Bible Passage: Genesis: 18-32
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: July 27, 2025

Bulletin – July 27, 2025

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

I don’t know if our text today shocked you at all when you heard it.  There is something shocking about it.  In our text a man who admits he is but dust and ashes (v. 27) stands before the LORD God, who is called in our text the Judge of all the earth (v. 25).  That’s a pretty bold move!  That’s a pretty vulnerable place, don’t you think?  Especially when the Judge of all the earth has just shared his secret with you that he is going to carbonize wicked, impenitent Sodom and Gomorrah to dust and ashes!  Abraham, himself a sinful creature of dust and ashes, is bold enough to speak to the Lord, and bold enough to ask him to change his course of action!

Prayer puts you in the place of Abraham.  Prayer is you, a frail creature of dust, coming into the presence of the LORD God Almighty.  Prayer is asking the Lord to listen to your input as he runs the universe!  Prayer is a shocking thing.  Prayer is you, like Abraham, being So Bold as to Speak to the Lord.

Our text is the continuation of that occasion when Abraham received those three heavenly visitors.  The LORD himself and two angels appeared as three men who came to the tents of Abraham.  Abraham served them lunch.  Then the LORD promised he was going to return in a year and Sarah will have a son.  After lunch, the three visitors and Abraham began to walk along the road that led to Sodom and Gomorrah.  While they walked, the LORD brought Abraham into his holy confidence.  He told Abraham, The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.  If not, I will know. (v. 20-21)  With that, the two angels continued down the road and Abraham was alone with the Lord.  Abraham approached him. (v. 23)

He got right up close to God!  That’s what prayer is!  It is approaching God.  It is getting right up close to him.  This may seem like a trivial point to make, but it isn’t.  When I was a little boy, when I prayed I would close my eyes tight and pray hard.  In my mind, I had to send my prayers a long way!  God is far away, I thought.  My prayers had to get all the way up to heaven!  It is helpful to remember when praying, God is not far off.  He is right here.  I once heard of a pastor who gave this “prayer tip” to one of his people who confessed to having a hard time praying.  “Turn a chair and have it face you as you pray.  Imagine God sitting in that chair.”  He is not far off.  As Psalm 34 says, The LORD is close to the brokenhearted. (v. 18)

So Abraham drew close to the LORD.   And he begins his “prayer.”  This “prayer” would be in the form of petition.  Prayers can take different forms.  They can be thanks or praise or in this case, a request.  It’s a bold request!  He asks the LORD to amend his stated plans.  Abraham goes to bat for the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  He asks the LORD to spare the city for the sake of 50 righteous people, then 45, then 40, then 30, then 20, then finally 10.  And here is a remarkable thing.  The LORD allows himself to be prevailed upon by Abraham’s prayer!  It’s bold!

It’s also a little annoying!  Okay, maybe annoying is not the best word.  But as you listen to Abraham, don’t you kind of feel like, “Okay, Abraham, we get the point.  You want the LORD to spare the cities.”  But he just keeps after it!  A better word than annoying is PERSISTENT.  It is interesting that Jesus will use examples of somewhat “annoying” behavior to teach about persistence in prayer.  In our Gospel lesson today Jesus uses the example of a friend knocking on his friend’s door at midnight for a loaf of bread!  That’s annoying!  Elsewhere Jesus tells the story of a certain widow who kept going to a certain judge for justice.  The judge is annoyed by her, “…this widow keeps bothering me…” (Luke 18:5)  But he finally hears her case and grants her relief.  I can see how God could be annoyed with my prayers.  They are clumsy and I often repeat myself.  But he isn’t annoyed by my prayers or yours!  In fact, the Lord encourages us to be persistent and unrelenting in our prayers!  Just like Abraham!

There is a confidence embedded in Abraham’s request, isn’t there?  He makes it because he trusts the LORD has the power to do what he asks.  What would be the point of praying to God if he didn’t have the power to do what we asked of him?  What would be the point of praying for forgiveness and for daily bread if God had no power to give forgiveness or daily bread?  James writes of the confidence the Christian can have when approaching God:  When he asks, he must believe and not doubt. (James 1:6)   Abraham prayed confidently because he trusted that God could do what he was asking!

This is a remarkable thing in our text.  Dust and ash prevails upon the Almighty God!  How could Abraham do it?  How can we do it?  We, who are also dust and ash, presume to talk to God!  And let us remember what those words do for us.  Calling ourselves dust and ash transports us back to that sad day when our first parents rebelled against God.  On that day the Lord spoke of the last and final consequence of man’s rebellion.  Dust you are and to dust you will return. (Genesis 3:19)  I am a sinful being of dust.  How can dust ever approach the God who lives in approachable light. (1 Timothy 6:16)?

Only through Jesus!  St. Paul wrote, In him [Jesus] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. (Ephesians 3:12)  The privilege of prayer is yet another blessing that flows from the cross of Jesus and the forgiveness we find there!  Jesus Christ stood between dust-and-ash humanity and God, and by his death on the cross removed the offense of our sin.  So now, through faith in Jesus, we pray!  With freedom and confidence, Paul says!  Look at the freedom Abraham had in speaking to God!  He goes to bat for two cities ripe for destruction, and the Lord listens!  Abraham prays confident that the Lord can do what he asks!  And so it is with us.  Through Jesus Christ, with freedom and confidence, we can be so bold as to speak to the Lord!

Amen.