God has promises for you. His word is full of promises over your life. But have you read his word to know his promises? Is it important to know God’s promises for you? Absolutely. But it can’t stop there. This has to go beyond just knowing. Now, you step into believing his promises. Trusting his promises. Living absolutely dependent on his promises.

Where in your life are you completely depending on the promises of God for you?

You need to know God isn’t just a promise maker, he is the promise keeper. Do you know God as YOUR promise keeper? Do you know him as the one who will never fail you? If you do, he will lead you into wild, faith-filled spaces you could never reach alone.

But if you don’t know God as your promise keeper, you will get stuck in your wilderness questioning his power and questioning his faithfulness. That questioning isn’t failure … but here’s what is … questioning that leads to doubt, doubt that leads to fear, and fear that leads to disobedience. And that’s exactly where it will lead you.

Here’s the root of our disobedience – we question if God will really get it right. We question if God will really follow through on his promises for us personally. We doubt we’re that known and that loved by a God this big. And when we don’t know God as our promise keeper, then we don’t believe he can really get it right for us forever.

Can God really get it right for you forever? Can you trust him that much?

Let me tell you what that level of faith looks like – that looks like staring down the impossible and believing with God it’s still possible. That means refusing to allow your mind to be overwhelmed with discouragement when there’s every good reason to believe there’s nothing more or better for you. That means stepping in faith when you can’t fully see the step and you don’t know how your foot will land. And when that foot lands wrong, faith is willing to step again.

When we left off yesterday in our study of the book of Exodus, we see Moses’ obedience was met with a stubborn Pharaoh who doubled down on his harsh treatment of God’s people as his slaves. This left the Israelites without hope and desperate. This move of God had only made things worse for them with not only more work, but harder work.

It’s easy to believe and trust God when he’s making things better. Yay, Lord – you can do it! But what about when God’s plan makes things worse? What about when things get harder instead of better? Let’s be clear – that can happen and that does happen. Just because things have gotten harder for you doesn’t mean God has turned his back on you or cancelled his good plans for your future. Everything you’re experiencing right now is temporary. This hardship is temporary. This struggle is temporary. This setback is temporary. God holds an eternal good plan and you can trust he is leading you there no matter how hard this specific step may be.

At this point is where God gives 7 promises. 7 statements of “I will”. Do you know if God says he will do something, all the other powers in this world combined can’t stop it even for a second. When God says he will do something, it’s as good as done. You can count on it. You can know it for sure. You can plan your entire life around it. Every one of his promises will be fulfilled. He’s not only the promise maker, he’s the promise keeper.

The 7 “I will-s”, listen for them. Exodus 6: 6-8:

Therefore say to the people of Israel: “I am the Lord. I WILL free you from your oppression and WILL rescue you from your slavery in Egypt. I WILL redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment. I WILL claim you as my own people, and I WILL be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God who has freed you from your oppression in Egypt. I WILL bring you into the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I WILL give it to you as your very own possession. I am the Lord!”

Now remember the reality of the circumstances and conditions when God is declaring HE WILL do all of this. God’s people are slaves. They’ve always been slaves. For 400 years they have been nothing but slaves in Egypt. They’ve made peace with being slaves. They think as slaves, they walk as slaves, they talk as slaves, they work as slaves. It’s all they’ve ever known for generations.

They don’t know how to receive a promise of freedom. They don’t know how to believe a promise of anything different. All they know is they had just gotten their hopes up for the first time ever and believed Moses was actually going to lead them to freedom and just when they were willing to follow him out, the chains got heavier. Pharaoh and their slave masters are now relentlessly brutal, punishing them for even thinking they were going to get a day off work.

The Israelites hear God’s 7 “I will” promises, but they can’t receive those promises. They only know God as a promise maker, not a promise keeper – Not for them. Verse 9, “They refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the brutality of their slavery.”

They couldn’t receive a promise as God’s people because they couldn’t see themselves as God’s people. They were only Egypt’s slaves. They were nobody with nothing.

How did God respond to their discouragement? With tremendous grace and mercy. He commanded Moses and Aaron to lead the people of Israel OUT OF EGYPT. God had spoken promises and God was going to fulfill those promises. His people couldn’t see themselves as anything other than slaves, so God was going to show them the truth – the truth that he was FOR them, not against them. The truth that he isn’t just a promise maker, he is the promise keeper.

The 7 ‘I Will-s”: I will free you. I will rescue you. I will redeem you. I will claim you. I will be your God. I will bring you into the land I promised you. I will give it to you.

And that’s precisely what God did! Every promise was fulfilled. Every “I will” was completed. God would prove he wasn’t just a promise making God, he was a promise keeping God.

Let me tell you the end of the story, my friend. You need to know the end of the Israelites story, because it’s the promised end of our story too. Joshua 21: 43-45, “So the Lord gave to Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. And the Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had solemnly promised their ancestors. None of the enemies could stand against them, for the Lord helped them conquer all their enemies. Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.”

Do you know why the story of God’s people being rescued, lead, redeemed and blessed is so important for us to read over 3,400 years later? Because his promises still stand. He’s still working. Through all these generations, he’s been heading straight to YOU. To rescue you. To lead you. To redeem you. To bless you. You’ve always been on his mind. This is a story about you and about your future generations too. A promise over your life by the promise maker AND the promise KEEPER.

GOD FULFILLS HIS PROMISES. Read verse 45 again. “Not a single one of all the good promises the Lord gave was left unfulfilled; everything he had spoken came true.”

My friend, that’s how your story ends too. Guaranteed.

Yes, I can tell you the end of your story. It ends with every promise being fulfilled perfectly. You can count on that. The promise keeper has spoken for you and spoken his promises over you. You’re covered on every side. The journey may be hard at times, but the ending is already written.

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