Real Life

If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, go and make your

way to Genesis chapter 21, Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention Genesis 21 · chapter mention

And as you make your way there, can we just thank Al and family

for leading us in worship today. Praise God and so many talents

in our church and just praise God when people are willing to

put those into use for the sake of the good of the body.

And I pray that's you. I pray that you know perhaps how

God has gifted you or what your passions and interests are and

that somehow our church is growing and maturing and being

benefited because of your service in the life of our

church. Somehow, someway.

So grateful for Al and his family as John and them are away

this week. As you make your way to Genesis

21, I think you're going to agree with this statement.

And that's simply this, that life is oftentimes a lot more

real than we want it to be. You say, God, what in the world

do you mean it's just never quite as simple as we think it

should be. Why is it always that life seems

to be a little more complex than we think it should be?

Why is it never quite like the movie say?

And they lived happily ever afterlife is a lot more real

than we want it to be. The deal is in Genesis 21.

Life is going to get real in this chapter.

And as it gets real, we're going to learn some very real and

valuable lessons about God along the way as we walk through this

chapter of Genesis 21. So follow along either in your

copy or on the screen and listen as we begin in verse one.

The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah

as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore

Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken

to him. Abraham called the name of his

son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him Isaac.

And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old

as God had commanded him. Abraham was get this, 100 years

old when his son Isaac was born to him.

And Sarah said God has made laughter for me.

Everyone who hears will laugh over me.

And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would

nurse children? And yet I have borne him a son

in his old age. If you look very closely at

verse one, you see a really clear example of when you choose

to just read your Bible closely and look at what it says.

It can be really hard to miss the main thing that God is

saying and wants to say to you through His Word because it's so

obvious, right? You look there at verse one, who

is the one doing the action in verse one?

It's the person that is doing the subject work of the

sentence, a grammatical part of the sentence you learned in the

3rd through 5th grade, right? It's the Lord.

The Lord is the one that's the subject.

He's the one that's acting here. He's the main idea and what is

he doing? What action is he taking?

Notice it says here the Lord visited Sarah.

What does that mean? Here we see the difference

between the Omni, that means always, everywhere presence of

God. God is always everywhere

present, but here we see the difference between the

omnipresence of God and what we might call the manifest presence

of God, like the clearly made tangible in a special way

presence of God. God visited.

It's not that God wasn't with her before, but God poured out

his presence to her, his power to her in order to be gracious

to her in a supernatural way. The way it puts it, next is God

visited and that he did to Sarah, meaning God allowed this

woman at 89 years of age to supernaturally believe God did

what was only possible by the power of Almighty God.

And it's not just that it happened y'all.

It happened twice according to this repeated phrase, as he had

said and then as he had promised.

God is not acting on a whim. God did not wake up this day

feeling extra generous. God is doing exactly what he

said he would do and when He said He would do it.

Verse 2 says at the time which God had spoken, they named the

boy Isaac. That name actually literally

means laughter. And Sarah explains in verse 6

she's makes these statements. God has made laughter for me.

Everyone who hears will laugh over me.

That doesn't mean mock or make fun of.

That means celebrate with. That means smile.

That means laugh if you will. Look at what supernaturally is,

and this is the very name Isaac. This is what it means, she says

here, along these lines. Who would have said to Abraham

in his old age that Sarah would nurse children?

That's correct. English for who to thunk it?

Who would have ever imagined that this would be in the realm

of possibility? Absolutely no one would have

ever thought this. Here's the first thing we

learned out of this text. You can write this down in your

notes. In the midst of our doubts, God

keeps His word. Ladies and gentlemen, in the

midst of our doubts, God keeps His word.

Friends, mark it down. God cannot not keep His word.

What God says, God does. The promises God makes, God

keeps. In fact, the way you should

think about it is like this. God's word is the surest thing

in all the universe. Proverbs 30 verse 5 says every

Proverbs 30:5

word of God proves true. Isaiah 40 verse 8 says the grass

Isaiah 40:8

Withers and the flower fades, but what stands forever?

The word of our God stands forever.

Friends, if we did not have the sure and the reliable,

absolutely and always true promises of God, let me just ask

you to consider this question. What would we really have?

If we didn't have the sure and rock solid foundational promises

of God, what would we really have?

I will never leave you nor forsake you.

You know that one If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is

Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the

dead, you will be. Can you imagine if we didn't

have that one? My God will supply all your

needs according to his riches in glory.

Can you imagine if we didn't have that one?

If you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you

of your sin and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness.

Can you imagine if we didn't have that one?

To be absent from the body is to be present with the Can you

imagine if we didn't have that one?

Ladies and gentlemen, the Christian life is nothing other

than reacting to the promises of God as if they were true.

That's it, and they are. The Christian life is none other

than living like what God has said is true.

You say, how do I live like that?

How do I react like that? When #1 You got a daily remember

the promises of God. How in the world do you remember

them unless you first read them and then know them?

See, a lot of times we live each day as if we don't need the

promises of God. When we don't what, when we

don't even read them, when we don't even re familiarize

ourself with them, we live like we don't need the promises.

We're not living by reacting to what God has said is actually

true. So we got to remember the

promises of God by getting in God's word every day.

And then we need to rehearse them.

You know what that means? That means we preach them to

ourselves. You ever need to be preached to

besides Sunday morning. I know I do.

You know, I preached to myself when I'm not preaching to you,

and I'm preaching to myself when I'm preaching to you.

Amen. Kyle Walker needs to be preached

to not because I don't know some things, there's a lot of things

I don't know, but because I often don't believe and put into

practice the things I do know. So you need to remember them,

and you need to rehearse them, and then #3 you need to rely on

them. When the rubber meets the road,

and you want to be anxious, and you want to be angry, and you

want to lose self-control, and you want to be prideful, and you

want to not obey, guess what you need to do?

Choose for yourself this day whom you're going to serve.

Am I going to obey the Lord? Am I going to believe His

promises? Or am I going to live like

they're not true? But mark it down.

Right in the midst of our doubts, God keeps His word.

Let's keep going. Verse 8.

And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great

feast on the day that Isaac was weaned.

But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had born

to Abraham. Laughing, she said to Abraham,

cast out the slave woman with her son.

For the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son

Isaac. And the thing was very

displeasing to Abraham on account of his son.

But God said to Abraham, Be not displeased because of the boy

and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do

as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be

named, and I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman

also, because he is your offspring.

So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a

skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her

shoulder along with the child, and sent her away.

And she departed and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.

Isaac would have been approximately 3 years of age

give or take when he was weaned. And Abraham throws those a

massive all out family celebration for his son.

This is not unlike, you know, those birthday parties we throw

for our children, They turn one year of age, right?

This is their first birthday party.

They don't have a clue what's going on.

They're not even happy half the time.

They definitely don't even know what to do with the cake.

And yet we put it in front of them all nice and neat and

expect them to do what? Eat it and go crazy with it?

Make a big mess? You know, that's like the one

time in your life you get to make a mess with your cake and

go first after that you get to lick the candles.

That's about it. And everybody gets to have a

piece, right? But when your age, massive

family, you know, the family gets together and it's just as

much about the family as it is the child.

And so this is what you got going.

You got a big family party going on now almost all the time.

Parties are fun. But families remember life

sometimes is real. Families and even parties and

families are rarely what rarely perfect, rarely as simple as

they should be, never quite like in the movies, sometimes as they

as they should go, right. And so this party gets real.

Where does it start getting real?

It starts getting real when the 16 year old older half brother

Ishmael starts laughing, starts mocking, has done something now

to give his younger about 3 year old half brother Isaac a hard

time. We don't know exactly what

happened, but it's obvious Ishmael has done something.

And you know, mom's keeping an eye on their kids.

She sees, Sarah sees is exactly what's going on that has led to

this. Laughing at her son Paul in the

New Testament actually gives us a little insight into what may

be happening here, at least from a spiritual perspective.

He says in Galatians 429, he says, but just as at that time

he, that's Ishmael, who was born according to the flesh, that is

according to the thoughts and the plans that Abraham and Sarah

engineered on their own, persecuted him, who was born

according to the Spirit that is born according to the promise of

God. That's Isaac.

And so also it is now Paul says, let's put it this way.

There were two people at this party who didn't want to be

there and were unhappy before it ever started.

Their names were Hagar and Ishmael.

You say Kyle, I'm no, I don't follow.

Now, let me try to understand. Let help us understand with the

words of another. Listen to this.

The prospects and expectations of Ishmael are suddenly

shattered. He had grown almost to adulthood

with the confident expectation, as the eldest son of his father,

that he was to inherit great wealth, power, and possessions.

Now the true heir appears and Ishmael is moved to mad hatred.

Proud and impetuous, he does not conceal his anger on the

occasion of a great feast. Given an honor of his half

brother Isaac, he's guilty of insolence, mockery and insult.

Sarah had probably anticipated. In fact, I bet Sarah went to bed

the night before the party anticipating if Hagar does does

this, if Ishmael does this, I'm going to do.

Don't you know she's she knows what they're thinking.

She knows perhaps where things are going to go wrong.

She's probably pre rehearsed what she's going to say when it

does. And sure enough, she's so swift

and to the fact when it goes down the way she thinks it might

go down. In verse 10, Abraham cast this

woman out and her son. He's not going to be an heir

with my son Abraham. Get these two out of here and

get them out. Now just imagine how this scene

went down at this party. Sarah witnesses what's

happening, and I mean goes Mama Bear Ballistic right?

Ready to burn the place down. Music stops, dancing stops.

Sarah grabs Isaac, coddles him, goes One Direction, and Hagar

grabs Ishmael and goes the other direction, and Abraham's left

standing in the middle, and all eyes are on on Abraham.

Party's over. You ever been to a party like

this? Life's a little more

complicated, not quite as ideal. Things sometimes don't go as

perfectly as planned. You got a little drama in your

family too, right? Abraham is tore up.

That's Southern English for his hearts.

Like hurting, torn between his oldest for 16 years is almost 16

years his only child, and then the son of the promise that God

said he would give him that actually eventually even came

despite the fact he doubted he would ever have him right.

Does not this sound like real life?

Abraham goes to bed that night, probably had to sleep on the

couch. God speaks to him that night

while he couldn't sleep and says, Abraham, don't be upset.

What Sarah has asked you to do, do Why?

Because your offspring, God says, shall be named through

Isaac. And because I am going to take

care of Ishmael as I have promised as well.

As soon as God speaks, Abraham does what he's done pretty well

up until this point. He obeys right away all the way.

You don't have those two phrases in your mind.

I like to repeat right away all the way because that is biblical

obedience. That is what we ought to teach

our children, and that is what Abraham does in response to what

God says right here. And the next morning, that

obedience looks like rising and sending Hagar and Ishmael on

their way. The second thing I want you to

see is this. In the midst of our mistakes,

friends, God can make a way. In the midst of our mistakes,

and I'm talking about even our big ones, I'm talking about the

biggest things in our lives we may regret.

In the midst of our mistakes, God can make a way.

You see, what you have to remember here is the fact that

even though God had promised Abraham and Sarah a son, they

both got impatient. After 10 years and no son, they

started doubting the Word of God and doubting the word of God.

They both engineered a plan to get ahead of God and to get what

God had promised by going around God.

Does that sound like a wise idea?

But that's what they do in their own human wisdom.

Big mistake. And yet the whole time, Here's

what I don't want you to miss. This is unbelievable.

The whole time that they do that, that they don't believe in

God and His promises and go act and get ahead of God on there.

God is still merciful. God is still gracious, God is

still compassionate. God is still going to make a way

in the mess of the disobedience of these two people.

It's unbelievable, right? You say, pastor, how did he do

that? Well, don't you remember when he

made a way for Hagar, when Sarah ran her off the first time and

God says don't be afraid and go back.

God made a way for her. And by the way, when she did

that, Ishmael got to be raised. God made a way for Ishmael, who?

That was not God's plan for the promise.

But God is gracious and merciful and kind.

God makes a way for him in the household of Abraham to be

raised as a son almost to adulthood.

Here in the midst of mistakes, God's making a way.

But in reality, there came a day, there came a day, y'all,

when what God had promised to Abraham came to fruition.

And on that day Abraham would have a choice.

And this choice was this Abraham, as if God was saying to

him, Abraham, are we going to do this my way?

Are we going to do this your way?

And if we're going to do this my way, then Ishmael has to go.

No, Sarah's motives were not 100% pure.

She was madder than a wet hen. She's ready to burn the place

down. But if you heard the expression,

God can hit a straight lick with a crooked stick.

If not, you ought to know that you have to write that one down,

right? I wish I could own the invention

of that, but I didn't. But listen, there's no perfect

preacher. There's only one perfect 1, and

that's Jesus. But if anything comes out

straight in our lives for the Kingdom of God, it's not because

of us. It's because God can hit

straight licks with crooked sticks.

God uses in our words imperfect people, right?

God's not waiting for you to be perfect to use you.

God's waiting for you to be all in like that 16 year old that we

just baptized. God's just waiting for you to be

all in. Say God use me, send me.

And so here's the deal. No Sarah's motives who are not

100% perfect, but God is going to use this to say, I'm going to

make a way, the way that Joseph is going to put this later or

God's going to put this actually, Joseph is going to say

it to his brothers. He's going to say what you meant

for God, meant for God is that good God is so good he can use

imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plan.

So Abraham hears from God, Hey, no, Sarah may not be in the

right here and yet I'm going to use what she's doing, what she's

asking for to bring about what's right.

And I'm going to I'm going to borrow some words here because I

think this is helpful to be clear of what is going on here.

It's been described like this. This is a delayed judgment of

God. You say, Kyle, what is that?

Well, Ishmael is 16 years old. Abraham had known from the

beginning that Ishmael had not been God's choice.

He had come from Abraham's deliberate disobedience.

Since God had not chosen this boy, he would not be Abraham's

heir. Yet God permitted him to stay,

saying nothing to Abraham about it until Isaac came along.

Follow me here. This is where it gets practical.

When we come to a choice like this in the spirit of God who

indwells us as believers, speaks to us about a matter, about an

Ishmael in our lives, that must go.

Something needs to be to be done, something we need to quit,

something we need to walk away from.

We often tend to think God is being mean, God is being harsh,

God is being unjust, God is being cruel, God is being

uncaring, hateful, demanding, When in reality, God all along

has been what merciful, kind, patient and gracious to us,

despite the fact we got around his will, got ahead of him,

engineered our own circumstances.

And yet God often makes the way. But there comes a point when God

will come to us and say, if you want to move forward my way, the

things that you brought about in your life by your flesh and your

plan, that's not my plan. Those things got a they got to

go. Sometimes when we say God, why

hadn't you said something about this 16 years ago?

Because I was making a way forward, even through

circumstances that were not my perfect will.

But I'm merciful, kind and compassionate.

God makes a way. But at some point, what's not of

God, What's not God's plan for our lives, what's not of the

Holy Spirit? The way I've heard it put is

this. Often times when God is ready to

ripen a fruit of the Spirit in our lives, whatever other fruit

that's in the way of that fruit coming to be ripe and ready in

our lives, God may say time for it to go.

You know when you first come to Christ, if you never accepted

Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, Jesus invites you to

come just as you are. He doesn't invite you to put

your Sunday clothes on. He doesn't invite you to go

clean up your life. He invites you to come just as

you are because that's the way He loves you just the way you

are. He accepts you just the way you

are and, and, and praise God. Aren't you glad God doesn't say?

OK, day one boot camp, we're going to be perfect in 24 hours.

Can you imagine how bacon that cake would go?

That's not what God does. But one step at a time by the

leadership of the Holy Spirit, we start to leave sin behind

like a trail of a man or woman running after Jesus, throwing

off sin that entangles. And you know what you'll throw

off sin after running with Jesus for 30 years that Jesus never

said anything to you about in 10 years.

But as you walk with him more closely, you get to say, my

goodness, I didn't realize, I never realized this didn't honor

the Lord in my life. Why has he never said something

to you? Because you weren't ready to let

it go 20 years ago, but time is right to let it go now.

God is going to complete what he started in you.

This is what he promises. He was faithful, going to see it

to completion. Your sanctification, all these

things are in play here. I don't know what form Ishmael

may be taking in your life right now, but if it's not God's way

and God's speaking to you about it, the deal is it's got to go.

If God's will is going to be accomplished in the midst of our

mistakes, God can make a way, but Ishmael must go.

Let's pick up in verse 15. When the water in the skin was

gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.

And then she went and sat down opposite him, a good way off

about the distance of a bow shot.

For she said, let me not look on the death of the child.

And as she said opposite him, she lifted up her voice and

wept. And God heard the voice of the

boy. And the Angel of God called to

Hagar from heaven and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar?

Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is up.

Lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will

make him into a great nation. And then God opened her eyes,

and she saw a well of water, and she went and filled the skin

with water, and gave the boy a drink.

And God was with the boy, and he grew up.

He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.

He lived in the wilderness of Puran, and his mother took a

wife for him from the land of Egypt.

The average human being can live just three days without water.

What happens is, is our internal organs begin to rapidly fail

without hydration. Hagar is in a difficult spot for

sure. They know she knows they're in

serious trouble. So much trouble that she

actually doesn't want to witness what she believes is about to

happen. She actually doesn't even want

to hear what she believes is actually about to happen.

So she instructs her son to go get under a Bush in the shade

and stay there. And she goes about 100 yards,

about a bow shot away so she doesn't have to see, hear or

witness what she anticipates is about to happen.

She doesn't want to see her boy die when she got away from him

that distance. She obviously cries out to God

and weeps, the Bible says, as you would expect her to do.

But she wasn't the only one crying out to God.

Or verse 17 says something you actually would not expect the

Bible to say right here because we don't even know this is what

the boy is doing. But verse 17 says after it says

Hagar cried out to God, verse 17 says God heard the voice of who?

The boy. Now that's not what you'd have

expected it to say. You've been expected it to say

God heard Hagar's voice, but that's not what it says.

Can I just go and tell you whenever you read something, the

Bible that catches you off guard?

Like that's surprising. That's not the way I would have

expected it to read. That's like Rd. sign.

Hey, zoom in right here. God's teaching something right

here. Don't miss this right here.

I'm catching you by surprise because I don't want you to miss

this. You say, Kyle, what is God

saying? It's as if God is saying this.

Hagar. You distanced yourself so you

couldn't hear. You couldn't see the boy and

what's about to happen? But Hagar, even though you're

only 100 yards away and can't hear him, I can hear him.

Even though you can't hear him, Hagar, I can hear you, because

I'm the God who's always everywhere, who's always

faithful, who's always true. Hagar, I've heard your son even

when you're trying not to hear him.

And then the Angel of the Lord asks Hagar this question.

What troubles you, Hagar? Now you know what they say,

right? There's no such thing as a bad

question. Can I be totally honest with you

right here? This strikes me as a bad right

by God. Talk to me about this from your

perspective, because this looks pretty bad for mine.

God, you see what spot I'm in? God, do you see the rock and the

hard spot that I'm between God? Do these circumstances look good

to you? Right?

This strikes me as a bad question.

But to be honest, we know God doesn't ask bad questions, does

he? In fact, God can't ask bad

questions because God can't ask a question he doesn't already

know the the answer to. So God doesn't ask questions for

himself. Ladies and gentlemen, God ask

questions for you know who. God ask questions for us,

questions that we've forgotten the answer to.

So this question is for Hagar. Let me translate the question to

Hagar. He asked Hagar, what troubles

you? Translation.

Have you forgotten Hagar? The spot you were in 16 years

earlier when guess who saw you, provided for you, rescued you,

made a way for you, and that you called out to as the God who

sees Elroy Hagar, have you forgotten who I am?

Have you forgotten my name, Hagar?

Have you forgotten that I'm faithful, Hagar?

Have you forgotten my promises, Hagar?

What could possibly trouble you if my promises are true?

Hagar Did you think I lied to you?

Because that's how you're acting.

God doesn't ask questions for himself.

God ask questions for us. And notice, here's the deal.

If you read closely, God doesn't tell Hagar anything she doesn't

already know. God tells Hagar what she needed

to be reminded of when she started believing that her

circumstances had negated the faithfulness of God.

She started believing her circumstances more than she

believed the word and promises of God, and she needed to be

reminded of what she'd already known and heard was true.

And then verse 19. Then God opens Hagar's eyes and

she sees a well of water. Now I happen to believe, though

I may be wrong, that the well of water was there the whole time.

She just hadn't seen it yet, that the provision was there,

she just hadn't realized it yet. The same physically was true.

Spiritually, God was there. The what?

One was there the whole time. The provision was there the

whole time. She just hadn't seen it yet.

In the midst of our distress #3 third thing we learned in the

midst of our distress, God is with us.

God is with us. Just because, ladies and

gentlemen, God feels far away doesn't mean that he is.

And just because our the circumstances may make God's

promises seem untrue does not mean that they are.

What does David say? Yeah, though I walk through the

valley of the shadow of it doesn't get any worse than that

yet I will What? I'm going to fear no evil.

Why is that, God? Because your promises are true,

though my circumstances may try to convince me they're not.

Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

God's promises are true. So I will fear no evil.

And your rod and your staff, God, your provision and your

power and your protection. Well, what?

They're going to comfort me when my circumstances preach to me

Lies. God, I'm going to choose to

believe your truth. This is the way we live life.

This is the Christian. It is reacting to the promises

of God as if they are true, remembering them, rehearsing

them, and relying on them every single day no matter the

situation, just as he promised he would be.

Verse 20, God was with the boy and Ishmael grows up to become a

man, finds a home, a vocation, and a wife in the midst of our

distress. Friends, God is with us now.

Let's read the final portion of our chapter as we finish this

morning, verse 22. At that time, Abimelech and

Feikal, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, God is

with you in all that you do. Now.

Therefore swear to me here by God, that you will not deal

falsely with me, or with my descendants or with my

posterity. But as I have dealt kindly with

you, so you will deal with me and with the land where you have

sojourned. And Abraham said, I will swear.

When Abraham reproved Abimelech about a well of water that

Abimelech servants had seized, Abimelech said, I do not know

who has done this thing. You did not tell me, and I've

not heard of it until today. So Abraham took sheep and oxen

and all and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made

a covenant. Abraham set 7 U lambs of the

flock apart. And Abimelech said to Abraham,

What is the meaning of these seven U lambs that you have set

apart? He said, These seven U lambs,

you will take from my hand that this may be a witness for me,

that I dug this well. Therefore that place was called

Beersheba, because they're both of them swore an oath.

So they made a covenant at Beersheba.

Then Abimelech and Faikal, the commander of the army, rose up

and returned to the land of the Philistines.

And Abraham planted A tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called

there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.

And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Bible says there's a couple

people doing intelligence operations in the vicinity.

The man that hits their radar is Abraham.

And the reason why isn't such an amazing statement made about a

man or a woman that you could ever make.

Do you notice what they say here?

Hey Abraham, verse 22, God is with you in what everything you

do and may. What if that was true of you and

me? What if somebody watching your

life and mine couldn't help but say the one thing they would say

is God is with that person in everything they do?

Abraham We've been watching you, man.

And supernaturally you've got prosperity, like supernaturally

you've got protection. Supernaturally you seem to have

power. Supernaturally you seem to have

peace. Abraham Everywhere you go and

everything you touch and all that you do seems to be anointed

of God. But what?

What is the deal? Abraham Hey, we want to make a

treaty, dude. We want to be friends with you

and we want you to be friends with us.

Charles Spurgeon said this. I love this quote.

He says I think the greatest blessing God ever gives to a man

or a woman is his own presence. He says if I had my choice of

all the blessings in life, I would certainly not ask for

wealth, for it can bring no ease.

And I should not ask for popularity, for there is no rest

to the man or woman upon whose words people constantly wait.

And it's a hard task for one one has to perform in such a case as

that. But I should choose as my

highest honor to have God always with me.

Can I just ask you, what are you chasing and pursuing as your

highest honor to answer that question, what is your highest

priority? Is it your God?

Is it the King of kings and Lord of Lords?

Is it truly seeking him and knowing him and walking with him

and asking for his will, saying yes to the call of God, of his

call on your life? Is that your greatest pursuit or

is something else your highest pursuit and therefore the

highest honor you desire, The greatest of blessings come from

the presence of God. They bring up Abraham rather

brings up one of the problems he's had with him.

He's like, hey man, you any of your guys have been stealing my

water. So they take care of business.

Make an oath and get all that straightened out and Abimelech

and his commander go home. And then Abraham does something

interesting. It says here he plants a Tamaris

tree and that's a very slow growing tree.

And like what in the world is that?

What that is? Is Abraham marking a moment of

God's faithfulness in life in a physical way for future

generations to remember what God had done and who God is?

And by the way, who does he say God is in the very next

sentence? The what?

The everlasting God. It's as if Abraham here is

realizing the character and the the faithfulness of God over 25

years now, of following the call of God on his life and seeing

God be faithful to him in big things and in small things.

Of seeing life get real. Like real even.

Like water being stolen. Like neighbor dispute and family

blow UPS at a birthday party and a nephew that his staff members

couldn't get along with his staff members.

And yet when life got real for Abraham, life getting real

didn't drive Abraham further away from God.

You know what it did? It drew Abraham closer to God.

So much so that every neighbor looked at him and said, dude,

you know what's true about you? God's with you.

Was life always easy? Was life perfect for Abraham?

Did they're not? Did life not get real for him?

Some days it absolutely did. But that allowed Abraham to

display to a watching world around him.

There was 1 secret to his life and one only, and it was the

presence of God, the one who was everlasting and unchanging the

same yesterday, today and forever.

Who's always faithful. Y'all?

If we had to put all of this together, final and fourth thing

is this in your notes, In the midst of all our troubles, the

way we could put it is God provides peace.

In the midst of all of our troubles, God provides peace.

Abraham continues to live in peace and prosper in the Lamb.

You know about that. One of my favorite verses in

Proverbs is Proverbs 16 verse seven that says when a person's

ways please the Lord, watch this.

He makes even his enemies live at peace with him.

That's a crazy verse when a person's ways please, God can

work out even the relationships and even the people, maybe even

family, maybe friends, maybe coworkers, it doesn't matter.

God can make a way of peace for you in His path if you say yes

to His call and trust Him. Even in the midst of trouble.

God provides peace. Let's put all this in one

sentence so you're ready and your notes.

If you want this, here it is. Sometimes life gets real.

Sometimes it gets really real. But here's the deal.

God always is. God always is real.

God always is there. God always is true.

God always is faithful. God always is everlasting.

God is always strong. God is always watching.

God can always hear. He is the everlasting God.

Y'all as owl and family and Kathy and others come for our

invitation, let me let me put some questions to you.

I want you to consider as we think about how we might respond

to God. Who's the everlasting God this

morning? Are you ready?

In the midst of our doubts, God keeps His word.

Let me ask you a question. Is there a promise of God that

you are doubting or choosing not to believe this morning?

Let me ask it like this, are you someone that has never placed

your faith in Jesus Christ? Maybe you watch those baptisms

and you're like, man, I really want what they found.

The one they found is Jesus. What they found is forgiveness

of their sin by confessing with their mouth Jesus is Lord and

believing in their heart that God raised him from the dead.

They realize they have sinned against the holy God, that they

deserve separation from God. But Jesus so loved them.

God the Father so loved them that Jesus came and lived a

sinless life in our shoes that he died as a sinless sacrifice

in our place and defeated the power of death rose from the

grave to offer us forgiveness and eternal life.

How do you get that Pastor Kyle? You call on the name of the Lord

to be said. You can in your heart, from your

gut right now, say, Jesus, would you forgive me and save me and

be the Lord of my life? Maybe you need to believe that

promise that if you call on Jesus, he'll save you today.

If you've done that, maybe there's another promise that

you're failing to believe. I'll never leave you nor forsake

you. Maybe to be absent from the body

is to be present with the Lord or all the ones in between.

Let me ask it like this. In the midst of our mistakes,

God can make a way. Do you have an Ishmael that

needs to go? Is God's way in your life being

blocked at all because you won't let go of your way?

In the midst of our distress, God is with us.

Can I ask you, what if God asked you insert your name for Hagar's

name? What troubles you?

Is anything troubling you that should not be troubling you if

God's promises were true? Finally, in the midst of our

troubles, God provides peace. Are you allowing, when life gets

real, to drive you away from Jesus and his peace, or to drive

you to Jesus and his peace? Because it's one or the other,

we have a choice. Are we going to rely on the

promises of God because we've remembered them, rehearsed them?

We're ready to rely on them. The Christian life is reacting

to the truth of the promises of God.

I don't know how you need to react to the everlasting God

this morning, but he is waiting for you to react in faith.

And as I pray, we're going to stand and then I'm going to ask

you to come. If you need to pray with me,

talk with me, kneel at this altar, talk with one of our

encouragers, make a decision to follow Christ.

You name it, you can come. I'm going to pray and then you

come. Heavenly Father, have your way

in us. We pray.

God help us respond to you, the one and only one who is always

and forever and perfectly true. God help us to follow you no

matter what, to believe you no matter what, and be with us as

you promised no matter what for the world to see.

In Jesus name, Amen. Would you stand and would you

come? As we sing, and as the Lord lead

you this morning, you come.