#2 - Suspension of Disbelief
Genesis 18:9-15 (1-8) - Victory Fellowship
March 5, 2023 - Rev. Roderick Grabski
2nd Sunday of Lent
I. Recap
Last week we began a series, The God Story, where we looked at the story of God and His people as found in the Scriptures. We often wonder, what connects the biblical stories? Does the God of Adam have anything to do with the God of Abraham? And what does that have to do with Jesus? What does that have to do with me?
Thread #1 was “God speaks to His people because He desires relationship with them.”
It is found in all the stories; a God who speaks - and God speaks because God desires relationship.
And if it is true for them, it is true for us.
A. Suspension of Disbelief
Today we will introduce a new thread, but first I have to remind you of a common theme in the story of God - things don’t always look the way you thought they would. So I will need to ask you do something that is essential not just for enjoying a story, but for being caught up in one.
B. Suspension of Disbelief in Literature
It is called the Suspension of Disbelief.
The idea of the Suspension of Disbelief was first introduced by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1817. He said that when reading fantastic or non-realistic elements of literature there is a Suspension of Disbelief that is necessary.
In other words, you have to be willing to suspend your tendency to not believe the impossible to have any hope of enjoying the story.
It is required in many of our favorite stories; you have to say, “Ok, I’m putting reason and logic aside for a moment, because the story seems better than reason or logic right now.”
C. Suspension of Disbelief in the Movies
Matt Damon – The Martian; Sandra Bullock / George Clooney – Gravity; Wylie Coyote & Roadrunner – Cliffhanger. Superman.
There will be times in your story when you will be forced to suspend your disbelief; so you can be caught up in the amazing, surprising, chapter that God holds for you next.
D. Suspension of Disbelief in the Bible
We learn this from Abraham and Sarah. In Genesis 12:2-3, God says,
“I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.”
At seventy-five, God is going to make Abraham’s name great? And the really unbelievable part is that God will make him a great nation. What this implies is that Abram’s offspring will multiply and multiply and become a strong people. Trouble is, Abram has no sons and daughters.
The story continues in Genesis 15. It is eleven years later, Abram is now eighty-six, and still has no children, when God repeats the promise that Abram will be the father of countless children.
So Abram and Sarah cook up a different plan, deciding to help God with His promise. Sarah tells Abram he must continue his heritage, so she gives him her servant Hagar. Abram and Hagar have a son Ishmael, but this does not seem to be the answer.
At age ninety-nine, God speaks to Abram again, and changes his name to Abraham, which means “father of many,” and says you will birth many, and I will establish a covenant with you and your descendants, a forever relationship with you.
Do you see how absurd this is? Suspension of Disbelief is necessary to continue in this story but it’s difficult. God sends the message again, and Abraham and Sarah just laugh, because His promise seems so unbelievable.
God is leading us to believe that the laughable dreams of our hearts might still be possible through His power.
II. God Keeps Promises
Here is our Thread #2. If God makes a promise, it will come true.
It may not be in our time. It almost definitely will not be in the way we would draw it up, but God will not forget or go back on His word. And this was true for Abraham. Everything God promised came true.
The question is, will we be willing to suspend our disbelief to be a part of the story, or are we too black and white, too realistic, maybe too pessimistic to believe an incredible dream for our life?
A. Suspension of Disbelief in My Life
A story about Joe. (Drug abuser. Violent. Sinner. Cancer. Found Jesus)
Our story is the story of the God of Abraham, which I’m sure has meant a lot of different things for people over the centuries, but what it reminds me of is that we follow the God who took an old man whose dream was gone, and because he believed—because he suspended his disbelief—it happened.
B. Life in God Found Through Suspending Disbelief
Paul says this is how we find life, salvation: “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations’” (Romans 4:16-17).
We are the extension of the promise God made through Abraham.
God wants to call some things in your life that are not as though they were. He wants you to suspend your disbelief and believe. And things that are not can become as things that are.
Faith is being SURE of what we hope for and CERTAIN of what we do not see.
PRAYER
SONG: Dare to Believe
Genesis 18:1-15 NLT
18:1 Now the LORD appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. 2 When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth, 3 and said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by. 4 Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; 5 and I will bring a piece of bread that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.” And they said, “So do, as you have said.” 6 So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it and make bread cakes.” 7 Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it. 8 He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate. 9 Then they said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” 10 He said, “I will surely return to you at this time next year; and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; Sarah was past childbearing.12 Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have become old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” 13 And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, when I am so old?’ 14 Is anything too difficult for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” 15 Sarah denied it however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
