Sure And Certain

Take your Bibles this morning and your phones. I'm going to have to learn to start saying that. And turn to or swipe to Genesis chapter 49. Genesis chapter 49. We'll be reading in verses 22 through 26. Now my full intention this morning was to preach through verses 8-12 and 22-26.

We did not cover the prophecies and blessings concerning Judah and Joseph last week. I said we'll save them for this week, but lo and behold as the sermon developed and as I wrote it, I thought, well, it's going to be too much to cover both of those. And although today may be a little bit shorter, you will thank me about that. Because it was getting long.

Nevertheless, God has words for us in Genesis chapter 49, verses 22 through 26. So you follow as I read these words. Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring. His branches run over the wall. The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely. Yet his bow remained unmoved.

His arms were made agile. By the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. By the name of the shepherd, the stone of Israel. By the God of your father who will help you. By the almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above. Blessings of the deep that crouches beneath.

Blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents. Up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph. and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. Father, as we look at these ancient words, remind us again, these are the living words of God intended to change us, to penetrate our hearts, to help us to see clearly, to help us to serve you better, to help us to love the Lord Jesus.

Grant us, Lord, now by your Spirit, the ability to do all these things. And above all when we leave here today we will have met with you and heard your living word spoken to us Grant that we pray in the name of Jesus our Lord Amen It might look like a family reunion to us, but in reality, as you look at this old man with his sons gathered all around him, it is what we would call today the official blessing ceremony where the patriarch of the family officially passes on his blessings to his sons. But it's even more than a typical blessing ceremony.

Unlike everyone else who would do the same thing, unlike every other family where the patriarch would gather his sons, however many they would be, to pass on his blessings. This is different because this involves the covenant people of God. As Jacob blesses his sons, he knows that these are the ones who will carry on the promises of the covenant that God has made with their forefather, Abraham.

He knows that through them will come the people who will possess the land of Canaan. Although, he doesn't know how. a great nation with a great name are going to come from these sons of His. And great kings as well. But He doesn't know how. As He blesses them, He knows that through them will come the seed that will bless all the nations, although He really doesn't know how.

And so He blesses them in faith. knowing that each would serve the purpose of fulfilling the covenant promises that God had made to Abraham. Each one in his way, whatever it is, whether it's Gad or whether it's Dan, Reuben, Simon or Levi, all of them in some way are going to be involved in fulfilling the covenant promises of God as He blesses His sons. He knows that God will remain faithful to His covenant and accomplish everything that He promised His grandpa Abraham.

Now we saw many of the blessings last week, and we might even call them prophecies regarding most of his sons The two that remain are the longest and the most remarkable blessings that Jacob gave his sons These are the blessings that Jacob pronounced over Judah and Joseph They seem to outweigh, if you will, the other sons' blessings in their depth and their effects. As far as blessings go, they are unparalleled in what they say to those two boys. So today we're going to begin this morning with the blessing of Jacob to Joseph.

And Lord willing, we will look at Judah next week. But we need to understand what God says here about Joseph and what that means to us. What's the connection with us? What is this blessing all about? Remember, Joseph is the favored son because his older brothers, Reuben, and then Simeon and Levi, have all forfeited the preeminent positions that they held because of their sin.

And as Jacob looks at Joseph, he marvels. First of all, he just marvels at the work of God in his life. And then he moves on, on the basis of that, to pronounce these incredible, unparalleled blessings upon him. I'm going to read it one more time. Verses 22-26 Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring. His branches run over the wall.

The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely. Yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile. by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob, by the name of the shepherd, the stone of Israel, by the God of your Father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

The blessings of your Father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who was set apart from his brothers. First of all let note this Know that God fulfills covenant promises through the unparalleled abundance of Joseph Know that God fulfills covenant promises through the unparalleled abundance of Joseph Now Jacob looks at Joseph and says, whoever would have thought that you'd go this far, much less that you'd even be here standing with your brothers.

My barren Rachel has produced the most fruitful tribe of all of them. You're like a well-watered fruit tree that just keeps spreading its branches and keeps getting taller and wider as the branches go over the wall, laden down with all kinds of fruit. You see, Joseph has achieved an unbelievable depth of character and unimaginable influence. Imagine me at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. to see a small-town daughter of a small-town pastor, Annie Pasman, installed as the head of the Library of Congress.

That's the kind of thing he's talking about here. Not a librarian at Delaware Library, but head of the Library of Congress. That's kind of the idea that he's getting here. Whoever would have thunk it, right? Whoever would have thought this is what would have happened with Joseph. Whoever would have imagined such a thing.

But none of that came easily for him. This fruitfulness, this spreading, this unparalleled, this unbelievable influence and depth did not come to him easily. It wasn't because of the right connections. It wasn't because of family influence. He didn't achieve it by making powerful allies. In fact, everything, everything was stacked against him.

There was no way that you ever would have looked at Joseph and said he would be this kind of fruitful tree. This unbelievably great abundance he already has. In fact, it was all against him. It was as if he says he was under constant attack. under the attack of archers who hated him, who track him down, who pull the bow and shoot the arrows, hunting and shooting at him, harassing him constantly.

Not like Andy Green sitting in a tree stand with his bow, right? Not like that at all. Hunting him down. Harassing him. Continually firing. Not sitting still, but going after him.

These are his brothers. Attacking. Harassing. Hating him. They're making his life miserable. Refusing to greet him.

Do you remember that? Refusing to greet him. Mumbling against him. Plotting his murder. Selling him into slavery. Lying about him.

These are the archers that are bitter against him and attacking him. It also refers to the sorrows and the heartaches, the years of prison and unjust accusations that he suffered in Egypt. Everything was against him. Everything was tracking him down. Everything was arrows and harassment and hate. And yet, like a valiant warrior, he retains his ability to move quickly and to return fire accurately.

He also has a bow. It's unmoved. He's under constant pressure, but his bow isn't shaken. He's unmoved. He's agile. His arm is still agile.

He's moving quickly. That is to say, he doesn't collapse under the pressure. He did not retreat in the face of overwhelming force and pressure. None of that happened. He remained steady and agile. He achieved great things.

Now you might be tempted to say, Wow, Jacob, what an incredibly heroic, resourceful, fearless son you have. You must be proud of a son like that. It's not what we normally say, right? Against all adversity, He doesn't collapse. Against all odds, He stands His ground. In fact, He more than stands His ground, He wins. wow, what a boy.

Do you see how Jacob replies? What would he say to that? Jacob says in this blessing, it is by the heroic, valiant hand of God that Joseph prevailed. It was not his courage. It was not his ability. It was God.

It was God. I love this part of the blessing where he says, all these things happened by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob by the name of the Shepherd the Stone of Israel by the God of your fathers who will help you That is how He achieved the status that He has now That is how He has all these incredible blessings. That is how He's rich and powerful in all these things.

God was the champion of His cause. The term Mighty One is often used of champions. If you will, God was the champion of His cause. fighting the battle for him. You remember what champions are, right? Not champions in the sense of standing on the stand with the gold medal hanging around his neck. That's not the champion he's referring to.

He's talking about the champion that was common, if you will, in champion warfare. Remember champion warfare? Two armies are meeting. They stand face to face, and each sends out a champion to fight on the field of combat. And whoever wins that contest wins for the rest of them. Right?

We see a wonderful illustration of this kind of champion warfare in the story of David and Goliath. The two armies send out their champions to do battle. Whoever wins, wins for the whole. And this is what he says about God. God was Joseph's champion. He fought his battle for him.

He, by the hands of the Mighty One prevailed, not by His own hand, but by the hand of this Champion. And it is by the hand of the Shepherd that He was not crushed. Now you will notice if you have an ESV, there is a kind of a little note there and if you look in the margins, it says, or by the name of the Shepherd. Not by the hands. By the name of the Shepherd.

That's another way that could be translated. I think that fits better in this context. He wins by the hand of His champion. He wins by the name of His shepherd. That is to say, He had a shepherd in it all. He had a shepherd in it all.

His God was there watching, guarding, feeding, guiding Him in every step of the way. He was never alone in prison. He was never alone when He was riding on those camels to Egypt, sold into slavery as far as he knew never to see his family again. He was not alone. He had a shepherd that walked with him every step of the way And that is why He prevailed That is why He did not collapse under the pressure He had a shepherd who watched Him and guarded Him and guided Him.

Notice as well, it was the God of His Father, the God of His Father who brought Him to this place. That is, who is the God of His Father? This is the God of the covenant. This is not just any God. This is the God that made this covenant with His family, with Abraham, determined to bless Him, telling Abraham, I will do all these things for you and your descendants.

It is this God, the God, the covenant-keeping God, the faithful God, the God who will never fail to keep His promise. This is the One that kept Him from collapse and bitterness, anger, despair. this is the God who did that and what Jacob is saying is at the end of the day Joseph prevailed against it all by the grace of a mighty God it was not Joseph it was not that Joseph was more fearless than his brothers it was not that Joseph was more intelligent it was not that Joseph knew how to handle pressure It was not that Joseph was psychologically prepared for all of these things. It was completely because of the grace of a mighty God that he achieved what he achieved in the midst of incredible adversity.

And he became, if you will, the stone of Israel. Now, this is a phrase, and this is kind of difficult in this context, but I think this is how it works out. This is a phrase that's never used of God. God is often called a rock, a fortress, a refuge. But this term is never used of God. It's a stone, not a rock, not an overhanging crag of a cliff, not a great big boulder.

This is a rock. This is a marker stone. This is a field stone. You see? Every once in a while when you're traveling out in rural areas, you will see those little stone pillars that are from like the 1800s, right? that tell you certain things. Or the stones that would mark off certain property lines.

That what he talking about here It refers to field stones or marker stones It refers if you will to the kind of stones that Jacob erected Remember Jacob erecting stones at significant meetings with God Especially at Bethel, where he erected that stone, he slept with that stone pillow, and the next day he anointed it with oil and stood it up as a marker to mark, this is Bethel, this is the house of God. And Jacob would erect those at certain significant meeting places with God. That is to talk about the faithfulness of God.

And so it is that Jacob's son becomes Jacob's greatest memorial stone marking God's faithfulness to him. Joseph is the stone of Israel, the stone of his father. He's the greatest marker that Jacob has of the faithfulness of God to him. He is the one that walks as a constant reminder that God is faithful. And so what Jacob does here is he's saying to us, Joseph has a history of God's faithfulness to him.

He has a whole history of God's faithfulness to him. Look at what he went through. Look at what he's achieved. And it's all because of God's faithfulness. Over all those years when we thought he was dead, God was faithful to him. Over all those years when his brothers hated him, God was faithful to him.

Joseph has a history of God's faithfulness to him will God come through with him now on these blessings that look way out to the future will God come through on them what do you think yeah he will why because God has a history of faithfulness yesterday God gave me a very difficult ministry I had to be with a family who had lost significantly lost a father and a dad to an accident and they had asked me to come. They didn't want a funeral service. They just were going to come as a family and just wanted me to be there.

They're my neighbors. I had no idea what I was going to do. It's easy. You go to a funeral, you know you've got to preach, right? I didn't know what they wanted. I didn't know what was going to happen.

I had no idea what I was going to do. I came here. I emailed everybody and said, pray for me in the hour between 2 and 3 o'clock. And I just prayed. I said, God, I don't know what to say. I don't even know what I'm going to do.

I don't know how this is going to look. I don't know where I'm going to step in. I don't know what I'm going to say. I mean, I prepared some things from the Word. of God and things, but, you know, how am I going to say this? What am I going to do? And I prayed.

And I left here not a bit nervous. You know why? Because I have a history of God's faithfulness. I've been in positions like this before, and I have called out to God, and He's always come through. And I've known that for decades now. And when I look to the future, whatever's left at this point.

When I look to the future, I can say, because I know from experience, God's been faithful. I've got a whole history of that. Do you have a history of God's faithfulness with you? You should be able to look over your life, Christian, you ought to look over your whole life and be able to see God's faithfulness to you in so many ways, in so many things, so many situations.

And you see, he's saying, here is the history of God's faithfulness with my son. And he will come through. And from here, he moves on to what's going to happen. He moves on to what is going to happen. And he kind of makes that subtle shift. this champion God, this shepherd God, this covenant-keeping God has been with you. And then he shifts and he goes, by the Almighty, here's His might again, who will bless you with blessings from heavens above.

And he moves on and he says, look, the same powerful God that championed your cause, Joseph, will use His power to bless you. Have you ever thought about that? It's real easy for us. When you go to seminary and you sit around and you dissect theology, which is great. Don't get me wrong. That's a great thing.

It's fun. And we all ought to do it. Because we all get to know God better if we know our theology. Alright? But we may sit around and say, God's omnipotent. That means God can do this and God can do that.

Have you ever thought of the fact that God uses His power, not abstractly. You know we think of it abstractly God uses His power to bless you by the Almighty God who will bless you God might is harnessed for your good God might is directed to the end of your blessing as one of His children, if you're one of His. By the way, what can happen to a blessing that comes from the hand of the Almighty?

It's going to happen. Right? Nothing can stand in His way. And so, Jacob at this point says, the same powerful God that championed your cause, Joseph, will use his power to bless you. He's going to use his power to bless you. Someone might object at this point.

Wait a minute. God has already abundantly blessed Joseph with wealth and power and influence. As you, Jacob, have already pointed out. So how could you bless him with anything more? He's got it all already. The reply is that the blessing that Joseph needed did not only consist in the things that Egypt could give.

All of them are God's blessings. He's just made that point. All of them are God's blessings. But now what he's talking about are God's covenant blessings. God's covenant blessings. These are blessings of God.

A. Every blessing that you have comes from God. But there are some blessings that are a cut above the rest. And those are the covenant blessings that he has specifically promised. And these are the things that Jacob moves on to in verses 25 and 26. The covenant promises of God.

He says, the heavens above will abundantly give you the rain that you need. the earth beneath will produce abundantly because the crops are going to be like crouching animals ready to spring up. Can you get the picture? The crops are just boom! They're ready to jump out of the ground if you will. And if that were not enough, you will have an abundance of children.

That's what that whole thing is when he talks about breasts and wombs. He's talking about children there. He's talking about children. What's he talking about there? He's talking about the covenant blessings of God. Land, right?

Descendants, Abraham, you promised that your descendants will occupy this land Abraham who old and doesn have a son you going to have enough descendants that they be like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore That's what he's saying to Joseph here. These are the blessings that God is going to give you. You're going to have an abundance of children.

I remember, listen, when I first went overseas, none of my children were married, right? I just had a picture of my family. And I can still remember my Romanian brother saying, do you have a family? He said, yeah, I actually have a picture here. And I'd hold up my picture with Becca and me and our six children. And they would just like go, wow.

And quoting now, you are a blessed man. Of course, they weren't living where I was, But they understood that to have children like that was a real blessing from God. And that's what God is saying here to Joseph. I'm going to give you abundance of prosperity and crops and land and children. Fulfilling what He promised to Abraham in all of it. And then Jacob goes on to assert that the blessings he now pronounces over Joseph are greater than the blessings he had received.

They're greater than the blessings of His fathers. What God will do to your descendants is greater than all the blessings of my progenitors. What God is going to do is bless you abundantly more than anything the covenant family has ever experienced. These blessings will be like the abundance of the age-old hills. And he's drawing a picture that if the bounty of these blessings were all stacked up, they'd reach the peaks of the mountains.

I remember I used to go to a little Bible institute to teach way out in Montana, right on the other side of the Rockies, right? And I could come out my door where I was staying. I would look east and across the lake, and there were these huge mountains that just, you know, on cloudy days, we couldn't even see the peaks of them. and he's saying imagine that you're sitting in that valley and God gives you blessings and they just mount up to the top of the mountains that's what he's saying wow you're going to be crushed by the bounty of these blessings and they going to rest on his brow he says finally and these are what are going to set you apart from all your other brothers I going to bless you abundantly more than all and you know when you read the Old Testament God fulfilled all those promises in the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim remember Manasseh and Ephraim are Joseph's sons and you remember as we saw earlier Jacob adopted them if you will and so Joseph's tribe is represented by those two if you will, half tribes but they are more numerous than any of the others.

And through his work among all those tribes, not just these tribes, but for all those tribes and these Manasseh and Ephraim he's going to bless the nations. You realize he blessed the nations through Abraham's seed by giving us the scriptures. Do you realize that? That's one way he blessed all the nations. We got our scriptures from whom? the descendants of Abraham.

The temple, all the rituals that went with it, all the things that pointed ahead to the one great seed that would bless all the nations, our Savior Jesus. All of it came through these tribes. But listen, that's not the end of the story. Know this. Know that God fulfills covenant promises through unparalleled abundance to you. unparalleled abundance to you you say wait a minute okay let's just stop right there Pastor Tim just hold on I am not the richest guy in LaRue God hasn't blessed me with so much power and so much wealth and so many possessions and frankly I don't have as many kids as you so why are you talking about God blessing me with unparalleled abundance let me tell you something You have an unparalleled abundance of riches in Christ.

That's the bottom line. An unparalleled abundance in Christ. Look with me again at Galatians chapter 3. Just turn there. This was our New Testament reading from this morning. Galatians chapter 3.

Amazing things. Amazing things He says there. Here's what He says. just you can refer to it as I talk about this but as it was read this morning you heard that Abraham by faith was counted as Righteous before God. That He is Abraham because he believed what God said. God freely counted him righteous by his faith. Abraham had the greatest treasure of all.

He was counted righteous before God with nothing between him and God that would impede that. that means then that by faith you receive the greatest blessing that Abraham received and that is justification by faith that is the fact God counts you as righteous and that only happens as the Apostle Paul continues when he talks about this one who's hung on a tree is cursed you can be justified only because this one came this seed that blesses all the nations this one came and hung as a curse so that He was cursed and you're not. And because He's cursed, you, by faith, receive the same blessing of Abraham that is your counted righteous. I'm telling you right now, that's better than any possible material riches you could ever have.

Remember what Jesus says? What gain do you have if you gain the whole world and lose your soul? Isn't that right? Yesterday, I'm telling you, you're face to face with death. Someone who was supposed to be there yesterday with his family, who suddenly is gone. He's gone.

He says, I'm going to go kayaking. And the next thing they know, they have a call from the police that says your father, your husband is dead. Listen, I tell you, You can have all the material wealth in all the world. Do whatever you want. Go on whatever adventure you want. You die that day, you leave it all behind.

There's only one treasure you want at that moment. That's the treasure of the righteousness of Christ that will stand before God. What does it profit man? What profit is there in gaining the world, for losing your soul That is the greatest treasure there is There an abundance of riches there That not all there is Look at Ephesians chapter 1 Look at Ephesians chapter 1 You want to see riches?

Riches that far outweigh any kind of material riches that we might gain? And listen, if you have material blessings, those are all from God. But just like with Joseph who had all the riches that he could in Egypt. There were some blessings that were a cut above. What were they? The covenant blessings that God was going to give, right?

You have all kinds of material blessings. I can look at this congregation and tell you that you have all that going for you. But there are some blessings that are cut above and these are it. These are the true riches. You follow along and here's what I want you to do. I want you to tick off on a piece of paper, on your fingers something.

Tick off every single blessing that we have mentioned in this passage. Listen to what he says. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Let's count them off, right? Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him.

In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Him we've obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, believed in Him, and were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory. Let's tick them off. These are the ones I picked out. You may pick out more. You may say you missed some. But I'm just going to whip through what I just kind of highlighted.

We got every spiritual blessing What are they He chose us in Him We going to be holy and blameless before Him There a treasure if there ever was one Standing before the great God of heaven who is holy and to be counted holy and blameless. Right? We have adoption as sons. We have redemption through His blood. There is the forgiveness of our trespasses that results.

He's made known the mystery of His will that is setting forth Christ. What? as the One who will unite all things in Himself, things in heaven and things on earth. That is, all this stuff that's out of joint is going to be brought together in Christ so that it all works perfectly again. There's a treasure. In Him we've obtained an inheritance. Right?

Verse 12, we have hope in Christ. Verse 13, we have a seal. The promised Holy Spirit. The guarantee of our inheritance. Now those are just ones that quickly you can go through. All those are riches.

They are cut above, are they not? Are they not? Would you rather be rich and a stranger to God or poor and His adopted son? Which would you rather be? Would you rather have all kinds of stuff? Or would you rather have all your trespasses wiped away so that there is no record of any sin in the heavenly courts?

Which would you rather have? those are true riches. Those are what we have in Christ. He has blessed us abundantly. Those are His covenant riches. But that's not all. We still also have all the blessings of Abraham as well.

Part of the covenant. All his descendants will be numbered like the stars and the sand on the seashore. You read that in Genesis 22 where God says, by the way, let me explain a little bit more about the promises I made. You're going to have descendants, but they are going to be so many descendants. This is the guy who just almost sacrificed his one son.

And God says to him, look, I gave you your son back. But you need to understand, your descendants are going to be so many. They are going to be like the stars in the sky and the sands on the seashore. That's amazing, we say. But you know what Galatians 3, verse 29 says? it says all and if you are christ then you are abraham's offspring heirs according to the promise you want to see why it like the sand and the seashore because every believer is a descendant of abraham and every believer is one of those stars Every believer is a grain of sand And that is why God can say to Abraham your descendants are going to be greater than you can even imagine.

Who are his descendants? Those who have faith in Christ. Someone says to me, well, what about the land he promised? Are we all going to have to... Should we all go to Israel and start buying houses? No.

No. No, you know what a fascinating verse to me is? It's found in Romans chapter 4, verse 13. He's arguing there about Abraham, Abraham the man of faith, and how we are part of that. And by the way, Galatians 3.29, which I just read, says we are heirs according to the promise. Well, what about all that land then?

Listen to Romans chapter 4, verse 13. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be, note, heir of the world. Did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Heir of the world? What's that all about? I'll tell you what it's about.

God promised Abraham Canaan, but now all his descendants, you know what they're going to get? They're going to get the whole thing at the end of time. We get the whole world. Not just a little strip on the eastern end of the Mediterranean. it's the whole world is ours. That's what we're getting. And again, that's in the future.

That's still in the future. Nevertheless, it's ours. It's ours. This is what I think. Why do we fight and scrap about things now? We get it all in the end anyway.

Why fight about it now? Right? Why fight about it now? you see in Christ we have unparalleled abundance that far surpasses anything in this world in this age in Christ we have a far greater riches and God is going to keep his covenant through unparalleled abundance to us say how can you be sure you gain such abundance you can have the same confidence that Jacob had as he pronounced blessing over Joseph.

The same confidence that says, I don't know how this is going to happen, but it's going to happen. Because God is faithful. You know why you can be sure? Because you have faith. champion. You have a champion. His name is Jesus.

And this champion has fought the battle against sin and death. And that is why you have the greatest abundance of riches you could possibly have. Because Jesus, your champion, has won them for you. You have Jesus, who is a shepherd, who will walk with you every step of the way through all kinds of adversity. He will guarantee that you will enjoy all His abundant blessings throughout all eternity.

Even though He walks with you now, He walks with you through every adversity of this life. But He is shepherding you to that place where you will enjoy what He has given you forever. You have a guarantor. His name is Jesus who says to you, I know my Father is going to keep all His promises how do you know? because He gave me up to guarantee that you will get it all Jesus it all yes in Jesus That the abundance that we have All because of Christ.

Father, thank You for the surety, the absolute certainty that we have that You are going to fulfill Your promises. We are convinced, even though we don't see them now. We don't see them fully. Even though we're enjoying many of them. We're adopted. We're forgiven.

All those things are ours and yet there's coming a day when we will have them to the full and we know it because it all has been won by Jesus and You will be faithful to us because You have sealed Your promise with the blood of Your Son. thank you for such rich abundance in him father help us to live confidently help us to live with hope because of the promises that you have made in Jesus name amen