I know we make this announcement. We're gonna get a video one of these days together. We're gonna get Josh or Gavin to shoot us a video so you don't have to keep listening to me. We'll kind of throw it up there. But if you are here visiting with us today, we are glad that you're here. Please grab a visitor card that's in the chair in front of you. If you're in the front row, you can grab one in the chair that's behind you and fill it out. Give us some information about you. Put it in one of the little churches here or in the back. We'd really love to just be able to connect with you a little bit. That's also where we receive our

our tithes and offerings. We don't pass the little churches around. We ask you to be faithful as God is leading you to sow into the ministry. You're gonna hear in the next few weeks a little bit. We're kind of a first 45 days or so where we are in Vision 21 and kind of keep Vision 21 before you guys. A couple of quick announcements and we're just gonna move on forward. The bulletins are there. The information is there. I'm not gonna rehash it. We got a

lot of things going on. Please pay attention. Again, tonight, 530, the students meet in the old office, the new student ministry area, 530 to 730. Joe's gonna have, as he says, something good to eat. Okay, something good to eat. We don't know what it is until it arrives, but it's something good to eat. So if you're student ministry, please, if you want to come and think you might want to volunteer and be a part of the student ministry, come hang out with them. See how things are going. Also, next Sunday, beginning at, is it 915?

915? 915. We have, Sunghee's gonna be leading our women's Bible study. It's a Beth Moore study on the book of James. The book of James. We're really excited about that. No one, it's been in the bulletin for a while. No one has responded yet about needing child care. If you are a married couple and your wife wants to come, husbands, that's a great way for you to serve your family and not say, put my children in child care. But you love on your kids, okay?

While your wife is enriched for the next, is it six weeks or eight weeks? Eight weeks. Eight weeks. We'll be in the large children's room over there at 915 till about 1015 or 10 o'clock, however it goes, for the next eight weeks. Beginning next Sunday, ladies, please, make plans to come. It's a great study. Beth Moore study in the book of James.

James. So, with that being said, our new, hey, we've got a platform coming down through here, and by next Sunday, you're gonna see the tub is arriving, the baptismal tub Tuesday. And so, we've got a couple of guys that are gonna be here at the church to help me unload it.

And so, in the next probably two or three weeks, Mr. Lonnie, you think, we'll have it all done and sheetrocked and tiled and all that good stuff. Mr. Lonnie and Mr. John have done an amazing job of getting things together.

And this is how good God is. Lonnie texted me yesterday, and he said, hey, is there any reason why our water's off at the church? And I was like, uh-oh. I said, not unless we didn't pay the bill.

So, I was about ready to text Cynthia about, did we not pay the bill, the water bill? And Jill reminded me that the water was off down at Melissa's house, who lives down the road.

So, we did an investigation. It was the main water line that broke, and maybe if you live close by, your water was off yesterday.

So, that was a relief to me that we did pay the water bill, number one. But two, they needed to tie the plumbing into the other area back there.

They were trying to find a way to get that water cut off so they could get that tied in without water going everywhere.

And God just cut off the main water break for the whole region. So, that was great.

So, see, Mr. Lonnie's got that kind of power. Dear Lord, give us about a 30-minute window. Boom! There he goes.

So, at this point, we're going to dismiss our children pre-K through fifth grade.

If you guys will follow Miss Katie out the back door back there.

And Mr. Chris, thank you for serving.

Let's grab our Bibles, turn to Genesis chapter 18.

Genesis 18, we continue our study.

In the beginning, it's called the series.

We are doing an expository journey through the book of Genesis.

And today, we get to chapter 18.

Friend of God. Friend of God.

God, I'm excited about what God would have to say today to His people through the Word.

This is something that God's been working on me all week long.

And I know I tell you that a lot of Sundays.

But I'll probably say that about 3,000 more times.

But I'm excited this morning.

I pray that...

I pray...

You know what?

Let's pray right now.

Father, I just ask that Your Holy Spirit would lead and guide us.

I ask that You would give us ears to hear Your Word.

Father, if there is something that I have prepared to share and say that is not of You,

I pray that it would never exit my mouth today.

I pray that divinely, Lord, You would give us each a desire.

We have been looking at the life of Abraham. Abram was his name at first, obviously. Abram is his exalted father. We know that he has a name changed in chapter 17 to Abraham, which means father of multitude. But in chapters 11 and 12, we notice his calling. He is from Ur of the Chaldeans. That is the modern day Iraq. And he is called from Iraq to go to the promised land, which is the land of Canaan.

And so that is chapter 11, principally, and chapter 12, his calling. But then we also notice in chapter 12, we see his carnality. He did not trust in the Lord. He does not fully trust in the Lord. The promise of the land. He gets to the land. He gets to the promised land. But he leaves the promised land and he goes where? Egypt. He goes to Egypt because there is a famine in the land.

Okay? So at the end of chapter 12 and part of chapter 13, we see his carnality. He is trusting in the arm of the flesh. Okay? He is trusting in Egypt rather than in the Lord for his provision.

Chapter 14, we see a different side of Abraham. We see his courage. Because he and about 318 trained servants in his household, they go against the coalition of four kings under the leadership of Cataleomer.

And they go against these guys who subdued five cities. And Abraham went in there and he delivers Lot back and he takes all the spoils back to the kings and he even goes and takes stuff all the way back to Sodom at that point in time as well too.

But also in chapter 14, we see what I'm going to call his communion. Let's say it's communion. Because that's when he meets Melchizedek who comes out and he brings his wine and he brings his bread and he pays tithes to Melchizedek who is the king of Salem.

And we also know that Salem turns into Jerusalem. Okay? And so in chapter 15, we see Abraham's covenant.

And so God takes Abraham outside. He says, look at all the stars.

Your descendants are going to be more numerous. If you could count the stars, that's what your descendants are going to look like.

And it says in the scriptures that Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

And so God establishes his covenant all along, but it comes to a real head and a real prominence in chapter 15.

Chapter 16, we see Abraham's compromise. All right?

And that's where his wife Sarah says, look, I can't have kids. I'm too old. You're probably still with it.

Let's help God fulfill his promise. And you take Hagar, my young maidservant, and you have a child through her and we'll help God fulfill this promise.

Okay? And in chapter 17, we see Abraham's name was changed. All right?

And then also in chapter 17, we see Abraham's circumcision.

I mean, he's 99 years old when this takes place. Wow. Enough said about that. Okay?

But now we come to what I'm going to call Abraham's contrast because I'm trying to keep all the alliteration going.

All of my Baptist preacher friends would be proud of me coming up with all those C's right there this morning. Okay?

But it's the contrast. The contrast between Abraham and Lot.

Abraham and Lot. Because you're going to see in chapters 18 and in chapters 19, we see both of their lives.

It's Abraham versus Lot. And there's a remarkable contrast.

Abraham lives a blessed life. Lot lives the blighted life. All right?

Abraham's life is blessed. And so, you remember, you remember, you know, Psalm 1, as David talks in Psalm 1, he says,

Blessed is the man who walks not on the counsel of the wicked, who stands in the way of the sinner, or sits in the seat of the scoffer,

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and he meditates on the law day and night.

That's Abraham. Okay? That's Abraham. He is a blessed man. Abraham is very blessed.

Blessed. And the Scripture tells us that even through him, all the families of the earth would be blessed.

Tells us that. But not Lot. Not Lot. His life was blighted.

Abraham continued to gain everything. He gained. Lot lost out everything.

Abraham gained blessings. Abraham gained land. Abraham gained promises. He gained descendants.

Lot lost everything that he loved. He loved Sodom. He loses Sodom.

He loses his wife. He loses his children. He loses everything.

And Abraham, although he's fumbling, bumbling, stumbling, failing, he keeps being blessed. He keeps learning.

We're going to get our toes just a little wet in 18 today. C. S. Lewis once said that if you put first things first, second things will be thrown in. And if you seek second things first, you'll never gain first nor second things. Now, that's the interesting comment that C. S. Lewis writes. And it goes hand in hand with what Jesus says in Matthew 6, isn't it? To seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these other things will be thrown in. All these other things will be added to you.

The problem that we often have is that instead of seeking the kingdom of God, we tend to seek the things that God says he would add in.

We find ourselves not seeking the kingdom of God. We want all the added things. That's the stuff that we seek. We get preoccupied with our agenda. We get preoccupied with the world. We get preoccupied with ourselves. And we're not really seeking the kingdom of God. We're seeking all these other things. And we're just hoping that God's going to throw in the kingdom of God as well.

I want to seek all this other stuff. And God, just throw in the kingdom of God while you're at it. That's not how it works. That's not how it works. If we would just grasp, like Abraham here, that, you know, I know it doesn't make sense in the natural.

But I am going to trust God, even though everything seems to be going away from trusting God. I'm still going to trust God. I'm going to do it anyway.

You will become a blessed man, a blessed woman, a blessed person. And all these things will be added to you.

In chapter 18, it's long. We're going to take our time as we go through it. But you have these three visitors that just come to Abraham and they show up unexpectedly in the heat of the day, out of nowhere.

And it's unusual because one of them is called Lord. In fact, it starts off, it says, and the Lord, and the Lord. So it's unmistakable, and the Lord.

The term there for Lord is the term Yahweh. Yahweh. We went through El Shaddai a few weeks ago, okay?

Here it's Yahweh. It's the covenant name that God's going to use to introduce Himself to Moses, okay? Yahweh.

It's the Old Testament tetragrammaton, okay? The Y-H-V-H. All we have is the consonants, okay? Yahweh. That's where we get it from. Yahweh.

Yahweh. And so we add some of the vowels so it doesn't sound so quirky or weird, but that's how He introduces Himself.

But God shows up with two other guys, and we can only guess who these others are.

And all three of them are disguised as men, three human beings, kind of like these three Bedouin-type visitors.

They're nomadic. They're passing through.

And they're going to visit Abraham, and then they're going to leave towards Sodom.

Now, we'll discuss them as we go on, and we'll try to identify them as best that we can,

or at least who we think that they might be.

But what I want to zero in on this morning, in the next few verses,

what I really want to zero in on, and what I really want us to concentrate on,

is what does it really mean, and what does it really take to be a friend of God?

What does it mean to be the friend of God?

You know, it's a beautiful title, and it's a concept that when we hear the concept

that we could be a friend of God, you know, it boggles the human mind, doesn't it?

It does mean when I think, I can be a friend of God.

You know, you think about a God who needs nothing, who has no parallel, has no equal,

but just the thought that the Scripture says that we can be a friend of God,

there's something about that that's so delightful, and it draws us in.

It draws us in that we could be called a friend of God,

especially when we consider John 15 when Jesus says,

that I no longer call you servants, but I call you my friends.

I call you my friends.

Three times, three times in the Bible, Abraham and Abraham alone is given this title.

Abraham and Abraham alone is given the title, friend of God.

The first time is in 2 Chronicles chapter 20.

The first time is in 3 Chronicles chapter 20.

The first time is in 3 Chronicles chapter 20.

For Abraham was a friend of God. For Abraham was a friend of God. But the middle one is the one that interests me the most and that's found in Isaiah 41 where God himself speaks and he gives Abraham the title. God is speaking to Israel and he says but you Israel my servant Jacob whom I have chosen the offspring of Abraham my friend. My friend. So I want us to work

through what does it really mean. I'm going to give you 4 things that I see that I see that it takes that are marks of being a friend of God. And the first one is this. Spontaneity. To be a friend of God it will take spontaneity. Now most of us don't like spontaneity. To be honest with you. We don't like it. You know we don't like to be spontaneous. But if you're going to be a friend of God you better get used to it. If you're going to be a friend of God you better get used to spontaneity. God just shows up. He can

show up unexpectedly. He doesn't tell you I'll be here. I'll meet you here this time next week. And I'll meet you there. Okay. It may be that you plan on meeting God at a certain place in time. He may meet you there that day. But God can show up unexpectedly. You need to know that. There is a spontaneity to his relationship with you. Look at this with me in verse 1.

And the Lord appeared to him. By the oaks of Mamre as he sat by the door of his tent in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and looked. And behold three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them he ran to the front door to meet them. And bowed himself to the earth.

So it's it's in the hottest part of the day in the summer. The author the human author of Genesis Moses tells us hottest part of the day. And during the heat and during this this period of time and even today people who live in tents during the hottest part of the day you don't do anything.

You don't do anything. You do you you don't do your work. You do your work and you do your traveling either early in the morning or later in the afternoon early evening as it cools off. You don't do anything in the heat of the day. Okay. Nobody does. You just hang out because it's so hot. The the the old siesta comes from ancient times. And it's a good idea because you just at that part of the day you just relax. So Abraham is not expecting anyone. He's not expecting anyone to show up.

And so at least of all three visitors you know that just kind of pop up. But it says that the Lord appeared and behold three men. So if you're going to be God's friend as I mentioned you need to get used to this truth that God can suddenly change the direction of your life. He's the editor and author of it isn't he. God has the editing editing rights to your life into my life.

And if you're going to be your friend a friend of God you have to know you know what it's like you got you got your you got your calendar plan you got stuff lined up on your iPhone and this is going to happen and this is going to take place.

And then all of a sudden you get that phone call that email that message that comes that comes your way and God says no I got editing rights you know and something occurs that drastically changes the course of your life.

Boom.

It changes it drastically.

There's an old saying it's not in the scripture but it has some great scriptural premise to it and that is blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken.

Some of us need to be a little bit more flexible.

Sometimes you have to be even more flexible than flexible with God.

You have to be fluid.

You got to be fluid.

God's in charge.

God's in charge.

And here it just says the Lord shows up.

Sarah has no time to vacuum the tent.

She doesn't have any time to pick up Abraham and Ishmael's dirty socks to get the place ready.

Just the Lord shows up.

And he's got these visitors with us.

Okay.

Three men.

And we know one of them is the Lord.

Now it mentions three men.

And because of this the Church of England has interpreted this as meaning the Trinity.

Because there are three persons and there's only one name given.

It's the Lord in verse 1.

But they see it as and that's why they see it as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And that's why every year at Trinity Sunday they read the first part of Genesis 18.

I don't quite see it that way.

I don't as I've studied this and I'll give you my reasons why.

I think it's best to see them as the Lord, a theophany.

Okay.

A some appearance of God in the human form if you want to make it more precisely a Christophany Jesus Christ in the Old Testament appearing in some human form. And and to the Lord and two angels, that's how I see it. And I think there's more proof of that. If you look at this and again, we,ay we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we.we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we,we

We study things expository, and so I'm going to give you the reasons why.

Look down ahead in verse 22 of the same chapter.

It says,

So the men turned from there and went towards Sodom,

but Abraham still stood before the Lord.

Okay, so you have three, and the two men leave,

and Abraham's still talking there to the Lord.

Okay, I think there's a definitive calling there.

One of them's the Lord, and the other two are not.

All right, chapter 19, verse 1.

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening.

Okay, so you look at that, you piece it together,

and it would seem like of the three, one is the Lord, Yahweh, in some human form,

and there are two angelic beings that come to this point.

All right, back to our friendship idea.

If a good friendship, how many of you know that a good friendship can,

it can withstand spontaneity.

I mean, a really good, true friendship.

It can withstand spontaneity.

You know, there are friends that you have in your life that are good friends,

and it doesn't matter when they call you.

They can call you in the middle of the night.

It doesn't matter, and you will answer the phone.

You'll answer the phone.

There are those who you call friends, but if that phone rings in the middle of the night,

I'm not answering it.

Let's be really honest, okay?

I'm not answering that phone call, okay?

You might call them, but you know what it is to have those good friends.

But you've got to be good friends with somebody to withstand that kind of spontaneity.

I mean, even Jesus says that, suppose one of you has a friend who comes knocking on your door at midnight

and says, friend, will you lend me three loaves of bread?

All right?

Now, there's a friend right there.

You had better be good friends with somebody for them to come and knock on your door at midnight

and say, I forgot to go to Publix.

Can I have three loaves of bread?

You've lost your mind.

Go to Son He's house.

She's nicer than I am.

She'll give you some bread, okay?

So, if you want to be friends with God, the first thing I really want you to understand

is whatever agenda you've set in your life, have flexibility

so that the Lord can and will know that He will alter your direction.

He will alter your plans.

God can and will visit you with a blessing.

God can and will visit you with a test.

God can and will visit you with a trial, okay?

He brings those tests and trials to strengthen our faith.

But here's the thing.

If you are friends with God, it's okay if He visits you with a test.

It's really okay if He visits you with a trial.

It's not just all about blessings.

It's those tests and trials that do what?

We talked about it.

They strengthen our faith muscles.

So we learn to trust in Him and lean on Him.

And guess what?

Good friends do that.

Good friends.

How many of you know that if you have a true good friend,

they have put that friendship to the test at times?

And you have either endured it or you have said, I'm done.

The second mark of being a friend with God is humility.

I see it as humility.

Verse 2,

He lifted up His eyes and looked,

and behold, three men were standing in front of Him.

When He saw Him,

He ran from the tent door to meet them

and bowed Himself to the earth.

That word bowed is a very important word.

You'll find it about a hundred times in the Old Testament.

It's the Hebrew word shakah.

Shakah.

And it means to bow down,

to pay homage to,

to give reverence to.

And it's the most frequently used word in the Old Testament

for the translation of our English word worship.

Shakah.

Worship.

To bow down, to worship.

In the Orient, in the Middle East,

especially back then,

it was very typical to greet somebody

who was more esteemed than you were,

especially royalty if you were a king or a queen.

When you greeted them,

you would get on your knees

and you would slowly bow your head down

until your head would touch the ground.

It was a sign of respect.

It was a sign of acknowledging

you are greater than I am.

You are to be revered.

And Abraham is 99 years of age.

But it's a sign of respect.

a sheep, a sheep. Okay? And somebody who's had an influence, a great influence on a large number of people. But Abraham is in God's presence and he bows down. That is the proper, that is the absolute proper response to a divine friendship. A divine friendship. He bows down. If you're going to be God's friend, it's not like you're going to be just buddies with each other like we think about here on earth.

Where you're like, hey bud, what's going on, man? I tell you, it makes me sideways when I hear people talk, where they talk to God or talk about God as the big guy in the sky or the man upstairs. No, he is God. He is God. He is holy. He is righteous. He is sovereign. He is Elohim. He is El Shaddai. He is Adonai. He is Yahweh. He is holy and righteous. It should make a...

There is a reverence to that relationship. It's not like that relationship I have with Chuck Westcott. I love Chuck Westcott. I am not going to bow down to Chuck Westcott.

Unless he's got a 357 Magnum in his hand. Okay? That's a whole other story. Okay?

But you know what? And if you're going to have a friendship with God, you had better include worship and humility in that friendship.

That should be key components. Here's Abraham. 99 years of age. Very influential. A sheik in modern terms. Okay?

And he bows down before the Lord because he's realizing what? God is in the audience.

God is in the audience. And you know, I may be somebody of some great importance, but in God's presence, I'm nothing.

So he bows down. He bows down. And that's why I love our times of worship here on Sunday morning.

And I love it during our times of worship. And I have to tell you, every Sunday, every Sunday, my prayer for each and every one of you,

one of the main prayers I have, if you ever wonder what one of the main prayers I have for each and every one of you on Sunday morning is,

as we gather, is that each one of you would be engaged.

Engaged. You would be engaged with the Lord. With the Lord. Not so much with the worship team. The worship team is bringing their offering.

They've prayed it out. They're bringing their offering. They're asking you to come along with them on Sunday morning.

We have prayed. We have rehearsed. We have done all the rehearsing. Now it's just an outpouring of our heart.

Because when you realize that God is in the audience, God is why we do this, there should be an element of humility and worship and adoration.

An adoration that takes place. And when we truly worship God, there's going to be humility.

And humility and worship comes from two things. Number one, realizing who God is and realizing who you are in His presence.

I've got nothing. I've got nothing. I've got nothing to bring to the table.

Once you have those two, the inevitable response is just humility.

And I pray for you guys each and every week that we would engage.

I was talking with Luann and David and Taylor in the back of the prayer room this morning before the service.

And I was like, every Sunday, every Sunday I pray that this is going to be the day that revival breaks out in our church.

This would be the Sunday.

And God has spoken this to my heart so many times.

What looks like revival in your eyes, Curtis, might not be revival in my eyes.

Because who knows?

Who knows today revival may have broken out in Angela's heart today.

Who knows?

And I have to be okay with it.

I want the whole church to go crazy this morning for Jesus.

Like I see some of you do for those stupid college football games.

Like I want some of you guys to get so excited like you do.

That big sigh of, oh, praise you Lord.

When you're going way too fast and the state trooper doesn't pull you over.

Oh, you get all skippy with God then, don't you?

You know, but what about here?

You know, we're gathering with God's people.

Remember Isaiah 6.

I see some of you guys.

I see some of you guys.

No, Isaiah says, woe is me. I'm ruined. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I've got bigger problems. I live with the people with unclean lips. There is a humility to me. And any gift that Isaiah thought he had when he walked in that place is gone. It's gone because, listen, every Sunday morning when you come to this little strip center,

here, this make nothing big about it space that we have right here, with a bunch of neat chairs, and you have some volunteers that do some amazing work so that you can be here. And some people turn the heat up way too high for me on Sunday morning. But when you come here, you know what, that's what we need to do. Greg, Melanie, Woody, you guys back there with Matt, no more, no more. We're going to make people so uncomfortable in here physically that the only way

they're going to be comfortable is when they get there spiritually. It was nice to meet you guys. I know many of you won't be back next week, right?

Isaiah realizes who he's in the presence of. Isaiah realizes who he really is.

He's in the presence of. It brings a sense of humility.

And if you're going to be a friend of God, there's got to be a level of humility.

And that's one thing I want to remind you of each and every Sunday.

God's not just in the audience. God is the audience.

God's the audience each and every day.

And so we see, yeah, these three men show up, and Abraham bows down.

And it begins verse 3, and it says,

O Lord, O Lord.

The word there, Lord, is the Hebrew word Adonai.

Now we're introduced to another facet of God.

He's going to, Abraham is going to refer to him in this passage,

and he's going to refer to himself as your servant.

I'm your servant, I'm your servant.

And he's going to call God, O Lord, Adonai, the mighty one.

The almighty.

The strong one.

The strong one.

O Lord.

I think it was, uh,

Max Licato,

he wrote something clever years ago,

and he said that, um,

you don't boast about your paper airplane when you're dealing with NASA.

You don't brag about your crayon sketches

when you're in the presence of Picasso.

And you don't claim to be on the same level as Albert Einstein

just because you can write H2O.

And you don't boast about your goodness

when you're in the presence of the perfect one.

That's where we are here.

Abraham realizes he is in the presence of God Almighty.

That's the idea here.

He bows down.

He calls him Lord.

Verse 3.

O Lord, if I have found favor in your side,

do not pass your servant by.

Let a little water be brought and wash your feet.

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.

So they said,

Do as you have said.

And Abraham went quickly to the tent of Sarah and said,

Quick, three sheaves 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.

Then he took curds and milk and the calf

and he had prepared and set it before them.

And he stood by under the tree while they ate.

And they said to him,

Where is Sarah, your wife?

And he said,

She is in the tent.

Now, there's a third.

I want you to pay attention here.

There's a third part to being God's friend.

And that's this right here.

Ministry.

Serving.

Be a servant.

You will be a servant.

If you're going to be God's friend,

there is going to be a requirement to serve the Lord,

to get involved in kingdom work.

Now, typically, you know, if you're a Christian,

you don't have to...

He does it personally. He's 99 years of age here. It's a hot day, okay? It's a hot summer day. He has 318 paid, trained servants. He could have just clapped his hands and watched everybody get busy. Let's get him working. But he's personally serving. If you're going to serve the Lord, and by the way, if you're a Christian, I would say a Christian without a ministry is a contradiction.

It's a contradiction. It's a contradiction. And if He's your Lord, then that means He's your Master. And the word Lord connotes that you are a servant, and there's some sort of service or volunteer work coming out of you, some way that you are involved.

And even if you're serving people, okay? You're serving people. Keep this in mind. Because you're first serving the Lord. You're first serving the Lord. This is where people get burned out on their service of the Lord. They forget that they're serving the Lord.

They forget that. They serve people. And you know what? It's not easy serving people. It's not. I'll tell you as a pastor. It's not easy serving people. You know why? Because sheep bite back.

You try to give them all sorts of love and affection. It's like, holy smokes, they just bit my leg.

Because I didn't love them the way they wanted to be loved.

Sheep bite back.

But the only way you make it through this victoriously is to remember, I'm serving God's people, but first and foremost, I'm serving what? The Lord. I'm serving the Lord.

And part of that involves people as imperfect as we all are.

Secondly, Abraham served immediately.

Immediately. Look at the words that he uses here. We notice it says,

And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah.

He's ninety-nine. How do you quickly at ninety-nine?

He's getting it though, right?

I don't know. It says quickly. It's just quickly for Abraham, you know, whatever.

But he quickly goes, okay?

He says to his wife, quick, prepare this bread.

He goes out to the flock and he tells the young man, prepare it quickly.

And he makes it quickly.

There was an immediacy to his service.

And here's what's noteworthy about this.

If you are waiting for the right feeling before you get involved, you will probably never ever get involved.

And revival breaks a lot across the church.

If you are waiting for the right feeling, if Abraham was waiting for the right feeling,

when these visitors suddenly show up, man, think of the excuses.

It's hot.

Nobody works at this time of day. It's hot.

I'm not going out there.

You guys sit under here, under the tree with me in the shade.

When it cools down, we'll take care of some needs.

That sounds legit, doesn't it?

I'm not putting you off.

I'm just telling you, I'm not saying not now.

I'm just saying not now. I'm not doing it now.

There was an immediacy to him, you know.

I'm old.

I'm old.

Old people don't work in the height of the day, let alone young people.

I'm old.

I've got a staff for this.

I'm not doing it.

I've got a staff who will take care of all this.

And probably if Abraham would have waited for the right feeling,

more than likely Abraham would have never gotten involved.

He would have never stepped up to serve.

But I think the third thing in his service is that he gives generously.

Generously.

Verse 6,

And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said,

Quick, three sheaves of fine flour.

Knead it to make cakes.

And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf.

Tender.

Good.

He gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly.

He gave the best that he had.

He gave the very best that he had.

And I think that we should give the,

I think we should give the very best to the Lord of our time,

of our talents,

of our gifts,

of our energy.

Because here's the reality.

Far too many of the people,

of people in the church today,

far too many of us who do love the Lord,

the reality is we give God our leftovers.

When I finish all this,

then I'll,

then I'll,

then I'll,

You know, I, I think about King David. King David is looking for a place to build a temple and he comes to the threshing floor in Arana. And he says, man, this is the best place. I want to buy this. I want to buy this. And the guy, yeah, I'll offer you X amount of dollars. The guy that owns this says, oh man, listen, dude, you're king. He didn't say dude. Okay, I'm just saying that. But he says, listen, you're King David. And you know what? This is God's work. I just give it to you. I'll give it to you. And David says, no, I want to pay for it. No, I'll give it to you.

No, I want to pay for it. No, usually those arguments don't go that way. Usually the people in the church say, it's the church. Can't you help us? Oh, you know, you know, can't you give us a blessing brother? You know, that kind of garbage, you know, but the argument goes back and forth. Finally, finally, David puts his foot down. He says, no, no, I refuse to sacrifice anything to the Lord that has not cost me something. And David had that mindset throughout his entire life. He puts his foot down. He says, no, no, I refuse to sacrifice anything to the Lord that has not cost me something. And David had that mindset throughout his entire life. He puts his foot down. He says, I

I'm not, I'm going to build a temple here, but it's going to cost. I'm going to feel the pinch of it.

So many times early on in our marriage, Jill and I would sit down and we love the Lord. We're serving the Lord, but we give to the Lord what we can afford. And we were convicted of that.

I'm not just talking financially either, but that's a, that's a, that's a wrinkle of it. Yeah.

I have this extra time. I'll give the Lord. How about we had something else scheduled, but God needs us over here and I'm going to do it.

That is having the spontaneity that we just talked about in the first step of friendship, isn't it? That's spontaneity. Okay.

God has the editing rights for my calendar. Okay.

But I believe Abraham, Abraham had the same concept that I'm, I'm going to give to God generously.

Why? Because think of Abraham realizes how generous God has been with him.

Look at the promises. Look at the promises.

I didn't have any children.

You probably descendants. Like what?

What? Seriously? You're going to give me this land? What?

And even though I fumble, bumble, stumble, falter, you still, you still extend your grace and your mercy?

I mean, can we get a witness this morning or somebody who understands what it means to fail and stumble with the Lord and yet God's mercy still reigns so clearly in their hearts and in their lives?

Amen? And if God will do that for you and for me, why would we not give generously unto the Lord?

And I said unto the Lord, not to this little shopping center church.

And I make light, I love our church.

I'm just saying there's nothing special about us except for God's hand is on us.

And we better live our lives to that degree.

Knowing that God's hand, and with fear and reverence, God's hand is on us.

With fear and reverence, we continue to move forward.

With fear and reverence, we give generously to the Lord.

Why? Because he has been so generous to us.

He has been so generous to us.

And listen, that's part of friendship, isn't it?

When you have a friend that is so generous to you, don't you want to reciprocate?

Isn't there a drive to show them the love that you have for them?

Not that you're going to go out and pay their mortgage for.

You might, but I mean, pay the whole house off, whatever.

God leads you to do that. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah.

You'll give everybody our address later on.

But seriously, if we would do that for an earthly friend,

why wouldn't we want to reciprocate gloriously, bountifully unto the Lord?

Because I may be mistaken, but I think the Word says that you can't out-give God.

Verse 9.

They said to him, where's Sarah, your wife?

He said she's in the tent.

I don't want to make a whole bunch out of this,

but you get these three guys show up out of nowhere, out of the blue.

I don't want to make a whole bunch out of this.

I don't want to make a whole bunch out of this.

Thank you.

But it just kind of strikes me funny. But now, in the past, though, it was Sarah, if you remember, who comes up with the idea. I'm too old. Can't have a baby. Not through me. Take Hagar. You know, she's young. You know, you're probably still with it enough to have a child, Abraham, but I can't do it anymore. But now God is going to zero in on her specifically, all right? Verse 10.

And the Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife, will have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him, okay?

So they're in the tent, and there's just a flap. There's just a flap. That's all there is. And she's on the other side of the flap making preparations, okay?

And just in case you forgot about the condition of the couple, the writer here wants you to remember.

Verse 11. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old. They're old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

The author wants you to be reminded. Listen, people. It was impossible, any human way, for Sarah to have a baby.

I want you to remember that, okay? Verse 12.

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 bear a child, now that I am old?

Is there anything too hard for the Lord?

For at the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.

But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid.

And he said, No, I bet you did laugh.

So Sarah's busted. God busts her.

And we know she didn't laugh out loud. She laughed to herself, you know.

You know, now, why did Sarah laugh?

You know, he asked the question, Why does Sarah laugh?

And it comes out across the flap, you know.

And from, God asked Abraham, Why did she laugh?

And from the other side of the flap, you know, she did all this to herself.

She goes, I didn't laugh!

You know, you know, somebody answers you from the other room, you didn't think they were listening.

I didn't laugh!

And the Lord says, Yeah, he did.

Yeah, he did. I heard it.

Okay, remember in the previous chapter,

when God makes a promise to Abraham, Abraham laughs.

Okay, he laughs.

But God didn't say anything about it.

It's because Abraham believed.

Abraham, it was, there was no disbelief in him.

It says, Abraham believed the promises of God.

It was counted to him as righteousness.

But there are different ways to laugh, aren't there?

I mean, you can laugh, laugh heartedly.

You can laugh in a scornful way.

You can laugh in an arrogant way.

You can, you can laugh in an unbelieving way.

You know, we don't know.

We have to kind of make some assessments here.

What kind of laughter.

But when Abraham laughed, it was sheer joy because Abraham believed God.

I'm going to have, I'm going to have a kid.

Really?

He's cracking up, okay?

But her laughter was a laughter of unbelief, okay?

Realizing, I'm an old woman.

He's an old man.

It's not going to happen, you know?

And even after she laughs, she says,

After I'm worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?

So there was unbelief in Sarah's heart.

It's obvious we can read the scriptures and see that.

But here's the, here's the final, the final mark of friendship with God that I want to share with you this morning.

And that is conformity to his will.

If you're going to be a friend of God, there needs to be a conformity to his will.

Abraham believed God and he was willing, even though he floundered and he failed.

And, you know, he even goes along with Sarah's scheme a few chapters back.

He believed God and was willing to walk in, in obedience to that belief.

Sarah showed an unbelief and an unwillingness.

Except for the fact that she is going to become pregnant.

She's going to go along with the program when it all shows, I am pregnant.

Now I believe!

I got the baby bump to prove it, you know?

That whole mess right there.

But part of being a friend of the Lord is conformity to his will.

So conformity to his will.

Obey what he has commanded you. What a friend we have in Jesus! What a friend we have in Jesus! And so, my charge to you this morning is to find the areas of your life. Find those nooks and corners, those areas of your life where the Bible speaks about that condition in your life. And you know what it is. You know what it is.

You know what we all are dealing with. You know what we all struggle with. Each of us know the things that we struggle with. That condition in your life. Find that area of your life and decide that you're going to, that condition of your life, and I'm going to put into practice what Jesus says. I'm going to put those things into practice. I'm going to put it into practice in all of my life. In all the areas of my life. He, Jesus, He is going to be the Lord of my church life.

Jesus is going to be the Lord of my relational life. Jesus is going to be the Lord of my leisure life. Jesus is going to be the Lord of my pleasure life. Jesus is going to be Lord of it all. He's going to be Lord of it all. That's conformity, okay? That's conformity to His will, and that's what Abraham is doing right now.

And so I want us to answer the question that we, that, that, that, that God asks, uh, Abraham, and He asks really everyone who's in earshot, but He's, it's a question for all of us here this morning that we, that we need to get to, and, and answer this for your own life.

Truly answer this for your own life. Is there anything too hard for the Lord?

Is there anything too hard for the Lord?

Everybody got quiet.

Except for Terry, man. There you go. Amen, Terry.

I mean, our, our, our natural answer, of course not!

You know, of course not!

I mean, Jeremiah's going to say later on, Lord, you made everything, the heavens and the earth, and everything, everything, uh, the seas, and everything you've made.

Is anything too hard for you?

And the answer to that is what?

Of course not!

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

And, and, and, and again, we're in Genesis, and I've told you before that if you can get to Genesis 1,

and you can really wrap your heart and wrap your mind around Genesis 1,

that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

If you can believe that, everything else is a piece of cake!

That out of nothing, God spoke everything!

What?

If you can believe that, everything else is a piece of cake!

Well, I'm not sure how the angels, well, whatever!

If God can speak, can create the heavens, well, I'm not sure how, you know, the resurrection,

if God can speak everything into existence, then shut your mouth!

Shut your mouth!

Seriously!

But we have this situation, you know, you know, is, you know, uh, you know, um, is anything too hard for the Lord?

Is anything too hard?

Lord, I believe that you created the heavens and the earth.

I go to a Bible-believing church.

I've been walking with you for years, but Lord, this $5,000 medical bill that tends to hang over my head.

I'm not sure you can handle that, Lord.

I know you created the heavens and the earth, Lord, but, but, you know, my, my sciatica continues to act up,

and I'm not sure you can handle that, Lord.

Oh, you need a little faith.

You know, for me, it always starts, because I'd be lying to say that I, I, I never have those moments where we have a crisis of faith, you know?

I don't, I don't have lack of faith as to who God is, but I get caught in the moment.

Anybody ever get caught in the moment, and you're like, mm, this is, this is, this is big.

This is, this is hard.

For me, it starts in my prayer life to first be reminded of recognizing who I'm praying to.

Who I'm praying to.

Isn't that what the, the Church of Acts did in Acts chapter 4?

I mean, they're being persecuted for their faith.

They all gather.

And then they quote Psalm 2. Now they're, they're, they're praying his word back to him. That's a great, that's a great place to start right there. You, you don't know what to pray? Start praying God's word back to him.

Then they pray Psalm 2. They say, they quote, they recite Psalm 2. And then, and at the end, at the end of it all, they, they get to the end of it all, they're going through all that, and they says, and then they just say, therefore.

Therefore. Here are afflictions. Have mercy upon our afflictions. All that's, that's afflicting us. Before they get to their needs, they recognize to whom they are praying. They recognize that it is the sovereign Lord, creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is, that is there.

And once you recognize, once you recognize, once you recognize, once you recognize and really recognize that you are talking to the Lord God Almighty who has no limitations.

And that's what Jill was leading to up here earlier. You have, he has no, if he has no limitations and you realize that, then shame on you for trying to grab limitations from over here and put them on him.

I didn't know you had that kind of power. I didn't know you had that kind of power. I want to talk to you after the service. See if we can tap into some of that power.

How you just directing, tell God what to do. And put limits on God. Use something else.

It's best to say, Lord, you can do anything. So this, this $5,000 medical debt that's hanging over my head, you got it. I don't know how, I don't know how, but you got it.

Lord, Lord, my house is upside down. I'm on the verge of foreclosure. I don't know how it's going to change. My marriage is on the verge of falling apart, Lord.

I don't know how it's all going to work, but you got it, Lord. I am trusting you for this. God, I, I, my, my health is, is, is, is before me right now.

I have some huge issues. I don't know how I'm going to get over this. Lord, I'm fighting depression in my life.

I don't know what's going on, but you got this. You got this, Lord. I don't know how, but I'm trusting. I am, I want to conform to your will.

That's my heart's desire. I want to conform to your will.

I trust your promises, Lord, and I'm asking you to show me what to do. And when you do that, you're approaching it in a state of faith and not a state of unbelief.

Faith. That's not a name it and claim it. That's faith. God is in control. God is who he says he is. Amen?

He is who he says he is.

You know what? A moment of transparency. Worship team, come on up. Let's close this out before I start preaching a whole different sermon.

A moment of transparency.

I shared this Thursday in a men's Bible study.

By the way, we have a great group of men that get together on Thursday mornings at 6.30 in the refuge.

Please come join us. We have some men who are just really love the Lord.

I really love the Lord. God's doing some really cool things in the hearts of these men.

And in my heart as well, too.

Because I get to hear their hearts.

Here's my

recent

situation

where I had a crisis of faith.

Just so you

again, a moment of transparency.

I know what the scripture says.

I know what the scripture says.

I know what the Bible says.

I love the Lord.

I follow the Lord to the best of my ability.

I know all these things.

Don't give me these verses.

I got it.

I got it.

I got it.

But on

December the 11th

our adoption became finalized

for Caroline.

Great.

It's a great day.

I rejoice in the Lord.

July, I will be sixty years old. I know. You guys are shocked. You thought I was like twenty-eight. I know. I'll be sixty years old. And my daughter just got married. She's twenty-three years old if she gets married. So I'm thinking twenty years. Twenty years maybe Carolina will be ready to get married.

I don't know if I'll be around it, Amy. I don't have a promise of that. You don't have a promise of that. But Lord, I want to be able to do for her as I've done for Caitlin. Lord, I want to see the fruition of the promises that you're giving us as I pray over her every night just like you did Caitlin, that you would bring a godly man into her life.

But Lord, I just want to be able to see maybe she can have a child before I come meet you in glory again. Is that selfish, Lord? I'm guilty of that then. I just want to...

Maybe you know what I'm talking about. Sixty years old. I'm not supposed to be starting all over again.

I'm supposed to be going on trips places. I guess that's what people talk about doing. We can't afford to go on any trip.

Only trip I take these days is guilt trips. That's all I take. Yeah.

And I know the Lord is for me. I know the Lord is... And I know the Lord has given us an answer because, you know what, Taylor and Caitlin have a great relationship with her and if something wants to happen...

I get that. But I want to see... I want to see... I want to be there.

There are two greatest words in the New Testament.

But God. But God. Being rich in mercy. But God being rich in mercy.

Gives us comfort. And God has given me comfort. He hasn't told me I'm going to live to be 95. He's not going to tell me that.

I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. But I just want you to know that we're all there. We're all there. Can we please just grab a hold of the example that Abraham gives us?

That's why the Bible is so awesome. Because it doesn't show us perfect people. It doesn't show us perfect people. It gives us an example.

He faltered. Sarah faltered. Yet God changes her name to princess. From contentious one to princess. That's pretty cool.

Father, I just pray that you would speak in the hearts of the people today.

And it would be the desire of each and every heart in here.

The cry right now, as we close, is that I would be known as a friend of God.

I would be known as a friend of God.

God, teach us what that really means.

Through the blessings, through the testings, through the trials.

Teach us what it really means to be a friend of God.

We give you praise and glory and honor for there is none like you.

There is none like you.

And all of God's people said together,

Amen.

Let's stand and give God praise and sing His praises this morning.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.