Well, good morning, everybody. For those of you
who don't know who I am, I am Pastor Nathan,
and we like to start our Sundays by saying welcome
to anybody that is visiting us for the first
time, or if you're watching online for the first
time, we're so glad you're here to worship with
us today. Today, we are going to be in Genesis
chapter 21, talking about a very, very important
biblical topic. The topic is sanctification.
Now, if you don't know what sanctification is
biblically, It's very simply the process of becoming
holy. That's what sanctification is. It's the
idea of God setting us apart for his purposes
in this world. Now, what's involved in all of
this setting apart and this process is really
God separating believers from sin and developing
within us a desire for holiness. That is what
sanctification is. Now, it's different from justification,
which is another big biblical word that simply
means the change of one's status before God.
So when we come to faith and we put our faith
in Jesus Christ and we become what we call saved,
we are justified, which means God looks at us
and now says, you're not guilty because of the
blood of Jesus Christ. Now, justification is
that moment, but sanctification is the change
of who you are. And that is a process that takes
our entire life as God works through us through
the power of the Holy Spirit to change how we
behave, how we think, change our priorities,
and all of that. Now, sanctification does require
an act of participation on our part because God
wants us to choose to be obedient. And that involves
us studying his word. That involves us getting
into prayer and worship and choosing to listen
to the promptings of God when we're facing decisions
to do right or wrong. Now, the goal of this whole
process is to conform us into the image of Jesus
Christ, that we would bear the image of our creator
and look like him. Now, biblically, we know that
this is going to be an incomplete process in
this life. but it is a process we go through
nonetheless day by day as we walk with him. Now,
one of the metaphors that can be used to kind
of illustrate this process is the polishing of
stones. I don't know if any of you have ever
heard of this or done this, but really rock tumbling
is this process where you take a rough, dull,
sharp -edged rock, right, or a number of them,
and you throw them into this thing called a rock
tumbler, and you throw some grit in there, and
they tumble. And they grind against each other
and they smash into one another. And it's this
whole process of them tumbling that when you
take the rocks out of this tumbler, they're polished.
They're beautiful. They go from lacking luster
to being very shiny and pretty. And so the idea
of this tumbling of rocks is something that is
a picture of what sanctification is. As we tumble
through the rough circumstances of life, tumble
through the trials, God allows us to go through
these things. It's the process of polishing our
soul so that when we come out the other side
of these things, we're shining brightly with
the gospel, the glory of God and the gospel of
Jesus Christ. You know, as a kid, I couldn't
understand the process of sanding. I never understood
how scratching things made it shinier and smoother.
And so I'd always be like, Dad, I don't understand.
You're scratching all of this, and yet it becomes
beautiful. Now, the process, though, is exactly
that. It's a process of refining and refining
and refining. And it doesn't just work with stone,
rocks, and wood, but it's a part of our spiritual
lives as well. You see, there's a common biblical
motif that we're going to be looking at in today's
story that simply goes like this. Affliction
and suffering often leads to beautifully good
things in our lives. For example, in Romans chapter
5, verses 3 through 5, it says this. And not
only that, but we also boast in our afflictions
because we know that affliction produces endurance.
Endurance produces proven character, and proven
character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint
us because God's love has been poured out in
our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given
to us. And then one that's pretty famous as well,
James chapter one, verse two through four, says,
consider it great joy, my brothers and sisters,
whenever you experience various trials, because
you know that the testing of your faith produces
endurance, and let endurance have its full effect
so that you may be mature and complete, lacking
nothing. You see, it's the Frictions of adversity
that God uses to polish our soul. It's through
the adversity and the afflictions and the suffering
we go through that God knocks off the rough edges
of our character, knocks off the ugly, dull nature
that was our old self as he creates a new person
through the work of his spirit in our lives.
And this process is not new. It's as old as Abraham.
It's as old as Abraham's father's father's father
all the way back to Adam. This is what we're
going to be looking at today. As we saw in chapter
20 last week, despite being a towering man of
faith, the patriarch Abraham was still a man
with an old nature. He was still somebody that
would be challenged and tempted with doing things
the old way and not putting his full and complete
trust and faith in God. And in chapter 20, we
saw that he lapsed into his old sinful habits
of deception and lying with King Abimelech, despite
the fact that he had been walking with the Lord
for 25 plus years. You know, so many of us have
this same experience in our lives. Abraham was
a man in process. as we all are. We're in the
process of sanctification. And it's that process
in our lives where God works through the ups
and the downs and the good times and the bad
times, the successes and the failures to polish
us more and more into the image of Christ, the
godly people that he created us to be. And then
most importantly of all of it is this process
of polishing is simply grace being heaped upon
grace being heaped upon grace. That's what we're
going to be looking at today, but first we're
going to spend time worshiping God because he
is the polisher. He is the one who puts us into
the tumbler that we would come out the other
side bearing his image more and more gloriously.
And so let's pray and let's worship him. God,
we're so grateful to you and who you are. We're
so grateful for the processes you take us through,
Lord. God, your word tells us that being sovereign,
being omnipotent, being all -knowing, Lord, you
allow everything that happens in our lives. And
Lord, in our lives, sometimes we go through things
that are the result of our own doing, our own
disobedience, and still you allow us to go through
those things, Lord. The greatest hope we have,
God, is that you don't cast us out when we stumble.
But Lord, you continue to work. You continue
to walk through those things with us. You continue
to use those things to continue polishing us
that we would shine brighter for you in this
world. So God, today as we look at this story
in Abraham's life, God, as we see your promise
coming to fulfillment and we see him ultimately
engaging with King Abimelech again, but this
time as a bold and confident believer in God,
Lord, that we would be encouraged. Lord, that
no matter what happens in our lives, God, it
is you who started the good work and it is you
who will carry it on to completion until the
day of Christ Jesus. Lord, we love you. We praise
you. We thank you for everything. It's in Jesus'
name we pray. Amen. Chapters 20 and 21 of Genesis
really are one lesson in two parts. And, you
know, the lesson is this. As we continue to sin
in life because we still have an old nature that
is with us, God keeps working through those lapses,
polishing us into his image. He never gives up
on us. He never casts us out. He never says,
I'm done, you've blown it too much, I'm moving
on to find someone better than you. He keeps
working and keeps working. You know, in the previous
chapter, Genesis 20, we saw Abraham, who's this
towering man of faith, who's the patriarch of
Israel. We saw his humanity. We saw him, after
25 years of walking with the Lord, stumble back
into his old faithless habit of trusting in himself.
And some of us read that and we're kind of shocked
because of who Abraham is. He's the man who was
considered righteous because of his faith. He
was the one that had actually spoken with God
audibly in a number of occasions. He had been
through so much, and yet he still goes back to
the sin that he had done over 25 years earlier.
Now, on one hand, as we read the story of Abraham's
life and we see what happened in chapter 20,
We might read it as an unfortunate story, like,
oh, man, that's terrible that he fell in that
way. And don't misunderstand me. Anytime believers
sin, it's a bad thing. But sometimes, Christians,
we can either admittedly or unintentionally set
an expectation in our lives that is one where
we think our goal in this life is to achieve
sinless perfection. And we come to that for many
different reasons, or we can come to that for
many different reasons. Sometimes, you know,
it's as we're stressing, you know, obedience
to God. We're like, well, I mean, my goal is
to ultimately come perfectly obedient, right?
And we're talking about, you know, wanting to
do what God wants and follow him. And yet sometimes
we set this standard such that when we do mess
up, we beat ourselves up really bad. We sin,
and instead of going, dang it, you know, my whole
nature, Lord, forgive me, help me to keep moving
on, we'll sin and then go, God must not love
me anymore. I must not be a Christian anymore.
I can't be saved. And really what that is is
the devil speaking in your mind condemnation.
But sometimes we let that condemnation then go,
you know what, I can't go to church anymore.
I can't serve in that ministry anymore. I gotta
isolate myself. I just need to stay away from
all the believers. And all that does is make
the problem worse in our life. Well, Abraham,
you know, he had been walking so long that we
read the story and we go, how could he do that
again? How could he lie and deceive and trust
in himself again after all that he had experienced
with the Lord? Well, the story... is actually
a really hopeful and encouraging one in light
of the reality of our own weaknesses and our
own sinful nature. Because although we all still
have an old nature, as we talked about last week,
an old sinful nature, even after we're born again
and made alive by the Spirit and the power of
God, the reality is that we're saved by grace
through faith. We're not saved by our works.
We're not saved by how good we are. We're not
unsaved by how bad we are. We're saved because
we believe God. We trust God. We put our faith
in God. We say, God, there is nothing I could
do to ever be good, and so what you did for me,
I trust in that. And God's gracious, compassionate,
loving heart says, great, you do that. I now
see you through the blood of my son, Jesus Christ,
who died on the cross. I see all your sins paid
for. I see you spotless. That's justification.
But then we have this simultaneous reality where
like, okay, I'm justified. God sees me spotless.
Why do I keep doing this stuff that I don't want
to do? And God will allow us to make mistakes
and go through things because we are in that
process called sanctification. Now, our stumbles
and all of that, no matter how long we're a Christian,
they never result in us losing our salvation.
They never result in us being cast out of God's
family. They never result in us being God to
no longer love us, anything like that. Instead,
it's quite the opposite. Because we have to understand
something very important. Our works didn't get
us in. Our works don't get us out. Do you understand
that? Now, some will hear something like that
and go, oh, so then you're just telling us that
sin is not a big deal. Quite the contrary. Sin
is a very big deal. Sin is why God had to come
to this earth and die the most brutal death ever
on the cross. Sin is what messes up families
and relationships. Sin is what causes the blessing
of God to be delayed or blocked in our lives
as God wants to do things to bless us, his children.
But when we're being disobedient, there's discipline
and chastisement instead. But sin will never
for the child of God result in you. losing the
hope of heaven. You have to hang on to that as
people because the devil is very, very skilled
at trying to convince us otherwise. Now, the
reality is that from the time we're saved, we
start this process called sanctification where
we are becoming more holy, where we are being
made more and more like Jesus through the power
of the Holy Spirit, wherein the rough edges of
our life are sanded off. The cracks, the dullness
is polished through this process of tumbling
and grinding against life and against our own
sinful nature and against other people and against
circumstances. And so as we tumble through all
these things, it's God doing a work. To make
us shine the way he shines. To polish us to the
point where his glory just radiates from our
lives. And in that polishing, we become more
and more luminous. Now, bringing this back to
Abraham, so after his slip back into deception,
after 25 years of walking with the Lord, back
to him lying about who his wife was, we saw that
God still heaped grace upon him by still calling
him a prophet. He is still my child. He still
speaks for me. I see him through the blood of
Jesus Christ, so to speak. I see him perfect
and sinless because he believes in me. He trusts
in me. So he's still mine. He's still my prophet.
He's still serving me. We saw that as he prayed,
God heard his prayer teaching us that God can
still use us after we've blown it. And all of
that is just a picture of God proving over and
over again that he heaps grace upon grace. Upon
grace, upon grace. That his unconditional promises
are unbreakable. They're unshakable by us for
we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus
for good works by God. Philippians 1 .6 tells
us this, I am sure of this, that he who started
a good work in you will carry it on to completion
until the day of Jesus Christ. If you trust in
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior this morning,
you are his. You are the one that he has started
a good work in. Notice it said he began the good
work. And our hope is that he is the one that
will bring it to completion. So Genesis 21 here,
this is kind of the midpoint of the story if
we look at Genesis 20 and 21 together. And it
opens up on a very, very high note, right? Read
with me in verse 1. The Lord came to Sarah as
he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what
he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore
a son to Abraham in his old age at the appointed
time God had told him. Abraham named his son
who was born to him, the one Sarah bore to him,
Isaac. When his son Isaac was eight days old,
Abraham circumcised him as God had commanded
him. Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac
was born to him. See the background to this,
God had made promises to Abraham, you know, in
years past. And Abraham struggled with those
promises as the years went on, going, God, when
is this going to come to pass? When is this going
to come to pass? And now we're at this place
here where it reminds us, Abraham was 100 years
old when Isaac was born. Now, although lifespans
were longer then, he was an old dude. Having
babies wasn't really on the menu at that point
for them, right? His wife was barren, so not
only was she too old to have children, she couldn't
have children anyways when she was younger because
she was barren. It was a physical, biological
impossibility for them to have kids. And yet
we're reminded here. that God fulfilled his promises.
Now, chronologically, this happens just a handful
of months after the events of chapter 20 with
King Abimelech and the Philistines, but I want
you to notice the repetition here. Abraham went
south from the promised land. He lied about his
wife. God showed up to Abimelech, said, you're
a dead man, give her back. Abimelech objected.
I didn't know that. They lied to me. God was
gracious and said, I know that, bro. I kept you
from violating her. So he gives her back, questions
Abraham, why did you do this? This whole sour
picture of Abraham being a man of God just blowing
his witness to Abimelech. And yet we see God's
grace come through there where he calls him prophet
and he does all this stuff. But here at the middle
point of the story, the lesson is already set
for us what God is trying to teach Abraham and
what God is trying to teach us. You notice in
those first few verses there, there's a repetition
of a concept. As he had said, speaking of God,
what he had promised, speaking of God, at the
appointed time that God had told him. That phrase
is repeated over and over here to make sure we
understand a very important lesson. If God has
spoken, it will happen. 30 years or so prior
in Genesis 12, right? God spoke to Abram at the
time. Leave her, leave your family, go to a land
I will show you. I will make you into a great
nation. And this was the beginning of Abraham's,
then Abram's relationship with the God of the
universe. His relationships trusted with, God
said, and then he trusted and obeyed, right?
25 years later before the chapter we're in today,
he left Haran. He started going south towards
the promised land. And then when he got there,
God said to your offspring, I will give this
land. Sometime after that, there's the famine.
Genesis 12, he goes down to Egypt. That's where
he lies about his wife the first time, gets into
all kinds of trouble, but then comes out blessed,
even though he was sinning, even though he was
trusting in himself instead of trusting in God.
He gets back from Egypt. Around this time, Abraham's
about 85 years old. He's learned his lesson.
His nephew Lot wants to split off in Genesis
13, and he says, you know what? God promised
me this land, so you take whatever you want because
God's going to give it to me and my people anyways.
So just do whatever you want. We read about that.
And then it was in that time God said, I will
make your offspring like the dust of the earth.
Genesis 15, Abraham's now 86 years old, still
childless, wondering when is this promise going
to come? God tells him, God said, your offspring,
you're going to have the offspring and it's going
to come from your own body. Abraham at the time
was like, you know, the servant of my house,
he's going to be my heir. God said no. And then
he told him, look up and count the stars. That's
how many your offspring is going to be. Genesis
16, Abraham and Sarah are getting older. They
come up with a plan. Well, God said, I'm going
to have a child of my own body. This is me speculating,
but Abraham might have been like, he never said
it would be with Sarah. So him and his wife come
up with this plan, sleep with Sarah's servant
Hagar, and the child that is born of that union
will be the son of Abraham. So that is how we're
gonna fulfill God's promise. They did that because
they had been waiting 16 years at that point
for God to fulfill his promise. But that was
a fiasco because in Genesis 17, We now come to
Abraham who is 99 years old and God shows up
and says, bro, Nathan translation, the offspring
that is gonna come from your body is gonna come
from your wife, Sarah, who's still barren. Abraham
at this point had learned a lot. Okay, God, whatever
you say. I don't understand, but sure. Genesis
18, God visits a short time later to reiterate
his promise to Abraham, but he does it in the
hearing of Sarah. Because Sarah needed to hear
it too. And Sarah laughs, we read. That's ridiculous.
I'm an old lady who can't have babies anymore.
Not that I could to begin with. But we read there
that she is rebuked by God because God says,
is anything impossible for the Lord? Genesis
20. Abraham moves his family south, does the
same thing he did 25 years. earlier in Egypt,
lies about his wife, lies about her identity,
instead of trusting in God. Then we come to Genesis
21. And what does it start with? God had said
what he had promised. It all happened exactly
at the point in time that he had told them. Here's
the question. How long is too long to wait for
God to fulfill a promise that he has made to
you? Now, if God's made a promise to you, with
a timeline, then sure, you know when that promise
is supposed to be fulfilled. But oftentimes,
God will make promises and there's no timeline
attached. And how long is too long to wait? Six
months? After that, we could start complaining.
Maybe a year, five years, 10 years? Some of us,
it's like one whole week. And that's ridiculous,
God. You made promises. You see, Abraham waited.
25 to 30 years before God fulfilled the promise
that he would have a son. And the whole time
he was waiting, God had never mentioned a time
frame. He had never mentioned a time frame until
the final time he showed up when they had their
dinner and he goes, look, I'm going to return
in a year and you will have a son from Sarah.
But like us, through the whole process, he's...
fearful, he's worrying, he has doubt, he has
anxiety, and it kept getting him as it gets us.
When we're waiting for God to fulfill promises
that he's made us. And we're like, when is it
going to happen? And we worry and we have all
this doubt and fear when God has never once in
all of time in any life failed to fulfill a promise
that he made. So if God made a promise in your
life and he didn't give you a timetable, How
long should you wait before you freak out? The
answer is until he fulfills it. That's how long
you wait before you freak out. You wait until
he fulfills it. In the meantime, we are called
as his people to faithfully and expectantly wait
for his promises. But to not get tied up in when
and how, when and how. It's like, that's God's
domain. Our domain is today, God. What do you
want me to do? Today, God, how do you want me
to glorify your life? Today, God, help me to
be obedient to you. Help me to live for you.
Not, dang it, when's that thing gonna get fulfilled?
And we wait in full trust that he will, some
way, somehow, sometime, do exactly what he said.
The history of this church bears witness to that.
This building that we are meeting in today. It
wasn't always the church that we call Hosanna.
It used to be an old movie theater. And in the
late 70s and early 80s, it was an abandoned theater,
just trashed. And one day, Pastor Gary, our founding
pastor, he lived right back here on Belmont Street,
and he walked out on an Easter Sunday morning,
and he looked at the skyline of Bellflower Boulevard,
and he saw the tower that's in front of our building.
And the Lord spoke to him and said, I'm giving
that to you. No time frame attached. And Pastor
Gary said what I would probably say, cool. And
then he went to the city because the building
was for sale at the time. He said, hey, I want
to buy the tower on the boulevard. God said he's
going to give it to me. And the city said, under
no circumstances will there ever be a church
on the boulevard. No way. That is impossible.
And for those of you that know Pastor Gary, he
went like this. I'm going to paraphrase the moment.
Well, God told me, so call me when you're ready.
Eight years later. Eight years. He waited faithfully.
And finally got the call one day where the city
said, hey, can you please come buy this? Because
the only other buyer is a pornography adult theater,
and we don't want that on the boulevard. And
there has been a church on the boulevard in Bellflower
ever since. It's the picture of faithfully trusting
and waiting. God said so. It happened. And so
what we're looking at here in Abraham's story
is God fulfilling what he said he was going to
do and doing it despite Abraham's stumble, though.
That's what the interesting picture of this is.
Abraham had just sinned. Abraham had just blown
it. Right? This wasn't like, oh, Abraham had
been this perfectly faithful Christian for years
at this point, and of course God's gonna fulfill
the promise now. No, no, no, no. Abraham had
just gone back to old habits. Lied, deceived.
You know, there's so many times in my life I've
experienced this, where God will answer a prayer,
or he will open a door, or he will do the impossible.
Mere. Hours or days after I've blown it. And
if you've ever experienced that, you know that
that is the moment where grace stings the most.
It's like peroxide on a cut. You remember that?
When I was a kid and my mom wanted to pour that
on the cut on my thumb, I was sure it was going
to melt my thumb off. I'm like, I need my thumb,
Mom. But it just burned and stung and bubbled
for a little bit. But then it was good. And God
will do that in our lives at times because that's
a part of the process of sanctification. That's
a part of the process of him teaching us what
grace really is. Grace isn't earned. Grace is
given freely. And not that he's rewarding our
sin. Quite the opposite. Because when that grace
comes out upon our lives, it stings. It grinds
against us. It serves to be that grit in the
tumbler that is smoothing off our rough edges.
Now the promise of the son was not fulfilled
because of Abraham was perfect in his obedience,
not at all. The promise of the son was fulfilled
because God was faithful to his word. God was
faithful to himself. And so it tells us that
he named him Isaac as God had instructed them.
He circumcised him on the eighth day, but you'll
see the phrase there, right? As God had commanded
him. Blessing is always found in doing what God
says. And as we just looked at, God says, A lot.
And he says repeatedly. And he says over and
over. He tells us how to live. He tells us what
he wants for our life. He tells us just everything
that his intent is, who he is, his character
and all that. And he just wants us to listen.
1 Samuel, there's a story of King Saul who was
commanded by the Lord to go completely destroy
the Amalekites. And it says in 1 Samuel, go wipe
out the Amalekites and all their stuff. Like
destroy everything. They have reached that point
where God's like, okay, they're done. Judgment
is coming upon them. Wipe out everything. King
Saul was like, okay, I'm gonna do that, Lord.
And instead, what he did is he went and he captured
the king and said, I'm gonna take him in as a
trophy. And then he let his soldiers say, you
know what? Go take all the good stuff from there.
You know, like all the junky stuff you could
leave. That's what the Lord meant. But take all
the good stuff. And then he gets called out on
it by Samuel, the prophet of God. He says, why
did you do this? And his justification was, I'm
gonna use it as a sacrifice to the Lord. That's
why, I mean, I disobeyed him, yes, but I'm gonna
sacrifice for him so it's all gonna be okay.
And the prophet Samuel says this in 1 Samuel
15, 22. Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt
offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying
the Lord? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice.
To pay attention is better than the fat of rams.
Great, you sacrificed something awesome. But
what I really want is just pay attention to me.
Read my word, learn who I am, learn what I want,
and then just do what I say. Don't do your own
thing. and then come back and say, well, God,
I did this for you instead, even though as a
disobedience here, we're good, right? But again,
God's grace lavishes over all of it. But when
we read through scripture, God isn't unclear
on what he wants. God isn't unclear about his
principles and his character and his right and
wrong. But you know why some Christians are unclear
about that? Because they don't read his word.
They don't spend time in his word every day.
They don't read and study and memorize. So they
have no idea. Well, I don't know if God wants
me to do that or not. Well, of course you don't.
Men are mostly guilty of this. I was the opposite.
But you get a piece of furniture from Ikea and
you go, how hard is this to put together? I don't
need the stupid instructions. Right? And then
you're like, why do I have so many leftover parts?
They must be extra. You got to follow the instructions,
right? This is what God wants. God says, just
listen to me. Just endeavor to obey. And we go,
well, didn't we just talk about that? Like, we're
going to sin. Yeah. But you see, the whole sacrifice
thing is, I did a bad work, so let me offset
that with a good work. And that doesn't work
in God's economy. God says, how about you just
do what I tell you to do, and when you mess up,
you tell me. You trust in Jesus Christ, you're
forgiven. Let's get up and keep going. Because
he doesn't want us focused on the, I'm going
to be perfect one day. It's just, just focus
on today. Just do what I'm telling you to do
and stop trying to do this works -based thing.
And this is kind of what we're going to get into
as we go through this. We learn every time we
go through the rock tumbler. That to obey is
better than sacrifice. And so he named him Isaac.
That word Isaac means laughter, right? At first
it was tongue in cheek because we know Sarah
was the one who laughed. I'm not going to be
able to have a baby. God's like, boom, you're
going to, and you're going to name him laughter.
How about that for the rest of your life? But
then the laughter of doubt, the laughter of just
sarcastic, like this is ridiculous. There's no
way this can happen. It all turns around and
gets smoothed out by God through the polishing
of her. Look at verse six. Sarah said, God has
made me laugh and everyone who hears will laugh
with me. She also said, who would have told Abraham
that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born
a son for him in his old age. You see, God's
grace has a wonderful way of turning our incredulous
laughter into laughter of joy. It goes from incredulous
laughter to almost shame -filled laughter, right?
Oh, man, God, I'm so dumb. Right? Grace has a
way of doing that. Proverbs 13 .2 tells us this.
Hope delayed makes the heart sick, but desire
fulfilled is a tree of life. Right? Here's Sarah
cracking up. I'm a 90 -year -old mama. It's hard
to believe that I'm holding the baby. And she's
just overjoyed. It wasn't like, whatever. It
was now like, Wow, it's impossible, and it happened.
And there was such joy in her life, and that
joy brought vitality and exuberance to her. But,
you know, the waiting can still be hard, though.
You know, hope delayed makes the heart sick.
The waiting can be very difficult, even when
we're like, okay, God, I know it's going to happen,
but sometimes we get to win. Especially when
it's an impossible thing. Some of us today are
praying for what feels like impossible things.
Some of you might be praying for a reconciled
relationship and you're like, it's impossible.
Some of you might be praying for a spouse to
get saved or to be delivered from drugs and alcohol
and you're like, it seems impossible. Some of
you are praying for a friend or family member
to get saved and you're like, that's definitely
impossible. And yet you're still praying, but
you have this seed of doubt in the back of your
mind. But we can't ever forget that what is impossible
for man is possible for God. And we need to cling
on to that. Because when God comes through and
does the impossible thing, man, what joy is there.
What life is there. What excitement is there.
And how it builds our faith. How it polishes
our soul. How it brings luster to our lives.
And so now in verse eight, the narrative shifts
from the promised son being born to Ishmael and
what happens to him. Now Ishmael was 13 years
old when Isaac was born. And so verse eight,
it tells us, the child grew and was weaned and
Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was
weaned. But Sarah saw the son mocking. The one
Hagar, the Egyptian, had born to Abraham. So
she said to Abraham, drive out this slave with
her son for the son of this slave will not be
a co -heir with my son Isaac. And this was very
distressing to Abraham because of his son. Now,
history and scholars and all that, there's a
general understanding that the weaning of a child
typically took place around three years of age.
There's some debate and people go back and forth,
but most agree that it was around three years
of age when a baby was weaned. And that process
was when the kid was considered to be off milk
completely and now could eat solid food exclusively.
And it was a big day. It was a big day because
in those times, there wasn't a whole lot of certainty
that a kid would make it to three years old,
right? It was a difficult way to live. And so
not only was it like, yay, they're on solid food,
but what that represented, right? They have a
greater likelihood of continuing to live here.
And so there's this big celebration. It was a
celebration of a child. For Abraham and his culture,
it was a celebration of God and his protection
and his provision. But we still see that this
longstanding on a map. animosity still exists
between Sarah and Hagar. Now, it says that the
kid, Ishmael, was mocking Isaac. You can imagine
that for 16 years at this point, 13 up to the
birth, and then three more up to that birth for
sure, Ishmael was the heir of Abraham. Ishmael
was the firstborn son. And then all of a sudden,
Isaac shows up on the scene through an impossible
miracle. And now Isaac is the heir. He's the
son of the promise. You can imagine how that
might stir up feelings of jealousy within Ishmael.
But what's interesting here, when it says Ishmael
is mocking him, in the Hebrew, the word Isaac,
laughter, and the word mocking come from the
same root word. It's laughter, but it's a different
kind of laughter. Sarah had originally doubting
laughter. They named the kid joyful laughter.
And then you had Ishmael who was doing mocking
laughter. And we just see that there's all this
twisting of emotion and stuff going on here.
But Sarah, she flips out. Get rid of him. He
will not be a co -heir. Get rid of him. I personally
think there was a little more to it than that.
That Sarah was like, get rid of him. Get rid
of him and his mom. Get rid of the reminders
of our mistake. Get rid of the reminders of my
faithless failure. Get rid of them who don't
honor the promised one. Like, I don't want to
see it anymore. They're disrespectful. How dare
they? And then quite frankly, I think it was
just like, he's just like, I don't like her,
right? Get rid of her. She's just a mean person
and I want to kick her out. Sarah's actions are
not good here. She's not doing a noble, honorable
thing. And later on, when we see how God takes
care of Ishmael and Hagar in the wilderness,
we're also going to see later on that Ishmael
did have contact with his dad's family because
when Abraham dies, Ishmael comes to the funeral.
And so I think the fact that God took care of
them when Sarah wanted them to be cast out was
polishing Sarah's soul and helping her grow as
a person who represented God. But we're not there
yet. It tells us Abraham was distressed. Understandably,
that was his son. But as we go through this story,
we're going to see that what happens looks to
be incredibly harsh, incredibly heartless. And
we have to go, why would God allow this? This
must be a picture of a mean God. And we have
to understand that in the story to follow, we're
going to get to, there's both a practical thing
happening here, but there's a symbolic lesson
that is very, very important for us. So let's
read on verse 12. God said to Abraham, do not
be distressed about the boy and about your slave.
Whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her because
your offspring will be traced through Isaac.
And I also will also make a nation of the slave
son because he's your offspring. Early in the
morning, Abraham got up, took bread and a water
skin, put them on Hagar's shoulders and sent
her and the boy away. She left and wandered in
the wilderness of Beersheba. Now, It opens up
here with just the practical of what's going
on here. Abraham's distressed. That's my kid.
God speaks to him and says, don't worry. He says,
whatever Sarah says to you, listen to her. Because
God knows what happens when husbands don't listen
to their wives. No, just kidding. I'm a single
guy, right? I can say stuff like that. No. God's
like, I'm going to take care of this kid. God
wanted to make sure Abraham knew because he was
distressed, I'm going to take care of them. I'm
going to provide for them. It's not only that,
God says, not only that, but because he is your
son and he's your kid, I'm going to bless him
too and make him a great nation. So the idea
here is God is telling Abraham that although
Sarah might be wanting to throw them out like
trash, that's not what's happening. But God is
going to allow it to happen. And we go, well,
why would he allow that to happen? That seems
cruel in those days, right? It wasn't like, hey,
can you move to the next neighborhood? It was,
no, you're gonna leave the camp and go into the
wilderness, and you're gonna have to fend for
yourself and find your own water and find your
own food after you run out of what I'm gonna
give you. Why would God let this happen? Well,
the symbolic reason God is allowing this to happen
is that Ishmael was not the son of the promise.
Isaac was the son of the promise. That's a big
deal. You see, God is the one who brought Isaac
through his power alone, literally. Biological
impossibility for Sarah to get pregnant. Abraham
and Sarah's own human wisdom and mistrust of
God or distrust or impatience in his promise
is what brought Ishmael about. And this is where
the symbolic lesson of this is understood. Personally,
I believe that in the context of God allowing
people to go through things to polish them, that
one of the physical reasons he let Ishmael and
Hagar go into the wilderness as we're reading
is to polish them too, right? But symbolically,
Isaac, the promised son, is a type of Christ.
And when we say a type in Scripture, that means
there's something in the Old Testament that is
a picture, an image, a foreshadowing of something
we see in the New Testament. So when we compare
Isaac and Christ together, both of them were
specially promised sons. Both of their conceptions
were miraculous. Both were born after a period
of delay, right? Isaac, they waited 25 plus years.
The Messiah? They waited generations for the
Messiah to show up. Both of the mothers were
given assurance of God's, or assurance of the
truth of God's promise. Right, in Genesis 18,
14, God said to Sarah, is anything impossible
for the Lord? In Luke chapter one, Gabriel says
to Mary, nothing will be impossible with God.
Both of their names were given before birth.
Both of their names had great meaning. Both of
their births occurred exactly at God's appointed
time. Genesis 21 .2, it says that Isaac was conceived
and born at the appointed time that God had told
him. Galatians 4 .4, Paul writes, when time came
to completion, or when it was the right time,
God sent his son born of a woman. Both births
were accompanied with great joy, right? We just
read in Genesis 21 .6, Sarah's like, God made
me laugh, and everybody that hears about this
is gonna laugh. There's so much joy here. In
Luke 1 .46, it tells us that regarding Jesus'
birth, Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord.
My spirit is rejoicing in God. And so Isaac is
a type of Christ, the Savior. Ishmael, however,
is a type of the flesh or a type of the works
of the flesh, right? In Galatians chapter four,
Paul is writing about how the Jewish people were
telling the Galatian Christians, we are the children
of Abraham. We're Jews. We're the ones. We're
the ones that get the blessings. We're the special
people. And Paul, in the letter, as he's writing
to the Galatian churches, he goes, yep, they
sure are children of Abraham, but they're of
Ishmael, not of Isaac. You see, Paul says Abraham
may be their father, but who's their mother?
Right? Those that think that their works and
their efforts and their own wisdom is going to
lead to salvation, Paul says they're actually
of the line of Ishmael. through Hagar. But those
who trust in Jesus for salvation and trust in
him and him alone and his promises, they're the
ones that are actually of the line of Isaac through
Sarah. They're the ones that are actually the
children of Abraham. And now, so you have the
situation, God is saying, get rid of Ishmael,
get rid of Hagar, or Sarah's saying that and
God is saying, go ahead and do that. Now it is
possible that one of the reasons Abraham was
distressed, this is purely speculation, is that
there was a little seed of doubt in the back
of Abraham's mind still that, well, maybe Ishmael
will be my backup plan. If something happens
to Isaac, whoo, he made it to three, we're good,
but still, if something happens, maybe I'll keep
Ishmael around. I'm distressed. I love him. He's
my kid, and maybe he's a backup plan. That is
speculation, but either way, the symbolic lesson
we learn here is that God's solution in his life
was clear. And this is a lesson for all of our
lives. Get rid of the works of the flesh. Cast
them out and trust only in the promise, the promises
of God. You see, the works of the flesh and the
work of grace cannot exist together as principles
in the Christian's life. It doesn't work for
us to go, oh yeah, I trust in God's promises
and woo, it's all God and yet you still live
this life where you feel like, well, if I do
good things, God is happy. If I do bad things,
God is mad. You can't live both of those principles
because they don't work together. God has said
in my life many, many times and it's a lesson
that comes up all the time where God just speaks
to my heart and he goes, you either trust me
or you don't. There's no middle ground. And every
time I'm like, well, I don't want to say I don't
trust you, so I guess I trust you. Okay, God,
fix me. Help me. But so many want to live this
dual life. They want to go, Isaac, the son of
the promise is here, but keep Ishmael close.
And the lesson here is God wants us to get rid
of the works of the flesh. It may seem ruthless.
That Abraham cast out Hagar and Ishmael into
the wilderness. Here's a water skin, here's some
bread, good luck. Right, that may seem heartless.
But the symbolic lesson is this is exactly how
God wants us to be with the flesh. Right, make
no provision. Not, I'm gonna move you to the
outside of the camp. I'll just move you a little
ways away. No, cast it out. Get rid of it. We
talk about the practical things God wants us
to do as we endeavor to be obedient to him. That's
one of them. So in Galatians 5 .24, it tells
us, now those who belong to Christ or Christ
Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions
and desires. They've crucified it, nailed it
to the cross, killed it, put it to death. That's
the activity that we're... in as we're going
through this process of sanctification. There's
still that rough edge there. I've got to put
you through something so that you put that to
death. I've got to polish that part of your life
off because it's still gross. Now verse 14, back
to verse 14, it says, early in the morning Abraham
got up, took bread and a water skin, put them
on Hagar's shoulders, and sent her and the boy
away. She left and wandered the wilderness of
Beersheba. When the water in the skin was gone,
she left the boy under one of the bushes and
went and sat at a distance about a bow shot away.
For she said, I cannot bear to watch the boy
die. While she sat at a distance, she wept loudly.
God heard the boy crying and the angel of God
called to Hagar from heaven and said to her,
what's wrong, Hagar? Don't be afraid for God
has heard the boy crying from the place where
he is. Get up, help the boy up and grasp his
hand for I will make him a great nation. Then
God opened her eyes and she saw a well. So she
went and filled the water skin and gave the boy
a drink. God was with the boy and he grew. He
settled in the wilderness and became an archer.
He settled in the wilderness of Paran and his
mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.
Now it's very interesting here why we're being
told all this, right? They go out, they run out
of water. Her boy's going to die. It's very interesting
that it says Hagar's crying. God shows up and
says, I heard the boy crying. Right? When Hagar
was in the wilderness the first time, when she
fled after Ishmael was born, it says God heard
her cry. But now he hears the cry of Ishmael.
He hears the boy crying. Why? That boy is still
a child of Abraham. God has decided to bless
Abraham, and he's like, I'm gonna bless this
kid. He's not the son of the promise, but I'm
still gonna bless him. And from Ishmael came
all the Arab nations, or most of the Arab nations.
And God's blessing was on him here. It doesn't
mean that they were the source of the promise.
It doesn't mean that it was through Ishmael's
line that the Messiah came, and that's what Islam
teaches, which it's false. It was Isaac and down
to Jesus Christ that the Savior of the world
came. But Ishmael was still blessed here. You
see, again, God's kindness still extends to all
people. And so here we see that God is not heartless.
He's gracious to all. The Bible tells us he even
gives good things to those who hate him. Right,
Matthew 5 .45, he causes his son to rise on the
evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous
and the unrighteous. All who deny Jesus, judgment
will come. But until that judgment comes, the
Bible tells us that it's his kindness that leads
to repentance. And that's a message we get to
share too. God is the only way, yes. Jesus Christ
is God, not a prophet, not anything else. He
is the way, the truth, and the life, yes. But
we're to carry that with boldness, confidence,
and compassion and love. And so anyways, we see
here that God does this wonderful thing in protecting
them and keeping them safe and honoring Abraham's
heart. But then we get to verse 22. where the
story comes full circle, right? Genesis 20 was
all about King Abimelech, and we have all this
stuff happening in the middle, and then we get
to verse 22, where we come full circle. At that
time, Abimelech, accompanied by Pichol, the commander
of his army, said to Abraham, God is with you
in everything you do. Swear to me by God here
and now that you will not break an agreement
with me or my children and descendants. As I
have been loyal to you, so you will be loyal
to me and to the country where you are a resident
alien. And Abraham said, I swear it. But Abraham
complained to Abimelech because of the well that
Abimelech's servants had seized. Abimelech replied,
I don't know who did this thing. You didn't report
anything to me, so I hadn't heard about it until
today. Abraham took flocks and herds and gave
them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a
covenant. Abraham separated seven ewe lambs from
the flock, and Abimelech said to Abraham, why
have you separated these seven ewe lambs? He
replied, you are to accept the seven ewe lambs
from me so that this act will serve as my witness
that I dug this well. Therefore, that place was
called Beersheba because it was there that the
two of them swore an oath. After they had made
a covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and Pichol,
the commander of the army, left and returned
to the land of the Philistines. Abraham planted
a tamarisk tree in Beersheba, and there he called
on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God,
and Abraham lived as an alien in the land of
the Philistines for many days. Now, there's debate
on whether this Abimelech is the same Abimelech
from Genesis 20. Some of that debate comes up
because we see King Abimelech in Genesis 20.
We've seen King Abimelech in Genesis 21. And
then 75 years later in Genesis 26, there's a
King Abimelech. During David's time in Psalm
34, there's a King Abimelech. During the time
of the judges when Gideon was around, there was
a King Abimelech. And people go, Abimelech either
lived a really long time or they're different
people, right? It's understood by many scholars
that Abimelech may have started out as a name
of an individual but became a dynastic title,
right? That all the kings who rose up to be kings
within the Philistines were called Abimelech.
It was more of a title or a reference to an original
or previous king. We just saw that with the Pope,
right? The Pope is sworn in and what did he do?
He took Leo's name. He's Leo the 14th, right?
It's like there was an original Leo. But then
it kind of became a name that represented a title
or represented a position or a character within
the position. And so a lot of scholars go, Abimelech,
this couldn't be the same person. I say that
this chapter is happening within months after
chapter 20. It's only been three years. Isaac
is weaned at three years. Hagar and Ishmael are
sent out of the way. And so, of course, it's
the same. King Abimelech. And then some of the
things that are said here. I only bring that
up because some of you guys are really historically
interested in those types of things, and if you
look at King Abimelech, you're going to get swamped
with all these silly arguments about who he is,
and that's what I think. So, in this section
here, we see a very different Abraham than we
read in chapter 20. In chapter 20, Abraham was
afraid of the king, right? It told us, I was
afraid there's no fear of God here, so that's
why I lied. We saw that in chapter 20, Abraham
was willing to blow his witness to protect himself,
to protect his wife. He was willing to go back
to trusting his flesh, trusting in his own wisdom.
Let's do this thing that I came up with to rectify
this situation instead of just trusting God.
But here we are now a chapter later after some
polishing, after going through some other difficult
times, right? He lies, God calls him a prophet.
I don't know how that made Abraham feel. Abraham
prays. God answers the prayer. The wombs of the
Philistine women open. I just sinned and God
did that. That's pretty graceful. Then God said
as he had said at the time he said and the way
he said, the promise came. Wow, that's pretty
amazing. God's pretty gracious. Three years later,
child's ready to be weaned. Uh -oh, wife's not
happy. Right? Catastrophe. What are we going
to do? She wants to kick out Hagar and my son.
How do I do that? God, I'm distressed. God said,
do it to honor your wife, to honor your relationship,
to honor me and all of that, and know that I'm
going to take care of him. More grace. More grace
into his life. And then now he comes to stand
before King Abimelech again, and he's not afraid.
He's not cowering. He's not depending on his
own wisdom now. Through all this polishing that
he's gone through, despite the fact that he's
already been walking with the Lord for 25 years,
he now comes back to the situation of standing
before the Philistine king, and now he's standing
there in boldness and confidence. He's standing
there in a built -up and increased faith in his
God. I don't need to cower before this king.
In fact, a few years back, this king cowered
before my God, so why am I gonna cower before
this king? And so we have this situation where
Abimelech shows up and he's like, hey, bro, things
have been good, right? You've been living in
my land. I haven't messed with you. I've been
loyal to you, right? Remember, your God scared
the bejeebers out of me. And so, you know, we've
been on good terms. I want to ratify this relationship
for my kids and my descendants. I would like
to have this agreement between us that we're
going to be on good terms. And Abraham says,
cool, let's do it. You see, it's not the Christian's
job, per se, to go in and be obnoxious and to
be like, you know, I'm a Christian. I don't have
to listen to you, right? Some churches do that.
They'll go to the city, and don't get me wrong,
cities can be obnoxious, but they're like, you
need a permit for this, and you need this, and
you need this. And sometimes they're like, I
follow Jesus. I don't need to do your thing.
That's a bad witness. All it does is create contention
between people because they're like, I thought
you're supposed to be good, honest folk, right?
Anyways. That's a side topic. There's some history
there. But the idea is, is now when he stood
before the rulers of the world, he stood there
confident because he knew who the ruler of his
life was. He's getting the lesson again that
God had said, God had said, God had said, God
had said, God had said, God had said. And so
now he's going, okay. I get it again. God had
said that he's going to protect me, that he's
going to protect my family, that I'm getting
this land. We've had the kid. So he could stand
there boldly before this person he had just a
few years before cowered under. The person who
stood before him and goes, why did you do this
to me? I didn't do anything to you. Was able
to call the Christian the wrong one, which happens
too many times in this world. When the world
is able to stand on the moral high ground and
point the finger at the Christians because we're
lying and we're cheating and we're stealing and
we're misrepresenting the Lord. But here, after
the polishing, God continued to work, continued
to work in his life. Now he's standing here bold.
So he's like, yeah, you've been nice, you've
been loyal, we've gotten along, let's do this
contract, right? He gives them all these animals
and stuff, which is a part of the trade and the
contract, and they make what's called a covenant.
But here now Abraham is confident enough, it
says, to complain to the king. That word complained
actually means rebuke. Like here's Abraham. He's
a foreigner in this land. He's not even, he's
not a Philistine. He's being allowed to live
here. And he still is able to stand and come
before the king and go, I'm going to rebuke you.
Now, it's not an obnoxious rebuke, but he says,
you know, your people stole my well and so on
and so forth, and so I need you to fix it. What's
really interesting here is he sets up these seven
lambs. He goes, I'm going to give you these seven
lambs. And King Abimelech is like, what the heck,
what's up with that? Well, it's just a picture,
and I think it's just... Abraham honoring him
as a representative of the Lord to say, I'm gonna
do the right thing here. Three years earlier,
Abimelech said, here's 1 ,000 pieces of silver
to prove that I didn't violate your wife. And
now Abraham is saying, look, I'm just gonna return
that honest act there. I'm gonna return that
and say, here's these seven lambs to prove that
I own this well. So they ratify their agreement,
they ratify this covenant, and the result is
peace. Abraham is no longer in fear. He's no
longer walking in disobedience. He's living in
peace. He's living in peace in a foreign land.
He's living at peace in the world of the pagans.
Do you see the parallel here? We live as foreigners
in a land of pagans. We are citizens of heaven.
Our kingdom is not of this world as Christians.
And yet we live here. We are here to stand boldly
for our God. We're to stand boldly for righteousness.
We're to preach what is right. We're to do what
is good. We're all of those things. And yet,
until the world comes against us and say, I demand
you to renounce God, until that happens, we're
called to live at peace in the place we're at
because that is a part of the witness we carry
as Christians. Right? Romans 13. It says God
put all the authorities in place and so obeyed
them. And we struggle with that, especially when
it's an unrighteous authority. But it's a part
of the witness we're called to live here, to
preach truth, to stand for righteousness, but
to live peaceably among all men. And so we see
Abraham doing this now. He's not afraid. He's
not cowering. He's not doing all the wrong stuff.
He's simply saying, look, I'm going to do the
right thing here. I'm going to do the right thing
to maintain a good witness here among this foreign
land. And so Abraham, having grown in faith again,
having been polished over and over and over by
God's grace and God's faithfulness, is now experiencing
the joy and the peace that comes through obedience.
When we do what God says, blessing always comes.
And that blessing is often just the peace and
the joy. I'm doing the right thing. So I'm at
peace. I could just sit here and trust God. I
could be at peace in that because I'm doing what
God wants me to do. And then when you mess up,
you're like, God, I'm so sorry. God says, great.
You believe in my blood? Yes, I do. Okay, get
up. Let's keep going. You're forgiven. No, but
God, we need to wallow in this for a while. No,
you don't. Tumble, tumble, tumble, tumble. Shine.
Okay, let's go. Let's go be a light in this world.
I've shown you. I said, I said, I said. I fulfilled,
I fulfilled, I fulfilled. What are you worried
about? That's the same lesson in our lives. God's
promises are true and faithful. Now it tells
us here that At the end of this, it was in this
place, Beersheba, that they made this oath. Very
interesting because it was the wilderness of
Beersheba that Hagar and Ishmael went and wandered.
What happened in the wilderness of Beersheba
with Hagar and Ishmael? God took care of them.
What's happening now with Abram and his family
as he's walking strong and being a good witness
of the Lord? God's taking care of him. Now, I
don't know if the well that God revealed to Hagar
is the same well that Abraham's claiming here.
Probably not. But the idea is that after all
of this stuff, this area becomes a very notable
place in the history of Israel. He plants this
tamarisk tree there, and it's kind of like a
memorial. A tamarisk tree takes generations to
grow. So it would forever be a symbol in that
foreign land of God's faithfulness, God's trust.
And it was also a picture of Abraham going, look,
this foreign land I'm living in right now, God
said he's gonna give this to my people, so. Years
later from now when people come and see this
tamarack tree, they're going to be like, yep,
God said. So we're not going to doubt. Now he
calls him the everlasting God and I want to close
on that. Everlasting God. That's simply a phrase
that means God is God. God will always be God.
God always has been God. See, that's a lesson
we need to understand. We screw up. God does
grace in our life. We mess up again. God does
more grace. We're like, what's going on? I don't
understand. God, I'm supposed to be punished.
And God's like, no, I already did that to my
son. And we live this polishing process, this
sanctification process, and yet we'll still come
to places where we'll go, I know God said and
fulfilled all these promises in my whole life,
but here I don't know if he's going to do this
one. I know God said, and he didn't do a timetable,
but I'm afraid he's not going to fulfill it.
When has God ever not fulfilled his promises?
And yet, we have to go through the tumbler over
and over and over to get that hammered into our
brain. And that itself is just a picture of how
gracious God is. You know, I'll talk to somebody
one time, say, this is what you should do, and
then they don't do it, and I'm like, I'm done.
You know, and it's like, God doesn't have that
type of impatience with me. So I'm like, okay,
Lord, patience, patience. But there's no reason
for us to trust. And we have the memorial of
the cross of Christ that is empty because he
came down from it. He went into the tomb and
he's alive. And that stands before us every day
that we got to look at that and go, his promises
are true. He is everlasting. He is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And if you have trusted in
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then his
promises are yes and amen. That's what the Bible
tells us. They are everlasting as he is everlasting.
And yes, in life, you may feel oftentimes that
you're going through the tumbler. That doesn't
mean God hates you. It doesn't mean God's done
with you. It doesn't mean God is casting you
out. It means he's polishing you because the
next time you stand before King Abimelech, you're
gonna be able to stand with a different attitude.
You're gonna have the testimony of this promise
fulfilled and this promise fulfilled and God
saying I'm gonna take care of and I'm gonna take
care of. And so you could stand boldly. To stand
for Christ, to preach the gospel and yet to do
it in compassion and love and peaceable with
all men that the glory of God would shine so
bright from your life. Even though you may be
tumbling from these things, even though you may
have just recently stumbled back into old sins,
God is always and will always be and has always
been faithful when we are faithless. Hold on
to that. Yield to the process of sanctification,
right? He throws you back in the tumbler because
of something you need? Praise Jesus. Count it
all joy, it said, when you go into those various
trials because God is doing a work. And at the
end, you're going to stand before your creator
in heaven, realizing you're not there because
of anything you did, and yet you're going to
look down and see that you are shining the most
brilliant, perfect, polished shine that could
ever exist. Why? Because God loves you. Let's
pray. Father, we are so grateful to you. We're
so grateful that you created us. We're so grateful
that we have the opportunity to live, to know
you. Father, we're so grateful that you sent
your son to die on the cross. And Jesus, all
that you endured for us. It is beyond understanding
and beyond our ability to ever even consider
paying back. And Lord, I think that's why you
did it that way. That it was so beyond the possibility
of us paying it back that we would hopefully
learn the lesson to just receive the grace. God,
I'm so thankful, Lord, that although we don't
want to sin, we want to be obedient, we want
to be free from sin, God, I'm grateful that you
remind us that we're in a process of sanctification
that won't be complete in this life. Lord, it's
never that we're going to be free from sin in
this life in the sense of never doing a wrong
thing again, but we are free from the condemnation
of sin. We're free from the power of death. And
that God, as we live this life and as you polish
us through one circumstance after the other,
through one trial after the other, one affliction
after the other, Lord, that each day we would
shine a little brighter. That our lives would
reflect you just a little bit more. That God,
instead of being people that the world may point
at as hypocrites, Lord, we would be a people
that the world points at and go, wow. Their God
is so gracious and so amazing and so patient
that, Lord, our lives would shine into the darkness
of theirs that they too would see their need
for Jesus Christ. So, God, may we not set expectations
in our own lives that can't be attained, Lord,
but instead just day by day, wake up, live our
life to serve you, to honor you. That God, through
the power of your Holy Spirit, we would obey
you. That each day, as we're polished more and
more, we would sin less until the day that we're
completely free from it with you in heaven. And
God, before we close today, Lord, I know we're
all excited and hungry, so I want to pray for
the food at the barbecue, Lord, right now, so
we can just start eating when we get out there.
Lord, I just pray you'd bless our fellowship
today. that you'd bless all those that prepared
and put together the event outside, those that
are preparing the food, Lord. Just pray you'd
bless it to our body, Lord. But God, to the whole
thing, I pray, Lord, that the glory that is you
would shine so bright. Lord, every year you have
brought people from the community to walk over
and to participate in what your church is doing
here, and we pray for that again, Lord, that
people would come see the glory of God through
your people, not perfect people, but saved people.
We thank you for all of it. We love you. It's
in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, let's worship,
church.