Session 2
group therapy 2024 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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God’s About To Make Me Laugh
God’s About To Make Me Laugh
1 The Lord appeared to Abraham at the sacred trees of Mamre. As Abraham was sitting at the entrance of his tent during the hottest part of the day,
2 he looked up and saw three men standing there. As soon as he saw them, he ran out to meet them. Bowing down with his face touching the ground,
3 he said, “Sirs, please do not pass by my home without stopping; I am here to serve you.
4 Let me bring some water for you to wash your feet; you can rest here beneath this tree.
5 I will also bring a bit of food; it will give you strength to continue your journey. You have honoured me by coming to my home, so let me serve you.” They replied, “Thank you; we accept.”
6 Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick, take a sack of your best flour, and bake some bread.”
7 Then he ran to the herd and picked out a calf that was tender and fat, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to get it ready.
8 He took some cream, some milk, and the meat, and set the food before the men. There under the tree he served them himself, and they ate.
9 Then they asked him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” “She is there in the tent,” he answered.
10 One of them said, “Nine months from now I will come back, and your wife Sarah will have a son.” Sarah was behind him, at the door of the tent, listening.
11 Abraham and Sarah were very old, and Sarah had stopped having her monthly periods.
12 So Sarah laughed to herself and said, “Now that I am old and worn out, can I still enjoy sex? And besides, my husband is old too.”
13 Then the Lord asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Can I really have a child when I am so old?’
14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? As I said, nine months from now I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”
15 Because Sarah was afraid, she denied it. “I didn’t laugh,” she said. “Yes, you did,” he replied. “You laughed.”
I need you to lean over and tell your neighbor a secret:
God’s About To Make Me Laugh
God’s About To Make Me Laugh
1. Waiting:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
How Long Is Too Long For You?
Waiting for God: 8 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders Study 1: When Waiting Is Difficult (Psalm 13)
We do not like to wait. Whether it is being put on hold on the phone or standing in a long line at the store, waiting irritates us.
Sometimes, though, waiting is more than an annoyance. Sometimes it’s torturous. Waiting for a loved one to come out of surgery. Waiting for the results of a biopsy taken to test for cancer. Waiting for an answer to a prayer we have been praying for months or even years. This kind of waiting is difficult because it is full of fear. We are left in these times with terrible questions about our future—and terrible questions about God.
Waiting for God: 8 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders Study 1: When Waiting Is Difficult (Psalm 13)
GROUP DISCUSSION. What kinds of situations are hardest for you to wait patiently in? Why?
Waiting for God: 8 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders Study 1: When Waiting Is Difficult (Psalm 13)
PERSONAL REFLECTION. Think of a time when you waited a long time for an answer to prayer. What anxieties did you experience while waiting? How did this time of waiting affect your sense of God’s presence with you?
Waiting for God: 8 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders Study 2: Wisdom in Waiting (Proverbs 3:1–12)
Waiting often causes anxiety. We plead with God to hurry and act even while we battle a growing fear that God has deserted us. To cope, we may try to take control of things that we have no ability to control, often causing harm to ourselves or others. We can become demanding and manipulative in attempts to make things go the way we think they ought to go. And when our attempts fail, anger may take hold and lead us to say and do things that are hurtful. The end result will likely be exhaustion and despair.
Let’s Look At How Waiting effected Abram, Sarai and Hagar
1 Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne him any children. But she had an Egyptian slave woman named Hagar,
2 and so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Why don’t you sleep with my slave? Perhaps she can have a child for me.” Abram agreed with what Sarai said.
3 So she gave Hagar to him to be his concubine. (This happened after Abram had lived in Canaan for ten years.)
4 Abram had intercourse with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she found out that she was pregnant, she became proud and despised Sarai.
5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “It’s your fault that Hagar despises me. I myself gave her to you, and ever since she found out that she was pregnant, she has despised me. May the Lord judge which of us is right, you or me!”
6 Abram answered, “Very well, she is your slave and under your control; do whatever you want with her.” Then Sarai treated Hagar so cruelly that she ran away.
7 The angel of the Lord met Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur
8 and said, “Hagar, slave of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She answered, “I am running away from my mistress.”
9 He said, “Go back to her and be her slave.”
10 Then he said, “I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them.
11 You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your cry of distress.
12 But your son will live like a wild donkey; he will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live apart from all his relatives.”
13 Hagar asked herself, “Have I really seen God and lived to tell about it?” So she called the Lord who had spoken to her “A God who Sees”
14 That is why people call the well between Kadesh and Bered “The Well of the Living One who Sees Me”.
15 Hagar bore Abram a son, and he named him Ishmael.
Waiting for God: 8 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders (Study 2: Wisdom in Waiting (Proverbs 3:1–12))
1 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
2 For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.
3 Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
4 So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
8 It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.
9 Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:
10 So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.
11 My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
Wisdom teaches another way: wait for God to lead, for God to guide, for God to act. Rather than relying on ourselves to try to control things that are out of our control, wisdom calls us to depend on God. Rather than relying on our very limited understanding, wisdom instructs us to trust God’s (omniscience- all knowing) and (goodness-God’s goodness is the perfection of his nature and moral excellence.)
. In times of waiting we are invited to choose wisdom, to ask for deeper trust in, and deeper surrender to, the One who loves us and longs to show us the way.
Waiting for God: 8 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders Study 2: Wisdom in Waiting (Proverbs 3:1–12)
. What might it mean to “bind [love and faithfulness] around your neck” and to “write them on the tablet of your heart” (v. 3)?
Waiting for God: 8 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders Study 2: Wisdom in Waiting (Proverbs 3:1–12)
What does it mean to “trust in the LORD with all your heart” (v. 5)?
Waiting for God: 8 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders Study 2: Wisdom in Waiting (Proverbs 3:1–12)
What might it mean for a person to acknowledge God in all their ways (v. 6)?
Waiting for God: 8 Studies for Individuals or Groups: With Notes for Leaders Study 2: Wisdom in Waiting (Proverbs 3:1–12)
Which of the instructions listed are difficult for you to follow?
When It comes to Wisdom: That story about Abram’s wife Sarai offering her slave to have a baby what Did
Sarai Do wrong?
What Did Abram do wrong?
What Did Hagar do wrong?
If you where Abram and you told your wife 15 years ago she was going to have a baby because God told you & not her. And Now she suggests let’s help God i have a good idea? Take my Slave… …What would you have done Brothers?
Waiting On God Requires:
Faith
Obedience
Partnership