Sarah's Laughter: Trusting in God's Promises

You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. He here we go, Welcome to the Bible Guys. Right before, right before we started, we were looking at the segment and then Jeff made a comment and then I was laughing during the roll in. But was I right? You were right? Of course yours? You're right. Okay, Well, our listeners are going to find out what that's about. Yeah, Well, because Desiree has chosen the segment for today known as mail Bags, mail Bags, and so mail Bags is today is sent in from Joe M. And Joe EM said, Hi Joe, by the way, very fun question. Yes, this is a great one. If you had to work at an amusement park or a famous landmark for the rest of your life, which place would you choose? That's a good question. And then during the roll in you said to me said, I know yours, it's going to be Disney And I said yes, yes, for real, and then you started laughing. Let me tell you why, Let me tell you why. Okay, So because it's the most magical place. Oh, there's no on my mind that that is correct. However, however, here's what I do also know because I have a good friend, So you can walk around and sing and dance and nobody's going to think anything about it, right, look at me musical? No if I have Because I have good friends. Living in Orlando, I knew people who worked at Disney, and actually, what I have found out is that working at Disney is actually extremely hard. So it's not it's not rainbows and sunshine to work at Disney. Uh, it's actually pretty brutal. And at least from the three people that I knew that worked there, they said that, They're like, yeah, I mean like, they don't treat you poorly. They treat you fairly, but it is brutal. Right, you work extremely hard, and so I don't I don't think that working at Disney would be easy. I also don't agree with a ton of what Disney does politically, right, and I'm hoping that, you know, some people are going to be fired, and some people have been fired by the way reorganized and reorganized a guess, because yeah, because Disney wants what Disney once was is not what Disney is now, and we're hoping it'll do the pendulum swinging back, right, So those things exist. However, with that being said, my daughter lives in Florida and she has no plans on leaving. My other daughter says that she would love to eventually if she could move down to Florida with her husband, because he's a rocket engineer and wants to work at NASA and these kinds of things. So why would I not want to work at a place where my entire family can go for free? Right? So, because we all love Disney anyway, it's all about the grand kits. So if I could wave a magic wand and it would have to be the Firitele family can go to heridis church for free. Well you know we're talking about not just any magic wand, Jeff, okay, but the fairy God. It has to be a music park, amusement park, or a famous landmark. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, So so I would just say, I would just say it would be for the for the grand kids. That's it. That's for the for the future grand kids. Yep, that's right. Wow, Okay, Well that's it. So you you don't want to do it because it's magical. You want to do it because it's a hard place to work. For your grandchildren. No, I'm saying in spite of the fact that it's hard. I see, I would still choose it A because it is magical. B because of the grand kids. Okay, well, I trust you. You know I've only been to Disney twice life. You now told me everything that I need to know about you. Yeah, if you knew it. But it's all fake. There did you stop? It's real. It's real, the magic is real, so so believe it or not. Here's my answer. I've been thinking the whole time you've been talking, so I barely paid attention. Thanks my I would say my favorite so landmark I'm guessing like famous landmark would be like, oh that was Hagar Sorry. Yeah, So amusement parks would be like Disney or Cedar Point or something. A landmark would be like National Yeah, Tasure kind of Washington's Okay. Then I would say national parks with National park counts and a landmark. It depends on if it's yeah, I think it would yeah, yeah, Okay. Then I would say yeah, no, no, no, no. Grand Tee Tons would be my favorite place on the planet. Huh. Jenny Lake. I love Jenny Lake and the Grand te Tones so then we're done. So that's what I would do. I was thinking of the Washington Monument. That's what I was trying to Washington Monument, Yeah, Lincoln, Yeah, okay, so that's it for me. By the way, let me just let me squeeze in here a thirty second story. I was I would expect nothing less. Okay. I'm at Disney and I'm standing in front of the castle. We just happened to be walking by on the way to the ride, and they had one of those little plays, you know, those impromptu plays where Mickey comes running out of the castle things, and they were doing Frozen. In the middle of this, like Medley or whatever. All of a sudden it's Elsa and Anna, and Elsa is up there and uh and and they had apparently jackhammered the cement below and somehow installed, maybe even overnight, some sort of a machine. So then so then she when she says let it go, she she releases snow, and apparently there's there's a built in like snow machine. No, it's not a snow machine, because the snow came from her hand, but it's like a wind, a gust of wind. Yeah, And so she so her cue yes is to is to let the snow go directly over what is built into the cement now, and it shoots up. And so when she lets the snow go, it leaves her hand and goes at a forty five degree angle upward. And then she runs over to the other side and lets snow go, and it goes upward the other way right, and then there's then she runs over to this other thing and then this fog comes out of the ground. So they had built this for this this also segment. And I was sitting there with my daughteritory I actually looked and as I was watching this, I cried. I believe you, I was legitimately like a tear came down my eye. I can I can envision it. But do you know why? Because it was beautiful and magical. It was your little girl was witnessing it. There's a dream come true for you. But my little girl was in her twenties still. But that's not why I cried. I cried because I thought to myself, this is actually, in a lot of ways what I do for a living. Like I'm an arts creator, right who create art for the purpose of capturing people's attention. Now and in this case, they just did it because of wonder and magic and all that stuff. Right money, right, money, Just be honest, but you feel okay, wonder magic for the purpose of money, and then it's not about wondering magic. It's about the three hundred and fifteen dollars taken. But for me, we do it. We create services on Sunday mornings and other things. In fact, tomorrow I'm leaving, and you can look at our budget. We can prove it's not for money at Heritage, that's correct. But tomorrow I'm leaving to fly the Dominican Republican. Eventually I'll get to the place where I'm going to film something and we're going to try to create a piece of art through b roll and all these different kinds of things, and we're going to create this thing and make no mistake of it. It is art right for the purpose of telling a compelling story. And then we're going to present this global ministry to Heritage in July. And so I'm sitting here thinking all of this as I'm watching Elsa and Anna. But Elsa is basically throwing snow into the air and all the kids around me are going wow. And I'm going like this is so unbelievable that they're going out of their way to do so much work just for the benefit of this. And I thought to myself, this is what we are called to do in church, to capture people's attention, to do that much work, to make sure that the why for one reason, so that the gospel is clearly seen, it's clearly heard. So what the world, what Disney does requires all of us. So I did a message one time about this a difference between you know, drama and movies and what we do. We're both telling a story, but a movie requires mutually agreed upon suspended disbelief. Right, So that whole thing that's not real snow, Right, she didn't make that snow just suddenly appear in her hand and fly out. Right, That the whole thing was made. It was all manufactured, And it was manufactured for two reasons, to give people warm fuzzies. Right, to make Dad's tear up so that they'll spend three hundred dollars on a ticket and buy nine dollars cokes and spend four hundred dollars on souvenirs. Right, that's why they do it. They do it for warm fuzzies. So that you'll spend a bunch of money as a proposed to what you're doing, going to make this documentary kind of thing in Dominican Republic is to help change lives. There's a huge differ between those two things. Making you smile in your life is nice, and I think that's important. Yeah, the end goal is radically different. But the end goal is radically different. There's so much more depth to the work that you're supposed to be doing. Oh yeah, it's difference between wasting your life, honestly, Yeah, and I mean, I mean I would be by the way, I don't think anybody who works for Digity is wasting their lives. I'm not saying that. I'm saying based on the call that God has placed on my life, if I decided to just chuck it all and go create snow, I would be wasting my life. I think that's a picture of granteetons. Oh wow, I just Holy Christmas. Nice. That's awesome. I love it. So all right, Well, let's jump into Genesis chapter eighteen versus number one through fifteen. So it says the Lord appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to Mammory. One day, Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day. He looked up and noticed three men standing nearby, and when he saw them, he ran to meet them and welcomed them, bowing low to the ground, my lord, he said, if it pleases you, stop here for a while, rest in the shade of this tree while water is brought to wash your feet. Since you've honored your servant with this visit, let me prepare some food to refresh you before you continue on your journey. All right, they said, do as you've said. So Abraham ran back to the tent and said to Sarah, hurry up, get three large measures of your best flower, and knead it in the dough and make some bread. And then Abraham ran out to the herd and chose a tender calf and gave it to a servant, who quickly prepared it. When the food was ready, Abraham took some yogurt and milk and the roasted meat, and he served it to the men. As they ate, Abraham waited on them in the shade of the trees. Where is Sarah, your wife? The visitors asked, she's inside the tent, Abraham replied. Then one of them said, I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah will have a son. Sarah was listening to this kind of station from the tent, and Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time. Sarah was long past the age at having children, so she laughed silently to herself and said, how could a worn out woman like me enjoy such pleasure, especially when my master, my husband, is also so old. Then the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? Why did she say? Can an old woman like me have a baby? Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son. Sarah was afraid, so she denied it, saying I didn't laugh. But the Lord said, no, you did laugh. That's it is. That it is that where we am. That's it. Yeah, we're supposed to read one through fifteen. One through fifteen, so geez, I guess we got to summarize the rest of the story. Right, So she basically was pregnant and then had a son named Isaac. Right, So, so, yeah, where is the actual rest of birth of Isaac? Is tomorrow is tomorrow. Okay, so you just ruined it. I think the listeners waiting with a bated breath to find out what happens next. Yeah. Well you know, uh number one, you know, it's it's it's interesting how these three men, you know, are these are these three angels by the way, Yes, yeah, So it doesn't say that that, does it. Yes? Does it say there were angels in disguise? Yeah? Then the men got up from their meal and looked out towards Sodom, and two of them are the angels that destroyed Sodom and tomorrow. Oh you're talking about later on. It's the same story. We already read that. No, that's literally the next verse. Oh right, well, all I'm saying is it doesn't say it so far. We didn't read that today. Oh yeah, we didn't read it today. It's the next verse. Yeah yeah, yeah, So these are angels, right, And as a matter of fact, this is considered one of the Christophanies, one of the appearances of Jesus in the Old Testament. Some people believe that this moment was a Jesus moment. Yes, And so the point I was trying to make is that at this point, they don't know that they're angels. That's right, that's correct, and so and and by the way, we're not even told as readers that they're the angels at this point. That's correct. So so, you know, it is one thing to doubt God's word, but then it's another thing to have somebody say, hey, at this time, here's why I think it's going to happen. And you're thinking to yourself, well, you're crazy. You're just a traveler, right, You're just the manah right, You're just some guy, Like, how do you even know us? And why would you ever say that? But yet at the same time, there's a really good point in here, because she was not just doubting what the crazy guy said, right, she was actually reasoning how it's impossible, right, And so it's it's interesting how the angel says why would she laugh? Because is anything too hard for the Lord? And sometimes we need to check ourselves, because I believe that sometimes we think that way and we think, well, there's no way that's going to happen, and then we just realize, you know, is that too hard for the Lord? Didn't we just did we just have this happen where one of our staff members told us a story, and he says, you know, he had this unbelievable story about the house being sold, you know everything. And then as he's telling the story, he makes this comment and says it was such a God thing. He goes, I don't know why it should surprise me, but sometimes it still does. It does, right, Right, So when God shows up and he does something that's beyond coincidence and defies odds, we think to ourselves, man, I'm so surprised. And yet you know, we should not be surprised. And so anyway, I think there's a little bit of credit we need to give to Sarah, a little bit of grace because she was really doubting the word of some three crazy travelers. Perhaps, well, they're twenty five years since the promise beget the first promise, right, Yeah, I've heard this before, right right, It just seems so so you get that now. I do think it's interesting, you know, if we move back just a little bit, here's Abraham and a lot and there Abraham, I mean, and he's enthusiastically serving these three travelers, and that was that was and still is a major measurement of a person's character and kindness of the goodness of who they are. The quality of the man in the Middle East is often measured by their hospitality and generosity. And so here's a traveler. Life was very difficult and still is very difficult often in many of the places in the Middle East, and travel can be very difficult. And so these strangers, they're strangers to Abraham. He doesn't recognize them, and he chooses not only to help him out. Hey, here's a tuna sandwich. Hey, Sarah, make some bread. Hey, servant, go and butcher that that animal. And hey, here's some of my best yogurt and some of my best right, and he brings out this great meal, roasted meat and milk. And I mean he spared no expense for these guys. He didn't know. Yeah, isn't it always isn't interesting as well that when you go to Israel today, chances are you're going to get lamb with yogurt. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, Like and Tazeki saw us on a hero. Yeah that's so good yogurt yeah yeah, with spices, that's right. So it is it is pretty interesting how it's like, Wow, check it out. Food is not a change. No, you're not a Middle Eastern food. Guy like like a Mediterranean for euros. The only thing that I like. Yeah, yeah, I love it. So I love I do. I do a lot of work in Middle East anyways, right, so I always look forward to the good meals. I am among the minority for sure. The last time I was in Iraq last year, we went to meet with a shake and we sat down in his home and sak is he's a leader of a tribe. So this shaik was a family leader of ten thousand people from near Moso. And so we go to his home and sit on the floor with his family, with his sons, so his oldest son and his next oldest son. So I think he had I forgot what they told us, like ten children. But his oldest son sat with us for the meal. His next oldest son served the meal and they brought out So there was me and Chad and the friend that we were traveling with, and our guide, this leader, this sheikh and his two sons. So there were seven of the six of us and they brought out enough food for fifteen people, twenty people. I'm not joking. It was unbelievable much food. But what was amazing was that Shaikh had had to lead his people, all ten thousand of his people to run away from Isis. They actually stood and fought Isis, and one as Isis was coming into Moses and they had to flee. He was offered a peace deal with Isis, and he said, no, right, you guys are monsters and you don't represent my religion, and fought them and then wound up. They were living in a refugee camp. So here's this shake. He's literally wearing a Rolex watch and he's living in a refugee camp in a little tiny hut, and he has nothing except that watch. They have nothing, They lost everything when they moved. But he put out enough food for ten of us, fifteen of us and was extraordinarily generous. And I've had that happen over and over and over again, not always with shakes, but with people who don't really have much, but when a traveler comes that they've never met, just turned themselves inside out to provide for And that's a big part of that culture. It really shows the measure of a man. How hospitable are you, how generous and kind are you to people you don't know? Well, I mean, we visited a village in Kenya and they had never even seen a white man before, according to my friend, and they had like two chickens and they insisted that we take one of their chickens. Yeah, and we were like, well, we don't want it because and the leader of the ring leader that I was traveling with said, we have much, you have little. We would not dare take your chicken. And then the translator said, if you don't take their chicken, it's offensive. It's offensive because you offend them. So you have to take the chicken. And we were like, oh my goodness. So we had an eleven hour drive home. So guess who held the chicken for eleven hours? You actually took the chicken. We had to oh my goodness. Yeah. So I had at one time again with the pocat same people. You're talking about the fact that I held you chicken as it is like flapping its wings like every five seconds, trying to get away, and I'm holding the chicken for eleven hours, and then that evening we ate them. I was going to say, there's a way to not have to have to hold a flapping chicken. I know, That's what I said. I said, just duck, take the thing's head or something so so well ten seconds anyways, I had them. They gave me a goat. So we were at this place, and were you with me? We went out to there was a o. It was not with you when anybody gave you a goat. Anyways, they give me a goat, and I was the same thing. I was going to try to decline it in this village and the translator said, oh, you can't decline the goat, and so I brought the chief and I said, thank you so much. You've honored me beyond comprehension. I've never had anybody give me a goat before. Thank you so much for your generosity. Here's what I would like to do. I have to fly on a plane home and they won't let me bring the goat. So could I hire somebody to butcher the goat and we'll have a party right now. And he went, that's a great idea. Everybody cheers, they go, they butcher the goat, they have a great, big party, celebrate all that kind of stuff. So I gave the goat back to the village, you know, is what I did. And they loved it. Because I can't fit a goat in my suitcase. My wife would be a little mad, right, but we're all your clothes. But there's something to be said about the level and the quality of a husband or wife who say, Hey, these strangers show up and we're gonna give the best to what we have to them. And then you know, they go on and they later find out, oh, hey, these are messengers from God, because this is where the story of Sodom and Gamora come from. And Abraham advocates for Sodom because Lot is living in Sodom and his family. He advocates and asks God to hold off destroying the city if you can just find ten righteous people. And then those angels are two of those angels go down, and that's that's who goes and rescues Abraham or a Lot in his family. You gave it away, Well, we're not. We're not reading that part of the story, I believe or not. I know it's not in there. We jump all the way to Isaac's birth tomorrow. So we're not even telling Sodom and Gamour unless we call an audible. You want to call an audible right now? I kind of do tune in tomorrow and find out are we going to tell Isaac the birth of Isaac or Sodom and Gomorah. Yeah, what is it going to be? Yeah, well, hey, look that looks like our time and so it looks like we have a decision to make and you'll find out tomorrow what the decision is on the Bible. Guys, hm m