Laughing At God
Pastor Matt Bell
Sermon Summary
In this sermon on Genesis 18:1–15, Pastor Matt explores the narrative of Abraham and Sarah to highlight the tension between human frailty and divine faithfulness. Acknowledging the Bible's brutal honesty regarding the patriarchs' faults—such as impatience and wavering belief—the message is structured around four main points: Abraham's hospitality which positioned him for a blessing, the necessity of God restating His promise to build Sarah's faith, Sarah's laughter of disbelief at her barrenness, and God's gentle rebuke reminding them that nothing is too hard for the Lord. Ultimately, Pastor Matt encourages believers to persevere through the disorienting trials of life by regularly gathering to hear God's Word, trusting in His appointed timing, and holding fast to the God who brings dead things back to life.
Sermon Transcript
Introduction
So Genesis chapter 18, we're jumping in here today. We are in a series this year called The Year of the Bible. We are, as a church, reading through the Bible together. We have a plan that we produced for us to be reading every day, every week, every month. If you have one of those plans, I encourage you to be reading with us this week. Even if you possibly, potentially missed a few days last week or fell behind, you can jump right back in with your church family this week. Don't feel like you have to go back and start over, whatever day we're on, just read that day. Just jump in. Just read the Bible. The Bible is so awesome, and it will speak to you every single day, wherever it is that you pick it up and begin to read it.
What we're doing is each week, I'm taking a passage from the previous week's reading and preaching through that passage for us this year. This morning, we find ourselves in Genesis 18. We're looking at verses 1 through 15 today. I invite you to stand with me as we read the Word of God together.
It says that the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, "O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourself underneath 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 into the tent to Sarah and said, "Quick, three seahs, that six gallons 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 the young men who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk, and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
They said to him, "Where is Sarah, your wife?"
And he said, "She is in the tent."
The Lord said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife, shall have a son."
And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I am worn out, and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?"
The Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old?' Is anything too hard for the Lord? 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.
However, he said, "No, but you did laugh."
Father, we do thank you for your word. It is that precious lamp to our feet and light to our path. Lord, as we spend a few moments here, pulling away from the busyness of our life, the busyness of our day, pulling away from all of the things that we have going on that can so often seek to come in and to crowd out our thoughts of you. Lord, we're pulling away from all of that in this moment to come, to meet with you, to worship you, to be in your presence, to be with your people, to hear your word, speak to us today. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. You may be seated.
The Honest Reality of Scripture
The title for this morning's sermon is Laughing at God. You know, one of the things that I love about the Bible is how real it is. I don't think there's a more honest book in the whole world. The Bible is brutally honest. It's honest about the characters that are in the Bible. These aren't fictitious people invented by the thoughts of men. My family has recently been watching The Lord of the Rings. Those are fictitious characters. Frodo, Gandalf, those aren't real people. I know they're portrayed in such a way that sometimes it can seem like it's real, but it's not. That's fictitious.
When we come to the Bible, when we come to Genesis, when we begin to read about Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham and Sarah, these are real people. The Bible is very accurate in its depiction of these people, with both their strengths and their faults. Here in this passage, we see a picture of the life of Abraham and Sarah, these patriarchs of our faith. Now, no doubt Abraham and Sarah were both people of great faith. As we read this morning in our time of giving about God calling Abraham to leave his family, to leave his country, to leave those whom he loved behind, to walk with God not knowing where he was going but trusting in God as his sole source and supply. Abraham was a man of great faith, and Genesis presents those moments of great faith to us. They show us that he was a man of worship, that he built altars to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord everywhere that he went. And that he had a continual, unwavering faith in the promises of God.
But the Bible's also very careful to not only show us the strengths of the people in the Word of God, but to also show us their faults and their weaknesses. They were not perfect people by any means. The Bible makes no attempts to hide their faults or to cover them from our eyes. We read about how, when there was a famine in the land, Abraham chose to go into Egypt—not to trust that God would supply his needs, but rather to look to Egypt, where they had resources. When he got there, he was afraid that they would kill him because his wife was beautiful. He thought, "My wife is so beautiful. When we go down to Egypt, they're going to see her. If they think she's my wife, they'll kill me so that they can have her for themselves." So instead of trusting that God would take care of him, he decided, "Let's just lie to them. Let's say that you are my sister."
While they were down in Egypt, they took for themselves a servant from Egypt, a woman named Hagar. When they leave Egypt, Hagar goes with them. When they decide it's taking God too long in fulfilling his promise to give them a child, Sarah comes up with the idea: "Why don't you father a child by this servant, Hagar?" So they take matters into their own hands, father a child with Hagar, and then after Hagar conceives and bears a son, Sarah treats Hagar very harshly. She becomes jealous of her. I think maybe she thought Abraham was the problem. She thought, "I'll get Abraham off my back. I'll show that he's the problem, it's not me." Then Hagar conceives, showing that Sarah was the one who could not bear children. She becomes very harsh and treats Hagar in a very not Christlike way at all. Let's just put it that way.
Their story presents both their faults and their victories. Both their moments of weakness and their moments of strength. In that, their story describes for all of us what it's like to walk with the Lord by faith. For all of us, walking with the Lord will have its ups and its downs. You will have days of great victory where we see the Lord work in our lives in a mighty and profound way, where we take a petition to the Lord, a need before the Lord, and we pray, and God answers our prayers. How many of you have experienced those days? Aren't you thankful for those days? Amen.
Then there are those other days where we take something to the Lord, we pray, we seek his face, and it seems as though he does not answer our prayer. Or he doesn't answer our prayer in the way that we would like for him to. Walking with the Lord has its ups and downs. It has its moments of victory and doubt, but it also has its moments of discouragement and impatience. But through it all, we see a God who is kind, merciful, gracious, and patient with those that he loves. Here we see him with Sarah being so tender and so patient. God, like a good father, pursuing, correcting, disciplining, forgiving, and blessing. We see examples of this throughout our text this morning. I have four headings, four points for us to draw our attention to this morning as we walk through the text together.
Abraham's Hospitality
The first is in the first eight verses, and that's Abraham's hospitality. The story begins as these three weary travelers are approaching Abraham's tent, his homestead where he was staying. It tells us in verse 1 that it was the Lord himself who appeared to Abraham. In verse 13, it says it was the Lord who spoke to Abraham. This is what we call in the Bible a theophany, an appearance of God, where the Lord himself would appear and reveal himself to someone.
There are several different examples of that throughout the Old Testament. Another one is in the burning bush when God appears to Moses. Another one is when God meets with Moses on Mount Sinai. Oftentimes these theophanies are called the Angel of the Lord. Another one is when he goes and he meets with a man named Gideon. Of course, we know that Jesus Christ himself is the perfect and final revelation of God in the flesh.
Now, what we do not know from the text is whether or not Abraham at first recognized this as the Lord. We don't know if Abraham saw these three travelers coming and immediately thought, "This is the Lord come to meet with me," or if he was simply showing hospitality to three weary travelers. We don't know. But what we do know is that in Hebrews, it tells us to not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. When we show hospitality to others, and even strangers that we don't know, we could even be showing hospitality to angels. That's what the book of Hebrews tells us, and certainly, this is what happened here with Abraham.
But what I want you to see is that Abraham's hospitality—him going out of his way, pulling these travelers into his tent, into his world—ended up setting the table for him to receive a blessing. His hospitality made it possible for him to be blessed. This is often the way that God works in our lives. When we give and when we serve those who cannot pay us back, without expecting anything else in return, God so often returns that blessing back on us. The scripture says, "Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over." That's what the Word of God says. My grandma used to put it this way: "You cannot out-give God." So when we give, when we serve, when we bless others without expecting anything in return, God so often uses that as a vehicle, as an opportunity to bless his children.
I would encourage you this coming week, as you go about your life, your days, to be on the lookout for those that you might bless. Those you might show kindness and hospitality to without expecting anything in return. And also without looking up to heaven and winking at God. "Wink, wink. Hey, you see what I'm doing down here? Pretty good."
We also have our missions conference coming up, which is a great opportunity to serve those who have no way of repaying us, but who are going out to spread the gospel. Pastor Mark's going to come up here later, and during the announcements, he's going to ask you to serve during missions conference. Just remember this point when I'm talking about it. And it's so true. If you've ever served, if you've ever given, you know that God so often uses that as the vehicle to the greatest blessings in our lives. It is so true that when we self-sacrificially give, somehow, someway, in God's economy, he uses that to open doors of opportunity that would have never opened for us otherwise.
But we have to take the first step. We have to be the one that initiates in stepping out and serving. Abraham saw them passing by, Abraham went out to greet them. Abraham said, "Come to my house, stay with me. Let me serve you." And that set the table for him to receive a blessing.
God's Promise
The second thing I want to draw your attention to is God's promise in verses 9 and 10. Now, in the previous chapter, in chapter 17, God had come and met with Abraham and spoken with Abraham and made the exact same promise to Abraham. If you look at verse 15 of chapter 17, if you have your Bibles, you could just flip back there quickly. The exact same promise. God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations, kings of people shall come from her." Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?"
So here God comes to Abraham, just in the previous chapter, just before this event, and had spoken to Abraham, and had made this exact promise. He had said, "You've got to change your name from Abram to Abraham. You've got to change her name from Sarai to Sarah because I'm about to fulfill this promise that I made to you. You guys are about to start reproducing, this child that I promised is going to come, and you're going to be the father of nations. And Sarah's going to be the mother of nations. It's time to change your name."
So the question is, why does God come again just a few moments later, days later, weeks later? Because they're the same age, this isn't years later. This is just a short amount of time that passes. Why does God come again and deliver the exact same message? Well, this time, God is delivering this message not for Abraham, but for Sarah. The first time God had spoken just to Abraham, now God comes and meets him at his tent where he knows Sarah will be there and will hear the promise for herself. Sarah needed to hear the word herself.
It's just like us. If you are married, you know that as a spouse, your spouse knows that you love her. Your spouse knows that you love him. You all know that you love each other. But you also need to hear it. You need to say it. You know it, but you need to hear it again and again. Sarah needed to hear God's word personally. Why? Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
We know that Sarah's faith in the promise had become weak. We know it had become weak because Sarah is the one who became weary waiting for God's promise and suggested that Abraham father a son by their servant, Hagar. That wasn't Abraham's idea. That was Sarah's idea. Sarah needed faith to believe in the promise of God. Therefore, Sarah needed to hear the word. She needed faith, therefore she needed to hear the word.
And so it is with us, who from time to time become weary in this life. From time to time become impatient waiting on the promises of God. We too need to hear the faith-building Word of God. We must never underestimate our need to hear God's word.
You know, as a pastor, one of the things that I will just open my heart and confess to you—some inner thoughts that I have—but one of the things that has baffled me the most from being a pastor is that when people in the congregation become weak, become discouraged in their faith, they often withdraw from God and from gathering with God's people. They often pull back from coming to worship, and coming to hear God's word, and coming to be with the people of God. When the fact is, when we are weak in our faith, when we are discouraged, when we are overcome by temptation and sin, that's the very medicine that we need: to be in the presence of God, to hear his word, to be with God's people. Because man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
The psalmist in Psalm 73 talks about this disorienting experience of living life in a fallen world. He talks about how he saw the wicked prospering. How he saw those who didn't serve God, who didn't follow God, who didn't love God, how it seemed as though they were advancing in life. They were being blessed, they were getting the promotions, they were going on the vacations. And here the psalmist is saying, "I'm serving God. I'm following God, and that's not what's happening in my life, and why is it happening to those who hate God?" He's talking about this disorienting experience of living life in this fallen and broken world.
But then there's a turning point in Psalm 73, verse 17, where he says, "My foot almost slipped." Basically, I almost fell into despair. He says, "Until I went into the sanctuary of God." He says, "I almost fell. I almost slipped. I almost began to doubt God, doubt his word, doubt his promises, doubt his goodness, doubt his covenant when I was experiencing life in this disorienting world. But then I went into the house of God." And he says, "There I discerned their end." He says there, when he went into the house of God, the realities of heaven, the realities of God, the realities of the truth were made manifest, were portrayed for him so clearly that he was able to see the brevity of this life and the great inheritance that we, as God's people, have in all eternity.
If the psalmist needed to be in the house of God because of the disorienting effects of the world on his soul, how much more do we in 2026 need to be in God's house? Need to hear his word? When we are constantly bombarded by the lies of the enemy. By the fallen philosophies of this wicked day. Constantly having the values of the world and the values of the flesh and sin portrayed for us as good and wholesome. How much more do we need to come into the presence of God, to step into his house with his people, to receive his word, to take the Lord's supper, to reaffirm our covenant with God? It's in the house of God when we enter behind the veil and enter into his presence, to behold the beauty of Christ, and to experience the comfort that comes from knowing we are loved by him, knowing we are his children, knowing that he is our protector, our fortress, our provider, our strong tower. This is where we are renewed. We are refreshed, and we are built in our faith.
Not only did Sarah need to hear the word, we need to hear the word. We can become weary waiting on the promises of God, waiting on the return of Christ. I mean, I thought Jesus was coming back in the '80s. Where is he? I mean, how many of us have prayed last year, "Come, Lord Jesus," and the world mocks us? They mock at us. They laugh at us. We can become weary waiting on the promises, waiting on the return of Christ. Waiting on the promise of the victory that we should have over sin. We can become weary in the daily battle of resisting sin and temptation. We can become weary waiting on the final judgment, when God's people will be vindicated, and when he returns, we will have perfect fellowship with Christ. Where now we look through a glass darkly, but when he returns, we'll see him face to face. We can want that so much, we can desire it so much, we can become so hopeful for that, and then the day in, the day out, the mundane, dealing with the cares of this life can cause us to become weary waiting on the promises. We need to hear the Word of God that builds faith in our hearts, that we would not give up. We would not grow faint. We should never underestimate our need to hear the word.
And not only should we not underestimate our need for the word, but we should also not underestimate others in our life, their need to hear the Word of God through us. Through you. We are all called, as followers of Jesus, to be salt and to be light. Oftentimes, we're prompted by the Holy Spirit to share the word, to share this verse, to encourage someone with the Word of God. And then Satan comes with this lie: "They already know that. They already know it. They've already heard it. You've already shared it a million times. Oh, they already know." But let me remind you, Sarah knew as well. Sarah knew they had been on this journey for 25 years, but she needed to be reminded of what she already knew. She needed to hear it again, because there is power in the Word of God. The Word of God is a mighty weapon that God uses to destroy Satan's strongholds.
Therefore, we need to always be ready to share it and to speak it with those around us. Jesus says that those who share the word are like a farmer who goes out and sows seed. The farmer who sows his seed, he doesn't know which seeds are going to grow and which ones are not. Think about a farmer who was trying to decide, "Well, should I plant this seed or that seed? Should I put it here in the ground, or there in the ground, and I'm going to look at every little piece of dirt, and I'm going to plant it here." How much fruit would that farmer have? No, but what does the farmer do? He goes out, he sticks his hand in the bag, and he just throws it out. He's just scattering it everywhere and anywhere he goes. That's what a farmer does.
And God is the one who prepares men's hearts. God is the one who prepares people's hearts. We don't know if people's hearts are open or they're not. But it's our job to take the seed of the Word of God and to throw it out. God's the one that makes it grow, but if we only plant one or two seeds and we think, "Well, I planted that seed six years ago. Well, it didn't grow. So maybe it's time to plant it again. Maybe it's time to sow it again." You think, "Well, I don't want to be a Bible thumper. I don't want to be known as a Bible thumper." Why not? Why not? If the world can be loud and proud as they are about their debauchery, why can't the church be as vocal about our Jesus? I mean come on. We don't have to be ugly about it. We don't have to be obnoxious. But we shouldn't shy away from what we hold and know to be true about Jesus. Those who are weak in faith need to hear the word, to be reminded of the gospel, to be reminded of God's good promises.
Also on this point, God's promise—and don't worry, this is the longest point, okay? On this point, God's promise, I want to show you verse 14. Let's look at verse 14. He says, "Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son." There was an appointed time for when God was going to fulfill his promise. And this time that had been appointed had been appointed before Abraham was ever born. Before God ever created the world. Before God had ever called Abraham. God knew it was going to be 25 years.
Now, God hadn't told Abraham that ahead of time. And it sure would have been easier for Abraham if God had told him at the beginning when he called Abraham, "Abraham, I'm going to bless you with a son in 25 years." That would have been easier for him. But Abraham was called to live by faith. By trusting in God. And if God had spelled everything out to Abraham ahead of time, he wouldn't have had to trust God. He wouldn't have had to lean into God. He wouldn't have had to walk with God, to hold fast to God. If God had told them that ahead of time, it would not have required faith.
You see, God is not just concerned about the outcomes of our life. He could snap his fingers and make anything happen at any moment. God is concerned about transforming us as he walks with us daily. And it's that daily walk of faith, daily trusting in God, daily holding on to the promises of God in faith when we don't see them being answered, that keeps us close to him. True or false? Wait till you hear what I'm about to say. We stay closer to God in times of hardship than we do in times of prosperity, true or false? It's true. I wish I prayed as hard when things were going well as when things were going bad. But I don't. It's when we have a need. It's when God has made a promise and we're waiting for it to be fulfilled, it's when we need something from God that we go to God. I wish we weren't that way, but that's the way that we are. And so God has a way of keeping us close to him, teaching us to trust him.
You and I, just like Abraham, are likewise called to live the same sort of lifestyle, a life of faith. The Bible says the just shall live by faith. What does faith look like? Faith looks like saying, "God, I don't know how you're going to work this out. But I'm trusting in you. God, I've been praying for this for 20 years and I still don't see an answer. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop praying. That means I'm going to go pray again this year, 21 years. And I'm going to pray until I see the answer. And even if I never see the answer in this life, I'm still going to trust in you." That is faith. Trusting in God until our dying breath.
So what are you believing for? What are you trusting God for? Don't give up. God has an appointed time. God has an appointed time for our answer, for our miracle, for the promise to be fulfilled. It'd be nice if we could just flip our calendar ahead and say, "Oh, here's the appointed time." But let me tell you, just as sure as being able to do that, God has an appointed time for the answer to your prayer. And living by faith means living as if you know that that's already going to happen. Living as if you know the evidence of things not seen.
Sarah's Laugh
The third thing I want to draw your attention to this morning is Sarah's laugh. I see this in verses 11 and 12, Sarah's laugh. God reaffirms his promise to Abraham and Sarah. And what a beautiful promise that it was. Sarah can hardly believe it. She's there listening at the door of the tent, it tells us. I just see Sarah like Lucille Ball, you know. If you don't know who Lucille Ball is, well, you didn't grow up watching Nick at Nite, I guess. If you don't know what Nick at Nite is, that's even harder... But anyway, Sarah's there listening. Abraham's there meeting. She's there listening. "What are they going to say? What's this conversation about?" And she overhears this promise.
Verse 12, it says Sarah laughed to herself. She was old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with her, so she laughs. "After I'm worn out, and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?" Sarah can hardly believe it. She can't believe it. She laughs. She's focused on the natural. She's old, advanced. Worn out, she says. It's naturally impossible for her to conceive. So she laughed to herself in verse 12, she says, "After my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?" Now, of course, here she's talking about the pleasure of holding a newborn child. She's talking about the pleasure of feeling that son in her womb kicking and there's life in there. That's the pleasure, of course, she's talking about. I don't know what you were thinking, but God help you if you were thinking anything else.
She's 90. But Sarah had given up on the promise. She had given up years ago when she brought Hagar to Abraham. And she had been living every day in the awful shadow of that mistake. It wasn't just her womb that was dead, it was her faith. She laughs. This idea seems absurd to her. Yet, in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, verse 11, it says that Sarah conceived Isaac by faith. Sarah conceived Isaac by faith. So how does she go from laughing? How did she go from unbelief? How does she go from sending Hagar, the servant to Abraham, to laughing at the promise, to conceiving by faith? Here's how: the word that was spoken worked in her spirit, and she again began to embrace the promises of God. The word worked in Sarah and produced faith.
God's Response
Of course, God calls her out on it, and we see that here in God's response. God comes to Sarah in verse 13 with a gentle rebuke, God's response. The Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old?'" And so God's response is to come to Sarah with a gentle rebuke and a very important question. And the question that God asks is one that we need to ponder as well. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for God?
Well, is there? Seeing Abraham and Sarah's story should tell us that nothing is too hard for God. We serve the God who brings dead things back to life. Not just the barren womb of Sarah, but the very body of our Lord Jesus as he lay there dead, for our trespasses and sin, God raised him up on the third day. Jesus knows the way out of the grave. Death could not hold him. And just as nothing was too hard for God with Sarah, nothing will be too hard for God in our lives. God will not fail to be faithful to his word or his promises because God cannot fail. God cannot fail. Therefore, God will not fail.
In Romans chapter 4, verse 20, speaking of Abraham, it says, "No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." Are you convinced? Are you fully convinced that nothing is too hard for God? I don't know what you're believing God for. I don't know what promise you're holding onto, but take it to the Lord in faith. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Maybe it's been five years, 10 years, 20 years. Maybe you thought that dream was dead, there was no more hope anymore. And yet you still feel that God had made a promise to you. Take it to the Lord in faith, and trust in him.
Don't let yourself grow weary in doing good. If we do not faint, we will reap, the Bible says. So do not give up on God. Do not give up on his word. Do not forsake standing on his promises. Nothing is too hard for him. Return to the Lord again and again. Return to his word daily, spend time in his word daily, and you will find that it will lift your spirit. It will give strength to your soul. And you will find that the God who came to Abraham's tent has also come to us in the person of Christ, and he is the God who brings dead things back to life. Amen.