Sermon Series - Genesis 23 - Time & Legacy

Sarah's passing leads to some next steps for Abraham - becoming a land-owner.  One day we all will own a plot of land.  

Time flies and the world keeps spinning...and one day, all that is left is the legacy that we leave behind. How is yours shaping up? What do you need to do to shore up your legacy?

Your legacy will go one way or the other - whether you act or not - protect yours!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Hey there, true believers. Welcome back to the Barrier Shield Podcast. I'm your host, Ron Scheffler, and we are back in our sermon series today, way back in Genesis, Genesis chapter 23, we will be reviewing today. But before that, where did we leave Abraham off? Well, if you recall, he was taking his son that he loved, Isaac, up to the mountain where he was to sacrifice him to God. God spared him, told Abraham to stay, and ended up providing everything that Abraham needed. And God does continue to provide today. So now we come to a part, a sad part in Abraham's life, Sarah's death and burial. We'll be reading Genesis chapter twenty-three in the ESV version. We'll read the whole of chapter twenty three. Here we go. Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died at Kiriath Ararba, 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 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 you from his tomb, or 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 Ephron, the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Makpila, which he owns, it is at the end of his field. For the full price let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place. Now Ephraim was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron 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 Ephron 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. 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 Ephraim 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 Ephraim in Macpilah, 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 its 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 the city. After this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Macpilah, 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 property for a burying place by the Hittites. Okay. So not a great story, but what can we glean from here? Well, I think there's a lot about legacy here, and we'll get to that in a little bit. But we have a transitioning happening first, right? Our Genesis review here had started with the Tower of Babel, and since then has been wrapped around Abraham and Sarah's life. Now Sarah has passed, and Abraham is bargaining for some land with a burial site. Now this is important to the times because the purchase of this land, the process of it by which Abraham followed, was similar to the Canaanite and Hittite laws of the day, and the landowner, landowner was Hittite himself. And in this transaction was Bedouin business, right? The fellow who owns the land that the cave is on, in no ways did he did he mean it for it to be free, right? There is a giving for giving here. You give me money and I give you the land. Abraham did not want the land and just the cave, but he was willing to purchase the whole Lalapalooza to ensure he got the cave, right? This is the whole point of this event. Abraham secures the cave and in doing so also renounces where he originally came from, so to speck, his hometown, so that he follows God, the one true God. And this cave that he bought has now bound the patriarchs of the church to the future promised land. This is now a true occupation of the once foreign land. Once, but now this new land is a new homeland, and there will not be a return to Mesopotamia where Abraham and company came from. Abraham knows God brought him to this place and to do God's will. So this now becomes a permanent fixture. This is his home now. This is where God has placed him. The plans have been laid for the future. By buying this land, Abraham realizes that God's promises do not end with his life, this life. God will do so much more than he has done in this life for us. Belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will bring us to eternity with him, and promises that we really cannot humanly comprehend, right? This is the hope of all who die in faith. Now in this cave, the remains of Sarah will go, and in the future, which we'll read about over the next several sermon series, will also be Abraham, Isaac, Rebecca, who is Isaac's wife, Jacob, Leah, Jacob's wife, and potentially Joseph. And to this day, you know, stands a large rectangular enclosure, a sanctuary that's considered a holy place by Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Now this purchase of the land is also a brutal reminder to us that all of us one day will be landowners to some extent. In a cemetery somewhere, in a box one that most humans do not like to think about. The point is that God's promises to those in faith are not exhausted in this life. The time of a believer's death when most mourn should be the time of a believer's greatest demonstration of faith. For the recipient of God's promises has a hope well beyond the grave. So let's take just a peek once at Sarah. 127. You know, she's the only woman in scripture whose age is recorded. And the distinction given to her is probably because of her position towards believers, the the patriarch, right, of of our belief. Married to Abraham. I'm sure even at 127, Sarah felt that life went by pretty quick. I mean, how often do you think, man, this year went by fast, or where's the year gone? Well, at times it seems like yesterday, you know, that I was at a hockey game watching one of my sons skate or at my daughter's piano recital or a play where my kids acted. Or even helping them transition to college and sending them comic books every week in the mail. I did that for each one that went to college just to write them a small note that my wife and I would write in and just throw a comic in there to make sure they would open it. And then next thing I know, I'm walking my daughters down the marriage path, or even marrying two of my children. And now I have grandchildren. Currently four grandsons and a baby on the way. I can honestly say that I'm not taking any of this for granted, and let me tell you why. My father passed away at age 54, right before I got married, never saw my kids. My mom passed at 58. Now she was much younger than my dad, about nine years, so she was around for a bit when my children were younger. And I'm approaching her last age now. That's why I don't take my life. My life with my wife, Tracy, my life with my immediate family for granted. I feel so fortunate that two of my children live nearby with their families, and the other two with their families are about four and a half hours from us, so not too far to get together. But listen to these numbers. You know that on average, on average, the American male lives to be 76.5 years. And ladies, you're lucky, you get to eke out a few more years, 81.4. And I want you to think about those numbers once. Think of where you're at and think of that average age of lifespan. That gap isn't as big as we'd like, is it? Think on those numbers. I see a lot of midlife crisis jokes out there about fifty somethings, you know, buying a sports car, doing something crazy. But the math doesn't add up. Wait a moment. Fifty somethings midlife? I don't think so. Because personally I don't see a lot of 110-year-olds walking around. You know, I remember at a former church there was a group of uh adults and they had young kids and they the the church kept calling them this this particular small group, the young adult small group. But they weren't young anymore, right? They were in their mid-thirties, maybe early thirties. They were actually adults with young kids. None of them served in the church. They had talents, gifts that God gave them, but really they weren't using any of them to build up the church of the future. They dropped off their kids in the nursery, got a coffee, sat down, and listened to the Sunday school. But then I gave a sermon like this one Sunday, and one of the guys came up to me and said, Hey man, thanks a lot. Now I'm a little bit stressed and thinking about what I need to do. The reality was that this dude needed a wake-up call. In essence, he and others were really just wanted to push off having to think about responsibilities at their church home. They didn't want to think about one day because they had young kids that one day they would end up retired or in a tomb. You know, I tell myself every year in January to really pay attention to this year, not to rush it, not to think too far ahead. But for crying out loud, the world keeps spinning, doesn't it? And our legacy is on the line. And every day we have one less chance to support our legacy. So I want to take a moment and talk about time shooting by like a meteor and how it impacts your legacy. You know, I think in some ways the earth spins too fast because of where I am in my life currently. I've got a lot going on. I don't want to say I'm busy because I hate that. I hate when people say I'm busy, we're all busy, everyone's busy, calendar's full, and it's true. But are we busy and choosing the right things to spend our time on? For example, in my relationship with my wife Tracy, I love her. And I love hanging out with her. You know, we have different personalities, we have different hobbies, but we also have many things and likes in common. And we also have an awful lot of fun together. And I'm reminded of Jim Croce's song Time in a Bottle, right? If I could save time in a bottle, the first thing I'd like to do is to save every day till eternity passes away just to spend them with you. So time with her zips by. And perhaps you might be thinking, well, isn't that great for you, dude? My married life isn't like that. Well, let me tell you, my life has certainly had disappointments, pain, just like anyone else. I've made plenty of mistakes and errors and decision making, but through the years I've learned and continue to learn to put my trust in Jesus first. First in the very small things in my life, and first in the larger things as well. But you have to protect your legacy. And if you're single, start with the right choices, right? And if you want to be married, part of the right choices is choosing the right person. And maybe right now you are married or you're in a relationship, you're just not connecting well right now. Well, fix it. Improve your communication. Now, devotions will help. Or message me on the platform you're listening on, and I can share some of the things we did as a couple to help right the ship. I'm thinking in particular of one called Moments Together by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. Highly recommend that. You know, I wish I was more appreciative of the times with her when I was younger. I wasn't, and we struggled, and I didn't lead like I should have early on in our marriage. I was pretty immature at first. And if I were to die a young man, my legacy would have been pretty lousy when it came to relationships. So lock in with your spouse. You are a team together living as one, not apart. You know, some of the speed of the year is due to where I currently live, the property we live on, the house and outbuilding that we're trying to rebuild and reclaim the property. I promise you, one day I will have Tracy on and we'll we'll get to that story in a much more detailed uh episode. But right now just know there was so much work accomplished and so much to do yet. It occupies my mind and and time. And what happens then when I'm working on is that time speeds by. But we are working toward creating a world we want to live in, a place where my family would want to visit, feel loved, create memories, a peaceful place that will live on in our minds. You know, one day, like I said, we'll share the story of this place, but for now, know this. There were moments where we just weren't certain what was going to happen here. But God does provide, and through our trust in God, our land legacy is starting to come to fruition. Some of the early fast pace, yearly fast pace is due to the fact that I want to be able to be available for my family. Tracy and I want to get to spend some good amount of time with those that we live that live nearby, right? If the kids call 90% of that time, we get over to their places to help out as needed. And the time speeds by. Yes, help strengthen our legacy, Tracy is mine, but also to help build theirs. And some of the time that zips by from this spinning world is that I really enjoy my job. Being a senior product manager for a turf equipment manufacturer, I get to meet so many people, help them find real solutions. Some people I have known for decades. I really enjoy what I work on. The people over the years. How I can intertwine my faith with my job. And it's been crazy how several people that I have worked with have retired now. Some even lost. And this has made me reflect not only on my own personal side of life, but also my work life. What more do I want to accomplish in the workforce in corporate America yet? What does God want me to do? Now all these things, these aspects in my life have all been given to me by the grace of God. And I do not say that lightly. Many things could have turned out differently if I had not chosen wisely to follow Jesus Christ. Ponder where your legacy is. The world is spinning, but time is speeding up, and time will be running out one day. Where is your legacy headed and what needs to change before it is too late? Bear your shield and protect your legacy. Thank you for listening. Godspeed. And bear your shield.