1 00:00:00,900 --> 00:00:03,887 Genesis 21 one through seven. 2 00:00:04,771 --> 00:00:07,073 The Lord visited Sarah as he had son, 3 00:00:07,073 --> 00:00:09,859 and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. 4 00:00:09,859 --> 00:00:13,430 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age. 5 00:00:13,430 --> 00:00:15,782 At the time of which God had spoken to him. 6 00:00:15,782 --> 00:00:20,253 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him whom Sarah bore him. 7 00:00:20,253 --> 00:00:23,640 Isaac and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac 8 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:26,743 when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 9 00:00:26,760 --> 00:00:30,346 Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him, 10 00:00:30,780 --> 00:00:33,416 and Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. 11 00:00:33,416 --> 00:00:35,452 Everyone who hears will laugh over me. 12 00:00:35,452 --> 00:00:39,272 And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? 13 00:00:39,539 --> 00:00:42,092 Yet I have borne him a son in his old age. 14 00:00:46,112 --> 00:00:46,880 Well, good morning, and 15 00:00:46,880 --> 00:00:50,166 welcome to the weekly gathering of Christ Community Chapel. 16 00:00:50,183 --> 00:00:51,201 My name is Zach. 17 00:00:51,201 --> 00:00:52,769 I'm one of the pastors here, 18 00:00:52,769 --> 00:00:56,489 and I'm so glad you're here with us on this summer weekend. 19 00:00:56,940 --> 00:01:00,810 I've just returned, actually, from being out of the country with my wife, Amy. 20 00:01:00,810 --> 00:01:04,130 Celebrating our 20th anniversary was, 21 00:01:05,148 --> 00:01:06,483 Thanks. 22 00:01:06,483 --> 00:01:09,152 I know that clap is more for Amy than me, 23 00:01:09,152 --> 00:01:12,138 but for making it 20 years with me. 24 00:01:12,238 --> 00:01:15,892 But out of the country was a beautiful trip with an amazing woman. 25 00:01:15,892 --> 00:01:17,160 It was fantastic. 26 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,163 But, about two thirds of the way into the trip. 27 00:01:20,313 --> 00:01:23,716 I have a little bit of a towel when I'm thinking my legs start pumping 28 00:01:23,716 --> 00:01:27,637 and we're sitting in this beautiful part of the world having a great time. 29 00:01:27,654 --> 00:01:30,557 My leg is pumping, and Amy says, what are you thinking about? 30 00:01:30,557 --> 00:01:32,792 And I said, I'm thinking about work. 31 00:01:32,792 --> 00:01:36,780 Not because I wasn't having a great trip, but because I'm so excited 32 00:01:36,780 --> 00:01:40,233 about what God is doing here at Christ Community Chapel. 33 00:01:40,433 --> 00:01:42,652 It's a little tough to be away from it. 34 00:01:42,652 --> 00:01:43,787 Eager to get back. 35 00:01:43,787 --> 00:01:48,057 I really do think the second half of 2025 is going to be an incredible time 36 00:01:48,408 --> 00:01:49,559 for us as a church. 37 00:01:49,559 --> 00:01:53,279 A lot of amazing things happen happening, and I was also excited 38 00:01:53,279 --> 00:01:57,267 to get back to this sermon series we're calling it Promises 39 00:01:57,267 --> 00:02:01,938 Made, Promises Kept eight weeks so far in total. 40 00:02:01,938 --> 00:02:06,092 Looking at the faithfulness of God and the story of Abraham. 41 00:02:06,092 --> 00:02:08,461 Promises Made, Promises Kept. 42 00:02:08,461 --> 00:02:13,199 Hoping we can learn something about God's faithfulness for our own lives. 43 00:02:13,700 --> 00:02:14,601 It's interesting though. 44 00:02:14,601 --> 00:02:18,738 Now, eight weeks in, if we're honest, we would say this series so far 45 00:02:18,988 --> 00:02:20,540 has been pretty much entirely. 46 00:02:20,540 --> 00:02:23,543 Promises Made, not Kept. 47 00:02:23,843 --> 00:02:26,546 I don't mean that any promises have been broken, I just mean that God 48 00:02:26,546 --> 00:02:32,602 has been promising a lot of things that have not yet come to be in the story. 49 00:02:33,052 --> 00:02:36,539 That that is what makes this week so exciting, because this week 50 00:02:36,539 --> 00:02:40,577 we swing completely over to promises kept. 51 00:02:40,577 --> 00:02:44,814 We're going to be seeing how God comes through on a particular promise. 52 00:02:44,814 --> 00:02:48,051 The biggest promise that he makes to Abraham and Sarah 53 00:02:48,051 --> 00:02:52,255 and what that tells us about him and what it means to trust him. 54 00:02:52,338 --> 00:02:53,673 So if you have a Bible, 55 00:02:53,673 --> 00:02:57,343 would you take it out and open it to Genesis chapter 21? 56 00:02:57,360 --> 00:03:02,632 Perfectly okay to take out a phone or a tablet however you want to get there. 57 00:03:03,082 --> 00:03:06,152 Hey, by the way, if you're new here, maybe it's been a while 58 00:03:06,152 --> 00:03:06,953 since you've been in church. 59 00:03:06,953 --> 00:03:09,422 It's been a while since you thought about the Bible. 60 00:03:09,422 --> 00:03:12,475 Maybe you've you've never done either of those things. 61 00:03:12,475 --> 00:03:14,460 I'm so glad that you're here. 62 00:03:14,460 --> 00:03:15,662 And I want you to know that 63 00:03:15,662 --> 00:03:19,465 what's happening this morning is as much for you as it is for anyone. 64 00:03:19,766 --> 00:03:23,453 And the screens I read the verses I reference will be on the screens behind 65 00:03:23,453 --> 00:03:26,372 me. But if you want to follow along, there are Bibles 66 00:03:26,372 --> 00:03:29,342 in the pew in front of you or in the back of this hall. 67 00:03:29,342 --> 00:03:30,593 It's the same Bible I use. 68 00:03:30,593 --> 00:03:33,146 And, today's reading is on page 14. 69 00:03:33,146 --> 00:03:36,149 If you want to follow along that way, you can. 70 00:03:36,266 --> 00:03:37,400 No pressure. 71 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:41,154 However, you're getting to Genesis 21, I have three points 72 00:03:41,487 --> 00:03:44,457 I want to use as an outline to guide our time together. 73 00:03:44,457 --> 00:03:45,241 Very simple. 74 00:03:45,241 --> 00:03:49,679 Three points that go like this I want to show you that trust is tangible, 75 00:03:50,396 --> 00:03:54,617 trust is transformative, and trust is possible. 76 00:03:54,617 --> 00:03:56,552 Trust is tangible. 77 00:03:56,552 --> 00:04:01,040 Trust is transformative, and trust is possible. 78 00:04:01,407 --> 00:04:01,608 All right. 79 00:04:01,608 --> 00:04:02,659 Let me start with the first one. 80 00:04:02,659 --> 00:04:05,178 Trust is tangible. 81 00:04:05,178 --> 00:04:09,148 If on your way out from this service in the parking lot, 82 00:04:09,899 --> 00:04:13,886 a friend came up to you, someone you've known for a little while 83 00:04:14,187 --> 00:04:18,858 and they wild eyed asked you to do something crazy. 84 00:04:19,342 --> 00:04:23,162 I mean, something you would never normally do, 85 00:04:23,162 --> 00:04:26,149 something way out of the ordinary. 86 00:04:26,282 --> 00:04:29,669 You would ask them why, why, why would I do that? 87 00:04:30,586 --> 00:04:35,908 And they might look at you and say, I just need you to trust me. 88 00:04:37,010 --> 00:04:38,761 What are they saying? 89 00:04:38,761 --> 00:04:41,597 I mean, in that moment when they ask you to do that crazy thing, 90 00:04:41,597 --> 00:04:45,802 what are they saying when they say, I just need you to trust me? 91 00:04:45,835 --> 00:04:50,423 What they're saying is that, hey, I can't answer all your questions 92 00:04:50,807 --> 00:04:55,645 right now about that crazy thing I'm asking you to do. 93 00:04:56,012 --> 00:04:59,732 But what I need you to do is to reach back into our relationship. 94 00:05:00,199 --> 00:05:01,918 To find something. 95 00:05:01,918 --> 00:05:03,119 Something I've said. 96 00:05:03,119 --> 00:05:04,854 Something I've done. 97 00:05:04,854 --> 00:05:06,122 Something I've been for. 98 00:05:06,122 --> 00:05:10,493 Use something tangible in the history of our relationship 99 00:05:10,760 --> 00:05:13,579 that would give you a reason to believe me. 100 00:05:13,579 --> 00:05:16,015 A reason to listen to me. 101 00:05:16,015 --> 00:05:17,367 And what you don't know. 102 00:05:17,367 --> 00:05:20,370 Something you do know that helps you with what you don't. 103 00:05:20,370 --> 00:05:25,158 Something tangible that helps you with the intangible, the unknown. 104 00:05:25,158 --> 00:05:30,146 That's why if a stranger stopped you in the parking lot wild eyed and said, 105 00:05:30,229 --> 00:05:34,367 I need you to do this crazy thing, and you said, why? 106 00:05:34,367 --> 00:05:38,121 And they said, just trust me, you would laugh 107 00:05:39,422 --> 00:05:42,408 or maybe hurry the other direction 108 00:05:42,742 --> 00:05:45,628 because there's no reason to trust them. 109 00:05:45,628 --> 00:05:50,149 You don't have anything tangible on which to anchor your trust. 110 00:05:50,149 --> 00:05:53,753 Interesting that when most people think about trusting God, 111 00:05:54,620 --> 00:05:57,290 when they think about obeying God, 112 00:05:57,290 --> 00:06:01,010 listening to God doing something God's way, not their way, trusting him 113 00:06:01,127 --> 00:06:04,680 with their soul, with their eternal destiny, 114 00:06:05,064 --> 00:06:08,067 they tend to think of him more as the stranger. 115 00:06:08,634 --> 00:06:12,055 The God's, the wild eyed guy in the parking lot saying, just trust me. 116 00:06:12,055 --> 00:06:13,973 Trust me with your sexuality. 117 00:06:13,973 --> 00:06:16,592 Trust me with your marriage. Trust me with your money. 118 00:06:16,592 --> 00:06:18,661 Trust me with your future. 119 00:06:18,661 --> 00:06:21,931 And when you say why, he goes, because. 120 00:06:23,299 --> 00:06:26,302 And for most people, that's not enough. 121 00:06:26,452 --> 00:06:28,287 But you know something? 122 00:06:28,287 --> 00:06:30,390 It shouldn't be. 123 00:06:30,390 --> 00:06:32,392 Because that's not how trust works. 124 00:06:33,359 --> 00:06:34,043 Trust is 125 00:06:34,043 --> 00:06:37,046 always rooted in something tangible. 126 00:06:37,530 --> 00:06:41,067 Trust is always anchored in something that's been shown, 127 00:06:41,067 --> 00:06:45,204 something that's been proven, something that's been displayed. 128 00:06:45,388 --> 00:06:49,342 And actually, the God of the Bible understands that. 129 00:06:49,759 --> 00:06:50,393 Look with me. 130 00:06:50,393 --> 00:06:51,360 Genesis 21. 131 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:53,546 First couple of verses they read this way. 132 00:06:53,546 --> 00:06:56,449 Let's see what God does tangibly 133 00:06:56,449 --> 00:06:59,485 to give Abraham and Sarah a reason to trust him. 134 00:06:59,786 --> 00:07:01,254 Genesis 21, verse one. 135 00:07:01,254 --> 00:07:04,907 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, 136 00:07:05,691 --> 00:07:08,694 and the Lord did to Sarah, as he had promised. 137 00:07:09,295 --> 00:07:13,800 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, 138 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:17,753 at the time of which God had spoken to him. 139 00:07:18,287 --> 00:07:22,642 So you see, God has made a lot of promises to Abraham and Sarah. 140 00:07:22,675 --> 00:07:26,312 God's message to them is just trust me. 141 00:07:26,546 --> 00:07:31,551 He comes alongside this elderly, infertile couple and says to them, 142 00:07:31,551 --> 00:07:35,838 not only am I going to give you a child, but in that child, through that child, 143 00:07:35,838 --> 00:07:39,892 I'm going to turn your family into a great nation through whom 144 00:07:39,892 --> 00:07:43,763 I'm going to bless all the nations of the earth. 145 00:07:43,763 --> 00:07:47,867 Incredible promise is wide eyed in the parking lot. 146 00:07:48,084 --> 00:07:51,170 There's I'm going to do this crazy thing. 147 00:07:51,921 --> 00:07:56,609 But God knows they could never trust him with the unknown 148 00:07:57,326 --> 00:07:59,729 if he doesn't do something tangible. 149 00:07:59,729 --> 00:08:02,064 That's what. Isaac is. 150 00:08:02,064 --> 00:08:04,650 Isaac is a living, breathing, 151 00:08:04,650 --> 00:08:09,288 physical indication that God can be trusted. 152 00:08:09,438 --> 00:08:16,162 He is a living, breathing, physical reminder that God keeps his promises. 153 00:08:16,162 --> 00:08:19,165 He is a tangible proof 154 00:08:19,682 --> 00:08:23,819 in the midst of this unknown story that God is writing. 155 00:08:24,136 --> 00:08:26,906 Because God knows that's how trust works. 156 00:08:26,906 --> 00:08:29,909 That when you say to someone, just trust me, 157 00:08:29,942 --> 00:08:34,013 there has to be something they can grab Ahold of to do that. 158 00:08:34,013 --> 00:08:38,784 And by the way, this rhythm of the tangible 159 00:08:38,784 --> 00:08:43,406 helping us move into the unknown is not unique to Abraham and Sarah. 160 00:08:43,406 --> 00:08:48,211 It shows up time and time again in the Bible when God wants Moses 161 00:08:48,211 --> 00:08:54,150 to step into the unknown and face down Pharaoh and freeing Israel from slavery, 162 00:08:54,417 --> 00:08:59,539 he shows up in the tangible display of his power through the burning bush. 163 00:09:00,172 --> 00:09:04,043 When God wants Joshua to lead his people into the Promised land 164 00:09:04,193 --> 00:09:07,530 and face down the mighty warriors who live there, 165 00:09:07,697 --> 00:09:11,417 he shows up to tangibly in the Battle of Jericho. 166 00:09:11,417 --> 00:09:16,222 David has Goliath, Elijah has Mount Carmel, 167 00:09:16,322 --> 00:09:20,343 Elijah has the widow's oil, so on and so forth. 168 00:09:20,343 --> 00:09:25,548 The entire Bible is God showing up in tangible ways 169 00:09:25,798 --> 00:09:30,770 to give his people a reason to trust him with the unknown. 170 00:09:32,004 --> 00:09:33,773 That's so important. 171 00:09:33,773 --> 00:09:37,827 God never asks us to trust him blindly. 172 00:09:38,277 --> 00:09:42,531 He always roots his question in reality, 173 00:09:42,632 --> 00:09:45,618 in history, in the physical world, 174 00:09:45,651 --> 00:09:48,621 because he knows that's. 175 00:09:48,621 --> 00:09:51,624 How trust works. 176 00:09:52,308 --> 00:09:57,780 And the thing is, when you have trust, it changes everything. 177 00:09:58,197 --> 00:09:59,398 That's actually my second point. 178 00:09:59,398 --> 00:10:03,986 Not just that trust is tangible, but that it's transformative. 179 00:10:04,787 --> 00:10:07,106 I love Sarah 180 00:10:07,106 --> 00:10:10,109 as a character, as a historical figure in this story. 181 00:10:10,593 --> 00:10:13,279 She's my favorite person in the story of Abraham 182 00:10:13,279 --> 00:10:16,582 and the reason why is because I think she's very authentic. 183 00:10:17,249 --> 00:10:19,852 I mean, she walks through the story. 184 00:10:19,852 --> 00:10:23,155 I mean, she keeps moving towards the promise of God. 185 00:10:23,155 --> 00:10:26,158 So far, it's been nine chapters. 186 00:10:26,392 --> 00:10:31,097 We began in Genesis 12, we're in Genesis 21, and Sarah keeps moving, 187 00:10:31,547 --> 00:10:34,200 but she also struggles. 188 00:10:34,200 --> 00:10:35,668 Her life has been hard. 189 00:10:36,686 --> 00:10:37,586 Her life has been hard. 190 00:10:37,586 --> 00:10:41,507 You know, I have found in 20 years of pastoral ministry that most people 191 00:10:41,657 --> 00:10:46,462 who struggle with trusting God fit into one of two category. 192 00:10:46,829 --> 00:10:52,068 Now, people are unique and nuanced, and so these are maybe two neat of categories. 193 00:10:52,068 --> 00:10:56,122 But by and large, people said in one of these two, for some people, 194 00:10:56,305 --> 00:10:59,458 the idea of trusting God is impossible because of 195 00:10:59,458 --> 00:11:02,461 what's happened in their past. 196 00:11:02,695 --> 00:11:07,800 Their story involves too much guilt, too much shame, too much pain, too much 197 00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:11,153 suffering, too many hard questions like, 198 00:11:11,570 --> 00:11:14,573 If God loved me, where was he? 199 00:11:15,324 --> 00:11:18,144 If God is for me, why didn't he stop this? 200 00:11:18,144 --> 00:11:19,712 Why didn't he cause this? 201 00:11:19,712 --> 00:11:22,398 Why didn't he make this happen for me? 202 00:11:22,398 --> 00:11:23,733 Those are questions of the past. 203 00:11:23,733 --> 00:11:26,752 Other people, they're their objections or their obstacle 204 00:11:26,752 --> 00:11:29,755 to trust in God has more to do with the future. 205 00:11:29,755 --> 00:11:32,007 Their worry, their anxiety. 206 00:11:32,007 --> 00:11:34,910 How could I ever believe that God will take care of me? 207 00:11:34,910 --> 00:11:39,632 How can I ever believe that God will be with me as I move forward 208 00:11:39,632 --> 00:11:43,369 in this crazy world, in my crazy life? 209 00:11:43,369 --> 00:11:46,105 Sarah has both of those things. 210 00:11:48,474 --> 00:11:51,077 I mean, Sarah has questions, 211 00:11:51,077 --> 00:11:52,728 real questions. 212 00:11:52,728 --> 00:11:56,816 Questions like, why did God let me live for so long? 213 00:11:56,966 --> 00:11:58,551 Unable to have children? 214 00:11:58,551 --> 00:12:02,905 Don't forget that not only has Sarah been going a long time without having kids, 215 00:12:03,022 --> 00:12:07,009 her husband Abraham, had an illegitimate son named Isaac, 216 00:12:07,009 --> 00:12:11,280 which means she knows the reason they can't have kids is her. 217 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:15,050 At least she thinks on a biological level, which means 218 00:12:15,050 --> 00:12:17,269 God makes a promise to her husband. 219 00:12:17,269 --> 00:12:22,825 I'm going to make you into a great nation and she's the thing holding it back. 220 00:12:24,360 --> 00:12:26,095 She's got questions about her past. 221 00:12:26,095 --> 00:12:26,812 She has pain. 222 00:12:26,812 --> 00:12:28,047 She has difficulty. 223 00:12:28,047 --> 00:12:31,517 In fact, a couple of weeks ago, you looked at a passage where God shows up 224 00:12:31,517 --> 00:12:34,737 and reaffirms the promise I'm going to give you a son. 225 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:37,223 And Sarah laughs. 226 00:12:37,223 --> 00:12:38,724 And it's not a joyful laugh. 227 00:12:38,724 --> 00:12:40,109 It's a bitter laugh. 228 00:12:40,109 --> 00:12:44,280 It's a scoffing laugh like, yeah, God, sure, we've heard that before. 229 00:12:44,330 --> 00:12:48,167 If that was going to happen, it would have already happened. 230 00:12:49,585 --> 00:12:52,588 But Sarah also has the obstacle of the future. 231 00:12:53,038 --> 00:12:56,041 I mean, God told them they're going to be parents to a great nation. 232 00:12:56,158 --> 00:12:59,361 And yet every day she wakes up and isn't pregnant. 233 00:12:59,428 --> 00:13:02,848 She has no idea how that's going to happen. 234 00:13:02,998 --> 00:13:04,583 She has questions. 235 00:13:04,583 --> 00:13:06,535 She struggles to trust God. 236 00:13:06,535 --> 00:13:09,538 She laughs out of bitterness until 237 00:13:10,739 --> 00:13:12,141 Isaac. 238 00:13:12,141 --> 00:13:14,910 Look with me here at the passage Genesis 21. 239 00:13:14,910 --> 00:13:16,562 Let's pick it up in verse six. 240 00:13:16,562 --> 00:13:18,948 I love how beautiful this is. 241 00:13:18,948 --> 00:13:23,569 We've come full circle in verse six when it says, And Sarah said, 242 00:13:23,702 --> 00:13:26,989 God has made laughter for. 243 00:13:29,241 --> 00:13:30,209 And everyone who. 244 00:13:30,209 --> 00:13:32,845 Hears will laugh over me. 245 00:13:32,845 --> 00:13:38,067 And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? 246 00:13:38,184 --> 00:13:41,670 Yet I have borne him a son in his old age. 247 00:13:41,670 --> 00:13:43,856 You know what you hear in that verse, right, is healing. 248 00:13:45,024 --> 00:13:45,357 She's 249 00:13:45,357 --> 00:13:48,360 laughing, but it's not a bitter laugh anymore. 250 00:13:48,444 --> 00:13:49,862 It's a joyful laugh. 251 00:13:49,862 --> 00:13:52,848 What you see is a person who feels better about 252 00:13:52,848 --> 00:13:55,851 their past, feels better about their future, she says. 253 00:13:55,851 --> 00:13:59,188 Who would have said that Sarah would have borne Abraham a son? 254 00:13:59,188 --> 00:14:01,740 But of course, we know the answer that God would have said. 255 00:14:01,740 --> 00:14:02,691 And if God kept 256 00:14:02,691 --> 00:14:06,862 that promise, she's saying, then that means he's going to keep the rest. 257 00:14:06,862 --> 00:14:08,547 Here's what I want you to understand. 258 00:14:08,547 --> 00:14:12,651 Sarah still has questions. 259 00:14:15,137 --> 00:14:16,555 I mean, if I'm Sarah in this story, 260 00:14:16,555 --> 00:14:19,675 I still have questions like, God, thanks so much for the baby. 261 00:14:19,675 --> 00:14:20,876 God, thank you so much. 262 00:14:20,876 --> 00:14:23,879 Why couldn't he have come sooner? 263 00:14:26,782 --> 00:14:28,167 Why not before Egypt? 264 00:14:28,167 --> 00:14:31,170 God, when Abraham sold me to Pharaoh, 265 00:14:32,004 --> 00:14:34,039 why not before Hagar? 266 00:14:34,039 --> 00:14:37,142 God, why not before Sodom and Gomorrah? 267 00:14:38,060 --> 00:14:41,330 God, thank you so much for the baby God. 268 00:14:41,330 --> 00:14:45,834 But do you realize now I'm not going to see him graduating high school? 269 00:14:47,703 --> 00:14:50,272 That would have been nice. 270 00:14:50,272 --> 00:14:52,675 Sarah still has questions. 271 00:14:52,675 --> 00:14:53,943 Questions about the future. 272 00:14:53,943 --> 00:14:56,245 Hey God, thank you so much for the son. 273 00:14:56,245 --> 00:15:00,532 Explain to me again how are you going to go from one little baby boy 274 00:15:01,550 --> 00:15:04,069 to a great nation? 275 00:15:04,069 --> 00:15:06,021 Sarah still has questions. 276 00:15:06,021 --> 00:15:07,106 I want you to understand this. 277 00:15:07,106 --> 00:15:11,393 When I tell you that God shows up in tangible ways to be trusted. 278 00:15:11,577 --> 00:15:14,580 Life is not a Disney movie. 279 00:15:15,648 --> 00:15:18,651 All the questions don't get wrapped up neatly. 280 00:15:19,168 --> 00:15:21,153 All the things she wonders about don't 281 00:15:21,153 --> 00:15:24,290 get solved when God shows up tangibly. 282 00:15:24,290 --> 00:15:29,244 What transforms Sarah is not the answer to every question, 283 00:15:29,328 --> 00:15:32,364 but the answer to the real questions. 284 00:15:34,133 --> 00:15:38,304 Because underneath Sarah's questions about infertility and her marriage 285 00:15:38,304 --> 00:15:43,108 and her pain and her suffering and her future, are these questions. 286 00:15:43,292 --> 00:15:45,444 God, are you ignoring me? 287 00:15:49,048 --> 00:15:52,051 Have you forgotten me? 288 00:15:53,118 --> 00:15:55,771 Do you love me? 289 00:15:55,771 --> 00:15:58,340 Do you care about me? 290 00:15:58,340 --> 00:16:00,059 Are you alone? 291 00:16:00,059 --> 00:16:02,461 I mean, am I alone? 292 00:16:02,461 --> 00:16:03,329 Understand this? 293 00:16:03,329 --> 00:16:07,549 Sarah's asking the same questions she was asking before. 294 00:16:07,549 --> 00:16:08,851 How could she not be? 295 00:16:08,851 --> 00:16:11,603 But those questions are different. 296 00:16:11,603 --> 00:16:14,606 When little baby Isaac is in your lap. 297 00:16:17,643 --> 00:16:18,927 Those questions are different 298 00:16:18,927 --> 00:16:22,231 when you're holding toddler Isaac's hand. 299 00:16:22,498 --> 00:16:27,770 Because every time she asks those questions, while she strokes Isaac's 300 00:16:27,770 --> 00:16:33,025 hair, she's reminded, I don't know why God let me go so long without a baby. 301 00:16:33,142 --> 00:16:38,030 I don't know why God let my story have so many twists and turns, but I know this. 302 00:16:38,030 --> 00:16:41,033 It isn't because he forgot me. 303 00:16:41,367 --> 00:16:42,601 How do I know? 304 00:16:42,601 --> 00:16:44,153 Because of Isaac. 305 00:16:44,153 --> 00:16:45,654 It isn't because he doesn't love me. 306 00:16:45,654 --> 00:16:47,039 How do I know? 307 00:16:47,039 --> 00:16:47,906 Because of Isaac. 308 00:16:47,906 --> 00:16:53,696 It isn't because he isn't doing something good in my life for me. 309 00:16:53,779 --> 00:16:55,731 How do I know Isaac? 310 00:16:55,731 --> 00:17:01,737 Isaac is a living, breathing, physical answer to the deep. 311 00:17:01,737 --> 00:17:03,439 Questions of Sarah's life. 312 00:17:06,809 --> 00:17:09,812 You see, when God shows up tangibly. 313 00:17:10,529 --> 00:17:13,532 It isn't that every question in your story goes away. 314 00:17:14,333 --> 00:17:17,336 That would be too easy to spend, too cheap. 315 00:17:17,336 --> 00:17:20,272 You wouldn't believe me if I told you that. 316 00:17:20,272 --> 00:17:23,042 It isn't that every question, every worry, 317 00:17:23,042 --> 00:17:26,729 every anxiety about your future goes away. 318 00:17:26,929 --> 00:17:30,449 It is that the deep questions behind 319 00:17:30,449 --> 00:17:33,902 those circumstantial questions are answered. 320 00:17:33,952 --> 00:17:35,788 God has not forgotten. 321 00:17:35,788 --> 00:17:37,473 God does forgive. 322 00:17:37,473 --> 00:17:40,642 God does love you are not alone. 323 00:17:40,709 --> 00:17:43,712 How do you know? 324 00:17:44,163 --> 00:17:47,149 Isaac. 325 00:17:47,366 --> 00:17:49,468 So you see 326 00:17:49,468 --> 00:17:52,471 what God is showing us about trust 327 00:17:52,788 --> 00:17:55,791 is that in order to trust him, 328 00:17:56,358 --> 00:17:59,578 we must have an Isaac. 329 00:18:01,830 --> 00:18:03,182 Physical. 330 00:18:03,182 --> 00:18:04,616 Tangible. 331 00:18:04,616 --> 00:18:08,570 Historical, real evidence 332 00:18:09,354 --> 00:18:13,041 that answers the deeper questions of our heart. 333 00:18:13,525 --> 00:18:14,726 That's actually my third point. 334 00:18:14,726 --> 00:18:16,829 Not just that trust is tangible, not. 335 00:18:16,829 --> 00:18:19,848 Just that trust is transformative, but that trust is. 336 00:18:20,099 --> 00:18:20,632 Possible. 337 00:18:20,632 --> 00:18:23,936 By the way, if you're here and you consider yourself irreligious, 338 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:28,023 secular, maybe you don't even know what label just, you know, not whatever I am. 339 00:18:30,025 --> 00:18:31,577 This might be your objection. 340 00:18:31,577 --> 00:18:33,178 You might say that's the whole point, Zach. 341 00:18:33,178 --> 00:18:38,667 Look like I'm being asked to trust God in such a big way to reassure 342 00:18:38,667 --> 00:18:44,606 change my life because of God, and I just don't know what I would ever have 343 00:18:44,606 --> 00:18:50,429 that would be convincing enough for God in the parking lot to say, just trust me. 344 00:18:50,429 --> 00:18:51,230 What do I have? 345 00:18:51,230 --> 00:18:52,948 What what evidence is there? 346 00:18:52,948 --> 00:18:55,200 It's a great question, 347 00:18:55,200 --> 00:18:57,503 and I want you to see that you could never trust God 348 00:18:57,503 --> 00:18:59,538 until you have an answer to that question, and you shouldn't. 349 00:18:59,538 --> 00:19:02,057 That's not how trust works, by the way. 350 00:19:02,057 --> 00:19:06,328 You would be amazed at how bad the answers of the world's 351 00:19:06,328 --> 00:19:09,331 religions are to that question. 352 00:19:10,315 --> 00:19:14,002 Like if you ask Islam, why should I trust God? 353 00:19:14,002 --> 00:19:17,005 They'll say, Because he is God. 354 00:19:17,156 --> 00:19:18,740 Which I guess is not a bad answer. 355 00:19:18,740 --> 00:19:22,311 Conceptually, a little thin in the cold moments of life. 356 00:19:23,362 --> 00:19:26,515 If you ask a Hindu, why should you trust the divine? 357 00:19:26,515 --> 00:19:28,617 They will say, The divine is in you. 358 00:19:28,617 --> 00:19:29,902 Trust yourself. 359 00:19:29,902 --> 00:19:33,322 And I don't know about you, but I've got 41 years of experience to tell me. 360 00:19:33,322 --> 00:19:36,325 That's not a great plan. 361 00:19:38,610 --> 00:19:41,597 Prince, did you know that only Christianity. 362 00:19:42,931 --> 00:19:45,467 Only the God of the Bible 363 00:19:45,467 --> 00:19:48,470 says, I know you could never trust me without an Isaac. 364 00:19:50,722 --> 00:19:53,876 And he gives us that in the person 365 00:19:53,876 --> 00:19:56,879 and work of Jesus Christ 366 00:19:57,829 --> 00:20:02,367 Jesus, a literal, historical. 367 00:20:02,901 --> 00:20:06,889 Real world physical evidence. 368 00:20:07,256 --> 00:20:10,108 Of God's love, of God's faithfulness. 369 00:20:10,108 --> 00:20:14,129 Jesus, who lives in our place righteously, 370 00:20:14,246 --> 00:20:19,701 who goes to the cross and takes on our sin and comes up under the anger and wrath 371 00:20:19,818 --> 00:20:24,423 and judgment of God that is poured out, emptied onto him, 372 00:20:24,423 --> 00:20:28,143 so that his dying words are, it is finished. 373 00:20:28,227 --> 00:20:30,779 There's no more left for you or for me. 374 00:20:30,779 --> 00:20:31,947 It's on Jesus. 375 00:20:31,947 --> 00:20:36,568 Jesus who dies literally, historically, in reality, 376 00:20:36,618 --> 00:20:41,490 who three days later, literally, historically raises from the dead. 377 00:20:41,490 --> 00:20:44,459 Jesus is the true and better Isaac. 378 00:20:44,459 --> 00:20:50,515 The physical indication that God keeps his promises that God can be trusted, 379 00:20:50,632 --> 00:20:54,987 that God forgives, that God loves, that God welcomes. 380 00:20:57,689 --> 00:20:58,707 No, Jesus does 381 00:20:58,707 --> 00:21:01,710 not answer every question of your past. 382 00:21:01,727 --> 00:21:03,679 I know that, 383 00:21:03,679 --> 00:21:06,682 or of mine. 384 00:21:06,932 --> 00:21:10,819 No, he doesn't answer every question about your future. 385 00:21:10,819 --> 00:21:15,090 But Jesus for us is like Isaac for Sarah. 386 00:21:15,090 --> 00:21:18,860 He answers the deeper questions of your heart. 387 00:21:18,961 --> 00:21:20,662 Has God forgotten? 388 00:21:20,662 --> 00:21:22,881 You know, how do you know? 389 00:21:22,881 --> 00:21:25,884 Because of Jesus. 390 00:21:30,656 --> 00:21:33,659 God knows you could never trust him without an Isaac. 391 00:21:34,192 --> 00:21:37,579 And so great is his love, and so great is his mercy 392 00:21:37,579 --> 00:21:40,582 that he's given us one in Jesus. 393 00:21:41,149 --> 00:21:44,419 People will say to me all the time, Pastor Zach, how do I know when I'm ready 394 00:21:45,170 --> 00:21:46,288 to become a Christian? 395 00:21:46,288 --> 00:21:49,157 And I've been coming for a couple of weeks, maybe a month, a couple months. 396 00:21:49,157 --> 00:21:51,743 How do I know when I've crossed that line? 397 00:21:51,743 --> 00:21:52,277 How do I know 398 00:21:52,277 --> 00:21:55,681 when I should start thinking about baptism and and all that kind of stuff? 399 00:21:55,681 --> 00:21:59,101 And the answer to that, very simply is this when Jesus. 400 00:21:59,401 --> 00:22:02,337 Is your Isaac, 401 00:22:03,955 --> 00:22:06,958 not your answer to every question, 402 00:22:06,992 --> 00:22:09,978 but your answer to every question, 403 00:22:10,278 --> 00:22:13,281 that really matters. 404 00:22:14,216 --> 00:22:16,101 And if you're here and you say, well, I'm 405 00:22:16,101 --> 00:22:18,987 already a follower of Jesus, he's already my Isaac. 406 00:22:18,987 --> 00:22:20,605 What does this mean for me? 407 00:22:20,605 --> 00:22:25,344 I think it means probably, like Sarah, that you sit in your chair. 408 00:22:25,377 --> 00:22:26,912 She had Isaac in her lap. 409 00:22:26,912 --> 00:22:30,599 You hold the hand of Jesus and you finally. 410 00:22:30,599 --> 00:22:33,602 Take a look at your past. 411 00:22:34,586 --> 00:22:37,589 Take a look at your future 412 00:22:37,923 --> 00:22:40,909 and say, God, I still don't know why that happened. 413 00:22:42,027 --> 00:22:45,447 But once and for all, I'm going to let go of the idea 414 00:22:45,831 --> 00:22:48,900 that it's because you had forgotten me. 415 00:22:49,768 --> 00:22:52,771 I don't know what story you're writing. God, 416 00:22:53,688 --> 00:22:58,160 but I'm going to stop laughing out of bitterness and start laughing out of joy. 417 00:22:58,160 --> 00:23:01,346 Because wherever that story is going, it's good. 418 00:23:01,613 --> 00:23:04,383 How do I know? Because I'm. Holding. 419 00:23:04,383 --> 00:23:06,118 The hand of Jesus. 420 00:23:06,118 --> 00:23:08,003 You know, when Jesus appears to the disciples 421 00:23:08,003 --> 00:23:11,523 and Thomas says, I could never believe that God 422 00:23:11,523 --> 00:23:15,060 is this good, that God is this forgiving, that God is this powerful. 423 00:23:15,060 --> 00:23:18,146 Jesus says to him. Come touch me. 424 00:23:20,065 --> 00:23:22,050 Healing brothers and sisters in Christ. 425 00:23:22,050 --> 00:23:26,188 Healing from your past or from your worry about the future 426 00:23:26,304 --> 00:23:29,424 does not come in micro answers. 427 00:23:29,608 --> 00:23:32,611 It comes in holding the hand 428 00:23:33,595 --> 00:23:39,651 of the literal physical reality that is Jesus Christ. 429 00:23:39,951 --> 00:23:43,972 The answer to the deepest questions of your heart. 430 00:23:44,940 --> 00:23:45,957 Let me pray for us. 431 00:23:45,957 --> 00:23:48,677 Father God, thank you so much. 432 00:23:48,677 --> 00:23:50,011 That in your incredible mercy 433 00:23:50,011 --> 00:23:53,849 and kindness you understand what we need to trust you. 434 00:23:53,849 --> 00:23:56,852 You understand what is necessary. 435 00:23:57,419 --> 00:24:00,388 You know how trust works, 436 00:24:00,388 --> 00:24:04,559 and you have shown us in Jesus all that we need to know 437 00:24:04,559 --> 00:24:07,562 in order to trust you with what we don't know. 438 00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:10,949 And my prayer is that people throughout 439 00:24:10,949 --> 00:24:14,419 this weekend, for the first time or for the hundredth time, would. 440 00:24:14,419 --> 00:24:17,722 Be seeing in Jesus the true and better Isaac 441 00:24:18,773 --> 00:24:20,242 the tangible 442 00:24:20,242 --> 00:24:23,245 that allows them to step into the unknown, 443 00:24:23,845 --> 00:24:25,997 trusting you in his name. 444 00:24:25,997 --> 00:24:27,632 We pray. Amen.