Great Prayers of the Old Testament
Introduction: How to Receive the Lord Jesus Christ
Genesis 18:1-15
Sermon by Rick Crandall
(Prepared September 24, 2024)
BACKGROUND:
*Anyone who has read a good portion of God's Word knows that there are a lot of prayers provided for us in the Bible. The Dake Annotated Reference Bible lists 222 different prayers in the Bible: 176 prayers in the Old Testament, and 46 prayers in the New Testament. (1)
*Today we begin a series on some of those great prayers, but first we need to see the background to Abraham's prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah. And these verses also go a long way to help us understand life's most important question. Let's get started by reading Genesis 18:1-15.
MESSAGE:
*Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? This is one of the ways to ask life's most important question. How we answer this question makes the difference between staying lost or being saved. It's the difference between eternal death or eternal life, the difference between eternal suffering in hell or eternal joy in Heaven.
*Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? This makes all the difference in the world because John 1:12 says, "As many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
*But how do you receive the Lord? God surely wants us to know, so He makes it very clear in His Word. And He says things like John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Romans 6:23 says, "The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." And Romans 10:13 says, "For whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.''
*God also uses earthly things to help us understand heavenly things. Think about good friends for example. I'm talking about people who really care for you, people you can count on. That's the kind of friend Jesus Christ wants to be for us all. So talking about the cross in John 15:13 Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down His life for His friends."
*God uses earthly things to help us understand eternal things. And in Revelation 3:20 Jesus said something very interesting: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." That's what receiving the Lord is like. It's like opening a door, opening a spiritual door. It's opening the door of your heart to let Jesus come in and sit down to dinner with you. It is a spiritual feast with Jesus that will last forever and ever!
*Jesus loves to eat with people. Luke's Gospel shows Jesus sharing meals with people 10 different times! Luke 5:27-31 for example, tells us about a feast in the home of Matthew the tax collector, who was also called Levi:
27. After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, "Follow Me.''
28. And he left all, rose up, and followed Him.
29. Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them.
30. But their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against His disciples, saying, "Why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?''
31. And Jesus answered and said to them, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick.
*That's the kind of Savior we have in Jesus Christ. He is the only Savior of the world, and He is a Savior who is willing to meet with sinners right where they are. Jesus is willing to sit down to supper with sinners like us, so that He might spiritually heal us forever. Jesus wants to transform us like He transformed the corrupt tax collector, Matthew, into the disciple who later wrote the Gospel of Matthew.
*Matthew Levi received Jesus into his home, but the most important thing is that Matthew received Jesus into his heart. That's what God wants all of us to do, and today's Scripture can help us, because the same Lord who went to eat with Abraham, is the same Lord who died on the cross for our sins.
1. SO, HOW SHOULD WE RECEIVE THE LORD? -- FIRST: RECEIVE JESUS WITH HOSPITALITY.
*Give Jesus your generous hospitality. This is what Abraham did in vs. 1-4:
1. Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth (or oak) trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day
2. So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground,
3. and said, "My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant.
4. Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
*Now we must understand that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, one with God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit. But before Jesus humbled himself to become a man and be born on earth, He appeared to His followers many times in the Old Testament.
*Those two other men were the angels that God sent to rescue Lot from Sodom. But somehow Abraham instantly recognized the Lord. And notice how eager he was to welcome the Lord. In vs. 2 this 99-year-old man ran to the Lord. Then he bowed all the way to the ground in humble worship. In vs. 3, Abraham pleaded with the Lord to stay a while, and he confessed that he was the Lord's servant.
*In vs. 4, Abraham wanted to make sure that his guests were rested and refreshed. Then in vs. 5, Abraham began to offer them food saying, "I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.'' And they said, "Do as you have said.''
*In vs. 6-8, notice again how eager Abraham was to be hospitable to the Lord:
6. So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, "Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.''
7. And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it.
8. So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.
*In all of these things we see that Abraham was eager to give God the best that he could, as quickly as he could. And that's how we should receive the Lord.
2. RECEIVE THE LORD WITH HOSPITALITY. AND RECEIVE HIM WITH HOPE.
*Put all of your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ! Trust Him with all your heart. That's what God wants all of us to do., and that's what the Lord wanted Abraham and Sarah to do in today's Scripture. So in vs. 9-14:
9. . . they said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?'' And he said, "Here, in the tent.''
10. And He (the Lord) said, "I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.'' And Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.
11. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
12. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?''
*Up to this point, Sarah's faith was weak to say the least. Back in Genesis 16, Sarah gave up on the Lord's delayed promise of a son. And it was Sarah who came up with the terrible idea for Abram to take her servant Hagar as a wife and a surrogate mother.
*Now, 13 years later, Sarah laughed inside with disbelief that she and her 99-year-old husband could have a baby. And this was crucial, because the Lord's promise didn't just concern her own son. His promise concerned the coming of the future Messiah, who would die on the cross for our sins!
*Sarah had given up on the Lord's promises. She had lost her hope. But the Lord has ways of restoring our hope. He does two things that will help us, -- IF WE WILL LISTEN TO GOD.
*First, the Lord points out our unbelief. He calls us out to correct us. So in vs. 13 God asked Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?'" The Lord points out our unbelief. Then the Lord confirms both who He is and what He can do. This is what the Lord did in vs. 14, where He asked that great question, "Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."
*Is anything too hard for the LORD, the one and only true God? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? The great "I AM LORD GOD who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. The God who humbled Himself to be born as a baby on the first Christmas. The God-man who worked countless miracles during His perfect life on earth. The God-man who died on the cross for our sins, and rose again three days later, forever in victory over sin and death? Is anything good too hard for Him? No! -- Never! And the sooner we figure this out, -- the better!
*The Lord wanted to give Sarah more than she could imagine. It seemed too good to be true, so she laughed in disbelief.
*It's no wonder that back in Genesis 17:19, God said, "Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, -- and you shall call his name Isaac." That name means "God made me laugh." God made Sarah laugh at first, because the promise seemed too good to be true. Then God made her laugh again, when the promise did come true. And it surely did, because nothing is too hard for God!
*God wanted to give Sarah more than she could imagine, and now Jesus wants to give us more than we can imagine. Sometimes His promises may seem too good to be true. In Jeremiah 33:3 God says, "Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." In Matthew 21:22 Jesus said, "All things, whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive." And in John 14:14 Jesus said, "If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."
*God's promises may seem too good to be true, but you believe them anyway! God wants us to have hope. And He goes out of His way to give it to us. -- "Is anything good too hard for the Lord?" -- Never!
*God demonstrated this truth to Sam Cathey in a miraculous way. Sam became one of our Southern Baptist evangelists in 1967. That first year, Sam had to rush back from a revival, because his daughter Nola had been admitted to the hospital. She had acute appendicitis, and they thought it might be ruptured.
*Sam got on a plane in Los Angeles about 2:30 in the morning and headed back home to Detroit. He was overwhelmed with doubts and fears.
*Sam's seat was right behind first class, and he could see through the curtain that no one was up there. So, he asked the stewardess if he could go up there to get some rest. She turned him down because it was against the rules, and they didn't have a stewardess up there.
*But just as she walked away, another stewardess walked through those curtains. This one invited Sam to come up to first class and sit with her. She brought him a sandwich, olives, chips, and a coke. Then they sat facing each other, as she began to talk.
*She went on and on about the Lord and Scripture and grace. She talked to Sam about God's sovereignty, His love, His care, and His protection. Sam just listened, never even mentioning the problem with his sick daughter, Nola.
*When they passed over Chicago, she stood and said, "See all of those lights down there? Put your hands like so."
*Sam cupped his hands. Then she held them out and said, "See, from way up here, it looks like you cover up the whole city of Chicago, doesn't it?" -- Sam agreed.
*"Now cup them like so." Sam did, and she said, "From up here, it looks like you've got the whole city of Chicago in your hands, doesn't it?" Again, he agreed. Then she put her hand on his shoulder and said, "Man of God, Nola will be all right."
*Then she turned and went through the curtains into coach. Sam never saw her again, and the first stewardess thought that he had been dreaming, until he showed her the left-over food in first class.
*When Sam got off the plane, his wife was grinning from ear to ear. The hospital had just called. Nola's fever had broken, and she was perfectly well. (2)
*God wanted Sam Cathey to see that God's got the whole world in His Hands. And He wants us to see it too. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" -- No! And we should never give up on the promises of God, even when they seem too good to be true. Put your hope in the Lord.
3. RECEIVE THE LORD WITH HOPE. AND RECEIVE HIM WITH HONESTY.
*You might as well be honest with the Lord. -- He knows all about you anyway. Verses 12-15 make this truth clear to us:
12. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?''
13. And the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?'
14. Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.''
15. But Sarah denied it, saying, "I did not laugh,'' for she was afraid. And He said, "No, but you did laugh!''
*Verse 12 tells us that Sarah didn't even laugh out loud. She laughed "within herself." But there was no hiding it from God. He knew. Many Scriptures confirm this truth. For example, in Psalm 11:4 David wrote, "The LORD is in His holy temple, The LORD'S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
*And in Psalm 139:1-4 King David wrote, "O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether."
*There is no point in lying to the Lord, because He already knows everything about us. That's why in Isaiah 46:9-10 He can say: "Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'"
*Think for a moment about the infinite power and knowledge of God. There are over 8 billion people in the world today, and God knows everything about every one of us past present and future! Praise the Lord!
*But also notice how patiently God deals with our faults, our doubts and fears. We can't even imagine all that God could have done to Sarah, especially after she told Him a bald-faced lie. But all God did was say, "No, but you did laugh!''
*The Lord is patient with His people, and there are many references to God's patience in the Bible. Dr. Donald Potts was one of my professors at seminary, and he was a wonderful teacher. I have always remembered Dr. Potts telling us that the Old Testament word picture for longsuffering was "long nose" or nostril." And it may seem silly to think about God walking around with this big, long nose. But the idea is that it takes a long, long time for the stench of our sin to go all the way up.
*That's why in Psalm 86:15 David said, "You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth." And Romans 2:4 tells us that God's longsuffering leads us to turn to Him. There Paul asked, "Do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?"
*Paul also stressed how the longsuffering of Jesus was seen in his own life. In 1 Timothy 1:16 Paul said, "For this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life." God is longsuffering with us, so it is always best to be honest with the Lord. As David said in Psalm 32:1-5,
1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, Whose sin is covered.
2. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no guile.
3. When I kept silent, my bones grew old Through my groaning all the day long.
4. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah
5. I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,'' And You forgave the iniquity of my sin."
*Always be honest with God. Be honest with Him about your faults and your fears. One preacher put it this way: "The first thing I've learned about prayer is that God wants us to be honest with him. I used to feel guilty about going to God with all my problems. I pictured him as a Father who grew tired of my complaints, who wished I would be quiet for just 2 or 3 minutes.
*But then I read through the book of Psalms in the Old Testament. And I realized that God wants us to be honest with Him. If you ever want to read some honest prayers read through the book of Psalms. Don't ever feel like you can't be honest with God. If you have sinned, confess it. If you're ticked off at the world, let God know it in prayer. If you're depressed, He wants to hear about it. If you're happy, lift up a prayer of joy. -- But always be honest with Him. (3)
*You can always be honest with God.
CONCLUSION:
*But have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? This makes all the difference in the world because again, John 1:12 says, "As many as received Him, to them He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." And Romans 10:13 says, "For whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.''
*So we are saved by truly believing in Jesus Christ. But what does that mean? What does it mean to believe? Jerry Falwell really helped us understand.
*And he started by saying that saving faith "is like taking a drink of water. In John 4:14 Jesus said, 'Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.' Saving faith is like taking a drink of water.
*And saving faith is like sitting down to an expensive feast someone else provided for you. In Luke 14:16-17 Jesus said:
16. . . 'A certain man gave a great supper and invited many,
17. and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, "Come, for all things are now ready."'
*Saving faith is also like accepting an invitation. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said, 'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'
*Saving faith is also like walking through a door. In John 10:9 Jesus said, 'I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.' And saving faith is also like receiving a gift, because Romans 6:23 tells us that 'the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.' (4)
*Saving faith is like taking a drink of water, like sitting down to an expensive feast someone else provided for you, like accepting an invitation, like walking through a door, and like receiving a gift. Are you born again by having saving faith in Jesus Christ?
*That's how to receive the Lord. Have you done that? Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? This is life's most important question. And Jesus wants you to receive Him. -- So again in Revelation 3:20 Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me."
*Open the door of your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. Invite Jesus to come in, and He surely will. Receive Him with hospitality, hope and honesty. You can do that right now, as we go to God in prayer.
(1) DAKE ANNOTATED REFERENCE BIBLE - Dake Publishing - https://www.hopefaithprayer.com/prayernew/222-prayers-of-the-bible/
(2) Edited from the story told by Sam Cathy in "SBC Life" Monthly Magazine - Source: Cross & Crown Sermons - "Touched by An Angel" by James McCullen - Daniel 8:16-19
(3) SermonCentral - "Real Followers Are Completely Honest With God" by Eric Snyder - Luke 18:9-14 - Jan 20, 2002
(4) Adapted from Jerry Falwell - "The Most Important Question Ever Asked" - www.trbc.org/sermons/20010902.html
