To Know Him is to Trust Him

Allen, Janice and the kids (minus Jennifer) are not with us today. They are on vacation visiting family in Michigan and Illinois. Please keep them in your prayers for protection as they return.

And we continue on in our series in Genesis. Today we breech chapter 18. God has given Abram and Sarai new names: Abraham and Sarah. And God has given Abraham the covenant of circumcision which was a sign that he belonged to the Lord and symbolized how he and all his descendants were supposed to live-not according to the flesh but rather by faith, trusting in El Shaddai, trusting God Almighty.

Several months ago I was in a conversation with a young man. We were talking about life and God and he asked me this question: “Do you think you can ever completely trust someone?” I hesitated because I felt a bit like I was being set up but he was serious. His experience in life had taught him that no one could be trusted. And the sad reality is that to some degree he’s right…because of our sin we will fail. This is a problem because trust is essential to our relationships. As Christians, we’re called to be a people of relationship-right-after all, what is the church…we’re brothers and sisters.

So let me ask you this question, “How do you trust someone?” Can you trust out of duty or because you’re told to? Does trust just happen? Who do you trust…who do you really trust? Why?

Someone once said “We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone - but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy”. If you think about it, any trust we have in relationships has come about through some degree of risk or sacrifice which leaves us vulnerable.

Trust doesn’t just happen, it’s built; it grows and develops through experience. And the greater the risk the greater the trust that can be built. Our relationships aren’t built and strengthened on small talk and a bed of roses. No, it’s more like iron sharpening iron (Proverbs 27:17), laying down our life (John 15:13) and counting the wounds of a friend as faithful (Proverbs 27:6). Did you know that astronauts loose bone mass over time in space; because there’s no resistance or pressure on the bones. Turns out we need gravity and resistance as much as we need calcium in order to grow and maintain healthy bones. In a similar way, trust grows and is strengthened over time and through adversity and difficulty. Trust is built as we get to know each other.

So what does this have to do with Genesis 18? In the same way that trust is essential to our relationships, it’s also essential to our relationship with the Lord. The difference is that God isn’t like us. We fail, let each other down, we sin. But the Lord never fails us, He’s always faithful. So it could be foolish to completely trust one of us but it would always be foolish not to trust the Lord. But we don’t always live this way-do we? No. But the good news is that God knows our weakness and he’s willing to go to extreme lengths to help us. He knows that in order for us to trust Him we have to know Him.

Read Genesis 18:1-15

If you’re taking notes, the title of this message is: TO KNOW HIM IS TO TRUST HIM.

FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD: KNOWING AND BEING KNOWN

I have 2 points for us to draw out of this passage: 1st-Friendship with God: Knowing and Being Known. This passage has a striking resemblance to the events of chapter 17. Listen to the similarities:

17:1 – The Lord appears to Abraham- 18:1 – The Lord (and 2 angels) appears to Abraham, 17:3 – Abram fell on his face- 18:2 – Abraham bowed down to the earth, 17:16 – The Lord tells Abraham: “I will bless Sarah and give you a son through her.”- 18:10 – The Lord tells Abraham (within earshot of Sarah): “Sarah will have a son”., 17:17 – Abraham Laughs in disbelief- 18:12 – Sarah Laughs in disbelief, 17:17 – Abraham gives their age as the reason for his disbelief that Sarah could bear a child.- 18:11 – The narrator tells us that the reason for Sarah’s disbelief is their age., 17:19 – The Lord firmly restates His promise: NO! Sarah shall bear you a son!- 18:14 – The Lord firmly restates His promise: Is anything too hard for the Lord…Sarah will have a son!

Why the similarity and repetition? 1. To reaffirm the promise but 2. I think the similarities of these 2 narratives help to accentuate the intimate nature of chapter 18. When God appeared to Abram in chapter 17 it had been 13 years since we last heard from the Lord. But the account in chapter 18 is only about 3 weeks later-a much closer visit. Plus we have a detailed account of the Lord visiting, eating, conversing and later walking with Abraham.

And once again, the Lord takes the initiative. We can’t move on from this too quickly or we’ll miss the significance of what’s taking place. The Lord-the creator of the universe, the beginning and the end, the one who dwells in unapproachable light- walked through the dessert, accepted Abraham’s invitation, sat in the dust under His own tree with a smelly rotten toothed shepherd and ate his food. Think about it.

This visit must have been a priority. We can tell, from the heights that the Lord was willing to condescend from, that this visit was important to Him. But what was the Lord doing: he’s making Himself known, He was befriending Abraham. From the time that the Lord first called Abraham in chapter 12, we’ve been watching and studying the development of a relationship, a friendship between Abraham and the living God. God called Abraham to a life of faith, to trust the Lord and He’s been making Himself know all along the way so that Abraham could learn to trust Him.

But God doesn’t stop with making himself known. He also makes sure that Abraham and Sarah know that He knows them completely. In verse 12, Sarah laughs to herself behind them, in the tent (the same way we laugh when an inexperienced person makes an authoritative statement about something they’re going to do-bride to be). She laughs silently, but the Lord knows her heart-and he asks Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh”. When Sarah hears that and realizes that the Lord knows her thoughts, she fears and does the logical thing…probably what most of us would do-she lies.

Now picture this conversation:

Lord: “Where’s Sarah?”

Abraham: “In the tent.”

Lord: “I’ll be back next year and Sarah will have a son.”

Sarah (silently): “What?! Yeah right-snicker, snicker”

Lord (to Abraham): “Why did Sarah laugh?”

Sarah (silently): “UH OH! (deception) I didn’t laugh”

Lord: “YES…you did.”

Why is this in here? Does this seem irrelevant and out of place to you? I mean, is God so insecure that he has to argue with a woman? Oh, this is so relevant and such good news for us. This happened for Sarah and Abraham and it was recorded by Moses for the people of Israel and it was preserved for us-so that we could know that God knows us. God knows you through and through. He knows everything about you; every thought, motive, fear, temptation, desire, and tear.

Does that bring you comfort or make you squeamish? It’s usually the things that we’re ashamed of or embarrassed by that we hide, isn’t it. And many times those are the things that keep us from intimacy with God, aren’t they…silent, behind the curtain, trying to deceive ourselves and the Lord. Oh church, this is why this is such freeing news-HE KNOWS, HE KNOWS IT ALL!

Psalm 139:1-4 says: “O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.”

The Lord knows you inside-out and upside-down AND HE’S STILL WILLING TO CALL YOU FRIEND! You don’t have to hide; it won’t do any good anyway. Have you ever experienced the joy of knowing that the Lord knows you in a specific, intimate way-the parts of you that no one else knows, you're ashamed of or try to hide - and yet you don’t experience guilt or condemnation but instead are overwhelmed by His acceptance and love for you? I’m here to tell you that that’s the truth every day if you’ve trusted in Jesus Christ.

Trust is built when we know Him and when we are known by Him and still experience His love and favor. This is the reality for everyone who has put their faith in Jesus Christ. Hasn’t he made Himself known to you; through His Word and by His Spirit? He revealed who He is when came in flesh and lived the perfect life that we didn’t and then died the sinner’s death that we should have and then exchanged our guilt for His righteousness. And here’s the kicker: He knew you all along, He knew you when you were His enemy, when you were spiritually dead. Church, that’s why He went to the cross-because He knows us. How can we not trust this God? Oh we can.

THE POWER OF GOD: A PERSPECTIVE CHANGE

Well, my second and last point is: THE POWER OF GOD: A PERSPECTIVE CHANGE. Last week, Allen drew our attention to the fact that in chapter 17 God introduced Himself as El Shaddai-God Almighty-and we were reminded that God is ALL POWERFUL. Here in chapter 18 God again states the fact that He’s all powerful but He does it in the form of a rhetorical question in response to Sarah’s unbelieving laugher: “Is anything to hard for the Lord”?

So we know that God is all powerful. But what good is the knowledge of His power if we also know that even though God “can” do anything, He might not? Well, we need a perspective change. Look at the four words that follow “Is anything to hard for the Lord” – “At the appointed time”. This so called delay for Sarah to have a son was no delay at all. It was planned this way. It all happened exactly the way God intended and in the process a whole lot more was accomplished-including, as we’ll see in a few chapters, a miracle baby being born.

So instead of looking at your circumstances and judging for yourself what’s possible or how things should be turning out in a certain period of time-look up. Abraham and Sarah were both looking down at their flesh, their age, the physical impossibility of what God wanted to do. But nothing is impossible for God.

Take a troubled Christian marriage as an example: Both the husband and the wife bring sin to the table: selfishness, bitterness, anger, arrogance, self righteousness, and on and on. This has been going on for years and they’re hopeless for change. Why? Because they’re looking down, they’re looking at each other for change. Change your perspective-LOOK UP-Trust your God for the place He has you and watch Him work.

We have to realize that the Lord’s ways are not our ways. He doesn’t operate based on our definition of logic. Let’s briefly look at the Lord’s track record when it comes to showing His power:

• In Exodus, God sent Moses and the Israelites the long way-through the Red Sea-to escape Pharaoh rather than the normal short route to the Promise Land.

• In Judges, God chose Gideon-a fearful man-to form an army and march against the enemy of Israel. But before God would let him go He widdled his army down from 22,000 men to 300. Then they went and the Lord won the battle.

• In 1 Kings, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to call on their god and consume a sacrifice with fire. When their god did not answer, Elijah called on the God of Abraham to consume his offering-and he did-but 1st Elijah drenched the alter with water…3 times.

• In Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were saved from the fiery furnace-not because they weren’t thrown into a fire that was so hot that the guards who threw them in were burned up, but because the Lord preserved them in the fire.

• In John, Jesus delayed returning to a sick friend who ends up dying in His absence and is in the tomb 4 days before Jesus arrives, but then he raises him from the dead.

We don’t serve a conventional God, do we? What’s the point? The point is that God and His power are not for us to use at our disposal like a Jeannie in a bottle. We don’t get to choose the circumstances of our lives or the way things will play out. But what we do get to do is trust Him with what he gives us and we do that in the context of a relationship, a friendship.

There’s one more unconventional example of God’s power I want to share. It’s the story of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, being crucified on a cross, drinking the full cup of wrath and punishment for sin in order to make it possible for any who would believe to be forgiven and receive eternal life.

Aren’t you glad we serve an unconventional God? What’s your trial right now? Is it physical, spiritual, practical? If you are a Christian-let me encourage you to remember that your greatest and most impossible need has been taken care of-you have been reconciled to God. Now, within that truth is a wealth of knowledge about the Lord that will help you to know him deeper and trust Him in any trial. He came to you, revealed Himself to you and accepted you knowing everything about you. As we learn about the Lord by experience (risk and sacrifice) our knowledge of Him will move from our heads to our hearts and we will trust Him in ways that we never thought possible.

Jerry Bridges on trusting God: “In order to trust God we must know Him in an intimate, personal way. It is more than just knowing facts about God. It is coming into a deeper personal relationship with Him as a result of seeking Him in the midst of our personal [pain] and discovering Him to be trustworthy. It is only as we know God in this personal way that we come to trust Him”

2 Chronicles 20:7 and James 2:23 both identify Abraham as “a friend of God”. And in Isaiah 41:8, God is addressing the nation of Israel and He refers to them as “the offspring of Abraham, my friend”. Do you consider God your friend? Do you think God considers you His friend? Don’t doubt the Savior, listen:

John 15:15 “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.”