Sarah: Barren, Beautiful, Blessed

[00:00:05] Let's look to God in prayer, Father, as we once again come to your word. [00:00:15] As it is revealed in what we refer to as the New Testament, we are reminded of things from the old. [00:00:27] That your faithfulness is something that has existed down through the centuries, that the very promises that you made to Abraham you kept perfectly, and that we today share in the same faith that Abraham had. Looking forward to the one who would come to be the messiah. We look back upon that event, and we rest in what Christ has accomplished on our behalf and look forward to the day when, either through physical death or the return of our lord and savior, we are gathered up to him and see him face to face, open our hearts and minds to what you have for us in your word. [00:01:32] In Jesus name, amen. [00:01:37] Hebrews, chapter eleven, verses eleven and twelve. [00:01:50] 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 in heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand on the seashore. [00:02:32] Please be seated. You. [00:03:11] I preached for a number of years, 22 years exactly, maybe a little bit over that in a small country church, and the people in that church always sat towards the back. [00:03:26] And it was my custom to do just as I've done now after the reading of the word, come down from the pulpit to preach to them and had a guest one Sunday that when I was standing at the back door, and that was a tradition. Some of you have grown up in churches like that where everybody has to pass by and shake the pastor's hand. [00:03:50] A guest in the church said, you know, when you did that? She says, I'd never seen anybody do that before. She said, when you did that, I felt like you were preaching that message just to me. [00:04:03] And I said, well, there were some other people present, but it's my intent to preach the message to each and every one of you here. [00:04:17] And I also like to make a distinction between the word preached and the word red. [00:04:24] The word red is infallible. [00:04:29] The word preached is not. [00:04:32] Don't believe everything that you ever heard preached, but what is read that is so. [00:04:49] Sarah. I entitled my sermon Barren, beautiful, and blessed. [00:05:00] I didn't read everything that's in here about Sarah. I'm trusting that some of you know some about her, and then those of you who don't, that you'll take the time to look and see about these things concerning Sarah. [00:05:14] It's fascinating to think about a woman who, at the age of 60, left home with her husband Abraham. [00:05:33] Because Abraham had gotten a call from God. [00:05:39] But the Bible doesn't say anything about God speaking to Sarah at that point, does it? [00:05:49] Some of you here may have had the Experience in your life of being married. [00:06:01] And maybe at the time you married, you were not a Believer. Or your spouse was not a Believer. [00:06:08] And one of you came to faith in Christ. [00:06:13] But it doesn't always follow that both come at the same time. [00:06:18] And I've known people who've struggled with that and had the difficulty of that. [00:06:24] A spouse that did not share the joy that they received. [00:06:35] And I have a certain admiration for Sarah. [00:06:41] That though she was not into this whole thing as much as Abraham, it doesn't appear at all that she was there. [00:06:50] She went with him. [00:06:57] She was 65 years old when they left Haran. [00:07:02] And that's when they took off. And that was just with the nephew lot. [00:07:09] Abraham and Sarah left the rest of the family behind. [00:07:15] To go into a strange land. [00:07:22] And when they came to this land, there was Famine in the land. And out of concern for the family, Abraham decides to go down to Egypt. [00:07:37] And those of you who are familiar with the Story, what happens is that they go down to Egypt. [00:07:44] And the pharaoh sees Sarah, 65 years old. [00:07:53] And adds her to his harem. [00:08:02] That's some beautiful woman at the age of 65. That the pharaoh finds her attractive. [00:08:15] There may be an additional reason that I've heard suggested. That the pharaoh found her particularly attractive. And that is that among the Egyptians, there was a great deal of venereal diseases. [00:08:30] And Sarah was not subject to such things. Being faithful to her husband and him being faithful to her. [00:08:39] And so a woman with fair skin. [00:08:43] And I know you're thinking about Sarah living out there in a desert. We live in a desert here, don't we? [00:08:51] What? You've got to remember, though, that these people in those days. [00:08:55] Did not go out and sun themselves on the deck. [00:09:00] She spent most of her time in the daylight hours in the tent and stayed out of the sun. [00:09:11] But we're assured from that. That she was a very beautiful woman. And God spares them the whole problem of destroying his plans, God's plan for Isaac. [00:09:27] By delivering Sarah from Pharaoh. [00:09:43] And so God then promises Abraham very clearly. [00:09:52] That he is going to have a son. [00:09:57] And Sarah is beginning, just beginning to get involved in this whole situation. [00:10:08] But she still doesn't have the faith that she could conceive that child. [00:10:17] And so she gets the thinking about, how are we going to do this if Abraham's got to have a child. [00:10:28] And then she thinks of the plan. [00:10:32] It was something that was common in their culture back in Ur of the chaldees, that if a woman could not conceive, she could give her handmaiden, her slave to her husband for the purpose of conceiving a child. [00:10:52] And then when that child was born, that child was considered hers. [00:11:02] And Sarah didn't have the faith that she could be the one. And so she did what she thought was a good idea. Well, we all know from the Middle east and the situation that's going on there today, it wasn't a good idea, and it wasn't God's plan. [00:11:30] Ishmael was born, and she and Abraham thought from. From all appearances, read the account for yourself and judge whether I'm getting that right or not. [00:11:44] But they thought Ishmael was going to be the Heir for 15 years. [00:11:56] It because Sarah was 90 when Isaac, or as it's pronounced in Hebrew, Yitzhak. [00:12:12] I prefer that. The reason I prefer that is it means laughter. [00:12:18] And Yitzhak sounds more like a funny name and laughter than Isaac does in English. [00:12:28] But notice back in those passages that I was reading about the promise that Abraham thinks it's Ishmael. And he tells God that, why can't it be Ishmael? And he says, no, sarah, your wife shall bear a son. [00:12:50] See, Abraham was having difficulty with the whole matter. Abraham laughs at the idea that at his age, and at Sarah's age, they would have a child. But it's not mocking laughter. [00:13:04] It's the laughter of, how can that be? How can that possibly be? [00:13:13] And yet God assures him that is what will happen. [00:13:20] And notice when he predicts the birth of this child, he tells him that the child's going to be born at this time next year. [00:13:32] I have three children, and I had no idea that my wife was pregnant a year in advance. [00:13:45] But do you know, God knew. [00:13:50] This shows clearly this is not a case that Sarah was already expecting. [00:13:57] This is a prediction a year in advance. [00:14:03] And God comes to visit Abraham to confirm this. [00:14:15] And when he comes to visit, he asks, where is Sarah, your wife? [00:14:22] And Abraham says, she's back in the tent. [00:14:27] Women in that culture, she was involved in the preparation of the meal. We're told that. But they weren't hostesses. [00:14:38] When a man had guests to his home, he wouldn't have all of his wife or wives. Some of them had more than one and all their children there. [00:14:51] And so they're asking him about Sarah, and he says, well, she's back in the tent, that's where she would be. [00:15:00] And in some of those middle eastern cultures, I understand it's rude to ask someone about their wife. Did you know that? Had a friend that went over to Saudi Arabia. He was an engineering. He was sent over there for some work. And they told him, number one, never ask any of your male colleagues that you're working with there who are Arab. Don't ask them about their wife. Don't. In this culture, you'd ask somebody about your wife. How's your wife doing? [00:15:32] Tell me about your wife. And they said, and then secondly, never ask them about their daughter. [00:15:43] But you can talk about their sons all day long. [00:15:46] No problem at all. [00:15:49] And so I think Abraham might have been a little bit shocked. [00:15:54] That this visitor was asking about Sarah. But the reason he was asking about Sarah was he was going to tell him very clearly. That Sarah is going to be the mother of your child. [00:16:15] And Sarah gets to hear this. [00:16:25] And we're told here in the scriptures, notice what it said. It said. So Sarah laughed to herself. [00:16:32] Notice it's very clear. Sarah didn't laugh out loud. [00:16:45] I found a coffee cup in a store recently, and I bought it. [00:16:49] And on the coffee cup, it said, sorry, I rolled my eyes out loud. [00:17:01] I think the cup was intended for a teenager to give to the parents. I think something like that. [00:17:09] But this is like that. [00:17:12] She didn't laugh out loud. Abraham didn't hear Sarah laugh. [00:17:18] And then we're also told that she said to herself, and again, I don't think this was out loud. [00:17:30] After I'm worn out and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure? [00:17:38] And the Lord speaks to Abraham and says 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? [00:17:58] It's a good question, isn't it? [00:18:01] It's a good question. In our own lives, in our relationship to Jesus Christ. As we face difficulties in this life, and every one of you is facing difficulties, there are different degrees. [00:18:17] Some of us here, it's old age, really feeling it. [00:18:22] Some of us here, it's being small and very dependent on your parents. [00:18:31] Some of us, it's struggling through those years of growth. [00:18:40] Wow. [00:18:42] But God is aware, and nothing is 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. [00:18:58] Of course, Sarah denies that she laughed because she was afraid. [00:19:06] She had a fear of the Lord, a proper fear of the Lord, here's. [00:19:19] And God says to her, no, but you did laugh. And Sarah sees that laughter of hers in a very different light. When we come to chapter 21 where Isaac is born, 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? [00:20:09] Yet I have borne him a son in his old age, we're told in Hebrews. [00:20:21] And I think this connects things up in terms of Sarah's faith. We're told here that it was by faith that Sarah received power to conceive somewhere along the line here between her laughter and the conception of the child. And we know that's about nine months. [00:20:55] Somewhere along that line, she came to believe God, even though she had reached that point of menopause that's told to us there in the scriptures. [00:21:16] She had faith. [00:21:20] She was believing. [00:21:23] She saw that this faith that her husband Abraham, had in this God who led him to leave family, leave home, and go to a strange land and look for a promise that he did not see a great fulfillment of, that she, too, had, that faithful that she believed. [00:22:07] And so the woman who was barren and beautiful becomes the woman who is blessed. [00:22:24] Sarah lives to be 127 years old. [00:22:35] She sees this child of hers grow up to be a young man. [00:22:45] She sees the result of having faith in God. [00:22:56] Faith is believing in that which is not seen. [00:23:00] But notice the scriptures don't tell us that faith is believing in something you'll never see, because that's not true. [00:23:11] I believe in the resurrection, and I obviously haven't been resurrected yet. [00:23:21] I tell my children that if I ever wake up some morning and I feel no pain, I know that I have died and gone to be with the Lord. [00:23:35] But Jesus Christ offers through faith, that gift of faith that he gives to us life everlasting. [00:23:53] And that's what we celebrate here at the Lord's table. [00:24:02] We remember his death until he comes this feast. And it is a feast. It's a spiritual feast that we have here this evening. [00:24:19] This feast we will continue to celebrate while we're here on this earth. [00:24:26] But there will come a day when this will be no more. [00:24:33] For we will be present there in glory with Abraham and Sarah. [00:24:43] And at the head of the table will be our bridegroom, Jesus Christ. [00:24:50] We will be at the wedding feast of the lamb, and we will no longer need to believe in things we haven't seen, for we will see all the things in which we have believed. [00:25:19] Let's look to God in prayer, Father, when we consider Sarah and the way that you gently led her along and that though she may not have shared much of the vision that Abraham had at the beginning, that by the time that she came to the birth of her son Isaac, she knew your faithfulness to her. [00:26:04] And just as we look to Abraham as our father in faith, so Sarah is our mother. [00:26:19] And through Sarah and her son Isaac, ultimately came the messiah, Jesus Christ, who would be born of a virgin and live a perfect life upon this earth in our place, fulfilling the law for us that we might be righteous and then dying upon the cross to pay the penalty for our sins, that we might not have to face that ultimate separation from your love and grace. [00:27:06] You, you. And so, Father, as we come to the table, we look to you to give us that blessing, that hope and that joy, that laughter that is ours. [00:27:34] And in the joy of heaven, in Jesus name, amen.