Introduction

Good morning, friends. If your heart has ever ached in the waiting room of life—if you’ve watched calendars turn while prayers felt unanswered, if you’ve listened to the echo of your own questions and wondered whether God still remembers your name—then you are in good company today. Abraham and Sarah have a seat for you. Their story carries the fragrance of hope for those who feel past their prime, past their strength, or past their chance. The God who calls stars by name calls Sarah by name. He steps into tents where laughter sounds like disbelief and reshapes it into laughter that sounds like deliverance.

Sometimes the promises of God seem too good for the mirror’s reflection or the doctor’s report. Sometimes the promise feels too lofty for the limits we feel in our bones. But can I ask you a gentle question? Who told you that “too late” is the last word? Not the Lord. He writes covenants in places that look like deserts. He grows orchards on barren hillsides. He whispers, Wait with Me, watch with Me, walk with Me. And when the clock strikes what He calls “the set time,” heaven’s calendar flips, and everything changes.

Hear this word of encouragement from E. M. Bounds, a pastor who knew the sweetness and strain of long prayer: “Four things let us ever keep in mind: God hears prayer, God heeds prayer, God answers prayer, and God delivers by prayer.” (E. M. Bounds)

That promise-keeping heartbeat pulses through our text today. God does something tender and true: He names Sarah, and in doing so, He names the way He will keep His covenant. Abraham laughs, but God is kind. He doesn’t scold the sigh. He steadies the soul. He gives a child a name—Isaac—and He gives His people a promise that will outlive tents, outlast empires, and echo all the way to the church at Rome. And Romans reminds us that God’s family is formed by His promise, carried by His power, and received by faith. Credentials can’t create that. Heritage can’t guarantee that. Only God can.

So, as we begin, let your shoulders relax. Let your breath slow. Let the ancient words do their work. The God who met Abraham in the heat of the day can meet you in the weight of your day. The Promiser is present. The Promiser is patient. The Promiser is personal. And He delights to keep His word through people who feel past their possibilities.

Let’s hear the Scriptures.

Genesis 17:15-22 (KJV) 15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. 16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. 17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear? 18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! 19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. 20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. 21 But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year. 22 And he left off talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.

Romans 9:6-9 (KJV) 6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.

Opening Prayer: Father of Abraham and Sarah, Faithful God and Covenant Keeper, we turn our faces toward You. Speak to our waiting hearts with Your living Word. Where we feel barren, breathe life. Where we feel weary, bring Your strength. Where laughter has soured into cynicism, sweeten it into joy. Give us grace to trust the Promiser beyond what we see, peace to rest in Your timing, and courage to receive what You freely give. Mark our hearts with the name You have spoken over us in Christ—beloved, chosen, and kept. Establish our faith, steady our steps, and let Your promise shape our identity. In the name of Jesus, the True Seed and our Sure Hope. Amen.

God establishes His covenant through Sarah

God speaks a clear word about Sarah. He gives her a new name. He links His blessing to her. “I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her.” He does not leave her in the shadows. He brings her to the front of the promise and says, “kings of people shall be of her.” Her new name means nobility. It carries honor. It carries hope. This is more than a private change. It is a public sign that grace is moving through her life. The covenant has a face and a womb and a story, and it is hers.

Naming matters in Scripture. When God names, He claims. He sets direction. He writes identity over a person. The shift from Sarai to Sarah is the Lord saying, “This woman is part of My pledge.” The line of promise will not pass around her. It will pass through her. The family tree of faith receives a branch from her body. The kings that rise from their line reach back to this moment. The promise is not vague. It is precise. It has a mother. It has a path.

This lifts our view of how God works. He does not build His plans by ignoring the weak points. He enters them. He addresses them. He ties His word to a life that looked empty for many years. He calls her by name and gives her a new future that fits His oath. When God says, “I will bless her,” He is not adding a side note. He is laying a cornerstone.

Abraham hears this and falls on his face. He laughs. He does the math of the body. He thinks in years and aches. He then prays for Ishmael, “O that Ishmael might live before thee!” The Lord answers with patience. He answers with order. “Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed.” The laugh does not end the promise. The prayer does not change the path. God takes the moment and gives it a name: Isaac. The child’s name means laughter. Every time they call Isaac, they will remember that God turned a laugh into a life.

God hears Abraham about Ishmael. He says so: “I have heard thee.” He pours out blessing on Ishmael with fruitfulness and with a future that includes twelve princes. God is generous. Nothing is wasted in His presence. A father’s cry is not ignored. Ishmael receives a great nation because God listens. Prayer moves within this scene like breath. It is honest. It is heard. It is answered.

At the same time, the covenant line stays clear. “My covenant will I establish with Isaac.” God sets the channel for His saving plan. He does it openly. He does it kindly. There is provision for Ishmael. There is a covenant through Isaac. Both lines are under the same sky. Both lines stand before the same God. Only one carries the everlasting pledge that will shape salvation history. The name Isaac is more than a baby announcement. It is a signpost.

The Lord also gives a clock. “At this set time in the next year.” Promise is tied to timing. God is not rushed. God is not late. He gives a date for hope to become a cradle. This anchors the heart. Faith has something to hold. It can point to a season and say, “God said.”

Romans echoes this. “At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.” The promise moves forward because God comes. He visits. He acts. Human power could not raise this child. Human skill could not produce this heir. The Lord’s coming brings the change. The phrase is personal. “I will come.” The Giver arrives, and life follows Him into the tent.

Waiting under a word like that shapes a people. It teaches a slow trust that rests in what God has said. It creates a steady hope that does not need proof from sight. The calendar becomes a place of worship, day by day, as the set time draws near. Patience grows because the Lord has spoken. Courage grows because the Lord will come.

Paul presses the lesson further. “They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” The line in Genesis is physical and historic. It is also a pattern of how God builds His family. He counts people into His family by promise. He gives the status of “child” to those who receive His word in faith. The seed is “called” in Isaac. The call reaches beyond Isaac to all who trust the One who calls.

This guards the church from pride and fear. Pride fades because no one earns a place. Fear fades because God holds the promise. If He called Isaac into life against all odds, He can call anyone into grace. He can count them as His own. He can write “beloved” over their lives with the same authority that wrote “Sarah” over Sarai.

So the scene in Genesis is more than a birth story. It is a map for how God builds. He speaks. He names. He sets the time. He comes. He hears prayer along the way. He gives room for human weakness and even human laughter. Then He raises a promise-child who carries His covenant forward.

When we read, “In Isaac shall thy seed be called,” we hear the sound of God’s choice. We see a mercy that runs through a mother who once could not bear. We see a family defined by a word from heaven. We see a future that rests on God’s will and not on human strength. And we see why Paul can say, “the children of the promise are counted.” The same God who called Isaac calls us by grace, and that call stands.

Faith trusts the Promiser beyond barrenness

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