Sarah: The Doubter God Used

KEY PASSAGE: Genesis 18:9-15 (NASB)| Supporting Text: Hebrews 11:11 (NASB 1995)

Tithe and Offering

Giving God our tithes and offerings is a big part of our Sunday worship experience. Thank you, everyone, for being faithful givers to the work of God here at the church. Your giving helps us in many ways to do ministry and share the gospel of Jesus Christ. That happens because we have many faithful givers. So, thank you for your faithfulness and generosity, and may God bless you. I also want to thank all our ministry leaders who help with their time, resources, gifts, and talents to advance the work of God through their respective areas of ministry. And so, I want to say thank you to our leaders. Please follow the instructions on the screen on how to give. Our ushers will pass the offering plates as we continue with worship.

Welcome

Welcome to our Sunday Worship Service, everyone and our online viewers. We are delighted to have you with us today and anticipate that your time with us will be enriched as we come together in worship.

Today is Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day to all the faithful, incredible, and hardworking fathers in this church who minister to the Lord and find themselves ministering to the members of their families, especially their wives. You are a source of blessing and inspiration in the home, and may God bless you all.

Announcement

We meet at the church every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. for our weekly WEDNESDAY NIGHT CONNECT BIBLE STUDY. Bible Study is part of the church discipleship program, and Bible Study is also the basis of our spiritual growth. So, please join us as we connect with God and each other through STUDYING THE WORD OF GOD. Our weekly corporate prayer time at the church is on Saturday at 8:00 a.m. If you don’t know how and what to pray for, this is an excellent time to come and pray with others. I also want to encourage you to please spend time in personal prayer for your spiritual growth. We will change our prayer schedule, so please look for the prayer meeting schedule. More to come on this. And to all the men, our next Men’s Breakfast is Saturday, June 29th, at 10:00 a.m. at the church.

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Our God and our Father, I pray that You sanctify this church with the truth. I also pray that You bless the giving (the tithe and the offering) as we honor You with our gifts and substance, and may our giving be used to advance the Kingdom of God and bring heaven to earth in the lives of Your people. I pray that You will open our eyes so that we may behold the wondrous things from Your Word. Help me to speak faithfully and help us to hear Your Word as it grows in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory. Amen.

Declaration of Faith in God

Let us stand and say the Declaration of Faith in God together.

SERMON INTRODUCTION

We are looking at men and women who failed, who sinned, who blew it, whose actions or reactions were inconsistent with God’s character. We are looking at folks God met in the midst of their complex issues and whom God used to advance His Kingdom agenda here on earth; we called this sermon series, “IT IS NOT TOO LATE: GOD USES BROKEN PEOPLE.” One important thing you need to know about is that, God loves doing the impossible, and the only requirement for God to work in our lives is “faith” that aligns with the truth of His Word. And so, today, I want to talk about the life of one of the great women of the Bible. Her name is Sarah. And she gives us, I think, some very strident principles that we can apply to our daily lives.

SERMON EXPOSITION

We are introduced to Sarah in chapter 11 of Genesis (seven chapters from chapter 18) with a phrase. Genesis chapter 11, verse 30 says, “Sarai was barren; she had no child.” Sarah had a lot going on, and I will talk about her name change from Sarai to Sarah in a second. But she had a lot going for her. She was married to a successful man named Abram, who feared and worshipped God. The thing that made Sarai stand out was her beauty. The Bible declares that she was a beautiful woman. In fact, when we discover her, here at the end of chapters 11 and 12, and this time, we are told that Sarah is 65 years old, yet the Bible declares that (watch this) she was a knockout and a sensation.

As you can see, Sarah had a lot going for her, but as a woman, there was one major missing element in her life that many other women are dealing with today, which I want to bring to your attention. The Bible says, “She was barren.” Sarah had no child. Let’s look at Sarah’s situation from a Jewish culture and point of view. You see, for a Jewish woman not to have a child was a curse. With all the other great things about Sarah’s life, her inability to conceive, incubate (if you will), and deliver a new life was not there. Her capacity for bearing life was missing. Her physical reality today, yesterday, or in the context of the Old Testament, is a lot of folks’ spiritual reality today. What you and I, along with many other Christians, experience today. They may have a lot going for them, but the ability for them to house life isn’t there. That element of conception is missing.

There are people here this morning who have been barren for an extended period. I don't know how long you have been barren. But life has been missing for an extended period. Perhaps you are characterized by loneliness because you are barren relationally. Perhaps your life is characterized by defeat and setbacks because you are barren in terms of your success goals, which you cannot achieve and reach. There is no productivity there, so you are barren (empty) in that area of life. Maybe your dreams and aspirations have been shattered due to life circumstances, so you are barren. You say, well, how am I making a correlation between Sarah’s barrenness in the Old Testament and our lack of life today? Let me help you out. Because in the New Testament according to John 10:10, Jesus said these words about life. “I have come to give you life and to give it to you abundantly.”

Sarah is 65 years old, and God comes to Abraham, who is 75 years old. I want you to pay attention to this because, between chapters 12 and 21, I am getting ready to cover 25 years. God came to Abraham, whose name was Abram, and said in Genesis 12:1, “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.”

Remember we talked about blessings and curses last Sunday and said that blessings are passed down from one generation to another. And so, God pronounces a blessing on Abraham. Let me put this in everyday language: God said, “Through you, a blessing is going to come to the whole world, and I am making a promise to you that I will do something special in your life. And what I am going to do is I am going to give you a son.” God told Abraham, “But in the middle of your barrenness, I will give you life.”

In chapter 15, verse 2, Abram is confused. He says, “I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.” So, for Sarah, it is too late to expect life because she has been lifeless for so long. Even though God says this, Sarah decides that, evidently, God does not understand biology. God is a little bit confused about human biology. God has lost contact with how this thing works. Remember now, church, that Sarah is 65 years old, and how can a 65-year-old woman have a baby? So, guess what? Sarah did what many of us here today try to do. And that is, “We want to help God out.” We want to help God. God needs some help because God is talking crazy.

Sarah said to Abraham, “Let me help God out. She said, Abraham, we have a maid, and you know what? She can get pregnant, and I think what God means is for you to go into Hagar and impregnate her, and that will be the child because I can't have a child.” I am just paraphrasing here, but what I said reflects Sarah’s actions.

And so, in chapter 16, “Sarai took Hagar, her maid, and gave her to her husband Abram as his wife. And he went into her, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her sight.”

Too many cooks in the kitchen. So now we have a conflict going on here because, watch this, Sarah wanted to help out GOD. To help God, Sarah used human solutions to bring about a supernatural promise. She used a human solution to bring about a supernatural promise. One of the reasons why many Christians today are not experiencing the promises of God (and by the way, there are over 8,000 promises) in the Bible is because we use human solutions and wisdom to help GOD. We try to help God because we say to ourselves that God is not living in the real world.

Where there is real barrenness, a real lack of pregnancy, and real-life challenging situations, we revert to a human way to bring about the desired result of what we wish God would do in our lives based on the promises in His word or their applications to us.

In chapter 17, verse 15, (stay with me church) God comes back to Abraham again and says to him, that is not how this thing is going to work. God told Abraham, “As for Sarai, your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.” In the Bible, naming was more than just ascribing nomenclature. Naming in the Bible had to do with creating a new personality (identity). You name something because you want to create a new identity. The word Sarah means princess or noblewoman.

In other words, I am going to make Sarah this noble princess, and she will, according to verse 16, “Be blessed. I will give you a son by her, then I will bless her, and she shall be the mother of nations; kings of people will come from her.” In other words, the girl will be living large because God is about to do something special and spectacular with her.

Do you know what God is giving Sarah? Her destiny. Even though Sarah is old, God says I still have a future for you. This reminds me of Jeremiah 29:11, one of the most stated verses in the Bible about destiny and the future. God gave a message to Jeremiah about the folks living in Babylon captivity. God said, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” I know Sarah is barren, but God says I will give Sarah her destiny.

So, why am I telling you all this? I don’t care how barren you are right now and how bad your situation is; God has a destiny for you because you have a name. In fact, you belong to the name that is above all names. His name is Jesus, the Son of God. So, there is destiny for you. You say, “Well, how do I know if I have been buried without life for an extended period of time that I still have a destiny.” Simple, you are still here. You are still here, which means God is not finished with you yet. All I am saying is that God is not done with you. God has not written you off.

And then, in verse 17, stay with me, we are told that “Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, ‘will a child be born to a man one hundred years old? And will Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’” Abraham says, “God, you are so confused. If you stop counting God and your math is off, let me help you out. I will be a hundred years old. Sarah couldn’t get pregnant when she was 65, and this is 25 years later. She is now 90 years old.” “If she can’t have a baby at age 65 and never got pregnant in all of her adult years as long as we have been married, and she is now 90 years old, why in the world would you think she will get pregnant at 90 years old.”

All right, let’s jump over to chapter 18 now. God says in verse 9, “Where is Sarah, your wife?’ He says, ‘There in the tent.’ Remember, God and Abraham are having a serious conversation about his future and destiny. God says, ‘I am going to return to you at this time next year; Sarah, your wife will have a son.’ And Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind Him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years; Sarah was past childbearing …” No more cycles. “Sarah laughed to herself …”

Alright, now we have a laughing couple. First, Abraham laughs at God in chapter 17, verse 17, and Sarah laughs at God in chapter 18. You got to be joking—Notice Sarah’s explanation. “I am old. I am advanced in age; I am past childbearing. Shall I have the pleasure of my lord?” Not only can’t I get pregnant, but Abraham, my lord, can’t get that far. Look, tell the truth, shame the devil. She says, “Shall I have pleasure? We can’t get the fun going to get there.”

So, God has to take us through differing scenarios, trial after trial. Difficulty after difficulty, and God will wait as long as it takes for faith to give life. He will let you stay barren, lifeless until faith rises to the top of the roof. . “For without faith, it is impossible to please Him.” What faithlessness will do to you, and here is how you know you are faithless, when you are full of flesh and yourself. You are faithless when you keep appealing to human means to bring about spiritual results. That means you have no faith.

God wants to give us abundant life. There is a spiritual pregnancy that God wants to give you in your impossible situation. God is asking this question to everyone in this room. “Is there anything too difficult for Me?” In the New Testament, the angel told Mary in Luke chapter 1, verse 37, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” Because everybody in this room at one time or another will face facts that make it look like God is crazy. That makes it look like God does not know what He is talking about. You see, facts are good for the textbooks, but when we come to God, we will come by faith.

Now, we have been reading about doubt; we have been reading about flesh. We have been reading about human attempts that didn’t work. And God has to do things to engage faith in these people's lives in our sermon series so that He would be free to move. And the New Testament now picks up on that to teach us some important lessons. Turn your Bible to Romans chapter 4. Watch this now.

Verse 16 of Romans chapter 4. “For this reason, it is by faith, so that it may be in accordance with grace so that the promise …” In this case, salvation is the principle. “… the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants.” The principle of God making a promise doesn’t just apply to Abraham and Sarah. He says it applies to all their children. All the descendants, so you and I get in on this principle. “Not only to those who are of the law. No, no, not just the Jews. But also, to those who are of faith, who are of faith in Abraham, who is the father of all of us.”

Watch this: If you believe in Jesus Christ, Abraham is your daddy (alright), so this principle applies to you. So, how does this principle apply to you and me? It says, verse 17, “As it is written, ‘A father of many nations I have made you’ in the presences of Him who he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.” He says, “God can take dead things and give them life.” Without having some raw materials to work with, God can take dead things and give them life.

Illustration

God is so good at being God that He doesn’t need stuff to work with. God can come up with stuff. He says the faith of Abraham took a dead womb that could not give life. It just didn’t give life; it could not give life, and He created a miraculous intervention, and He did it in such a way that it was that which does not exist. Theologians call this ex nihilo. That means from or out of nothing (from nothing). God can make something out of nothing.

God has a way of making a life come out of something that doesn’t exist. God is so good that He can create stuff out of stuff with no raw material within your eyesight that you can focus on. That is how good God is. Now, one more thing before I close our message for today. One more thing, and I am done. Watch this now. Open your Bible to Hebrews 11:11, which says, “By faith, even Sarah herself received the ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.” The problem is that Sarah didn’t conceive until she was 90 years old. And so, the natural question is, if I am 90 years old and have a baby, how much time am I going to get to spend with the baby? If I am 40 years old, I am not married yet. I may not get to enjoy my husband when I get married at age 40. My age and career have not flourished because I was too old when I started working a professional job. And so, I may not get to enjoy my career. It is taking too long for God to do what He said He would do for me.

Application

But the Bible says, somebody say the Bible says. The Bible says in Genesis chapter 23:1, “That Sarah died when she was 127 years old.” Sarah’s name is absent in chapter 22, but it appears at the beginning of chapter 23. Now let me tell you why that is so important to know. Sarah is the only woman in the Bible whose age is given at her death date. SARAH IS THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE BIBLE WHOSE AGE IS LISTED AT DEATH. There is no other woman in the Bible who has her age written out at the point of her death. That is done for men only in the Bible, but it is done for no other woman but Sarah. Why? Because God wants you to know that even though it may look like it is taking a long time for Him to come through with His promise for you. But when He comes through, God will give you enough time to enjoy it. If you are a hundred and 27 years old and have a baby at 90, that means you have, and you get to enjoy that baby for 37 years. So, for 37 years, she got to enjoy what it took a long time for her to have. But it only took that long because Sarah went to the flesh rather than believing the promise of the Word of God.

Conclusion

And so, in closing, let me ask you a question. Is anything too hard for God according to Genesis 18:14? Of course not! And if you need proof, then listen to what Job said in Job 42:2: ask Jeremiah in Jeremiah 32 verse 17, the angel Gabriel in Luke 1:37, and the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:20 to 21. Caleb was 40 years old, but other folks messed him up. Other folks’ unbelief left him hanging out there without being able to go into the Promised Land. Forty years later, they went to the Promised Land, and here comes Caleb. Caleb tells Joshua, “Give me that mountain which the Lord promised me.” He says, “And just so you know, Joshua, even though it is a 40-year delay in me getting a promise, I am as strong now as I was when I was 40. I am as vibrant now as when I was at 40.”

My point is that if God made a promise to you, all I am saying is that you can be sure that God will have the power and authority to fulfill His promise in your and my life. God will always fulfill His promises to His believing people immediately or ultimately.

Faith Appeal, Call to Action, and Altar Call

So even if other folks around you and their unbelief are messing you up, it won’t control what God has for you and the time He gives you to enjoy His plan for your life. My challenge to you and me is to leave the flesh out, apply and obey God’s Word, and believe God’s promises more than the facts. Let’s stand on our feet. Let’s go before the Lord.

And if you are here today and would like to give your life to Jesus, please come forward so we can pray with you and usher you into the family of God.

Benediction

And so, Father God, we bless Your name and give You all the glory. Your power, Your promise, and Your provision. They are all extraordinary, so we thank You. We give glory to You even if we see the facts, but we give glory to You for the promise. We know what is practical and natural, as well as the promise from afar. We see what things look like, but we also know the promise, and we will hold onto the promise and not limit ourselves to the facts only. I pray that we meditate and then celebrate in the midst of what You are about to do in our lives. We thank You for all this and give You all the glory and honor in the name of Jesus. Amen.

God bless you. We will see you next week at 10:30 a.m.