“Happy is the person who can laugh at himself. He will never be short on entertainment,” someone said.
This chapter links back to Genesis 17, 25 years before.
Gen 21:1-2 The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.
What did it mean that the Lord visited Sarah? Hebrews 11:11 – “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.” God visited Sarah with power to have a child way past the age of child birth.
I ask you, how is God visiting you? What is He empowering you to do that you could not do otherwise.
1. When you trust in God, He will empower you to do what will delight you.
He delighted Sarah, and He delighted Abraham with His visits.
2. There is a connection between waiting, faith and joy.
I love what Charles Stanley said about this: We call Abraham not only a man of faith (Gal. 3:9), but a man of endurance. The starting gun sounded when God promised Abraham a son in his old age, and Abraham "believed in the LORD" (Gen. 15:5-6). But a year came and went, and no child arrived.
Abraham kept running. Two years flashed, and still no child. Still Abraham kept running. Despite a stumble at mid-race (see Gen. 16), Abraham kept running. For 25 years he kept running, until at last, at age 100, he and his wife, age 99, had a son (Gen. 21:1-3).
Why the long wait? Apparently, God wanted Abraham (and us!) to learn the connection between waiting, trust, and hope. (Ps. 33:20-21). “Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.”
Did you hear the connection between waiting and faith? It is that our faith is tested and strengthened by waiting. Abraham heard the promise of God, believed, and waited. Did you hear the connection between waiting and joy? The longer God waited answering the promise, the more he didn’t look unfaithful. The longer He waited, the greater joy in Abraham and Sarah. That may be one of the purposes of Him waiting. Not only to test our faith as we keep praying and keep believing, but it also adds more joy.
Ill. When I was a teen-ager, my mom finally gave in to my dad. After mom and dad bought our Christmas, dad talked mom into allowing us to open the gifts days, sometimes weeks early. He couldn’t wait until we opened our gifts. The problem is that it took a lot of the joy out of Christmas. There was no waiting, anticipation, sleepless nights, joy on Christmas morning.
God loves you and loves more than anything to bring you great joy. You may be impatient for God to answer your prayers, for something to happen, but God’s timing is perfect. It is perfect in giving us the best gifts at the very best moments.
Another illustration of God’s perfect timing. Ill. I have always loved to tell stories. After my junior year in high school, my family moved me away from some of the most amazing friends.
One of my close friends, Roger Graves, went off to college and I did not see him again for a couple of years. Between that time, I had a terrible senior year (my bad attitude), and my freshman year at college was almost a complete disaster. Near the end of my first year in college, the guys in our dorm held a meeting to confront me about my attitude. Actually, several of them wanted to run me out of the college on the rail, maybe tarred and feathered.
To make a long story short, that meeting was blessed by God and he revealed to me the bitterness I had in God about moving away from my friends. He showed me how I was hurting people by my attitude. I repented that night, as did almost the whole dorm (some 50 guys). We had a revival service that night and became lifetime brothers. It saved my life, my ministry, and shaped my future.
When I met Roger Graves, we went to eat pizza. I told him, with my normal flourish, about my anger with God, how it ruined my senior year and nearly all of my first year in college. I detailed to him how the conversation went that night in the dorm. I was excited all over again as I related to him how God intervened and the revival we had.
He sat transfixed, listening with interest. When I finally finished, I asked him, “Well, what has happened in your life since we last saw each other?”
“Nothing,” he sulked. “Nothing exciting every happens to me.”
If God did not wait for perfect timing, that is how we would all feel about life: “Nothing exciting every happens to me.”
God does not operate that way. You may become impatient with the drama, the trouble, the conflict, the frightening scares. However, they are meant by a loving God to give you the greatest adventure you could imagine. What a wonderful gift from a loving God, not only seen in Abraham’s life, but also in yours if you will trust Him.
It is also interesting to note the use of time. At the time of Abraham’s old age…. 24 years awaiting a promise with not time period. About 24 years of believing with no hope otherwise. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Heb. 11:1.
Faith was demonstrated in 24 years with no light at the end of the tunnel. Then suddenly, there was a light. One year waiting when God is specific in time. (Reminds me of rapture and 7 years clock, just saying). After God spoke a year earlier, there was a schedule that Abraham could rely on, something that was not previously present.
3. God has a schedule that we don’t know.
God had the date marked on a calendar that Abraham could not see. The same is true with you. Everything is scheduled.
Teenagers, God has a mate for you, a husband, a wife, and a date for you to find them, if you trust Him. God has the number of children and their personalities already picked out, if you trust Him. God has your career planned, if you listen to Him and trust Him. Life is not the mystery to Him as it is to us.
30 years before Isaac was born, God already had it on the schedule. Do you know that God had the day you were to be saved on His calendar before there was a world?
Ephesians 1:3-6 - Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
If that is true, you can trust Him completely because He has it all worked out, no matter what you face. From His position (NOT OURS), it is like a movie that He has already seen. He knows the end before the beginning.
Isaiah 46:8-10 "Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, 9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,'
Gen 21:3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.
Abraham is obedient to the God who made the promise. Genesis 17:19. God told Abraham to name the son “Laughter” and he did. Now that would be a tough name to be raised with “Laugher”. But there is a reason for it.
Gen 21:4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
From 25 years before: Genesis 17:10-13. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.
4. It is important to obey God completely. Abraham had to circumcise Isaac.
Theologians will talk about the importance of the bloody procedure to mark the blood covenant. They will talk about the importance of Abraham having only one son of promise, born into the covenant, from which the nation comes. Comes from his only begotten, born for promise. Those are all good and important. But to us, tonight, the importance is this.
Partial obedience has a name in the Bible. Partial obedience is called disobedience. It was important that Abraham obey God completely. It is important for you to obey God completely. Too many are going to be totally surprised when they expect their obedience to be accepted, but God points them to their disobedience.
Gen 21:5-6 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me."
If you remember the story, when the visiting angels told Abraham that he was going to have a child through Sarah, she laughed. Then the Lord asked her, “Why did you laugh, Sarah?” She said, “I did not laugh.”
The Lord said, “But you did laugh.” Genesis 18:15. It is one thing for God to turn your tears into laughter, but God does one better.
5. Our point: God will turn your laughter into laughter.
He turned Sarah’s laughter of doubt into laughter of joy, pure joy. Sarah’s joyful laugher brings us joy, and salvation, because this is the way the Savior comes to us.
In this life, you are going to experience the spectrum of emotions. There is time in all of our lives that we have doubts, sometimes we may even laugh. However, God has a way of changing our laughter to a better one.
Gen 21:7 And she said, "Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
The beautiful thing about how God amazes us is that it is so…… amazing. Sometimes I look at what God has done in my life, and around me, and have a good belly laugh. He is so…. amazing. I can think of no better description.
God has given me the ministry of …..(laugh)…. Reconciliation. God has called me to restore fellowship and relationship…. Me… one who has this as his greatest challenge. God has hammered me with forgiveness and handling offenses. Me? Not only am I one of the most offendable people you will ever meet, but border on being the most offensive.
Today’s children’s lesson was the salvation and call of Saul of Tarsus, now known as Paul the Apostle. Paul wrote 1 Timothy 1:15, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”
God chose Paul to be the champion of reconciliation, not because he was the best example of preparation. He picked him because he was the best example of redemption, the most impossible cause. It was to show the power of God to transform, change, redeem.
I am going to be honest with you tonight, probably too honest. When we came here, we found a divided Church, one in which everything and anything offended someone. There were more hurt feelings in this Church than at a children’s beauty pageant after the winner is announced. A lot of Honey Booboos.
I constantly have to shut down my natural reactions to deal with this stuff. I have asked God thousands of times, “Lord, why did you not send someone qualified to handle this one?”
Yet, late at night, I think of where I have come, what God has done in my life, how God is working with our people, and what He has promised to do, and I just laugh. Sometimes I laugh so hard, I can’t breathe. I have said, “Lord, someday in glory, we are going to look at this situation and that you called me, and have a good laugh together.”
And then I say, “Lord, you are awesome.”
6. Your greatest joys will not come from areas you are gifted in, but what God calls you to where you don’t have a clue.
You best times will be when you don’t have a chance. That is the most encouraging thing about this story, and as far as I am concerned, Abraham’s life. The most improbable, impractical, impossible is God’s playground. Therefore, it is our Six Flags, our Disney World. He is just flat out Awesome.
