This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Day 18 and Chapter 18 of our look together through the book of
Genesis. And let me begin today by reading Genesis 18, 1-15. The Lord appeared
to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to
his tent in the heat of the day.

Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he
hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them, and he bowed low to the
ground. He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my Lord, do not pass your
servant by.

Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest
under this tree. Let me get you something to eat so that you can be refreshed
and then go on your way now that you come to your servant. " "Very well," they
answered, "do as you say.

" "Where is your wife Sarah? " they asked him. "There, in the tent," he said.

Then the Lord said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and
Sarah, your wife, will have a son. " Now Sarah was listening at the entrance of
the tent which was behind him. Abraham and Sarah were already old and well
advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing.

So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master
is old, will I now have this pleasure? " Then the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did
Sarah laugh and say, 'Will I really have a child now that I am old? ' Is
anything too hard for the Lord?

I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.
" Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh. " But he said, "Yes,
you did laugh.

" Here's the story of Abraham and Sarah and God's promise in their lives. Here's
the story of the father of our faith and how he struggled his way to faith. And
here's the story of how God rejected Abraham's plan and Sarah's plan because he
had a better plan.

Abraham's plan was rejected. We saw yesterday, and we're going to see as we
continue through these verses in the book of Genesis, that Abraham and Sarah had
decided that Ishmael somehow was going to be, Hagar's son was going to be the
promised one, and God was rejecting that plan. To grow in faith, I have to
learn, you have to learn more and more that you cannot substitute God's plan,
you cannot take the plan that you have and somehow put it over God's plan and
make it work.

In fact, let me just say it this way, in order for God's plan to happen in your
life, your plans will have to be set aside. They'll have to be rejected. And
that does not feel good.

As we've seen this week, Abraham had a plan. It sounded like a good plan. To
grow in faith, he had to hear God say no to that plan.

One of the best things that can sometimes happen in your life, even though it
doesn't feel like it at the time, one of the best things that can sometimes
happen is God saying no to your plan. Abraham's plan was Ishmael. It was a way
to let God off the hook and to fill the promise.

He tried to direct God's interest into what was already, already a failed plan.
I'll have to settle for less. I'll have to get it myself.

God is leading Abraham and Sarah toward a third choice. The third choice is
this, I'll choose to trust in God. We began this week by talking about facing
your greatest dream.

And if you're going to have faith at that point of your greatest dream, instead
of settling or getting it yourself, it's this, I'll choose to trust in God.
Trust that God alone can do what I could never do. It was George Mueller who
said, "Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible.

There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where
man's power ends. " And Augustine said, "Faith is to believe what we do not see.

And the reward of faith is to see what we believe. " Now Sarah heard this great
thing that God was going to do and she laughed. The more specific it became, the
more she laughed.

Abraham had also laughed. In the last chapter, in verses 17 and 18, the Bible
says Abraham fell face down. He laughed and he said, "Will a son be born to a
man a hundred years old?

Will Sarah bear a child at the age of 90? " He laughed. And you laugh.

I laugh when God says some of the things that he wants to do in our lives, how
he wants to grow us, how he wants to change us. Now maybe you don't laugh. Maybe
you just say, "You've got to be kidding.

" It's still laughing inside. Where is it in your life that you are laughing
where you should be trusting? In fact, let me say that in a different way.

The place where you're laughing right now, that God could do that in your life,
that God could grow you in that way in your life, the very place where you are
laughing may very well be the place where God wants to do the greatest miracle
in your life. And most of us are like Sarah. We don't want to admit that we
laughed.

We want to be great people of faith. Abraham is the father of our faith and he
laughed. He struggled his way to faith.

So if you've laughed at something great that God wants to do, don't let that
keep you from admitting that God wants to do that. God wants to be at work. Now
we're going to have to wait until next week to see the end of this story.

Abraham and Sarah had to wait 25 years to see the end of what God was going to
do and they had to wait a year between this chapter and the next. Next week
we're going to see what God does and how God fulfills his promise. I'll choose
to trust in God.

Before we get there, we have a chance to look at the last half of chapter 18,
which is about the relationship of faith that God had with Abraham. Why was
Abraham the kind of man who could struggle his way to faith? Even though he
didn't get it right the first time many times, why did he always end up with
faith?

One of the main reasons is the kind of relationship that he had with God. And
you see a lot about that relationship in the conversation he had with God
beginning in verse 16. Listen to what happened.

I'm going to read a number of verses here, but you need, and I need to get this
picture of Abraham's relationship with God. Abraham and God have a conversation
about Lot, his nephew, and Sodom and Gomorrah beginning in verse 16. Listen to
what happens.

When the men got up to leave, they looked down towards Sodom and Abraham walked
along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said, "Shall I hide from
Abraham what I am about to do? " Then the Lord said, "The outcry against Sodom
and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin is so grievous, that I will go down and
see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.

If not, I will know. " The men turned away and went towards Sodom and Abraham
remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said, "Will
you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it
away and not spare the place for the sake of fifty righteous people in it? Far
be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked,
treating the righteous and the wicked alike.

Far be it from you. Will not the judge of all the earth do right? " The Lord
said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the
whole place for their sake.

" And then Abram spoke up again, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to
the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the
righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of
five people? If I find forty-five there," he the Lord said, "I will not destroy
it.

" Once again Abraham spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there? " The
Lord said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it. " And Abraham said, "May
the Lord not be angry, but let me speak.

What if only thirty can be found there? " He answered, "I will not do it if I
find thirty there. " Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to
the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?

" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it. " And then Abraham
said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only
ten can be found there?

" He the Lord answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it. " When the
Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
What an incredible passage of Scripture.

We learn a lot about faith. We learn a lot about the relationship of prayer from
the man of faith, Abraham, in these verses. We learn about why he's the kind of
man who grew in faith all of his life.

Look at what we learn from this passage. First at the beginning, the Bible says,
"He stood before the Lord. " Prayer is an expression of a relationship.

And when you and I pray, when we talk to God, it's as if we're standing before
or sitting before God. I'm not just talking to God. I'm sitting before God.

I am in relationship with God as I pray. Later in the prayer, as Abraham prays,
he says, "Far be it for you, God, that you would do this based on your
character. " Prayer is not only an expression of a relationship.

Prayer also appeals to the character of God. When you pray, if you want to pray
a prayer of faith, when I want to pray a prayer of faith, I need to pray not
just for what I want. I need to pray based on who God is.

Appeal to the character of God. "God, because you're loving, I ask that you
would do this. God, I know that you're a gentle God.

Would you be at work? God, I know that you're compassionate. God, I know that
you are a God who gets angry at sin and what is happening here.

Would you judge this? " Appeal to the character of God. As we just sort of walk
quickly through these verses, you could spend weeks on these verses.

In the midst of these verses, Abraham says, "Now that I have been so bold,
though I am nothing but dust and ashes," you learn about his relationship of
faith there. Prayer is, it's confident humility. It is bold and it is humble at
the same time.

And you, like me, are probably trying to learn how to do that. We're going to
spend the rest of our lives learning how to do that. It is worth learning how to
be bold in God's presence, making requests based on his character, but also
humble in his presence, realizing that the only reason I'm there is because of
Jesus.

And then there is what, to many of us, is the most interesting thing about this
passage, the 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10, where Abraham's going, "What about 50,
righteous? Well, maybe 45. " And then he goes for the 10s, 40, 30, 20, 10.

What's going on here? It's very important to realize that Abraham is not
bargaining with God here. You don't have to bargain with God.

You shouldn't bargain with God. He is not bargaining with God. He is talking
with God.

He's learning how to trust God. At any point if God had said, "No, I'm not going
to do it for 20 or for 45 or even for 50," Abraham would have learned something
about God. He is learning how to trust.

And if you feel like sometimes as you pray you're stumbling your way through
your prayers, you're just learning how to trust. It's better to stumble your way
through a prayer than to not pray at all. I find that some people don't pray
because they don't feel like they have the right words.

They don't feel like they have the fancy words. They don't feel like they have
the big words. They don't feel like they have the kind of words they've heard in
church.

And so you stumble your way through the prayer. Those are the best prayers of
all, because in those kinds of prayers you are learning to trust God. Prayer is
a relationship, so let's relate to God right now.

Our Father, we thank you. We thank you that though we are but dust and ashes,
we're just simple human beings. You love us.

And we pray that you teach us to pray. We pray that you teach us to trust. Teach
us that prayer is more than just a list of needs.

Teach us that prayer is more than just us talking to no one who is there. Teach
us that prayer is a relationship where we listen, where we talk, where we learn.
And Lord, even today as we spend these few moments talking to you at the end of
this study, touch our hearts.

Let us know that you're there, that we can trust you. We ask this, Jesus, in
your name, amen. Tomorrow we're going to look at Genesis 19.

It's one of the chapters of the Bible that we wish was not there, but it's also
one of the chapters of the Bible that we all need to see.