Laughing at the Promises of God

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Don Filcek, Beginning with God: A Walk Through the Book of Genesis; Genesis 17:1-18:15 Laughing at the Promises of God

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community, and service.
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This is a message from the series, Beginning with God, Walking Through the Book of Genesis, by Pastor of Teaching and Vision, Don Filsack.
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If you'd like to learn more about Recast or access our sermon archive, please visit us at recastchurch .com.
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Here's Pastor Don. Well, good morning. If you can find your seats, we're going to go ahead and get started here.
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So, love to hear the conversations and the chatter going on, but be sure to check out the worship folder that you received when you walked in.
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This is just scratching the surface of the different things that are going on here at the church. And so, if you get this, you read it, you're kind of like, oh, there's some stuff going on.
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But really the way to connect here is by filling out a connection card. So, if you've never done that before and been willing to share your email address with us, that's the primary way that we stay in communication with people, is we send out a weekly email.
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It has all kinds of links and different things that are on there. You can unsubscribe yourself from that at any time.
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So, just signing up for it doesn't mean that you're locked into getting that in your inbox all the time. But I recommend that everybody who is calling
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Recast their church, make sure that you filled one of these out and put your email address on there. Just so that you have the information available to you.
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That doesn't mean that you have to read it every week as it comes in. And then remember that there's a place to put prayer requests on the back and different check marks there.
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As a leadership team, the elders really love to get these prayer requests because then we know how to pray for you better.
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We do pray for you guys on a routine basis, but knowing the specifics is very beneficial to us as we pray.
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And then also remember that those connection cards go in the black box back there. If it's your first time, turn in one and take one of those coffee mugs too.
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And then any offerings will go in the black box too. If you're not going to use the envelope you received, then just recycle that in the white basket next to it.
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It says to recycle. And then we can reuse these week in and week out. Saves us on some printing and things like that.
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And also remember that any gifts that are given that are marked Expansion Fund will go towards our hopes to build a building towards our facility.
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And so we're seeing money roll in with marked Expansion Fund and that goes into that specific account.
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Now I want to highlight for you this morning that we're a church that's dedicated to growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service.
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How many of you have heard that before? You've heard that phrase? Good. That means that you're paying some attention. That ties in with our core values.
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Our core values being reproducing, community, authenticity, simplicity, truth, an acronym for our name,
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RECAST. But growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service highlights that simplicity one there in the sense that you may have noticed that we...
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How many of you noticed that we don't have an evening service? Have you noticed that already? We don't have a Wednesday night meeting. We have pretty low programming here.
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And that's because we have kind of boiled things down to three things that we believe are essential for you to be growing in your relationship with God.
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That is that you are growing in faith, growing in community, that is relationship with other believers, and growing in service, that is growing in the way that God has made you to serve either within the church or outside of the church.
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But I want to zero in on what we're talking about when we talk about growing in faith.
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The faith we're talking about is the trust that we place in God, the belief in Him and the trust that we put in Him that influences the way we interact with the world around us.
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If you actually believe that God exists, you believe the things that He says is true of Him, then is that going to impact your daily life?
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It will. It will necessarily, if you really believe it, it will impact your daily life.
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And so that's what we're talking about when we're talking about growing in faith. We've been studying the life of Abram together, and we've seen him growing in faith.
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Would you agree with me on that? From the first time that God appeared to him and called him out, we've seen him growing in faith.
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But there's something that I want to highlight about the way that we've seen him grow that I think is significant for us to understand. And that is that growing in faith is not always linear.
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Okay, so some of us might have the expectation that, yeah, if you're growing in faith, then you're better tomorrow than you are today, and you're better next week than you are today, and you're better next month than you are today.
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Are you getting what I'm saying? That we have in our minds just, some of you like to organize things very well and like to put things in categories, and it's like, okay, if you're growing in faith, it's just this nice, steady slope, getting closer to God every day.
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And is that real life? Is that how your faith works? Or are there a lot of fits and starts in your life?
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Is it kind of like a roller coaster ride, where there are high points and there are low points? And I think some of us want to look at these biblical characters, and we want to give them more credit than they deserve.
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We want to make them superhuman. We want to take them and make them consistent characters.
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Where Abram, I mentioned last week that I saw Abram as passive. Some people didn't like that comment, because they actually said,
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I don't see Abram as passive, because look, he came out of Ur. He obeyed God, and he had that plan in Egypt, and he did all of these different things.
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Did Abram ever show plans and initiative? Yes. Was he ever passive and didn't have a plan and didn't have any initiative?
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I think Abram's a lot like me. I think he's fairly inconsistent. There are times when he's got a plan, and he's like, yes, let's go do this, and he's a man of faith.
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And then there's other times where he's like, I don't know, you guys take care of it. Is that consistent with what it means, what you experience as a human?
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I think so. He needs constant reminders. He is, in the text of Scripture, called the father of faith.
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But we see that he's just an awful lot like us. He needs constant reminders, at times he forgets the promise, at times he argues with God.
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But by God's great mercy, we see him, God, being steady and stable, even in the midst of the rocking waves of his people growing in faith.
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So we do indeed need to be drawing closer to God through reading about who he is, and then living our lives according to what is revealed of God in Scripture.
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That is growing in faith. But it's going to be a rocky road of peaks and valleys. In our text this morning, we see
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God, once again, renew his promises. He's going to appear to Abram after some time has passed, and he's going to renew that covenant.
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And we see Abram and Sarai laugh in the face of God. God's going to make some promises to them.
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They're going to laugh about those promises. So God names the child of the promise laughter. He has a sense of humor, and he takes the very mode of their disbelief, laughter, and names their son after that disbelief.
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It's kind of funny. So let's open our Bibles to Genesis chapter 17. And we're going to read the entirety of chapter 17, and then a little over into 8 .15.
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Some of you are like, oh, if we're going to take off that much, it's going to be a really long sermon. It's actually going to be just fine. We'll get there.
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But page 10 in the Bible in the seat back in front of you, so if you pull out that paperback Bible, you go to page 10, you'll be there.
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And we're going to read this in its entirety, a little bit longer passage than we're used to. But if you don't own a
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Bible, please take that one with you. I say that every week, but I mean it sincerely. If you don't own an English Standard Version of the Bible, you can take it as well.
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But follow along. This is the very words of God to us here at Recast Church this morning. When Abram was 99 years old, the
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Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless, that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly.
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Then Abram fell on his face, and God said, Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
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No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
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I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
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And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be
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God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan.
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For an everlasting possession, I will be their God. And God said to Abraham, As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.
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This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised.
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You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised.
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Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised.
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So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people.
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He has broken my covenant. And God said to Abraham, As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name
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Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her and moreover I will give you a son by her.
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I will bless her and she shall become nations. Kings of people shall come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself,
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Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?
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And Abraham said to God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before you. God said,
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No, but Sarah, your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name
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Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
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As for Ishmael, I've heard you behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly.
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He shall father 12 princes and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom
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Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year. When he had finished talking with God, God went up from Abraham.
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Then Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all those born in his house, or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.
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Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, and Ishmael, his son, was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
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That very day, Abraham and his son, Ishmael, were circumcised, and all the men of his house, those born in the house, and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
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And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre. As he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him.
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When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said,
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O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourself under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on, since you have come to your servant.
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So they said, Do as you have said. And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah, and said,
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Quick, three sails of fine flour kneaded, and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly.
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Then he took curds, and milk, and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree, while they ate.
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They said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent. The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.
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And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years.
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The way of the woman had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I am worn out, and my
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Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh, and say, Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?
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Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.
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Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. He said, No, but you did laugh.
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Let's pray. Father, as we read this text, we see what potentially could be some confusing things in there.
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At the same time, we do see at least the gist of this, that you are revealing further your plans with Abraham and Sarah, and even changing their names to Abraham and Sarah, and altering the course of their direction.
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What they thought was going to happen, Father, they are putting their trust and their understanding in Ishmael as the child of the promise, and you're saying,
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No, that's not going to be the way that it is. And Father, there's distrust, and there's laughter, a divisive laughter in this text.
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There's a laughter of unbelief, and then you, in your divine sense of humor, name their child after their laughter.
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Father, that you are the God of promises, who is all -powerful, almighty, as you reveal yourself in the text, the title
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El Shaddai, the almighty, the powerful one, the one who is able to accomplish what he sets out to accomplish. And then even challenging, is anything too difficult for you?
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Father, I ask that as we walk through this text this morning, as we have an opportunity to sing songs to you, we would recognize you as El Shaddai, the all -powerful, the almighty one, who is able to accomplish that which you set out to accomplish, that nothing that is facing anyone in this room, nothing is too difficult for you to overcome.
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Father, I pray that you would make us a people of faith, that trust, that you indeed are powerful enough to accomplish your purposes, and I praise you for that ultimate accomplishment in sending your
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Son, Jesus Christ, to deal with our biggest problem, our sin, and our brokenness.
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Father, I pray that as we sing songs to you, that we would do so out of hearts, released and free in Jesus Christ.
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Father, that we would recognize the amazing and awesome work done for us on the cross. Father, that we would rejoice that these old covenant things have passed away and a new covenant of grace has been ushered in through your
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Son, who is the offspring of Abraham, and it's in his name that we pray, amen. I want to encourage you to keep your
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Bibles open to Genesis chapter 17, as we kind of walk through this text together and kind of see what's going on here.
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Remember that at any time during the message, you can get up and get some more coffee or juice or donuts or whatever it takes to kind of keep your focus on the
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Word of God. Let's start off with a question. For how many of you, 13 years is a long period of time?
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Any of you? 13 years, fairly long, fairly long in the scope of your life, 13 years can be a pretty big chunk of time.
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A lot can happen in 13 years, would you agree with me on that? But what we see here in our text, it's kind of valuable for us to see this,
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I think this is important, is that between the end of chapter 16 and the start of chapter 17, 13 years have gone by.
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So since we last talked about Abram a week ago, we are now going to pick up the story 13 years later, it's kind of like you ever watch a movie and it actually says that on the bottom of the screen, present day, 13 years ago, whatever, it just says we've just advanced 13 years.
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Look at the end of chapter 16, verse 16, it says this, Abram was 86 years old when
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Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram, then the start of our chapter. When Abram was 99 years old, the
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Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, 13 years. But there's something significant about that. How old is
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Ishmael now? He's 13, okay, he's now a young man,
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Hagar is his mom, Abram is his dad. Notice the complete absence of any relational interplay between Sarai and Ishmael.
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He's now 13 years old, he is, for all intents and purposes, considered to be the child of the promise. We don't see how
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Sarai and Hagar are interacting, we don't see how Abram and Sarai are interacting, we just know that 13 years have passed since we last talked about this whole family fiasco thing that's gone down here.
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And it is very, very apparent from, as we walk through this text, and I think it's valuable for us to understand, think about 13 years of doting on that son.
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Think about 13 years of Israel, I mean Israel, of Ishmael being perceived to be the son of the promise, probably being told that he was the child of the promise.
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We're going to see some indicators throughout the text that it's pretty clear that Abram thought he was the one. As a matter of fact, he desired for Ishmael to be the one.
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I picture their family raising Ishmael to know God and to worship him and to walk with him and there's this understanding that he's going to become a multitude of nations that was promised to Hagar, his mom, and so there's all of this, all of these keys in the back of their mind that are like, this is the child, do you see what
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I'm saying? They are perceiving that Ishmael is the child of the promise and God appears to Abram once again at the start of our text.
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It's implied that it's been 13 years since any special visitation or vision from God has happened, 13 silent years of going on business as usual.
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How many of you kind of have in your mind the notion that God appears every couple days to Abram? Like you just kind of feel that way, right?
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This is a 13 year hiatus and he shows up and God gives himself a title right from the beginning that is intended to flavor this entire account.
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This entire interaction is wrapped up and rolled up in the significance of this title. I am God Almighty.
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Some of you might recognize the Hebrew phrase that's behind that phrase in English, El Shaddai. How many of you have heard
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God referred to as El Shaddai before? The phrase El Shaddai in Hebrew, that title, that name for God, means the most powerful one, the all -powerful, the one who is able to accomplish that which he sets out to accomplish.
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No questions asked, he can get it done. That's what we mean when we say El Shaddai.
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That's what that phrase means. He can do it. He has limitless power.
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But yet here in our text for the first time there's a stipulation put on Abram. We've been seeing what has all along appeared to be a one -sided covenant and that's with intention.
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God wanted to up front make sure Abram did not think he was going to usher in the promises of God so God was the one who went through the animal pieces.
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If you were with us back in chapter 15 when he made that unilateral covenant and told
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Abram to cut the animal pieces in half and then God walked through them but Abram didn't.
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How many of you were here for that and you remember that? Okay, that was significant because that's God doing that, God taking on his part and Abram's part but now he's going to identify that he is concerned for the way that his people behave, that there is now that the covenant is established, there is some standard for Abram.
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Now how many of you know there's no law spelled out yet for Abram? You can go through this text and Abram doesn't necessarily know all that is coming but there's a foreshadowing of the giving of the law that's going to come in a few centuries down the road for the people of Abraham, the people who are going to come from him.
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But when it really comes down to it, there's no law spelled out and yet he is told to walk before God and to be blameless.
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How many of you, the notion of being told to walk before God and to be blameless is a little bit overwhelming if you don't have any rules or regulations or don't know what to do?
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Are you getting what I'm saying? Is that a little bit of an overwhelming job description? Abram, what I want you to do is I want you to walk before me as if to say, and the significance of that phrase is walk as if I am watching you.
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That's what it means to walk before God. And by the way, I want you to be blameless too. Pretty big calling, would you say, from the terminology that's used there?
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The idea of walking before God, like I said, is one of walking, living our lives in such a way that God is seeing us.
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We get a glimpse of this type of life when we recognize that God is with us at all times and nothing is hidden from his gaze.
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Is that motivating to any of you? Any of you ever motivated by the notion that God sees you at all times?
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Is that a little bit motivating? Now I want to highlight though that for many of us, our thoughts turn to, oh no, he saw that?
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Right? Oh no, he was there when I said that? Oh no, he heard that? But I want you to think of it from another perspective, that you are a child of God.
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He loves you and he delights over you. And as one of the prophets says, he exalts over you with joy and with dancing.
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He is delighted in his children. Do you think about God from that perspective? God wants to motivate you with his presence for joy.
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You are his child and he wants you to succeed. Is that a different perspective than, oh no, he saw me?
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There is a way of viewing God solely as judge that is a scary life. And some of you,
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I fear, have lived under that for your entire lives where it is constantly been the big guy in the sky who is looking.
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He is looking for me to fail and he is just going to squash me like a bug if I fall, if I falter, if I fail.
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Rather than seeing God as a father who is encouraging and moving along. Part of it is that the imagery is broken for many of us.
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The word father doesn't carry the notion it is supposed to, right? And so just that notion of a father who is loving and is cheering on his children.
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The challenge for those of you who are fathers here, right, a little bit of that. God is seeing.
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God is there. He knows. He is observing what is going on. He is watching and seeing. We saw him as the
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God who hears and sees last week. The word blameless, though, so he is supposed to live in such a way that he recognizes that God is there.
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God is with him. God is there observing. But then the word for blameless has a flavor of relational integrity to it in Hebrew.
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So where we think of blameless is just strictly like there is no fault in him. It is not a word for perfection per se.
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He is not saying, I demand of you, Abram, that you make no mistakes ever. But that you remain true and faithful to me in relationship.
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That is what he is calling Abram to do by this. God is calling Abram to stick with him.
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God is saying to Abram, stick with me, trust me, honor me with your life.
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The calling of God comes to us with a call to be holy. Make no mistakes. That is reality.
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That is true. But true faith is not going to be satisfied with a sinful walking away from God.
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Do we fail? Do we falter? How many of you would admit that maybe you fail from time to time?
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Okay, let's scrap that. Everybody just raise your hand and then I'll ask the question. Because we have already sinned this morning.
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We have broken God's commands. We have fallen short of what he made us to be already today.
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Probably more than once. Would you guys agree with me on that? So what is this then, when we get captured by sin?
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Can a believer, a person of true faith who has relationship with God get captured by sin? Yes, we can.
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But are we going to be satisfied with that? Are we going to be settled in that? Is that going to give us delight and joy? Or are we going to be miserable when we're in a life of sin if we are his children?
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He is not going to let us off the hook. Nobody who is a child of God, a child of his covenant promises through Jesus Christ now in the new covenant, nobody is going to be satisfied with a sinful walking away from God.
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The call is towards holiness and we are a people who delight and long for his coming because we know then this body of sin and death will be done away with.
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How many of you look forward to the day? The thing that you most desire and delight in is the day that he will return and remake you without sin.
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I long for that day. There's nothing I want more than that. I'm not trying to be hyper spiritual. It's just the reality of what
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I long for. I look forward to the day when I can stand before my Lord and Savior without sin.
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I need somebody to say amen on that. Okay, thank you. I long for that day and that's the longing of our hearts when we see our sin and our crud and our brokenness, right?
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Any of you ever just get discouraged with yourself and you're like, man, I just want to be doing more. I want to be more useful to God, but the sin is in here and it's like,
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I look forward to that time. Is God working on us? Is he improving us? Yes, by his grace and by his mercy.
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But it's a battle, right? It's a lifelong battle. That's what he's calling Abram into here in this covenant relationship.
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He's saying it's not just this one sided thing. There's a progressive revelation of this covenant that's going on in this text in verse 2.
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God has already laid himself on the line for both sides of the agreement, but here in chapter 17, he's revealing that Abram is not just a passive party to this agreement, that there are some things that he desires of Abram to do.
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So Abram in this meeting with God falls flat on his face before him. That's an appropriate position for us in worship to God, by the way.
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Have you ever done that before in prayer to God? Just laid out in front of him on the floor, just said,
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I'm yours. And God continues to reveal this promise. Of course, we know that Abram is going to become the father of many.
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That's starting to sound like a broken record for you. We've been going through the book of Genesis and every week, I'm telling you, Abram's going to become a great nation.
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But now, God kind of increases, ups the ante a little bit, and it's like he's slowly revealing more and more of himself, more and more of his plan, more and more of his promise.
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And he says, no, no, Abram, you're not just going to become a great nation, but you're going to become the father of a multitude of nations.
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Not just one people coming from you, but a multitude of peoples. His name has been
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Abram, exalted father. But now his name becomes
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Abraham, the father of a multitude. His name is changed by God.
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He will be exceedingly fruitful and kings will come from his line. It's a promise from God. Abram will become a royal line that's new.
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He hasn't been promised that yet, prior to this chapter here. And it's also a foreshadowing of a good king.
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A good king over all kings who is going to be a descendant of Abram, who's going to come from his line and is going to be royal.
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His name is Jesus Christ. But I want to pause for a minute and I want you to think about what we see here.
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What kind of things can faith do in your life? What kind of situations can it put you in? What is
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Abram's name changed to? Father of a multitude. That's what Abraham means.
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So his name is changed to that. And how many kids does he have? He's got one,
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Ishmael. How many of you think that went well for him at the marketplace? Everybody? My name is changed.
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I want everybody, you all are now going to, instead of calling me exalted father, I want you to, my name's been changed by God almighty.
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He's calling me the father of multitude. Snicker, snicker. Can you imagine the crowd's response?
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We're going to call you what? How many kids do you have again? You know, Jedediah's got 16 down the street over here, okay?
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Hezekiah has 23 children and you're going to call yourself the father of a multitude?
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Where is your one single son? Can you imagine the sneers and the mocking as he calls himself the father of a multitude and he has but one child?
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Faith can bring us to a place of looking silly to the world. Would you agree with me on that? Sometimes by acting and living according to faith, we look goofy.
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We look silly. Now some of it is just our fault because we're goofy people, okay? Don't blame that one on God.
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But sometimes when we're actually following God, it actually is that we look silly. But consider that trust in his father also brought
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Jesus to a place where he was mocked as well. God is not promising that we are going to be friends with the world around us, right?
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Verses 7 through 8 are a reminder of the promise to give him and his offspring the land. So we've seen the promise given and a refreshing of that promise.
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Remember 13 years have passed. He needs to hear this stuff again. And here God emphasizes that it is an everlasting covenant, emphasizing that Abraham's offspring will indeed perpetually hold the deed to their property.
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And again, it could potentially get repetitive for us. God's going to make Abraham into a great nation.
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He's going to give him the land. He's going to turn him into a promise. One of his offspring is going to be a blessing to all peoples. And it could keep just kind of sounding repetitive to us week in and week out.
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But it's important for us to put this in context. Thirteen years have passed. This guy is 99 years old.
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He needs to be reminded of this promise time and time again. Abraham needs the perpetual reminder that God is working his plan.
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And it's all driving towards a sign in our text of the covenant revealed to us in verses 9 through 14. The sign of the covenant of the
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Abrahamic covenant, that old covenant that God will bless him and make him into a great nation and will multiply nations out of him.
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The sign of the covenant is circumcision. It's to be an irreversible mark in their flesh as a sign of their ownership by God.
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God owns them. And it is for their generations on down. Now a couple of points to note about circumcision.
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It can be kind of a strange topic. But the first thing I want to highlight is that it was a common practice in the ancient world.
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The Hebrews did not invent the idea or the process or the procedure for circumcision.
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It was predated in the text. The Egyptians were doing circumcision hundreds of years before this text came to pass.
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So historically, circumcision was going on. And it was often a right to manhood during this era and this time.
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And so that's what the Egyptians did with it is when a man became a man, they circumcised him.
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Some cultures perform the circumcision as a ritual immediately preceding the wedding, the person's wedding, which seems like bad timing to me.
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Just throw that out there, give you something to laugh about because, you know, it's awkward. But second of all, so that's the first thing is that they didn't invent this.
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This is something that was going on, that God is adopting a cultural phenomenon, something that people were already doing, and he adopts that as his sign, his symbol.
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Just like I think that rainbows were still happening before he adopted the rainbow as the sign of the covenant with Noah.
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There were still rainbows before that, but he adopted something that was already going on and here he does the same thing. The second thing that I want to point out is that this is not a medical procedure for improved health.
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It was a religious sign and a religious symbol and a religious duty that was to be performed to all of the boys, eight years old,
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I mean, eight days old. And so that was a, it was not medical. That's what we have in our mind, but that's not the case.
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The third thing is that the sign is not accidentally related to reproduction. It's not accidental or incidental that it's related to that.
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It's not like God chose some sign or symbol to make us uncomfortable, like that's why he did it and so he could just kind of talk and kind of blush about it and stuff.
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I've often thought though, and I think maybe some of you in the room, maybe if you're thinking and you've read through the scriptures and you've kind of wondered, like, why not a nose ring?
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That would have been kind of easy. How about a gauge in the ear? Nice cross tattoo on the forehead?
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Something that's really obvious and visible? Have any of you thought along those lines before or is it just me? Am I the only one? I mean, it could pierce my lip, all kinds of things, right?
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I think only three of us have thought along those lines, like why not something else? Okay, I guess
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I'm a little in the minority on that one. But that misunderstands who this sign is for.
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Why this sign? It is for the man to remember his ownership by God.
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It is a symbol to the individual that God owns me. And then like the rainbow, when we see the rainbow in the sky, what are we supposed to remember?
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We are to remember that God remembers his covenant. That's what it says in the text in Genesis.
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So when we see the rainbow, we are to remember that God is a promise -keeping God. What is the promise that the symbol of circumcision is pointing to?
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What is the point of it? It is ultimately that he is going to provide an offspring for Abraham.
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So does it make sense how and why and what symbol he gives, what it signifies?
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It is. The covenant is about offspring and blessing and ultimately that one offspring is going to come from Abraham and from his loins that is eventually going to result in the
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Messiah, his birth, the one who is going to solve all of it and take care of sin. And so God places the sign in the right place for what it signifies.
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And God's promises are not only to Abraham but to his offspring up until the point where the Messiah is revealed and the promise is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
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That's one of the reasons that we don't do circumcision as a religious ritual anymore because the promise has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
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I would encourage you to go to Galatians 5, not go there right now, but when you get a chance maybe this week to go back and read
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Galatians chapter 5 and chapter 6 where Paul gives a strong case for circumcision being fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
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The promise has come and he is now here. And so he makes the case for no more circumcision in the new covenant, that it doesn't matter one way or the other.
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But during the time of the old covenant under Abraham, every male is to undergo this procedure on the eighth day in that old covenant.
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And all who dwell within the household of Abraham were to be circumcised and according to verse 14, this is to be a total commitment on the part of his entire household, even his servants and everybody that was there.
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Any who refuse the sign are not to be included under the protection of the covenant of God.
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There's a play on words in verse 14 that anyone who refused to be cut will be cut off from his people, a little bit of a pun there.
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So far I think Abraham tracks with this, he gets with this and he's understanding God has appeared to him after 13 years, he's refreshed the promises, he's kind of like if you think of a stage and he's peeling back more of the curtain and revealing more and more of the plan of what
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God is planning for him. When suddenly things take what I would think to Abraham would be a very strange turn of events.
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He's tracking with God, God's talking about the sign of the covenant and these promises that he's made. And Abraham thinks he is already in the promise.
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Who is his trust in? Ishmael, okay. When suddenly out of the blue in verse 15,
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God starts talking about who? Look at verse 15, look at your text, who does he start talking about there? Starts talking about Sarai.
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What's she got to do with any of this anymore? I don't imagine that the relationship between Abraham, Sarai, and Hagar was all rosy and peachy and just great.
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Do you imagine that all of a sudden everything was just fine once she came back and gave birth to Ishmael and everything was just, you know, they were just BFFs, Hagar and Sarai.
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What do you know about human nature, right? What's already happened between Hagar and Sarai, okay?
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So I anticipate that there's something, somewhat of a frustration in the family unit over all of this and God begins to speak of Sarai.
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God changes her name and it's unclear why that's significant except that God, when he changes people's names, it's usually for a purpose.
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It's to single them out to say I've got something important. Sarai in Hebrew means princess.
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Sarah in Hebrew means princess. So there's a little bit of, scholars really struggle with the significance of the name change other than pronunciation.
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Except that some scholars more recently have begun to kind of monkey with the understanding of the language and said, you know, the
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AI sound in verb endings has a past tense notion to it. And then the
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AH ending in verb forms, this is a noun, but in verb forms has a tendency to think of future.
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And so they've kind of brought this together and synthesized and kind of said, well, what it maybe means is that Sarai has been a princess or has come from princesses, but that she is going to produce princesses.
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Which would make sense in the understanding of what comes on next, what's going to happen in verse 16.
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Because when we come there, when we get there, God says here something that knocks
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Abram to the floor. He's going to be, he apparently has stood up at some point during this dialogue because he comes back down to the floor.
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God promised to bless Sarah with a son.
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I don't think for a second Abraham saw that coming. I think he actually was so sure that Ishmael was the child of the promise that he's like flat on the floor by this revelation.
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She is going to become nations, kings will come from her. Abram falls on his face and what does he do?
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He laughs. He laughs. What kind of laughter? For those of you into texting, this is the first recorded
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ROFL, rolling on floor laughing. You guys ever use that acronym? Do you even know what
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I'm talking about? Three of you do? ROFL, rolling on the floor laughing. That's what Abram is doing here.
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This laughter is incredulity. Before God Almighty, the
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El Shaddai, the most powerful one, Abram laughs at God's promises.
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Can you imagine that? This guy's got some gall. He laughs.
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Can I have a child at 100 years old? Sarah at 90? Give me a break God is kind of like the chuckle that you hear him speaking.
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And to prove that this is a laugh of disbelief, in case you're not tracking with me, you're kind of like, I think you're being too hard on Abram. I think, you know, probably it was just a laughter of joy or like, oh, he's going to give me a son.
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This is super awesome. Look at what he says in verse 18. Because Abram comes up with a plan. They're pretty good at coming up with plans when they're not supposed to be and then sitting on their hands when they're supposed to be coming up with a plan.
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Does that sound familiar? Any of you kind of relate to that a little bit? Acting when you're not supposed to be acting and then sitting back waiting when you're supposed to be acting.
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Huh. I can't imagine anybody doing that. Verse 18, he's like, God, now let's get this, let me straighten you out here for a second,
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God. Okay. I know you're the El Shaddai, but let's think about this reasonably. Come on God, why not just run with Ishmael?
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He's 13 years old. He's already, I mean, just look at him for a second. He's a specimen of a man. He can already shoot a bow real good.
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He's super awesome. He's even learning to love you. And so maybe we could just run with Ishmael and we'd already be ahead of ourselves, 13 years down the road already towards the promise.
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Could we just do that? Do you see that in verse 18? Oh that Ishmael might live before you.
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What has God just said? He's just promised that Sarah is going to have a son. No, no, no, let's go with Ishmael, he says.
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The wording indicates that this is actually a desire of Abraham. This is what he wants to have happen. He wants
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God to bless, just bless Ishmael and make him the child of the promise. But God responds with an emphatic no.
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If you're reading, any of you have an NIV there, you're going to be uncomfortable with what I just said because actually the
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NIV reads yes there. They like to translate things a little bit differently and so I can explain that to you later but it actually is no in the text and it's an emphatic no.
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He says we're going to do this my way and that means Sarah is going to have a baby in about a year. That's what
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God says to him. God will renew his covenant with that child and God says you will call him laughter, you are to name him
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Isaac as a reminder of how this long -shot promise was fulfilled. But with Abraham's desire for Ishmael to be blessed,
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God is concerned for his servant and still carries on and says Ishmael will indeed be blessed but he is not the covenant child.
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I will make my covenant with Isaac, Sarah's son. God departs from Abraham and in verses 23 -27,
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Abram obeys God and it says in the text, that very day God commanded him this whole thing about circumcision, that very day he carries it out and circumcised everyone in his household.
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Certainly not a pleasant procedure for anyone involved including 99 -year -old Abraham, 13 -year -old
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Ishmael. Can you guys imagine what it would be like to live in Abram's house on that day?
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Abram goes out and I don't know, you go out in the field, you go out in the woods, wander out to talk to God and then
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God meets with him and reveals all this to him and he comes back and he gathers all the guys together, all the male servants, everybody in the household and he's like, hey guys, guys, guess what?
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God met with me and you're never going to believe what he told me. This is what we're going to do today. Anybody kind of going, did
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I just join a cult? Like what? God told you to do what? Are you sure? I wasn't there.
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I didn't hear him. Do you have a recording of this? Are you positive it was God? Can I just drink the
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Kool -Aid? You know, it's like this, the very day, that very day he carried this out.
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But I'm not going to end there at the end of chapter 17 because the first 15 verses of chapter 18 carry us forward and show us
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Sarah receiving this. So what's interesting is, again
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I don't want to read too much into it, but the dynamic between Abram and Sarah is that God has to come again and tell
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Sarah that this is going to happen. Abraham doesn't go to Sarah and tell her. I wonder how healthy their relationship was at this point.
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Think about that. Because God has to come again in a theophany, in a visitation to Abraham's house to let
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Sarah know that she's going to have a baby. Abraham doesn't clue her in on this stuff.
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I wonder, were they on good speaking terms? How was that all going? And on a very hot day while Abraham is resting in chapter 18, under the awning of his tent, three visitors come by to visit
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Abraham. He shows extreme hospitality, indicating that, a couple of things, he was a kind guy, but also he recognizes something unique about these visitors.
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He knows that these aren't just run -of -the -mill visitors that are stopping by. We kind of get a chance in the text to have it revealed to us.
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When they show up, you think there's just three men that showed up in the middle of the desert, right? And then by the end, you know that one of them is the
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Lord God Almighty. And it's revealed to us who these visitors are, kind of in the same way, in an artistic way in the text to show us kind of the way that it would have been revealed to Abraham as well.
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So he knows something is different. He runs to greet them. That is unheard of in his culture.
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For a man his age to hurry was undignified, and he runs out to greet them.
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Then he goes on and he slaughters a tender cow rather than a goat or a sheep. A goat or a sheep would have been an extravagance in that age, and he slaughters a cow to show his lavish hospitality to these three.
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Then he commands Sarah to provide three sayas of fine flour. That's an intense amount, like 12 loaves of bread, like a dozen loaves of thick bread.
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This is a lot. This is an extravagant meal. And he produces this epic feast for these three visitors.
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In the heat of the day he brings out the traditional yogurt that's still eaten throughout the Middle East at that time.
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And I know some of you are hungry now that I'm talking about food. He also addresses one of them in verse 3.
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We see him fall flat on his face. He addresses one in verse 3 with the word for Lord that is consistently used of sovereign deity.
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This is not just a generic term for master or, you know, just a common courtesy.
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This is a word that's usually reserved just for God, and he calls him Sovereign Lord. It's possible that Abraham has now met with one of these guys enough to actually recognize him as a theophany, a physical manifestation of God.
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It's hard to tell how he knew who they were, but he does. He calls himself their servant and then proves that to be true by standing by and waiting for them to eat.
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Okay, that's very uncommon in that time, and again we're seeing things that are out of line for common hospitality.
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It would have been common for the head of the household in a wealthy household for him to sit down and eat with his guests, and instead he stands by and serves them.
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And then in the midst of their eating, he's standing under the tree waiting on them, and they ask him a funny question that, again, hints further at their identity.
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Where is Sarah, says the Lord? Where is Sarah? Well, anybody who walks up to you and knows your name and you don't know who they are, you got some questions for them, right?
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Anybody? So if somebody walks up to you and you're walking in the mall, and somebody walks up and you're walking with your wife, and they go up and they start talking to your wife by name, anybody kind of going, how do you know my wife again?
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Anybody kind of curious? You got some questions, follow -up questions? Abraham assumes that they know his wife's name.
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This isn't out of the ordinary for him. He expects that. And they ask, where is Sarah?
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As God the Lord knows where she is, but the question brings her into the conversation since she is a primary reason for their visit to inform her that she is going to have a son.
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Abraham identifies that she's in the tent, and then verbally, the Lord promises again that they will visit in a year, and she will have a son.
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Sarah has been eavesdropping, just like any good hostess would, and she laughs to herself.
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Her vocal cords don't vibrate, her mouth doesn't move, she laughs to herself, the text is pretty clear about that. I wonder, you know,
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Abraham and Sarah's household, just full of laughter, right? They're just full of laughter. Abraham's laughing,
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Sarah's laughing, I mean, you just see all kinds of laughter in the text. I mean, they just must have been a happy household, right? Is that what you see here?
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Or they had grown cynical, jaded, and doubtful. What do you think?
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Just a super happy household with all kinds of laughter, God's making promises, and it's just like, oh yeah! Or is it, oh, right?
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That kind of laugh. She reflects on ancient scientific understanding that she's just flat out too old to bear children.
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The text clues us in that Sarah is now post -menopause. They understood at least some semblance of how that worked, and she saw herself as worn out.
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The text uses that phrase. I'm sure that 90 years on in the sin -cursed planet makes a person feel that way, regardless, but Sarah doesn't have much faith left.
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And she gets caught and called out by God himself visiting her house. Some of us can maybe demonstrate a lack of faith, but it's probably pretty rare that God calls you out on it right there in your living room, or dining room.
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But Yahweh, and it says, Yahweh said to Abram, now we're getting more and more identification, we're becoming very, very clear later in this text that this is indeed, verse 13, the
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Lord, Yahweh, the I am, the all -powerful, the almighty God. So, who is this visitor?
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Is it becoming clear? This is God, the Lord. And Yahweh said to Abraham, why did
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Sarah laugh and say, I am too old? And now we get to one of the most poignant and direct statements of the sovereignty of God from his own mouth, one of the most poignant things that he says of himself and all of scripture in verse 14.
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Is anything, God speaking, is anything too hard for the
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Lord? Is there anything that's too difficult for him? The question is rhetorical, and I hope the answer is obvious to everybody in the room.
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Is anything too hard for God? God says, I will come back and visit you guys in the nursery next year where you are holding your son.
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The promise of God. El Shaddai, the almighty, the all -powerful one, the one who has the power to keep his promises says,
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I'll be back and you'll be in the nursery. Is anything too hard for me?
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You laugh at my promises. Sarah denies laughing.
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She's feisty, by the way. She says, I didn't laugh. But God replied, no, no, but you did laugh.
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Fortunately, she's wise enough to let God get the last word on this one, okay? Something about verse 15 is funny to me, though.
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We're not going to get off on a technicality with God. I'm sure that in some sense the text is intending to lead us to what is technically true.
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Did she laugh? Did her voice produce any laughter? No, no.
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But are we going to get off on a technicality before God? Or is he that concerned with what we actually vocalize versus what's in our heart?
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Does he know if we've already thought it? He knows what we think. He knows what we feel. He knows our motivations.
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He knows everything about us. We don't have to say it for God to know it, right? She laughs.
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In our text, the plot moves further down the road by, again, like I said, peeling back the curtain to reveal more of the covenant between God and Abram.
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But we find that Abraham and Sarah have been lurching forward into trust in God. And these two visits from God do not find either of them at a particular high point of faith.
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As a matter of fact, Abraham is satisfied with less than the plan of God. He's okay just running with Ishmael and calling that good enough.
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And he laughs at the thought of he and Sarah having a child. The second visitation of God finds
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Sarah distrusting God to be able to use her body to produce a child. She sees herself as worn out and unable.
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She sees herself too spent for this and ultimately doubts that God, El Shaddai, the Almighty, can do this.
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And she laughs as well. Again, I think the people say that the longer that you live together with your spouse, the more you start to look alike, the more your mannerisms start to look the same, the more you start to talk the same.
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And they both just kind of had this laughter thing down, you know. He laughs at the promises of God.
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She laughs at the promises of God as if they had rehearsed it. And there's an amazing and beautiful irony in the humor of God.
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Did you know that God has a sense of humor? It's revealed in subtle ways, but He does.
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In the face of this apparent distrust, God takes the very method of their distrust, that is laughter, and names the child of the promise after their mode of doubting.
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What demonstrated their doubt? Their laughter. So now, every time it's dinner time, moving forward, as they're bringing up that child, what are they going to have to shout?
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Laughter! Time for dinner! And they're going to remember that God is a
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God who works that which humans think is impossible. He can do it.
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And the very name of their son bears the reminder day in and day out for the rest of their lives,
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He can do it. He is El Shaddai, the
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Almighty One, all -powerful. And if He promises it, it will come to pass.
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And I'll leave it up to you to apply some of those things that you know He has promised you from the New Testament, and apply those to the situation, and recognize that if He has promised it, if He has promised resurrection for those who are in Jesus Christ, it will be done.
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If He promises a new heaven and a new earth, where sin and this old order of things will pass away, and we will worship
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Him for eternity on the new earth, together in community, forever and ever and ever, it will be done.
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And He is El Shaddai, He is the One who accomplishes that which He promises to us.
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So many promises. And He is faithful, and not just wishful that it will get done, but He is
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El Shaddai, He has the power to get it done. There's three brief applications that the
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Holy Spirit hit me with this week, that are kind of varied, and again, there's just all kinds of things that you could take away from this, but I want to apply them and think that maybe some of these will hit some of you where you live, and that's first, that Abraham and Sarah were settled on less than the plan of God, and I fear that the same is true for some of us.
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I fear that some of us have become settled into our pretty little American lives, and God has ministry
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He desires to do through us, He has people He wants to reach through us, He has service that He wants to render to others through us, and we are satisfied with much less than what
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He desires for you and me to become. Are you open to being used by God to do things that may require sacrificing some of your comforts?
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Are you willing to press into more faith, more community, and more service? Or do you feel like you have enough
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God in your life right now? You can come to that place. It can be a scary place, but come to the place where you're like,
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I'm satisfied, I'm okay just with what God has given me now, and I'm okay with that. I'm not talking about contentment.
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I'm talking about small thinking and little faith. Do you know the difference? I'm not talking about your material stuff.
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You ought to be content with what God has given you, but am I content with the calling of God in my life?
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Am I okay just doing what I'm doing? Do not allow complacency or comfort to get in the way of the things that God has made you to do.
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It's a personal thing for each one of us to consider. That doesn't mean that everybody is supposed to sell everything that they have and move overseas to win some aboriginal tribe or something, but when it really comes down to it, some of us are.
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I'm confident that someone here at Recast is called to give up a life here in America to go overseas and to be a missionary to people who have not heard the good news of Jesus Christ.
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We just don't know who it is yet. Second, is there anything in your life that appears too hard for the
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Lord? Think deeply about that for a second. Is there anything that you kind of go, I don't think
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God can handle that. I don't really deep down in my heart, and I'm not talking about just theoretically, but practically.
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So in theory, is there anything impossible for God? We'd all respond the same way to that. But when the rubber meets the road and Monday happens and Tuesday happens and you get that phone call from that person and you think, there's just no way that this can be resolved.
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I want to confess to you that as I look at the building project, this is an example for me. The building project, it appears to me like a huge mountain that this church is set on to climb.
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1 .5 million dollars, is that a lot of money? Is that a lot of bling? Anybody thinking that's a lot of money?
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As I look at that mountain in front of us, that's a lot of money. And as the money comes in for the expansion fund and it begins to look to me an awful lot like, we're going to be in this for the long haul.
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At the rate that we're giving, you guys are being extremely generous. God is blessing us and it's great.
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1 .5 million dollars, we can give four or five thousand dollars extra per month.
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Do the math. Does your calculator go that big? It's going to take us a while to get there.
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I've recently felt convicted about my trust in God for that. And I'm giving it over to Him. This has always been
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His church. This is His ministry. It is His love. It is His community. And I'm giving that over to Him.
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But my question then to you is, what do you need to give over to God? What seems too hard for the Lord to do in your life?
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Is it the salvation of somebody you've been praying for for years? Maybe a family member that you've been praying for and saying,
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God, would you save them? And it just doesn't seem like it's ever going to happen. And you begin to falter and you begin to lose faith.
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Is anything impossible for the Lord? Is anything too difficult? Some of you are in what seems to be an impossible work situation.
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That relationship is never going to be healed. Carissa, don't raise your hand on that one. You're in a tough work situation and it's kind of like,
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I don't know how this is going to... I can't picture this ever working out and us ever being on speaking terms again or ever getting to that position that I feel
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God has called me to or whatever. Or a wayward child that you have no clue how to win back. And you're going,
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I just don't know how this is going to work. There's a sense of impossibility involved in that.
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Or a broken relationship with parents. I just cannot imagine that ever being healed. The Lord Himself says, is anything too difficult for Him?
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Is there anything too difficult for Him? And last but not least is the main point of tying this passage into the main theme of the
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Bible. God is promising to move His plan down through the generations. Circumcision was given as a reminder to the descendants of Abraham that God had made a promise that nations and kings would come from His line.
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And one of His offspring would eventually be in the line of King David. And He would crush the head of the serpent.
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He would bring ultimate blessing to all the nations of the world through His sacrifice. And He would be the one who would save His people from their sin.
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So we take a few minutes each week in communion to remember the offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
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He is the rightful King of the world. And one day He will be recognized as such. But for now there are some gathered here this morning who have recognized
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Him as King. Now, here, the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham is
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Jesus. And you've asked Him to save you based on His sacrifice on the cross. And if that's the case for you, then take the juice and remember
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His blood that was shed for you. Take the cracker to remember His body that was broken for you and me.
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For Abraham and Sarah, the promise was so personal that they could not see beyond, I don't believe they could see beyond the desire to have a son.
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And I do not believe that they fully understood that laughter would have a son, who would have a son, who would have a son, on down until eventually one of those sons had a daughter.
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And that daughter, as a virgin, would give birth to the
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Savior of the world. Let's pray. Father, I rejoice in Your promises fulfilled.
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I rejoice in looking back and seeing Your promises fulfilled. That just seemed like such a long shot that if we put ourselves in Abraham and Sarah's shoes, that it would just seem so unreasonable that You could accomplish that which
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You said You were going to accomplish. Even now as we live in the scientific age where we talk about resurrection and we talk about these things, and it can be so far from what we experience day in and day out, it seems like such a long shot that You're coming back and You're going to return and You're going to make all of this right.
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And all these things can easily just slide away Monday morning and be gone until next
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Saturday. And then Sunday morning we get renewed and then it's, Father, You are El Shaddai.
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You are the Almighty. You are the Powerful One who is accomplishing Your purposes and Your promises will stand.
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And we put our hope and our trust in that. Father, for all that are here that have put their trust in You for salvation,
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Father, I pray that this would be a meaningful time of rejoicing as we think about the blood that was shed and the body that was broken for us.
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Where we deserve the punishment, He took it for us, that offspring of Abraham, Jesus Christ, our
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Lord and Savior. And Father, if there's any here this morning who have not put their trust in that one place of salvation,
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Father, that You would move in their hearts to recognize the glory, the beauty, the amazing forgiveness and joy and love that they can experience through Jesus Christ.
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Father, I pray for those that are here that are struggling with sin, Father, that You would motivate us by Your great love and Your great mercy even this morning to repent of our sin, to turn to You and to walk with You in holiness as Your people.