Episode Transcript
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Genesis, Chapter Twenty One, verses
one through seven. The Lord visited Sarah,
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as he had said, and the
Lord did to Sarah as he had
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promised, and Sarah conceived and bore
Abraham a son in his old age,
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at the time of which God had
spoken to him. Abraham called the name
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of his son who was born to
him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac,
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and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when
he was eight days old, as
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God had commanded him. Abraham was
a hundred years old when his son Isaac
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was born to him. And Sarah
said, God has made laughter for me.
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Everyone who hears will laugh over me. And she said, who would
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have said to Abraham that Sarah would
nurse children? Yet I have borne him
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a son in his old age.
Praise be to God. Well, here
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we come to the fulfillment of the
great promise that God had promised to Abraham
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and to Sarah. The promised seed
is born, the promised child is born,
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the one who was not Ishmael on, the one whom God would ring
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forth, not by human striving,
not by maneuvering, not by all these
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things which we've reflected on, but
by his own will and his own timing
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and his own and indeed miraculous way. A Hundred Years Old, a hundred
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years old Abraham was his wife and
her old age nursing her son. The
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emphasis of these first few verses is
most definitely that God keeps his promise.
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Want you to notice this. You
could take away verse one and still have
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all the information you would need.
And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son
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in his own age. But now
listen to verse one, which comes before
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that. The Lord visited Sarah as
he had said, and the Lord did
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to Sarah as he had promised.
Do you hear the repetition there, the
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kind of rolling of the words?
The Lord visited to Sarah as he had
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said, and the Lord did to
Sarah as he had promised, and Sarah
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conceived and bore a son, or
a conceived and bore Abraham a son in
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his old age? Why this repetition? What's, of course, to call
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us to sit with that for a
moment, isn't it? We're not just
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getting bare information here. At the
Lord is reminding us that he is faithful,
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that he's steadfast, that he he
keeps his word. I want to
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turn back just a couple chapters and
read you from chapter seventeen, verse nineteen.
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The promise God Says No, but
Sarah, your wife, shall bear
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you a son and you shall call
his name Isaac. I Will Astat,
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I will establish my covenant with him
as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after
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him. And then in genesis eighteen, verse ten, the Lord said,
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I will surely return to you about
this time next year and your and Sarah,
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your wife, shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the
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tent door behind him. Goes on
to say. Now Abraham and Sarah were
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old, advanced in years. The
way of women had ceased to be with
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Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I'm worn out and
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my Lord is old, Shall I
have pleasure? Then the Lord said to
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Abraham, why did Sarah Laugh and
say, shall I indeed bear a child
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now that I'm old? Is Anything
too hard for the Lord? At the
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appointed time, I will return to
you about this time next year and Sarah
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shall have a son. Sarah denied
it, saying I did not laugh,
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for she was afraid. He said
no, but you did laugh. Amazing.
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And so now here we come to
chapter twenty one, and the Lord
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visited Sarah as he had said,
and the Lord did to Sarah as he
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had promised, and Sarah conceived and
bore Abraham a son in his old age.
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As we sit with us, as
we remember that, despite our doubting,
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despite our disbelief, and what God
is capable of doing, God's work
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is not dependent on us, it's
not even dependent on our faith. God's
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going to do what God is going
to do. He can accomplish what he
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wants to accomplish, whether we're doubting
or believing, and of course he can
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bring us to belief. He can
accomplish that as well. So often we
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attribute to God and his promises what
we know is true of us, that
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our word is so so our word, our promises are mixed, confused,
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not quite a fully developed but God
in his word is always true, always
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perfect. He always does what he
says. Listen to Psalm a twelve or
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six, just as a one reminder
of one many that we might think about
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when it comes to the word of
the Lord. Psalm twelve or six says
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the words of the Lord are pure
words, like silver refined in a furnace
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on the ground, purified seven times. The words of the Lord are pure
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words, his promises are stead fast
and he has done what he said he
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would do. Praise be to God. So the sun is born, this
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miraculous child, born to an old
man and an old woman who are incapable
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of ch having children, and now
here is a child, much like the
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the birth of Jesus, a woman
incapable of having children, and yet there
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as a child. Abraham responds to
this by keeping the covenant. Verse Three,
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we read the Abraham called the name
of his son who is born to
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him, whom Sarah bore him,
Isaac, which means he laughs. Right
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this. Those are calls to our
minds how Sarah reacted the last time she
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heard this news. She laughed,
she didn't believe it. Then, when
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she was called out, I say
that right, didn't laugh. No,
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you did. Here, though,
she owns it. She's happ this is
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a different kind of laughter. Sarah's
derision and scoffing has turned into joys,
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turn into celebration. This kind of
like, I can't believe this present is
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so good, thank you, kind
of laughter. She even says this is
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a counter confession, we might say, a counter confession of faith. Instead,
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of a denial which was before.
Hear her. She says in her
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six God has made laughter for me. I like imagining her holding her son
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and she says this, here's laughter. He laughs. Little Isaac, so
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sweet, so precious. I'm an
old, happy woman. God has made
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laughter for me and everyone who hears
will laugh over me. There will be
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people who will share in her joy. I wonder if she knew how true
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that was. And this is what
happens when God keeps his promises. There
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is joy and celebration, especially when
it's his promises of grace that are fulfilled.
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These as. This is God's good
work to us, and of course
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it is to us. This is
important to remember because when we think about
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Abraham and Sarah, this is not
just some distant person that we have no
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connection to and we just sort of
hear their story and we smile along.
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This is our story, this is
our family history. Right we're going through
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the scrap book together right now,
the Lord's family album, and he's telling
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to us the story of our people
as sons and daughters of Abraham and Sarah,
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by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by believing those same promises that
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Abraham believed. We are children of
faith, we are children of Abraham and
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of Sarah. We don't just identify
with them emotionally, but this is our
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story, our miracle and our joy, and so we laugh along and we
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smile and we're thankful for what God
has done. I want to impress this
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on you by reading some wonderful words
from Isaiah Chapter Fifty One. If you
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have a Bible, you can turn
there with me, or or just listen
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along Isaiah chapter fifty one, versus
one through three. Listen to me,
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you who pursue righteousness, you who
seek the Lord. Look to the rock
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from which you were hewn and to
the quarry from which you were dug.
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Look to Abraham, your father,
and to Sarah, who bore you,
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for he was but one when I
called him that I might bless him and
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multiply him. You see that the
scriptures say read the story, look to
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it, pay attention to it.
Why? Because this is this is you,
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this is the the quarry from which
you are pulled out of. This
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is the this is the rock from
which you were hewn or cut off from.
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This is our family, this is
our history, and that's important to
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remember, because it's the Lord's promise
that undergirds at all, which means his
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promises to them are his promises to
us. His promise to bless Abraham and
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multiply him greatly. He are those
children. His promises to Abraham, to
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bless even even the other nations,
even families outside of his family, is,
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of course, a promise to us. We are the promise itself.
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In a way, this is the
way in which we celebrate these things us
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and as we read these story and
as we remember God's promises, it reminds
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us not only to share the joy, but it also brings us comfort in
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the hard times. Listen to verse
three, for the Lord Comfort Zion.
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He comforts all her waste places and
makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert
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like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found in her
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Thanksgiving and the voice of Song.
What is he saying? He's sang that
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when life is hard, when we
find ourselves in the Wilderness, when we
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find ourselves in the heart and the
desert places, we are to look,
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we are to remember what God has
done, to remember our family history,
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to remember the cory from which we
came out of and to remember what God
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has done, and as we remember
these things, we find comfort even in
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the very hard places. Joy and
gladness will be found in her Thanksgiving and
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the voice of Song. This is
God's a reminder to us, and it's
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my prayer that he would bless you
with it
