It’s a Different Kind of Laugh

Genesis 18:1-15 NKJV  Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.  (2)  So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground,  (3)  and said, “My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant.  (4)  Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.  (5)  And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts. After that you may pass by, inasmuch as you have come to your servant.” They said, “Do as you have said.”  (6)  So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.”  (7)  And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it.  (8)  So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.  (9)  Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” So he said, “Here, in the tent.”  (10)  And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.)  (11)  Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.  (12)  Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”  (13)  And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’  (14)  Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”  (15)  But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”

• After more than a decade of moving around, here Abraham finds himself back a familiar spot… verse one says that Abraham was sitting in his tent door amongst the terebinth trees of Mamre, that is, the oak trees of this place called Mamre.
  • It is not the first time he has been here, in Genesis 13 when Abraham and Lot separated, Lot moved next to Sodom, and Abraham moved amongst the terebinth trees of Mamre. In chapter 14 Abraham is still amongst the terebinth trees of Mamre… later on in Genesis Sarah, and then after that Abraham, will be buried in a cave near the terebinth trees of Mamre… this oak grove has major biblical significance… and it seems Abraham loved this place.
    • These oak trees would have been huge trees providing tons of natural shade, a good refuge from the hot summer sun, and a natural place to set up camps…
  • It is here that Abraham once again meets Jesus.

Genesis 18:1 NKJV  Then the LORD appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.

• The LORD appeared to Abraham.
  • Now remember, whenever you see the word “LORD” written in all capitals, that is the word “YHWY” in the original language, sometimes pronounced JEHOVA.
    • The translators keep to tradition by translating it as LORD, though the proper translation is more “I AM”… a name God gives himself in Genesis 2:4, it is the name God gives himself in Exodus 3:14 to Moses at the burning bush, it is the name that Jesus give’s Himself in John 8:58.
  • So here we see that God, that is, Jesus, is appearing in the flesh once again to Abraham. This is a Christophany, and Old Testament appearance of Christ.
• Oh that I had time to preach 1000 sermons from Genesis, church, I would preach one entirely from this verse…
  • Abraham looks out of his tent to the oaks of Mamre and what does he see amongst the trees? Christ Jesus with two other men.
  • A beautiful foreshadowing of Christ and two men amongst trees on the top of a hill called Calvary!
    • But that is not what the Lord would have me speak on today… God has me speaking on Sarah’s interaction with Christ.
• In the last Chapter God promised that Sarah would have a child… but God was not speaking to Sarah, He was speaking to Abraham…And Abraham responded by laughing, not knowing HOW God was going to do it.
• Here, likely for the first time, Sarah hears from God that SHE would be the fulfilment of God’s promise, that SHE would have the child… not some distant relative, not her maidservant, Sarah hears from the mouth of God that SHE will bear a son… and like her husband, she too laughed… it was a different kind of laugh. A laugh of rejection, a laugh of faithlessness… a laugh I hear all to often in the church.
  • So today we will examine Sarah’s response to God, and how many times we can have similar responses. I will do my best this morning to rebuke the spirit of Sarah in this church, at least the spirit she had in this moment, and in doing so, as is always my hope, we shall all grow to be more like Christ… because at CLC everyone grows!

• “A different Kind of Laugh”. That is the title of todays sermon… a different response when told the impossible.
  • As we go through this, and as I prepare to encourage you to change your laugh, to rebuke the laugh of Sarah and embrace the laugh of Abraham… in other words, as I encourage you to rebuke the faithlessness of Sarah and embrace the faith of Abraham, as I prepare to do that we are going to go over two firm points:
    • Point One: There is Nothing Too Hard For The LORD
    • Point Two: Laugh Like You Believe There Is Nothing Too Hard For The LORD
• Let’s get into it with some prayer, and then into point one.

• So let’s get into point one this morning: A Definitive Answer: There is Nothing Too Hard For THE LORD, there is nothing too hard for the Great I AM.

Point One – There is Nothing Too Hard For The LORD

Genesis 18:10-14 NKJV  And He said, “I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.” (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.)  (11)  Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.  (12)  Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”  (13)  And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’  (14)  Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”

• Jesus, talking to Abraham, says “Your wife Sarah will have a child”…
  • Now God had already told Abraham this and convinced him of this in the last chapter… so why say it again?
  • I think because God wasn’t really talking to Abraham here… He knew that Sarah was listening, and she needed to have faith… she needed to hear the call, she needed to hear the promise.
    • And hear she did… but her response was less than stellar.

Genesis 18:12 NKJV  Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”

• Now evidently, this laugh was different than the laugh Abraham had in the last chapter…
  • Because Abraham was not rebuked for his laugh, like Sarah was.
  • I think Abraham’s laugh was of wonder and shock… “Okay Lord, if you say it I believe! I don’t know how but I am here for the ride!”
    • Abraham even once again offers a way for God’s promise to be true in the natural, knowing that God was in fact going to do what God said He would do, but failing to fully understand the miraculous way in which he would do it.
  • Here Sarah does not offer up Ishmael or any other way… she just laughs and says “No! I am to old, it is not going to happen”.
  • Another hint that Sarah’s laugh was different was that she denied laughing… she instenctivly lied to defend herself…

Genesis 18:15 NKJV  But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”

• Sarah laughed, was rebuked, lied to hide it, and then was rebuked once more… “NO BUT YOU DID LAUGH!”.
  • Sarah’s laugh was different…
    • Abraham’s laugh is a laugh of overwhelming faith but limited understanding.
    • Sarahs laugh is a laugh of faithlessness and rejection.
• And I think many of us far to many times have the laugh of Sarah and not the laugh of Abraham… and we will get into that in point two… but for now let us definitively answer God’s question. In the midst of all of this God asks

Genesis 18:14a NKJV  Is anything too hard for the LORD?

• Now this is a rhetorical question, which God answers in the very next breath… “At the appointed time Sarah shall have a son”.
  • In other words “Is anything to hard for God, OF COURSE NOT, Sarah you are going to have a son… you better start believing that I AM THAT I AM and I do what I say what I am going to do!
• So to definitively answer the question “Is anything too hard for God” the answer is “NO, Nothing is too hard for God”.

Psalms 147:5 NKJV  Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite.

Job 42:2 NKJV  “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.

Matthew 19:26 NKJV  But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Luke 1:37 NKJV  For with God nothing will be impossible.”

• God created the heavens and the earth in six days… what should be impossible for Him church?
  • Shall he struggle to provide for you?
• God split the red sea in two to deliver Israel! What should be impossible for Him, church?
  • Shall he struggle to defend you from persecution?
• Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead!
  • Shall he struggle to heal your body?
• Jesus died and on the third day rose again!
  • Shall he struggle to save your soul?
• What Goliath are you facing?
  • One stone can bring him down?
• What evil tempts you?
  • One Word can destroy it!
• What serpent haunts you?
  • One heal can crush him!
• Listen church, the prophets of Baal pleaded with their false god to send down fire to burn up dry wood… they chanted, and sacrificed, and prayed, and begged for hours and hours… but burning up dry wood was too hard for Baal… Then Elijah soaks the wood in water, he pours more and more and more water on the wood until the wood is water logged… then Elijah prays… and what the prophets of Baal could not do with half a days of prayer, God comes down and consumes the wood, water in all, in fire…
• SO AGAIN I MUST ASK: IS ANYTHING TOO HARD FOR THE LORD?! The answer is an overwhelming, undeniable, indisputable, irrefutable “NO!” nothing is too hard for YHWY… Nothing is too hard for the great I AM… Nothing is too hard for our God.
  • That brings me to point two this morning… Laugh Like You Believe There is Nothing Too Hard For the LORD.

Point Two – Laugh Like You Believe There Is Nothing Too Hard For The LORD

Genesis 18:13-15 NKJV  And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’  (14)  Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.”  (15)  But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh!”

• Now hopefully after this, Abraham and Sarah went into the tent and acted in faith… if you know what I mean…               
  • And honestly, this was not something that would have been to hard to be obedient to, hard to believe yes… but the process of making a child is not something most married couples need to be talked out of, if you know what I mean…
  • But what if the stakes were different…
• What if God told you to buy property, imagine that God told you go and buy this property… use your own hard earned money and buy it for yourself.
  • OK, easy enough… land holds it’s value, right…
• But imagine, if God had also been telling you for the past few months that the land you are fixing to purchase would be completely and utterly destroyed… that anyone living on that land would be taken away into captivity, and then invaders would claim that land as their own, regardless of who owned it prior…
  • Now you had been prophesying this HARD… and now God says “buy the land”.
    • Now wait a minute God, this land is not going to be worth anything… you are going to destroy it… I already know.
  • God says “buy the land”…
    • But it will be stolen from me
  • “Buy the land”
    • Will I ever get it back?
  • “If I said buy the Land don’t you think I am capable of giving it back to you?! Is anything to hard for Me?”
• That story of course is not one that I just made up, it is exactly what happened to the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 32… in which God says the same thing He said to Sarah…

Jeremiah 32:27 NKJV  “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?

• Is there anything to hard for the LORD? The definitive answer is NO! And Jeremiah understood this, which is why Jeremiah bought the land. Jeremiah even made this definitive statement in verse 17

Jeremiah 32:17 NKJV  ‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You!

• So Jeremiah buys the lands, the Chaldeans is taken by the Chaldeans and Babylonians, they burn it to the ground, the take the people of Israel captive, they offer sacrifices to false God’s there… and then, when all hope seemed lost, all the fields destroyed and laid to waist… God’s people are called back, they return from the corners of the earth, and they bought back the land, bought back the fields, rebuilt the cities… multiplying the investment that Jeremiah made a hundred fold.
  • Jeremiah knew “This doesn’t make sense on paper, but God said, so I believe”
    • And the result was an overwhelming abundance of blessing for God’s people.
• But how many of us would not respond the way Jeremiah did? I reckon a bunch of us… because I see it all the time… honestly I might see it more often than I see people walking in faith… And it always sounds something like this:
  • God told me to buy this land… but I can see the Chaldeans building siege mounds on it… lets see how this shakes out first.
  • Yeah God told me I was going to have a child… but that’s not realistic, so I gave my husband a maidservant to sleep with…
  • Yeah God told me to preach to Nineveh, but I don’t really like them so I am just gonna hope on this boat and peace out…
• Or more contemporary:
  • Yeah God told me to I was going to be a missionary, but I have little kids, maybe when they grow up.
  • Yeah God called me into the ministry, but my kids are in college and I am paying for that, maybe when they graduate.
  • Yeah God called me to preach in another nation, but my kids moved back in with me once they graduated college, maybe when they move out.
  • Yeah God called me to move to foreign land to plant a church… but my kids got married and have grandbabies… maybe when the grandkids grow up.
  • Yeah God has always placed this call on my life, but I am just too old… maybe my grandkids will fulfil my calling.
• If that one doesn’t sound familiar, how about this one:
  • Yeah I know I shouldn’t be living with my boyfriend, but we can’t afford to live separate.
  • Yeah I know that God called me to tithe, but money is really tight right now.
  • Yeah I know that YHWY told me to give faithfully to missions… but then my car broke down and I have to pay for that.
• Here, let me get more personal
  • Yeah God told me to serve in children’s ministry, but I am just not equipped for that.
  • Yeah God called me to serve in greeting ministry, but I just don’t know that many people here.
  • Yeah God called me to disciple so-and-so but we just can never find the time to meet together.
  • Yeah I know I am supposed to get baptized but I don’t like getting wet.
  • Yeah I know that God called me to CLC, but I am not going to sign up for membership class because I don’t believe in church membership…
• Now if I haven’t stepped on your toes yet, let’s try these… getting real personal now
  • Yeah I know God told me to forgive… but I CAN’T FORGIVE what that person did to me.
  • Yeah I know that I said that God told us to get married… but I didn’t know it was going to be like THIS.
  • Yeah I know that God said I am more than a conqueror, but I know that I will NEVER be free from this addiction.
• CHURCH, these are ALL excuses I have heard multiple times, each one of them, 3,4,5 times… some of them DOZENS OF TIMES. They are excuses that many of you have told me… some of them are excuses I have told myself! Such were some of me.
  • If you feel like your excuse is unique and “why is pastor Christian talking about my specific excuse?” no no no, your excuse is not unique, I have heard it before and I will hear it again.
• WHAT IS MORE UNIQUE THAN YOUR EXCUSE IS BELIEVERS WHO WALK IN FAITH.
  • Even though I am 90 and my husband is 99, we are going to have this baby!
  • Even though the land is under siege, I am going to buy it and prosper.
  • Even though I am of the smallest clan, me and my 300 hundred are going to defeat the philistines.
  • Even though I am the smallest son in my family, I will defeat the largest giant.
  • Even though I don’t have enough oil for me and my son to survive another day, I am going to give it to the prophet to make a small loaf of bread and my God will provide for us.
  • Even though I can’t swim, I am going to step out of this boat and walk on water.
  • Even though we only have 5 small loaves of read and two small fish… we are going to feed these 5,000 people.
• Y’all with me this morning?
  • Even though I don’t have enough to pay my bills, I am going to tithe.
  • Even though I have unexpected expenses, I am going to give my missions faith pledge.
  • Even though I am afraid of children, I am going to serve them at the church.
  • Even though everyone else lives with and sleeps with their girlfriend before marriage, I am going to abstain.
  • Even though my marriage is rough right now, I am going to stick with it.
  • Even though I don’t like what pastor said, God called me here so I am staying here to prosper in His kingdom.
  • Even though I have not graduated from Highschool yet, I am going to go to Japan for 9 months on missions to preach the Gospel.
  • Here is one Amanda and I did… Even though I don’t know anyone in Iowa, we are going to uproot our lives and be planted in Cedar Rapids.
  • Even though we don’t know the first thing about church planting or Midwest culture, we are going to plant a thriving generational church!
  • Even though we don’t have the money for a down payment, we are going to put in an offer for this building and believe that our small little church can raise $90,000 in 90 days for the down payment… we did it in 40 by the way!
    • YOU SEE FAITHLESSNESS SAYS “YEAH BUT” but WALKING IN FAITH SAYS “EVEN THOUGH… GOD!”
    • Let me say that again in case you missed it!
      • FAITHLESSNESS SAYS “YEAH BUT” but WALKING IN FAITH SAYS “EVEN THOUGH… GOD!”
  • Faithlessness says “Yeah God called me to have a kid BUT I am 90 years old”
  • Walking in faith says “EVEN THOUGH I AM 90 YEARS OLD GOD CAN GIVE ME THIS CHILD”
    • IT IS A DIFFERENT KIND OF LAUGH, Y’ALL…
      • IT’S A DIFFERENT KIND OF LAUGH

• That’s the name of the sermon… it is a different kind of laugh…
  • God tells Abraham “You are going to have a baby” and Abraham laughs “What?! That’s crazy! You mean Ishmael right? NO… alright, cool I am with it! HAHA!”
  • God tells Sarah “You are going to have a baby and she say “Ha… fat chance… I am way to old.”
    • IT’S A DIFFERENT KIND OF LAUGH.
      • And some of y’all need to change your laugh.
  • You need to go from “Ha, fat chance I am going to tithe this month”
    • To (*Said laughingly*) “What… this is crazy… alright, Lord I trust you, let me test you in this… can’t wait to see how it turns out”
  • You need to go from “Ha… like I am really going to stop having sex before marriage”
    • To “Man… I don’t know how this is going to work, but I am moving out of my girlfriends apartment and abstain… I mean I don’t know anybody who does this and people are going to think I am crazy, but I trust God.
• You see all the miracles I have seen in my life, all the miracles I have seen in my ministry… I have seen because God said he was going to do something impossible… and than he did it.
  • It is not by my strength, or my power… with man these things I have seen would be impossible… but with God they are possible!
• Matthew 19:26 NKJV  But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
• So when God tells you He is going to do the impossible, man you should laugh… because it is crazy… but laugh like Abraham laughed… it is a different kind of laugh y’all!
• I want you to know, if God call’s you to missions, go! GOD KNOWS YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES…
• Pastor Ong had three small children when God called him and Pastor Connie to Ghana… his family told him “NO! DON’T DO IT! You will ruin your children… they need American schools, and American friends… it is not safe there, it is not sanitary there, it is not civilized”.
• But to that Pastor Ong just laughs… “God told me to go, He knows I have kids, so I will go”.
• His kids by the way grew up wildly successful.
• God lead me to ask Cainen to go to Japan…
• He is too young, he is sill in school, what will his parents say… my flesh thinks…
• But God knows these things…
• They pray, they agree, and the schooling figures itself out… just like it did for Rebecca last year.
• God told me to give more than my salary once for missions faith pledge… ha! Alright Lord, can’t wait to see how you sort this one out… BAM, that night, an envelope of cash is givin to me “God said to give this to you”… can’t help but laugh… it’s a different kind of laugh.
• Kenya was sharing this wih me last week… God told her to give her last $30 to the church, and said “test me in this”… “Ha… that’s all I got left but Imma test you alright”…
• The next day God said “check your bank account”, she said she laughed expecting just 33 cents to be in there… but GOD! There was 1,300 dollars in there!
• Laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, laugh at how ludicrously impossible it is… laugh because you don’t know HOW God is going to do it… Laugh because you know God WILL do it… but NEVER laugh because you think God won’t do it… never laugh because you think God can’t do it!
• It’s a different kind of laugh, make sure you have the right laugh. Now let’s conclude this thing… if someone want’s to come up and play…

Conclusion

I want to conclude with this verse that seems to contradict everything I just preached… but I think it might give you some encouragement this morning… it’s Hebrews 11:11

Hebrews 11:11 NKJV By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.

• Now the day after I wrote this sermon, I was reading the Bible during my morning Bible time and I read this verse…
  • “Now wait a minute!” I thought “This contradicts my whole sermon… did I miss it? Did I get it wrong? Do I need to rewrite my message?”
    • It seems like hebrews 11:11 says Sarah was full of faith regarding having her son Isaac…
    • But I read through the commentaries and everyone agrees, Sarah’s laugh was a mocking laugh of faithlessness… She did not believe God would or could give her a son…
    • So why this verse? Well Mathew Henry explains it so well, I think it might encourage some of you who have been laughing the wrong laugh:

Here in Hebrews 11 we have the story of the faith of Abraham, but in the midst of this the apostle inserts an account of the faith of Sarah.

Sarah had many great difficulties in her faith. Her unbelief was so prevalent that at one time she laughed at the promise, as too impossible to be made true. She had gone out of the way of her duties, through unbelief, by putting Abraham in Hagar’s bed to give him children. Now this sin of hers would make it more difficult for her to act by faith afterwards. This plus the great improbability of the thing promised, that she should be the mother of a child even though she was sterile and past the age of childbearing, put her in a position to laugh out of unbelief.

Yet still her faith acts. Her unbelief is pardoned and forgotten, but her faith prevailed and is recorded: She judged him faithful, who had promised. She received the promise as the promise of God; and, getting past her initial unbelief, she finally judged he both could and would perform it, how impossible soever it might seem to reason; for the faithfulness of God will not suffer him to deceive his people.
-Matthew Henrey’s Commentary on Hebrews 11:11, modernized.

• You see Sarah moved past her unbelief… her faith returned, she moved past her shameful laugh that she tried to hide… she moved past it, back into faith… and she was rewarded. It is her faith that is remembered in Hebrews 11, not her laugh…
• If you have been walking in faithlessness… in you life, in your marriage, in your calling, in the day to day and week to week… or in the year to year and generation to generation… if God has called you into the impossible, promised the impossible, ask of you the impossible… and you have laughed the wrong kind of laugh… you can change your story today… chose to trust in him, to step out of the boat, to face the giant, to feed the crowds with your two little fish and  small loaves… chose to obey and believe, and God will see your faith and reward it.

Hebrews 11:6 NKJV But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

• Gospel Call

Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God. Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids. 2808 Schaeffer DR SW, Cedar Rapids, IA   52404. www.CedarRapidsChurch.com