Have you ever heard of the “laugh-o-meter”? When I was young, there was a show on TV in which kids would try to make the audience laugh with jokes and funny stories. They then measured the number and volume of audience laughs with this “laugh-0-meter” and the one who had the most and loudest laughs won.

If we applied the “laugh-o-meter” to Genesis 21:1-7, it would go into the red zone. What caused so much laughter? It wasn’t jokes and funny stories, but rather the fulfillment of God’s promises.

RELY ON GOD’S PROMISES

• The Lord visited as he had said (1a)
• The Lord did as he had said (1b)
• The Lord gave a child as he had spoken (2)

God’s promises are not for doubting but for depending. 

What’s the result of God’s promises? Laughter!

REJOICE IN GOD’S PROMISES

• Sarah’s doubting laughter (Gen. 18:12-15)
• Sarah’s believing laughter (Gen. 21:6-7)

The laugh-o-meter started rising in verse 3, when they named their son “Laughter.” It went into the orange zone in verse  six when Sarah exploded with joy as she looked at her baby boy. “God has made me laugh.” Or as the ESV puts it, “God has made laughter for me.” That’s not just her son, but her feelings. God manufactured laughter for Sarah and gave her it to enjoy. The laughter then goes into the red zone when Sarah anticipates everyone who hears this news will laugh with her.” God makes us and others laugh with joy when he keeps his promises.

Doubt manufactures depression, but faith manufactures delight.

LIVING THE BIBLE

Let’s rejoice in the fulfillment of God’s promises, especially the promise of his Son and our Savior (Luke 2:10–11). Thank God for the joy of salvation through the birth of Jesus Christ. Isaac made many laugh for a short time, but Christ makes multitudes laugh for all time. God makes laughter for his people by making promises to his people.

This episode of Living the Bible lines up with Expedition 5: Day 1 in  Exploring the Bible Together: A 52 Week Family Worship Plan and Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. You can catch up with previous episodes of the Living the Bible podcast here or subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcast.

What’s the hardest thing for people to believe?

For those who have no consciousness of sin, it’s hard for them to believe that God could not love them. Such people need to be convicted of their sin to seek mercy.

However, for those of us who have some awareness of our sinfulness and folly, the hardest thing for us to believe is  that God could love us, want to be with us, and desires relationship with us.

Such doubting unbelief can severely hamper spiritual life and joy. Proverbs 8 reveals God’s love in an amazingly reassuring way, encouraging us to receive God’s love in enjoy assurance of it in Christ.

Read more in my sermon notes.

Many Christians, and even secular analysts, have said that the biggest crisis our culture is facing is the failure of fatherhood. As Christians, we would say it is the failure of men to become what God has created them to be, that is, models of God’s father-hood to their children.

Blake Wilson calls this crisis, “Daddy Deprivation,” a crisis that Eric Mason says, “crosses cultural and socio-economic grounds; it’s a crisis prevalent in all areas of society, for the absence of a father leaves a lasting void in a man’s identity and development.”

Some of the stats that demonstrate this crisis are:

• Tonight, about 40 percent of American children will go to sleep in homes in which their fathers do not live.
• Before they reach the age of eighteen, more than half of our nation’s children are likely to spend at least a significant portion of their childhoods living apart from their fathers.

This is why Jordan Peterson is such a father figure with young men. He’s telling them things their fathers should have.

Read more in my sermon notes here.

I was out with some friends from church a couple of weeks ago. We had such a good night. I don’t think I’ve laughed so much in a long time. “It’s so good to laugh!” I said to Shona on the way home.

Laughter can be good

• Natural laughter: laughing with friends, good clean fun
• Spiritual laughter: laughing with God at his goodness

Laughter can be bad

• Dirty laughter: rude jokes and filthy talk
• Doubting laughter: Skeptical dismissing of what someone says
• Despising laughter: Sneering, mocking contempt of God or others

What about Abraham’s laugh in Genesis 17:17, where God told him not only that he would have a son when he was 100 years old, but that Sara would bear his son when she was ninety!

Was Abraham’s laugh a good laugh or a bad laugh?

I used to think it was bad because it questioned God. It was the kind of laugh that casts doubt on what God said.

But I looked up Matthew Henry and he argued that it was a good laugh. He called it “Abraham’s joyful, thankful, entertainment of this gracious promise…It was a laughter of delight, not of distrust.” The questions were more about admiration and surprise than doubt.

John Calvin says it was a mixed laugh. “He laughed, not because he either despised, or regarded as fabulous, or rejected, the promise of God; but, as is commonly wont to happen in things which are least expected, partly exulting with joy, and partly being carried beyond himself in admiration, he breaks forth into laughter….Abraham was as one astonished; as if he had received some incredible tidings.”

Whether Calvin or Henry is right, I was wrong. What they say fits better with Romans 4:19-21.

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

It’s good laugh yo with friends, but it’s also good to reverently laugh with God at his astonishing, surprising, wonderful, awesome Gospel promises and grace. As Abraham showed, we can be flat on our faces while filled with holy laughter. He wasn’t laughing his head off, but was laughing his heart out (John 8:56).

This episode of Living the Bible lines up with Expedition 4: Day 6 in  Exploring the Bible Together: A 52 Week Family Worship Plan and Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. You can catch up with previous episodes of the Living the Bible podcast here or subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcast.

How many times have you been let down in relationships? How many times have you let others down in relationships? We crave relationships, yet relationships can be such a source of pain and disappointment. Sometimes we’re tempted to give up, aren’t we? There’s just no point in trying anymore. Loneliness and isolation can seem very attractive. I’ll just live by myself and for myself.

When we open the Bible, though, we hear five of the most profound words in the universe: “I will be your God.” God is saying, “I want a relationship with you.” He says that in multiple different ways in the Bible. Listen to how he says it in Genesis 17:6-10.

GOD WANTS A RELATIONSHIP WITH US (6-8)

Look at the words I’ve highlighted: “And I will establish my covenant between me and you… an everlasting covenant, to be God to you…and I will be their God” (7-8)

God made us because he wants a relationship with us. And even after Adam and Eve divorced God, he designed a plan to fix what we ruined. The whole Gospel plan was designed to make “I will be your God” come true.

Sin says, “You will not be our God,” but the Gospel responds, “I will be your God.”

Is this relationship all one sided?

GOD WANTS A TWO-WAY RELATIONSHIP WITH US (9-10)

God wants a two-way relationship, a mutual relationship. “As for you, you shall keep my covenant” (9). When we hear God say, “I will be your God,” God wants us to say in response, “We will be your people.”

God had given Abraham multiple covenant promises. Again and again he said to Abraham, “I will be your God.” But Abraham kept messing up. God was saying, “I will be your God,” but Abraham was saying, “We will not be your people.”

Therefore God gave him three helps to encourage him in this relationship: promises of multiplication, a new name, and circumcision (10). God covenanted to multiply Abraham. God re-named Abraham. God circumcised Abraham.

We looked at the first two helps yesterday. The third, circumcision, was a way for Abraham and his family to say, “We will be your people. We will be cut off from the world in order to join ourselves to you. We will keep your covenant.” The cutting off of the skin and shedding of blood was a painful yet memorable way of Abraham and his family saying, “We are committed to this relationship.”

Now, of course, we don’t have circumcision now; we have something even better. We have baptism. In baptism, God says, “I will be your God,” and we say, “We will be your people.” God says, “You will be separate from the world and joined to me,” and we say, “We will be separated from the world and joined to you.”

Why do I say this is better? Because this time all the painful blood-shedding is on God’s side.

In circumcision, through painful blood-shedding and separation, Abraham showed his commitment to make this relationship work. At the cross, through painful blood-shedding and separation, God showed his commitment to make this relationship work.

LIVING THE BIBLE

When God says, “I want to be your friend,” or “I want to marry you,” or “I will be your God,” he means it. If you doubt his commitment, look to the cross and respond, “We will be your people.”

This episode of Living the Bible lines up with Expedition 4: Day 5 in  Exploring the Bible Together: A 52 Week Family Worship Plan and Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. You can catch up with previous episodes of the Living the Bible podcast here or subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcast.

What do you do when you meet challenges, difficulties, and obstacles in life? If you’re like me, your tendency is to try harder rather than trust harder. We trust our own minds and might rather than God’s. As a pastor and a parent, I’ve fallen into that trap more times than I’d like to remember. It never ends well, as Abram found out when he trusted in his own mind and might more than God’s. That’s the messy story of Genesis 16. God responds in Genesis 17. Let’s listen to what he says in verses 1-5.

I AM MIGHTY AND YOU ARE NOT

Abram sinned by using his own power to multiply his seed. What were God’s first words to him after this sin? “I am God Almighty, walk before me and be perfect.”

• God doesn’t ask for our help: See where Abram’s “help” got him.
• God does ask for our faith: Trust my mind and might, not your own.

Abram falls on his face before God in an admission of his weakness and God’s power. “You are mighty and I am not.”

God doesn’t ask for our help, but he does ask for our faith.

If you were Abram on the ground, you might be wondering, “How can I avoid doing this again? Will God help me to trust him?” God read his mind and gave him three helps.

I AM THE MULTIPLIER AND YOU ARE NOT

God gave Abram three reminders to help him believe. Here are two of them. We’ll look at the third tomorrow.

• God covenanted to multiply Abram: A covenant is more sure and secure than a promise
• God re-named Abram: Abraham means “father of a multitude.”

Abram’s weakness divided his family, but God’s power multiplied it. This was fulfilled physically in the nation of Israel—Abraham is the father of the nation. This was fulfilled spiritually in the church—Abraham is the father of the faithful (Gal. 3:7,9).

We are weak dividers, but God is the mighty multiplier.

LIVING THE BIBLE

Next time we are tempted to try harder rather than trust harder, let’s fall on our faces and hear God’s reminders. I am mighty and you are not. I am the multiplier and you are not. Let’s give waiting a shot rather than working, trusting rather than trying, faith rather than force, relying rather than running. And watch God proving again that he is mighty and he is the multiplier.

This episode of Living the Bible lines up with Expedition 4: Day 4 in  Exploring the Bible Together: A 52 Week Family Worship Plan and Exploring the Bible: A Bible Reading Plan for Kids. You can catch up with previous episodes of the Living the Bible podcast here or subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcast.