Let’s Be Willing To Wait On The Lord
7/15/2001 Genesis 15:1-16 Text Genesis 12-17
Waiting is something all of us have to do. We wait in line at the bank, we wait at the red light, we wait for our dinner to come in the restaurant, we wait for church to be over with so we can go out, and we wait for our birthday or for Christmas to come so that we can get what it is we want. Sometimes we see waiting as an absolute pain in the neck. We grumble the whole time. We say things, like “I’m sick and tired of you’ll wasting my time or I’ve got other things to do.” How many of us have gone into a store or place to eat, got upset because they took so long to serve us, and left and went somewhere else and then spent more time going somewhere else than we would have if we had just stayed where we were?
There are some things that our refusal to wait on have caused tragic circumstances. There are people in cemeteries today, who could be alive in church this morning if they would have waited at a red light or a stop sign. That decision not to wait for less than a minute cost them or someone else their lives. Some waiting if for our own good.
One of the more difficult things about being a Christian is waiting on God after God has made a promise to us. In Life-Sharing, we are looking at the book of Romans, and quite often it uses Abraham and Sarah to talk about faith and righteousness. They were justified by their faith I want us to see that these great leaders in the faith, had some of the same problems we have when it comes to faith and waiting on the Lord.
God had decided to create a special people for himself out of all the people in the world. He chose Abraham and Sarah to do this. God told Abraham, to leave his people and move to a land far away that He would show him. God would make him into a great nation. Now on the one hand this was a pretty good deal. Abraham and Sarah did not have any children, and he was seventy five and his wife about 65. In order for God to make him into a great nation, that would mean they would have to have children. They’ve been wanting a child for years. The flip side though was, he had to leave the security and protection of his family never to see them again, and he did not know what kind of robbers, thieves and murderers he might encounter. He had no idea where God would lead them, and everybody must have told him he was fool to just give up everything and leave.
Abraham chose to believe God, so he and his family took off to the land of the Negev where God had led them. Now they left this abundant land to come to this place, only to have a famine immediately hit the land. Now why would God lead them to a place where there was a famine and they might lose all their sheep and cattle. Well it was Abraham and Sara’s first real opportunity to wait upon the Lord Being willing to wait on the Lord is evidence you are walking by faith. But every time we have the opportunity to wait on the Lord, it seems as though, there is a temptation to take matters in our own hands.
We can tell when we are no longer waiting on the Lord, because our plans for the future will contain an element that forces us to no longer by completely honest either with ourselves or others. Abraham tells Sara, “Sweetheart what we need to do is go to Egypt where there is plenty of food.” Sara tells him, “well the Lord has been leading you, and if you think this is what we should do, then I’m all for it.”
Now just as they get to Egypt, Abraham mentions to his wife, “Now baby doll, you know how beautiful you are, and there is no woman around as fine as you. Even at 65 you put all these other women to shame. Now when the Egyptians see you, they are going to want you for themselves. They will probably kill me, just to get you. So instead of telling them, I’m your husband, let’s tell them I’m your brother.” Now does this sound like a man of faith, or does it sound like us, when we want to take matters in our own hands when, we’re not quite sure we can wait on the Lord.
Sara does not have a lot of options at this point. It might have been different if Abraham had mentioned this before they left the Negev where God had sent them. Well sure enough, when the Egyptians see how good Sara looks, they tell Pharaoh and he wants her for his wife. Pharaoh treats Abraham likes he’s the man. Meanwhile he couldn’t wait to have sex with Sara. The only thing that keeps it from happening is that God sends a serious disease on Pharaoh and his whole household.
Everybody must have been ill except Sara and Abraham. Pharaoh discovered they were married, and asked, “Man what is your problem coming here lying to me like this. Look at all this trouble you have caused us. Get your wife and get out of my country.” Abraham’s unwillingness to wait on the Lord, had caused a lot of innocent people severe pain. While they were there in Egypt, they got them an Egyptian maid by the name of Hagar.
They did go back to the land God had told them in the Negev. But now 10 years have passed. Abraham is up to 85 and Sarah up to 75. God comes to Abraham in a vision and tells him in 15:1,”Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield and your very great reward.” Now after 10 years of waiting for a promise, Abram is a little ticked off at God, and wants to remind Go things are not going as well as he had hoped they would. “Here you are God, telling me how great and wonderful you are, but you’re not giving me what I need. I do not need any more wealth. I’m going to be dead soon, and my servant Eliezer of Damascus will get everything I own. Don’t you remember you had me leave my real family a long time ago. You know God, you haven’t given me any children, so a servant is going to be my heir. What can you give me that’s going to make a difference?” I don’t know if Abraham is having a pity party or is just plain upset with God.
You know it is something how arrogant we can be with God. God tells us I’m your shield you protector and your very great reward, but we want to know how come you haven’t given me what I really want. Part of the reason God cannot tell us what He has for us in the future, is that we think we should get it right now. We look and see time is running out, and if something does not happen soon, it will be too late for us. Abraham is thinking, “I don’t have too many years of sexual activity left and death is crowding me on the other side.” This brother does not know it but he has ninety more years left to live. There are some things about you, that you cannot possibly know, but God knows and that’s why God is not going to push up his time table just because we are tired of waiting.
God tells Abraham, that man is not going to be the one to receive your inheritance. A son is going to come from your own body and he will be your heir. Go out and count the stars if you can count them. That’s about how many people will be in your family reunion at the end of time. When God said that, “Abraham knew immediately it would take place.” He accepted the word of the Lord by faith, and it was credited to Him as righteousness.” Waiting on the Lord, means truly believing what the Lord said will happen, will happen.
Abraham goes and tells Sarah, “It is going to happen. I’m not concerned anymore about Eliezer getting our property. God specifically said a son is coming from my own body and will be my heir.” Now Sarah didn’t have the same experience as Abraham. She believed it would happen, but she thought maybe God had something different in mind. At 75, maybe it was unrealistic to think God was going to use her directly. After all, it was God’s fault she had not had any children up to this point. But there was another option available.
They had come from a people who had come up with a backup plan for a woman who did not have any children. The woman could take one of her maids, and give her maid to her husband as a wife, and the child born of that union was regarded as the first wife’s child. If the husband said to the slave-wife’s son, “You are my son,” then he was the adopted son and heir. Now just because we can find a social custom to justify a behavior does not mean God approved of the custom.
Sara approaches Abraham with this plan of presenting him with a younger woman in order to fulfill God’s plan. Do you remember the maid, “Hagar” the one we got when we were in Egypt? What about her. Now you know if you’re going to claim a son as your own, you want the mother to be good looking so your son will be handsome. It did not take Abraham very long to think that this was a really good idea. Now the mere fact that the word Egypt came up should have sent alarm bells in their ears. God had never intended for them to go to Egypt, so He certainly had not planned on the promises He had made to them, to involve someone they had acquired on a trip they were not suppose to make.
Abraham and Sara were convinced that God’s promises had to be fulfilled regardless of the cost, and they were going to help God make it happen. When God gives us a promise, God does not need our scheming and disobedience to make it happen. They were thinking, we have got to do something before there is no chance for either one of us. Part of what God was waiting for, was for both Abraham and Sara to recognize them having children was totally out of the question for both of them.
Well Hagar the Egyptian went along with this, and sure enough she got pregnant. Everything was looking good for a moment, but then Hagar started tripping. She let Sara know in know uncertain terms, that she was more of a woman than Sara could ever hope to be. She is the one that is carrying this son. Forget that none sense about my boy becoming your boy. Child it just might be , your man might become my man as well.
Sara became furious with Hagar. She went and told Abraham, do you see what this woman you brought up from Egypt is doing. This is your fault that I’ suffering the way I am. I gave you this woman, and now that she knows she’s pregnant she despises me. Sara is probably saying, “just what exactly have you been telling her, and why didn’t you explain clearly to her that this child was to be our child, not hers. Now Sara has forgotten this scheme to help God out was really her idea. When we refuse to wait on the Lord, you can be sure we are going to blame somebody else for the mistakes we planned and carried out. How often have we heard, “How was I supposed to know this was going to go like this.”
This home is now in turmoil. Abraham, he just does not know what to do this time around. On the one hand, he’s been waiting 10 plus years for the good news he’s about to be a father. Now it looks like it may cost him his marriage. He wants to say, “you’re the one who came up with this idea, but he remembers his dumb idea to go to Egypt in the first place, so he kept his mouth shut.—Then he tells her, “well she’s your maid. You have more control over her than I do, so do whatever you want to do with her.”
Sara lets her bitterness set in and begins to treat Hagar very harshly. Hagar who already had an attitude, got more of an attitude, and said “I’m not taking this stuff from you, so she run’s away.” At this point, nobody is happy in the home. Hagar forgot, she did not know where in the world she was headed. She was just running. When she stopped at a brook the Angel of the Lord appeared to her. This is the first reference to the Angel of The Lord, and the Angel of The Lord is often believed to be Jesus appearing in the Old Testament. So here we see the grace of God, that even when are responsible for our predicament, God comes to see about us. He asks Hagar where are you coming from and where are you going.?
Hagar responds that she is running away from Sara. The Angel of the Lord says to her, go back and submit to Sarah. I will increase your descendants to and they will be too numerous too count. His name will be Ishmael. Ishmael means God hears. Now Hagar is being called on to wait on the Lord. God is telling her to go back to a bad situation and change her attitude. Now Hagar wanted God to change Sarah, but Hagar’s real problem was not Sarah, but herself. Part of our waiting on the Lord is due to God needed to change something within ourselves. We are not nearly as ready to move forward at times as we think we are.
Hagar goes back and submits to Sarah. Ishmael is born. It’s another 13 years before God gives Abraham another word. The four of them had probably accepted that Ishmael was God’s answer. But at age 99, God tells Abraham to change his name from Abram which means exalted father, to Abraham which means father of many. Sara’s name was changed from Sarai which means my lady to Sarah princess of the multitudes. This time God tells him very specifically in Genesis 17:15 and 17:19 that Sarah will specifically bear him a son. But Abraham tries to tell God, “Lord I’ve waited long enough. I’m now a 100. Just let Ishmael be the one to fulfill your promise.”
God says, “I will bless Ishmael as you ask, but my blessings and promise for you will come through your son whom you will call Isaac.” We have two groups of people coming forth. One group born out of plot to help God out, and the other out of God’s sole promise. When we refuse to wait on the Lord, what we do can come back to haunt us.
For 13 years Ishmael has been the hope of the family. But once Sarah got pregnant at the age of ninety everything changed. What should have been a time of great family rejoicing, actually set in motion a chain of painful events. The family was in turmoil all over again. Sarah had accepted Ishmael, but now that she knows she’s having her own child, she wants him gone. Abraham has to choose between his wife and his son he had grown to love. Hagar after submitting for the past 13 years, is about to be kicked out of the family. There are no true winners in this situation. There great grandchildren are even affected because it was the Ishmaelites who took Joseph and sold him as a slave in Egypt. Today the Arabs trace their lineage through Ishmael and the Jews through Isaac. How different history may have been if Abraham and Sarah would have waited on the Lord.
God’s promise too them took 25 years to come to past. They both thought they were running out of time. Yet they had many more years ahead of them. When we become impatient and think God has to do something right now, let’s remember God’s will must be fulfilled in God’s way and in God’s time. God does not expect us to be able to figure out all that He has promised to do through us. God asks that we be available so that He can accomplish His purposes in and through us. God might be waiting for us to realize, we absolutely can not accomplish this on our own, so that God alone will receive the power and glory.
Saints. I’m not sure what you are facing this day and what decision you may have to make, but let it be according to the word of the Lord and wait and allow God to complete the good work He has begun in you. Even if you’ve failed in the past remember, it may not have nullified God’s promise to you. It may be more difficult to obtain it, but it may still be within your grasp. Have faith and believe God.
4. Sarai My Lady Sarah Princes Of Multitudes
5. Gen 17—God –Son Through Sarah By Birth
6. Abraham Wants To Substitute Ishmael
a. Isaac Is To Be Child Of Promise
b. Line Is To Pass Through Sarah
7. Child Of The Flesh, Child Of The Spirit
8. Not Waiting Causes Problem
M. Fulfillment Of God’s Words Brings Trouble
1. Sarah’s Old Feelings Come To The Surface
2. 13 Year Old From Center To Back Ground
3. Abraham Torn Between Wife & Son
4. Hagar’s 13 Years Of Service Look In Vain
5. No True Winners In This Home
N. Tension Passed Down
1. Great Grandson son Joseph & The Ishmaelites
2. Arabs Ishmael Jews Isaac
3. Different History If Waited On The Lord
O. The Promise Took 25 Years
1. God’s Promise, God’s Way, God’s Time
2. Not To Figure Out—But To Be Available
3. Have We Reached The Impossible Stage Yet
4. God Will Receive The Glory & Praise
P. Whatever Your Decision For Today
1. According To God’s Word
2. Willingness To Wait Upon The Lord
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick 7/15/2001
Let’s Be Willing To Wait On The Lord
Genesis 15:1-16 Gen 12-17 Text
A. The Art Of Waiting Has No Exceptions
1. The Bank, The Red Light, The Restaurant
2. Church, Christmas Birthdays
3. Pain In The Neck- Grumble Angry
4. I’ve Got Things—Don’t Waste My Time
5. Time Wasting Behavior
6. Cost Of Not Waiting—Red Light- Cemetery
B. Difficulty For Believers—Waiting
1. Lifesharing-Romans—Abraham & Sarah
2. Justified By Faith
3. Ordinary People Just Like Us With Problems
C. The Calling Of Abraham—Unique People
1. Leave—Move—Great Nation
2. 75 & 65 An No Children—Not Bad Deal
3. Security—Thieves, Robbers—Foolish
D. Responding To God Leads To Hard Times
1. Great Land To Famine---Lose It All
2. First Opportunity To Wait Upon The Lord
3. Wait—Evidence Of Walking By Faith
4. Temptation To Take Action On Our Own
E. Not Waiting-Leads To Dishonesty & Compromise
1. My Love There’s Food In Egypt—Let’s Go
2. At The Border—You’re Just Too Fine
3. I’m Your Brother—Save My Life
4. Abraham Royal Treatment—Sarah & Pharoah
5. The Disease—The Question—Get Out
6. Somebody Paying A Price
7. Let’s Take Hagar Out Of Egypt With Us
F. 10 Years Gone & Abraham Upset
1. 15:1 Don’t Be Afraid—Shield & Reward
2. Abraham Ticked Off—Things Not Going Well
3. You’re Great—But I’m Stuck—Dead Soon
4. Eliezer Of Damascus My Servant—All
5. What Can You Give Me To Make A Differ…
6. Pity Party Or Reminding Of Predicament
G. God Sees Something A Whole Lot Different
1. Can’t Tell Future—We Expect It Now
2. Sex & Death—Over---No 90 Years To Go
3. The Man Not In My Plans
4. Son Coming From Your Own Body
5. Immediate Acceptance Of The Word
6. Credited As Righteousness
7. Shares The New With Sarah—Son From Him
H. Sarah Wants To Bring Promise Forth
1. She Was To Old At 75—Not Realistic
2. God –Did He Place Her In Her Predicament
3. Custom Of Giving Birth Through Maid
4. Give To Husband, Child Born, Wife’s Child
5. You Are My Son—Adoption Complete
6. Offers Plan—Hagar Suggested—Good Looking
7. Egypt Should Have Set Of Bells
8. Never Should Have Gone—Not In The Plan
9. Sarah/Abraham Determined To Help God
10. God Needs No Scheming Or Disobedience
11. The Call Is To Wait On The Lord
12. God Waiting For Them To See 0 Chance
I. The Plan Is Implemented With Hagar
1. Hagar Starts Tripping With Pregnancy
2. Hey Girl—You About To Be Replaced
3. Sarah Loses Her Cool-Goes Off On Abraham
4. Just What Exactly Did You Say To Her
5. This Is Your Fault I’m Going Through This
6. Forget How We Are To Blame
7. Abraham In Turmoil—10 years To Get Here
8. Can’t Remind Her Of Whose Idea It Was..
9. Your Maid—Do What You Want To Do
J. A House Goes From Bad To Worse
1. Sarah Resentment Leads To Oppression
2. Hagar’s Attitude Gets Worse
3. Abraham Does Nothing—She Runs Away
K. God Is Forever Watching & Being Merciful
1. Hagar In The Desert
2. The Angel Of The Lord Appears
3. Jesus—The Angel Of The Lord
4. What Are You Doing & Where Are You Going
5. Sarah Did Me Wrong
6. Go Back & Submit---Blessing Promised
7. Ishmael The Child—God Hears
8. Whose Attitude Truly Needed Changing
9. The Call To Humble Ourselves & Repent
10. Need To Wait—We Are Not As Ready As We
Think
L. Life Is Still Difficult
1. 13 Years Before Another Word –Age 99
2. Change Name Abram Exalted Father
3. Abraham Father Of Many Nations
