Dharius Daniels - A Full Heart

A full-hearted family, amongst all the words that are often used to describe the nature and character of God, there’s one I want to broach in our time together today that is extremely simple yet simultaneously profound: God is a promise keeper. I’m going to say it again just to make sure you heard what I said: God is a promise keeper. As a matter of fact, one of the ways He revealed Himself in the Old Testament, specifically to a man named Moses, was through a name we call Jehovah or Yahweh. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the implications of that word. That word describes His covenant name; it is similar to a prefix. The strength of Jehovah is based on the word that comes behind it—it’s Him saying, «I am who I am. I will be who you need me to be when you need me to be that.» It’s the equivalent of Him saying, «I promise.» So when He is called Jehovah Jireh, it’s His way of covenanting or promising to be a provider. This is when you need peace: «I promise I’ll be Jehovah Shalom. I’ll give you peace in the midst of the storm.» When you’re fighting a battle and the odds seem to be against you, «I promise I’ll be Jehovah Nissi. I’ll raise your hands in victory.» When you feel alone, abandoned, and isolated, when people step out, «I promise to be Jehovah Shamma. I’ll step in, and when they leave, I’ll stay. When they don’t show up, I’ll be there.» He’s a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God. It’s interesting because this is a divine distinctive, as God is the only one with the ability to make any promises. We may intend to keep some of the promises we make, but we don’t always have the ability to keep every promise due to circumstances and situations beyond our control. For instance, I can say, «I’m going to pick you up tomorrow at 3 o’clock» with every intention to do that, but then face circumstances or situations that inhibit my ability to execute my intention. Does that make sense? But because God is a sovereign Savior, because He is omnipotent and has all power, not only does He have the ability to make promises, He also has the ability to keep promises because He will override, intervene, and overrule anything that gets in the way of Him being faithful to what He said. He made Moses a promise that He would use him to lead Israel in an exodus out of Egypt, and as he was attempting to do so, the Red Sea got in the way—God moved it. When He used Joshua’s leadership to take Israel into the Promised Land, Jericho’s walls got in the way—God moved it. I have a funny feeling and a sneaky suspicion that I don’t just have to use Moses’s testimony or Joshua’s testimony; I feel there are some people in this room who will say some things got in my way, but God moved it. Some walls He knocked down, some ways He made, because God is a promise keeper. Are you here? However, in order to embrace this, I think there is something else we need to understand: every promise is not the same. I believe the Scriptures reveal to us two types of promises: promises with conditions and promises without conditions. There are conditional promises and unconditional promises. Unconditional promises are based solely on what God says He will do; conditional promises are predicated on what we say we will do. Unconditional promises are all about God doing His part, while conditional promises are about whether or not we do our part. It’s possible to be frustrated or filled with angst towards God because we may feel like He’s not fulfilling His part of a promise. We could be proverbially asking, «God, why aren’t you doing your part?» and God could smile at us with sympathy and say, «Because you aren’t doing yours.» Some promises are conditional promises; they are what I call if-then promises. Promises like, «If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then God says I’ll do the then if you do the if.» If you do your part, I promise you I’ll do my part. If you are faithful to keep your word, I promise you I’ll step in, and I will allow nothing to keep me from keeping my word. Not only does God speak His word, the Bible says God watches over His word. You don’t believe me? In Jeremiah chapter one, verse eleven, Jeremiah says, «The word of the Lord came to me and said, ‘What do you see, Jeremiah? ’» Jeremiah replied, «I see the branch of an olive tree.» I’m not going to bother with that; there is so much in that. He said, «You’ve seen correctly.» He then continues, «Are y’all ready for this? God says to Jeremiah, ‘I’m watching to see that my word is fulfilled.’» God says, «I speak it, and then I step outside of it and watch it. Whenever it looks like my word is not going to come to pass, I’ll jump in.»