A Promise is a Promise
+In the movie, “It could happen to you” Nicholas Cage plays the part of a New York Cop who walks into a little café orders a cup of coffee. When he’s ready to leave, he reaches back and realizes he’s misplaced his wallet. The struggling young waitress played by Bridget Fonda figures she’s just been duped. The Cop pulls a lottery ticket from his pocket and promises that if he wins he’ll split the money with her, 50 / 50.
Well as luck would have it he wins. And even though he isn’t under any legal obligation, and against the advice of his friends and at an extreme financial cost, he keeps his promise to the waitress in the corner café. As he repeats the phrase over and over throughout the movie, “a promise is a promise.”
The value he placed on his word outweighed the value he placed on the lottery ticket.
In today’s society very little value is placed on one’s word, one’s promise. Years ago a handshake was all that was needed to finish a deal, to seal a contract between two people. Today even though someone signs an insurance waiver promising by the signing of his name that he will in no way hold you or your business liable for something… as soon as the person changes his mind you may find yourself or your company in the midst of a lawsuit.
Though today we place little credence in what a person promises, God is not a promise breaker! +God is a Promise-Keeper! When we come to God with a small piece of our faith… with holes shot through it… with tears staining it’s fabric… God understands and still remains faithful to His promises He has made to us… His children.
A Great example of God’s faithfulness is found in the life of Sarah.
(Gen 11:27-30 NIV) This is the account of Terah. Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. {28} While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. {29} Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. {30} Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.
+Sarah was Barren
The name Sarai or Sarah means +one of importance, honor; A Princess.
Sarah is introduced to us in the very beginning as the barren princess. I have a feeling that all through Sarah’s life that introduction followed her: “The Barren Princess”
It can be absolutely devastating for a young woman when the Dr. tells her she’ll never have children. And the guilt and self-condemnation that one feels can be difficult to overcome.
Example of our missionary friends:
+Some friends of ours, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, worked as foreign missionaries in Thailand for over 20 years. +As they ministered to the people there they were exposed to high levels of DDT in the drinking water, well, after prolonged contact Mrs. Smith had to have a radical hysterectomy where she lost the ability to bear children. Each day Mrs. Smith was approached by women in the villages asking if she was pregnant yet, and why not? Didn’t her God love her? They would ask. Each day, day in and day out Mrs. Smith was taunted by the local women, because she was barren. +Maybe it was like that for Sarah. They had well over 1,000 warriors with them, so we could venture to say that there were probably at least that many more women. Sarah was the most honored of all the women among the people. She was Abraham’s wife. Her name even meant Princess… one of honor… where was Sarah’s honor? As I have scoured the text and poked between the lines of commentaries… I think that Sarah’s biggest battle was inside of her. Where no one else could see… where no one else could go. Except God.
Let’s pick up Sarah’s story now 25 years later as God is bringing her to the point of emotional healing. Sarah is now about 90.
Intro to God’s conversation with Sarah (theophany)
+ (Gen 18:1-15 NIV) The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. {2} Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. +{3} He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. {4} Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. {5} Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way--now that you have come to your servant." "Very well," they answered, "do as you say." +{6} So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah. "Quick," he said, "get three seahs of fine flour and knead it and bake some bread." {7} Then he ran to the herd and selected a choice, tender calf and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it. {8} He then brought some curds and milk and the calf that had been prepared, and set these before them. While they ate, he stood near them under a tree.
+{9} "Where is your wife Sarah?" they asked him. "There, in the tent," he said. {10} Then the LORD 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. {11} Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. +{12} So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?" {13} Then the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, ’Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ +{14} Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son." {15} Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, "I did not laugh." But he said, "Yes, you did laugh."
Commentary
In verse 12 Sarah responds to the Lord’s promise by pointing out the circumstances (knee-jerk reaction). She says, + “I’m worn out.” +God looks right into the heart of Sarah and restates what she’s really thinking and says in verse 13: + “Will I really have a child?” In verse 12, Sarah made the excuse that +Abraham was too old, God in verse 13, sees Sarah’s real concern as being that + “She was too old.” + (In other words, women haven’t changed in 4,000 years)
God finishes the conversation with the promise that Sarah will have a son the following year. But He poses an eternal question for all people in all generations to consider: +“Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
Sarah’s response was based on her fear (verse 15 “Sarah was afraid”)
During this encounter with God Sarah’s fears of a failed life were met with God’s promise of a son ... God invaded Sarah’s heart. God invaded Sarah’s hidden battle. God invaded the space where Sarah was afraid to put her hope again in God, in ever having a child.
Sarah was afraid that if she allowed herself to hope again, and God didn’t come through for her she would be crushed, disappointed and without hope.
+But Our God is a Promise Keeper!
+In Genesis ch. 12 God promised Abraham that He would become a father of a great nation…
+In Genesis ch. 15 God promised that Abraham and Sarah would have an heir… a son who would be the beginning of a great multitude of people.
Again 25 years later in Genesis ch. 17 +God reminded them that He would keep His promise.
Their response… Impossible! That’s the whole point, +God calls us to believe that He can accomplish what is absolutely impossible... for us!
God accomplishes His marvelous, miraculous, incredible and implausible promises through feeble men and women, like Abraham and Sarah, and like you and me.
We moan and groan when our faith falters, and we refuse to hear the promises of God for our own lives. Do we believe the promise of God that Paul writes about in Romans 8 that nothing in the heaven above or in the earth below can ever separate us from the love of God? Do we hear his promise from Hebrews 13, “I will never leave you or forsake you”? Do we believe that God meant that he continues to love us and refuses to leave us when our hearts are broken – when our marriages fail, when our children go away to college, when our best friends walk out the door, or when our company decides to cut back and we’re the ones they’re letting go?
There are a thousand other ways that life hands us the pink slip of rejection and abandonment. Maybe you wake up in the middle of the night and ask yourself the question, “Do I really believe God.” We hem and haw, struggle and complain, and say along side of Sarah, “I’m too old, I’m too tired, I’m too weak, I’m too…”
Is it easy to hear God calling Sarah’s name, but not yours?
You say, “God loved them, but how can He love me?”
Yet, through all our fears, through all our worries, and through all our weaknesses… God’s still there. And God still keeps His promises!
You see the only way I know of to grow in your Christian faith is in +two ways.
+1. Read the word of God (faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God).
+2. Put it into practice. In other words, believe God will do what He says.
Faith takes time to grow, ask Sarah. She waited her whole life to have that baby boy. She heard God’s promises, yet struggled to trust Him…just like us.
Yet, God remained faithful. God kept His promise.
God isn’t going to back down from His claims.
God isn’t going to take back His word.
God isn’t going to scratch out His promise, just because you have doubts, fears, worries!
God’s name is on the line, and God is a Promise Keeper!
D.L. Moody once said, + “God never made a promise that was too good to be true.”
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
Where are you at in your life today? Is God ready to deliver on a promise He’s made to you? Which one is it? What circumstance are you in that is greater than his promise?
Remember at the ripe old age of 90, Sarah heard the words that she was going to have a son. No wonder she responded like +Moses did when God informed him he would deliver the Children of Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, “I don’t think so.”
She probably felt like +Mary when the angel Gabriel announced that she was pregnant with the Son of God. She said, “how can this be?”
What God promised Sarah was too incredible, too miraculous, and too unimaginable.
Yet, Sarah believed God. She became the mother of a nation. She saw God’s promise fulfilled… in Isaac! And +Genesis ch. 21says that Sarah laughed when he was born. I bet she laughed, in her arms was the physical proof that God is a promise-keeper, and that she was indeed a princess. A princess with a promise.
Today in our many circumstances that seem just too big for God, God asks us the same question he once asked a princess named Sarah, +“Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
