FEB 2 2025 | Genesis: Behind the Curtain S4E2 | Isaac’s Birth Promised

Sea Change Church · Genesis: Behind the Curtain · "Isaac's Birth Promised" Pastor Joshua Pigg · February 2, 2025
Genesis 21:1-7 ESV
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

I pray that you will receive every bit of today's offering and use it to do just that in Jesus name, amen. The book of Genesis chapter 21, verses one through seven. 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 him.

Isaac and Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred 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've said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children, yet I have born him a son in his old age. This is the word of the Lord. Well, good evening. Uh, my name is Joshua.

I am the campus pastor here at La Jolla Christian Fellowship. Good mor uh, good evening. Good morning, Lord. I'm already at home already. I'm gonna preach a word. Boy, help me Lord. That's crazy, man. That's hilarious. Well, once again, uh, as we laugh at my misery right now, right? It's crazy. Uh, my name is pastor. My name is Joshua and I'm the campus pastor here at La Jore Christian Fellowship. And I pray that once you come through those doors that you fell in love with, God, we had a great worship set if you missed it, man, it was so good, so powerful.

Thank you so much Chris and the team. Y'all guys did amazing and I'm really, yeah, they coming for that for sure, a hundred percent. But I'm so excited to kind of bring the word today, what God has placed in my heart to kind of share with you. Um, if there's one thing you could take away from this message today, I want you to take away, I want you to make sure you hear this, that God keeps his word. That God keeps his word. All right?

Just so we all on the same page, I'm gonna have everyone to say that with me on three. 1, 2, 3, God, God keeps his word. Whoa man, that's a symphony. That's what I'm talking about. But that's what God wanted me to say to you today, that he keeps his word. And I don't know about you. Uh, have you ever had someone in your life that didn't keep their word? Anyone? Yeah. Right? A hundred percent. I've definitely had that too many times.

And I've been that person who has not kept their word also too as well. And, but this one instance in my life that I would never forget is that my uncle, who is a great guy for my senior prom, my uncle told me, he was like, Hey Joshua, what do you want for your prom? I was like, uncle. He was like, nephew, whatever you want, I got you. I'm gonna take care of it. I was like, really? So I'm getting excited. And I was like, look, I really need a nice rental car.

He was like, okay, say less. I got that. I'm gonna take care of that for you. And what I wanted was a 300 C. Now, when I back in 2005, 300 C was like the best car where I'm from. I don't know about you, but it was like you had a 300 C you made it in life. So I was like, that's what I wanted to ride in. And, uh, the day of my prom, he totally was a no show. Ghosted me. I called him several times, try to do everything possible to get in touch with him, but he did not show up.

So my plan A fell. So then I had to go to my plan Z, not A B, but Z, okay Z and plan Z was ask my sister to borrow her car. Okay? Now my sister's car is a two-tone light brown, dark brown Ford Taurus, hideous, just ugly for no apparent reason at all whatsoever. That's why they discontinue it, right? And then what was the worst thing about this car is that the power steering fluid will leak out of it. So imagine me with my prom date and our two friends in the back driving to our location and the, the steering starts to lock up on me.

So I'm trying to muscle the car to pull into the gas station to actually get some power steer fluid deployed in there and go to prom worst first couple of minutes of my prom that I ever had in my entire life. And I never gonna be able to go back and do that ever again. But because he didn't keep his word, I suffered for it. I, I looked it silly. I actually parked like four blocks away from the prom and we walked to the prom.

'cause I was not pulling up in that forward tours. I just was not doing that at all whatsoever. I had a reputation, right? I had a reputation, okay? But I love that God has a reputation too, and that he keeps his word. He keeps his word. And if God keeps his word, is there anything too hard for the Lord? Is there anything too hard for God to do? I love that. The transparency that, that we find with God is that he doesn't try to hide anything.

He lets you know exactly what he's gonna do. Especially in this story right here with Abraham and Sarah. In verse one, we see that the Lord says, the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, God openly communicated his promises to Abraham and Sarah. He didn't try to hide it from him, from them. He didn't try to keep it from them. He was very transparent at what he was going to do through them. Matter of fact, if you, uh, turn your Bibles in Genesis 17, we see how God goes to Abraham.

He tells Abraham that through Sarah that she's gonna birth nations, kings are gonna come from her. And then after Abraham hears this, he busts out laughing. I don't know about you. Uh, I have never laughed so hard that I fell on my face. Okay? I, I hope to one day be able to do that. That something that's so funny that I'll fall on my face. Abraham is getting a word from God and he falls in his face and laugh. And I think God has a great sense of humor that not only did he change their names to Abraham, who means the father of nation, uh, Sarah, her name means princess.

But then as Abraham laugh, God's like, oh, you think that's funny? I got some of the for uh, his name's gonna be laughter. Let me show you just where I'm at. And God names tells Abraham to name his son Isaac, which means laughter. And I really, I, I was like, man, God, you was very transparent what you want to do, what you was going to do through each of them. And then we come to this part where God does deliver. And I love that God was so transparent, not just during that time, but we also see God being very transparent throughout the ages, throughout the entire Bible.

We see how transparent that God could be by keeping his word. We see that through Adam. He's like, Adam, hey look, you can do whatever you want. Just don't eat of that right there. 'cause if you do, you're gonna surely die. God was transparent. He kept his word. We see the same thing with Noah. Hey Noah, look, I'm about do something totally different. I know you never seen this before, but I'm gonna bring rain from heaven.

It's gonna flood the whole earth. Hey, build a arc 'cause it's gonna save you. He was transparent and he kept his word. We also see that with Abraham. He say, look, you know, I'm going destroy Sodom ga Moore and I'm gonna get rid of it. Transparent kept his word. He also warned Lotte of what was about to happen and told Lotte not to look back. He was transparent of what he was gonna do. Rained fired from heaven, burnt up.

Sodom Andmore told not to look back. His wife looks back, turned to a pillar of salt, kept his word. Look, God keeps his word. And the reason why God is always transparent and that he keeps his word is such an amazing thing. It's such a comfort for me and it's for me. It shows when just the compassion that God has for his people, how much he loves and cares. He's not trying to hide anything from us at all whatsoever.

He's not trying to do things in secret. He tells us exactly what he's gonna do and when it's gonna come to pass. 'cause he keeps his word. Matter of fact, in Isaiah 55 11, it says this, I love this piece of scripture. It says, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in. The thing for which I sense it, some may have heard it like this, uh, the word of God never returns back void.

Look, when God says something, me, you, your family, whoever can best believe that he's going to stand on his business and make sure it accomplish exactly what he has said. So we don't have to worry about anything at all whatsoever. We don't have to second guess on what God is trying to do in this season in your life currently right now. He wants to speak to each and every person to make sure you see his word come to fruition.

And I love the fact that not only does God is God transparent, but he's also reliable. The reliability that we find in God is amazing. I love it that when he says something that is going to happen. Now I don't know about you, but if my wife sends me on a grocery run for three items, just three, I guarantee you that I'm gonna go to the grocery store and I'm gonna get 10 items. And the three she wanted will not be there.

I don't know how this happened. She could send me a grocery list. We go to Starbucks. Hey, this is exactly what I want, and I will not get exactly what she wants for whatever reason. So sometimes I'm not reliable in that aspect. Forgive me, Alita, I, forgive me baby, forgive me please. But we don't see that with God. We don't see that with God in his word. We don't see that at all. For in verse one, it says, the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.

You see, this was a very unlikely situation that was about to happen. But even in the unlikeliness of someone having a child in their at almost at a hundred and Sarah being 90, God still made sure that his word was accomplished. So we gotta get to a place where we trust God even in our unlikely circumstances, even when it doesn't look like it's gonna go your way. We know that we could trust on the word of God. Verse three says this, it says, Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him who Sarah bore him.

Isaac, despite the impossible circumstances, despite of what they thought, despite Abraham laughing and thinking it was a joke to some extent, that something like this could actually happen. God's promise was dependable. And he delivered exactly what he said he was going to do. Exactly what he said he was going to do at the exact time of when he said it was going to happen. For me, that brings a certain level of comfort knowing that if my God tells me anything, he is more than able to accomplish it.

And I love the fact that not only is God transparent at keeping his word, not only is he reliable, but he's also being consistent throughout the entire Bible. Throughout the entire Bible. We have a consistent Father who says exactly what he's gonna do and he's gonna do exactly what he said he was going to do. That for me brings a lot of comfort. I love how Malachi says this In three six. It says this very popular verse, I am the Lord.

I change, not I change not in verse two, we see Sarah conceive, she bore Abraham, the Son, her old age at the time, of which God has spoken to Abraham. You see, God's consistency is seen in how he acts according to his predetermined plan. Like God had already. I had already thought of a way that Abraham and Sarah was gonna be able to bear, uh, uh, have a son in their old age despite what they had saw, despite what they had thought, he knew exactly what he wanted to do.

And it's so great that God has been transparent in the Bible. He has been reliable, he's also been consistent for God is the same yesterday, today and forevermore. And because of this, the reason why God is always communicating exactly what he's trying to do, exactly what he wants to do, is because God keeps his word so that we live no lies. So that we live no lies. God gives us his word so that we live in the truth of what His word actually says so that we don't have to second guess of what is going on.

John 8 32, it says this, it says, so Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, he said, if you abide in me, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciple. I truly believe that sometimes when our faith starts, our faith starts to kind of like wither away a little bit. We start to try to put our trust in other things. But the word of God lets us know that if you are abiding his word, if you are a disciple, that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

But you first have to abide in what God has already spoken in his word. If you're not willing to go back to the word of God, to let that be the foundation on what you stand upon, it's going to be so easy for you to be deceived at thinking something is right when it could possibly not. But God keeps his word. And it's so funny within this story that when, when Abraham and Sarah try to do things outta their own strength, outta their own power, right?

They try to do it on their own. Uh, they produce Ishmael. Ishmael came in the scene who was not a part of the promise of what God had said. But as soon as they actually operated in the divine words that God has spoken to them, they got their Isaac. And in verse six, we see that God Sarah said this, God has made my made laughter for me. You see, when you operate out of what God has ordained, what God has spoken to you about what God has said in his word, there's a certain level of joy that is present within your life.

'cause you know, the end of what God has already spoken, like God didn't hide it from any of us. He has let us know clearly on what his plans are for you. Your the plans are for your marriage, the plans that are for your success, whatever it may be, God knows exactly what he wants for you, but are you abiding? And the word of God, because God keeps his word so perfectly, that through Isaac, we also get to the place of where Jesus shows up for all of us that God didn't let us stay within our sin, that God didn't keep us in a place to where we could not have connections with him.

But he brought his son Jesus Christ, who died on a cross for our sins. And this was something that was promised at the beginning in Genesis of what God's plan was for mankind. 'cause God keeps his word. God keeps his word at every single time in our life. But do you trust in what he's doing? Do you trust in what he is doing? I want to give you some practical takeaways that I also want you to, uh, at the end of this service after during your week, I want you to look at the verses that I attach to each one of those practical takeaways.

I don't want you just to get the word and just go about your way. No, I want you during this week, I want you to actually abide in God's word and see what God says throughout the ages. See what God is speaking to you right now. But God keeps his word so that we could trust in God's timing. So funny. Um, before I came here, I actually just reached my one year point a couple of weeks ago of being on staff here. Amen. Amen. Yes, yes. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

But it's, it's when God, when I say God keeps his word, I'm a live in testimony of that right there. When I first came to San Diego, God told me, and I'm the Holy Spirit spoke to me at a, a service. And he said, in 10 years, you gonna start full-time ministry. And I was like, what? Like when you hear something like that, you like, I just make that up in my own self. Is this actually true? Like, so you, you, you go throughout these, uh, whole time.

Like second guessing was that me was that guy was that whole like, what, what just happened? And we got close to the 10 year point. And you, I asked my wife this. 'cause I told her, she was like, what we doing? What we going? I was like, man, well, God said I'm gonna be a full-time ministry in 10 years and she's a great wife. Like she had to trust that like, is he really hearing from God? Like really? You know? But she trusted in that my relationship with God was pure.

So once we got closer to the point of, uh, uh, of the 10 year part, I was like, you know what, uh, Alida, I was like, I'm, I'm not sure what God is doing. I I know what I heard. I, I feel it in my heart. But, uh, let's just go back, back home to, uh, North Carolina where we're from. And me and my wife had agreed on that. We was like, yes, totally. Let's do it. The very next day I get a text from Pastor Adam who says, Hey, we got a position here for you at this church.

And I started working here on the exact day of when God told me that I would start full-time ministry. Amen. God keeps his word, but we have to trust in his timing. We gotta trust in the perfect timing of God. Like the Bible let us know that God said he will never leave us. No forsake us. Like we have to be able to trust in that in the timing of God. Number two, we also have to make sure that we understand and fully believe that God works through unlikely circumstances.

You see, in that time of waiting for God to move and for me to be be on full-time staff, I had to get to a place where I, I started to doubt my doubts and trust my God. I had to doubt what I was thinking and trust in what the word of God has spoken to me. Just like God speaks in his word. We could go to God's word, the Bible and trust that what he is saying in his word is applicable to me currently right now. Number three, obedience is part of the promise.

Obedience is part of the promise. I think we want the blessings of God without making God, Lord, like we wanna go to heaven, we want to be saved. We want to be, you know, take the title of Christians, but we don't, we are not obedient to what God is actually telling us to do. Be kind to your neighbors love one another like it. It's, it's things like that serve. It's, it's so many things that we just like push this out on the i one as heaven, but there's obedience that's connected to the promise and our promises.

Jesus Christ, him dying cross for our sins, our sins being, being forgotten. Be obedient. Number four, God's faithfulness produces joy. You know it, when I waited for those 10 years and I was still waiting, still waiting and hoping that God was gonna do something, when God stepped in and he made that connection, meeting Pastor Adam at a open house, then coming to be on full-time staff, like there was a certain level of joy.

Like God, I knew I heard what you said. I'm not, I'm not crazy. I'm not, I'm, I'm not just making this up in my own head. I'm not trying to be all super spiritual and everything like that. No, I know. I heard what you said. It brought so much joy and it also brought, brought a certain level of trust that I know that my heavenly Father cares about what I am doing and who I am. The only thing I had to do was remain steadfast once I heard the word of God.

'cause I know God's will keep his word, but can I still walk into that? And lastly, living truth not in lies. And this is really a big one because I, I know for sure that allow us, we get some deceptive ideas in our lives and we think that's true. We get some deceptive ideas that lead us astray Here. Go one. Right? I shouldn't be married to this person. No more deceptive idea. Only thing the devil has to do is to plant an idea in your mind.

Get you to think on that idea repeatedly. You accept as truth and now he has control of your life. So He, he he doesn't change. He's the father of lies. You gotta, you gotta truly, truly seek God, seek his word. The Bible is here for a reason. I heard someone say one time basic extraction instructions before leaving Earth. Bible simple. We have to trust in that. And, and rest assured that God, he keeps his word. He wants you to actually experience him keeping his word in your life.

Amen. Amen. That is the word for today and now. Amen. Amen. Now we're gonna go into, uh, our commun portion of the service. Uh, this is a special time and I'm go ahead and ask the, uh, our ushers and those who will be serving community to come forward as we prepare for this. And I'm gonna kind of move this over close closes up. And this is your first time at our church. Uh, we would like for you to have communion with us, but if you don't, it's perfectly fine.

Uh, I think it's good for us to remember exactly what our Heavenly Father has done across for all of our sins. And this is the reason why we do, uh, communion, is to remember exactly that. So what I wanna do first, as we pray over the message, I'm gonna pray over the message and we're gonna actually going forward to communion. Uh, let's bow our heads in prayer. Father God, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your word, our heavenly king.

I pray, Lord God, that your people, oh heavenly Father, learn to trust in you. Oh, heavenly God, that just as you were with Abraham and Sarah, Lord God and you kept their, you kept your word, you kept your promise, uh, to them, oh Lord God, we too, father God could take part in that Lord God and trust in your heavenly Son Jesus Christ. I thank you for this time. I pray that every, uh, word that was spoken of today, Lord God, that'd be planted on the hearts of your people, That it will take root within every single heart and produce fruit.

Oh Lord God that's pleasing unto you. For we thank you and we praise you for in Jesus and we pray, amen. If you will go ahead and stand to your feet. And, uh, what we're gonna do, uh, just start from the front. We're gonna come grab our cups and our bread, and then once you get back to your seats, I will then read this and we will have commun commune together. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's come forward Jesus. Perfect sum, perfect my soul raising this.

Thank you so much. Team. The Lord Jesus on the night of his arrest took bread. After giving thanks to God, he broke it and gave it to his disciples saying, take eat. This is my body. Give for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's take the bread. In the same way he took the cup saying, this cup is a new covenant sealed in my blood. Shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this in remembrance of me.

Say the cup that's bow has in prayer. Gracious God, may we who have received this sacrament live in the unity of your Holy Spirit, that we may show forth your gifts to all the world. We ask as in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's say the Lord's Prayer. Our Father who ought in heaven Hall be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Temptation, but deliver us from evil for ths, the kingdom, the power, the glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen. Church, I think you so much for, uh, just coming here today. Uh, as one announced that we had uh, 1230 today, we're gonna start our launch by healing rooms. If you guys need any prayer for anything, I don't care what it is, uh, definitely show up to that. We want to come alongside you, partner with you, and just pray for you.

I think we are in a season where we have to pray for one another and see what God will do. Uh, I know where the Bible talks about where two