Genesis 17:15-19 KJV And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. [16] And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. [17] Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? [18] And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! [19] And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
I. INTRODUCTION—MIRACLES AND MISTAKES
Mistake—A fault in understanding, perception, interpretation. An idea, answer, or act that is wrong. An error. Synonyms: error, fumble, inaccuracy, miscalculation, blunder, confuse, or misunderstanding.
Miracle—An event or action that apparently contradicts scientific laws and is hence thought to be due to supernatural causes. An act of God. A remarkable event. A marvel. Synonyms: A curiosity, mystery, wonder, or an enigma.
We live in a world that is full of mistakes and almost void of miracles. The reason that we live a such a world is merely because of the perception of man. We focus on the mistakes and often fail to see the miracles.
Junius—We lament the mistakes of a good man. . ."
Dwight D. Eisenhower—Nothing is easy in war. Mistakes are always paid for in casualties.
That is the view of fallen man. Mistakes often override the miracles in our lives. When our mistakes are brought to God, He has a way of removing the things that create failure in our spiritual walk. But still there is that often nagging thought of the mistake. Not just an ordinary mistake, but THE MISTAKE.
• The one that embarrassed you.
• The one that ruined your witness.
• The one that caused you to began the downward spiral toward the eddying waters of shame.
-Before long that mistake rules your entire life.
• THE MISTAKE is never far from your mind.
• THE MISTAKE rises and stands before you when you began to pray.
• THE MISTAKE mocks when you lift your hands in worship.
• THE MISTAKE laughs when you volunteer for the prayer shift.
• THE MISTAKE distracts you when you attempt to read the Book.
• THE MISTAKE haunts you every time that you attempt to make a new commitment.
• THE MISTAKE goads you and rides you.
• THE MISTAKE robs your peace.
• THE MISTAKE has raided all of your spiritual reserves.
• THE MISTAKE is something that you can no longer live with.
-Now you live in a place where THE MISTAKE torments you.
If you find yourself in that position, the Word of God has the power to give you the faith to rise up and the Spirit of God is able to provide the deliverance from THE MISTAKE.
II. THE TEXT OF GENESIS
A. General History
The four names mentioned in the text: Abraham, Sarah, Ishmael, and Isaac are no stranger to most of us.
• Abraham, the man that God called out of the land of the Chaldees, the searcher for the city whose builder and maker was God.
• Sarah, the wife of the old patriarch, faithfully followed Abraham into the land that God was going to lead them to.
• Ishmael was the son born to Abraham in his moment of doubt.
• Isaac was the promise that was fulfilled in the old age of Abraham and Sarah.
But there is fair more to the story than just that brief overview.
B. The Origin of the Mistake
When our lives are led into mistakes or failure, whether or not we are willing to admit it or not, that particular failure had began its process long before the capitulation of the act.
There is no greater illustration of this point than to look at the life of Samson.
Judges 15:20-16:1 KJV And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. [16:1] Then went Samson to Gaza, and saw there an harlot, and went in unto her.
For twenty long years that unbridled passion and un-tethered lust ate at the very soul of Samson until it was fulfilled in a single moment of failure.
The same was with the origin of the mistake of Abraham. First of all, Abraham found himself involved in a famine.
Genesis 12:10 KJV And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.
Notice in that verse that Abraham "went down" to Egypt. Egypt is a type of the world. It was the world that Abraham retreated to during his time of famine. The spiritual application involved here is a warning: Never go to the world during your moments of spiritual famine.
Men meet failure when they go to the wrong places during their famines. It is in our "dry places" (Matthew 12:43) that we are most vulnerable to mistakes.
It was to Egypt that Abraham went during the time of famine; he left the land of Canaan to go to Egypt.
Deuteronomy 11:10-12 KJV For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: [11] But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: [12] A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
In Egypt, water has to be carried from the muddy Nile to water its crops. In Canaan, fresh rains provided the refreshment to the crops.
Abraham forsook his altars and his tent to go to Egypt. His altars and his tents were meeting places with God but he left them to go to Egypt.
Isaiah 31:1 KJV Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!
It was in Egypt that the wheels of the mistake began to turn. Hagar had been picked by Sarah to be her handmaid. If your haven is the world during times of spiritual drought, it has to be understood that some detrimental things will be picked up along the way that will weaken the grip that you have on your promise.
Genesis 16:1 KJV Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
Time has a way of wearing down the promises of God. Abraham and Sarah were not immune to the weight of time. They began to doubt that God really was going to live up to His promises of making Abraham the father of a great nation.
In a moment of doubt, Abraham and Sarah decided to take the matter into their own hands.
Sarah provided Abraham with her handmaid, Hagar, and a son was conceived.
After Ishmael was born; it did not take long for Abraham to realize that a mistake had been born. He noticed it when Sarah and Hagar became rivals. They both began to compete for the eye of Abraham. Abraham saw his miracle slipping away.
C. The Birth of the Miracle
With the weight of guilt on the shoulders of Abraham, he turned to the only place that he had left. In Genesis 17, we read of the renewal of the covenant with God. That is the only place to go when the mistake has you gasping in a spiritual death grip.
• A place of renewal.
• A place of consecration.
• A place of hope that becomes a spot of refreshment.
After the renewal of the covenant, shortly thereafter, we see the birth of Isaac. The birth of the miracle, Isaac came along. Suddenly, the mistake and the miracle were in the same house. Any time the mistake and the miracle are in the same house there will always be a struggle between the two.
-One of the masterful things that the old preachers used to do was take an Old Testament passage like this and milk out the symbols that presented themselves. There are several examples here:
• Ishmael, the son of doubt. . . Isaac, the son of the promise.
• Ishmael, the work of the flesh. . . Isaac, the work of the Spirit.
• Ishmael, Abraham’s mistake. . . Isaac, Abraham’s miracle.
• Hagar, the Egyptian, the intruder. . . Sarah, the Jew, the blessed.
• Hagar, the worldly church. . . Sarah, the chosen church.
• Abraham, a man of doubt. . . Abraham, a man of faith.
• Abraham, the liar who fled to Egypt, the world. . . Abraham, the man of faith, fled his homeland to seek out the place of God.
-The Bible is loaded with examples like this and those old preachers of by-gone years who didn’t have many resources to study with, would pray and meditate over the Word and God would give them insight to help the church.
D. The Eviction of the Mistake
Such was the case with Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael soon began to understand that he was the mistake and that Isaac was the miracle. The attitude of Ishmael began to change toward Isaac.
He became the rival. He became the tormentor of Isaac.
• The mistake worked at every opportunity to crush the miracle.
• The mistake badgered the miracle.
• The mistake smothered the miracle.
• The mistake harassed the miracle.
• The mistake pestered the miracle.
That is the story of our lives:
• Commitment begins to move forward and the mistake begins to harass me.
• A prayer life beans to develop and the mistake begins to bother me.
• A day or two of fasting and it seems like the miracle has the upper hand but the mistake hasn't been banished and comes back to suffocate the discipline.
It soon became apparent to Abraham that something had to be done. Ishmael was sent away by the father. Ishmael was moved out of Isaac's way. The mistake had finally been banished and the miracle was in the process of stretching it's wings. THE MISTAKE HAD BEEN EVICTED!!!
• Abraham really was going to be the father of a great nation. . .in spite of his mistake.
• Abraham really was going to possess the land of Canaan. . . in spite of his mistake.
• Abraham found the earlier relationship he had enjoyed with God. . .in spite of his mistake.
• Abraham really was blessed by God. . . in spite of his mistake.
-There ought to be a sense of faith rising in our souls when we hear this kind of preaching. This is the kind of preaching the enemy doesn’t want you to hear or understand.
• Revival is still going to come. . .in spite of past mistakes.
• Healing can still happen. . . in spite of my mistake.
• Restoration can still take place. . . in spite of my past mistakes.
• Hope is still alive in my life. . . in spite of my mistakes.
• Faith still believes. . . in spite of my mistakes.
2 Corinthians 5:17-19 KJV Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. [18] And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; [19] To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
III. CONCLUSION—THE MISTAKE. . . WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH IT???
A. The Mystery of The Stone
There was something furtive about the way the little old man rummaged around in the trunk of his car that captured the attention. He cast a nervous glance over his shoulder, then lifted out something heavy, wrapped in cloth. His unexpected arrival had broken the stillness of the horizon in the Blue Mesa, in Arizona's Petrified Forest. He labored across the road and out into the desert. Moving with difficulty, stopping now and then to catch his breath, he continued on until he reached the hump of a small hill that formed the lower edge of the Blue Mesa. He calculated the slope, then hefted his burden and started down.
Once he had gained the bottom, he walked perhaps ten yards further to the edge of a small gully, knelt in the dirt and gently un-wrapped his bundle. A piece of petrified wood tumbled out. It appeared to be about fifteen pounds, a splintered chunk from the base of a tree, looking astonishingly wooden although it had turned to stone 225 million years ago. It glittered with crystals and gleamed green and red and blue from the smooth jasper that had filled in the tree's living cells. The old man bent down and touched the stone and then lifted his eyes toward the sunset and sat motionless for a long time.
It was at that point, that he began the story. "I had to bring it back," he said answering an unspoken question. "I found it sixty years ago. I took it when I was thirteen. My brother and
I plotted and planned and took it when our father wasn't watching. My father was upset when he found it, but we were back in New York by then."
He had carried that rock his entire life. Always struggling with the conscience of returning it. He had vowed to return it to the desert who had once harbored the treasure. The guilty twinge had persisted in his life all these years. Valuable? Yes. But who would buy the mistake? He knew that if he sold it, his conscience would never let him rest. But finally, the stone was back on the slope that he had remembered. In the deepening twilight, there was a faint smile on the old man's face. A traveler finally experiencing relief within sight of the end of the journey. (Reader's Digest, November 1994, pp. 81 82)
B. What is Your Mistake???
Everybody has one, an old piece of rock that is harbored in the soul, never venturing toward the light of the holiness of God, but still it's there.
The rocks vary in shape and size, but it is a mistake that robs the work of the miracle that God wants to see in your life.
• Maybe it's a confrontation that you had with someone at work and things at work are tense.
• Maybe it's someone that you can't forgive for something they done to you years ago.
• Maybe you really ruined your witness at home or at work or even at church.
• Maybe it's a confrontation that you have had with your spouse and your marriage is still shaky.
• Maybe it's some dishonesty with God, with your pastor, with your spouse, with your children.
• Maybe you cheated someone out of something, not necessarily money but a position.
• Maybe your mistake is the moment that your lust consumed you and you gave in.
• Maybe your mistake is some bitterness that you have held long after the wound should have healed.
• Maybe your mistake was a failure in your life, a long time ago, to give in to the call of God and you snubbed God.
• Maybe your mistake was an accusing finger that you pointed at God for your circumstances.
• Maybe I haven't named your mistake, but it's still there, it's hideous, it's ugly, and you need some relief.
-I have the answer: You are just a few steps from an altar where you can deposit the mistakes and began to move toward journey's end.
Romans 8:35-39 KJV Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? [36] As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. [37] Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. [38] For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, [39] Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Any rocks you want to drop off??? You can leave your mistake at an altar and let the miracle began to have full reign in your life!!!
Philip Harrelson
February 11, 1995
March 10, 2011—1st Revision
