Going Foward

 Read Genesis 21

We have come a long ways to get to these words.

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised.

And so, 11 chapters into the story of Abraham, he and his wife have a child together.  It was just as and when the Lord had promised.  The child was named Isaac as the Lord had directed.

When the child was 8 days old, he was circumcised as the covenant directed. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born.

Imagine Isaac at Little League games.  Some kid asks him which one is your father.  He answers, the one sitting next to your great, great, grandfather. OK, baseball wasn’t invented for another 3,600 years, but you get the idea.  Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born.

Isaac fulfilled God’s promise to Abraham.  It was a promise that Abraham and Sarah sometimes doubted.  Sarah even laughed to herself a year earlier when the Lord and two angels declared that Sarah would have a child in about one year.

Sarah laughed to herself and thought, will I really have a child at such an old age?

It really didn’t matter that Sarah was talking to herself, the Lord heard her.  You remember what followed.  The Lord said why did Sarah laugh?  Sarah jumped into the conversation between the Lord and her husband and said, I didn’t do that.

The Lord said, yes you did.

But now with the birth of her son, Isaac, Sarah laughs with joy and amazement that God fulfilled his promise in her.  The laughter was in response to God doing the impossible.

Everyone who would hear the story would laugh in response to this question.  Is anything too hard for the Lord?

The child grew and was weaned and, on that day, Abraham held a great feast.  God’s promise had come true and the child was growing as evidence of God’s promise.

For all the buildup we have seen to this point, this part is a short story. Do you know what’s missing from this story?

Regret, repentance, and remorse.  We will just stick with the R words for now.

We don’t see Abraham saying, I regret not really believing. How could I not trust the Lord?

We don’t see Abraham and his wife Sarah covered is sackcloth and ashes in repentance for their disbelief.  OK, we don’t even see a reference to sackcloth until much later in Genesis, but this was not a time of repentance.

We don’t see hearts saddened with remorse over having doubted the Lord.

We don’t see Abraham and Sarah looking back at their past mistakes.  We don’t see these two anchored to their pasts.  There was likely some repentance along the way.  When Sarah started showing, both Abraham and Sarah surely knew that the fulfillment of God’s promise was on the way.

When the baby moved or kicked, that probably put a lump in the throats of these parents-to-be. At that point, these two had to have some regret or remorse over their doubt.  We don’t read about it but these two if nothing else, were 100% human and subject to human emotions and reactions.

What we see when the promise is fulfilled are a couple of happy parents.  Mom is laughing and knows that it is from God.  God has delivered on his impossible promise.

Dad is obedient, circumcising his son on day 8 of his young life. Dad is putting on the Ritz when the kid is weaned.  Dad is celebrating.

God does this incredible thing for us.  He designs our lives to be lived going forward.  Sure repentance and seeking forgiveness are big things in our lives.  They got us to the words, JESUS IS LORD!

Learning lessons from our past leads to wisdom.  God values wisdom, but he designed us to live going forward.

Abraham had pulled some boneheaded stunts.  Sarah did her part as well, but God had plans and purposes for these two and he fulfilled them in spite of all of their doubt and shortcomings.

When God fulfills his promises in you, you celebrate.  You trust him more. You learn your lessons but your focus is forward.  Your life is before you.

Not quite 2000 years later, Jesus said that the truth will set you free. Part of that truth is that God has good plans for you.  God has purpose for your life.  God will direct our steps if we trust him.

But we continually miss the mark.  We transgress. We sin.

That’s all true, but God always hits the mark.  God fulfills his promises to us.  Even when it seems like we are a bigger knucklehead than Abraham, God still fulfills his promises to us.

And when he does, it is not a time for regret, repentance, or remorse.  It is a time for another R word.  It is time to rejoice.

We rejoice that God continues to work in this world.

We rejoice that God does have good plans for us.

We rejoice that God’s mercy and grace go beyond our transgressions.

We rejoice that God does fulfill his promises.

We rejoice that he is faithful and just to forgive us.  We rejoice that we don’t have to wonder if God loves us or will forgive us.

We rejoice that God takes everything that happens to us—and some of that stuff is due to our own boneheaded mistakes—and uses it for good because we do love him and we have been called according to his purpose. 

We rejoice that God is for us.

We rejoice that we get to live going forward.  We sometimes might laugh or chuckle as we go forward. Man, did God ever get me through some stuff?  Did God ever deliver me from my own bad mistakes?  Did God not do what I thought was impossible.

We get to laugh and live in God’s promises.  We get to live going forward.

Now our human nature tells us that we need to pay the price for our mistakes.  We need to pay the price for our transgressions.  We need to pay for doubting God.

And our human nature is correct.  We need to pay for all of those mistakes.  They are listed on an invoice of our sin and we must pay with our very lives.  The penalty for sin is death and we were charged, found guilty, and sentenced to death.

And Jesus said, I will pay the price for them. He did pay the price for us.

So, we can look back at all of our mistakes, sins, transgressions, doubt, and other shortcomings with regret and repentance and remorse or we can rejoice in the life that we have been given in the blood of Jesus.

There is a time for repentance and surely we cannot live without some regret or remorse here and there.  We are human and there is a time for everything.

But when we realize that God has fulfilled a promise to us.  It is time to rejoice and celebrate.  We can rejoice in the fulfillment of the promise to take away sin and death and we can do that every day, but we should be on the lookout for those other things that God has promised us and delivered upon.

We might even laugh a little when he does what the world deems impossible. Is anything too hard for God?

We might just break out singing our God is an awesome God when our human eyes see what almighty God has done for us.

We might just want to throw a feast every time we realize that the invoice for our sin was nailed to the cross.

On the worst of our days, we might still want to wear a smile on our faces as we are blessed to live going forward.

Sorrow may last for the night but joy comes in the morning.  We rejoice that we get to live going forward.

Amen.

You didn't interview for this calling. God chose you!

  Read Genesis 21

Isaac was weaned and grew and all was well in Abraham’s family.  That is, except for Ishmael.  The text said that he mocked Isaac.  Surely there was contempt for this younger son.  Ishmael was going to be the heir and then he wasn’t.

Ishmael was big news and then he wasn’t.  Everything was focused on Isaac now and Ishmael didn’t like it.  Again, Sarah went to Abraham and insisted that he get rid of Hagar and Ismael.

This distressed Abraham.  The last time that he sent Hagar away, Ishmael was still a bun in the oven.  This time, he had come to know his son.  Ishmael was Abraham’s son.  He was not the son through whom God would fulfill his promises, but still, he was Abraham’s son.

Abraham had dissonance.  He wanted to honor his wife—who by the way instigated this whole kid by the maidservant business—and he loved his son.  His heart and mind were surely in turmoil.  How would he figure this out?

But God told Abraham not to be worried.  God would take care of Hagar and Ishmael.  God would make Ishmael into a nation.

God told Abraham to go ahead and do what Sarah asked of him.  Hagar and her son were sent packing with some provisions.  Abraham put those provisions on her shoulders, so they must have been more than what you would take for a day, but she would have to find some way of sustaining herself and her son.

Today, we have what’s called long-range patrol rations.  You can get several days of generally lightweight food and carry it on your back, but water is the real logistics factor.  A human can only carry so much water.

The two went as far as the water would take them and then mom was ready to throw in the towel and die.  She put her son in the shade and went a short distance away because she could not watch her son die.  Both cried.

God heard them.

God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What is the matter, Hagar?”

Don’t you just love it when the angel acts like he doesn’t know what is going on?

“Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there. Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

And God sent them on their way and said, Good Luck, Kid. Well not exactly.

God was with the boy as he grew up. He lived in the desert and became an archer. While he was living in the Desert of Paran, his mother got a wife for him from Egypt.

God was with Ishmael as he grew up.  We don’t get much of that story, only that mom found him a wife from Egypt.  If you were hoping for some wild donkey-of-a-man stories, we just don’t get them.

We do read about Ishmael one more time in Genesis.  He comes for his father’s funeral.  That part rings true more often than not today.

How many people—family and friends—do you only see at funerals these days?

This is not the first time that an angel of the Lord spoke to Hagar in the wilderness.  Previously, the angel sent Hagar back to Sarah and told Hagar that she—through the son she carried—would have many descendants.

During this wilderness encounter with the angel, Hagar is again promised that the Lord will make Ishmael into a nation.  They would not die of thirst or hunger in the desert.

Why did God have mercy on these 2 people?  Why are they part of the story?  We don’t hear from Ishmael after Abraham’s funeral.

Why did the Lord give so much attention to Ishmael?

It was because he was Abraham’s son.  We have seen God bless Abraham with riches even when his behavior didn’t really bring glory to God.

We have seen God give Abraham an impossible victory over 4 undefeated armies with only 318 men, even though we have no evidence that Abraham was a brilliant military commander.

We see Mechezideck bless Abraham on behalf of the Most High God and we see God credit this knucklehead with righteousness for his faith even though we have many examples of Abraham acting in accordance with his own understanding instead of trusting God.

We have seen God bless Abraham as the Father of many nations—most of that’s still very much in the future—but he did it in spite of Abraham’s knuckleheadedness.

But God did not kick Abraham to the curb and find someone more qualified.  God chose Abraham and God’s plans would be fulfilled through Abraham.

And many blessings flowed from being associated with Abraham.  God sent a rescue team to retrieve Lot and his family from Sodom.

God rescued Abraham’s older son from dying in the desert.

God blessed Abraham’s older son and made him into a nation.

The recurring theme here is Abraham.  God chose Abraham and many blessings proceeded from Abraham. These were not because Abraham was such a stellar performer.  He was not, but he was God’s choice.

That’s good news for some of us whom God has chosen for different things.  If God has called you to something, he will bless you when you respond.

Now if God calls you to something and you make a mess of so many things, remember, God still chose you.  Don’t throw in the towel.  Let God work in your messiness.

We have all fallen short of God’s glory, and guess what?  It’s likely going to happen again, and again, but when God picks you, chooses you, calls you to his purpose, he sticks with you, even in your messiness.

So if God called you to preach or sing or teach or cook or clean or hand out gospels or greet people when they come in the building and you forgot or lost your temper or just did something really stupid, or you just thought what you were doing was not that important, remember that God called you.  He chose you.

Not everything that God chose you to do has to do with a Sunday morning or a Wednesday evening.  He planned much for you to to well before you became a new creation.  Some of that is in your home.  Some at your job.  Some is at Walmart, which for some of you may be both your home and job.

He may have even placed a spiritual gift in you and if you would trust God and quit fighting the Spirit that he placed inside of you, you might move out of your messiness into fruitful ministry.

The lesson for today is don’t ever give up if it is God who has called you or chosen you to do something.  He will stick with you even in your mistakes.  He will stay with you and you will accomplish his purpose.

If God is for us—and he is—who can be against us?

If God called you or chose you, why fight against it?  Why be God’s consultant when he already knows what you are called to do?

I have shared this Corrie ten Boom quote before, but I think it appropriate to share it again.

“Don't bother to give God instructions; just report for duty.”

If God has chosen you for a purpose, don’t argue with God.  Don’t try to convince him that someone else would be a better choice.  Don’t say you are not qualified.  Qualification is not relevant if God has picked you himself.

There’s a mantra that’s a little on the simplistic side, but is worth considering from time to time.  What that?

God does not call the qualified.

He qualifies those he calls.

Too simple, perhaps, but worth some thought.

Don’t tell God that you keep making a mess of things.  Just report for duty and then have eyes to see how God blesses so many through what he chose you to do.

God chose you.  Just report for duty.

Amen.