God's Big Picture: Genesis 23

We as Christians are called to be a peculiar people as we wait for christ to return

Death of Sarah

A Peculiar People

Promises Fulfilled

Death of Sarah Gen. 23:1-2

Sarah followed Abraham as he followed God

Isaiah 51:2, 1 Peter 3:5-6

We should emulate Sarah

1 Corinthians 11:1 “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

When I was a kid my mom used to say something when she either got upset, did something stupid, stubbed her toe, anything really that I thought was so weird. She would say, “stink”. I used to laugh at her thinking it was so weird. She told me, be careful you’ll end up saying it one day too! Fast forward to my senior year of high school I’m hanging out with my friend, and I say it. “stink”. and He starts to laugh at how silly I sound saying stink when I do something foolish. Fast forward to a month or so later, he’s saying it all the time now.

I ended up imitating my mom with something silly she would say, and my friend ended up imitating me as well. But think, if I picked up something as insignificant as the word “stink” what else have I picked up from my mom?

Scripture tells us to look at Sarah and follow her example of following her husband. Jesus told the disciples, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.” Paul told us, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” You need to find someone in your life who is going to mentor you, someone you can follow while you are also trying to follow the example set forth in Scripture. this person may come up to you and have you start following them, or you might simply ask to follow them. That’s what happened with me and Michael, he showed up and I ended up following him. That’s also what happened with my old professor Dr. Graham, I asked him to disciple me.

A Peculiar People Gen. 23:3-16

We make strange decisions as Christians

Abraham decided to pay full price for the field and grave instead of taking it as a gift, like the Hittites wanted.

This is similar to him giving back the spoils of war to the king of Sodom when he could have just kept them.

Why is this peculiar? Because Abraham had his opportunity to gain the land God had promised in an easier way than he thought. But Abraham wanted to do it God’s way, he didn’t want someone to say that he only got this land because someone gave it to him and not that God gave it to him.

What is it that is peculiar that we do as Christians? We reject sin because we hope for something better in the future

Kids left with a cookie promised to be given a full plate if they don’t touch the cookie. Many of the kids ate the cookie because they couldn’t resist the temptation.

We are called to resist even when we are looked at as strange. In a culture that celebrates sexual freedom in things like pornography and sex outside of marriage, we celebrate sexual faithfulness inside marriage. In a culture that celebrates cheating to get ahead, we celebrate honest work. In a culture that celebrates wealth and prosperity, we celebrate charity and poverty.

Why? Because we have faith in the promises of God

Hebrews 10:23

Promises Fulfilled Gen. 23:17-20

Abraham finally has land - Gen. 12:1, 13:14-15, 15:7, 23:20

His descendants took the land - Joshua 21:43

The Savior came - John 1:14

The Savior will come again - Revelation 22:20

Conclusion

Jude understood that we need to be held captive by the promises of God. His whole letter is reminding the Church of what God has done so they should return to their faith that they once held so strong. And in spending the letter reminding the Church of what God has done he finishes with a doxology in Jude 24-25 so let’s echo him in singing this doxology as we place our faith in the God who always keeps his promises.