Citizens | Week 4 | Daniel Goulding

Pastor Daniel Goulding · Mar 28, 2021

Big Idea

Where you look determines where you live, so when life makes you afraid, stop looking down or around and look up to the cross, the proof that God is faithful.

God's faithfulness doesn't depend on our timeline, and Abraham's story shows that faith isn't the absence of fear but trusting God in spite of it. When we settle for less than what God promised, we start looking around instead of up; the cross is the eternal proof that God keeps His word even when the wait is long.

Key points

1
1The church today is distracted, not defeated, and it's making us ineffective.
Pastor Daniel opens with a story of watching a woman walk into a fountain while staring at her phone, and notes the National Institute of Safety now lists 'distracted walking' as a cause of death. He applies this as a picture of the modern church, so consumed with secondary issues that it misses the obstacles and the people right in front of it.
2
2Abraham's faith journey began with a bold decision, but years later he was found afraid.
Working through Genesis 15:1, Pastor Daniel points out that God's first words to Abram are 'do not be afraid,' proof that the so-called father of faith was struggling with fear a decade after leaving everything to follow God's promise. He reframes faith as not the absence of fear but the choice to trust God despite it.
3
3When the promise takes too long, we settle for something less than what God said.
Abraham tells God he'll settle for a servant as heir instead of the nation he was promised, and Pastor Daniel connects this to believers who stop trusting God's word and start 'looking around' at shortcuts, comparing it to settling for a dating app instead of waiting on God's provision. He warns this is where faith journeys get most dangerous.
4
4God thinks in multiplication, not addition, so His delays are often preparation, not neglect.
Pastor Daniel notes it would take twenty-five more years for the promised son to arrive, and that God waited until Abraham was 'as good as dead' to give him a child, arguing that God doesn't just meet our expectations because He wants to exceed them. He suggests some prayers, if answered too soon, would destroy us rather than bless us.
5
5God took Abram outside the tent and told him to look up and remember who He is.
Rather than giving Abram details about the future, God brings him outside to look at the stars and reminds him of the original promise from Genesis 12. Pastor Daniel highlights that Abram lived his whole life in a temporary tent, and that stepping outside to look up is what shifted his perspective from panic back to faith.
6
6Genesis 15's covenant ceremony is the greatest picture of the gospel in the Old Testament.
Pastor Daniel unpacks the ancient 'blood oath covenant' ritual of walking between cut animal halves, explaining that God alone passed through the pieces as fire and smoke while Abram slept, meaning God took both sides of the covenant on Himself. He connects this directly to Jesus walking the 'blood path' alone on the cross, fulfilling what Abraham could never keep.
7
7The cross is the permanent proof that God is faithful, not just a one-time ticket into heaven.
Pastor Daniel ties Jesus' words in the upper room and the practice of communion to this same call to remember God's faithfulness in dark, uncertain seasons. He closes by inviting the church to take the bread and juice as a physical reminder that Jesus already walked the path they were afraid to walk alone.

Application

Pastor Daniel's charge is to stop looking down or around and get outside the tent to look up again.

Name what's distracting you
Identify whatever has you walking around with your head down instead of noticing the people and obstacles right in front of you, and bring that honestly before God.
Stop settling for less than the promise
If you've started reaching for shortcuts or lesser substitutes because God's promise feels delayed, recognize that pattern and choose to wait on Him instead.
Step outside the tent and look up
Like Abram, get out of your limited, circumstance-bound perspective this week and deliberately remember God's faithfulness rather than demanding all the details.
Take the bread and cup as remembrance
Receive communion not as ritual but as a physical reminder that Jesus already walked the path you were afraid to walk, so you can trust God's faithfulness even now.

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

From the transcript
“if you have a Bible, just open up to Hebrews chapter 11. I promise we're gonna get into the Bible at some point this morning”
From the transcript
“We're gonna read in verse eight. We're going to look at the last person in this hall of faith, and then we're going to essentially see the overview of his life in Hebrews 11”
From the transcript
“But then what I wanna do is in Genesis 15, I wanna jump back and look at one specific day of his journey”
From the transcript
“Genesis 15 verse one. Here's what it says. It says sometime later”
From the transcript
“Hebrews 11 says that Abraham's story starts. It's recorded in Genesis chapter 12. But Abraham's story starts, his journey with God starts in Genesis chapter 12 where Abram at this point is 75 years old”
From the transcript
“it tells us in Romans chapter four and Hebrews 11, the moment that God made the decision that Abraham and Sarah were ready for a child is when he looked at Abraham with the angels”
From the transcript
“it tells us in Romans chapter four and Hebrews 11, the moment that God made the decision that Abraham and Sarah were ready for a child is when he looked at Abraham with the angels”
From the transcript
“Abraham, you go read Genesis 16. This dude, after this powerful encounter, his wife's like, I got an idea. Let's use the handmaid”
From the transcript
“In verse five, says, then the Lord took Abram outside and he said to him, 'Look up.' Everybody say, 'Look up”
From the transcript
“the first time where God credits righteousness to somebody because they believed what God said. All of this is a foreshadowing of the invitation to faith that Jesus would initiate on the cross. And Abram for the first time believes God and says he's accounted righteous in the eyes of God”
From the transcript
“God says in verse seven, I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur and the Chaldeans to give you this land as your possession”
From the transcript
“Verse eight, But Abram replied, O sovereign Lord, how can I be sure that I will actually possess it”
From the transcript
“Verse 10, it says, that Abram presented all of these to him and he killed them. And then he cut each animal down the middle and he laid the half side by side”
From the transcript
“verse 11 says, Some vultures swooped down to eat the carcasses, but Abram chased them away”
From the transcript
“Verse 14, but I will punish the nation that enslaves them. And in the end, they will come away with great wealth”

7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

Day 1

There is something painfully honest about Abraham in this passage. God has spoken extraordinary things over his life — promises of land, legacy, and blessing — and yet here Abraham is, still waiting, still without a son, and beginning to wonder if any of it was real. His words carry a quiet grief: 'What good are all your blessings when I don't even have a son?' (Genesis 15:2, NLT). He has not walked away from God, but he has clearly pulled back inside himself. The tent, in this moment, feels like a picture of what happens when hope deferred meets unmet expectation. We stop dreaming. We go through the motions. We manage rather than trust. Pastor Daniel named this plainly: many of us have drifted — not into outright rebellion, but into a settling kind of faith that has quietly forgotten what God originally said. The first honest step is simply to name that drift. Abraham did. He brought his disappointment directly to God rather than burying it, and that honesty was the opening God needed to meet him. Whatever tent you have been sitting in — whatever unmet expectation or delayed promise has you going through the motions — bring it out into the open with God. He can handle the full weight of your honesty.

For reflection

Is there a promise or a dream you quietly stopped believing in — and when did you first begin to pull back from it?

Pray

Pray for the honesty to bring your real disappointments before God, just as Abraham did.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

This message takes us back to a moment when Abraham was stuck inside his tent, weighed down by fear and unmet expectations — and God's response was simply to call him outside and tell him to look up.

Discussion questions

1
In Genesis 15:1-3, Abraham is in his tent voicing real discouragement to God — he has the promise but none of the evidence. What does that exchange tell us about the kind of honesty God seems to welcome from His people?
2
Pastor Daniel pointed out that the church can become so focused on secondary issues — politics, circumstances, disappointments — that we grow ineffective and miss the people right in front of us. What do you think it looks like, practically, when a community of faith starts drifting in that direction?
3
In Genesis 15:5, God doesn't give Abraham a timeline or a detailed plan — He just takes him outside and tells him to look at the stars. Why do you think God's response to Abraham's doubt is a picture rather than an explanation?
4
Hebrews 11:8-12 holds Abraham up as an example of faith, yet Genesis shows him full of fear and questions. How does that tension shape the way we understand what faith actually is, according to this message?
5
In Genesis 15:9-18, God put Abraham into a deep sleep and walked the blood path of the covenant alone. Pastor Daniel connected this to Jesus fulfilling the covenant entirely on our behalf at the cross. What does it mean for how we relate to God's promises that He is the one who made — and kept — the oath?
6
Pastor Daniel challenged us to resist settling for something lesser when a promise feels delayed, and to return to the cross as our anchor in seasons of doubt. How might that posture — coming back to the cross rather than taking matters into our own hands — change the way we wait together as a community?

Pray together

Gratitude that Jesus walked the blood path alone, and courage to lift our eyes again to God's promises in whatever season we find ourselves

Topics

Distraction and Discernment Faith Over Fear Generational Purpose God's Promises The Cross

Citizens | Week 4 | Daniel Goulding

Big Idea

Key points

Application

Take it into your week

Scripture in this message

7-day devotional

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Small-group discussion guide

Open

Discussion questions

Pray together