Halfway: Meet Me Halfway

Halfway: Sermon Notes Pastor Brad Myers

Meet Me Halfway! August 25, 2024

I think we’ve all felt the lack of mutuality in a friendship. We’re not trying to be needy, but every person has needs. And sometimes, they’re not being met in one-sided friendships. It’s the same with God!

Doesn’t it seem like God refuses to meet us halfway?

Sometimes people walk away from God and the church because they seem to be in a one-sided relationship.

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We still feel God isn’t meeting us halfway!

Abraham knows exactly what we’re talking about!

Genesis 12:1-2 (NLT)

Genesis 12:4 (NLT)

Abram’s thinking: I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous

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Genesis 15, Abraham didn’t feel God was being mutual

Genesis 15:1-18 (NLT) The Lord’s Covenant Promise to Abram

Genesis 15:5-6

• Promise: “Out of your family is going to come a blessing that blesses every single person on the entire Earth.”
• “Descendants”: God speaking in code leading up to Jesus

Abram: Call to leave home & a covenant agreement with God! Yet No Kids!

• Abram: “exalted father,” no kids
• Later God changed his name to Abraham.
• Abraham: “father of many nations” still no kids.
• “Exalted Father” then “Father of many nations” still no kids!

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Abraham thought God was MIA

Genesis 16:15-16 (NIV)

Genesis 21:5 (NIV)

God’s promises are always accomplished but often his strategy doesn’t make sense.

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What does this mean?

God doesn’t normally pick the path of least resistance for us. What we think God should do tends to be the last thing God wants to do.

WHY? 2 Reasons

1. If God selects a strategy we understand, we could just do it ourselves and then take the credit for it.
2. God’s divine plans are much bigger than our thought process. Although we play a part, we are not the only part.
   There are things He wants to accomplish in us along the way.

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SO: Again..

God’s promises are always accomplished, but often his strategy doesn’t make sense.

Romans 4:19 (NLT)

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Here’s what happened

Romans 4:20-20 (NLT)

What Happened?

Abraham believed the promise but not the strategy behind it!

Here’s where many of us live; halfway through God’s strategy to His divine promise for us we change the strategy!

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Has the lightbulb gone on for anyone yet?

We can either trust our perception or His divine orchestration, but we can’t trust both!

• Abraham and Sarah’s perception was Ur was better than living in a tent
• God never came in and said, “Trust the strategy of my promise”
• Why? The promise is enough so the strategy shouldn’t matter.

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Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV)

• Moses bowing out leading the Israelites into the promise land.
• Promise still in tacked even though the Israelites saw a change.

Nehemiah 4:6 (NIV)

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Halfway is a dangerous place.

Nehemiah 4:7-8 (NIV)

1. Halfway is dangerous because of inpatience. 

• A sense of accomplishment begins to overcome us.
• “Good job,” we tell ourselves.
• Sarah: I can’t wait any longer.

2. Halfway is dangerous because of discouragement. 

• We measure the work in front of us against the labor behind us.
• Sarah looked at the last 10 years and forced a strategy change.

3. Halfway is dangerous because of fatigue. 

• At the beginning of the work, your energy level was high.
• Sarah: I’m tired of waiting.

Isaiah 60:22 (NLT)