8/1/18 Genesis 17, Genesis 18 – Matthew 6:25-34, Matthew 7:1-23 – Proverbs 1:8-19

Gen 17: 17-19 – 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?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.

What’s Abraham trying to do here? He’s talking to God who is making him an amazing promise! And because he doesn’t believe it’s possible, he’s trying to negotiate God out of a miracle.

Ishmael, he can see. Ishmael is a tangible fulfilment of the promise. But Ishmael was not what God had planned for Abraham.

When God has made a promise why do we settle for less? Why do we take away the faith for something great and instead try and talk God into a lesser dream? Our prayers take on a more “realistic” view and we step out of what God wants for us.

Don’t settle. Hold on to the promise.

Gen 18: 11-15 – 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. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

She laughed to herself. Not in public. She even denies it when challenged.

Our public face and our private face can often be very different. What we present to others, we need to realise that’s not the reality. That’s the performance. I’m sure Sarah pretended to be full of faith around Abraham. But privately she laughed.

God sees both. He sees the mask and the reality. We aren’t fooling him.

Who you are when you are alone, that’s who you really are. And that’s the person God can change if we let him.

We can seem very full of faith around others. But our faith must hold fast in the quiet of the night and in the storms. For that is where it is proved.

To quote Star Wars (if I may) – “If you only believe in the sun when you can see it – you’ll never make it through the night. “

Matt 7:5 – You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

Note verse 5 here – FIRST take the log out your eye – THEN you will see clearly to help others.

Sort yourself out first, otherwise what good are you? Then help.

It’s like in the air safety video you get when you fly – put your mask on first, before you help others with theirs, otherwise you are not much use to them.

Here’s the problem, so many people hide their own problems by helping others. As long as they are active and dealing with specks – then maybe nobody will notice the log. “If I keep myself useful, surely I don’t need to deal with the log.”

But it doesn’t work. It just causes more problems because you can’t see clearly with a log hanging out of your eye!

No man is good enough to judge. Only the faultless has the right to look for faults in others, because only the faultless can see clearly what needs to be done.

No man can criticise someone in something they themselves are not able to do.

Every weekend football stadiums are full of people who are vocal critics, yet they’d do no better themselves if they were on the pitch.

A while back, during Middlesbrough’s last game of the season they were boo’d by their own fans constantly. They even called for their own keeper to be sent off.

And we can think, we’d never react the same – but I tell you we do the same so often in church. The church is the only army in the world that seems to delight in shooting it’s own troops.

When a minister falls we can be like coyotes around a carcass. That’s not a biblical response.

No man has a right to criticise others unless he is prepared to venture himself in the same situation. No man is good enough to criticise his fellow-men.

The only flawless one, Jesus Christ – is the only one who can truly judge.

But we cannot think Jesus is teaching here: “Everyone’s got stuff going on, deal with yours and tolerate hypocrisy in others”. Because He is not.

Love is much more demanding than that. If we love – we cannot let things go – especially when we know the damage that they do.

No – Jesus said remove your plank – remove your log. Deal with the thing that would lock you into condemnation and hypocrisy – so that as repentant sinners saved by grace we can approach and help people as such.

GaI 6:1 says “if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

That doesn’t mean you don’t deal with it – but you deal with it in the right Spirit.

You aren’t here to win a battle or bring someone low. But to help restore a brother.