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In the name of Jesus.

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I got into the hostel room and they are they where the mother was

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holding her baby boy in her arms.

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Lie on the bed

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and the father was next to them

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with a big smile on his face.

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And the first thing they told me was

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one day, you understand when you have your own child.

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I was a young vicar single no girlfriend.

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Trying to learn how to become a pastor.

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But four years later,

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my wife and I we had the same smile on our face.

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When our son Felipe was born.

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And then I understood

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what it meant to be a father and my wife

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what meant to be a mother.

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The blessing to be fruitful and multiply.

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Of course, my son did not

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have an extra blessing attaching to his name like Abram

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and Sarah.

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But for them, the blessing of having a child was long and gone.

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When God called Abraham for the first time, he was 75 years old, man,

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and his wife

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she was probably 66.

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In the first thing, we read in the scripture about Sarah that she was

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barren without a child.

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And then for the first time we hear or Abram hears, God's saying

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to him

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I'll make you a great nation.

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I'll bless you.

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I'll make your name great and you will be a blessing.

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But from the get-go Abram and Sarai, and they knew that, if they would

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have a child would be a miracle from God.

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But no,

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no baby, nothing.

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And to make things a little bit more difficult.

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God continues to tell him, I will bless you and multiply, you become a

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great nation.

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And Abram looks around and says, really when.

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And the only hope he sees is in this Eliezer there from Damascus.

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He will be the one.

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He's the heir of my house. But while

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Abraham is looking Eliezer, Sarah her, her eyes, and somebody

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else.

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Hagar.

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Oh, she's a viable option.

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And then when Sarai comes to a Abram and tells him a, I have a great

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plan.

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Hagar is strategy.

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Then you're going to get your baby that you looking for and everything

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will be under control.

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And probably some of you are wondering what happened between chapter

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15 in Genesis and chapter 17.

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Because in chapter 15, when God calls Abraham outside of his stand and

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invite him to look up to the skies to the stars, and he asked him, can

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you count them?

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And he says, oh really

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I can't so, you generation be like that.

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And then the scripture tells us that Abraham, he believed.

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He believed in the Lord.

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But he could not wait for the Lord to fulfill his promise.

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But before we start to casting stones at Abram.

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We need to be reminded that faith always needs encouragement,

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nurturing.

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And this why God he spoke to him again and again, and again.

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Abraham's faith needs to be nurtured by God's word.

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And God does the same with us.

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Again, and again, and again, he speaks words of love and mercy and

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forgiveness to encourage our faith, to strength our faith.

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However, Abraham and Sarai

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they thought that Hagar strategy would work.

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In fact was working.

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Of course, Sarah and Hagar they had some issues when Hagar's knew that

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she was pregnant.

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She start to despise Sarai it look her down, but not in that Sarai

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could not handle, right?

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Being the real wife.

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Ishmael now was 13 years old

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boy growing fast,

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healthy.

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And Abram looked at the boy says, oh man, this is strategy is working.

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He is the one.

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He is the one.

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I don't know about you, but I read Genesis 17

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my mind goes to Isaiah 55:89.

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When the Lord says my thoughts are not your thoughts, my ways are not

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your ways.

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My ways are higher than yours.

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My thoughts are higher than yours.

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And of course, God was not happy with Sarai and Abram plan.

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And then God speaks again in Genesis 17.

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The Lord starts off by changing Abram name a brand name to Abraham,

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which means multitude of Nations.

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He says, oh bless you, be a everlasting, blessing. Is more than

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material things, because now becomes clear, that is a spiritual

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blessing. And to make sure God gives him an external sign.

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Circumcision

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a sign of pointing to something higher

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that would happen, not only to him, but to all of us because through

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that sign, we all be blessed.

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But God was not done with Abraham now.

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He says, I have more for you.

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Hagar strategy is not my plan,

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it's yours.

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Because Sarai in your wife now will be named Sarah.

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I will bless her, I will give her you a son by her.

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And Sarah shall become nations.

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Kings of people's shall come from her.

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And then what he is

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Abraham's reaction? He laughs.

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He laugh..

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He says oh my gosh, God

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I'm 100 years old guy.

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I don't think nobody didn't know

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I will not have a baby

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look to my wife

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she's 90. That will not work.

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Sarai strategy,

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Hagar strategy is the best thing.

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You see God, he's 13 years old.

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I can hug him, I can kiss him and know that he is the fulfillment of

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your blessing.

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You're talking about something in the future that I cannot see and I

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can see this boy.

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And then he tries one more time, right?

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God, look to Ishmael.

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That he lives before you.

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Can you see the boy?

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He's good.

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He's the one.

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Again, when I read this and I think about Abraham talk to God like

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that.

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My mind goes straight to Hebrews chapter 11.

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The chapter that usually we call the heroes of faith and you see a

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long list of names.

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And every time I looked at that list, my heart sinks because we have

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Abraham.

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We have Sarah.

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We have Jacob.

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We have Moses.

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We have Rahab.

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We have Samson, we have David.

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A long list of great heroes, aren't they?

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But the Bible is not a book of heroes.

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But praise be to God

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we have someone that is able to sympathize with our witness.

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Someone that is stepped in every way

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Aa we are yet without sin,

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this is Jesus. And that's why we need Isaac and not Ishmael.

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And God says no to Abraham.

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I heard you Abraham.

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I will bless Ishmael in amazing ways.

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I will multiply him

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he will have 12 pieces coming from him.

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He will be a great nation, but no.

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And then God teaching us how to apply law and the gospel.

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He says yes.

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Sarah your wife

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she will have a baby.

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And through him Isaac

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I will establish an everlasting covenant for ever.

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A to make sure that Abraham understood well.

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God tells him when.

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At this time next year.

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And then in Genesis 18, the next chapter

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He says that again, but this time Sarah is behind the tent's door

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listening.

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As Abraham did

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she also did she laughed.

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When she heard that, she would be a mother of a child.

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Because you see in her mind

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Hagar strategy was still a good plan.

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Everything was under control.

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Hagar's strategy was lingering her mind.

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I think are not stranger to Hagar strategies

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are we?

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We have our own ways to keep God at bay, right?

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When we have our plans or ideas for the future.

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Everything is under control

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God, I can do it.

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I know what I'm doing.

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Everything will be fine.

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Of course with Abraham and Sarah looked to their dead bodies.

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They knew they could not produce a new life.

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But they forgot to look up to God.

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The one that brings death to life.

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And guess what happened a year later.

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Who had the last laugh?

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God. God himself.

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Isaac was born the laughter.

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The laughter of the gospel.

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And when Sarah held her baby in her arms, she laughed again, but this

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time not because she was in doubt but laugh of celebration.

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The laughter of the Gospel.

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You see God's ways are not our ways.

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His thoughts are higher than our thoughts.

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God did not need

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Isaac, Abraham, and Sarah to help him to fulfill his promise.

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What is impossible for us

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is always possible for God.

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Behold a virgin will

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conceive and bear a son.

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And they shall call his name Immanuel.

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Abraham and Sarah left when they held Isaac in their arms.

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But it is in Christ

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the Messiah that all the promises of God, find their yes.

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And consequently

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the last laugh.

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The laugh that really matters.

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Amen.

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And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard

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your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

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Amen.