Entertaining Angels - Genesis 18:1-15 Series

Please open your Bibles with me to Genesis 18.

We’re going verse by verse through the book of Genesis. It’s a great trek for us to be wandering through Genesis and learning practical principles along the way. We come to this one section in Genesis 16-18 that’s about this fractured family. Abraham and Sarah and then Hagar. That’s a challenge for all of them and we see how God deals with each person individually.

As we talked about Hagar, we saw that God cared for her in a personal way. That she had an attitude in her home and God said, “I want you to go back into that place. Even though you’re being emotionally abused in this situation, I want you to go back in and I want you to change your attitude.” Now later I just want to again say that she is going to leave that home and she’s not going to go back. But in this case even though there was emotional abuse, God had more work to do in her heart. “Go back in. You need to be a minister there. You need to do what you need to do in that place.” So she goes back in. That’s a whole work with Hagar. God supports her, encourages her. And Hagar says, “He is the God who sees me. He is the God who hears me.” So she gets all the support she needs to stay in her difficult life. We all need that. It may be work, it may be family, it may be sickness. You need the strength to deal with the current things that are going on. God offers that. You’re in. That’s in Genesis 16.

Now in Genesis 17 we have Abraham, the Father of many nations, but having a hard time in his own home managing things. So God is going to help him think bigger. I want you to think bigger about ministering even in your own home and what I’m going to do in your life. That was our whole message from last week and Abraham is becoming more of a spiritual leader in his own home by the end of chapter 17.

Now in chapter 18 we’re going to look at Sarah and we’re going to talk to her. That’s where we are today. But I’ve got to step back and say one of the beautiful things about this passage is that you recognize that even in the midst of a fractured family God is actively working. I don’t want you to ever think that because your family has struggles that somehow you’ve been put on the shelf. No. God wants to work directly in your life. He wants to heal you. He wants to bring about strength in your life because even in the midst of a fractured family God is at work building the people He wants to build. He builds an Esther who grows up in a nontraditional family. He works in the life of Daniel who’s taken away from his family and grows up in Babylon. God is working the lives of people in nontraditional families. You’ve just got to understand that. Because He’s a Father to the fatherless and He has a real heart for the widows. So the challenges that you experience in family life, you’ve got to know that God is right here and He wants to do a work in your heart.

The family I would say is this crucible. It's where we work out our sanctification. It is not an easy place. I used to think I was pretty righteous. Then I got married. But that was nothing like having children and finding out how much selfishness I really have in my life. I wish I could help young couples understand this idea way before they get married. If they had more tools when they start out, they would do much better.

I think every couple should have to sit down and listen to each other eat a bowl of cereal. If they can get through that they might make it through the rest of their married life. I think every couple, people who like each other they ought to have a talk about the thermostat. I mean that’s a real important discussion that we all have as couples about the thermostat and where it is. I think every couple should have to put together a piece of IKEA furniture. I mean that is so complicated with all those screws. If you can get through that, good things can happen. I think every couple should have to define what it is to have an empty tube of toothpaste. When is the tube empty? Very important to define that. I think every couple who thinks they want to get married should have to canoe across a lake. A canoe requires that you work together. If you can make it across that, maybe you can make it when you get married. See I think every couple should define which way the toilet paper should go on the roller. Which way is right?