Set Your Mind on the Things that Are Above Genesis 23

It's always fascinating to read history and learn about those who accomplished much in this world.

Some people have a long resume of accomplishments. At the very least, we can admire the productivity in one's life.

But one can spend his or her life accomplishing many earthly things without any of them meaning anything from an eternal, heavenly perspective.

God desires for people to have their minds on the forever world beyond this life.

You might think, those who spend so much time thinking about heaven, are they any earthly good?

C .S. Lewis, who wrote the Chronicles of Narnia and many Christian books, said this to answer that question.

If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought the most of the next world.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.

Aim at heaven and you get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.

As Lewis said, heavenly -minded people are those who accomplish the most in this life.

We are going to see Abraham's mind is focused on the promises of God by his actions in our text today.

His focus on God's earthly promise also shows his focus on the heavenly promise.

We must do this as God's people to be effective for him in this life and ready to meet him when our time here is done.

As we continue our sermon series through Genesis, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me there.

We're going to look at Genesis 23, the whole chapter. If you're using a red

Bible in the pews, it's on page 20. This sermon is titled, Set Your Mind on the

Things That Are Above. Our big idea, our proposition, and what we must do is to look ahead wisely knowing that your time here is short.

Look ahead wisely knowing that your time here is short. We're going to see two ways how. The first is by setting your mind on your future residence.

We'll see this in verses 1 through 4. But before we do that, I'm going to give a little recap of last week's sermon.

Last week, we finished up the story on the near sacrifice of Abraham's son, Isaac. Two weeks ago, we saw the

Lord stop Abraham from going through with this sacrifice. Let's try this.

Hopefully you heard the first part of my sermon. How's this? Better?

There we go. So two weeks ago, we saw the Lord stop Abraham from going through with the sacrifice.

Last week, we saw the Lord provide a ram as a sacrifice in Isaac's place. This is what is known as a substitutionary sacrifice or a substitutionary atonement.

One is sacrificed in the place of another. This is a major theme throughout

Scripture that shows up in Old Testament sacrifices that were established through Moses. And all of this points ahead to the once -for -all sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

We can see why the Lord gave Abraham this specific test. It was to show that a sacrifice was necessary.

This explains the important reality that we need one to stand in our place to pay for our sins. Jesus is the one who stands in our place.

Secondly, we saw that the Lord told Abraham that this promise of countless offspring is his because he obeyed.

This goes to show that without Abraham's obedience, he would not have enjoyed these wonderful promises. They wouldn't have been his.

And the same is for us as Christians. To enjoy all of these promises that the Lord has made to his children, we must have truly believed in him and continue in the faith until the end of our days.

The text last week is starting to wrap up Abraham's life. And we're going to see another story with him as the focal point as our journey on his life comes to an end.

We're going to see this in the context of the death of Sarah, his wife who he was married to for so many years.

We'll begin by looking at verses 1 and 2. Sarah lived 127 years.

These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died at Kiriath Arba, that is

Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.

Sarah lived a long life at the age of 127. Whenever you hear of someone living a long life, what should come to our mind is that the

Lord has abundantly blessed this person and given them so many years of life on the earth.

Sarah's death took place 37 years after Isaac's birth, the long -awaited child, and 62 years after they entered the land of Canaan, as Genesis 12 .4

says. The author Moses lists the place where she died. She died at a place known as Kiriath Arba.

This location literally means city of four. The four cities in this location would have been

Aner, Eskil, Mamre, and Hebron. The parenthesis specifically says that she died in Hebron.

Hebron is important in Abraham's life because this was the closest to home he had. Abraham truly was a nomad who always traveled.

He was always on the move. But if you could call a place home for Abraham, it was probably

Hebron. You know how it is when you talk to someone who's traveled a lot and lived in a lot of different places in their life.

Typically there was one place that stood out above the rest, and they said, yep, that's my home. So Hebron would be that for Abraham.

After Sarah died, as was custom, Abraham grieved for his wife. Abraham and Sarah spent decade after decade together, and now she was gone.

So you can see the absence this would have left in his life. And once Abraham was done mourning, he went to a group of people known as the

Hittites who lived in Hebron. And this describes their encounter in verses 3 and 4.

And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, I am a sojourner and foreigner among you.

Give me property among you for a burying place that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

Abraham makes it clear to the Hittites that he is a sojourner and foreigner among them.

What we have to remember is that at this time the Hittites were among many of the people groups who lived in the land of Canaan.

This was the very land the Lord promised to Abraham long ago. While the Canaanites populated this land,

Abraham knew that this land was his, and his future descendants would enjoy being in control of it.

Since this is the land the Lord promised Abraham, he desires to bury his wife there. This is so much more than just burying his wife in a place that technically belonged to another at this time.

By desiring to bury his wife within the boundaries of the land of Canaan, which came to be known, of course, as the land of promise, is saying how significant this land was.

This is where all of Abraham's family would be buried, and this is the land that would be in the possession of his offspring forever.

We see Abraham expressing faith in the Lord's promises that the land of Canaan would be in their hands, by saying,

I'm going to bury her because this is where we're going to be. We as Christians live as temporary citizens in this world.

Life is short, and before we know it, our time here will be done. But once this life is over, you go to a forever home.

Do you consider heaven your true home? Or are you tempted to only think of your home here and not your forever future home in heaven?

That is yours, if indeed you belong to Christ, this future home known as heaven. One way that you show faith that your future home is heaven and not here on earth is by thinking about it a lot.

This raises an important question. How do you know you are thinking about it? Does your life here on earth show that you are a heavenly citizen?

The Apostle Peter said to Christians in 1 Peter 2 .11, he said, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul.

So Peter's saying, you're just passing through, so don't get entangled with all this sin and all the worldly ways.

If you are always thinking about your earthly life or you are in love with your sin or in love with this world, what you are showing is that you are not longing for heaven.

You are not living as if your future home is in heaven. By living a holy life where you follow the

Lord closely and spend time talking with him daily, what you are showing is that you are ready to be with him.

You should have a smooth transition to heaven when the Lord takes you because you are walking so closely with him.

You should have so much holiness in your life now that when you enter the gates of heaven, you should be like, okay, this is how

I live there for the most part and this is how I'm going to live forever. As I mentioned in the introduction, the

Lord uses those who are heavenly minded in this world. Those are the people he does use greatly.

As I mentioned in the C .S. Lewis quote, we need to be people who are mindful of our future residence in order to carry out

God's will for us in this life. Abraham showed his faith that his descendants would have the promised land by desiring to buy a burial site for his wife

Sarah there. Saying this is where we'll always be. The equivalent to us buying a burial place in a future land would be thinking of heaven as our true home, not earth.

And living like heaven is our true home and not earth. You can see Abraham, the confidence he has that this is where my offspring is going to be.

And living like it by investing in it, by saying I'm going to buy this place. And we need to be living that way too as we think about heaven as our future home.

You see the connection between the promised land and heaven. The first way how you must look ahead wisely, knowing that your time here is short, is by setting your mind on your future residence.

The second way how you must look ahead wisely, knowing that your time here is short, is by confidently planning on this home based on your sincere faith.

We'll be looking at verses 5 through 20 to see this second point. In verse 5 and 6 the

Hittites respond to Abraham in a positive and warm fashion when he tells them that I want to purchase this plot to bury my wife.

This was the response in verses 5 and 6. The Hittites answered

Abraham, At the beginning of verse 6 the

Hittites respond to Abraham by calling him a prince of God. They desire for him to bury his dead in any tomb that he chooses.

Do you wonder why the Hittites are treating Abraham so well? We know from our present world the hostility that can be present between nations.

Abraham is a Hebrew requesting a tomb from the Hittites. These would have been neighbors. So we might expect them to say no to Abraham's request.

They treated him so well because they would have known that Abraham belonged to the God that did all of these wonders in this region.

Their memory probably wasn't too far off to remember what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.

And they heard about Abraham, how he conquered all those kings on the eastern part of this land.

They would have known about Abraham's God. And they would have known that Abraham was blessed by this

God. God had quite a reputation in this region. The Hittites like everyone else would have known that he was a very blessed man.

And they are so amazed by the blessings poured out on Abraham that they give him the title a prince of God.

This is a reminder that sometimes unbelievers will deal well with you. They may be dealing well with Abraham because they want things to go well with them.

Or they might just flat out respect him. Either way, we see the kindness that they are showing to him.

Now in verse 7, Abraham responds to the Hittites. Abraham rose and bowed to the

Hittites, the people of the land. So Abraham rises and bows to them, showing them respect based on how well they have treated him.

Abraham has in mind where he desires for his wife to be buried. And this is what he says in verses 8 and 9.

And he said to them, So Abraham knows that Ephron has a cave that he desires for Sarah and his family to be buried.

He says, I've picked this place out. This is where I want her to be buried.

Have you ever thought about where you want to be buried someday? President John Kennedy, I think it was 1962, was in Arlington National Cemetery where all the great war heroes were buried.

And if you've ever been to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D .C., it's a really beautiful spot because it overlooks all of Washington, D .C.

You can see the National Mall. You can see the Lincoln Memorial. You can see the Capitol.

You can see the Washington Monument. It's really quite a sight. And when Kennedy was up there, he said,

I could be here forever. And sadly, of course, November 22, 1963,

Kennedy was assassinated. And the people who were with him remember that. And that's why he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

So the place where ones remains are buried is an important place. It's in our day, and it was way back in the day of Abraham.

Families want their dead buried in a sentimental place, typically where their loved ones call home on this earth.

For Abraham, Ephron, son of Zohar, has the site where he desires for his beloved wife to be buried.

Now, in the second half of verse 9, Abraham makes it clear how bad he wants this place. And by showing how bad he wants this place, he shows his confidence, knowing that the

Lord is going to give this to him. To repeat what he says here, he says, For the full price, let

Ephron give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place. So Abraham desires to offer full price for this cave where the burial place would take place.

Now, this might catch us by surprise as we read this, because they just offered this place to him for free.

So who in the world comes back and says, you know what, I'm going to pay for this instead? It would be like someone coming to you and saying, you know what,

I'm going to give you a house for free. And then you coming back and saying, you know what, I'm going to offer full price for this. So there's a meaning here that we need to see of why he does this.

He offers to pay full price because he does not want the Hittites to go back on their offer in the future and keep the land for themselves.

So to ensure that this is a legitimate purchase, Abraham wants to do this officially.

And he's willing to pay for it. I mean, you can see how this would work, right? Someone gives you something for free, and five years down the road, they say, you know what, we're going to go back on that.

You didn't actually purchase this. There was no official deal that took place. So we're going to,

I'm not sure if they would have dug her up or not, but we're taking this land back. And of course,

Abraham had no trouble paying for this because he was a wealthy man. And he wants to be sure that this land will be theirs without question.

He knows that this land is rightfully his because of the Lord's unbreakable promise to him and his faithfulness to believe this promise and obey the

Lord. He shows his confidence by putting his own money toward it. He's making claim to this place.

Now in verse 10, the official transaction, the official deal takes place with Ephron and the

Hittites present. Verses 10 and 11. Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the

Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites of all who went in at the gate of his city.

No, my Lord, hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it.

In the sight of the sons of my people, I give it to you. Bury your dead. You will notice that not only are

Ephron and Abraham present, but there are also many Hittites who are there as witnesses to this transaction.

It's important that these witnesses are there to make this deal official. Remember, Abraham does not want the

Hittites to go back on this later on. He is saying this burial location is mine, and he's doing this in faith that this whole land will be theirs in the future.

So the best route to take is let's make this an official transaction. He knows that God's promise is unbreakable, and he knows that he will receive the blessing.

Specifically, he knows his descendants will receive the blessing of inheriting not just the burial place, but so much more.

The entire land of Canaan, which stretches from the river of Egypt all the way to the

Euphrates River. This is a big piece of land that's going to be his offspring forever.

And this deal with the witnesses present takes place at the gate of the city. This would have been the normal place where deals would have occurred, as was custom in this time.

And deals like this was common practice among the peoples of the ancient Near East at this point in history.

You'll notice in verse 11 that not only does Ephron offer the cave for the burial location, but he also offers the whole field.

Abraham just wanted the cave, and now Ephron is generously offering the field next to the cave.

Once again, we need to ask the question, why would Ephron be so generous? He's going above and beyond.

We can't entirely know for sure why he's being so generous, to find out his motivations behind his actions.

It may be that he's just generous, and he wants to be kind to Abraham. But it may also be that Ephron desires for Abraham to show him favor.

Ephron would have known, like the Hittites, about the power of Abraham's God. And he would have known that Abraham was a prominent man in this region.

And this may be why Ephron is so generous. He wants favor. The favor of this man, the favor of his

God. Now in verse 12, Abraham responds with deference to Ephron.

And he makes an offer that might surprise us. In verses 12 and 13. We would expect

Abraham to have taken the cave, and the field next to the cave, for free.

But that's not what he does. Instead, he offers Ephron a price for the field.

Earlier in verse 9, he said he was willing to offer full price for the field. And here in verse 13, he says,

As a reminder, why does Abraham desire to pay Ephron? When he can have the cave and the field in Hebron for free.

Remember, he wants this to be an official transaction. So he's moving this forward. This piece of land will forever stay in Abraham's family.

This is a precursor to the whole land of Canaan being theirs. And his offspring forever.

And if Abraham did not trust that God was going to throw at this blessing, it would have made no sense for him to do all this work to secure this property.

If he did not trust, he may have tried to bury Sarah in a land that no one occupied. Or, maybe even have gone back to Haran.

That was their first home. That's where they left when they came to the land of Canaan. Or not even bury her at all.

But he knew God had chosen to bless him as his faithful servant. So this transaction with the Hittites would not make him look foolish later on.

His trust in God was that strong. And he knew how secure he was in the

Lord. We see that Abraham is confidently planning on this place as his home since he knows that his faith in the

Lord is sincere. So not only does he trust in the Lord, he's confident in his own faith, too.

He knows that the Lord has done a mighty work in his heart to bring him to be a godly man. He knows that these promises to him are sure.

He knows the Lord's blessing is upon him. Now in verses 14 and 15, Ephron responds by making an official offer.

Ephron answered Abraham, My Lord, listen to me. A piece of land worth 400 shekels of silver.

What is that between you and me? Bury your dead. So Ephron makes an offer of 400 shekels.

Obviously we really have no idea how much this would have been at this stage in history. But scholars believe that this would have been a large amount of money.

And Ephron says at the end of verse 15, What is that between you and me? Bury your dead.

In other words, he's saying, Don't pass up this deal. Because you're not going to get a better one.

He doesn't want Abraham to now start to barter with him. He's saying, You're getting a good deal with this price that I have set.

We've all probably experienced bartering a little bit in our life. And actually yesterday I tried to barter a necklace for Brianna and it didn't work.

But that's okay. Sometimes you try. Sometimes it doesn't work. In order for this deal to be official,

They had to make sure that the amount Abraham was giving to Ephron was the correct amount. That's why in verse 16, they weigh it.

It says, Abraham listened to Ephron, And Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the

Hittites. 400 shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants.

Now what Abraham is doing is boldly planning ahead that this future possession is secure for him and his descendants.

He's putting a stake in here. He takes the initiative to claim this place for himself,

Knowing that this will be the future home for his family and all of Israel. Now verses 17 through 20 shows that this was officially his property.

As the transaction was finished and Sarah was buried there. Okay, so he can now be sure, this is mine. And this is how it ends.

So the field of Ephron in Mechpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, The field with the cave that was in it,

And all the trees that were in the field throughout its whole area, Was made over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the

Hittites, Before all who went in at the gate of his city. After this Abraham buried

Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Mechpelah, east of Mamre, That is

Hebron in the land of Canaan. The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying place by the

Hittites. So Abraham planned for this place knowing that he would not enjoy this promise from God firsthand.

We saw that in Hebrews today in the call to worship. But he was setting this up for his future offspring.

He did this knowing that he would enjoy something better from God. Abraham's ultimate goal was not this earthly land that Israel would enter.

His ultimate goal was heaven, a forever home. His primary goal was to be with the one who made these wonderful promises to him.

And that's a good litmus test to ask ourselves. Do we want to go to heaven just because heaven is a great place?

Or do we want to go to heaven because the one for whom we were created is there? God. Abraham knew that when he died from this earth he would go to a place of comfort.

And his dwelling place would be with the Lord forever. Hebrews 11, 9 and 10 says,

By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, Living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, Heirs with him of the same promise.

For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, Whose designer and builder is

God. Abraham's faithfulness to God's earthly promises showed his true faith. And his sincere faith meant that his eternal home was secure.

He showed his confidence in God by securing this earthly place. He was confident that he and his offspring would inherit it.

More importantly, he was confident in the God of this promise to give him an eternal home in heaven, as the author of Hebrews just told us.

What we have seen clearly as we have followed the life of Abraham is his sincere faith. He has a reason to trust that God was going to fulfill this promise to him of having his offspring take over the land of Canaan.

And by making this purchase he's showing that his confidence is appropriate. God's trustworthiness and Abraham's faith in him is sincere.

And I mentioned in point one that we should look forward to our future residence in heaven. But I need to make a very important point here.

Not everyone who thinks they are going to heaven is on their way to heaven. We should only have confidence if God is truly with us.

His promises are for us only if we demonstrate true faith. Abraham was right to think he was going to heaven because his life showed it.

While not perfect, his life produced tremendous fruit. For example, we saw fruit in his life through his obedience in the near sacrifice of Isaac last week.

And we see it here today by confidently planning this future land for his offspring. He's showing faith in the

Lord. Abraham made reservations for this land. And by implication, he's making reservations for heaven too by securing this deal with Ephron because he knew

God was with him and would deliver on his great promises to him. So should you make future reservations?

Should you plan ahead for your future home in heaven? Should you have that hope? And as I say this,

I'm not trying to make any of you doubt your salvation. What I'm trying to do is it's wise to examine yourself.

God actually tells us to examine ourselves to see whether we are truly in the faith. 2

Corinthians 13 .5 says that. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith.

You might say, Pastor Seth, how can I plan to inherit something and be confident that I will inherit it, namely heaven?

We plan for retirement. We should also plan so much more to be with the

Lord when we are done with this life. I'm always amazed at how hard people plan for retirement and yet they don't even think about the billions of years that are after that where you're going to be forever.

Retirement, it's wise to plan for retirement, but I'm just saying it's how much wiser to plan for your future home in heaven.

As we close out the life of Abraham, this is a good time to say this, Abraham demonstrated true faith and he indeed was a new creation.

As 2 Corinthians 5 .17 says, And we can rightly plan for heaven if we have fruit in our lives, showing that we truly are people of faith.

Galatians 5 .22 and 23 says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self -control.

Does that characterize your life? Sometimes I hear people say it when they're talking about an unbeliever, they say, well,

I know an unbeliever who has that fruit. That's impossible because it's the fruit of the Spirit. It only comes from him.

So does that characterize your life? That's one way to examine your life. And in addition, you can trust

God's sturdy promises that he will save you and sustain you. Remember, God is the one making these promises, so he's not going to go back on them.

And so not only do we need to look at our own life, but we also need to bank on the fact that God keeps his promises, that those who belong to him are his forever.

And so we see here in the life of Abraham, he knew the Lord would fulfill his promise to him and his offspring. And he showed that by saying, this is our land.

The Lord promises to us. And he knew that he would be forever with the

God who designed a place for him, his true home in heaven. So can you make these plans as Abraham did?

Ask yourself this today. It's wise to do so. The second way how you must look ahead wisely, knowing that your time here is short, is by confidently planning on this home based on your sincere faith.

And to summarize, you must look wisely ahead, knowing that your time here is short. We have looked at two ways how this morning.

Setting your mind on your future residence is the first way how. And the second way how is confidently planning on this home based on your sincere faith.

This morning, you have seen the importance of planning ahead for our future residence. Abraham has set us this example.

And may we do this in our life and be much earthly good in this life for the

Lord. And by his grace, we will accomplish much and hear a well done from him when we meet him.

That must be our goal as a church. Now next week, Abraham's son Isaac will be the focus.

And we will see him meet the woman he will marry that will continue this blessed line, the seed of Abraham.

Let's pray. Father in heaven,

I thank you, Lord, for the faith that Abraham showed. And Lord, again, we can't look at the story and say, what a great man he was.

And we can highlight that. It's good to highlight that. But more importantly, if we stop there, we haven't said enough.

We need to say, what a great God Abraham served. And that you,

Lord, called him. He was a pagan when you called him. And you called him. And you made him a model for faith.

And you made promises to him. And he came to trust you to keep those promises. And may we do the same in our own life.

And most of all, Lord, planning ahead for heaven, knowing, Lord, that you keep your promises.

And may, Lord, we be sure that we are on our way there by examining our life as well, so that we can appropriately plan ahead.

That one day, Lord, we will be with you forever in your presence. And so I pray for this this morning.