Burying Sara
Gen. 23
Though the passing of this year was not as spectacular as Y2K, it is none the less a very important threshold we have crossed.
We’ve just crossed over into the new millennium! - (Explain: no year "0")
Culture has changed
From agricultural (radio) Industrial (TV) Informational (computer/internet) - The needs of people changed with each shift.
Church has changed
As we look over the history of the church ADAPT, CHANGE with culture.
- Some adapt theology to make it more comfortable to the culture. - THAT’S WRONG!
- Others have kept the message strong and adapted the form to be relevant to the culture. THAT’S GOOD!
Conflict has changed
Not who we are in conflict with or even how we wage warfare - but the battlefield has changed.
- It would be like going out to war only to find that the enemy is on the other side of the ridge.
- The conflict is being waged on battlefields that have been unfamiliar to us in the past.
- We live in perilous times - 2Tim.3:1-13 gives a rundown of the perils that will face us in the last days that reads like this mornings news paper. Lovers of self, money, pleasure, etc.
- The enemy is assaulting on every front available to him - for he knows his time is short
- The stakes are high! - THE PRIZE? -your children - your marriage - your effectiveness - powerless church
But we want to declare here tonight that we will not be casualties of war. For we have a mighty king that leads us!!
- He has brought us to this time in history for just such a time as this!
- Not to shrink back and cower - but to be VICTORIOUS!
- He has uniquely equipped you at this exact point in history to be fit for the conflict that rages around us.
- We must enter that conflict like never before. It will take our time, our money, our determination.
- Our skill in battle will sharpen as we declare "I will share Christ, I will pray, I will read, I will serve, I will step out."
Illus: Civil War: with ladies and their parasols and gentlemen in the carriages - watched the war from the surrounding hillsides for entertainment.
- Many Christians are doing just that but they were not called to that! We are called to enter the conflict!
- We cannot be both on the sidelines and victorious. His call to you tonight is to enter the conflict.
The conflict is the advancement of the Kingdom of light as it pierces through the strongholds of the Kingdom of darkness
- Jesus said paraphrased "…the gates of hell will not prevail against the church"
- Gates defend! - The church is against the gates.
- In this picture the armies of God are an advancing conquering army!
- We, the church, are not pictured with our tails between our legs, our hands over our heads just trying to hold the hill.
- We are always pictured as expanding, taking new ground, and conquering for the glory of our King!
But you know and I know - and I want to be sensitive here - that not every church in every age has fit that description.
- Many churches that we know about, and maybe even some in this town are only a shell of what they once were.
- Many churches that once were mightily used by the Spirit of God now are little more than grave markers attesting to the life that once flowed freely in their midst. (not true of them all, you know that and I know that)
- Casualties of liberal theology! Or rendered impotent by an inordinate focus on tradition or forms of worship that mean nothing to the culture we find ourselves in!
- We must not allow that to happen at Bethel!!
- Our culture is changing and whether we like it or not - God wants us to adapt to the changes and leverage our energies and resources for maximum effect for the Kingdom of God!
I’m not saying to forget the past. We would be foolish not to remember and learn, but we’re not to enshrine it!
- If we here didn’t care about our past, we wouldn’t be planning a big shindig for our 75th anniversary.
- There wouldn’t be a group of people working hard, spending time and money to ensure we celebrate the past.
- But even as we do that, we’re looking forward to our future. To build and to fortify the church.
- If we live in the past, then we’ve failed. WHY can’t we stick with the old and never do anything new?
- Because every new generation of people that arises on this earth needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ or they’ll perish!
But are we being effective? As we stand on this side of a new millennium, is the Captain of the Lord of Hosts calling us to adapt or change so that we will be postured to be participants in the fruitfulness that God has planned for the next stage of this church’s life?
That question needs to be asked not only as a church but as an individual. Does something need to change?
Sometimes in our lives and in the life of a church there are things that God wants us to leave behind, and until we do we cannot embrace the powerful promise of the future.
- I’m not really talking about something bad or sinful here. Though that would certainly prevent His blessing.
- I’m talking about something that may have in the past been the very source of Gods blessing or promise to us.
- We’ve all probably experienced times in our lives when God has met us in a special way and we drew such strength from Him as He met with us and ministered to us deeply. We came back again and again and each time He filled our cups full.
- But that was a long time ago, and the cup doesn’t seem to fill up anymore. Try as we may to recapture the blessedness of that past experience, It just doesn’t fulfill anymore.
I believe this process is His way of calling us further up and further in.
The still waters and green pastures we followed Him to before are now used up. They served the Shepherds purpose and now he calls to us from the ridge. He wants us to follow Him. But we must follow Him over that barren ridge. It doesn’t look very inviting and there is still some comfort and nourishment here. But the Shepherd is insistent and so we follow. On the ridge the wind blows, you’re uncomfortable, your footing is uncertain, the mountain mist makes it hard to see. But the Shepherd always seems to be just in sight confidently leading the way, to where we do not know. Then little by little we notice that it’s getting lighter and, we can see the Shepherd much better now. And, what is that wonderful smell? And just then, as if walking through a veil, it opens before us - the most beautiful pasture we have yet laid eyes on, abundantly heaped with the lushest of grass. And the Shepherd with a knowing grin welcomes us to a new place of fruitfulness. And the wonder of the previous pasture is swallowed up by this place of glorious provision.
We must as a church and as individuals be willing to turn our backs on those things that once brought us comfort and nourishment, in order to follow the Shepherd to the next place of fruitfulness.
That was my introduction - and now Listen with your hearts!
Genesis 23
Sarah dies vs. 1
- The wife of his youth - beauty that kings would kill for - she was precious to Abraham and he loved her.
- She was chosen by God to be the one through whom the promised son would be born.
- In the same way God allows vessels of blessing in our lives to experience death.
Abraham mourns vs. 2
- It’s normal to grieve and pine for that which is no longer to be a part of our lives.
- A time of remembering, not forgetting.
- Remember with fondness the life that was imparted when His Spirit animated that vessel.
He rose from before his dead vs. 3
- He came to grips with the finality of death.
- And rose to make preparation for her transition from life to death.
- It will cost something to properly transition from life to death.
He buried his dead out of his sight vs. 4 - 19
- Burial is a provision for the future as well as for the past.
- It was provision for the appropriate memory of Sarah.
- It was closure for Abraham’s future.
- We must bury our dead out of our sight so that we can embrace the future God has for us.
He lived a satisfying life. Gen. 25:7,8
- His epitaph - "And Abraham breathed his last and died in a ripe old age, an old man and satisfied with life;. . . "
- God has satisfaction planned for us beyond the death of those things that once were blessings.
Some observations:
- Many churches and individuals have never reckoned as dead that which Gods Spirit no longer animates.
- When Gods Spirit no longer animates a vessel, it ceases to be useful in the advance of His Kingdom.
- What a pathetic notion it would be to prop up Sarah at the dinner table and pretend she wasn’t dead!
- And yet that is exactly what some have done in their attempts to preserve ways that God once blessed.
- The removal of those things that used to be productive in the past is necessary to bring you into the next stage of fruitfulness.
- Abraham buried that which was the vessel through which the 1st part of the promise came true. He lived 38 more years.
- God has fruitfulness in store for us on the other side of burying our dead.
Change is not something that we as humans like - but like it or not it is necessary. And we must learn how to deal with it with grace and resolve.
- Cross your arms - now the other way. It feels all crooked and weird - Change isn’t comfortable.
So what about the past?
How much influence should your past have on your future? There are two verses in the Bible that appear to contradict each other at first glance, but when you look at them in context, they are perfectly clear.
"Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old" (Isaiah 43:18), and
"Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other;" (Isaiah 46:9)
To remember or not to remember? It’s actually quite simple. The truth is that we need to forget those things that relate to us, and remember the things that relate to God.
The things that relate to us:
- Times when God moved mightily on our behalf.
- Vs. 16, 17 - the exodus
- Water from a rock - The walls of Jericho -
- The Bronze serpent in the wilderness
The things that relate to God:
- He is God and no other
- He is the one whose purposes can not be thwarted
- Remember that it is God’s care for you that made those awesome events possible for you.
The things that God has done in the past are wonderful be He never intended us to enshrine those experiences.
- God removes them when we do - King Hezekiah destroyed the bronze serpent. 2 Kings 18:4 " He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the sons of Israel burned incense to it." They enshrined it!
- This new year also marks the 100th year of the Pentecostal experience. It was on Dec31, 1900; or Jan. 1, 1901.
- It occurred at a Bible college in Topeka, Kansas - and spread to the Azusa Street mission. - both torn down.
- But the movement has continued - WHY?
- Because its not about events, places, forms or traditions.
- It’s about the Lord Jesus Christ that empowered those things.
- We need to take our eyes off the things of the past because He wants to do a new thing among us.
- And unless we bury our dead out of our sight we can not embrace the next step He wants to take us to.
Conclusion:
- I’m told that many pilots have died because they stayed with a disabled aircraft.
- They preferred the familiarity of the cockpit to the unfamiliarity of the parachute, even though the cockpit was a deathtrap.
- Many people have seen their careers/lives crash because they preferred the familiar but deadly old ways to the risky but rewarding new ways.
I believe God wants to do something new and fresh in our lives in the year ahead.
We need to believe God for a newness of life in 2001. - Lets start this new millennium resolving to follow Christ into the next stage of promise, fruitfulness and blessing.
You don’t have to have a rerun of 2000. Leave behind the sparse pastures and dried up wells. - He is calling you from the ridge.
But you have to follow.
Every Eye Closed and every head bowed.
I believe God has been speaking to your hearts about some things you need to leave behind. You’ve heard Him calling to you.
And you want to follow Him into the next stage of promise. A fresh anointing, a fresh start, a new life.
