MAR 6 2022 | Genesis: Behind the Curtain S2E7 | Abraham

Sea Change Church · Genesis: Behind the Curtain S2E7 · "Abraham" · Joe Brandi · March 6, 2022
Genesis 16:1-4
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Hi, I'm Julia Valencia, and I volunteer at the Kids Cove Ministry in Joe's 242. Please join us in
reading today's scripture, Genesis 16, 1 through 4. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had not been able to
bear children for him, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, the Lord
has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children
through her. And Abram agreed with Sarai's proposal. So Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, the
Egyptian servant, and gave her to Abram as a wife, Abram. This happened ten years after Abram had
settled into the land of Canaan. So Abram had sexual relations with Hagar, and she became pregnant.
But when Hagar knew she was pregnant, she began to mistreat her mistress, Sarai, with contempt. The
word of the Lord. The word of the Lord. I paid them to do all that. Thank you guys. Later. I'm Joe
Brandy, stepping in for Pastor Adam this week. Pastor Harry will be here next week. And I'm a pastor
for the 2535 group. I also lead Unity for Orphans. And let me pray, because I know I'm totally
dependent on God's spirit to make his word effectual. All right? God, thank you so much that before
the foundation of the world, you chose good works in advance for me and other people to walk in. And
help me step into that work of preaching and teaching your word without fear. And help also people
be recipients. Open up the portals of their mind, the portals of their heart, the portals of their
will to incorporate this story of faith, these stories of gospel dreams in comparison to our own
dreams, and bring fruit that only the Holy Spirit can do. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All
right. Are you going to go my way? Are you going to go my way? I don't know if any of you guys have
heard of Lenny Kravitz. We're thinking of having the music going. Da-na-na-na-na-na. Okay. That's
the song from Are You Going to Go My Way? And, you know, the question, the first question I have is,
are you about God's timing or your own timing? Are you about God's timing for your life or your own
timing? And do you feel like time is kind of slipping into the future? Time keeps on slipping,
slipping, slipping into the future. Gosh, they're good. They were good. Yeah. That's an older song.
Some of you guys don't even know who that is, but it works. We have visions and dreams and goals
that define us, don't we? And it feels sometimes like time is running out. Even if you're young,
young, you know, you're just like, I want it to happen now, but it hasn't happened. And what are
those dreams, those desires that haven't been attained or received yet? They're almost ontological.
I love using the word ontological. It's a philosophy minor. What is ontological? What is ontology?
It's the study of being. Like what makes a chair a chair? What makes a human a human? And these
dreams and visions probably got birthed since you were five, you're six, you're seven. They're
almost like inside of you. You know, it's not just like somewhere out there. It's like this is part
of who I am. Group doing construction. We'd mix the cement, and that cement would harden, and you
couldn't go back in. And I feel like sometimes these dreams, these goals, these visions we have for
our life started so long ago. And they're not necessarily sinful dreams, but when they don't happen
at the timing that we want them to, it's soul crushing. Are you there? Have you been there? You
know, I grew up playing baseball since I was four and a half, five years old. Played for two years
in college, and I literally thought I was going to be a pro baseball player. I just thought I'm
going to be a pro baseball player. I never ended up being a pro baseball player. And when that
didn't happen, second year, and had issues with my coach and the team, I quit. And that threw me
into such an existential funk. And God ended up using that to bring me to the Lord because my
identity was so much in baseball. But when our dreams get crushed, what do we do to try to make
other dreams come to pass that are ahead of God's timing? If God's given us a dream, a vision, a
desire, again, that's not sinful, and you want it to come to pass, are there times you've gone ahead
of God in His timing? I know I have, there can be little micro things and big things. Like, I
remember when my grandma would make Rice Krispie Treat cookies, you know, Krispie Treats, and I
wanted literally six pieces of Rice Krispie Treats. It was my dream to have six pieces of Rice
Krispie Treats with marshmallow and butter. Not margarine, butter. You know what I'm saying? And so
I attained that dream by stealing those, you know. That's a small little funny example, but we can
do that on small things, and we can do that on really big things, right? To attain it by our timing
and our strength. I want blank, so I do blank. Fill in the blank for yourself. Let's go to the text.
Abraham and Sarai had a desire to have children, to have land. They had left their land with their
people. Chapter 14, Abram, Lot got stolen by some bad dudes, and he took like 318 trained men to go
rescue Lot. Abram was rich, though he lived in tents. They didn't have a child, and God said, go,
I'm going to make you a blessing. I'm going to give you land. I'm going to give you offspring. And
in Genesis chapter 15, verse 1, God speaks to Abram and says, I am your shield, your very great
reward. I am the gospel. I am the good news. I love you. I've talked to you. I've called you. I'm
giving you a vision. Am I enough for you? Is God enough for you? Yeah. Amen to me, yeah. But, verse
2, Genesis 15, but Abram said, sovereign Lord, what can you give me? He just said, I'm your great
shield. I'm your great reward. And there's a but. And isn't there always a but in our lives and our
heart? Let's be real. Let's be real. I don't know. I know Emmy and I are being real here. I love the
head nodders. Okay. But Abram said, sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless?
What don't we have where God is not enough? So, God tries to give him encouragement about his
promise. And somehow, he must have been inside. It says he takes him outside in verse 5. And he
said, look up. If you can have the image of the stars. Look up and count those stars. If you could
count them, he said, so shall your offspring be. Offspring. You haven't had a kid. You know, you're
75. And you haven't had a kid yet. But look at those stars. That's how much offspring is going to
be. Can we have the picture of the stars again? I just like to see it. Oh, yeah. Isn't that
beautiful? You ever been up in the mountains and seen the stars? It had been a while for me. But I
grew up in the mountains and we'd sleep without a tent. Just, oh, my gosh, God, you're so big. Mind-
blowing. And he says, your offspring will be just as much as that, Abram. Can you believe? But 10
years pass. And Abram and Sarah make things happen in their own time. And we're back in the text in
verse 2. Sarah says, go sleep with my slave. Perhaps I can build a family through her. Notice, I can
build. Sometimes we're trying to build. It's good to want to have a child, right? Not like they're
trying to, I don't know. It's good to want to have a child. I can build. Abram agreed to what Sarah
said. So after Abram had been living in the Canaan 10 years, so it's 10 years after God had given
him this vision, and it still hadn't happened. Don't some of these dreams that have been birthed
inside you that, let's say, they are given by God, doesn't it feel like 10 years sometimes? But
those 10 years feel like 1,000 years. Some are more patient than others. I'm not a very patient
person. I'm working on it. Thank you. Please, Holy Spirit. And then he slept with Hagar, and she
conceived. It's hard to wait for God's timing. But when we don't, there's a reaping and a sowing.
Can you reflect on your walk on this earth and see where you've reaped and sown, where you've gone
ahead of God, where you haven't waited for him? But don't forget that God's timing, it's a little
bit different than our timing. It's hard, but we need to see this by faith. 2 Peter 3, verse 8. 2
Peter 3, 8. Don't forget this one thing, dear friends. With the Lord, a day is like 1,000 years. And
1,000 years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand
slowness. I don't think I'm going to live 1,000 years. I don't think so. Sometimes it feels like
1,000 years before God gives you that thing you wanted. Adam's talked about that precious thing. But
will you surrender your dreams to God's timing, or will you continue to take them into your own
hands? I really believe that's what he's asking you today. It could be good things. I want to own a
house. I want to invest my cryptocurrency. I listen to my boys talk about crypto. I'm like, okay,
whatever. Cryptocurrency. I want to have, you know, a child. I want to have a child for my, you
know, sister-brother thing. And then when I have the child, I want them to do this. I want them to
be like that. And when you start seeing some of these dreams that are actually good, not starting to
happen, fear, anger, dread, worry, and we lose faith. Abraham was 75 when God first appeared him. It
wasn't until 100 that he actually had Isaac, the child of promise. I know I didn't share the story
last time, but I got done a little early. And I remember I was in Santa Cruz. One of my buddies,
Dan, back there, we were part of this awesome church. It was just like this one. Well, no. I mean,
yeah, no. Didn't have this amazing building like this. It was about a mile from the beach. All these
surfers, young people, multi-generational, high view of scripture, missions. I was doing campus
ministry at UC Santa Cruz. And some schisms happened, and I left. I went off to seminary, and then I
ended up in San Diego for the first time. But I really wanted to go back to Santa Cruz. It was my
home. I've been going there since I was five in that water. You know, there's something when you're
a child. It's just like, country roads, take me home. You know what I'm saying? She's like getting
on her head. She's never heard the song. Yeah, yeah, I know that song. Maybe you do. I don't know.
And I wanted to go back to Santa Cruz. But I was in San Diego. I was at New Life Presbyterian Church
in La Mesa. I was an intern. I was on the way to ordination in the Presbyterian Church of America,
which is conservative Presbyterians. I had a Monday night group that had grown to 20, 30, 40 people.
I was working at Padre Stadium, which was kind of a fun job, really. I was getting to surf. But I
really wanted to go back to Santa Cruz. I really wanted to. All these, I've been, I don't know how
long I've been in San Diego. And all these people tried to get to know me, but I literally had a
door locked up to preventing them from getting to know me. Because I'm like, you're not like my
friends in Santa Cruz, in my mind. You know, I actually said it sometimes. You're not like Derek.
You're not like Devin. You're not like Dan. You're not like Brendan, whatever. So I never opened up
my heart. And then when this church wanted to almost bring me on staff in San Diego, the Santa Cruz
church calls me up, says, we want you to come back. And I'm like, oh my gosh, my dream, I get to go
back. But I checked some wise counsel. And I talked to a lot of people. And they're like, dude,
you're almost ordained Presbyterian. You know, this church in San Diego is really strong. You have a
good group on Monday. Don't leave. Don't leave. But I really wanted to go back. I went back. The
week I was back, I was literally in a service like this. And they would have communion every week.
And people would come up and sit down. And I'd help distribute the elements with the other pastors.
And I could tell, because I knew this congregation. I saw it from it was 30 to up to 300 people. And
I could tell there was something wrong because I'm a feeler. I can feel stuff. It's my superpower.
And something was off. Started talking around. Within one year, that church was almost split. It is
schismed. And I came back to San Diego. And I go, hey, can I have my job back? And, you know, with
the intern. No, Joe, you've severed your ties. We gave you an opportunity. We begged you to stay. We
offered you more money, but you wanted to go back to Santa Cruz ahead of God's timing. And then that
Monday group that I had started that had grown up to 30 people, there was other teachers there that
were teaching in my place. And they didn't let me teach anymore. I went ahead. God's sovereign. He
used it for good, though there was some pain. But I went ahead of God's timing. And I believe that's
what Sarah and Abraham did. Not only should we, by faith, surrender to God's time and not our time,
but we should listen to his words and not somebody else's words. Will you listen to God's voice or
another's text? Chapter 16 of Genesis. Now, Sarah, notice this. The little, I've only got like four
verses, but there's a lot there. Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children, but she had an
Egyptian slave named Hagar. Check these words. So she said to Abram, the Lord has kept me from
having children. She has, I think, a bad theology. She's actually thinking, God is good all the
time. Even when we don't get what we want. God is good. If you, you know, problem of evil, pain,
suffering, people dying of cancer. One of my friends, I was with her last night at UFC. She would
hang out and go swing dancing with this dude. And there's buddies. He died of a heart attack. He was
like 47 this week. God is good, no matter what. Can never lose that foundation. But she said, the
Lord has kept me from having children. So this is what you should do. Go sleep with my slave.
Perhaps I can build a family through her. Notice I and go. She said, Abraham agreed what Sarah said.
He'd been living in Canaan 10 years. They'd given up on God's promise. Sarah took, his wife took the
Egyptian slave. Notice all the proactive stuff from the woman. We love women, but just from the
texture. Took the Egyptian slave and gave her to her husband. And then he slept with Hagar. What
voices do you entertain and listen to and obey that are contrary to God's? Even your very own wife
or husband or child. It's hard. Super hard, right? God's invisible. God's far away. Yeah, he showed
me the stars, but he's not like right here all the time. How have other people's voices throughout
your life reframed you or narrowed your gaze or vantage point of life where you just thought there
were just these options right here along this aisle, but there wasn't an option over there, an
option over there, an option over there. You didn't realize the great expanse of God's freedom that
he's given you. I grew up country, just to let you know. I was country before country was cool or
whatever that song was. Man, a rough crowd. A rough crowd. You guys don't know country music. I was
country when country wasn't cool. And I grew up on this ranch with my sister, dad, my mom. Grew up
on like 100 acres, NorCal, north of Yosemite. My mom was from Santa Cruz. I go back and forth. We
had 30 cows. I love eating cows, but I can't stand taking care of cows. Does anybody grow up on a
ranch or a farm or anything from here? You know, like two people. That's cool. But it's amazing the
power of your voice and your presence over cows that outweigh you 600 pounds each. Want to pull up
the image, y'all? There's a little sight of four little boys herding probably 50 head of cattle. If
you notice, there's horns. They outweigh them probably, I don't know, six to 10 times. And my dad,
we'd had to get the cows from over there to over here, let's just say, okay? Be my sister who's six.
I would be seven. And there'd be my dad. I wish somebody could hold this. And how do we do this? We
walk alongside them. She's over there. He's behind. I'm on the side. And all we do is walk with our
presence and do this with our arms. And say stuff and clap. And I might have had a cattle prod and I
might have used it. Not on my sister, ever. So, okay. So, with our little voices, we dominated and
controlled and guided these strong cows that are more numerous and strong than us. Think about that.
Those cows had so much freedom, but they're listening to little kids' voices. And we listen to these
little voices from the world, the flesh, the devil, our friends, that limit our perspective of God's
goodness, of the gospel, and all the different things that he wants us to step into. Voices carry.
Voices carry throughout time. This is kind of embarrassing, but I'll just admit it, you know. I
think authenticity is one of the values of this church. And it's going to be too embarrassing. But
I'm leading this class, a skills class, called Men's Skills on Mondays. And I love you guys to be
part of that. It's like 13 weeks. And it makes you, one aspect, it makes you explore the voices, the
negative voices, the negative things that were spoken over to you in your life when you were
younger. Where you felt helpless and trapped. And I believe all of our parents were doing the best
they could, to a degree, you know, minus all the sin. But they were trying. But it's a big world.
It's a chaotic world. And there's stuff that happens, you know. Like my dad is, we're homies now. I
can't believe it either. I'm still waiting for him to like smack me in the face. But we're cool now,
you know. He's like nice and everything. But back in the day, he was, he'll never listen to this. So
if anybody's worried, oh, will you ever hear this? No. He doesn't listen to this. But strong Italian
man. 100% Italian. And I was a little rambunctious guy. Still kind of am. And he would yell at me.
And just never hug me. Never affirm me. And then I was playing baseball with these coaches. And it
was always win, win, win. Because that is what you are. The only time you got celebrated. Yeah, we
won. That's it. You did something wrong. You're on the bench. And then I go into school. My mom's a
teacher. And it was hard for me to sit in a box. I'm in the principal's office. And then I was
forced Catholic. I'm not going to get into Protestant Catholic issues. But my experience with
Catholicism is like guilt. Sit down. Stand up. Kneel. You're wrong. Your voice has nothing to do
with it. Sit down. Be quiet. That's the voice that is still in me to a degree. When I get in
conflict with any of you, especially the powerful ones that are like not super sweet and empathetic,
you know, in my mind, I become like a kid. Because I've listened to these voices. And these voices
were put on me. What voices have been put on you? And this is a side note. I think the women got all
mad at me last time. But that's what it is. Whatever. Women, notice the power of Sarah's voice in
this story. Have you realized how powerful your voices are? Tienes mucha poder. You have a lot of
power. I didn't really think about it. I was just thinking, oh, guys are stronger. We have power. My
Greek fat wedding, I don't know when that was. And there's, oh, the man's the head. The man's head.
She's all, but women are the neck. And the neck turns the head. And I think this story harkens back
to Genesis where God said, don't do this. The woman took the fruit. Gave it to the man and said,
take this. And he did it. They're both co-equal. This isn't a put down on women. But just know,
women, that if you meditate on God and his goodness and the gospel and the word and incarnate that.
And then pour this out in your business to your kids, to your husband, it's only going to be good.
It's only going to be good. You're going to be, your family, your business, your friends will be
agents of the kingdom of God. I want Emmy here all the time. That's all I can say. God's word,
though, is sometimes, I want to pull up Neo's face. God's word for you sometimes is for you. And you
literally don't need to talk to anybody about it. God had, doesn't say God spoke to Sarah. Sarai
talked to Abram multiple times. Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 17, I think 22. And he takes him, he
gives him a vision. Or the word of the Lord comes to him and he shows him stars. Shows him stars.
You know, does a bunch of stuff. And sometimes God's given you a word from scripture. Or just a
promise that you don't even need to talk to your wife about it. There's this one time it said, I
didn't look this up, but I remember it. When Mary, the angel came to Mary before she, Jesus. She was
praying with the Holy Spirit and Jesus came out of her. Said she treasured these things in her
heart. There are some things that God has spoken to you. That you just know are true. You don't know
when it's going to happen, but you treasure these things in your heart. And let them have fruit. Can
we have Neo? In the Matrix. There we go. See, that's Neo. He's stopping the bullets. Listen to this
clip. There we go. Take a cookie. Take a cookie. I promise by the time you're done eating it, you'll
feel writer's reign. What was said was for you and for you alone. Isn't that deep? I don't know.
It's deep for me. God speaks to me through movies, Scripture and then movies. God will say stuff to
you through Scripture that is actually for you alone. And you don't need to hear Sarah's voice or
anybody else's voice. Last point. Are we about God's timing or our own timing? Are we about God's
voice or somebody else's voice? And are we about our dreams and our gospel or God's gospel? Are we
about our own gospel, our own good news, or about God's gospel? In Genesis 15, it says, the word of
the Lord came. I'm going to summarize because there was, I think, too much Scripture last time, if
that's possible. The word of the Lord came to Abram. Abram, this man will not be your heir, but a
son who is in your own flesh and blood will be your heir. He took him outside, showed him the stars.
If you could count them, your offspring will be. Remember the star imagery. Then, a couple verses
later, he said, I'm the Lord who brought you out to give you this land and take possession of it.
And he'd given Abram a promise of offspring, of land, and that he would be blessed and be a
blessing. But, verse 8, Abram says, Sovereign Lord, how can I know that? How will I gain possession
of it? How can I know? And isn't that what happens every time God gives us a word? We open up his
objective word. I was going to grab a Bible. We open up his objective word. Yeah, I'm going to grab
the Bible. And there's so many words in here. And some of them subjectively land on our mind and our
heart and our obedience in just a really profound way. You're like, dude, yes, God, I'm going to
repent of this and let this go and impress that. And then we start doubting. Right? Start talking to
other people. And we do the but gods. But gods. I do this, too. You know, it's interesting
preaching. It's like, I do this, too. But if we can see the world like this, we can see the world
through the lens of faith through Scripture, everything will change. God wants to confirm his
promise as we're winding up. And this is kind of a misto passage. Misto meaning mysterious. That's
the way I use that word. And he says, how can I know? So the Lord God said to him, verse 9 of
Genesis 15, Bring me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a
young pigeon. Abram brought all these to him, and he cut them in two and arranged the halves
opposite to each other. The birds didn't. He cut in half. Verse 12. Can we have the image of the
pieces with the blood? And some of this, I mean, it's a photo, but our minds are called to go back
by faith. This is what happened. Back in the day, when they were going to make serious covenants and
treaties, like marriages. Today, we sign the paper. You have the ceremony. You sign, right? You
sign. I sign. This is binding legal agreement. Back in the day, there'd be an owner of land, let's
say, 100 acres, 1,000 acres, and there'd be this underservant. And they'd say, okay, this is such a
serious promise that we're going to cut these animals, different types of animals. And there's going
to be a pool of blood in between. And this is kind of bloody. And we're both going to walk through
this path. And if you violate the promises we've made this day, let what happened to these animals
happen to you. If you violate Master who owns the land, may this happen to you. They'd walk through
together. They made a covenant. They made a binding, visceral, bloody, promise, blessing type thing.
Normally, two people walk through. But notice, Abraham was in a deep sleep when God symbolically
walked through these pieces as firing smoking pot and a light of torch. What does that mean? What
does that mean? I did listen to like five sermons to make sure, you know, I'm going to explain this
right. It basically means with the blessing that he promised Abraham, with the offspring, and with
the land, God would fulfill it. And not just to Abraham through Isaac, to the people of Israel, but
to the nations. Because it says in Galatians, and we're winding up in like two, three minutes. It
says in Galatians. And the New Testament interprets the Old Testament. The promises were spoken to
Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say seeds, meaning many people, but to your seed,
meaning one person who is Christ. So this promise to Abraham actually had fulfillment in Christ.
That Christ would be the one that would bring the blessing. Yeah, through Abraham and Isaac and
Jacob and 12 tribes. But it would expand the blessing. And then the land, the land would fill the
whole earth. Because God gave to love the whole world, not just Jewish people. Jewish people and
Gentiles. And there would be offspring. And then not only is Jesus the seed of promise. Check this
out in Galatians 3.28. There's neither Jew nor Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are
all one in Christ. If you put your faith in Jesus Christ, we are one in Christ. And if you belong to
Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Understand that those who
have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith
and announce the gospel in advance to Abraham. All nations will be blessed through you. So those who
rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. If you have put your faith in Jesus
who came to earth and lived the perfect life where Israel failed, where Adam failed, where Abraham
failed, where you failed. And he was the one that was cut in two, in a sense, on the cross. He was
cut off from the land of the living. You put your faith in him, you will be blessed. You will enter
the land. And when the new heavens come to meet the earth, well, you will be in the new heavens and
new earth. You will be blessed and you will be a blessing to others, but only through Christ. Have
you put your faith in Christ? Have you wrapped your subjective dreams into the gospel dream that God
so loved the world, he wants everybody to know him? How are you participating and subjecting your
dreams to his big dream? That's the question. Let me pray. Father God, thank you so much for being a
dream maker, a dream creator, and making things so much bigger, more beautiful than we could ever
imagine. And the big, beautiful one is your son, Jesus Christ. Thank you that he lived in our place
and he died in our place. And for all who will believe, we will enter the land, your land. We will
enter your gates. We will receive blessing spiritually. Not always materially, but spiritually. And
we are part of the stars and the offspring. We thank you and we love you. In Jesus' name, amen.