Genesis 24:1-67: Summary: Sarah has gone to table with the Lord. Abraham is on that doorstep. But the story of redemption must go on. Abraham's chief servant swears to take a bride from his homeland for Isaac, the son of resurrection promise. She's to be taken from where she is and brought to where Isaac is. The servant is most loyal and devoted to his charge. He arrives outside Nahor's city and, there, he asks the Lord to provide the bride. Rebekah appears, bold, pure, charitable, generous, earnest, self-sacrificial, beautiful. The worshipping servant tells his story, and Rebekah runs to repeat the providence to her family. They invite the servant to their table, but he cannot eat; such is his eagerness to tell the tale. The onus of her departure is placed on them. They will not go against God's Word but, just when all seems settled, a night to sleep on it gives them pause. The servant, however, will not be delayed in achieving his mission of love. Rebekah becomes paradigmatic of discipleship. She leaves her family to follow the servant and, as she goes, they offer a blessing that proves prophetic. Little does she know what's in front of her. Up from the place where 'God sees,' a meditating Isaac sees the servant's caravan, including Rebekah. As he goes to meet them, she dismounts to discover he is the servant's lord. He is her groom to be. The servant repeats the story to Isaac. Isaac takes Rebekah to be his beloved wife. Rebekah becomes the next matriarch in the grand story of redemption. From them, as prophesied, will come Christ and His Bride victorious. Sermon Outline: Abraham's Gospel pursuit at this point in God's epic. (24:1-9) A servant's Gospel passion at this point in God's epic. (24:10ff) A family's Gospel pause at this point in God's epic. (24:49-56) Rebekah's Gospel path at this point in God's epic. (24:57-61) Isaac's Gospel peace at this point in God's epic. (24:62-67, 60)

Genesis 23:1-20: Summary: Abraham insists on purchasing a burial cave for his Sarah, the barren mother of the living, in the land of promise near the oaks by which he first received the promise in Genesis 13. Believing in the promise of the Exodus from Genesis 15, Abraham refused to return Sarah to Ur or Haran where he had lived previously. Rather, he paid a large sum of money for a tomb, making his first piece of deeded property in the promised land a tomb, showing that he was waiting for yet another promised land. One with foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Sermon Outline: By Faith, Abraham Grieves Not as One Without Hope By Faith, Abraham Acquires a Tomb By Faith, We Look Forward to the Same Promises

Psalm 67: Summary: A word on global missions. Sermon Outline: God makes Himself known to His people. (67:1) God makes Himself known to His people so His people will make Him known to the nations. (67:2) God makes Himself known to His people so the nations can praise Him. (67:3-7)

2 Timothy 2:8-10: Summary: Paul exhorts Timothy to establish an enduring culture of evangelism in the local church. What Timothy's seen in Paul, Timothy's to model and impart to others, and those disciples, to still others. The best thing for a healthy missiology (missions) is a healthy ecclesiology (church) built on a healthy soteriology (salvation). To that end, Paul provides three main emphases for an enduringly evangelistic church: 1) Jesus is not dead. 2) The Word is not bound. 3) The ministry is not in vain. Remember the crucified and risen King. Remember the Word of God reigns over the limitations of men. Remember God has a people, and Jesus, a salvation, that's worth what it demands: enduring everything to pair the people to their Savior. Such emphases will sustain the church who's aim is the glory of God in the harvest of God by the Word of God.

Genesis 22:1-24: Summary: As it turns out, the condition of God's unconditional covenant with Abraham is a love for God that obeys God all the way to death on a figural cross. The stakes are Gospel-high. The test is revelatory of God's heart for sinners. In Abraham's passing of it by faith in God and His Word, Isaac casts the shadow of the eternal Lamb, even as that shadow is cast over him. He is Abraham's only son, and this son of promise is to be sacrificed in service of God's glory. Abraham shows no hesitation, down to the last moment. At that time, Heaven halts him. Faith is proven in that it reflects the heart of God. Accordingly, God provides His own sacrifice in Isaac's place. Abraham returns home with Isaac, freed by the life and death of God's ram. The Lord will provide. The Lamb is coming! This promise will go forward, now through Isaac and Rebekah, to its global achievement. All who trust in Jesus will be blessed on account of Him Who bore our curse.

Genesis 21:22-34: Summary: Abimelech and Phicol have noticed something about Abraham: the Everlasting God is with him in all he does. Unsettled, they seek a peace-treaty with Abraham, to which Abraham agrees. God blesses those who bless Abraham. When the treaty is transgressed by the taking of the prophet's well, Abraham reproves Abimelech. Abimelech pleads the fifth. Abraham swears to his own hurt that he dug the well himself. He gifts Abimelech seven ewe lambs as an ongoing reminder of his integrity and trustworthiness. Abraham's well will not be seized by faithless men. Abimelech and Phicol return to the Philistines. Abraham plants a tree in Beersheba and calls upon the name of the Lord. The Everlasting God is for Abraham. His sufficiency enables His man to offer peace to the nations at cost to himself throughout his sojourning. It's no coincidence that the substitutionary sacrifice of God's ram is right around the corner.

Genesis 21:1-21: Summary: God delivers on His Word. Isaac is born and celebrated. The Gospel has its next figurehead. But Ishmael doesn't buy it. At Isaac's coming of age, Ishmael 'persecutes' him. A son of the flesh, born to slavery, Ishmael shows disdain for his younger brother, the son of promise, born for freedom. Sarah charges Abraham to divide his family lines. Isaac is the heir of the Abrahamic blessing. This is a trial for Abraham. It's always hard to let go of our flesh and give all to God's grace. God confirms Sarah's request. His purpose of election is with Isaac, not Ishmael. Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away. Soon as their provisions for surviving the wilderness run dry, and they cry, God hears and helps from Heaven. His provision never runs dry. He unveils a well of life in the howling wilderness to the outcast. Would that they would do all they could to follow Him wherever He's made His blessing to dwell! Every word of God proves true, defining, and sufficient for life.

Genesis 20:1-18: Summary: God is sovereign, and wields His sovereignty for His glory and our good. Thank God! Because those He's saved to be His delegates in the world don't always trust or represent Him to the world to those same ends. As the messianic titles and offices continues to pile up for Abraham, Abraham portrays anything-but---again. His indefensible lack of faith leads to Sarah's captivity, and the Gospel with her. But God is better than His man. He has no fear of going to a king of dust and ashes in protection of Sarah and all that He's bonded to her womb. This king, Abimelech, pleads his innocence, but even an unbeliever's innocence is not their own to plead. He must do as God says to live or, otherwise, perish, along with all he represents. Abimelech's heritage and kingdom are on the line. He must go to Abraham for prayer unto life. In the process, he offers a piercing question: believer, what have you done to us? Abraham explains himself. It's very simple. In his sojourning, he hasn't taken God at His Word. He's still learning how to trust the Lord fully. Such growth is critical if sinners are to be blessed and not cursed for their sins. Abimelech blesses Abraham, while vindicating Sarah. Abraham prays for Abimelech. And God does what only He can do: gives life to barren wombs, opens up empty tombs. The King sinners can and must in our sojourning trust. (20:1-7) A timeless piercing for trusting the King over faithless thinking. (20:8-13) Trusting our King is a life-giving thing. (20:14-18)

Genesis 19:30-38: Summary: Lot and his two daughters leave Zoar for a cave in the hills. 'Better is a little with the fear of the Lord.' For reasons we can only hypothesize, he's afraid of living in Zoar. Does he fear another episode of judgment? Has he experienced persecution? Has he realized that the hills of salvation are better than the little city of sin? Is his faith more mature? His two daughters have learned Sodom's lessons well. They scheme to obtain children by their father. It doesn't say much of him that they're able to induce such depravity. They're impregnated. A degenerate family is born in the cave of the righteous man. On the hills of salvation are made in sin two historical enemies of God: Moab and Ben-Ammi. They will be a regular thorn in the side of God's people. In God's mercy, another Righteous Man would also settle in a cave, only this One would rise victorious over all His enemies. The world was not worthy of Lot. Lot was not worthy of Christ. But the Lamb of God is worthy of a people who, reveling as unworthy in mercy, are more righteous than righteous Lot.

Genesis 19:1-29: Summary: God will do what is just. Angels visit Sodom. Lot greets them in a similar manner as Abraham. He is a righteous man, but righteous people can be hard to move when once they've settled too long in the world. Lot's environment has infected his judgment. He struggles to discern the angels' purpose and the power at their disposal. He would save them when they would save him. He would offer his daughters to the depraved. Still, even a righteous wretch isn't wretch enough for the wicked. All that's good only intensifies Sodom's lust. Even blinded, they grope to exhaustion to satisfy their thirst for evil. The angels draw him to themselves. They charge him to collect his own. Trial meets his efforts. To be saved, Lot himself has to be seized. The world has a mighty gravity, but the righteous will arise, escape, not stop, and never look back. Therefore, as Jesus taught, remember Lot's wife. To look back is to forfeit life with God. Once the righteous one is removed, the wicked are destroyed. God remembers Abraham, Lot is spared, and justice has been done. Later, the Righteous One will not be spared that all the wicked who believe on Him may be. Up then, and don't look back! Sermon Outline: A righteous person in a wrong place. (19:1-3, etc.) A wicked people at the door of the righteous. (19:4-11) God's rescue extended to all who will be seized. (19:10-26) The conclusion in answer to Abraham's inquiry. (19:27-29)

Genesis 18:16-33: Summary: Abraham and his offspring are to be a light of righteousness to the nations. Only in him, in Christ, will the ungodly be blessed by faith. The righteousness of God's people is an evangelical ministry in the world. We cannot afford to be indifferent about it. The wicked are storing up wrath for the Day of justice, and God will not be fooled. The Judge of all the earth will do what's just, and the righteous will not fare as the wicked. God will sooner suffer the wicked than sweep away the righteous. There is no condemnation for those with living faith, and they will never be confused with those who never fled from wrath to the Righteous One. Of this, we can be certain. Sermon Outline: The sorrowful history of Sodom and Gomorrah. The needful ministry of Abraham and his offspring. (18:16-21) The careful inquiry of Abraham before the Lord. (18:22-26) The peaceful certainty of God's righteous ones. (18:27-33)

Genesis 17:15-18:15: Summary: The disclosure of God's covenant with Abraham continues. Told that it will be fulfilled in Isaac, through Sarah, Abraham, supposing it impossible, laughs. Surely the Almighty will make use of what we've already illicitly provided. No, God says. The son of promise will not be produced by people in their slavery to sin, not by nature. The son of promise will be a free gift of God to the world. When Abraham wants to run back to Genesis 16, God insists on His way forward. In faith, Abraham sets the sign of the covenant upon himself and all in his house, slave or free. The Lord then appears in the vision of three. Abraham rushes to greet them and to enlist Sarah and a young man of the house to show the Lord their hospitality. Abraham pleads the grace of God's ministry among them. The Lord in the three asks Sarah's whereabouts. He reiterates that in the year Sarah will bear Isaac, with whom God will establish the covenant of redemption. Sarah, listening to God speak, laughs at what God says. God reproves Abraham for Sarah's unbelief. Sarah tries to hide the fact of it, but nothing is hidden from the Lord. 'No, but you did laugh,' He says. God will have the last laugh and, in the meantime, believers are to feed faith on these words: Is anything too hard for the Lord? Sermon Outline: A faith feeding on God will trust, and not laugh at, the means of God. (17:15-27) A faith feeding on God will pray on, and not laugh at, a meeting with God. (18:1-8) A faith feeding on God will minister, and not laugh at, the might of God. (18:9-15)

Genesis 17:1-14: Summary: The Lord appears to Abram 24 years after He did at first. He speaks two vital things to Abram's faith: in establishing the covenant already cut, Abram is responsible for being godly, and God is Almighty. Abram will have an heir. In fact, Abram will 'father' a multitude of nations. God will see that 'Abraham' ends up true to his name, but that will involve the progress of redemption in the storyline of Scripture. There are two iterations of God's faithfulness to the covenant He establishes with Abraham, one near and one far. Most near, Sarah will bear Isaac, from Isaac will come Jacob, whom God will establish as offspring according to the flesh at Sinai. The covenant sign of circumcision serves to cut them away from the world, while also warning that failure to meet the stipulations for perpetuity will result in their being cut off from God's people. A problem presents itself, however; while Abraham's circumcision was 'believer's circumcision,' the circumcision of his descendants is not. This eventually results in a people with a sign but without the substance, bringing God to reveal the farther fulfillment promised in the New Covenant with legal and internal application through Jesus Christ. This farther fulfillment in Christ promises a people with the substance of Abraham's faith, true children of God. They are not members by birth or flesh, but by new birth and Spirit, and are marked off as God's people by baptism. Sermon Outline: The full situation of God's covenant with Abraham. (17:1-2) The far side of God's covenant with Abraham. (17:3-6) The near side of God's covenant with Abraham. (17:7-8) The near sign of God's covenant with Abraham. (17:9-14)

Jude 24-25: Summary: Jude is a letter with prophetic application for our time as a local church in this world. The church has grown drowsy. Once a contender, she's now out of shape. She needs revitalization. Called, beloved, and kept for Christ, she needs exercise in the faith once for all delivered to the saints. A slew of unsavory souls have crept into the church unnoticed! Remarkable. Or is it? Certain ideologies and philosophies in the church today may beg to differ, calling it a mark of being on mission. Jude contests this. He contends. He sounds the alarm. He defines contention. He labors for their missional distinction as a godly people, a people of God. Will they answer the call? If not, it certainly will be no fault of our triune God and Savior. He is able, through His appointed means, to keep us to the Day of Jesus Christ with great joy. In the final analysis, may He have the praise that's due the authority, majesty, glory, and dominion that comes to us in the power of grace. Sermon Outline: The distinguishing peace of God's people in contending for the faith. (24) The distinguishing prayer of God's people in contending for the faith. (24) The distinguishing praise of God's people in contending for the faith. (25)

Jude 17-23: Summary: Contending for the faith is a day by day, moment by moment task. It is work. It is dying to self in a desire for both discipleship and evangelism. It is keeping ourselves in the love of God, building up our doctrine, praying in the Spirit, and waiting for the consummation of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. But it is also a willingness to get our hands dirty in the task of evangelism. A church rooted and grown in the soil of the Word truly is a light set on a hill. A church that looks no different than the world does not give the world a reason to need a Savior. Sermon Outline: Beloved, You Must Remember the Teaching Beloved, You Must Keep Yourselves Beloved, You Must Have Mercy

Jude 5-16: Summary: A first part of contending for the faith is driving hard against a hellish drift. It's staying awake, so that our knowing is consistently full and lively, rather than drowsy and susceptible to compromise. To awaken the contending of this endangered church, Jude goes at length into his bag of Scripture. He draws out old things for new works. He reminds them of Israel and fallen angels and Sodom/Gomorrah and the devil and Cain and Balaam and Korah, linking the present perversions of God's grace in Christ to past incidents of like character. In each case, those who had some real but finally cosmetic communion with God turned heel and ventured in the direction of judgment by way of pride, unbelief, and enmity against the authoritative truth of the Word. The God of all grace makes His people godly, but where grace is used to promote ungodliness among the godly, all that remains is a fearful expectation of fiery justice. Let the church hear it. Sermon Outline: Let Jude’s charity awaken you to contention again. (5-7) Let Michael’s humility awaken you to contention again. (8-11) Let Enoch’s urgency awaken you to contention again. (12-16)

Jude 1-4: Summary: Even in the church, weeds find their way in among the wheat. Their presence threatens to choke out the life of what God has planted. Let a church become negligent as to her duty and calling, and she will soon find herself in need of an appeal: contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints! It's not what Jude preferred for his subject, but shepherds, to mix metaphors, realize that need triumphs over want, and the perversion of grace in their midst triggers this shepherd's devotion to protection. Jude is about the divine preservation of the church, invoking means; and that means is the church's own contention for the body of divinity (stability critical and biblical truth) and, in particular, the power of grace, which is an indispensable part of what Jude calls 'the faith.' Assuring them of God's faithfulness to keep them for Christ, Jude assures them that they must arise and responsibly contend for the Christianity of Christ's church. This is no new need. It's a perpetual aspect of a church's usefulness that she remain pure as she can be to the Day of Eternity. Sermon Outline: The Christian will contend because we are being kept. (1-2) The Christian will be kept because we will contend. (3) The kept of God will contend for the power of grace. (4)

3 John: Summary: It is well with Gaius' soul. But not all is well in his local church. Missionaries approved by John and his church have been loved faithfully by Gaius, but Diotrephes, for reasons the letter states, opposes any and everyone who seeks the heart of the congregation for the glory of Jesus in the world. John encourages Gaius to return good for evil. As he needs an example and confidant in the path of faithfulness and goodness, John pegs Demetrius as a pillar of grace. Gaius is not alone in his ambition, against opposition, to see the church at peace in the things that prove them healthy in the Lord. On the whole then, 3 John offers a look into the dynamics of spiritual wellness, which, as ever, is judged by its doctor: Truth. Some of the dynamics establishing credible spiritual health. (3 John 1-4) church. (3 John 3a) truth. (3 John 3a) life. (3 John 3b) aim. (3 John 4) Some of the displays encouraging credible spiritual health. (3 John 5-15) Gaius and healthy missiological generosity. (3 John 5-8) Diotrephes and necessary ecclesiological humility. (3 John 9-10) Demetrius and reliable theological accountability. (3 John 11-15)

2 John: Summary: Deceivers have gone out into the world, and Christians are yet prone to wander. The pastoral heart is thus concerned to keep that for which it has worked. To find a church walking in the truth is the apostle's exceeding joy. However, given it is some and not all, given the adversary's tireless work, given the consequence of forsaking the truth, John finds himself compelled to write, albeit briefly, to secure this 'elect lady and her children' in the paramount matter of basic and essential Christianity: walking in the truth, or doing the Word of God. This is love, and not just to God, but to one another. It's love to one another to value, know, long to do, and practice the truth as it is in Jesus. Such churches by such love will prove the stronger against doctrinal exit ramps to spiritual ruin. Healthy churches help each other to abide in the apostolic teaching of Christ, knowing that devotion to the truth over error will finally prove a participation in spiritual life over death. As God has so loved us, we ought also to model the love that holds us true to Christ. Sermon Outline: The primary impetus for tethering a church to truth-devoted love. (1-3) The preservative byproduct where a church is so tethered. (4-6) The pressing need for such tethering. (4, 7-9) The pastoral exhortation(s) in aid of such tethering. (5, 8, 10-13)

Philemon 17-25: Outline: Partnership Union Presence