Sarah: By Faith Received Power

By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Everything about the Sarah story is designed by God to teach Abraham and Sarah, and more importantly, you and I, how powerless we are to fulfill God’s promises to us. The promise God gave Abraham and Sarah was a son, however, after years of waiting Sarah found herself utterly powerless to conceive God’s promised son.

Sarah Was Powerless to Fulfill the Promise

Not only did Sarah have a long history of infertility, she was now passed the age of 90. (Genesis 17:17) Our text clearly says “she was past the age” of childbearing. In Genesis, we read this:

Genesis 18:11 ESV

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

It can’t get any clearer this this—it was humanly impossible for Sarah and Abraham to conceive a child and become parents, but the fulfillment of God’s promises depended on the very thing they couldn’t do—Sarah had to conceive of a child!

The same thing is true for us. Do you realize the each and every one of God’s promises found in the Bible are fulfilled in those who are in Christ!

2 Corinthians 1:20 ESV

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

Moreover, the New Covenant amplifies the Old Covenant promises and makes them better!

1 Corinthians 3:21–23 ESV

So let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

The Old Covenant people of God were promised the Holy Land and blessings in this life, in contrast, the New Covenant people of God are promised the whole world and blessings are not enjoyed just in this life, but for all eternity! First Corinthians 2:9 says that the greatness of God’s promises to those who are in Christ are beyond our ability to comprehend!

Yet, even the smallest of these promised blessings is utterly beyond our ability to fulfill. Just like Sarah, we are barren.

We naturally want to reject this idea. We like to think that we have some role to play in our salvation and spiritual blessings. The saying, “God helps those who help themselves,” is the most quoted verse in the religious canon of our culture, the problem is these “verse” is nowhere to be found in the Bible!

We hate the idea that we can’t help ourselves because we believe this would mean our situation would be hopeless, but those who think this way forget the power of faith. Remember the definition of faith we learned in Hebrews 11:1?

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Faith creates hope, because God is the one who fulfills His promises! By Faith...

Sarah Received Power to Fulfill the Promise

The barrenness that Sarah suffered was by design. As I said earlier, God wanted to teach Sarah and Abraham, and more importantly, God wants to teach us, that His good promises are fulfilled in our lives by His power, not by ours.

One day, when Sarah was 90, God Himself visited Abraham. Sarah overhear God speaking to Abraham:

Genesis 18:9–10 ESV

They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.

When she heard God say this, she laughed in bitterness:

Genesis 18:12 ESV

So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?”

Have you ever felt this way? I know I have. Rather than blessing, all you have experienced is long years of waiting. In fact, you have waited so long the very idea that God would bless you with one of His promises seems like a cruel joke.

However, when it comes to fulfilling His promises, God is not joking—He is deadly serious:

Genesis 18:13–15 ESV

The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

I don’t know when it happened, the Bible does not tell us, but sometime between this rebuke and her conception of Isaac, Sarah’s bitterness became faith and at that moment she was given by God the power of conceive!

God has brought this text and this sermon into your life today because He wants to turn your bitterness into faith. It is true, you don’t have the power to bring God’s blessing into your life. All things being equal, your life will not get better, but all things are not equal when it comes to faith. When we have faith in Christ all the promises of God are conceived in our life! According to Acts 1:8, when you receive the Holy Spirit, you received power!

You may be saying to yourselves, “I don’t see the blessings of God’s promises in my life.” I have no doubt that this is true, but remember, when a woman conceives a child she is unaware of that conception at first.

Sarah’s Conception Was Unseen at First

Normally a woman is aware that she is pregnant when she misses her period, but remember, Sarah had not had a period for decades. Perhaps at first, she just thought she was gaining weight. It probably wasn’t until she felt the baby move that she knew she had conceived.

I say this, because the conception of blessing in your life has already begun, you just can’t see and feel it! Remember, faith is seeing things that are unseen as if they were visible. As the apostle Paul reminds us:

2 Corinthians 5:7 ESV

for we walk by faith, not by sight.

The Bible makes it clear that the fullness of God’s promised blessings will not be enjoyed until Christ comes again. However, the blessing we have in Christ are so great that they have already overflowed into this present age! Yet even the greatest of these present blessings are but a dim reflection of our future glory.

1 Corinthians 2:9 ESV

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

Try to image the very best joy and blessing of God in your life right now—good—you are not even close to what God is preparing for you in the future! Imagination can’t see these blessings, but faith can! Faith has the power of making the unseen a living reality in our lives:

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

This brings us to the conclusion...

Conclusion: Sarah Laughed with Joy

Remember we learned Sarah laughed in bitterness when she heard God say she would conceive the blessing of a son? The story doesn’t end there, she laughed again:

Genesis 21:1–7 ESV

The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

By faith, Sarah’s bitter laughter became the laughter of joy! By faith God will give you the power to turn your bitter laughter into the laughter of joy as well! God takes your hurts and pains very seriously. Scripture says He “does not willing grieve the children of men,” (Lam 3:33) nor does He “withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly.” (Ps 84:11) When you place your faith in Christ, you can be assured that God is working His power in your life to bring you to the greatest good and the deepest joy! (Rom 8:28)

Let us pray.

Lord add your blessing to this word today that by it faith may be conceived in every heart and by faith the blessings of your promises may be conceived by your power. Amen.

Related Media

Related Sermons