God's Questions to Man (05/23/2021)

A few weeks ago, David Mitchell asked me to bring a message.

That was Saturday night. He wanted me to bring a message the next day. I told him,

I don't have anything prepared, I'm sorry. And he said, that's okay. And I felt really bad because I'm supposed to stand ready to give an account.

And I felt like I messed that up. So I apologize to y 'all for not having that ready.

So the next time I decided, the next time he asked me, I'm gonna be ready. I'm gonna have something.

And so he asked me, he gave me a little more time to think about it this time, but I immediately said, yes,

I'm gonna do it. Sure, I'll help. And fortunately, I've been reading a lot lately.

So I did actually have something I wanted to talk about. But I'll warn you now, I really didn't know the point of what

I was gonna be talking about until I was sitting over there just a minute ago. Every time

I've ever shared something in the form of bringing a message to somebody,

I feel like I need to know what is the point of what I'm speaking about. And the Lord always tells me what the point is.

And I was struggling with this last night because I have a lot of good stuff I wanna share that I think is cool, but I didn't know how to bring it all together.

And so I said, Lord, just, you do it for me. And I think he's given me a good message to share with you guys this morning.

I don't know if we'll have time to get through it all. And if we don't, that's okay, I can still bring out.

What's cool is it all has one point to it. It's my one point sermon, all right?

And so it should be pretty simple to get to the point, but I'm gonna save it as far to the end as I possibly can.

Have you guys ever been in a conversation with someone that may be turned into an argument?

I think this often happens when you're arguing. And I can remember having these kinds of conversations with my mom when

I was little, and sometimes with my wife, and sometimes with my dad.

I can probably pick out a lot of people I've had conversations with where you think about the next thing you're gonna say, and you don't listen to what the other person is saying.

And how many of y 'all have ever heard, you didn't answer my question?

Have you ever heard that? Okay, we've all been there, right? You're asking me these questions, but you didn't answer mine yet.

I know we've all been there. And there was one time not too long ago that I was asking

God some questions. And when you're praying, sometimes you feel like, do

I always just ask God for stuff? Do I always just ask for what

I want and I stop listening? I just start telling. And I had one of those moments. I know we've all been through that, but the

Lord just kind of said, hey, who's asking the questions here? And I was like, what do you mean?

And I got to thinking about these conversations I've had growing up and with people that I love, and I realized

I do that to God all the time. I ask him questions and I've not stopped to answer the ones he's asking me.

And I thought, well, what does that even look like? What questions is he asking me? And so I started looking through scripture to figure that out.

I mean, I know God asks me to love him and love my neighbor as myself, right?

And those are the two greatest commandments, but those are commandments. And I always see God telling me what to do.

So I started asking, well, does God ask questions too? And I think we all know he does, but I wanted to start searching those out.

So what we're going to do today, it's a little bit unorthodox. This is not an expository message.

We're not going to go verse by verse through scripture. Instead, what we're going to do is we're going to go question by question. All right?

And when I started doing this, it really made Bible study kind of fun for a little while.

You know how when you find something that's new to you, there's really nothing new in the Bible. It's all been there the whole time.

But when you find something, it goes, wow, I got to find some, I got to find more of that. And so this is going to be a lifelong study for me, probably.

We won't take that long today. But I just started going through scripture and saying, where are the questions

God asks man? And that's what we're going to do. We're just going to go through scripture, starting with Genesis, and we'll go all the way through Revelation.

We'll look at every single question. I'm just kidding. We won't have time for that. But I got to 19 questions.

All right? In preparation for this, I got to 19 different questions. I don't know we'll have time for all that.

It was bugging the heck out of me that I couldn't get to 20. I wanted to get to 20 questions so I can say, we're going to play 20 questions with God.

But it turns out he didn't want it to be a game. That's what pop told me this morning.

He was like, God just didn't want it to be a game. So 19 questions we have. All right. So here's what

I did. I went through and I started looking at the questions that God has. And I just started asking,

I had one question I would bring. To every question. And that was, why did you ask that question?

Okay? So we're going to do that together and we'll just see what we learned from it. Sound good? All right. So let's start with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you so much for your truth, for your word, Lord. We thank you that it is truth and that it is unchanging, but it does change us.

Lord, we just ask that what we learned today has that effect. Lord, we just ask that what we have today is something that touches our hearts and stimulates our minds.

Father, we just ask that you give us insight, help us to learn. We cannot do that without your

Holy Spirit. So we ask that you send your Holy Spirit into this room. We know that we have the

Holy Spirit indwelling in us. Lord, help us to connect to him and to listen to him as we listen to this.

Father, we love you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay. So who can remember the first question

God ever asked man? Yes, Sam. Where are you?

That's right, that's right. Who did he ask it of? Yes, Maddie.

Matt, that's right. He asked Adam and Eve. He was actually speaking to Adam, wasn't he? So let's give a little context here.

We're gonna go to that verse, and that is in Genesis chapter three.

So go there with me real quick, if you would. Let's see,

I need to remember where I am on that. Genesis chapter three, we'll start.

The question comes in verse nine, but we're gonna just, let me give you a little bit of a synopsis.

Man has sinned, right? He has eaten of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil. And he has disobeyed

God's commands. He and his wife have discovered that they are without clothing and they are ashamed.

And so they are hiding from the Lord, okay? And so in verse eight, and they heard the voice of the

Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. You know what

I love? I love when the scripture does that. When it says in the cool of the day, it's just, it doesn't just give you the story, it paints a picture.

That's neither here nor there, but I just think that's cool. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the

Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto

Adam and said, and here's the first question. He said unto him, where art thou?

So here's my question. Why did God ask that question? Obviously he knows where Adam is, right?

Yes, to make them think about where are they, right? The see, wait,

God is omniscient. The whole idea that he asks questions is interesting to me because he doesn't need to know the answer.

And I think that's because God's not looking for an answer. He's asking us to look for the answer.

And so yeah, Adam, where are you? What is he asking Adam? He's asking you, he's asking

Adam, what is your state? Look around, what's your life look like right now?

It's a self -examination verse. It's designed to get Adam to kind of look in the mirror.

And I'm in sales. I do a lot of sales type stuff, and I've been learning a lot more about sales recently.

It's a noble profession. No, most people don't think that, but it turns out they're good salespeople and they're bad salespeople.

And anyone who really truly understands what sales is, it's just helping people make decisions they already want to make.

Has nothing to do with convincing somebody to do anything. If you're trying to convince somebody to do something for your reasons, you're a terrible salesman.

If you're a good salesman, all you're really doing is serving people and helping them make the decisions that are hard to make sometimes.

And you're helping them get to a place where they're making decisions they need to make, they know they want to make them, but they just need someone to help them make them.

And one of the things I love about that is that it's not about convincing, it's about persuading, right?

And persuading has nothing to do with getting people to do what you want them to do. Has everything to do with getting them to do what they want to do or what they need to do.

That's what persuading is. And one of the things that we learn in sales is that you have to ask a lot of questions.

It's the only way that you can get someone to really open up and think about their own situation. If you tell them what to think, they just shut down.

They don't want to be told what to think. No one likes to be convinced, but they love to be sold.

All of us love to be sold. If you think about it, anytime you buy something, you're actually pretty happy you're buying it. Yeah, there's this thing called buyer's remorse, but in the moment, you know, you need it.

You know, you need to make the decision and it could be anything. It could be buying milk and bread, who knows? But people do like to be persuaded because it frees them to make decisions that they need to make.

And what I love about God is that he asks a lot of questions because he is in the business of persuading man to think and use the brain he gave him.

And so he goes to Adam and he says, Adam, where art thou?

He's trying to get Adam to examine himself. We know that we're supposed to examine ourselves. 2 Corinthians 13, five tells us examine yourselves.

It's pretty blunt, right? Examine yourselves whether you be in faith. Now that's interesting.

Why do we examine ourselves? To see if we're in faith. Turn to Hebrews 11, four for me real quick.

Okay, so we've got Hebrews 11, four. We're actually gonna go, that's the wrong verse.

It's further down. It is in Hebrews 11. It's gonna be about Abraham. It'll be verse eight. By faith,

Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should receive for an inheritance, what'd he do?

Obeyed. He obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went.

Obedience requires faith. And that's what Abraham did. What's the point?

We're supposed to examine ourselves and see if we have faith. What is the point of the examination? See if we have faith so that we can do something, right?

So we've got Adam here and he is supposed to examine himself. What state are you in,

Adam? Where art thou? So let's go ahead and move to the next question. Who knows this next question? Yes, you're allowed to cheat and look at the screen.

Yes, Sam. Close. Do you know?

What? Yes, who told you that you were naked? Here's Adam.

He tells God, we were ashamed and we hid from you. All right, so God calls out

Adam. Adam, where are you? I'm ashamed. We're naked.

Really? Who told you this? Did God tell Adam and Eve that they had no clothes on?

No. Their eyes were open, but isn't it interesting that God is asking, who were you listening to?

Because if you were listening to God, you would not have known this because he didn't tell you this. Who told you that thou was naked?

We're gonna move on to the third question. Before we do though,

I want you to consider who do you listen to? Where does your source of information come from?

Because where that source of information comes from is gonna determine what you believe.

Something that Myron Golden says all the time. I love it. He says, who you believe determines what you believe and what you believe determines what you'll do.

So who have you been listening to? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof

I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? This is the third question. It's followed up right after the second question.

He says, Adam, did you eat of the tree that I told you not to eat of?

Why did you ask that, God? That's my question. We know why he asked

Adam where he was. He wants Adam to self -examinate. Is that a word?

I just made it up and it is now a word. Put it in the dictionary. Okay, so first he wants to self -examinate.

The self -examination, right? He wants Adam to think of it, to have an examination to consider his communication, right?

Oh, that kind of gets some alliteration going on. We're gonna keep going. This is fun. All right, but then third, was he in submission?

See, I did it again. Was he in submission? Did you obey my commands?

All right, so consider the state you're in right now. Now, this is why I'm doing this study because I'm wanting to know what is

God asking me, right? So I'm trying to personalize each and every one of these questions while I'm going through them.

All right, what state am I in right now? What does my life look like right now? What are the problem areas that I need help in right now?

And I say, okay, here's a problem area. How did I get there?

Who was I listening to in this area of my life? So listening to God, or did I have another source?

Now, based on that source, who I believe determines what I believe, and what I believe determines what

I'll do. What am I doing? Am I submitting to God? Am I in submission?

The next question is not to Adam, who is it to? It's to Eve, because he says,

Adam, who told you that you were naked, right? Who have you been listening to?

And he says, did you eat of the tree that I commanded you not to eat? Adam says, yes, the woman you gave me.

She told me to do it, right? So what does

God do? He turns to Eve. He says, what is this thou has done? My question, why did you ask that,

God? He knows what she has done. He already knows what was done.

They were already found to have been eating of the fruit of the tree that they should not have eaten.

So he knows what was done, so he's not asking what was really done.

So why did he say, what is this thou has done? He wants the details, right?

We already know you gave him the fruit. You tell me, give me the confession, right?

He's asking for confession and he's asking for details. Tell me everything, leave nothing out.

What is this thou has done? How have you disobeyed? All right, so the next question doesn't come until the next chapter, and God is talking to a different person.

We have the first four questions to Adam and Eve, right? The next three questions are going to be to Cain.

Maybe the next five questions, actually. The next five questions are to Cain. So Cain, what do we all know him as?

First murderer, right? It's interesting that he was destined to be the first murderer.

He was destined to kill his brother, Abel. This was all part of God's plan, all part of his will.

And yet God asks him questions to give him a chance not to do it.

Isn't that weird? So you go into chapter four and we'll give you some context and you'll see.

What I love about this is that we know that God is sovereign but next to his sovereignty, we also see the responsibility of man, right next to it, everywhere you look.

So while God is sovereign, we still have a responsibility. So we're gonna go into Genesis chapter four and we're gonna get a little context here.

Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again, bearing his brother,

Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering into the

Lord. So Cain is offering to God. Now, is Cain considered one of God's people? You tell me.

And yet he's offering to God. Abel also brought of the first slings of his flock and of the fat thereof.

And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. What's the difference? What's the difference between Cain's offering and Abel's offering?

Cain's offering did involve blood. Cain's offering did involve blood but it also had to do with the first slings of his flock.

If you look at the heart that Abel had when he is giving his sacrifice, his offering unto

God, here's what he's doing. He's offering with the right heart. And you can tell just from what happens after that Cain's heart is not in the right place.

Cain just brought, Abel brought the first. Abel not only brought of his fruit, he brought of the first fruits, he brought his best.

He came with a truly sacrificial heart, a joyful giver, so to speak.

And Abel also brought of the first slings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto

Abel and to his offering but unto Cain and to his offering, he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell.

Okay, so here's where God comes in and asks a question. And the Lord said unto

Cain, why art thou wroth? There's the question, Cain, why are you angry? God, why did you ask this question?

Obviously, you know the answer. Cain is not very happy that you liked his little brother's sacrifice more than you liked his.

So what do you think? Why is God asking Cain, why are you angry? Self -examination again, right?

But not only self -examination to look at your own heart, but also he's given him all the reasons he shouldn't be angry.

You'll see that next. And it comes, he's gonna give us two more questions and we'll get to those questions in a second.

He says, why is thy countenance fallen? And if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.

But this last part of verse seven is telling us why Cain should not be angry. And unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him.

He's talking about his little brother. He's like, look, you're angry, but your little brother, he's looking up to you.

Your little brother, he's not going to receive the inheritance of your parents.

Like you're the eldest son. You have no reason to be angry at him. And yet you're angry. What's the problem?

He's not said that he's going to take your inheritance. He's not tried to take your inheritance.

His desire is for you. He looks up to you. He's a good kid. And you're angry.

Why are you angry? What's wrong with your heart there? Examine yourself, Cain. He has no reason to be angry, but the reason he is angry, and I read a really neat commentary about this, is that he's angry because he has no peace in his acts of religion.

He's going through the motions, but his heart isn't in the right place. So there's no peace there. Abel has peace with God.

God has respect unto Abel. There's a great thing going on here. And he can see his little brother has something he doesn't have, and it makes him mad.

Makes him mad that his little brother has something with the creator that he doesn't have, and he doesn't know how to get it.

The Lord says, why are you angry? Why are you upset? But here's the next question. All right, the next question is, why is thy countenance fallen?

What's a countenance? Somebody tell me, what's a countenance? Attitude, all right?

If you look up the word countenance, it actually means face.

It has to do with the appearance, how you look. So he's saying, the way you look is fallen.

Look up the word fallen. It actually means to fail, all right?

So here's Cain, upset and looking like failure.

And God is asking him, why are you upset? Why do you look like failure?

If you look like failure, something is failing. Something's not working right. And he's getting Cain to self -examination.

Examine, it just sounds better. I'm gonna go with that. Examine yourself,

Cain. Isn't it interesting that he actually does this with someone who ultimately is not his people?

This is how he holds man accountable for his sins because Cain does exactly what he wants to do. You see the responsibility of man play out and Cain ultimately goes and kills his brother.

He hasn't done it yet. Not yet, right now, God is trying to reason with Cain. Why are you upset?

He's a good kid. Why do you look like failure? Are you doing something wrong,

Cain? And we know what he's really getting at. Are you doing something wrong?

Because look at the third question he asks Cain. This is the seventh question in scripture to man from God.

And that is, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? See, if you do well, you'll be accepted.

Look up the word accepted. It means exalted, elevated, improved.

It's like, if you do well, it will get better. Things will get better.

And so he's asking Cain, what's up? Why are you upset?

Are you doing something wrong? Maybe you should consider doing something different. So what's

Cain do after this discussion with the Lord? Tells us in verse eight, and Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him.

Now, who was Abel? You can't just say

Cain's brother. Who was he? Was he one of God's people? Yeah, definitely.

But he also was an example. He was an example to Cain.

We see it very clearly because what is God asking Cain in these last three questions?

If you do like your brother does, you'll have the same result. You see? If you do well, you'll be accepted.

He knew Cain wouldn't do it. He perhaps knew Cain couldn't do it. I love what brother

Bill was talking about this morning about having faith. And if we go to Hebrews chapter 11, verse four, we see that by faith, the faith of God, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice, right?

So maybe Cain couldn't do it, but it's interesting that he was given the instructions to do it.

He's held accountable. And so Abel was the example.

Here's the faithful one. The faithful one who brings his firstlings and offers a more excellent sacrifice by the faith that God has given him.

So now Cain, he has slain Abel.

He's killed his little brother. It's very sad. Read some commentaries by Spurgeon on this and powerful pictures are painted there where Cain perhaps was very shocked at what he had just done, seeing the death of his little brother, seeing blood for the first time.

He had never heard of bad things. He had never heard of war or of killing or anything like that.

And now this has happened. It must've been shocking to him, but he also must've had a sense of relief when he saw that the earth soaked up that which came out of his little brother, thinking, ooh, okay, maybe

I won't get caught because the earth has opened up. Even God said later that the earth has received his blood cries out to me from the earth.

And so there must've been almost a sense of, okay, maybe I'm all right.

Not so much remorse, just all right, the problem's taken care of. That was shocking, but it's over.

And then God comes and asks more questions. Where is Abel, thy brother?

Why'd you ask that, God? What do you think? Why did

God ask Cain, where is Abel, thy brother? Yes. Oh, I know, that was almost the right answer.

It was that close. I could see it on the tip of your tongue. You were close. Self -examination, right?

Why or where is your brother? But not just self -examination. There's another layer there because he's also saying, where's the example that I put in your life?

Where is it? Where's that person that I told you, hey, look, he's doing it right. If you do like he's doing, you should have the same result.

Where is he? And it's immediately followed up with another question. What is this thou hast done?

Because Cain says, my brother's keeper. And that's when God says, what did you do? And what's really cool is that the eighth question and the ninth question are ways for God to hold the mirror up in front of you and say, let's compare you to the example.

Where's the example? And where are you? What did you do?

And that's really what's happening here is God is reminding Cain of the previous conversations where he's talking about him being upset with his little brother.

You shouldn't be upset. He's a good kid. Follow his example, do well, and you'll be accepted.

He did well. He was accepted. Where's the example I put in your life? And what did you do?

What did you do? All right, so the next question doesn't come until, oh,

I'm missing something here. But it doesn't come until we get to Hagar.

So I'll go to my phone here and pull it up. Genesis 16, verse seven.

Turn with me there. 16, seven.

All right, so we're going to Genesis 16, seven. Now, a little bit of context.

Hagar has born a child, or is about to bear a child to Abraham.

She hasn't yet. She has conceived. And when she conceived, it made Sarah very upset because Sarah is supposed to be the vehicle through which

God brings his promise, the promised seed of Isaac, right? He's supposed to bring that to Abraham, and it's supposed to come through Sarah.

He has told Abraham this. He's told Abraham that I am going to give

Sarah a child, but they're getting old. And they decide they're going to try and help God instead of just trusting my guess, right?

Sarah says that she, and it's really Sarah's idea. It's not Abraham's idea, which is important to take note of because if you want this to agree with the scriptures, you have to understand that Abraham didn't doubt.

Abraham had utmost faith when it came to the promise that God had for him through Isaac.

And you'll see that here in a little bit. But so Sarah decides she's going to help God, and she tells her husband, take my handmaid and you're going to have a baby.

So when the handmaid conceives, this makes her very frustrated and very jealous.

And she gets very stern with her handmaid and Hagar runs away, all right?

So she's running away. She flees from her master and God comes into the picture and God asks her questions.

Y 'all remember this part of the story? God asked her questions. There are two questions he asked her. Who remembers what those questions are?

You can cheat, you can look at them. Here, I'll put them both up there. Yeah, where did you come from?

And where are you going to go? There's a reason why God has her answer these questions.

God, why did you ask these questions? He knows who Hagar is. He knows where she came from and he knows where she might end up going.

And in fact, he knows that she's going to turn around and go back, right? But he wants Hagar to think about it.

And if you look at what he has Hagar do, it's really cool. Check this out. I'm going to go, and the angel of the

Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said,

Hagar, Sarai's handmaid, whence camest thou and whither wilt thou go? And she said,

I flee from the face of my mistress, Sarai. And the angel of the Lord said unto her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself under her hands.

Interesting that God's questions are designed to get us to turn back.

Interesting that is, and if you could make an argument that all the questions leading up to now are all about that.

Turn back, go back to where you came from. You have an origin.

You have a place where you belong and you are not there right now. Go back to where you belong.

And that's what he's telling Sarai, or sorry, Hagar, the handmaid to Sarai.

He tells her, go back to where you came from. And not just go back, what does she have to do in order to go back?

She has to submit. She has to submit. Where wilt thou go?

Where'd you come from? And where do you think you're gonna end up? Go back, submit. All right, so then we get to the next questions.

I'm not sure why it's not pulling up my references, but I do have them here on my phone too.

So I'll let you know what the references are. The next question actually is to Abraham.

And here we're gonna spend a little bit of time because I want y 'all to see the faith that Abraham has. This is in Genesis chapter 18, verse nine.

And I need to really share with you how

I came to, why did God ask this question? Because this is a cool one to me. So a little bit of context,

Genesis chapter 18, verse nine. I'm gonna pull it up here so that I can read it to you guys. Forgive me for being a little bit slow.

I have notes everywhere. And I gotta just make sure I go through them properly.

So, all right, so Abraham is out enjoying the day.

Out in the cool. And he looks off in the distance and he sees these three men coming and he runs up to them.

And well, we'll just kind of go back and talk about all that real quick. And the

Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mammar. And he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.

And he lift up his eyes and looked and lo, three men stood by him. And when he saw them, he ran to meet them.

Oh, by the way, let's just stop for a second. He sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.

Isn't that cool? There's more of that description. It's just cool. God's painting a picture for us. And he lifted,

I'm gonna chase rabbit trails like that. I'm sorry, I'm a little bit ADD when it comes to this kind of stuff. But, and he lift up his eyes and looked and lo, three men stood by him.

And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground.

Who is he looking at? Says, the Lord appeared unto him.

All right, and he knows he's talking to the Lord. And said, my Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away,

I pray thee for my servant. Let a little water, I pray you be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.

And I will fetch a morsel of bread and comfort you, keep your hearts. After that you shall pass on for therefore are you come to your servant.

And they said, so do as thou has said. And Abraham hastened into the tent unto

Sarah and said, make ready quickly three measures of the fine meal.

Knead it and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham ran into the herd and fetched a calf tender and good and gave it unto a young man.

And he hasted to dress it and he took butter and milk and the calf, which he had dressed.

And he set it before them and he stood by them under the tree and they did eat. And here comes the question.

And who's the question from? The Lord, because that's who he's talking to. So this is the next question.

This is the 12th question God asks man in scripture. Where is

Sarah thy wife? God, why did you ask that question? You know, she's in the tent.

Abraham knows she's in the tent. He was just with her. Why would

God ask this question? Well, let's take into account what has transpired up until this point. God has made a promise to Abraham that he is going to be the father, right?

He's going to have seed through his wife. How do we know this?

Because we see it in Genesis chapter 17. It's one chapter before this. And Abraham apparently has this awesome faith about it.

We know because in chapter 11 of Hebrews, when we're talking about by faith, Abraham by faith believed the promise that God had for him, right?

And he did not stumble in that faith. So why is God bringing up Sarah or Sarai at this point?

Why is he bringing her up? Sarah, yeah, because he's already changed your name at this point. Why is he bringing her up in this conversation?

To remind him of the promise. That is the whole point, why he brings up Sarah.

He doesn't bring her up to really say, where is she? He's like, do you remember my promise? Now, of course,

God knows that Abraham has remembered the promise, but consider the things that have transpired. He had a lot of faith.

So why does he have a child with Hagar? What's going on there?

The whole point of God asking these questions is to get to the root of the problem. It's to get into that.

So he says, where is your wife, Sarah? Okay, now let's look and see, did

Abraham doubt? Is that what this is about? Well, let's find out.

So the next question he asks is, why did Sarah laugh?

Because first he says, where is Sarah? All right, Abraham's like, she's in the tent.

And then God says, this time next year, she's gonna be pregnant. And that's when

Sarah goes. I mean, she's getting old, right?

How old is she at this time? Like 90 something, she's really old. And she laughs, and she laughs out of disbelief.

So that's why God is asking these questions. These questions are designed to get to the disbelief and turn back.

So let's look at Genesis 17, and let's see, does Abraham share this same disbelief?

Because Abraham laughed when he heard about this promise. Do y 'all remember that? He laughed when he heard this promise.

It's in Genesis 17, verse 15 through 17,

I believe. So for some reason, I always accidentally go to Exodus when I'm doing this on my phone.

So Genesis 17, 15, through 17.

In the old days, you could always say, I'll give you a moment to get there, and you'd hear all the pages flipping. No one needs that moment anymore.

So now you just have to be honest and like, I'm not there yet. You always give someone else the time to get there, and then you have time to get there too.

It doesn't work that way now. All right. Verse 15, and God said unto

Abraham, this is where he hears of having a child with Sarah. She's not yet Sarah. She's about to have her name changed.

And God said unto Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name

Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. And I will bless her and give thee a son also of her.

Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of people shall be of her.

Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart, shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old?

And shall Sarah, that is 90 years old, bear? This is a big deal for them, right?

Like he's like, he's laughing, but he's not laughing out of disbelief. He's laughing out of amazement.

How do we know this? Go to Romans 4, 13 through 22. Romans 4, 13 through 22.

For the promise that he should, oh, let's go up a little bit further. In the five, I'm gonna start halfway through verse 12 here.

But also, who also walked in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had been had being yet uncircumcised for the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect, because the law worketh raft, for there is no law for where no law is, there is no transgression.

Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to only which is of the law, but to that also, which is of the faith of Abraham.

Interesting, it's mentioning the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Okay, as it is written,

I have made thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed even

God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were.

Now here's Abraham's faith. We're talking about Abraham's faith here. Who against hope, believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be.

And being not weak in faith, this is Paul talking about Abraham, and he's actually discussing this event where Abraham laughs, all right?

This is where Abraham heard the promise. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb.

You see, he didn't even consider that Sarah's womb would be dead.

He had so much faith. He hoped against hope, he believed, which means his laugh was not out of disbelief.

His laugh was out of amazement. It was like, wow, are you serious?

I'm gonna have a kid? Woo! That's hilarious. It's gonna happen.

I don't know how, but it's gonna happen. It was a laugh out of amazement. And so, let's telescope back to chapter 18 of Genesis.

I just finished the next two verses real quick. Oh, you like the next two verses? Why don't you finish them for me, Pop? He staggered not at the promise of God, through unbelief, but with strong faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.

Yeah, he fully persuaded, fully persuaded that God was going to give him what he promised.

Thank you, Pop. And was that verse 21 and 22? 20 and 21. 20 and 21. I actually had in my notes to go through that, but I didn't have them written down, so.

Okay, wherefore did Sarah laugh? This is the 13th question.

All right, so now, God is asking, why did Sarah laugh? God knows why Abraham laughed.

He laughed in amazement. He laughed in marvel.

He was marveling at God's amazing promise that he had given him. But now,

Sarah's laughing. And Sarah is laughing in disbelief. And that is why

God is bringing attention to this. Do you remember my promise? Where is thy wife, Sarah? Why did she laugh?

And what's interesting is that God is asking Abraham, why Sarah laughed?

Why is he not asking Sarah? Because Abraham is the one responsible for Sarah.

Why'd you ask this question, God? Because what God's really asking is, why do the people around you not believe?

Why do they doubt? Why is Sarah doubting? Because I know you didn't.

And if you don't doubt, she certainly shouldn't doubt. Like, you should be living your life in such a way where she is going, yeah,

I believe it. He's holding Abraham accountable. Accountable for Sarah's disbelief.

That's a high calling there. And how do we know he's holding Abraham accountable for Sarah's disbelief?

We know because of the next question. He then asks Abraham, is there anything too hard for the

Lord? Do you disbelieve? See, there's a lot that has transpired here, right?

It was that Abraham fully believed, laughed in amazement.

But since then, a lot of things have happened. He's got a child with Hagar, and now

Sarah's laughing in disbelief. So God is bringing all this to the forefront.

Here's the problem, turn back, fix it. Abraham, why is she laughing?

Do you remember my promise? Why is she laughing? Do you believe? Is there anything too hard for the

Lord? Oh, there they are. They just came in late. Got my scripture references to come in late.

Oh, well. Okay, next question. And we're getting close to the end, so hang in there with me.

Genesis chapter 18, verses 17 through 18. You guys doing all right?

Hanging in there? Okay. So now I'm gonna pull that up too, because I'm gonna read,

I'm gonna give you some context as to what's happening. So now God has asked

Abraham about his wife, Sarah, and why does she laugh? And do you believe, right? But then it's time for the

Lord to leave. And so we're in verses 17 and 18 now. I'm gonna start with 16.

And then, and the men rose up from thence and looked towards Sodom.

You know what they're about to do, right? They're about to go whoop up on Sodom and Gomorrah.

About to wipe them off the face of the earth. But who's over there? Lot, right?

And Lot is family. And Abraham is concerned, right?

But Abraham's not concerned yet because he doesn't know what's gonna happen. But he's about to get concerned. So the men rose up from thence and looked towards Sodom, and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way.

So Abraham's walking about. All right, thanks for coming. Hope you enjoyed the meal. I'll talk to my wife about that faith issue, right?

Walking out, and the Lord said, "'Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which

I do?' Now, and he says, "'Seeing that Abraham shall surely become "'a great and mighty nation "'and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him.'"

So this is the next question, all right? This is question number 15 from God. But it's almost not really to man, is it?

Because did he ask Abraham anything? Yeah, he asked amongst himself, you know?

But here's what's interesting. He asked with an earshot of Abraham. So it is a question for Abraham.

But it's the kind of question Abraham can only hear if he's close to God. Do you wanna know what

God is doing? You gotta get close. You gotta move away from the sin, from the problems, and from the doubt.

You gotta submit, you gotta turn back, and you gotta get close with God.

And Abraham was very close. He walked with God. He was walking with God right here. And the closer you are, the more you'll hear.

The more questions you'll get from God. This is a question God is almost pondering to himself.

But what is he really saying? Should I tell you what I'm going to do? Should I tell you?

All right, Genesis 19, this is the 16th question. Remember, I said we have 19, so we're getting close. We're almost to the end.

Genesis 19 comes, the next question comes to Lot, okay? And so this question is for Lot to consider.

God has moved on from Abraham. He goes into Sodom and Gomorrah. He's getting ready to destroy the place.

And he tells Lot what's about to happen. And here's what he tells Lot. We're gonna go to chapter 19, verse 12.

Come on, slow phone. Yeah, and I love the bargaining.

It's really cool. But God actually tolerates it, you know?

But it's just neat. There's a lot of lesson to be learned there as well. Okay, and while he lingered, this is verse 16.

While he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two daughters.

These guys are, they are grabbing at Lot. And the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth and set him without the city.

And it came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad that he escaped, that he said, no, that he said, escape for thy life.

Look not behind thee, either stay thou in all the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed.

So here's what's happening. All right, I didn't quite go back far enough. But yeah, so the angels, basically, they start kicking booty on some people and they save Lot and pull him out of town.

And here's what he says to Lot. Here's the question. It comes in verse 12.

Did I go too far? I went too far. Yes, yes, yes.

Okay, I'm sorry, I went too far. Verse 10, and then we'll go through 12.

But the men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house to them and shut to the door. And here's where the angels come in and they kick some booty.

They smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they were wearied, so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

So they couldn't even find the door. They start going, ah, we can't even see a thing. And the men said unto

Lot, hast thou there be, I'm sorry, hast thou hear any besides?

That's an interesting way to say that. But what are they asking? Is there anybody else? Is there anybody else that needs this?

We've smote the enemy with blindness. It's time to run. Is there anyone else besides you?

And that's interesting because the question is, why did you ask this, God? Because you want us to think about who else needs the message, who else needs the help.

That's the whole reason. God already knows who they are and they know where they are, but he puts the responsibility of man right there in the forefront.

Is there anyone else? The 17th question.

We're back to Hagar. Isn't it interesting that God visits her yet again?

Now, this doesn't happen for two more chapters. Genesis 21, verse 17.

All right. I actually heard some pages. Somebody's got a real Bible here. That's really cool.

Okay. So let's talk about what's happened here.

Isaac has been born. And now Sarah is upset that there is an

Ishmael. She's upset that Ishmael could get part of the inheritance.

Like he should be getting the whole inheritance. He's the oldest. According to their culture, Ishmael is the one who's supposed to get it.

She says to Abraham, send them away because they are not gonna get what Isaac was promised.

Isn't it funny? She's partly to blame, but she's like, we're not gonna let

Ishmael get Isaac's promise. That's not gonna happen. Send them away.

And this grieved Abraham. He was very sad because it's his son. He loved his son, but he does what his wife tells him to.

And he does so because God told him to. So he does what he's told.

He sends them on their way, gives them a flask of water and sends them off.

What a scary time for them. They run out of water. They're walking, they run out of water.

And she is so terrified. She just knows they're dead. Hagar knows that she and Ishmael are dead.

And so she casts Ishmael under some bushes and walks away because she doesn't want to see her child die.

How terrible is that? But then God has a question for her.

What aileth thee, Hagar? Really? Seriously?

My husband kicked me out. I'm on my own. I'm out of water. We're about to die.

What, aileth me? Why did you ask that, God? What is he really asking?

Did you think you were done? That's really what he's asking. Did you think you were done?

I have a plan. You think you're dead, but I've got a plan. I'm going to make your son great.

He will be a nation. His hand will be against everyone and everyone's hand will be against him. And it's kind of a rough prophecy when you think about it, but they're not done.

And that's really what the purpose of the question is. Why are you upset? Why are you worried?

You're not done yet. We get to the 18th and 19th questions.

And these two are perhaps my absolute favorite. All right? Because next we see

Jacob. So this is a few generations down the road, right? Isaac has been born. He is grown up.

He has born sons, Jacob and Esau. They have their whole story where Jacob tricks his brother into selling his birthright.

He goes and tricks his dad into giving the birthright. Jacob means supplanter or a deceiver almost.

Like he's just a tricky guy, right? But he is God's guy. He chooses this guy.

He chooses this wily coyote type person. And now Jacob is on his way back to see

Esau. And Jacob is a little bit worried about this. He has fled from Laban and he's on his way to Esau.

And he is camped out by the river and God visits.

And he wrestles with God. And he is putting up a fight, wrestling with God.

And so let's go there now. There's Genesis chapter 32. Genesis chapter 32, verse 27 and 29.

Here we go. All right. And he said, let me go for the day breaketh.

And he said, I will not. This is Jacob. I will not let you go, except you bless me.

And he said unto him, what is thy name? Now he knows Jacob's name.

Why'd you ask that God? Because he is about to absolutely change

Jacob's identity. These next two questions are all about identity.

And Jacob's identity is at the time, Jacob. And God says, no, it's not.

It's Israel. You will no longer be called Jacob. You will be called

Israel. And he said unto him, what is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, thy name shall be called no more

Jacob, but Israel. For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed.

And Jacob asked him and said, tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?

There's the next question. Why'd you ask that God? Jacob says, what's your name?

And God says, why'd you ask? What does that even mean?

Like the reason why Jacob asks the question is because Jacob at this time doesn't yet know

God the way he should. And that's the point. That's why God asked

Jacob, why do you have to ask? Because you're not close enough to me yet. You gotta get near to me.

You should know me. Why do you ask? You shouldn't have to. I am the

God of your father, Abraham and Isaac. You shouldn't have to ask who

I am. He never even answers him really. He just says, why do you even ask? And that's it. But it has everything to do with identity.

What is thy name? And wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name?

Who are you? And why do you have to ask who I am? If you want to know who you are, you got to get in the word and understand who

God is because who you are is rooted in who he is. Your identity is rooted in him.

Let us make man in our own image. Just the fact that you exist is rooted in him.

So our very identity comes from him and we're supposed to be closer to him in order for it to make sense of who we are.

All right, so we're gonna go right through these questions real fast and we're just gonna, we're going to sum up everything we said, all right?

We're gonna go right through all the questions. What is the reason God asked? And we're gonna put them right up next to it and you're gonna see, it's pretty cool.

All right. Where art thou? What state are you in? Who told thee that thou was naked?

Who have you been listening to? Hast thou eaten of the tree? Where have I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Did you disobey my commands? What is this that thou hast done? How did you disobey?

Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen? Why are you upset? And why do you look like failure?

If you do right, won't things get better? Isn't that cool? It's so cool.

Let's keep going. Where's the example I gave you? How did you disobey in comparison to this example?

Where do you belong? And where do you think you're going? Where's that promise

I gave you? Why do the people around you doubt? Do you doubt what

I can do? Should I tell you what

I'm going to do? Who else needs this? Did you think you were done?

What's your identity? Why don't you know me better? Just going through all the questions, question by question by question, it's almost a message in and of itself.

And the message, the whole point is to turn back, is to love

God, is to obey his commands. Peter, do you love me?

You know I love you. Feed my sheep. Peter, do you love me? You know that I love you.

Feed my lambs. Peter, do you love me? Peter is grieved.

Why is Peter grieved? At these questions from his Lord? Because God isn't just asking, do you love me?

He's asking, are you going to obey me? Are you going to do the things that I ask you to do? If you obey me, if you love me, you will keep my what?

Commandments. For me, it's been a fun study. The whole point of it has just been, have you given me everything yet?

Peter knew, he's like, yes, of course I love you. Yeah, but do you love me? How much?

I think everyone in this room loves the Lord. At least I've seen evidence of it. But just how much?

What area are we holding back in? What area have we just not quite given up yet?

What areas are we wrestling with God in? Because when we wrestle with him, the only way we're going to prevail is to turn back, is to remember who we are in Christ.

Because who we believe will determine what we believe, and what we believe will determine what we do. And what we do, that shows the world who we are.

You'll know them by this, by their love, one for another. Right? You'll know them by their fruits.

The things that we do show the world who we are, and I don't think we've done a very good job of that. Maybe in some areas, but that's not what being set apart is all about.

It's supposed to be all areas. It's supposed to be reckless abandonment, running to God, and being everything that he wants us to be.

And I'm going to try to do better about that. Hopefully this message is good for y 'all, and encouraging y 'all for that as well.

Sorry, I went kind of long, 1241, wow. But anyway, let's stand and have prayer together.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank you so much for your word. We thank you for all the questions you ask us. Help us to ponder them, help us to look more for them.

Help us to realize that sometimes we're doing all the talking and we should be doing all the listening. Help us to examine ourselves.

Think about who are we listening to? Help us to look at what we've done and compare it to the example that you've set in our life, which is

Jesus Christ, your son. Father, help us to change our ways in every area of our lives.

Help us to be obedient. Help us to show you that we love you and help us to just do a better job of it.

Lord, we love you, we thank you. And we ask that you bless the food that we're about to receive and bless the time of fellowship together.