RECOVER YOUR FAITH
Genesis 18:9-15 Genesis 21:1-7
Introduction
A sense of humor is a good thing. (Bulletin Bloopers)
Proverbs 15:13, 15 A happy heart makes the face cheerful… The cheerful heart has a continual feast.
Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good medicine…
Today we are going to look at two people who laughed, but it was not a joke - it was a promise that was humanly impossible.
Genesis 18:9-15
“Where is your wife Sarah?” they asked him. “There, in the tent,” he said.
Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him.
Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”
Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’
Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.”
But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
In our text today three visitors came to see Abraham and Sarah. In keeping with their traditions of hospitality, they offered refreshment, food, rest. Abraham asked Sarah to make some bread. While they ate, they had a talk (Genesis 18:9-15). Some say angels / Title given in vs 15 is ‘the Lord’ (Yahweh) (vs 15). Wiersbe: “The three strangers were the Lord Jesus Christ and two of His angels.” Divine appointment!
Although Abraham is the ‘Father of the Faithful’, we do have a lot to learn from Sarah - who laughed to hear God’s plan.
I want to encourage you that sometimes the future looks impossible, even uncertain, but when our faith takes a hit, we can recover by being focused on our God who can do anything. Sarah Faced Three Challenges to Her Faith that we face today also.
1. God’s promises didn’t come WHEN she thought they would.
It was 25 years prior that the promises from God were first made to Abram in Genesis 12. They began their journey when Sarah was 65 yrs old. The promises of God depended on having children. Her biological clock was ticking. They have been faithful followers - believing even when they struggled to believe.
When the visitors come to see Sarah, she is 90. Guthrie: “God waited until it was humanly impossible for the child of the covenant to be born in order to show that covenant people are created not by human effort but by divine and sovereign grace.” God’s timing is not always our expected timing.
2. God’s Promises weren’t answered by her own attempts!
They had other plans! Abram proposed non-direct heir. Sarai proposed a surrogate child through Hagar. Neither of these plans was acceptable to God - who had his own plan in mind. In Chapter 17 God changed their names:
-He changed Abram’s name to Abraham. He changed it from “exalted father” to “father of a multitude” (17:5).
-He changed Sarai’s name to Sarah: both names mean “Princess” - and she receives a promise from God (17:16 “I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”)
3. God’s Promises Arrived after the Impossibility.
Sarah is to be the mother of the special son promised to Abraham. For this to happen at her advanced age, she will need a miracle from the Lord, and that is what He provides. The blessing for Abraham and Sarah reaches into the future and includes kings and royalty among their descendants. Sarah does indeed give birth to a son in her old age.
Genesis 21:1-7
Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.
Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.
Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.”
And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”
Abraham laughed in 17:17 (Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”)
Sarah laughed at the news (18:12)
Sarah & Abraham named the promised son “He laughs”, Isaac, as God instructed.
Sarah said everyone who hears about this will laugh with her.
4. We are in the same situation with our faith.
-God’s promises do not always come when we think they should.
-God’s promises aren’t answered by our own efforts.
-God’s promises arrive after the impossibility
Dwight Moody once said, “God never made a promise that was too good to be true.”
We need to experience faith recovery in three areas: Prayer, Trust, Expectations.
Conclusion
Hebrews 11:11 “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.”
Key verse: Genesis 18:14 “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
DO WE CONSIDER HIM FAITHFUL?
Sarah died at the age of 127. She is the only woman in the Bible whose age is told at the report of her death.
Elmer Towns noted:
-Without Sarah, God wouldn’t fulfill His promise to Abraham to begin a great nation.
-Without Sarah, Abraham couldn’t walk in faith.
-Without Sarah, Abraham and Sarah weren’t in line of Messiah (Matthew 1:2).
That story doesn’t happen without Sarah.
Don’t be afraid to believe that God will keep his promises.
He promises to save anyone who turns to him in faith. We turn to him by turning away from our sins, and being
immersed in water to begin living the new life.
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Bible Class Discussion Questions
1. What do you most admire about Sarah?
2. What do you make of Sarah’s laugh when she overheard the visitors telling Abraham they would have a child within the year? How would you characterize it? Why do you think she denied it?
3. Sarah had to wait many years before the promise of a child was fulfilled.
- Why do you think God waited so long to fulfill his promise?
- Can you name some other women in the Bible who were promised a child and God brought it about at the right time?
- How can we apply the principle of patience in our own lives when waiting for God's promises… even when circumstances seem impossible?
4. Can you identify moments in Sarah's life where she struggled with her faith or had doubts about God's
promises? How did Sarah's doubt affect her actions and decisions?
6. In Hebrews 11:11, Sarah is commended for her faith. What specific aspects of her faith are highlighted in this verse? How can Sarah's example of faith encourage us to persevere in our own faith journeys?
7. In what ways can we apply the lessons from Sarah's life to our own faith journeys and daily lives? What qualities or characteristics of Sarah would you like to emulate?
8. Is there anything else you would like to talk about today?
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Resources
Deen, Edith. All the Women of the Bible. Castle Books, 1955
Guthrie, Nancy. Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament. Tyndale, 2010.
Towns, Elmer.
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/8-sarah-lesson-7-elmer-towns-sermon-on-in-hall-of-faith-235177
Wadge, Rik.
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/sarah-the-princess-and-the-promise-rik-wadge-sermon-on-growth-in-christ-99019
Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary, The Pentateuch. David C. Cook, 2001.
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Bulletin Bloopers!
Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our church.
Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say ‘Hell’ to someone who doesn’t care much about you.
For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.
Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM – prayer and medication to follow.
This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
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I didn’t use the following in my lesson but I liked it, so I’m sharing it here in case you’d like to use it. Via Rik Wadge.
Listen to some of God’s promises to us:
+I will bless you, Gen. 12:2
+I will not fail you, Josh. 1:5
+I will heal you, 2 Kings 20:5
+I will guide you, Ps. 32:8
+I will teach you, Ps. 32:8
+I will deliver you, Ps. 50:15
+I will satisfy you, Ps. 132:15
+I will help you, Is. Isa 41:10
+I will strengthen you, Isa 41:10
+I will uphold you, ; Isa 41:10
+I will hold your hand, Isa 42:6
+I will forgive you, Jer. 31:34
+I will restore you, Jer. 30:17
+I will be your God, Eze. 36:28
+I will love you, John 14:21
+I will save you, Eze. 36:27, 29
