makes him a promise about that he is really concerned about how God is going to fulfill this promise of an air and so God makes him another promise about that and we know from his question in verse eight he's concerned about how he knows he's going to possess this land God makes him a promise about that the very things that you may be worried or concerned about in your life God has some promises about now the interesting thing about God's promises is that God responds not by immediately giving everything to Abram it's not that he gave him the reward at that time he didn't give him the son yet he didn't give him the possession of the land yet but he promised it which requires faith wouldn't it be awful easy if every time we prayed we immediately zap just saw the answer drop right into our lap wouldn't that be great well maybe not maybe not because God would become our Bellboy then God would become our servant God would become one that we could just a genie we could snap our fingers and get whatever we wanted would not it would not require any faith to live that way our faith would not be stretched at all so God doesn't relate to us on the basis of just ask me and I'll zap you with it right now give it to you right now all you got to do is ask I'll give you anything God doesn't relate to us that way he relates to us on the basis of promises he does not grant us everything right now sometimes there things we're concerned about we're praying about we're maybe even be worried about and God says trust my timing trust my wisdom trust my goodness and sometimes his promises are delayed but we have to trust they will come in his time maybe not our time maybe well maybe not what we think is best but certainly in his time and you know what some of God's promises will not be fulfilled or realized until we get to heaven look at these verses on the screen Romans chapter 8 verse 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us and he goes on in verses 22 and 23 to say this we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of birth right up to this present time not only so but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons the redemption of our bodies you know there's some things that you may long for and pray for and that may give you daily concern that will not be answered till you get to heaven and some of those as Romans 8 tells us have to do with physical suffering do you ever pray to be delivered from a physical ailment I'm sure all of us do do you know that it may not be God's will to deliver you from that physical ailment there are times when we suffer with physical difficulties until we leave this physical body and we go home to be with the Lord so sometimes the promise that God gives us is not fulfilled until heaven but that's not a bad thing in fact that very chapter in Romans 8 says if we already have everything we hope for then what's the what's the use of hope what do we have to look forward to if we get everything here you see there's nothing to look forward to in heaven he says second Corinthians 4 verses 16 to 18 Paul says much the same thing look at these verses 2 Corinthians 4 verses 16 to 18 are they up there we not have those all right let's take a look at those 2 Corinthians 4 I'll just read them to you verse 16 Paul says therefore we do not lose heart though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day for our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all so Paul says because we know that glory you know heaven is so far beyond what we experience here we can't even compare what we're suffering here with what we'll have in heaven because of that he says so we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen for what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal some of the promises God makes for us we will not see realized until we get to heaven and we must be able to keep that perspective in times when trials are heavy because walking with God means that you're able to carry on a conversation with him and asking questions like Lord why do I have to suffer this way could you not relieve this could you not meet this need in my life and God may answer you and say I give you this promise this promise to help you through this time and sometimes those promises are you won't be delivered from this until you get to heaven and we may not hear that clearly from God but we may just hear what we perceive to be silence God doesn't seem to be answering our prayer but the promise will be fulfilled there just being glory God relates to us on the basis of promises I remember reading probably 20 years ago or more now an excellent book by Warren Wiersby on the issue of suffering he titled the book Why Us when bad things happen to God's people and there's an excellent book about suffering in the life of a Christian I'll never forget a statement that he made in that book it's just kind of hung with me ever since he made this statement he says it over and over again in the book God relates to us on the basis of promises not explanations you see when we pray or when we ask God a question we want an explanation for everything we're going through we want to understand exactly why how it's going to turn out what God's going to do we want him to give us explanations and God doesn't always answer that way God sometimes answers on the basis of promises and promises have to do with the future we don't always get explanations for everything we're going through but we can trust his promises God relates to us on the basis of promises second principle we can learn from this heart to heart conversation between Abram and God is this God desires openness and honesty mixed with faith I'm intrigued in this passage by the questions that Abram asks God they're very honest they're very transparent they're very real they may even seem a bit irreverent to some of you but Abram's just being honest he's just asking God some honest questions that trouble him in verses two and three he asked him twice what are you going to do about this air thing God I'm supposed to have an air and I don't understand how this is going to happen I guess it's going to be a laser and he's so concerned about it he says again how are you going to take care of this thing about an air he's asking God a very honest question God answers him and then he asked God a second question in verse eight when he says Lord how can I know that I will gain possession of the land you promise me this land how can I know that I will gain possession of it he's asking God some very honest questions and the reason is Abram found himself in a gulf between God's promises and his experience God has made him a promise of an air God has made him a promise of a land and Abram in his experience hasn't seen either one of those come true you ever find yourself there you ever find yourself kind of living in that no man's land you feel like sometimes or that great gulf between what God has promised and what you're experiencing when you find yourself there and you know God's made some promises but you don't see them happening in your life and you find yourself wondering what's going on the best thing to do is to be honest with God be transparent open like Abram that's what it means to walk with God to be a friend of God be open and transparent with him and bear your soul before him ask your questions to him pour out what's on your heart God I don't understand this how is this going to work out what are you going to do about this Lord I don't understand now God never rebukes him for his questions never rebukes him but very patiently reassures him Lord what are you going to do about this air thing is going to be LA or no no Abram you will have a son and I'll reassure you go out and count the stars that's what your descends are going to be like what well Lord you promise a land how do I know I'm going to have a land to possess okay Abram I'll reassure you go get some animals and he makes this covenant with him that he will possess this land God reassures him when Abram asks his questions now when you ask honest questions of God don't be afraid that God's going to be upset with you it's going to rebuke you there are two different ways to question God I think it's very important that we understand it's the motive behind and the spirit behind our questions not the fact that we question God a lot of people say don't question God that's just not true lots of Bible saints question God and we're not rebuked for that they were rewarded with reassurance from God like Abram but here's the difference some people question God out of defiant distrust or mistrust out of bitterness out of anger and their spirit is angry at God they're bitter with God and so their questions of why or how are really angry questions at God those are not the kind of questions Abram asked the second way to ask God a question is with a puzzled submission to God it's one thing to ask a question in defiant distrust it's another thing to ask in puzzled submission now I know Abram asked these questions that way because both times notice how he addresses God look back at verse two Abram said oh sovereign Lord what are you going to do about the air situation now look at verse eight but Abram said oh sovereign Lord how can I know that I will gain possession of it okay he's puzzled he doesn't understand how God's going to do it but he is reverently submissive to God when he says God your sovereign you are the Lord Jehovah you are in control I know I can trust you I just don't understand I'm puzzled now that is a submissive way to ask God questions and God loves to have his children come to him and pour their hearts out when they address him as sovereign Lord when they come to him in a spirit of submission saying Lord you are sovereign you're in control you are on your throne I'm not questioning who you are or what you do I'm just puzzled could you help me and Abram also when God gave him an answer the Bible says in verse six Abram believed he believed God so this is this is puzzled submission questions openness honesty but it's mixed with faith this is not mistrust this is not angry defiance against God this is this is coming to God knowing that he's sovereign and trusting him when he speaks to our hearts the foundation of faith is there it's the same kind of response that Mary had when the angel appeared to her and said you're going to have a child and this child would be called son of the most high you'll reign on the throne of David and Mary's first response was Lord how can these things be seeing that I'm a virgin now that was not an angry defiant question it was a puzzled submissive question she addresses him as Lord and just says I don't understand I'm puzzled how can that happen and when when the angel explained to her the Holy Spirit will come on you and overshadow you that which is born of you will be a holy one the son of God then she says I am the Lord servant may it be to me as you have said that's the submission part she's puzzled she doesn't understand how this can happen but she is totally submissive to the Lord's will now when you come to God and ask questions in that spirit God honors that and God will reassure you through his word and his spirit that he is still in control and you can trust him so walking with God in real life means he desires openness and honesty mixed with faith third principle quickly God demonstrates his faithfulness to encourages in walking with God God has ways of demonstrating his faithfulness to encourages with Abram it was the stars and it was this covenant with the animals laid out those were visible ways that God said I will reassure you I will encourage you with signs of my faithfulness have you learned to recognize the signs of God's faithfulness to you and say well John what are you talking about I'm talking about just visible ways that God reassures you maybe a card or a letter or just a note from a friend an email that someone sends that is encouraging in nature it may be as you read a pertinent portion of scripture God just draws you in and says this is for you today I know this is what you need maybe the way God gives that little bit of reassurance it may be just when something good happens and you can just see the hand of God arranging circumstances in your life or even when something bad happens and God just floods you with a sense of peace that you know didn't come from you and you just know God's hand is in that those are visible ways that God demonstrates his faithfulness to us you learn to recognize those in your daily walk with God God demonstrates his faithfulness to encourages and then lastly God's plan involves both pain and joy God's plan in our lives walking with God day by day involves both pain and joy remember the vision that Abram had in verses 12 through 16 God speaks to him and says this is the way it's going to happen oh it would be nice if that whole thing was just uplifting and joyful and filled with wonderful things that God is going to do for Abram but it all starts out with your descendants are going to go down to Egypt and be slaves it's kind of painful and they're going to be there 400 years that's pretty painful and they're going to come out with great possessions and then I'm going to use them to be my judgment upon the people who land and that's when they will take the land there's joy so God's plan involves both pain and joy and I think that's important to recognize because some people picture walking with God you know when we use that term walking with God that everything is always peaceful and joyful and just a sense of real close fellowship and always experiencing the blessing of God and if you're having any problems in your life you must not be walking with God that is not realistic because daily life includes its share of difficulties and obvious blessings and what we need to understand that is that even in the difficulties even in the hard things and the trials God has ways of demonstrating His faithfulness helping us through those difficult times and moving us along in life you know in real life not everything is bliss and happiness and fun there are some difficult times in every day aren't there and then there are ways that you can see God's grace and God's faithfulness I mean just in little ways this this past Friday I woke up and knew that there were going to be some some challenging things that I was going to be facing that day and there was one appointment in particular that I was concerned about dealing with an issue with someone and and I thought this is not going to be very easy and I was a little tight in my stomach I was actually sick when I woke up and so because I was sick at my stomach I was a little later getting out here the normal for the men's prayer group that starts at 6.30 and I was running a little bit late you know and and I'm thinking this is not a good way to start the day and I walk into the room back here and the coffee pot fulfilled the verse in Psalm 23 my cup runneth over we have a coffee pot back there for the guys and it's set on a timer and it's supposed to start you know and the coffee supposed to be piping hot by the time we get there well it was piping hot but it was all over the floor for some reason which I don't fully understand it had not gone where it was supposed to go and it overflowed and all that coffee was on the floor and I'm thinking I'm already running late you know guys are going to be here in just a few minutes and so I real quick get the paper towels out and get all this stuff up and run down and get them up and mop the floor clean it up as best I can and and it's time to start and I'm already sick at my stomach you know and just this is a bad way to start the day we had a good prayer time and then I thinking okay now the things that I know have got to get done today I'm behind on preparation for the morning message I've got to get that thing finished this morning Lord please no interruptions for at least three hours so that I can get this thing done and the Lord the Lord granted that and there were just there's just a great time and so started out kind of rough and then the day was full of blessing for a few hours where I got some good study done and and then I was thinking go the next thing I know I've got to get done today is figure out this PowerPoint for the 101 class tomorrow morning and I've got to use Ben Faulkner's computer down in 140 and I have no clue about technology I'm not very good at that stuff so I'm thinking Lord I don't want to bother Jim he's great with technology he's got a lot on his plate today so I'm just going to go down try to figure it out and you know what I did and the Lord just really was good in that because I'm thinking I'm not normally good at figuring this stuff out and it happened it just kind of fell into place and so I'm thanking the Lord that's another good blessing and then I'm looking forward to that meeting not looking forward to that meeting that I have but that went really well and the Lord just smoothed some things over and blessed in that it didn't real intense confrontation and it went well and then I'm thinking okay now we've got a wedding rehearsal and and you know I didn't know what to expect there but I knew that Kathy Hawks was directing the weddings or everything would be taken care of just fine and it was it was thankfully got there and that went real smooth and and I came home that evening thinking this has been a good day the Lord has really been good you know walking with God is not always fun and easy it involves being sick at your stomach sometimes and cleaning up spilled coffee but it also involves seeing God do some things that just reassure you that he's there at these with you in the midst of the daily grind he gives little signs of encouragement through the day and blesses through the day and you know that's what walking with God is all about you know I wish that I could say walking with God is always kind of like six inches off the ground you know just walking on air a little bit more spiritual than everybody else that's not real life friends you know that I know that walking with God thing I love about this passage is this close relationship between Abraham and God involves some difficult things and some real great blessings walking with God in real life means that you recognize God deals with us on the basis of promises and doesn't just give us everything we ask for right now we don't always get what we don't always get the explanations for things but we continue to walk with him trusting him walking with God means that we can be open enough with him to asking the honest questions on our heart as long as we do it with a submissive faith-filled spirit not angry defiance because you're gonna have some questions you don't understand walking with God in real life means that you you learn to notice and rejoice in the little ways God shows up and says I'm just reassuring you just reassuring I'm still with you today I know it's been kind of a tough day but I'm with you and to recognize those things and rejoice in them that's what it means to walk with God and walking with God in real life means that there's gonna be some pain but there will also be some joy that's what real life is like when you walk through life real life stresses difficulties challenges troubles pain and disappointment sometimes at other times just such rich blessings you feel that you're overflowing with joy and peace when when you when you walk through life don't give up or become discouraged or sink into despair because you can't you feel like well I I can never reach what I read about of people who walked with God and just had such wonderful blessing all through their life who ever wrote those books was shading the truth if that's what they wrote that's not real life walking with God in real life is being able to see he's there even through the difficulties he can accept your honest puzzled questions he will assure you that he's with you no matter what you're going through and while there will be some pain and some joy God is always there with you as a friend encouraging that heart-to-heart communion with him through the day that is walking with God in real life let's pray father thank you that we can walk with you in real life in in the difficulties and challenges of of each day thank you father that you are with us and you desire the same kind of companionship and fellowship and friendship that you had with Abram Lord help us to carry on the kind of conversations with you throughout the day that we have seen Abram do in this chapter help us to learn what it means to be your friend and to rejoice in the fact that you call us your friends in Jesus name amen