Proclaiming the Promise

Sermon given at Grace UMC 4/24/16

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This sermon does not have a complete manuscript and is best viewed by listening to the audio. 

Scripture Reading:

^NRS  Exodus 3:1 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. ³ Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." ⁴ When the LORD saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." ⁵ Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." ⁶ He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. ⁷ Then the LORD said, "I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ⁹ The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. ¹⁰ So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt." ¹¹ But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?" ¹² He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain."

In the movie “It Could Happen to You” which is said to be loosely based on a true story, Nicolas Cage plays a cop who stops in to a diner and doesn’t have enough money to give a tip to the waitress, so he makes an unbelievable promise. He says that he has a lottery ticket and if he wins, her tip will be half of whatever the prize is. The waitress laughs it off, and who could blame her, but to the amazement of everybody the cop wins the lottery and he comes to that same diner, and fulfills his promise and he gave the waitress a 2 million dollar tip. The funny part of the movie is watching Nicolas Cage explain to his wife that he had to give the waitress 2 million dollars because…he had promised her. Now the producers of that film claim that it is based off of a true story, but we may find that hard to believe, primarily because if the absurdity of the promise, but even more so that such an absurd promise was kept. We’ve become accustomed to being skeptical of big promises. How many of you have received an e-mail that said that Bill Gates was giving money to people who sent this e-mail to at least 10 other people, that it was being tracked by Microsoft and there was a picture of a person holding a check that was signed by Bill Gates. Have you ever received that check?

Now whenever a person makes a promise, whether it be a preacher, a politician, or a spouse, two things that you must consider about that person is their ability to keep the promise (some people make big promises with good intentions but they lack the resources to carry them out), and that person’s trustworthiness. Is this person just blowing smoke trying to get you to do something? Now when it comes to the many promises that God makes to us in His word, we must look at God’s ability to keep those promises and His faithfulness to uphold His promises. In the scriptures, we read about a loving heavenly Father who has made to you many precious promises. Promises that tell us that our needs our taken care of, that our sins our forgiven, that we will never be overwhelmed beyond our ability to bear, and he has promised the gift of everlasting life. Now God has both the power and the integrity to fulfill each and every promise He has made. He has proven His power and His faithfulness time and time again, and like a loving Father, God cares for each and every one of us and He has promised that whatever happens He will always be there for us. 

We go back to the story of Abraham. God had promised Abraham a number of things. One of them was that they would populate the land of Canaan, a land of great bounty. In the time of Joseph the people of Abraham migrated to Egypt. They were there 400 years. Let’s put that in perspective.

400 years ago today

Shakespeare died yesterday

There was a colony in Virginia at Jamestown trying to survive

Plymouth was not yet planted

Spain had settlements in Florida and Mexico

The American Indian lived throughout the land

God had promised. Now God was going to keep that promise.