Sermon Cloud

by Michael Gunn @ Harambee Church on April 6th, 2008

Today’s passage, especially these first ten verses are quite interesting. They regard blessing and joy. What is joy, what is

blessing? Our church culture today spends much of its time fabricating joy, and chasing blessings that are fabricated,

robbing statement. If God exists for us, we can pity this world, because there is nothing greater than the things we can

fabricate. There is nothing, or no one to worship, but ourselves, which is ultimately what aberrant theology does; move our

eyes from Him, to ourselves!

Today our passage shows us that it is God who changes our mourning into laughter, and that laughter is ultimately rooted

in Him, and His work in Christ, and not our own fabrications.

In our passage today, God “Visits” Sarah for the first time. Here you have a similar feel of God’s visit to Mary years later.

Both conceptions appear miraculous, and both times, God is obviously at the center of it. Note the phrase “The Lord did to

Sarah as He had promised.” From the start, anything significant spiritually is “Done” by God. We can’t fabricate our

salvation, or even our growth. We are slaves to God, and His promises.

What follows is an interesting contrast, and subsequently 2 vignettes that relate to blessing. Sarah states “God has made

laughter for me,” emphasizing her joy at the birth of Isaac, the promised son. Her “Laughter” represents her joy because

God had lifted her “Reproach.” And provided a son for her. Isaac represents the fulfillment of God’s promise, which gives

ultimate reason for Sarah’s joy, or our own joy, but what Isaac represents. Sarah (A lot like Israel, and many people in our

churches today) looked to physical blessings to bring them joy, whereas the real blessing came from the “Seed” of

and her understanding of the nature of God. God exists for you, and he/she can be manipulated for selfish reasons. Sarah

was the architect of the cultural “Hooking up” between Abraham and Ishmael (In which Hagar was the result). It was a

manipulation of the promise to “make it happen.” It’s a controlling device that we often utilize to create joy. As one writer

of joy, in order to get him to realize that the promise, and subsequent blessing is the result of God’s work, and not our own

means.

The story takes an interesting twist, since Abraham throws a party for his new son, but the older child mocks the joy of

Sarah, and Sarah is upset and asks Abraham to get rid of Ishmael and Hagar. By rights, Ishmael would be the heir to

not Ishmael. There seems to be little doubt that Ishmael’s mocking laughter was the result of jealousy. He had been their

son for 14 years, and he was the heir to the estate and subsequent blessing of Abraham, why should they celebrate

his father for not blessing him with a fatted calf. In both incidents, the sons did not realize that they are blessed because of

God and His sovereignty, and not because of their physical or cultural position. Even Isaac is “Chosen” by God over

subsequent work on the cross to secure it), we would be stuck in our sins, condemned forever.

However, in spite of God’s sovereign choice of Isaac, we see a gracious and merciful God promising to take care of

Ishmael and his mom, and make him a great nation too. All too often the Old Testament god is depicted as a vengeful,

hateful entity that can’t wait to destroy people. While God is not one to be mocked, and He will judge those that are

deserving (All of us apart from Christ’s sacrifice), He is patient, slow to anger and “Abounding in a steadfast love…” (See

took time for this to be realized, and only fully realized at her death. This is true of us today. We struggle with wanting the things we

desire in this world, and often become quite frustrated at God for not “Providing” for us.

This latter incident is an unfortunate turn of events that displays the consequences of sin, and the grace of God in one

incident (Which is most often the case).

The final part of this story almost appears insignificant or out of place, unless we remember the mission that God has

called Abraham to. He was called to be not only the father of a nation, but a blessing to the nations. This would inevitably

come as a result of the birth, life and death (Resurrection) of Christ, but Abraham was an ambassador so to speak for a

foreign God named Yahweh in a strange land. In this treaty, he is called to connect with the Philistines, build a well, plant

a tree; ie. Put down roots. Begin to be the blessing. Everyone in that culture can enjoy Wells and trees. It was a true act of

Harambee to build a well for the community, and plant trees for shade, fruit and aesthetic beauty. Like the exiles in

coming, much like the way the church is called to be a microcosm of the ultimate kingdom that God inaugurated in Christ,

and will be finalized in Christ’s second coming (See Revelation 21). Unlike Abraham’s bumbling ineptitude in chapter 20,when he saw Ambimelech and the Philistines as “Wicked” (See

the whole. This is a noticeable change in heart for Abraham. It’s a change we could all use, for the sake of the Glory of

God in this world.

Our mission is empty if we aren’t motivated by the love of God in our hearts. It is only when we truly understand who we

are in Him (Sinful, yet loved) that we can have any effectual, sincere ministry with others. Any other motivation will create

pride, self-righteousness or guilt. We can only do mission as a result of an identity that is secure in Christ, or we will do

mission out of false motivations that will never glorify God, or bring us the joy that God has made available to us in Christ.