Pastors Brent & Suzanne Lokker. This is a continuation of Brent's talk the previous week: The times we we've entered into as a church. Living from our human spirit in communion with God's Spirit. Living in the the beautiful, powerful covenants God established for our benefit. And understanding our part. Suzanne shares a tender and humorous story from her journey.

1. God’s Promises &
Our Response
Part 2
Pastor Brent Lokker
November 22, 2014

2. God’s Covenant
with Abraham
• “I shall make you a great nation. I shall
bless you and make your name famous.
You are to be a blessing!” (Genesis 12:2)
• (11 years later) “I am your shield and shall
give you a very great reward…Your heir
shall be the issue of your own body… Look
up at the sky and count the stars if you
can. Just so will your descendants
be.” (Genesis 15:1,4,5)

4. • (13 years later) “I am El Shaddai (the God who
mightily nourishes, satisfies, protects and
supplies His people). Live in my presence, be
perfect (Tahmeem) and I shall grant a covenant
between myself and you, and make you very
numerous…Your name is to be Abraham, for I
am making you father of many nations…and
your descendants shall be kings. And I shall
maintain my covenant between myself and you
and your descendants after you, generation
after generation, as a covenant in perpetuity, to
be your God and the God of your descendants
after you.” (Genesis 17:1,2, 5-7)

5. Bill Johnson
• “I’ve got this dream
of every person
being settled in their
heart with who they
are in God, their
place in society, and
their place of
influence. Literally
being successful in
the assignment.”

6. Abraham entered into what God was doing for
him and that was the turning point. He trusted
God to set him right instead of trying to be right
on His own.
!
That famous promise God gave Abraham—that
he and his children would possess the earth—
was not given because of something Abraham
did or would do. It was based on God’s
decision to put everything together for him,
which Abraham then entered when he believed.
Romans 4:2,13 in The Message Bible

7. We call Abraham “father” not because he
got God’s attention by living like a saint,
but because God made something out of
Abraham when he was a nobody.
!
When everything was hopeless, Abraham
believed anyway, deciding to live not on
the basis of what he saw he couldn’t do
but on what God said he would do.
!
Romans 4:16,18 in The Message Bible

8. And when God counted him as righteous, it
wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was
recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that
God will also count us as righteous if we believe
in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from
the dead. He was handed over to die because
of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us
right with God.
Romans 4:23-25 (NLT)
So if you belong to Christ, you are now part of
Abraham’s family, and you will be given what
God has promised.
Galatians 3:29 (CEV)

9. • I will be your God who cares for you in every way!
• I choose you!
• I’m in this for your best—always!
• I’ve made things right between us and I will never
cut you off or change my mind!
• I know your value—your infinite worth to me!