1 00:00:00,800 --> 00:00:03,803 Genesis 18 one through 15. 2 00:00:04,771 --> 00:00:07,707 And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of memory. 3 00:00:07,707 --> 00:00:12,145 As he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, he lifted up 4 00:00:12,145 --> 00:00:16,916 his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. 5 00:00:17,367 --> 00:00:20,937 When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, 6 00:00:20,937 --> 00:00:23,940 and bowed himself to the earth and said, O Lord, 7 00:00:24,290 --> 00:00:28,378 if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 8 00:00:28,728 --> 00:00:32,999 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves 9 00:00:32,999 --> 00:00:37,170 under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, 10 00:00:38,038 --> 00:00:41,691 and after that you may pass on, since you have come to your servant. 11 00:00:42,025 --> 00:00:44,761 So they said, do as you have said. 12 00:00:44,761 --> 00:00:49,082 And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah, and said, quick, 13 00:00:49,616 --> 00:00:53,219 three sees a fine flour needed, and make cakes. 14 00:00:53,453 --> 00:00:57,257 And Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf tender and good, 15 00:00:57,707 --> 00:01:00,710 and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. 16 00:01:00,810 --> 00:01:03,680 Then he took curds and milk, and the calf 17 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:06,483 that he had prepared, and set it before them. 18 00:01:06,483 --> 00:01:09,469 And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. 19 00:01:09,869 --> 00:01:12,839 They said to him, where is Sarah, your wife? 20 00:01:12,839 --> 00:01:14,841 And he said, she is in the tent. 21 00:01:14,841 --> 00:01:18,862 The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year. 22 00:01:19,312 --> 00:01:21,898 And Sarah, your wife shall have a son. 23 00:01:21,898 --> 00:01:24,868 And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 24 00:01:24,868 --> 00:01:28,221 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. 25 00:01:28,404 --> 00:01:31,157 The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 26 00:01:31,157 --> 00:01:34,527 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I am worn out 27 00:01:34,727 --> 00:01:37,730 and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? 28 00:01:37,981 --> 00:01:41,067 The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, 29 00:01:41,301 --> 00:01:43,319 shall I indeed bear a child? 30 00:01:43,319 --> 00:01:46,322 Now that I am old, is anything too hard for the Lord? 31 00:01:46,890 --> 00:01:49,442 At the appointed time I will return to you 32 00:01:49,442 --> 00:01:52,579 about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son. 33 00:01:53,096 --> 00:01:57,133 But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. 34 00:01:57,167 --> 00:01:59,786 He said, no, but you did laugh. 35 00:02:04,107 --> 00:02:07,010 Everybody, welcome to Christ Community chapel. 36 00:02:07,010 --> 00:02:09,863 So glad you're here. Thanks for coming. 37 00:02:09,863 --> 00:02:13,166 If you are here at our West service on Sunday, 38 00:02:13,166 --> 00:02:17,303 I am on the screen because I am preaching live in East. 39 00:02:17,754 --> 00:02:20,757 And let me tell you why I am preaching live in East. 40 00:02:20,940 --> 00:02:22,375 We are growing. 41 00:02:22,375 --> 00:02:24,928 I had a pretty fast rate so fast. 42 00:02:24,928 --> 00:02:27,931 We count empty seats, every week 43 00:02:27,981 --> 00:02:30,984 to find out where new people can sit. 44 00:02:31,217 --> 00:02:35,688 And, the most empty seats we have are in our East service and our 830 West service. 45 00:02:36,389 --> 00:02:41,361 So if you are at a very crowded service and you want to give up your seat 46 00:02:41,361 --> 00:02:44,364 and go to one of the other services, that would be great. 47 00:02:44,597 --> 00:02:47,267 I love having to ask you to do that because I love 48 00:02:47,267 --> 00:02:50,486 what's going on with our church, so thanks. 49 00:02:51,020 --> 00:02:51,387 All right. 50 00:02:52,472 --> 00:02:55,542 This is our sixth week of our ten week series in the Old Testament. 51 00:02:55,558 --> 00:03:00,563 We are looking at the life of Abraham, and we're calling this series Promises Made. 52 00:03:01,397 --> 00:03:03,082 Promises kept. 53 00:03:03,082 --> 00:03:06,769 One of the things I love about preaching is it forces me to sit 54 00:03:06,769 --> 00:03:10,340 with a passage of Scripture for hours and, 55 00:03:11,090 --> 00:03:13,710 just try to look at it from different angles, try to figure out 56 00:03:13,710 --> 00:03:19,399 what God is saying, why God is saying it, and what it means to us right now. 57 00:03:19,999 --> 00:03:25,488 You know, last week I preached on Genesis chapter 17 and Genesis 58 00:03:25,488 --> 00:03:29,192 chapter 17 was about God making a promise to Abraham. 59 00:03:29,275 --> 00:03:32,278 He actually made the promise in chapter 12. 60 00:03:32,328 --> 00:03:34,314 It was a promise to make him into a great nation, 61 00:03:34,314 --> 00:03:36,566 which meant lots of descendants. 62 00:03:36,566 --> 00:03:39,535 Chapter 1724 years later, 63 00:03:39,535 --> 00:03:42,538 Sarah, Abraham's wife, still hasn't gotten pregnant. 64 00:03:43,323 --> 00:03:46,509 And my three points last week was God delays. 65 00:03:46,526 --> 00:03:49,529 Abraham laughs and God responds. 66 00:03:50,213 --> 00:03:53,149 Now this week, God shows up again. 67 00:03:53,149 --> 00:03:56,869 But this time it seems to be for the benefit of Sarah, 68 00:03:57,287 --> 00:03:59,989 who is eavesdropping. 69 00:03:59,989 --> 00:04:01,891 And Sarah also laughs. 70 00:04:01,891 --> 00:04:07,280 But it seems like it's a more cynical laugh than Abraham's laugh. 71 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:09,415 At least it does to me. 72 00:04:09,415 --> 00:04:10,233 If you have your Bibles, 73 00:04:10,233 --> 00:04:14,120 you can go ahead and turn to Genesis chapter 18 if you want to follow along. 74 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:17,807 And one of our Bibles is on page 12, where you can just wait 75 00:04:17,807 --> 00:04:21,527 for the verses to come up on the screen that I'm going to highlight. 76 00:04:22,345 --> 00:04:24,931 And I really just have three observations 77 00:04:24,931 --> 00:04:28,668 about the 15 verses that we had read to us. 78 00:04:29,118 --> 00:04:29,369 All right. 79 00:04:29,369 --> 00:04:31,938 Here are my observations about God. 80 00:04:31,938 --> 00:04:34,674 Number one, God is a multitasker. 81 00:04:34,674 --> 00:04:37,093 God multitasks. That's number one. 82 00:04:37,093 --> 00:04:40,947 Number two is God uses different approaches for different people. 83 00:04:41,781 --> 00:04:44,567 He uses different approaches for different people. 84 00:04:44,567 --> 00:04:48,054 And number three, God loves to flip scripts 85 00:04:48,571 --> 00:04:51,557 to completely turn things on their head. 86 00:04:51,841 --> 00:04:53,459 All right, let's get started. 87 00:04:53,459 --> 00:04:56,162 The first is God is a multitasker. 88 00:04:56,162 --> 00:04:57,797 I think that makes sense to us. 89 00:04:57,797 --> 00:05:00,833 We all hope God can do more than one thing at one time. 90 00:05:01,651 --> 00:05:05,154 But when I was looking at this passage, something jumped out at me that I hadn't 91 00:05:05,271 --> 00:05:06,389 seen before. 92 00:05:07,590 --> 00:05:10,576 So God makes a promise to Abraham 93 00:05:11,094 --> 00:05:15,081 that he's going to be a great nation and have multiple descendants. 94 00:05:15,081 --> 00:05:19,919 And he appears to Abraham in chapter 12, and then again in chapter 15, 95 00:05:20,186 --> 00:05:23,189 and yet again in chapter 17. 96 00:05:23,373 --> 00:05:28,161 And he makes it clear to Abraham that his promise involves Sarah. 97 00:05:29,162 --> 00:05:32,148 But Sarah can't conceive, 98 00:05:32,732 --> 00:05:35,718 and infertility is hard. 99 00:05:36,202 --> 00:05:40,039 I've talked to couples, couples who have struggled with infertility. 100 00:05:40,056 --> 00:05:44,210 And if you are struggling with infertility, I just want you to know 101 00:05:44,210 --> 00:05:45,628 I'm sorry. 102 00:05:45,628 --> 00:05:49,232 I know it's it's really hard in Abraham's time. 103 00:05:50,066 --> 00:05:53,786 It was brutal, especially for the woman, because it was always 104 00:05:53,786 --> 00:05:56,789 considered the woman's fault. 105 00:05:57,240 --> 00:06:01,260 And you can tell how brutal it was for Sarah 106 00:06:01,260 --> 00:06:04,614 because of what she does in Genesis chapter 16. 107 00:06:05,281 --> 00:06:09,352 In Genesis chapter 16, she goes to Abraham and says, 108 00:06:09,352 --> 00:06:12,989 why don't you try to have children with my servant girl Hagar? 109 00:06:13,923 --> 00:06:16,909 And of course, that just explodes. 110 00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:19,078 And you, you can figure out why. 111 00:06:19,078 --> 00:06:22,081 First, Abraham is unfaithful. 112 00:06:22,131 --> 00:06:25,701 And I don't know if Sarah kind of knew how 113 00:06:25,701 --> 00:06:28,704 that would just break something inside of her. 114 00:06:28,738 --> 00:06:33,176 Then she has to watch Hagar go through nine months of pregnancy, 115 00:06:33,810 --> 00:06:35,061 and then when she gives birth, 116 00:06:35,061 --> 00:06:38,297 she gives birth to a baby boy, and Abraham is overjoyed. 117 00:06:38,331 --> 00:06:42,318 And that cuts into Sarah like a knife. 118 00:06:43,352 --> 00:06:44,871 And Sarah finally has to come 119 00:06:44,871 --> 00:06:48,241 to grips with the fact that she must be the one that's broken, 120 00:06:48,891 --> 00:06:51,594 because Abraham has shown that he can have children, 121 00:06:51,594 --> 00:06:54,597 just not with her. 122 00:06:54,797 --> 00:06:57,116 So she is devastated. 123 00:06:57,116 --> 00:07:01,220 And then these three mysterious men show up 124 00:07:02,088 --> 00:07:04,340 and Abraham starts barking orders. 125 00:07:04,340 --> 00:07:08,094 He wants them to stay for a meal and he has of a fatted calf killed. 126 00:07:08,244 --> 00:07:11,964 And you can't really tell if that's just Middle Eastern hospitality, 127 00:07:12,148 --> 00:07:13,699 where he realizes who they are. 128 00:07:13,699 --> 00:07:17,837 But eventually he does realize that it's another visit from God, 129 00:07:18,421 --> 00:07:20,790 and they sit down to talk. 130 00:07:20,790 --> 00:07:25,611 And Sarah is eavesdropping, and this is what she hears them say. 131 00:07:25,611 --> 00:07:28,014 This is verses nine and ten. 132 00:07:28,014 --> 00:07:31,434 And they said to him, to Abraham, where is Sarah, your wife? 133 00:07:32,118 --> 00:07:34,620 And he said, she's in the tent. 134 00:07:34,620 --> 00:07:38,057 The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year. 135 00:07:38,808 --> 00:07:41,777 And Sarah, your wife will have a son. 136 00:07:41,777 --> 00:07:44,430 And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 137 00:07:45,481 --> 00:07:46,232 That's the first 138 00:07:46,232 --> 00:07:49,218 time that she has heard the promise 139 00:07:49,502 --> 00:07:52,488 directly from the mouth of God. 140 00:07:53,189 --> 00:07:55,942 But it doesn't renew her hope. 141 00:07:55,942 --> 00:07:59,245 She doesn't, like, come out from behind the tent and say 142 00:07:59,245 --> 00:08:01,914 this, this wonderful news. 143 00:08:01,914 --> 00:08:04,884 I had all but given up. But here you are. 144 00:08:04,884 --> 00:08:06,602 And you've made the promise to me. 145 00:08:06,602 --> 00:08:08,488 That's not what she does. 146 00:08:08,488 --> 00:08:10,890 This is what she how she responds. 147 00:08:10,890 --> 00:08:12,892 This is verse 12. 148 00:08:12,892 --> 00:08:15,895 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, 149 00:08:16,012 --> 00:08:19,232 after I am worn out, am I, Lord is old? 150 00:08:19,732 --> 00:08:22,735 Shall I have pleasure? 151 00:08:22,768 --> 00:08:22,919 Okay. 152 00:08:22,919 --> 00:08:25,922 There are two words that I want to 153 00:08:26,155 --> 00:08:27,657 kind of highlight to you. 154 00:08:27,657 --> 00:08:31,260 The first is the word that's translated worn out. 155 00:08:31,911 --> 00:08:35,147 That's a very strong word in the Hebrew. 156 00:08:36,048 --> 00:08:40,219 It means after I have become worthless, 157 00:08:41,487 --> 00:08:45,892 after I have no value to anyone. 158 00:08:47,343 --> 00:08:49,345 What she is saying is 159 00:08:49,345 --> 00:08:52,798 I am utterly and completely in irreparably 160 00:08:53,849 --> 00:08:55,551 broken. 161 00:08:55,551 --> 00:08:58,554 Sarah is self-loathing. 162 00:08:59,372 --> 00:09:00,356 That's the first word. 163 00:09:00,356 --> 00:09:03,359 The second word that I want to point out is the word pleasure. 164 00:09:04,343 --> 00:09:06,812 She says, after I am worn out, my Lord is old. 165 00:09:06,812 --> 00:09:09,081 Shall I have pleasure in this? 166 00:09:09,081 --> 00:09:12,868 It's easy to kind of infer from the context that she's saying, 167 00:09:13,669 --> 00:09:15,988 well, I have the pleasure of having a baby. 168 00:09:15,988 --> 00:09:18,658 That's not what the word means. 169 00:09:18,658 --> 00:09:22,111 That word pleasure is the word for physical intimacy. 170 00:09:23,279 --> 00:09:26,282 What she's saying is that 171 00:09:26,299 --> 00:09:29,569 Abraham and I aren't like that with each other. 172 00:09:30,720 --> 00:09:32,972 Not anymore. 173 00:09:32,972 --> 00:09:38,461 What she's saying is that she is alone, and you can understand why. 174 00:09:38,477 --> 00:09:40,796 I mean, you have Abraham's infidelity. 175 00:09:40,796 --> 00:09:44,867 You have what she would feel like, his constant disappointment 176 00:09:44,867 --> 00:09:48,054 in her month after month after month. 177 00:09:48,054 --> 00:09:53,492 You can feel her just saying now I am absolutely worthless or whatever it is 178 00:09:54,527 --> 00:09:56,312 their marriage 179 00:09:56,312 --> 00:09:59,298 is broken and this is why I say this is what hit me. 180 00:09:59,298 --> 00:10:02,268 This is why I said that God is a multitasker. 181 00:10:02,268 --> 00:10:05,087 Because God is going to fulfill this promise to Abraham 182 00:10:05,087 --> 00:10:07,290 to make him a great nation. 183 00:10:07,290 --> 00:10:11,277 But in the process of doing it, he's also going to repair their marriage. 184 00:10:12,211 --> 00:10:15,498 He's going to make Sarah whole again. 185 00:10:15,498 --> 00:10:19,168 He's going to save her from self loathing. 186 00:10:19,802 --> 00:10:22,221 And this is my point, 187 00:10:22,221 --> 00:10:26,659 is that God's promises to you always have fall out. 188 00:10:27,743 --> 00:10:31,097 You know, I told you last week that God's promised to you 189 00:10:31,097 --> 00:10:34,100 if you are a follower of Jesus, 190 00:10:34,433 --> 00:10:37,403 is to make you into something you're not. 191 00:10:37,403 --> 00:10:41,357 That God is slowly but surely making you into 192 00:10:41,357 --> 00:10:44,360 more like Jesus, 193 00:10:44,427 --> 00:10:47,780 and that will have an impact on everything and everyone. 194 00:10:47,813 --> 00:10:53,035 One God is multitasking through you to impact your spouse and your kids, 195 00:10:53,035 --> 00:10:54,236 and your parents 196 00:10:54,236 --> 00:10:58,341 and your friends and your classmates and your neighbors and everyone. 197 00:10:58,341 --> 00:11:03,145 When you know that God is doing something in you, 198 00:11:03,145 --> 00:11:06,148 but not just for you, 199 00:11:06,198 --> 00:11:10,086 he is multitasking with you into other people's lives. 200 00:11:10,102 --> 00:11:11,487 That's the first point. 201 00:11:12,888 --> 00:11:14,507 The second point is that 202 00:11:14,507 --> 00:11:17,510 God uses different approaches for different people. 203 00:11:18,327 --> 00:11:20,713 That shouldn't be a surprise to us. 204 00:11:20,713 --> 00:11:24,617 And if you are a parent who has more than one child, you know 205 00:11:24,950 --> 00:11:28,170 you need to probably handle your children differently. 206 00:11:28,921 --> 00:11:31,941 Like, I had one child that was pretty strong willed, 207 00:11:31,941 --> 00:11:34,944 and that meant that I needed to give her 208 00:11:34,944 --> 00:11:37,947 direct and firm discipline. 209 00:11:38,030 --> 00:11:40,800 I had another child that if you look sideways at her, 210 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:45,654 she would just collapse because she felt the weight of my disappointment. 211 00:11:46,372 --> 00:11:48,691 You know, when I played basketball in high school, in 212 00:11:48,691 --> 00:11:51,677 college, my my best coaches, 213 00:11:51,744 --> 00:11:55,197 always knew how to handle different players in different ways. 214 00:11:55,197 --> 00:11:56,515 My my best coach. 215 00:11:56,515 --> 00:12:00,019 My favorite coach, would never yell at me directly. 216 00:12:00,419 --> 00:12:05,091 He would yell at one of my teammates and hope I heard, hey, I love that. 217 00:12:07,076 --> 00:12:08,244 So in 218 00:12:08,244 --> 00:12:11,747 three weeks ago, I preached on Genesis chapter 15. 219 00:12:12,798 --> 00:12:15,801 If you missed that sermon, then, 220 00:12:16,252 --> 00:12:18,871 you can read the chapter after this service. 221 00:12:18,871 --> 00:12:23,626 But chapter 15 Abraham comes into contact with God. 222 00:12:23,642 --> 00:12:25,528 It is wild and wooly. 223 00:12:25,528 --> 00:12:28,347 It involves like sacrificing animals, 224 00:12:28,347 --> 00:12:31,350 splitting them in half, creating a path, 225 00:12:31,917 --> 00:12:35,121 a flaming torch, a smoking fire pot. 226 00:12:35,454 --> 00:12:37,256 Deep, dreadful darkness. 227 00:12:37,256 --> 00:12:41,577 The holiness of God descending on Abraham, pushing him to the ground. 228 00:12:41,577 --> 00:12:44,313 It is terrifying. 229 00:12:44,313 --> 00:12:47,299 That's Genesis chapter 15 230 00:12:47,633 --> 00:12:50,636 here in Genesis chapter 18. 231 00:12:50,820 --> 00:12:54,590 You have three men show up that seem pretty ordinary, 232 00:12:55,975 --> 00:12:58,711 and they're sharing a meal, 233 00:12:58,711 --> 00:13:00,329 and they're 234 00:13:00,329 --> 00:13:02,581 there 235 00:13:02,581 --> 00:13:03,749 communicating. 236 00:13:03,749 --> 00:13:06,752 They're talking with Abraham, but they're communicating 237 00:13:07,253 --> 00:13:09,738 with Sarah because they know she's eavesdropping. 238 00:13:09,738 --> 00:13:12,358 They're there for Sarah. 239 00:13:12,358 --> 00:13:15,361 They're speaking to her indirectly, like my favorite coach. 240 00:13:16,111 --> 00:13:17,129 Right. 241 00:13:17,129 --> 00:13:20,282 And they're they're so gentle with her. 242 00:13:21,050 --> 00:13:23,269 Like. Like what? 243 00:13:23,269 --> 00:13:26,155 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I'm worn out 244 00:13:26,155 --> 00:13:28,007 and my lord is all shall have pleasure. 245 00:13:28,007 --> 00:13:31,010 The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh 246 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:34,763 and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I'm old? 247 00:13:35,447 --> 00:13:38,517 Is anything too hard for the Lord? 248 00:13:39,952 --> 00:13:42,238 I mean, 249 00:13:42,238 --> 00:13:44,907 that is so amazing. 250 00:13:44,907 --> 00:13:48,294 It's like he knows Sarah feels worn out. 251 00:13:49,411 --> 00:13:52,398 He knows she feels worthless. 252 00:13:53,148 --> 00:13:55,067 And when he says there's anything 253 00:13:55,067 --> 00:13:58,070 too hard for the Lord, that word, 254 00:13:58,554 --> 00:14:01,907 that phrase can also be translated as anything 255 00:14:01,907 --> 00:14:04,910 to wonderful for the Lord. 256 00:14:05,661 --> 00:14:07,613 It's like God comes 257 00:14:07,613 --> 00:14:11,267 and he says to Sarah, Sarah, I see you. 258 00:14:12,384 --> 00:14:15,387 I have always seen you. 259 00:14:15,538 --> 00:14:18,807 And he's saying, it is what I've come. 260 00:14:18,807 --> 00:14:20,809 I've come for you. 261 00:14:20,809 --> 00:14:24,179 I've come to do something wonderful for you. 262 00:14:24,930 --> 00:14:27,950 And even after that, when she 263 00:14:27,950 --> 00:14:30,953 denies laughing, she lies about laughing. 264 00:14:31,170 --> 00:14:33,572 And God says to her, oh, but you did laugh. 265 00:14:33,572 --> 00:14:37,977 And you can almost see his smile when he says, oh, but she did laugh. 266 00:14:37,977 --> 00:14:41,297 And he's saying, Sarah, I see you 267 00:14:42,898 --> 00:14:44,250 and I still love you. 268 00:14:45,718 --> 00:14:46,969 You couldn't have 269 00:14:46,969 --> 00:14:49,972 two more different approaches 270 00:14:50,089 --> 00:14:53,993 that God would take to Abraham and then to Sarah. 271 00:14:54,743 --> 00:14:57,479 And my, my point is this, that 272 00:14:57,479 --> 00:15:00,482 you may be sitting next to somebody 273 00:15:00,566 --> 00:15:05,087 who had a completely different experience in coming to Jesus than you did. 274 00:15:05,788 --> 00:15:09,341 I mean, the the very the core of what it means to be a Christian. 275 00:15:09,358 --> 00:15:11,760 This is what you have to believe, 276 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:13,879 but you have to believe that you're a sinner, 277 00:15:13,879 --> 00:15:16,949 that you need a Savior, that that Savior is Jesus, 278 00:15:16,949 --> 00:15:21,120 and he saves you by his grace through his death and his resurrection. 279 00:15:22,254 --> 00:15:27,476 Some people might come to that kind of realization 280 00:15:27,476 --> 00:15:30,479 because sin has demolished them, 281 00:15:30,512 --> 00:15:35,718 and they feel the coming judgment of God, and they are terrified 282 00:15:36,018 --> 00:15:39,021 about the whole thing that's going to happen. 283 00:15:39,088 --> 00:15:41,040 And they cry out to Jesus. 284 00:15:42,024 --> 00:15:44,810 Then there are there are other people 285 00:15:44,810 --> 00:15:48,781 who aren't terrified by the holiness of God, 286 00:15:49,798 --> 00:15:53,702 but they're captured by the by the love, 287 00:15:54,687 --> 00:15:57,656 by the, by the wonder, 288 00:15:57,656 --> 00:15:59,908 by the gentleness 289 00:15:59,908 --> 00:16:02,911 of a God who's like a shepherd who leaves the 99 290 00:16:04,046 --> 00:16:07,049 and comes after the one. 291 00:16:07,549 --> 00:16:09,752 So sometimes people tend 292 00:16:09,752 --> 00:16:13,105 to want to take their experience and put it on everybody else. 293 00:16:13,822 --> 00:16:16,075 And then some people, they 294 00:16:16,075 --> 00:16:19,278 they are jealous of other people's experience listening. 295 00:16:19,728 --> 00:16:22,381 If you have experience, if you came to Christ, 296 00:16:22,381 --> 00:16:24,333 if somebody you know came to Christ because 297 00:16:24,333 --> 00:16:27,453 they're terrified of the holiness of God, don't try to talk him out of it. 298 00:16:28,170 --> 00:16:31,340 Don't try to say, oh, no, you shouldn't think about God like that. 299 00:16:31,373 --> 00:16:35,160 He he's like the shepherd who left the 99 and came after the one. 300 00:16:35,160 --> 00:16:37,129 Yeah. He is, he is. 301 00:16:38,847 --> 00:16:39,932 But maybe that's the way 302 00:16:39,932 --> 00:16:43,736 God approached them, because God knows them. 303 00:16:44,753 --> 00:16:49,291 And if somebody feels like God is so wonderful to leave the 99 come after them. 304 00:16:49,291 --> 00:16:50,009 Don't. 305 00:16:50,009 --> 00:16:53,612 You don't have to tell them and just say you don't really understand 306 00:16:53,612 --> 00:16:54,413 the holiness of God. 307 00:16:54,413 --> 00:16:57,416 You should be scared to death. 308 00:16:57,950 --> 00:17:01,253 God uses different approaches for different people. 309 00:17:02,037 --> 00:17:03,772 That's my second point. 310 00:17:03,772 --> 00:17:08,510 My third point is that God loves to flip scripts to just turn things on their head. 311 00:17:08,510 --> 00:17:10,612 And this is what I mean. 312 00:17:10,612 --> 00:17:13,282 So God makes this promise to Abraham, 313 00:17:13,282 --> 00:17:16,101 and the promise is that you're going to be a great nation. 314 00:17:16,101 --> 00:17:18,053 You're going to have multiple descendants. 315 00:17:18,053 --> 00:17:19,705 But then 316 00:17:19,705 --> 00:17:21,840 Sarah doesn't get pregnant. 317 00:17:21,840 --> 00:17:23,609 They lose patience. 318 00:17:23,609 --> 00:17:27,179 They shatter their marriage in multiple ways. 319 00:17:27,813 --> 00:17:31,967 Sarah feels completely worn out, like she is worthless. 320 00:17:31,967 --> 00:17:32,484 And that. 321 00:17:32,484 --> 00:17:35,370 And God comes and visits her and just says, is 322 00:17:35,370 --> 00:17:38,657 anything too wonderful for me? 323 00:17:39,541 --> 00:17:41,660 And Sarah laughs 324 00:17:41,660 --> 00:17:44,663 and God says, why did you laugh? 325 00:17:44,696 --> 00:17:48,867 And then she says, I didn't laugh and God says, but you did laugh. 326 00:17:50,636 --> 00:17:53,639 Put a pin in that for a second, right? 327 00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:57,443 And then, because God is multitasking, 328 00:17:58,110 --> 00:18:01,430 he not only is going to fulfill his promise to Abraham, 329 00:18:01,430 --> 00:18:03,482 he's going to heal their marriage. 330 00:18:03,482 --> 00:18:06,752 And he does because they reconcile, because nine months later 331 00:18:07,519 --> 00:18:08,570 they have a baby. 332 00:18:08,570 --> 00:18:13,292 And we pick up the story in chapter 21 of Genesis. 333 00:18:13,308 --> 00:18:14,910 This is what it says. 334 00:18:14,910 --> 00:18:17,846 The Lord visited Sarah, as he had said, 335 00:18:17,846 --> 00:18:20,432 and the Lord did to Sarah, as he had promised. 336 00:18:20,432 --> 00:18:23,719 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, 337 00:18:24,269 --> 00:18:26,905 at the time of which God had spoken to him. 338 00:18:26,905 --> 00:18:31,944 Abraham called the name of his son, who was born to him, who Sarah bore him. 339 00:18:32,361 --> 00:18:35,964 Isaac and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac 340 00:18:35,964 --> 00:18:38,967 when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 341 00:18:38,967 --> 00:18:41,987 Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him, 342 00:18:42,287 --> 00:18:45,290 and Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. 343 00:18:45,557 --> 00:18:48,377 Everyone who hears will laugh over me. 344 00:18:48,377 --> 00:18:52,381 And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? 345 00:18:52,698 --> 00:18:55,467 Yet I have borne my son in his old age, 346 00:18:56,451 --> 00:18:57,753 when she says, 347 00:18:57,753 --> 00:19:01,957 God has made laughter over me, and everyone who hears will laugh with me. 348 00:19:01,974 --> 00:19:04,977 She's she's actually making a play on words, 349 00:19:05,961 --> 00:19:09,264 because what God says to Abraham 350 00:19:09,264 --> 00:19:12,384 is, okay, now you you have this son. 351 00:19:13,218 --> 00:19:16,221 I want you to call his name Isaac, 352 00:19:16,638 --> 00:19:19,641 which in Hebrew means laughter. 353 00:19:20,459 --> 00:19:23,028 So what God does to Sarah 354 00:19:23,028 --> 00:19:25,914 is he says, why did you laugh? 355 00:19:25,914 --> 00:19:27,833 Is anything too wonderful for me? 356 00:19:27,833 --> 00:19:29,184 And she says, but I didn't laugh. 357 00:19:29,184 --> 00:19:31,353 And he said, you did laugh. 358 00:19:31,353 --> 00:19:33,422 And then he says, okay, 359 00:19:33,422 --> 00:19:35,807 now I want you to call your son. 360 00:19:35,807 --> 00:19:37,142 Laughter. 361 00:19:37,142 --> 00:19:41,547 So at every time Sarah called Isaac home, it was like laughter. 362 00:19:41,547 --> 00:19:43,699 It's time to come home for dinner. 363 00:19:43,699 --> 00:19:45,567 Laughter. Go clean up your toys. 364 00:19:45,567 --> 00:19:48,003 Hey chuckles, it's time to go to bed. 365 00:19:48,003 --> 00:19:48,537 All right. 366 00:19:48,537 --> 00:19:52,741 Every time God was reminding Sarah 367 00:19:54,409 --> 00:19:56,478 you laughed because you were so cynical. 368 00:19:56,478 --> 00:19:57,713 You thought you were worn out. 369 00:19:57,713 --> 00:20:00,716 You thought I didn't see you, but I saw you. 370 00:20:01,700 --> 00:20:04,703 And I've done something so wonderful. 371 00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:07,923 And I don't want you to ever forget 372 00:20:08,006 --> 00:20:10,742 there is something God loves. 373 00:20:10,742 --> 00:20:13,729 He took cynical laughter and he turned it on its head. 374 00:20:14,246 --> 00:20:18,033 And he said, from now on, whenever you call your son, you'll be reminded. 375 00:20:18,901 --> 00:20:21,887 You'll be reminded that I'm a God who does this. 376 00:20:23,071 --> 00:20:25,524 My older brother Brian, 377 00:20:25,524 --> 00:20:28,527 wrote a book years ago called splendor in the ordinary, 378 00:20:28,827 --> 00:20:32,364 and my favorite story is in his last chapter. 379 00:20:32,364 --> 00:20:36,318 It's about, a guy that lived on his freshman dorm, 380 00:20:37,252 --> 00:20:39,388 named Charlie Crone. 381 00:20:39,388 --> 00:20:41,139 This is the way he starts the story. 382 00:20:41,139 --> 00:20:44,142 He says the year was 1974. 383 00:20:44,576 --> 00:20:47,462 Beanbag chairs and lava lamps were the rage. 384 00:20:47,462 --> 00:20:51,300 Dorm rooms were not yet filled with VCRs, CD players, and personal computers. 385 00:20:51,350 --> 00:20:54,353 You can see how old he how many years he wrote this. 386 00:20:54,386 --> 00:20:57,022 You know, go because he's still talking about CD players. 387 00:20:58,590 --> 00:21:00,959 We were college freshmen living in a freshman dorm. 388 00:21:00,959 --> 00:21:02,177 Charlie was on my floor. 389 00:21:02,177 --> 00:21:06,148 Charlie was about five foot four with sandy blond hair and red rimmed eyes. 390 00:21:06,798 --> 00:21:09,801 He was also the most profligate sinner I had ever met in person. 391 00:21:10,519 --> 00:21:12,738 I mean, Charlie was a party reptile. 392 00:21:12,738 --> 00:21:13,889 He cussed like a sailor. 393 00:21:13,889 --> 00:21:18,026 My apologies to sailors drank with a frat house flourish, marijuana 394 00:21:18,026 --> 00:21:22,431 smoke wafted underneath his closed door nearly every night until the wee hours, 395 00:21:22,948 --> 00:21:25,951 and he regularly had his girlfriend in for days at a time. 396 00:21:26,251 --> 00:21:27,753 They weren't studying. 397 00:21:27,753 --> 00:21:30,739 For some reason, I also remember he was an English major. 398 00:21:30,872 --> 00:21:33,959 Now, Charlie also happened to be a nice guy, a good Ole boy. 399 00:21:33,959 --> 00:21:37,229 He laughed a lot, got decent grades, seemed to have plenty of friends, 400 00:21:37,229 --> 00:21:40,232 but Charlie was about as far from being interested in Jesus 401 00:21:40,315 --> 00:21:41,783 as anyone you could imagine. 402 00:21:43,135 --> 00:21:44,303 Then he picks up the story. 403 00:21:44,303 --> 00:21:47,723 13 years later, he says the year is 1987. 404 00:21:48,473 --> 00:21:52,110 Beanbag chairs and lava lamps are the rage only in resale 405 00:21:52,110 --> 00:21:55,497 shops and garage sales have long since worn out. 406 00:21:55,497 --> 00:21:58,500 The college sweatshirt I bought as a freshman. 407 00:21:58,500 --> 00:22:01,670 While flipping through the monthly alumni publication, my eyes 408 00:22:01,670 --> 00:22:05,757 fell upon the following entry in the notes for our class of 1978. 409 00:22:06,358 --> 00:22:08,960 Charlie Krohn, class of 78, 410 00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:12,981 and his wife will begin their first term with Wycliffe Bible Translators this fall. 411 00:22:13,682 --> 00:22:16,668 They'll be serving in West Africa. 412 00:22:16,735 --> 00:22:18,170 I love that story. 413 00:22:18,170 --> 00:22:19,755 It's like God says to Charlie, 414 00:22:19,755 --> 00:22:22,758 you didn't know why you're an English major, but I knew 415 00:22:23,792 --> 00:22:26,778 you're going to be a Bible translator 416 00:22:26,962 --> 00:22:29,664 in West Africa. 417 00:22:29,664 --> 00:22:32,667 Listen, whoever you're praying for, 418 00:22:33,385 --> 00:22:34,920 don't stop praying. 419 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:37,789 Whatever you're praying for. 420 00:22:37,789 --> 00:22:39,141 Don't stop praying for it. 421 00:22:40,108 --> 00:22:43,412 Because God loves to flip scripts 422 00:22:44,212 --> 00:22:47,215 to turn something completely on his head. 423 00:22:47,399 --> 00:22:49,351 God is a multitasker. 424 00:22:49,351 --> 00:22:52,337 He is multitasking through you 425 00:22:53,155 --> 00:22:57,559 to people you know, people you don't know yet, right? 426 00:22:57,993 --> 00:23:00,979 God uses different approaches for different people. 427 00:23:01,046 --> 00:23:03,382 That's true too. 428 00:23:03,382 --> 00:23:06,385 But the third thing is probably the best thing. 429 00:23:06,385 --> 00:23:09,654 God loves to flip scripts 430 00:23:10,822 --> 00:23:13,708 because nothing is too wonderful 431 00:23:13,708 --> 00:23:15,327 for him. 432 00:23:15,327 --> 00:23:18,330 Promises made and promises kept. 433 00:23:18,897 --> 00:23:21,900 Would you pray with me? 434 00:23:22,617 --> 00:23:24,002 Father in heaven. 435 00:23:24,002 --> 00:23:25,971 I love, 436 00:23:25,971 --> 00:23:27,656 this whole story. 437 00:23:27,656 --> 00:23:31,259 I love the way you, appeared to Abraham 438 00:23:32,177 --> 00:23:35,097 in Fire and Smoke and terror and holiness. 439 00:23:35,097 --> 00:23:37,249 Because that you 440 00:23:37,249 --> 00:23:40,852 also love how gentle you were with Sarah. 441 00:23:42,087 --> 00:23:44,039 Endured not 442 00:23:44,039 --> 00:23:46,675 loving, chasing after, 443 00:23:46,675 --> 00:23:49,678 knowing how broken and worn out she felt. 444 00:23:50,912 --> 00:23:53,932 But thanks for approaching each of us 445 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,018 that are here right now in different ways. 446 00:23:58,487 --> 00:23:59,237 Thanks for being 447 00:23:59,237 --> 00:24:02,240 relentless in your pursuit of us. 448 00:24:02,691 --> 00:24:04,493 Thanks for multitasking. 449 00:24:04,493 --> 00:24:08,180 Through our lives, I pray that you will impact, the people 450 00:24:08,180 --> 00:24:11,183 that are in our lives right now through us. 451 00:24:12,350 --> 00:24:14,553 But I thank you most of all, 452 00:24:14,553 --> 00:24:17,005 because you delight 453 00:24:17,005 --> 00:24:20,792 in turning cynical laughter into joy. 454 00:24:21,626 --> 00:24:24,112 You delight in turning, profligate 455 00:24:24,112 --> 00:24:27,115 sinners into Bible translators. 456 00:24:27,199 --> 00:24:31,403 You delight in turning what we were into what we are. 457 00:24:32,671 --> 00:24:34,923 Thanks for a wonderful Savior. 458 00:24:34,923 --> 00:24:37,642 We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.