Good morning and welcome to this time of worship as we give praise to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He has called us, he equips us as his church to do his work, to be his kingdom in this world as there's much sins and sorrows and yet because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us, we get to proclaim a message of hope. As we think of the work of the church, many things that are going on, One is that this is going to be our last Sunday for having the children's Sunday school classes, although I know that we'll continue to have an adult Sunday school class available throughout the summer. You don't actually have to be an adult, I'm sure you guys would accept anyone to come in there, right? Okay, good, getting nodding right there. Next Sunday, we're not going to be doing a teacher's appreciation luncheon, but we're going to take a little time at the end of the service to show appreciation to our Sunday school teachers, and so I encourage you to stick around for that. And then, you know, starting with next Sunday, I'm going to be doing a profession of faith slash membership class. Anyone who wants to become a full member of this church, this is where I'll kind of introduce you to a process we like to go through. Essentially, you've got a questionnaire, that helps us to really kind of prepare ourselves for understanding who is this church, who is Jesus Christ, what do we believe, and I also have three different videos that you can listen to to help you to be able to answer those questions because it's not that we want to hide the answers from you, we want you to have those answers. but we're gonna be meeting three times to start off, so May 4th, May 18th, and June 1st, and this is just that initial kind of walking through that questionnaire that we have for you, but if you're someone who still has more questions or couldn't make it to those three meetings, I'll be making myself available throughout the summer to help make sure that you are comfortable in knowing who are we as a congregation and what is it that we believe. Something we also want you to be very aware of is tomorrow night is where we're going to have our congregational meeting to discuss the hiring of David Quaresma as our youth director, and that's where you hopefully have noticed in the church mailboxes those packets of information of what we'll be discussing, and we've also made that available through through a digital copy in some of our emails that have gone out there. And so, yeah, let's just have a prayerful mind of just clarity and unity as we want to further the work that we are able to do as a church. And one more detail of speaking of the opportunities that we have as a church. Our church, you're invited to participate in June in the One Life for Life Banquet. This is the ministry that our brother Jeff has been a part of. He wants us to know that they are going to be delaying that banquet by one evening. So instead of a Thursday night, it's being moved to a Friday night. But yeah, I continue to think about this chance to be supportive of trying to bring an end to the murder of children that's happening in our United States. And not simply just trying to bring an end to the murder of abortion, But speaking the gospel to those who are in those places where they've been living in lies, living in fears that would make them think that abortion is a good way out of trouble. So, you know, we want to be able to support. Him and the others who are involved in that good work. But as we do come to this great blessing of worship, let's now stand together in body and spirit being gathered with the words of Psalm 48. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. We have thought on your steadfast love, O God, in the midst of your temple. As your name, O God, so your praise reaches to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is filled with righteousness. Let Mount Zion be glad. Let the waters of Judah rejoice because of your justice. We offer this prayer of response. God, we are so thankful that your praise has reached the ends of the earth. because that includes us. We know about your glory because others before us have gone to share your word that we would know that there is a God and that there is a King. And in you, all will be healed and made right. And so Father, we thank you for places of gathering. Though this may not be a temple like that of the Old Testament, we now get to be your temple The way that we love one another wherever we are, your presence can be seen and in this we are honored and delighted. We pray that our worship this day honors and delights you. Father, we ask this now in Jesus' name, amen. Brothers and sisters, the Lord himself, he greets us with these words of Philippians. He says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. With this sense of greeting, let's turn to the people who are around us and share our welcomes with them as well. Thank you. Let's gather together in our singing as we lift up to the Lord. Come people of the risen King. We will live. For his word, O God, will never change, and his mercy never cease. O God, who watched through all the years, who has served you, O God, be gracious to us. you Rejoice! Rejoice! Every tongue rejoice! Friends, we recognize our deep need for our Lord and Savior with these words of Psalm 39. The Lord Make me know my end and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting I am. And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you. And we do see the kindness of God that He does not leave us in our sins. He does not leave us in our death and in our misery. We see words of hope and assurance proclaimed to us in Psalm 147. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. So as we look for this grace of God, let us sing, God, be merciful to me. you. Yes. Would the men come forward for the offering? Let us pray. Almighty Father, you have blessed us beyond measure. We gratefully give a portion of these blessings that we may continue to teach the truth of your word May it be pleasing in your sight. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Next week we have the privilege of sharing in the Lord's Supper together. As we prepare our hearts, having this week to really think about the significance of what we share with one another, we look at the words of the Westminster Larger Catechism, question and answer 174, where it asks us, what is required of them that receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper in the time of the administration of it? I'm asking at that moment in which we are about to partake in the Lord's Supper, what should we be thinking in that moment? So the answer, it is required of them that they receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, that during the time of the administration of it, with all holy reverence and attention, they wait upon God in that ordinance, diligently observe the sacramental elements and actions, heedfully discern the Lord's body, and affectionately meditate on His death and sufferings, and thereby stir up themselves to a vigorous exercise of their graces, in judging themselves, in sorrying for sin, in earnest hungering and thirsting after Christ, feeding on Him by faith, receiving of his fullness, trusting in his merits, rejoicing in his love, giving thanks for his grace in renewing of the covenant with God and love to all the saints. So summarizing, what is it that we just read there? Well, when we're about to partake in the Lord's Supper, we're to think about what we're doing and why. What is the bread and the cup? What do they represent? the body and the blood of Jesus Christ as He died for us. Why did He die? To take away the penalty of our sin that we would be given new life in Him. But one of the things I appreciate about this answer that's given to us is that we're supposed to think through, rationally discern what is the body and the blood of Christ. What does that mean for us? But it is not simply just think about it, but that thinking, that rightful thinking about the Lord's Supper should stir affections within us, emotions and desires. They should flow from that understanding of this gift of grace that God has given to us. So what are these emotions? What are these affections and these desires? Well, does the recognition of our sin cause us real sorrow? When we think of Christ and His accomplishments, does this meal that we share with each other stir up a hunger for Christ? Do we desire Him more because of what we do together? When we think of those accomplishments, those victories of Jesus Christ as they are bestowed upon us, does that create within us a delight, a joy for God? And as we participate in this together, as we call it communion, what does that mean? You know, co-union, are we being more united together? Are we being more united with God when we partake in the Lord's Supper? And are we as the church, the members of God's family, are being more united with each other? These are the kind of things that are good and appropriate for us to be considering when we share in the Lord's Supper. But you also don't have to wait until next week. We have this week to start considering these things even now. As we do want to be people who are continually mindful of the Lord and our need of Him and His graces to us. Now let's now turn to the Lord together in prayer. Almighty God, we give you praise for the power of your resurrection because ultimately every Sunday is an Easter Sunday where we have a hope and a joy in your great victory. You prove that your ability to love and create is greater than our ability to destroy and hate. And we are eternally grateful that you would pour out your mercies on your church. All that you have given into the hands of your son. Lord, this wonderful truth is so important for us to remember as many of us do grieve the passing of loved ones. The dead do not stay dead in you. We particularly lift up Linda to you this week with the recent death of Greg. But we also pray for everyone else who is grieving the passings of a friend or family member, those that we love. Because we recognize even with time, it's still painful for us to be separated from those we care about. And yet we are thankful for the reunion that we will have with each other as we have our joyful union with you. And Lord, we are grateful too for your constant care of us and as we live in the difficulties of this life. And we're thankful for the protections that you've shown to those like Joan B. and Randy V. and Christy W. with their cancer treatments. Please keep them healthy and protect them from any large side effects of these treatments. We pray for Carl H and the severe weakness that he still feels from the brain bleed and the seizure that he had a couple weeks ago. And we're grateful that there are some signs of recovery, but we know that there is much more need. And so please, heal him greater, heal him quickly and soon. Please be with Nella V as she meets with doctors to see if she is a good candidate for a Parkinson's treatment, deep brain stimulation. Our hope is that this treatment would be possible and effective for her. We ask that you would be close to those with ongoing needs. Madeline D, Tiffany M, Bonnie H, Vivian S, Lucy V, and Bob W. We ask for your guidance on our church and the business that we do. There are many things that are required for a family of faith. People this size and all the things that we hope to accomplish and with our business meeting that we have tomorrow as a congregation. We ask that you grant us a single-mindedness and a plan that we can rally around a hope and a plan to be able to raise a new generation of believers because we deeply care about the children of our church and we want them all to have meaningful opportunities to know you and mature believers who can mentor them And so with this, as we think about our brother Davi, as there is an opportunity for him to join us in this great ministry of serving the young people of our congregation, we ask that you would bless him. And we ask that you would help our congregation to be a home for him while he and his wife Maria are away from their home down in Brazil. Watch over Maria. and their baby on the way. Keep Levi and mom healthy and strong. Just bless us as a congregation as a whole. Let's do think of ourselves as a great family. That we would be able to have the minds and the eyes to notice the needs that each of us are sharing, and that we would have the affection for one another, that we would step up to serve each other wherever it is needed. And when people look at us as a congregation, we ask that they would see such love, a love that is greater than the love that is shared within this world, that they would want to join us. But above all, in the love that they see within us, let them see your love. Because it is in Your love do we have hope, even beyond the power of death and darkness itself. Your love is powerful, is victorious, it is redeeming. Knowing the love of Jesus Christ for us, in His name do we offer all these prayers. Amen. We're brothers and sisters, we recognize this family faith that we're part of, the generations who have come before us and how they help to inspire us and strengthen us as we look to Christ. Let us sing together by faith. Through the race to the finish line, the work is done. You are my raven and my sun. The power of the Spirit to the lost. Delivered by the resurrection of Christ. In every corner of the earth. We will stand as children of the promise. We will fix our eyes on Him. ♪ When the race is finished and the work is done ♪ ♪ No more running than I was done ♪ ♪ I'll lift those mountains above you ♪ ♪ With the power of the gospel ♪ Oh And if our kids would come forward for our children's message. Good to see you guys. Thanks for coming up. All right. So the passage we're gonna be looking at a little later with this sermon is gonna be one that talks about death. And I mean, hopefully you guys are young enough, you haven't seen much death, but have you ever lost something? Something that you enjoyed, something you cared about? How do you feel when you lose something? Yeah, there's a lot of sadness when you lose something, yeah? Yeah, well, you lost something very temporarily, but I'm thinking of something a little more deep than that. Have you lost something? Yeah? How'd you feel when you lost something that was special to you? Yeah, sad and kind of angry. Yeah, I can think of a time when I was younger and I was sad about something that wasn't really losing as in I couldn't find it. But I think of a time when I was younger and my parents decided we needed to get a bigger camper. And so, I don't remember why I was entirely angry about the fact that, you know, my parents were getting rid of the very tiny camper and getting a little larger camper. But what I do distinctly remember is sitting on the steps going to the upstairs and just bawling my eyes out. I don't know, do you remember this? Of course not, that's okay. But apparently it was traumatic enough to me that I still remember it. And then in hindsight, thinking back, it's like, okay, well, maybe it was because we had all these great, fun memories that we had camping in that camper. Maybe I was sad about losing those memories, but the thing is is that I didn't actually lose those memories, and I still remember many of those fun things that we did. And in fact, with getting a new camper, That meant that we actually could go on more and better adventures as our family was growing. And so it seemed so sad to me at that time. But, you know, that sadness was replaced with a hope, a new joy, new experiences that we could share with each other. Now I bring up this example because if it can be sad to lose a small camper in order to get a larger camper, then it certainly is sad when we lose a person that we love, when we lose somebody that we care deeply about. We can even just think in this last week we had a funeral for one of our brothers here in the church, Mr. Greg. in a way that's like getting a new camper, but even better, through Jesus Christ. Even though these bodies, they're gonna die, and we're gonna lose these bodies, and there is a sadness that comes with losing these bodies. It's not the end, but we're going to be given something better. Jesus Christ, He is going to protect our souls, and one day, He's gonna give us new bodies, new bodies that are never going to break down, that are never gonna grow tired, and that we can have new experiences, even greater adventures with Jesus Christ than we've ever been able to have in this life. And so when we think about this new hope, this better future that Jesus Christ gives for us, I think of the words that are given in Isaiah 25, verse eight, it says, he will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. So yeah, when we lose things that are important to us, it's sad. It's even more sad when we lose people that are important to us. But because of Jesus Christ, they're not lost forever. And even the greater hopes, the greater futures, we know He's keeping those stored up for us. And so I hope, even though, again, you guys are young, and hopefully you haven't had to experience too much sadness and loss, but this is something that I want you to hold on to your hearts and minds, because there is sadness in this world, but there is an even greater hope and future in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. So I gotta thank you for my friends up here, and we ask that you would fill our hearts and our minds with the truth of your word, so that when we go through those sad and sometimes angry moments of life, that we won't be too lost, we won't be too afraid, because we know that you are strong, and that you love us, and that you'll bring us where we need to be. So give my friends this comfort and peace in their life. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Thanks for coming up. And don't forget, if you'd like, we've got coloring pages and crayons and sermon pages for you too. And if the rest of you now would open up your Bibles to Genesis chapter 23, we're looking here at this chapter, Genesis chapter 23, verses 1 through 20. Gonna be jumping back to a series you might have remembered from a couple years ago, In the Beginning, where we're studying about who God had made us to be in the beginning, recognizing that who he made us to be in the beginning is very important for us understanding who we are meant to be today. And we took a break from it for a while because I don't want us to get too wearied of just looking at one book of the Bible. There are so many valuable passages in the Bible for us to put our minds and our attention. And yet, there's also some people that say, We didn't finish Genesis. There's some still interesting stuff coming up. When are we gonna get back to it? Well, let's spend a little more time here in the book of Genesis. But this passage where we're jumping back into is a heavy one because we're gonna be thinking about death, but not just about death, but our bright hope for the future as well. And a question we can be asking ourselves when we look at this history in God's word is how does the way we view death affect the way that we live our lives? So when I think about that, so we do come to study his word. But before we do look to his word, let's offer this prayer. God, we ask for your blessing upon our study of your Word, because it is your gift to us. This recording of history is given to us for a redemptive purpose, that it is given to help fill a need that is so desperately within us. And so God, Let us be thankful for what we read this morning, and let us live in a greater confidence and a greater hope because of the truth of your word. Father, we pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen. So, brothers and sisters, I now invite you to stand in body or in spirit as we look together at Genesis chapter 23, starting with verse 1. We hear these words, Sarah lived for 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died at Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, I am a sojourner and a foreigner among you. Give me property among you for a burying place that I may bury my dead out of my sight. The Hittites answered Abraham, Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead. Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. And he said to them, if you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, hear me and entreat for me Ephraim, son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he owns. It is at the end of his field. For the full price, let him give it to me in the presence as property for a burying place. Now Ephraim was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephraim the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites of all who went in at the gate of his city. No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the sight of the sons of my people, I give it to you. Bury your dead. Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land, and he said to Ephraim in the hearing of the people of the land, But if you will hear me, I give the price of the field. Accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.' And Ephron answered Abraham, My lord, listen to me. A piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead. Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants. So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, throughout the whole area was made over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites before all who went in at the gate of a city. After this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah, east of Mamre, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as a property for a burying place by the Hittites. Brothers and sisters, the grass withers, the flower fades. Word of God shall stand forever. You can be seated. So picking back up in our study of Genesis from a couple years ago, we've been seeing this very important history of the world. We saw how in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, how he created all the creatures, how he created even humanity. very informative of who we are today. But then we also saw the history of the beginning of God's covenant relationship with Abraham and his descendants. And this is an important history for us to study because it is not just the history of an ancient foreign family in a land far, far away in a time long, long ago. No, this family, this covenant family that we are reading about is important for us because this family, particularly the covenant given to this family, is the family that we are adopted into. When we are adopted into the family of Jesus Christ, He was a descendant of Abraham. And He was a member of this covenant. Not just any member, but He is the head of that covenant. He is the victor. He is the one who accomplishes the requirements of that covenant for us. So that through Jesus Christ, all the blessings proclaimed to the family of Abraham fulfilled for us those blessings become our blessings and so this is not simply just the ancient history of some other family regardless of if you have any Jewish blood in you whatsoever if you belong to God through faith This is the family tree that we have been engrafted into. So this is our history, and it is necessary and important for us to study it and see what is being taught in it. But with today's passage that we're reading about is a little bit of a transition from looking at the generation of Abraham, and next week we're gonna be shifting into that next generation, their son Isaac. But with this we have the beginning of the death of this generation with the passing of Sarah and Abraham making plans for the future. We read with verse 1 it says, Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. So we see that Sarah, she lived a long life, 127 years. And she experienced a lot of sorrows in it. They had times of wandering, times of confusion about where their home was gonna be, how was their family going to continue on since they didn't have a child. And yet, God has also poured out on her and Abraham, their family, incredible blessings. It's just the providential ways that God had kept them safe, had protected them, and even with the miraculous birth of a child to Abraham and Sarah, while both of them were at a very old age. We see that God had given them incredible blessings and that they had been made wealthy, they had been made secure. Now one mentioned that some people might have questions about the How could somebody that long ago have lived 127 years, where even today with all of our medical advancements, we don't have anyone who's lived past 120 years? And this kind of goes to one of the conversations we had previously, where if we went further back in Genesis, we see that there are people who lived for hundreds of years. How is that possible? And not to repeat too much of what we said in the past, but simply when we look at, you know, when we look at human life today, as one generation leads on to the next, what we see is that our genetic coding, our DNA is unraveling with each generation. And so, if we were going to reverse the clock, if we were going to go backwards, we'd see that we would be a healthier, more robust people. Genetically, we would have been stronger. And so, conceivably, we would have been able to live longer But an even better reason to believe it than simply just looking at genetics and DNA and how that all works out. The Bible says so. And the Bible is the Word of God. And if it says it, I believe it. I just point out there is evidence all around us that would even affirm that the Word of God is faithful and true to us. But, you know, setting that other discussion aside, not the important part here, what we see as with these events going on in verse 2 it says, And Sarah died at Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. When we understand the ancient Eastern cultures, they had a very thorough practice for mourning. And there are many cultures that still follow in similar traditions. But that word in the Hebrew for mourning can be translated in several ways. It can be singing songs of lamentation. It can include people who would beat upon their breasts because they're filled with such sorrow, a shouting, a crying, a wailing. And so we see that this is a very elaborate process of grieving the death of his wife. And many of the traditions that we read about in the Bible or again in some of the cultures in the world today, they will set aside an entire week specifically for the purpose of weeping, where they will sit in the dust or sit in ashes. They would wear sackcloths. They would tear their clothes. And we read that and it may seem very foreign, and it is, and it may seem a bit unnatural for us. And it is quite a bit different than we think of the process of grieving today. And we might think, so really you're going to schedule one week out for being sad? How do you know that one week is enough? Isn't the process of grieving look different for all of us? Some of us may move through it more quickly than others. It's setting aside one week. What if it's not enough? What if it's too much? I do think that these traditions that they set aside, although not required that we have to grieve in this particular way, I think there is a lot of health that's there that may be greater than our process of grieving in our culture today. Because in a lot of ways, our culture in the United States is one where we really don't emphasize grieving at all. In fact, I think there's a lot of ways that we try to avoid grieving. We try to avoid sadness and sorrow. Because we're a culture that is so much about entertainment. We want to feel happiness. We want to feel delight. And so anything that would distract from that, we want to pretend as if it's not there. And so what does the process of grieving look like? Well, as an overgeneralization, as an American culture, when we think of grieving, what do we do? We self-medicate. We try to find some distraction from our sorrowing. And maybe it is entertainment. Maybe it is self-medicating through things like alcohol. Or maybe it's simply self-medicating with junk food. Or maybe the medicating that we do of ourselves is a literal medication, as I know that it is very common in our American society. When we're going through times of sorrow, times of despair, we look for mind-altering or mood-enhancing drugs that we use. because we want to find any other means of going through life than having to deal with pain and sorrow. Now, don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that some of these SSRIs or some of these drugs that are available for us are never helpful or never good, because sometimes they can be a useful tool to help us get through grieving. But the thing that we need to understand is that grieving is something we need to get through. Because if we're trying to avoid grief, if we're trying to avoid sorrow, if we're trying to pretend as if there is no pain in this world, that, my friends, is a very dangerous place for us to be. Because I think, more often than not, God's intention for us is to feel pain. That God has a purpose for that pain, whether it be a physical pain or an emotional pain that we go through. Just think about Jesus and Lazarus. Even though Jesus, when he was standing in front of the tomb of Lazarus, even though he knew that Lazarus was going to be walking out of that tomb five minutes later, what did Jesus do? What is one of the most favorite Bible verses for young people to memorize? If somebody says, pick a Bible verse and memorize it, what do people want to memorize? Jesus wept, right? Nice and simple, easy to remember. It's a powerful truth. If Jesus knew that Lazarus was gonna be walking out of that tomb, why was he weeping? Because he understood that death itself is not good. And that the separation that happens when our loved ones are taken away from us, that tearing away of our community, our family, our friendships, that is a wicked and horrible thing. And so Jesus endured the pain of sorrowing, the death of a loved one. Because even though death is not a good thing, and that pain is pointing to the fact that something is wrong, the act of mourning and weeping is an appropriate response when we recognize that this world is broken. This world, the way that it is right now, is not the way that we were first created to be. When God put us in the Garden of Eden, it was a place of life, it was a place of joy, a place of peace. But because of our sins, particularly the sins of Adam, the world has been corrupted. So we shouldn't be happy with the way the world is. We should be angry. We should be grieving. This world cannot be our home. And it is not the home that we were first made for. And so again, even though grieving is a sign that something is wrong, the grieving itself is a good and right reaction. And Ecclesiastes chapter 3 makes a good point of this, reading parts of chapter 3. It says, for everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance. So there is an appropriate rhythm to living life under the sun. And that's a phrase that we see Solomon using when describing life in this world apart from God. When we are not living in the peace of heaven, when we're not living with Christ our King here on earth, there are going to be times in which people are going to be born and some will die. And when we go through this rhythm of life, there are going to be times of weeping. There's going to be times of laughing as well. But one of the things that I believe is that our times of laughing in this world, I believe our times of laughing in this world would be far more joyful If we actually took the time that was necessary to weep, that which should be weeped. As we see in Ecclesiastes, there's a lot of other examples where it's two sides of the same coin. And so I think if we try to shorten our weeping, we're also gonna be shortening the other end. We're gonna be shortening our joys. And so this is where self-medicating to try to avoid problems in our lives actually creates deeper problems. Because what do things like entertainment, or what do things like substances that we might consume, what do they do for us? Do they actually solve our problems? No. While we're self-medicating, our problems continue to exist. Our problems continue to grow and rise. But why do we turn to them? Not because they solve problems, but because they numb ourselves from being able to see the problems. And so if we stunt our emotions so that we are not really feeling the sorrow for the way that those sorrows should be felt, then we're also gonna be stunting the other side. We're going to be taking away from the great joys, the happiness, the peace that God offers for us. And so we need to be people, if we want to laugh well, We need to know how to grieve well, to weep well in this world. Now I recognize so far in this sermon it sounds kind of bleak, right? I was pointing to the fact that things are broken and there are things that we do not have the power to overcome, but I do think that that is part of the point of this passage. It is talking about mourning. It is talking about death. And yet, This passage also offers us a great hope, although it may be a little less clear than the sorrow that's here in this passage. What we're reading about, the most of the time that is taking place here in this passage is a business dealing. Which you think, well, what is the great joy in that business dealing? Well, let's see what is happening with Abraham in verse 3 and 4. And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, I am a sojourner and a foreigner among you. Give me property among you for a burying place that I may bury my dead out of my sight. So Abraham has reached the appropriate time of grieving and now that his grieving time is done, he can't just continue to sit there in the ashes. It is now a time to take action because there is still a future. There's still a reason to go on living. And so what he does is he goes to the local Hittites. Now just a side note here, Hittites, many people suspect that this is not the same tribe of people that we're going to be reading about later of the Hittites who would cause trouble for God's people. When we go through archaeology, it seems that there are several different tribes of people who hold on to that title of Hittites, but that's not the important part here. What is important is that Abraham recognizes that he has no historic claim to the land. He's a sojourner and a foreigner. And although God has given him a promise for the future, and in that he has a sure and certain claim to the land, he has no historic right. Because his family didn't grow up there. They hadn't lived there previously. But the Hittites, the people who lived there in Hebron or Mamre, these are the families that could point to the generations that had been there before. And so, if Abraham is going to have a place where he can bury his dead with any kind of hope for the future, he needs to do some business with those who have a rightful claim to the land that's around them. 5 and 6 says, The Hittites answered Abraham, Hear us, my lord. You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb to hinder you from burying your dead. There's an interesting phrase right there as they're referring to Abraham. They call him a prince of God. How do you get a title like that? That sounds pretty nice, right? Well, if you remember a couple years ago as we were looking at the history of Abraham, there was a time in which his nephew Lot was captured by kings that had come raiding out of the east. And with them, the Hittites, the people of Mamre, many of them were also captured, taken to be slaves and servants of these kings of the east. And Abraham, what did he do? He rallied up his men. He went out. He did battle. He defeated those kings. And as he rescued Lot, he also rescued, conceivably, many of the people that Abraham is talking to this day, which would be, understandably, one of the reasons of, if you're going to try to make a peace treaty with people, who would you want to go with? The people who you saved out of great big trouble. So they have a high respect for Abraham. And they may be thinking, all right, well, this could be a good deal, where he doesn't have a land of his own, but if we're going to have him start burying some of his family members with our family members, then this really powerful, wealthy man is going to be, he is going to be dependent on us. And we want to have a friend like this who is dependent on us. And so what then follows from this is a polite negotiation between two parties, the way that many people in those days would do business deals, where they're both making the sound of being, you know, overwhelmingly generous with one another. The conversation, maybe what What might make sense for you is anytime you've gone out to a restaurant with a friend of yours, and then when the check comes at the end of the meal, and you argue with each other, oh, no, no, I'll take it, this one, it's my turn to pay. Oh, no, no, you've done far too much for me, I'll take this one. Anyone ever be in that situation before? There you go, that's nice, you have money to, no, I'll just cut you. I wanna go out to dinner with you, that's all I'm saying right here. But it's it's it may seem strange for us at first for this business deal of both of them just saying oh no You take the land. Oh, I couldn't do that It is it is a way of showing honor to the person that they're doing business with and yet Part of the way that they played the rules of the game. We're going to see Ephraim He is he is going to then have a very subtle way of Hinting to Abraham what the real price of the land would be Verse 14-15 says, Ephraim answered Abraham, My Lord, listen to me. A piece of land worth 400 shekels of silver, what is that between you and me? Bury your dead. And so Ephraim here, he's hinting at the fact that The price that he would give is going to be 400 shekels. And so what he's doing is he's maneuvering a few things at once. One is he's saying, no, no, I would prefer that you are dependent on me because I have the remains of your family, your ancestors are going to be here. And if your family continues to be wealthy and powerful, then you're going to be in my pocket. I like that. If you're not willing to take this kind of a deal, then I'm going to put out a high price. I'm going to put out 400 shekels of silver. It would take an average person in those days several lifetimes of labor to earn up to 400 shekels. So he's highballing it here. He's saying, I'm going to make this difficult for you to buy because I want you to be in my pocket instead. If you're actually going to buy this land, I'm going to set a high price. So I'll still make out pretty good in this deal, even though I'm going to be giving up some of my ancestral land here. But also notice the subtlety in how he does it. He just drops the price out there saying, Basically, he's saying, if you're going to do this, if you're really going to buy it, you're going to have to give me 400 shekels. But he doesn't do it in such a blunt manner. He's like, oh, it's just between friends. Oh, what's 400 shekels of silver? It's his way of saying to Abraham, you better pony up 400 shekels of silver. So Abraham, as he considers this, he understands the way that the business is being done, and he takes that calculated risk of saying that, yes, this is a very high price. But he realizes that this man is giving up his ancestral claim to this land, which otherwise would remain in his family, where if maybe a descendant of his, a few generations down the road, said, Oh, we don't like Abraham's kids anymore. Let's get rid of those bodies. Let's take the land back for ourselves. Or even after paying those 400 shekels of silver, how do you know that his grandkid later on is going to be like, they're foreigners. They don't belong here. Let's just keep the money. It's all been spent anyways. Let's kick them out of the land. This is our place. Abraham is making a calculated risk. Why? Why is he spending this large amount of money not knowing for certain from an earthly standpoint that the Hittites are going to be good on this deal? Well, he's acting with this confidence because he knows that God is faithful to the promise that he'd given him of a future home. Because the security that he has is not in the silver, it is not in the good relationship with the Hittites. The security that he has is the promises that God has made that this land, not just this little piece of land, but all the land of Canaan will belong to his descendants, the children who come after him. And so because he has confidence in the promises of God that this land is going to be their home, that he is willing to act with a great level of risk, a great level of investment. He is investing in a future that he himself will never see, but a future that will belong to his children. And so this is where I turn this passage around and then think for us, what is this history for us and these strange business dealings, the politeness by which they're negotiating, what does this mean for us? Well, friends, we need to consider the fact that the world that we live in right now, the way that this world has been broken and twisted and tainted by sin is not our home. This world was first created for us as humanity, the servants of God to live in, but we broke it. And until this world is fixed, that weeping, that sorrowing that is so inherent within us is just that declaration that we cannot be happy in a world if we remain separated from God. Because that classic phrase of home is where the family is. If we are the family of God, as long as He is not dwelling with us, this is not our home. And yet, We know that this is a God who is faithful to His promises. When He promises a future home for us, He will fulfill it. He will accomplish it for us. And so though we are not in a place where we can dwell happily forever, we know that He has promised that a home has been made for us. that when we die, though these bodies will fail us, our souls will go to be with the Lord and we will be happy and satisfied being in the presence of our great Savior. But even more than that, Our Savior, Jesus Christ, one day will come back to this world. He will wipe away all the sins and all the sorrows of this world. He will even restore, not just the world, but our bodies as well, in which we can then live with Him at peace and joy forever. In which we say, a time to weep and a time to laugh. Yes, but that time of weeping is done, but the time of laughing will have no end. And we will have joy with Him forever and ever. Friends, there is a future home for us and we know this God who is faithful to Abraham is faithful to us because the covenant promises made to him are the covenant promises we have hope in and security today. And so we know that we do not need to fear the powers and the sorrows of this world, although we do sorrow in the brokenness of this world. but we can have confidence and we can make investments, though I don't have 400 shekels of silver, but the investments that we need to be making are in a heavenly home for us. We need to be investing our treasures in heaven where Christ himself is. As we think about this home, as we think about this future confidence that we have, we need to recognize that even a heavenly home, Or maybe we should say especially a heavenly home is not cheap. As much as I can't afford something that's worth 400 shekels of silver, I know that I cannot afford a heavenly home. Which is why even today, friends, what we need is a Prince of God. We need a representative of God, one who has been given the blessings of God, one who has been given great abundance. But the Prince of God that is necessary for us to earn that heavenly home is not Abraham, regardless of how many shekels of silver he has. The Prince of God that we need is Jesus Christ. He is not just a prince of God, he is the prince of God. Because even if we had spent our entire life trying to pay back the offense of Adam against God when he sinned in the Garden of Eden, Or even if at this point forward we could say, I'm never gonna sin again. And what if we could actually do that? Never sin again, in word, thought, or deed, we would never be able to pay back all the offenses that we have brought against an eternal God. And so as much as a normal person couldn't pay a 400 shekels for that field, you and I, we cannot pay the debt of the offense of an eternal, infinite God. And yet Jesus Christ, who has come to be our prince, what did he do? He, who is God, took on our humanity so that He could stand in our place, so that He could be our covenantal representative. That when He died on the cross and the worth of His blood poured out, since He is God and a Prince of God, the infinite worth of His blood was enough to pay for the debt of every single one of the sins of God's people. He is the one of great power and strength. The one of great worth. And so he paid that debt. He takes the penalty of our sins away. And what does he give to us in response? We are made to be the family of God. It is adoption to sonship. We are grafted into the family that we were not born into. One that we did not originally belong with. Meaning that his home now becomes our home. We did not have an ancestral right to this home, but because of the price paid through Jesus Christ, we now do have a claim to this home. My last question for you this morning as we think about the nature of death and the death of Jesus Christ, are you afraid of death? Think about the fact that people say there's two things you can't avoid in life, death and taxes. We just got through tax season, so we're done with that one. But death is still ahead of us. Are you afraid of death? If you think of yourself as a nice person, a good person, who has done many great things in this world, you think of the kindness that you have shared to other people, if you think of yourself as a nice person, you should be very afraid of death. Because hell is going to be filled with nice people. If we think that we can pay the price for heaven with the blood and the sweat of our own hands and labor, we are going to be sorely mistaken. Only a Prince of God can do that for us. And so if instead of thinking that we are a nice person, but we realize that we are sinners, We realize that we're the ones who brought the death into this world. And yet Jesus Christ took that death for us. And that he has paid the price that we could not pay. And do not fear death. You can grieve death, you should grieve death. You can even loathe the idea of the process of dying. I can't imagine that it is comfortable. But we do not need and we should not fear death. because our great prince has paid that price for us. He has defeated death, and because of his death, when the day comes in which we do die, instead of that being a moment of sorrow for us, that is going to be our moment of freedom, our moment of great joy, because that is when we will be truly home. when we can see our God and our Savior face to face. Let's pray. God, we do thank you for your rich promises that you have given to us. And that throughout history, you have not failed in any one of your promises. We know that you have been faithful to what you have given to Abraham. And we know that you will be faithful to give to us all that Jesus Christ has won for our sake. Thank you for making us your family and not treating us as your enemies. Let the truth of this great future for us give us a confidence and the ability to live fully for you now. Lord, we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. So brothers and sisters, let us celebrate the confidence that we have as we stand together in body and spirit singing, O God, our help in ages past. you Brothers and sisters, the Lord does send us with his blessings. He sends us with these words from 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 that says, Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. Let's go now together in his promises of peace.