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God’s Equation for Solving the Impossible (Genesis 18:1-15)
17 Plays9 months ago
Sunday Message recorded 07 January 2024
by Senior Pastor Victor Morrison
First Baptist Church -- Columbus TX
1700 Milam St.
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
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Transcript
The Sick Call
00:00:06
Speaker
Would you open your Bibles to the Old Testament book of Genesis?
00:00:11
Speaker
Yesterday, I was mowing my yard and I got a phone call from our associate pastor, Josh Hill, and he said, pastor, I hate to do this. But he said, I woke up this morning sick. And he said, I feel like I've been hit by a Mack truck. And so he said, I'm not going to be able to preach tomorrow. And so I was like, oh, that's no problem. But then maybe yesterday you heard the sirens going off. You know, that was me praying to God. I was just, please God.
00:00:42
Speaker
You know, if you spend time in God's word daily, you know what? You'll always have something you can share.
Introduction to Genesis 18
00:00:48
Speaker
So I want to share with you from my journal from Genesis 18, verses 1 through 15.
00:00:55
Speaker
This year in 2024, something's love to happen that you can't fix. Something from your perspective as a man, as a woman, a boy, a girl, you may say, that's out of my league. I can't do that. And so I want us to look at God's
Facing the Impossible with God
00:01:12
Speaker
equation for solving the impossible.
00:01:15
Speaker
There was something that Abraham and his wife Sarah were facing and they couldn't fix it. They had tried, they had tried, but they couldn't fix it. Not on their own, not without God. And that's what I would say to you as you begin this new year. But what we need to know is what's the formula? If we want God to intervene in our lives, what is it that we need to do?
00:01:40
Speaker
And I believe that there are lessons that we all can learn. I'm still learning. I hope you're still learning. What I'm about to share with you is what I was learning from this passage, and I just wrote down a few observations that I'd like to share with you this morning. But Abraham had a lesson that he needed to learn in what I would call God's calculus class.
00:02:01
Speaker
Some of you know that I'm from Tennessee and that I count on fingers and toes. When I max that out, I'm done. So maybe you're saying, you don't know calculus, you're right.
00:02:12
Speaker
But I did look up calculus a little bit so I know what I was talking about, but they say that calculus is the mathematical study of the rate of change. The rate of change. Is there anything in your life and
Abraham's Divine Encounter
00:02:27
Speaker
you're saying, Lord, if you could just change this, if you could help this, if you could make a difference with this? I think that's where Abraham and Sarah were.
00:02:35
Speaker
Something wasn't changing and they needed it to change. And so what I want you to do is to walk with me through this and see what was it that they did and what was it that God did. Let's stand in honor of God's Word. Let me read these verses. It's only 15 verses, Genesis 18, 1 through 15.
00:02:57
Speaker
And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him.
Promise of a Child
00:03:14
Speaker
And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, O Lord,
00:03:24
Speaker
If I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on, since you have come to your servant.
00:03:47
Speaker
So they said, do as you have said. And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, quick, three says of fine flour, knead it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf tender and good and gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly.
00:04:07
Speaker
And then he
Belief and Trust in God
00:04:08
Speaker
took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, where is Sarah, your wife? And he said, she's in the tent.
00:04:24
Speaker
The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.
00:04:43
Speaker
So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I'm old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you about this time next year and Sarah shall have a son.
00:05:13
Speaker
But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. And he said, no, but you did laugh. Let's pray together.
00:05:23
Speaker
Lord, sometimes we laugh. Sometimes we hear others laugh when we tell them about you, when we tell them about your promises, when we tell them about truths, things about your calendar. But Lord, really, there's nothing to laugh about
Facing the New Year with Faith
00:05:40
Speaker
whenever it comes to the truths of God. You mean what you say. And so I pray that you would prepare us as we start a new year
00:05:48
Speaker
To learn to trust you, to learn to go to you with those problems that we are facing that are simply impossible in terms of what we can accomplish. But nothing is too difficult for you. So bless us as we look at this passage together. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.
00:06:11
Speaker
I want to give you six quick things from this passage that I feel could make a difference in your year.
00:06:19
Speaker
The first thing is verses one and two. It says, the Lord appeared to him. So out of the three men that appeared to Abraham, one of them was the Lord. Some say it's a Christophany. Some say this was a time when Jesus appeared before he was born in Bethlehem. Just briefly, just for this moment in time.
00:06:41
Speaker
And if you keep reading into chapter 19 when it says, the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, then some people say the other two were angels. But here's the first principle that I want you to know, or the first factor in terms of what do you do whenever you're facing something impossible. The first factor is this, the observation factor, or if you want to get real theological
00:07:09
Speaker
the omniscience factor. Does God know what you're facing? Does God know that it's challenging? Does God know that it's impossible for you? Yes, He does. He does know.
00:07:22
Speaker
See, in Genesis 16, not in this passage, in this chapter 18, but in Genesis 16, it was a low tide in Abraham's life. He fathered his son Ishmael through a handmaiden of Sarah at Sarah's request. The handmaiden's name was Hagar, and the son that he fathered was named Ishmael. We've had lots of problems ever since.
00:07:47
Speaker
But Genesis 17, 21, God had been silent for 13 years, but finally He breaks the silence. And He spoke in Genesis 17, 21, and He said, you know what? I am going to give you a son like I promised Abraham, but I'm not going to give it to you through Hagar. I'm going to give you the son through your wife, Sarah. She's going to bear a son.
00:08:13
Speaker
So now here we are in chapter 18 and it's a high tide in his life because he's learned something. He's learned to trust God. He's learned not to rush ahead whenever God is telling him something. This passage reminds us of the awareness of our God to what we're facing in our circumstances. Look at what it says. It says that there he sits at the door of his tent in the heat of the day
00:08:41
Speaker
He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him." This is a plane. This is not in a mountainous area where, you know, he couldn't have seen him coming. No, if he's sitting there looking out, he should have saw the three men coming. But it says he looked up, and they're right there owning him. Have you ever had God just reveal to you, I'm right here with you.
00:09:07
Speaker
And so I think that's how God knows everything is because God is also with you. He hasn't left you. He hasn't left me. He said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. And so when I look at these verses, I think, wow, he not only knows everything,
00:09:25
Speaker
He knew that Abraham and Sarah couldn't have a child. He knew that. He knows what you're facing. He knows your inabilities. He knows your limitations. And just like Abraham, one of these days he's going to open your spiritual eyes and you're going to see God's right there.
00:09:43
Speaker
It's kind of like in Genesis 28 verses 16 and 17 where Jacob, I mean this is down the line a couple of more generations from Abraham, but Jacob is on the run. He's mistreated his brother Esau, and Esau got upset and angry. So now Jacob is on the run and he lays down for a nap, which I recommend naps.
00:10:08
Speaker
If you can get a nap after
Obstacles and God's Power
00:10:10
Speaker
lunch, it's just 10 minutes is all I need. And man, I'm ready for the rest of the day. But he laid down and you know what he learned? He learned that God is in this place. Do you know that God is in your place? Do you know that God is there at memory or wherever? But what I thought was interesting is how it says that he ran. He ran. He ran to go and meet these three.
00:10:38
Speaker
You know, whenever you really believe that God is with you, when you really believe that He knows your situation, you're not going to sort of put things off and procrastinate and so forth. There are a cluster of words in here that refer to Abraham who was sitting
00:10:57
Speaker
But no longer is he sitting. Man, he's in motion because he ran in verse two. He went quickly in verse six. He ran to the herd in verse seven. He said, prepare this calf quickly in verse seven.
00:11:13
Speaker
There are so many references here. Once he knows, God's aware. God knows. He knows what I'm going through. Man, he didn't just sit around anymore. He was in motion. Are you in motion? Are you ready? Do you know that God is with you? Let me go to the second thing though. The second factor in this equation, if you want to know how God solves the impossible, is to remember the offering factor. The offering factor.
00:11:40
Speaker
You know, if people are going to talk about offerings, they usually go to Malachi in the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 3 verses 8 through 12. And what God promises is, I'm going to open up the windows of heaven and pour you out of blessing. And He said, other nations are going to call you God's delight. But you know what? They weren't doing that. They weren't doing something that God wanted before He would open up heaven. You know what He was wanting from them?
00:12:08
Speaker
an offering. He was wanting them to tithe. He was wanting them to give 10 percent. And so they were saying no. And so God was saying, you're robbing me of what I want to do. And because you're doing that, I'm going to curse you. You're not going to be able to accomplish what I want you to do. But see, the issue is, does God need your money? Does God need my money? Does God need your time? Does God need my time? Does God need my talent? Does God need your talent?
00:12:36
Speaker
No, he doesn't need anything from us. We need him. He doesn't need us. But what he wants, he wants us to put some skin in the game. And so whenever you see Abraham moving in motion, you know what he's moving in motion about? He's saying, you know what? I'm going to honor you. I'm going to honor you with what you have given to me.
00:12:57
Speaker
And so I think it's interesting that he offered the Lord humility. Did you catch what he did when the three guys are standing there? He bows down. He bows his face down to the earth. I think he offered God humility. But he also says to God, you are Lord. He says, oh Lord, if you have found favor in your sight, if I found favor in your sight, oh Lord.
00:13:21
Speaker
So he offers God honor. Are you honoring God as you go through 2024? If you want God to help you with the difficult things, you have to honor Him in the smaller things, in the simple things, in the daily things, in things that are continuing. Are you humbling yourself before Him? Are you honoring Him? But also Abraham did something else. He offered another offering to God.
00:13:47
Speaker
hunger. Are you hungry for God? Or could you just really say, you know what? All I want of God is just a Sunday morning fix. That's it. I don't need God the rest of the week. I don't need God the rest of the year or the rest of the month. I just need God on a one Sunday. But here's the thing Abraham says. He says, do not pass by your servant. You know what that's saying to me? He's hungry.
00:14:14
Speaker
He's like, God, please, I need your blessing. I want your blessing. I crave your glory.
Faith in Christ
00:14:20
Speaker
I want to walk with you. And so I'm just encouraging at the beginning of 2024, nail it down right now today, say, God, I'm hungry for you. I'm hungry to see you work in my life, in my family's life, in the life of our nation.
00:14:36
Speaker
Listen, 2024 is going to be an unforgettable year in this nation. We need to see God do incredible things, but is He going to do them without us honoring Him, without us being hungry for Him? If we're just blasé, if we're indifferent to Him, do you think that'll make a difference? I do. I think it makes a difference whenever a people say, you know what, God, don't pass us by. We want to honor You. We want to humble ourselves before You.
00:15:06
Speaker
And I think they also offered hospitality. You know, I think that's why he says, rest yourself under the tree. Would you like for God to just come and park at your house? Park in your family? You know, would you like for God to just come and hang out with your family? I think that's what he wants to do.
00:15:25
Speaker
But sometimes we're kind of like closing off doors and saying, you can be there on my Sundays, but you can't be a part of the rest of my life. I'm gonna keep these doors shut. No, open all the doors and say to God, you're welcome to hang out with me and with my family. But also I noticed he offered God his highest, his best. He didn't offer God leftovers. He says, I'm gonna go just get a little, a morsel of bread. He didn't get a morsel of bread.
00:15:54
Speaker
Do you know that some people say the amount of bread there would have made 40 to 60 pounds of dough, which would have made about 60 loaves of bread. I'm thinking there's just three guys. What are we doing here? But I think he's wanting to give God his best. He didn't mention anything about a calf, but he goes and he gets one that's tender, one that's good. I think he was giving the Lord his best.
00:16:20
Speaker
Are you going to give God the leftovers this year? Are you going to give God your best? I think if you want to see God do amazing things, then we're going to have to say, OK, God, I'm going to put skin in the game. I'm going to give you this offering here so that you will hang out with my life. But also, I think God is attracted to oneness. Did you see how Team Abraham worked together on this? I mean, there you've got Abraham.
00:16:47
Speaker
Sarah and some guy that worked in where the cattle, so he says he goes and gets a young man. I just thought it was interesting how they all work together to honor the Lord and serve the Lord. It's like Abraham is sharing the information, so you have to communicate if you're going to be one and be a team. But then the other thing is there's the delegation of the task.
00:17:11
Speaker
You know, it's like he says to Sarah, you bake the bread. He says the young man, you take care of that calf and I'll take care of the curds and the
Invitation to Trust and Pray
00:17:20
Speaker
milk. And so he gets all of that together and everybody works. Everybody cooperates. And so it's amazing how they cooperated on the time. Because the young man, it says, he prepared that calf quickly, quickly. Do you know there's some windows, it's like, no, don't tell me five years from now, we need
00:17:41
Speaker
you now, we need you now to honor the Lord. But there's also that orientation toward the target. It's like he said it before the Lord and whoever the other two, let's say there were angels. But do you remember whenever there was a miracle, I mean, God did something that couldn't be done humanly whenever the Lord fed 5,000 people. John six, verses one through 14 tells us how it happened. There was a little boy who had a lunch
00:18:11
Speaker
He had five loaves of bread and two fish. Definitely not enough to feed 5,000 people. But you know what? He gave his lunch. And it's not what his lunch could do. It's not what the little boy could do. It's not what the disciples could do. It's what Jesus could do.
00:18:29
Speaker
I'll never forget as a seminary student buzzing around in Fort Worth, I remember hearing one time, W.A. Criswell, he used to be the pastor of First Baptist Dallas, and he was preaching on that passage. And I'll never forget what he said. He said, if I will do what I can.
00:18:47
Speaker
God will do what I can't. So here's the thing, are you expecting God to do what He can, but you're not willing to put your ore in. You're not willing to put any skin in the game. So all I'm saying is, if you will do what you can, watch as God does what you can't possibly do.
00:19:06
Speaker
But that's the oneness factor when all of us together do that. There's also the opportunity factor because I don't want you to get confused. If you look at verses nine and ten, I saw two things related to prayer.
00:19:20
Speaker
The first thing is the principle behind prayer, and the second thing is the promise beneath prayer. The principle behind prayer is this. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He said, not as I will, but as you will. The principle behind prayer is I'm not trying to ask God to do something He doesn't want to do.
00:19:43
Speaker
I'm trying to find out what God wants to do, and I'm asking Him do that. That's what I think is powerful. That's what 1 John 5, 14 says, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Matthew 6, 10, when Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray, you remember what He said?
00:20:03
Speaker
He said, when you pray to your heavenly Father, say, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's not me getting my will. That's really what prayer is all about. And so what I think is interesting in verse 9 is when the Lord asked, where's Sarah? He said, what I need to say is about Sarah.
00:20:27
Speaker
So sometimes we're trying to force something that God's not promised to us, which leads us to the second thing. Verse 10, he says, this time next year, your wife Sarah, she's going to be holding a son. This was incredible. This was beyond human capabilities.
00:20:46
Speaker
And so that's why I'm trying to make sure you understand that effective praying is asking God for what He promised to give. And the only way to know what God has promised to give is to get into the Word. To be into God's Word and God's Word tells us what God wants to do, tells us what God's plan is, which way He's going. You see, the opportunity factor is not naming it and claiming it, whatever it might be.
00:21:14
Speaker
No, it's hearing it whenever we read God's word and then asking for it. And even if it's not this year, he says it's going to be next year. I'm sure they were like, why not this year? Just give us a baby right now. Put that baby in our hands. But are you willing to trust God for it? Are you willing to wait for it? I think that's really what it's all about.
00:21:37
Speaker
But there's also that obstacle factor because I want you to know that God's not asking you. He wasn't asking Abraham and Sarah to pretend that there are no obstacles. Pretend there's no problems. Pretend everything is just ignore the problems and act like they're not there.
00:21:55
Speaker
God's not asking us for a positive confession. That's not what He's asking for, a positive confession. He's asking us for a truthful confession. Tell Him where it hurts. Tell Him what it is that you feel He wants to do. Say to Him, this is what I think the Word of God is saying to me.
00:22:18
Speaker
The word tells the truth about the condition of Sarah in Abraham. And here's the truth. The truth is, back in chapter 11, we're in chapter 18, but in Genesis 11, verse 30, the truth is Sarah never could have a baby.
00:22:36
Speaker
Even way back when she was younger, she was barren, it says. She could not have children. That's the truth. She wasn't the only one. Do you know that there are six women in scripture who couldn't have babies? There was Sarah, there was Rebecca, there was Rachel, there was Hannah, there was Manoa's wife, gave birth later to Samson. There's the Shunammite woman.
00:23:01
Speaker
But the thing is, God was working in each one of those situations. But the truth about Sarah was also found in verse 11 and 12 of our text.
00:23:12
Speaker
where he says Abraham and Sarah were old and advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. And that's why Sarah left. Because Sarah's like, you got to be kidding. This can't happen for someone my age. You know, the Bible says in Genesis 1717 that Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100.
00:23:35
Speaker
And so the second of the three questions that God asked is, why did Sarah just laugh? Have you ever laughed whenever someone has said, hey, don't forget what God can do? I wouldn't laugh about that. That's not one thing that you should scoff at or laugh at. You ought to say, thanks for reminding me of what God can do. You know, the sixth and the final thing is found in verse 14, the omnipotence factor.
00:24:01
Speaker
See, omnipotence is a theological term referring to unlimited power, limitless power. And I see that whenever we're looking at the Lord, it says here, the question was, is anything too hard for the Lord? So let's put the Lord first. Let's just think about how much power does the Lord, the Lord God the Almighty,
00:24:28
Speaker
How much power does he have if he can create the universe? All the stars, all the planets, if he could put this planet together, give us the oxygen and the water that we need, make sure we're not too close to the sun, make sure we're not too far away from the sun. Now just how is it that God can do all that? It's incredible power. So knowing that he's got that kind of power, the second thing I think is this word anything.
00:24:57
Speaker
Are you willing today to say, okay, I know God's got all the power. Because he's got all the power, I'm going to acknowledge the possibility is always there with the Lord. Have you already written him off? It's too hard. He can't do it. You see, that would be ruling out any prevention for the Lord.
00:25:18
Speaker
We are to say, okay, I can rule out anything that I consider too hard for the Almighty. If He wants to, He can break all the rules of nature. He can totally upset everything, like when He walked on the water. But are you willing to wait for the promise of the Lord? You know, He does go on to say, it's not going to be this year. He said, at the appointed time, I will return, at the appointed time.
00:25:44
Speaker
You know, if you were to go over into chapter 21, it said, the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. That's in Genesis 21, verses one and two. So God kept his word.
00:26:10
Speaker
You know, sometimes we're on the outside, and it's like, why? Why aren't you on the outside when God has given us His word, when God has made a way for us through Christ?
00:26:21
Speaker
You know the customers at Yaya's Thai restaurant in San Antonio, they tried to think of a creative way that they could have people log on to the internet. So if you know, when you go into a public place, if you want to log on to the internet, then you're going to have to know the password.
00:26:43
Speaker
So, they thought of a password, and they said, you know what, in order to access the password, in order to know what the password is, you're going to have to solve this calculus equation.
00:26:55
Speaker
I've never even bothered going to Yahya's Thai place in order to solve that, because I can't solve that thing. As a matter of fact, several people, one guy went there, he tried to solve it, and he couldn't get on. So he started saying, okay, I'm going to tell all of my social media friends any math whizzes out there, and everybody starts writing in, and they've got all kind of different guesses going on. But you know, a lot of people assumed that they could get in, but they couldn't.
00:27:23
Speaker
Have you ever been in a place and it's like a closed network? It's a closed Wi-Fi and you don't know the password. That's not true in Christ. Do you know God wants you in His network? God wants you in His family. He wants you to be forgiven.
00:27:43
Speaker
That's why he says in Ephesians 3, 8, and 9, in verses 11 through 12, that ancient problem that mankind has faced, sin. Listen to what happened and listen at the end for the word access. Ephesians 3, 8, 9, and 11 and 12, and then I closed. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints,
00:28:07
Speaker
this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring the light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery, hidden for ages in God who created all things. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.
00:28:36
Speaker
You see, it's faith in Christ. Maybe you'd say, what is the secret to seeing God work in my life? The secret is you've got to give your life to Christ. You've got to put your trust in what he did. The secret is you're going to have to say, Jesus died on that cross for me. That's why the veil of the temple, it was torn in two whenever Jesus died on that cross, because there's no longer a separation between the holy God and sinful man.
00:29:03
Speaker
Jesus made a way for us to be connected to the God who created us. That's tremendous news. So at the end of our service, we always extend an invitation. So I want you to know God wants you to know the password. God wants you to be in the network, to be in the family, to be forgiven of your sins.
00:29:26
Speaker
So, let's go to the Lord in prayer. I'd like for us to pray as the praise team comes, and then we're going to stand together, and I'll be waiting down front if you would like to pray with someone about trusting Christ. But I thank the Lord so much that He died for me, and that I put my faith and my trust in what He did for me, and that's why, wow,
00:29:49
Speaker
That opened up God working in my life. God can work in your life if you will turn from your sins and place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Well, Lord, I thank you for this passage. It was a long time ago, way back in Abraham's day.
00:30:08
Speaker
But even back then, we see your calculus. We see how you were giving away that the impossible could be solved. And so I thank you so much for blessing Abraham and Sarah with a child, even though, humanly speaking, it was impossible. But yet you showed them. And because of the record of scripture, you've shown us this morning. Perhaps there's something in our lives, and we need you, Lord.
00:30:37
Speaker
The main thing we need you for is to forgive us of our sins, to enter into our lives and make a difference, to give us strength, to give us power, to open doors before us. And so Lord, I pray for any that are here that do not know Christ, that this would be the turning point in their lives. So bless our time of invitation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
00:31:05
Speaker
This is a ministry of First Baptist Church, located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas.