Everyone likes a good road trip because often, it’s the “going”, not just the “getting there” that gives you enjoyment. Great movies do that, too. They take us places. Getting there is half the fun. They are called “quests films”—like Lord of the Rings, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. Let’s include The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy is on a road trip—a yellow brick road trip—to get back home. She put her trust in someone who promised he would do just that: get her back to that “no-place-like-home” place. She learned a great deal about promise keepers in her quest home. She confronts the exposed Wizard of Oz.
“You’re a very bad man.” The Wizard replied, “No my child. I’m a very good person—just a bad wizard.”
Dorothy discovered that not everyone keeps their promises. They may call themselves great, and exalt themselves as powerful, and give themselves grand titles like Oz, partner, pastor, priest. But the truth is they are just good people but bad wizards. Often, the result of trusting them is this: you don’t get to that special place, that “no-place-like-home” place at journey’s end. But what if God is the promise maker.
Why should you trust God as a promise maker-keeper. We will see in Genesis 12, a man called Abraham who wanted to get home to a special place for the family he always wanted. Enter, the Great and Powerful God—bigger and more powerful than any idol or Oz, who made some great and powerful promises to Abraham. These promises would not only bless Abraham, but also protect the Seed-Son of The Seed: The Greatest Story Ever Told—a quest journey of the God-child on a mission to save mankind. God promised in Genesis 3:15 that this Seed will “crush the head of the snake”. Mankind would be saved from their sins. God called Abraham to trust in this promise embedded in Abraham’s quest for a home and family.
We will see in Genesis 12:1-9, why trust God’s with promises. First, trust God to keep His promises because He is a covenant God who wants a relationship with you. Second, trust God to keep his promises because of what motivates Him: faith. Finally, trust God to keep his promises because He has already accomplished them; so, worship Him. That’s the best place to be to be to get home. Dorothy wanted to get to Kansas, and trusted a man behind some curtains—a good person, but bad wizard—to get there. We all want to get to our better place—our no-place-like-home place. If so, trust God, not an Oz.
First, trust God to keep his unconditional promises because He is a covenant God who wants a relationship with you. God made a covenant—the highest form of a promise—with Abraham. It was an unbreakable, unconditional promise. God set the terms and will meet the termsin Genesis12:1-3 that will be met. He asked nothing of Abraham except to believe.
12Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go out from your country, your relatives, and your father’s household to the land that I will show you. 2 Then I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, so that you will exemplify divine blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, and all the families of the earth will bless one another by your name.”
We see God’s intention to have a relationship with Abraham with five “I will’s promises. It is God who is set the terms of the promise He will keep.
1. “I will show you a land.” God promised to give Abraham a land—a home. It is only fair to give him land since he was asking Abraham to leave the idolatrous land of his father. This promised home will be a better home whose “…designer and builder is God according to Hebrews 11:10. God’s real estate deals are always an upgrade.
2. “I will make you a great nation.” God promised to give Abraham, not just a son, but a family-nation of sons. He will have sons as numerous as stars in the sky and sand on the beach according to Hebrews 11:12. Not bad for a man considered dead, being 100-years-old. That’s pretty good shoot’n, partner.
3. “I will bless you.” God promised to bless Abraham, not just in children, but in wealth. God blessed him with a portfolio of livestock, silver and gold according to Genesis 13:2. And men contributed to his wealth. When Abraham pretended Sarah was his sister, not his wife, Pharaoh gave him assets for Sarah. So did King Abimelech in a similar rouse. The rich get richer. God—what a financial broker.
4. “I will make your name great.” God promised Abraham a great name, not in fame, but as in significance. First, God will change his name, formally in Genesis 17, from Abram, which means Exalted Father, to Abraham which means father of a multitude. His new name will reflect his new reproductive purpose—to be fruitful and multiply. Second, would make his name great because Abraham’s Seed will be linked to The Seed—Christ, a name above all names that all knees will bow and every tongue confess. Abraham’s new name will reflect his redemptive purpose. What the Tower of Babel builders wanted, Abraham got it from God. God—what a press agent.
5. “I will bless those who bless you…and you will be blessing to all the earth.” God promised to bless Abraham to be a blessing to others. Why? Because in the line of Abraham is the Seed-Christ. All of humanity will either line up “for” the Seed or against the Seed. Those “for” will win; those against will lose. The Seed of Abraham is forever protected so all those who live by faith will win in the end. The final “I will” is like an insurance policy for the Seed. “Like a good neighbor, ‘God is always there, to bless.
The Abrahamic Covenant is a one-sided promise. It’s all about God who has made all the promises and whose is able to keep all the terms. Why? They are based on having a relationship. He loves Abraham and you. He is our promise keeper and you can be one, too, if you center your promises to the relationships in your life on the pattern of the unconditional Abrahamic covenant: home, family, spiritual wealth, the name of God, the blessing of others:
Promise to be about building a home, not just of brick and mortar, but love and forgiveness. Be a promise keeper.
Promise to be about building family, not just your immediate family, but all humanity as family. Treat all your brothers and sisters like brothers and sisters. Be a promise keeper.
Promise to be about wealth, not just about gold, silver and stocks, but seek healthy relationships and Christian character as assets, as well. Invest in them and be blessed. Be a promise keeper.
Promise to make a name for yourself as a representative of Christ. How you live is a reflection of how great God is. Wear the name Christian authentically. Be a promise keeper.
Promise to use your blessing to be a blessing to others. Don’t horde, help. Be a promise keeper.
Church, trust God to keep His unconditional promises because He is a covenant God who wants a relationship with you. His promises are about Him, not you. It’s not about how good you are. It’s about how loving He is. Seek a relationship with him, as well; and be a promise keeper to others. That’s the best place to be. Dorothy wanted to get to Kansas, and trusted a man behind some curtains—good person, bad wizard—to get there. We all want to get to a better place—a no-place-like-home place. If so, trust God, not an Oz.
Second, trust God to keep His promises because of what motivates Him: faith. You have the capacity to believe. Five times God said I will. There was only one requirement necessary to set these promises of God in motion. Abraham had to go. We see his faith response to the promises of God in verses 4,5:
4So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him…Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions… and they set out for the land of Canaan…Gen. 12:4,5
8By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. Heb. 11:8
God is motivated by faith. He saw in advance, this man who would respond in faith when called to “go”. God would not entrust His promise of the “Seed of a woman to crush the head of the snake” to the unfaithful like the pagan off-springs of Noah who did not fill, but chose to be still and built the Tower of Babel. God scattered them, but He blessed Abraham for a special purpose to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth.
One of those scatter nations was the line of Shem. But more scattering needed to be done. Out of Shem was Terah. He was out of Babel but the idolatrous spirit of Babel was still in him. But his son Abram was different. God saw in his heart the faithfulness required to be the caretaker of the promised Seed. God initiated a call of a promise to Abram he could not refuse. He responded by faith.
God always required faith in response to His promises. When Hannah, barren, prayed so fervently to God for a son, the priest Eli mistook her as drunk. But she wasn’t. She just believed that hard in the promises of God to give her a son. She put substance to her faith and she vowed to give that son back to God as a prophet. Eli then relayed the promise of God to her:
“In that case,” Eli said, “go in peace! May the God of Israel grant the request you have asked of him.” 1 Sam. 1:17
Eli had authority from God to speak those words, so Hannah accepted those words as a promise from God. She believed that God had answered her prayer. He did. Samuel was born. And Hannah gave him back to God to be a prophet as promised. She exhibited an active faith—a faith with works, a boots on the ground faith. Any other faith is a dead faith according to James 2:26: As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. James 2:26
Among the millions who have been praying, believing for the rescue of the victims of the Turkey-Syrian earthquake that have claimed more than 23,000 lives, there were “boots-on-the-ground” believers who believed that if we can ask God to save, we must dig like he will answer our prayers. They did and this week rescue workers digging through the rubble recovered a crying baby with an umbilical cord attached after its mother and father died from the collapsed of their home. Entire families have been dug out alive. Faith without boot-on-the-ground faith is dead.
Abraham had “boots-on-the-ground”—substantial faith”. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen according to Hebrews 11:1. Substance-faith is tangible, touchable, “lace-it-up-and-go” faith. You can load with it, pack it, stack it. It was for Abraham. He filled his U-Haul van with it. God saw it.
Church, keep praying, serving, working, believing with boots on the ground. And if God has made you a promise that requires you to go, by faith, go. Dorothy wanted to go to Kansas, and trusted a man behind some curtains— a good person, bad wizard—to get her there. We all want to get to a better place—our no-place-like-home place. If so, trust God, not an Oz.
Finally, trust God to keep his promises because He has already accomplished them; so, worship Him. As Abraham moved west, God showed him a preview of what He has already accomplished for him and his future:
6Abram traveled through the land as far as the oak tree of Moreh at Shechem. (At that time the Canaanites were in the land.) 7 The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So, Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him. Gen. 12:6
God personally showed Abraham what’s to come of His promises to him: Your children and your children’s children will realize them. The only appropriate thing to do when God has shown himself to you like that—to love you and your children and your children’s children—is to worship Him. At Shechem and two other stops—Bethel and the Negev—Abraham built altars. These stops parallel the conquest of the promised land Canaan by Joshua, and Jacob’s return to home after fleeing from his brother Esau. The point is: no matter the conflict—occupying enemies or revengeful family, God will keep His promises. God is not afraid to show you His hand: Promise made, promise kept.
So, keep worshipping. He has shown you the future:
· You have overcome cancer. God has shown His promise to you: “With His strips you are healed.”
· You have overcome dark days. God has shown His promise to you: “No weapon formed against you shall prosper.”
· You have found love when the world said your love was an unacceptable love. God has shown you: “Nothing or no one shall separate you from the love of God.”
Church, keep on worshiping at those stations in life where God has proved himself a promise keeper like at the Lord’s Table. The broken bread is a promise kept, that the chains of the slavery of sin are broken. The wine poured is a promise kept, that the penalty of sin has been paid by the blood of Christ. The Lord’s Table—there is no place like this home no matter where your next home will be. Worship God, not Oz.
CONCLUSION
Why should you trust God to keep His promises? First, trust God to keep His promises because He is a covenant God who wants a relationship with you. Second, trust God to keep his promises because of what motivates Him: faith. Keep believing. Finally, trust God to keep his promises because He has already accomplished them. Keep worshipping.
Dorothy wanted to get to Kansas, and trusted a man behind some curtains—a good person, bad wizard—to get here there. We all want to get to a better place—our no-place-like-home place. If so, trust God, not an Oz.
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