MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH November 18, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON

Transcription

1 MCLEAN BIBLE CHURCH November 18, 2012 PASTOR LON SOLOMON >> PASTOR SOLOMON: Well, you know, the Arab people up until about a hundred years ago were pretty much ignored by most of the world. That's not true anymore. There are over 300 million Arab people occupying 19 countries across North Africa and the Middle East. We will show you a map so you see where they are. And because of their immense petroleum wealth, they control the economy really of the world. Islam is now the fastest growing religion in the world. Arab extremism is a force that all the world has got to cope with. And the Arab-Israeli conflict is at the fulcrum of the world politics. Where are these people? Where did they come from? How did they get here? That's what we are going to learning the answer to in our passage for today. We are going to return to our verse-by-verse study in our Book of Genesis. We are in Chapter 16. We are going to answer these questions about the Arab people, but we are also going to answer some very important questions about your life, my life and how we make decisions in our life in concert with the Lord, Jesus Christ. So, are you ready? Yes. Okay. Here we go. A little bit of review. Remember in Genesis Chapter 12, when Abraham obeyed God and went to the Promise Land, that God told him he would have a son. Through that son he would have a multitude of descendents and that God would give the land of Canaan to those descendents. Ten years later in Genesis 15, God repeated that promise to Abraham. Verse 4 of that chapter, God says to Abraham, a son who comes forth from your own body, he shall be your heir. But here we are in Genesis 16 and still no son. And Sarah and Abraham start to become impatient. And so as a result of that, they make a fateful decision to take matters into their own hands. So here we go. Verse 1. Now, Sarah, Abraham's wife, had borne him no children. We must understand in the ancient nearest, barrenness was the ultimate disgrace for a woman. And at 75 years old, Sarah was desperate to remove this stigma. And so she took matters into her own hands. You say, how do you do something like that? Well, if you remember, we have been talking through our study in the Book of Genesis about the City of Nuzi. We will show you where it is. It is the city in the time of Abraham located in modern day Iraq. Here in Nuzi, we found thousands of clay tablets that tell us about the everyday customs that were en vogue at the time of Abraham and Sarah. One of the customs that we discovered there, kind of a

2 unique custom, was a kind of surrogate motherhood. Here is how it worked. A barren wife was permitted to give one of her handmaidens as a surrogate mother. Her husband would sleep with the handmaiden, but then when the handmaiden had a child it was considered to be the child of the barren wife, thereby removing the stigma of her barrenness. Now, we see this very custom also in Genesis 30 between Jacob and Rachel. Watch. Verse 1, when Rachel saw that she wasn't bearing Jacob any children, then she said to him, here is Bilhah, my handmaiden, sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and that through her I can build a family. And this is precisely what Sarah decides to do here in Genesis Chapter 16. Watch. Verse 2. Now, Sarah had an Egyptian handmaiden named Hagar, so she said to Abraham, the Lord has kept me from having children. Go sleep with my handmaiden, perhaps I can build a family through her. Now, let's be perfectly clear here, my friends. And this is important, that what Sarah was suggesting about Hagar, this was not illegal, this was not immoral, and this was not wrong in the culture of her day. It was a perfectly acceptable way to solve the problems she was facing by means of human wisdom, human ingenuity and human action. You say, wait a minute, Lon? Wait a minute. Is there anything wrong with human ingenuity? Is there anything wrong with human action? Doesn't he use human action to accomplish God's plan in our life. That's a great question. Hold it. We're coming back. Let's see what happened with Abraham and Sarah first, all right? Verse 3. And Abraham agreed to what Sarah said. Notice, he didn't seek the Lord. He didn't pray about it. He didn't hear from God. He just said, okay. So after Abraham had been living in Canaan for ten years, Sarah gave her Egyptian handmaiden Hagar to her husband and he slept with Hagar and she conceived. And when Hagar knew that she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress, Sarah. Somehow Hagar began to rub it in, that she was carrying the child that Sarah was never able to carry. Maybe it was a little look. Maybe it was a little smirk. Maybe it was a little comment. I don't know what it was. But whatever it was, it wasn't good. Verse 5. Then Sarah said to Abraham, you are responsible for this wrong that I am suffering. See, friends, nothing has changed in 4,000 years. (laughter). It's all the same. Sarah said, I put my handmaiden in your arms and now that she knows she's pregnant, she is despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me. And she didn't mean anything good by

3 that. Trust me. (laughter). And I'm sure Abraham tried to walk her through this logically and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, this was your idea! This wasn't my idea. You were the one who came up with this. You are the one who started this. Ah, Sarah was not interested. And so Abraham did what every experienced husband does in a situation like this, he ducked for cover. (laughter). That's right. Look, verse 6, Abraham said, your maiden is in your hands. Do with her whatever you think is best. I'm out of this. I got nothing to do with this, Sarah. So Sarah began to mistreat Hagar until Hagar fled from her. You say, why would she do that? Why wouldn't she just throw Hagar out on her ear. Well, she couldn't. It was illegal. According to the tablets at Nuzi that we were talking about, we find that once that handmaiden that you give your husband conceives, it is illegal to cast that woman out for any reason. Maybe they were anticipating this kind of conflict so they made a law against it. Sarah could not throw Hagar out. But she could make life so miserable that Hagar decided to voluntarily leave, which is exactly happened. Verse 7, the angel of the Lord found Hagar near a well or a spring in the desert and he said, Hagar, servant of Sarah, where have you come from and where are you going? She answered, I'm running away from my mistress Sarah. And then the angel of the Lord said to her, go back to your mistress and submit to her and I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count. God said this same thing about her son whose name is going to be Ishmael in the next Chapter 17, verse 20. God said to Abraham, as for Ishmael, I will surely bless him and I will make him fruitful and I will greatly increase his names and I will make him into a great nation. My friends, these are the Arab people of today. They traced their lineage back to Ishmael. They are descendants of Abraham. And they are the great people that God promised in the Book of Genesis that they would become. Genesis 16:11, the angel also said to her: You will have a son and you shall name him Ishmael which means "God hears" because the Lord has heard of your misery. So Hagar said, you are the God who sees me right here at this well and she named the place Beer Lahai Roi, which literally in Hebrew means "the well, beer." Living one, Lahai, who sees me, Roi." Verse 15, so Hagar bore Abraham a son and Abraham gave him the name Ishmael. And Abraham was 86 years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael. Now, that's as far as we're going to go in our passage for today because we've come to our most important question for the day. And all of you on the Internet and all of you down in the

4 Edge community and all of you at Loudon and Bethesda and Prince William and everybody here, we know what this question is, right? Right? Right? Okay. So are you ready? >> Ready. >> PASTOR SOLOMON: Ready, all right. Take a deep breath. Here we go. One, two, three! >> So what!?!? >> PASTOR SOLOMON: Yeah, you say, Lon, so what? It is kind of interesting, I guess. But I don't see what any of this has to do with me. I don't even have a handmaiden, so what difference does any of this have to do with me? (laughter). Well, let's talk about that. You know, we mentioned earlier that Sarah's idea to give Hagar to Abraham, that it was an attempt to help the plan of God along by human wisdom, human ingenuity and human interaction. And we also said according to the laws and customs of that day, what Abraham and Sarah did wasn't illegal, it wasn't immoral and it wasn't wrong, but here's the real question, was what Abraham and Sarah did unspiritual? That's a great question, so let's answer it. There are two principles in the word of God that are juxtaposed, that live in dynamic tension when it comes to this issue. And let me tell you what they are. Principle Number 1 is the principle of waiting on the Lord. Psalm 37, verse 4, David said, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Therefore, be still before the Lord and wait patiently on him. Psalm 40, verse 1, David said, I waited patiently on the Lord and he turned to me and heard my cry. Principle Number 1 says: God has a specific plan for my life down to the very smallest details and some of these details God wants to work out completely and totally on his own without my help, without my participation and when I jump in and try to help God out with human action, all I do is mess things up. So on these situations, I need to keep my hands off of those things and I need to wait patiently for God to supernaturally act on my behalf. Now, a great example of this principle is found in the life of King David. If you remember in 1 Samuel 16, the great prophet Samuel shows up and anoints David as the next king of Israel. The problem is, King Saul is still alive and he is still in office and he's going to stay in office for seven more years as the king. Twice during those seven years, David had the chance to kill Sol but he didn't. His men urged him to do it. He said I'm not going to do it. He knew the will of God was to become king, that was clear. But he said, I'm not taking matters into my own hands. 1 Samuel 26. I shall left my hand against him, for he is the Lord's anointed, as surely as the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, either his time will come

5 and he will die naturally or he will go into battle and perish. But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on him. What is David really saying here, friends? He is saying, I know God's will for my life. I know home's supposed to be the king of Israel, but I also know that God wants to do this for me all by himself in His perfect timing without my being involved at all. So I'm not going to lift a pinky to help this come true. I'm going to wait for God to make it happen in his own power and sovereignty, which God did seven years later. And God blessed and honored David for waiting. Now, that's principle Number 1. But there is another principle that's just as true in the Bible about this whole issue that Abraham and Sarah were facing. When do we act? When do we not act? And this is the principle Number 2 of sanctified human action. Listen. Paul wrote and said Philippians 4:19, and my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Jesus Christ. There were some believers in Thessolonika decided if God is going to meet our needs, we don't need to work. Why should we work? We will sit on the front porch and drink mint juleps and wait for a return check to show up in the mailbox. 2 Thessalonians 3:10. He said even when we were give you, we gave you this rule. If a man will not work, he shall not eat for we hear that some among you are idle, not being busy, but being busy-bodies. Such people we command in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. Principle Number 2 says, yes, God has an exciting plan for my life but He expects me to play a part in His plan coming true by engaging in sanctified, spirit-directed, spirit-filled human action. A great example of this, principle Number 2, is found in the life of the Apostle Paul. As we look at the end of the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul is in jail in Caesarea. We will show you a map. In Acts 23, verse 11, the following night while he was in jail, the Lord stood near Paul and said, take courage. As you have testified about Me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome. So Paul knows that the will of God and the plan of God is that he's going to Rome, right? Okay. Now watch. A new Roman governor named Festus shows up. Acts 25:2, the chief priests and Jewish leaders appeared before Festus and presented charges against Paul. They urgently requested Festus as a favor to them to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem for they were preparing an ambush to kill Paul along the way. Paul found out about this. So when Festus asked him if he was willing to go to Jerusalem to stand trial, Paul said if I'm guilty of doing anything deserving of death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charge is brought against me by these Jews are

6 false, no one has the right to hand me over to them. Why? Because he's a Roman citizen. A Roman citizen had the right to be tried in a Roman court. And Festus was going to turn him over to them anyway as a favor. And when Paul saw that this was about to happen, he exercised the right that every Roman citizen possess, Acts 25, verse 11, he said to Festus: I appeal to Caesar. And Festus then had no choice but to send the Apostle Paul off to Rome to stand before Caesar. Now, here's the point. Just like David, the Apostle Paul knew what God's plan was for his life. He was going to Rome. But in contrast to David, Paul used spirit-filled human action to get the plan done. And you know what? God honored Paul as much as he honored David. Isn't that interesting? Lynn to what Paul writes from Rome in jail, Philippians 1:12. He said, now, I want you to know brothers that's what happened to me, going to roam, being in jail, appealing to Caesar, has turned out for the advancement of the gospel, for the entire palace guard, the Praetorian guard, Caesar's elite body guard, has heard about Christ because of my chains. See, when you were prisoner of the emperor, you were guarded by the Praetorian guard, by the emperor elite body guard. The way they had to guard you if you were prisoner of Caesar is that one member of the Praetorian guard had to be chained to you at all times and they had 12-hour shifts. Now, can you imagine being an unbelieving Roman soldier and being chained to the Apostle Paul for 12 straight hours? Oh, my gosh. (laughter). Do you think you'd hear the gospel? You'd have it coming out your nose and your ears after 12 hours. And that's what Paul said. Every single member of the Praetorian guard has heard the gospel because they had to be chained to me for 12 hours. I think that's hysterical. Obviously you don't. (laughter). So, let's go on. You say, Lon, wait a minute, okay. So I have situations like this all the time in my life where I don't know whether I wait on God, whether I act, what I do. So how do I know when God wants me to wait on the Lord and how do I know when God wants me to act? AH. Well, that's the critical issue, isn't it? And you know, friends, that's precisely the issue Abraham and Sarah faced. Let me show you something fascinating. If you look carefully in the Book of Genesis at Chapter 12, 13, 14 and 15, you will find that never once in those chapters did God say specifically that Sarah would be the one who would have this promise son that God kept talking about. He said, of course, God said -- no, he didn't. Check it out. The first time that God ever made it clear that it was Sarah he was talking about

7 who would have this son is in Genesis 17, verse 16. And this was after Ishmael was born already. You say, what does that mean? What it means is that when Sarah came to Abraham here in Genesis 16, there were two completely different legitimate options that she and Abraham had. Option Number 1, to simply wait for Sarah to get pregnant was a genuine option. Principle Number 1, we are just going to wait on the Lord. But, friends, nowhere had God ever said it was going to be Sarah who was going to have this son. So the idea of giving Hagar to her husband and that that was going to be where the son came from, that was a legitimate option, too. And here's our bottom line for today. The Bible in Genesis 16 never indicates that Abraham ever prayed about this, never indicates he ever sought the Lord on this. Never indicates that he let God speak to him about whether he should wait or whether he should go with Hagar. Abraham just made a quick knee-jerk decision. Bam, won't on human wisdom and did something. How do we know in a given situation whether God wants us to go into human action mode or how -- whether God wants us to go into waiting on the Lord mode or if God wants us to wait for a while and then act? Friends, the answer is we have to seek the face of God on our knees until He tells us. This is what Abraham did not do. And we look around us today at the very complex problems we have, not just complex, I would say these problems we have are intense. Arabs against Jews. Jews against Arabs. Arabs against the west. The west against Arabs. Just think how much simpler the world would be if Abraham had prayed about this and God had said to him, wait. Friends, Abraham was a Godly man. But even Godly people, if they don't pray about whether God wants them to wait or act, even Godly people can get it wrong. You know, when Brenda and I first moved to the Washington area. We bought a house here at McLean. And it was a house we couldn't afford. I have a good track record of doing that. I don't know what's wrong with me. My eyes are bigger than my pocketbook sometimes. But anyways, slowly our savings account, we had to deplete it every month to keep up with the expenses of this house. By the end of about four years, our savings account was gone. And Brenda kept saying to me, we need to move. We can't afford this house. We need to move. And I kept saying, I know it, I would pray about it. And God would give me no liberty to list this house and put it on the market. I would say, Brenda, has given me no liberty to do it. She says, God hasn't given you no liberty? We are going broke.

8 All I can say is God has not given me liberty to do it. Brenda honored that but I don't think she totally would have done it that way if it were left up to her. But I was praying about it. And I had no liberty to list this house. Meanwhile, we're going broke. And I didn't want to list the house because I didn't want to pay the Realtors' fees and I didn't want to paint the house and fix the house up and pay closing costs because we would end up in the hole by the time that was over and we didn't have any money to go in the hole. Finally, one Saturday night, I was on my knees in my office praying getting ready for Sunday. And just like that, God gave me liberty and said, Lon, list the house. You said, how do you know that? Friends, if you talk to God long enough, trust me, you'll know. You'll know. I came upstairs and I said, Brenda, God just gave me liberty to list the house. We are putting it on the market Monday morning. We will need a big price not to lose money. So I had to call the former owners of the house because they had some owner financing and I had to call and tell them. When I called up, the lady answered the phone and she said you are selling the house? I said, yes, ma'am. And she said, have you sold it? I said no, ma'am. And she said, can I buy it back? I said what? I said you want to buy your house back? Yeah. She said, my husband told me two days ago that he is leaving me and I have to get out of this house and I want my old house back. I said, well, sure, if you want it, you can have it back. She said, I will tell you what, we will do it without Realtors' fees, I will pay the closing costs. I don't want you to paint it. I don't want you to fix it up. I don't want you to spend any money on it. I will offer you more than you paid for it and I will take it just as it is. I said, okay! Sounds like a deal to me. (laughter). Simplest house sale I ever had in my whole life. She said to me, listen now, she said, if you would have called me even a week ago, she said I would have told you to list and sell the house because I didn't know until two days ago, 48 hours, my husband was leaving me. She said, your timing is impeccable. Wasn't my timing. It was the Lord's timing. And he knew that. I didn't know that. Friends, listen, all of us face situations where we don't know, do we act, do we act, do we wait, what do we do here? The great news of the Bible is, God will tell you if you just get on your face and seek Him and ask Him. Isaiah, Chapter 30, verse 21, the Bible, the Lord says you will hear a voice behind you saying "this is the way, walk yee in it" if you're willing to

9 listen. So, friends, may I suggest a different way to make decisions as followers of Christ, and that is before we decide anything, hit our knees and stay there till you know what God is giving you liberty to do. You know what? I have one closing piece of advice for you. If in doubt, wait. I have seldom regretted any decision that I waited to make. But, boy, I sure have regretted a bunch of decisions that I hurried to make. If you are not sure what the Lord wants you to do, wait. When he is ready for you to act, he'll tell you. If we make decisions like this, my friends, we would make much better decisions. Let's pray together. Lord, Jesus, thanks for that wonderful promise that we will hear your voice behind us, saying, this is the way, walk yee in it. It is just that times we're traveling to fast that we blow right by and don't even stop to listen. Remind us, Lord, you are not in the hurricane. You are not in the tornado. You are not in the strong winds. You are a still, small voice that we have to stop and cultivate and listen to. And, so, Lord Jesus, change the very way we make decisions in our life because we were here today and we sat under the teaching of the word of God. Teach us to make decisions on our knees. Hearing the voice of God, and seeking the face of God. Help us learn from Abraham's bad example. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. What do God's people say? >> Amen. >> PASTOR SOLOMON: Amen. Hey, I want to wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving. God bless you, guys. Have a great time at Thanksgiving. Hopefully we'll see you next week. God bless you. (applause). (Music). *** This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. ***