OUT OF WEAKNESS…STRENGTH - Abraham: “I’m Too Old”
Genesis 21:1-7 (p. 13) August 6, 2017
Introduction:
Friends are always so loving and helpful, aren’t they? LOL. After I had my heart attack a few weeks ago one of my best friends sent me this email that said, “You Know You’re Getting Old If…” And then had this list:
You and your teeth don’t sleep together.
You try to straighten out the wrinkles in your socks and discover you aren’t wearing any.
At the breakfast table you hear snap, crackle, pop and you’re not eating cereal.
Your back goes out but you stay home.
When you wake up looking like your driver’s license picture.
It takes two tries to get up from the couch.
When your idea of a night out is sitting on the patio.
When happy hour is a nap.
When you’re on vacation and your energy runs out before your money does.
When you say something to your kids that your mother said to you and you always hated it.
When all you want for your birthday is to not be reminded of your age.
When you step off a curb and look down one more time to make sure the street is still there.
Your idea of weight lifting is standing up.
It takes longer to rest than it did to get tired.
Your memory is shorter and your complaining lasts longer.
Your address book has mostly names that start with Dr.
You sit in a rocking chair and can’t get it going.
The pharmacist has become your new best friend.
Getting lucky means you found your car in the parking lot.
The twinkle in your eye is only a reflection from the sun on your bifocals.
The iron in your blood turns to lead in your pants.
It takes twice as long to look half as good.
Everything hurts and what doesn’t hurt doesn’t work.
You get two invitations to go out on the same night and you pick the one that gets you home the earliest.
You sink your teeth into a steak - and they stay there.
You give up all your bad habits and still don’t feel good.
You get to the check-out line, see how long it is, and decide what you have in your buggy isn’t worth the wait.
You have more patience, but actually it’s just that you don’t care anymore.
Rocking in a rocking chair feels like a roller coaster ride.
You confuse having a clear conscience with a bad memory.
You finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart.
You wonder how you could be over the hill when you don’t even remember being on top of it.
Satchel Paige, the great African American baseball player said, “Age is mind of matter…if you don’t mind it don’t matter.”
Satchel Paige played in 476 innings in the major leagues. He finished with a 28-31 record and an Era of 3.29. Those don’t sound like Hall of Fame Numbers but consider this…Paige didn’t pitch in the majors until he was 48…In his last outing he was 65 and he threw 3 scoreless innings.
Paige said, “I never threw an illegal pitch, but every once in a while I’d toss in one that ain’t never been seen by this generation.”
At his induction into the Hall of Fame in 1971 he said, “Life had taught him his greatest lessons.”
Life can be a tough teacher at times…“You get the test first and then comes the lesson.”
That is true for Abraham and Sarah as well…They would learn to trust God in faith through the lessons of their lives.
God would indeed choose the weak things of this world to show His strength…Abraham might have thought…“I’m too old for this.” And God would chuckle and say, “My power is made perfect in your weakness.”
God had promised Abraham he would be the Father of a Nation so vast it would be like the sands on the beach and the starts in the sky…but Abraham’s 100 and Sarah’s past 90. They have left their homeland, their family and obeyed God’s request, “To go to a land I will show you.” At 90 years old God establishes this covenant promise with Abraham again. He and his entire household are circumcised and commit themselves, once again to God’s plan. 9 years later 3 messengers from God show up to tell Sarah and Abraham it’s almost time…after they are fed they say:
GENESIS 18:10-15 (p. 11)
Abraham’s 100…Sarah’s 90! No wonder Sarah says, “After I’m worn out and my master’s old will I have this pleasure?”
She even laughs at the prospect. And when God calls her on it…she fibs “I didn’t laugh!” He says, “Oh yeah, you did!”
But who can blame her…She’s well past childbearing time…She’s 90..She’s way too old…isn’t she?
One year later, at God’s appointed time Sarah became pregnant and she gave birth to a son. They named him Isaac…I love it!! Do you know what the name Isaac means? Laughter.
Sarah says, “God has brought me laughter and everyone who hears about it will laugh too.”
Do you remember the theme for this series of messages: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise: God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1 Cor. 1:27)
Abraham and Sarah must have thought - we’re too old to have children…too old to be used by God for this purpose…and God said, “Let me teach you about weak and strong.”
The world views your age as a weakness but when I step in and give you a child, my power is on display…And my power overshadows any worldly weakness. My power is made perfect in your weakness!
Sometimes God’s miracles are a matter of timing…and His timing isn’t always our timing but God…
I. ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES
Promises always involve a future event…like:
“Honey, I promise I’ll take out the garbage.”
“Son, I promise we’ll go fishing next week.”
“Baby, I’ll be at your recital next week.”
But we’ve all heard…“Promises are only as good as the one who makes them.”
All of us have been burned by someone who promised us something and then broke it, a car salesman, a friend or spouse…if it happens over and over, trusting those promises is hard.
But, we’ve also had friends and mates that have made promises and kept them no matter how hard it’s been to keep them…and trust is built on a firm foundation.
God had made all these promises to Abraham and Sarah…and He kept every single one of them.
It’s hard to fault Sarah for laughing about getting pregnant at 90. All those years of wanting, waiting, hoping and then probably a realization that it just wasn’t going to happen…and then God, the omnipotent one, in His timing, opens her barren womb to conceive…and the tears turn into the laughter of uncontrollable, contagious joy.
75 years after making an initial promise…God fulfills it…God always keeps His promises! If He had done this when Abraham and Sarah were 30 and twenty there was no miracle…people would have been happy for them, but no one would have said “That’s impossible except for God!” At 100 and 90 everyone said, “That’s God fulfilling His promise!” “That’s God at work to fulfill His plan!”
It took:
II. A LIFETIME TO LEARN OBEDIENCE AND TRUST
So often, instead of waiting on God’s timing, we try to fix it ourselves…Abraham and Sarah weren’t perfect in their faith journey either…they also tried to hurry God’s plan.
Listen:
GENESIS 16:1-5 (p. 10)
This child born to Abraham through Hagar is not the child of promise…Perhaps they thought “God’s taking, too long…it won’t happen unless we fix it.” WRONG! Ishmael became the father of a nation, but instead of fixing the problem…when they stepped out of God’s will there was jealousy, abuse, anger and violence.
Usually when we step outside of God’s will much the same happens in our lives. Abraham was 86 years old when Ishmael was born…14 years before God fulfills His promise in Sarah and Isaac.
Our pride always says, “I should be able to run my own life. I can fix my own problems.” For the child of God, some lessons in obedience are learned the hard way, huh?
Life will do one of two things to people. It will make us bitter…or it will make us better. Bitter people live outside God’s will continually trying to use the “Hagar” method to get what they want. Better people learn that God’s way is always best…they learn to wait, pray and trust…and over time God turns their tears to laughter.
[I’ve learned the secret of a joyful marriage over time…Kari and I go out to a restaurant 2 times a week…Candlelight, soft music, and then a slow drive home…she goes Tuesdays and I go Fridays :)]
I remember telling Dennis I’d had an argument with Kari…and how I’d won the fight. I said at the end of our “discussion” I had Kari begging on her knees!” And Dennis asked, “What did she say?”…and I replied “She said, come out from under the bed you coward!”
It takes a lifetime of obedience to learn the most important lessons of life. Abraham had many tests…some he passed, some he failed…but he learned God always keeps His promises.
So when God’s greatest test comes…He’s old…but he’s ready…God says,
“Abraham, take Isaac to Mt. Moriah, walk up it…build an altar, bind your son and sacrifice him to me.”
I cannot imagine a harder request for anyone, much less a man that is 115 or 120…and had wanted 100 years for this child.
But Abraham walked up that mountain, build the altar, laid out his son and lifted the knife…and the God who knows our hearts knew the Dad who brought the knife up was willing to bring it down…so God calls out:
“Abraham, Abraham…Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son…your only son.”
And God showed Abraham a ram caught in the thicket…He provided a sacrifice in place of Isaac. And Abraham named that place Jehovah Jireh - “God will provide.”
It’s a picture of Mount Calvary…the place where God provided His Son as the Lamb who took our place…a place where God used the foolishness of the cross to save the world. Because that’s what God does…He chooses the weak things of this world to shame the strong…and the foolish things of this world to shame the wise.
Let’s pray.
