Text:\u00a0 Genesis 18: 1-14<\/p>\n
Think of a time in your life.\u00a0 When someone was especially gracious to you.\u00a0 I can remember going home with a friend of mine to Oak Ridge, Tennessee.\u00a0 They invited me into their home.\u00a0 My friend\u2019s mom cooked up all kinds of special food.\u00a0 She even set me up with a girl from their church. They hardly knew me, but they went out of their way to make me feel welcome.\u00a0 Yet I think that was their way.\u00a0 I suspect all their guests were treated to that good southern hospitality.<\/p>\n
All of us can think of times like that.\u00a0 What a blessing to experience it. To experience kindness from people to whom you are pretty much a stranger.<\/p>\n
Well today we go way back to a much different time than our own.\u00a0 And here we can\u2019t help but be impressed by the graciousness of Abraham to some strangers who came his way. We can learn from his example of kindness.<\/p>\n
But read on and we soon realize there is something much bigger going on.\u00a0 And it\u2019s not just about two very senior citizens named Abraham and Sarah. It\u2019s about you and me and so many others touched by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.\u00a0\u00a0 So what we have here is:<\/p>\n
More than a lesson in Graciousness \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was the hottest time of the day.\u00a0 Not a time to work, not a time to be on the road walking, but a time to lay low out of the hot sun.\u00a0 It seems that Abraham had set up his tent to be shaded by one of the great trees of Mamre.\u00a0 Abraham sat outside with his wife Sarah inside the tent, maybe taking a nap.<\/p>\n 2 <\/sup>Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby.\u00a0 <\/span>Moses has already told us who has come to visit these two.\u00a0 The Lord.\u00a0 But Abraham does not yet know that.\u00a0 As far as he is concerned they are strangers.<\/p>\n They stand at some distance before approaching. That was like our knock on the door.\u00a0 You knock before entering.\u00a0 Then you\u00a0 stood at a distance and waited for your host.\u00a0 When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t get the wrong idea.\u00a0 Abraham was not worshipping here.\u00a0 This was the way you welcomed guests, even strangers.\u00a0 It was a way of saying, you are important to me.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lesson here for us.<\/p>\n Now watch this. 3 <\/sup>He said, \u201cIf I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. 4 <\/sup>Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. 5 <\/sup>Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way\u2014now that you have come to your servant.\u201d<\/span> \u00a0Think about Abraham\u2019s attitude towards these travelers.\u00a0 What\u2019s he do here?\u00a0 He asks them for the privilege of being generous towards them.\u00a0 For that\u2019s what it is- a privilege.\u00a0 Our Lord blesses with food and clothing and a roof over our heads.\u00a0 And often what do we find.\u00a0 We have more than we need. Well Abraham had in his heart what Jesus would one day teach.\u00a0 It is more blessed to give, than to receive.<\/span><\/p>\n That attitude was obvious in Abraham.\u00a0 Is it obvious in us?\u00a0 He didn\u2019t trudge inside the tent and mutter to his wife , It\u2019s so hot and we\u2019ve got these guys outside.\u00a0 Instead we\u2019re told.\u00a0 Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah.<\/span> There\u2019s that value that graciousness was a privilege, even a duty to his guests.\u00a0 \u201cQuick,\u201d he said, \u201cget three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread.\u201d<\/span> Back then, you didn\u2019t make the bread ahead of time.\u00a0 You prepared it for the meal.\u00a0 7 <\/sup>Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. 8 <\/sup>He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree<\/span>. \u00a0Abraham stood near like a waiter might today.\u00a0 He wanted to make sure the meal was just right for these strangers.<\/p>\n But let me pause for a moment.\u00a0 Does this sound foreign to us?\u00a0 Does it sound a bit over the top?\u00a0 Maybe this is just an unusual story.\u00a0 That\u2019s too bad if we think so. This graciousness towards even strangers ought not to be unusual for God\u2019s people.\u00a0\u00a0 It something we need to aspire to.\u00a0 For what does Jesus say:\u00a0 32 <\/sup>\u201cIf you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even \u2018sinners\u2019 love those who love them. 33 <\/sup>And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even \u2018sinners\u2019 do that.(Luke 6) <\/span>.\u00a0 So look at Abraham and learn from a gracious host.<\/strong><\/p>\n But of course, when we look at Abraham here, we also see something else.\u00a0 Somebody once said if you want something to look big, put it next to something small.\u00a0 Well it works the other way.\u00a0 I look at Abraham here and I see too often \u00a0my attitude towards others looks pretty small.\u00a0 Not very loving, not very gracious. Rather sinful.<\/p>\n So\u00a0 thanks be to God, this is more than a lesson in graciousness.\u00a0 Yes learn from Abraham\u2019s example.\u00a0 But give thanks to the One who came as a stranger.<\/strong>\u00a0 Not only to Abraham.\u00a0 But to you and me.<\/p>\n Years before, the Lord had spoken to Abraham and made him a set of special promises.\u00a0 Two of them were:\u00a0 I will make you into a great nation.\u00a0 All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 Abraham:\u00a0 From your descendants will come a great nation of many people.\u00a0 And this, Abraham also understood.\u00a0 One of those many descendants would be a blessing to the whole world.\u00a0 For he would not just be a son of Abraham.\u00a0 He would be the Son of God.\u00a0 We now know that one special descendant.\u00a0 His name is Jesus. And we know the blessings he has brought to us.<\/p>\n But now years had gone by since the Lord\u2019s promise to\u00a0\u00a0 Abraham and Sarah.\u00a0 More than once they had wondered what we sometimes wonder when we look around in our lives.\u00a0 How is the Lord going to keep his promise to me?\u00a0 How is he going to help me?\u00a0 How is he going to provide for me?\u00a0 Again and again the Lord propped up their faith in special ways.\u00a0 Yet still they remained childless-no son and now they were very, very old.<\/p>\n So picture these three men sitting under the tree enjoying the meal.\u00a0 One of them is the Lord.\u00a0 The others are angels, all come in the form of men.\u00a0 9 <\/sup>\u201cWhere is your wife Sarah?\u201d they asked him<\/span>\u00a0 Back then, you didn\u2019t ask about someone\u2019s wife unless you knew them well.\u00a0 This must have made Abraham wonder.\u00a0\u00a0 But then came these words that must have made his heart sit up and take notice.\u00a0 \u201cI will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 How could he know, what the Lord had promised us?\u00a0 How could he speak with such authority unless this stranger is\u2026?! \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Sarah is just inside the tent.\u00a0 She too heard this stranger\u2019s words.\u00a0 A son? \u00a0She thinks of her own body, now no longer ovulating.\u00a0 She thinks of her husband whose reproductive capacity is long gone.\u00a0 She laughs.\u00a0 But not out loud.\u00a0 She has what she thinks is a private laugh, a private unbelieving thought\u00a0 to herself inside the tent 13 <\/sup>Then the Lord said to Abraham, \u201cWhy did Sarah laugh and say, \u2018Will I really have a child, now that I am old?\u2019 14 <\/sup>Is anything too hard for the Lord?<\/span>…<\/p>\n We know the answer, don\u2019t we?\u00a0 But like Sarah and Abraham at times we\u2019re not always so sure.\u00a0 Is anything too hard for the Lord?<\/span>\u00a0 Well here we can think of something much more amazing than God\u2019s power to give them a little boy in their old age.\u00a0 For God\u2019s Word says:\u00a0 the wages of sin is death<\/span>.\u00a0 Left to ourselves we would stand before God with the stench of our guilt.\u00a0\u00a0 guilt for our sins. Left to ourselves we would hear God say the most fearful words that we deserve.\u00a0 Depart from me.<\/em><\/p>\n But is anything too hard for the Lord?<\/span>\u00a0 I know what I deserve. But Give thanks to the One who came as a stranger<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Follow his promise.\u00a0 From this son to another and then to another for hundreds of years until\u2026 a virgin was with child and gave birth to a son who was Emmanuel — God with us.\u00a0 Why did he come?\u00a0 To live each day of his life for you, in your place.\u00a0 And then to take your guilt and mine upon himself.\u00a0 To take it to a cross where he offered that life to set us free.\u00a0 \u00a0Do you know that freedom?\u00a0 To be free from that heavy load of guilt, to be free to live your live with a hope kept in heaven for you.\u00a0 I know what I deserve.\u00a0 But to save me was not too hard for the Lord.\u00a0 Not too hard to suffer and die for me. Not too hard for His great love.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what I want you to take home today.\u00a0 There are times in our lives where it seems too hard. It feels \u00a0too sad, too hopeless.\u00a0 You and I need the words of this stranger who is a stranger no more.\u00a0 He is our God, our loving Father.<\/p>\n So when you feel that way, I want you to remember these Words.\u00a0 They are also for you.\u00a0 Say to your troubled heart.\u00a0 Say to Satan who wants to bring you down.\u00a0 Is anything too hard for the Lord?<\/span>\u00a0 Then give it over to Him.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Text:\u00a0 Genesis 18: 1-14 Think of a time in your life.\u00a0 When someone was especially gracious to you.\u00a0 I can remember going home with a friend of mine to Oak Ridge, Tennessee.\u00a0 They invited me into their home.\u00a0 My friend\u2019s mom cooked up all kinds of special food.\u00a0 She even set me up with a girl from their church. 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\n<\/strong>I.\u00a0 Yes, learn from a gracious host
\nII.\u00a0 Give thanks to the One who came as a stranger<\/p>\n