Portrait: Sarah, Women of the Bible

welcome to together if you haven't been here before we're delighted to have you this is our monthly women's gathering here at Mission City Church and we love being together who's lette who lives together well my name is Marion and this year we're talking about portraits we're looking at women in the Bible and we're looking at snapshots a specific women in Scripture so we have two goals that through this study we're going to get a big picture of the Bible if you want to know from Genesis to Revelation what the Bible is about keep coming back every month because that's our goal and I also I pray as we look at these snapshots of these specific women that we learn about a lot about who our God is because here's the thing God tells his story through real people who are struggling with real stuff through marriages that are breaking down through physical illness God tells his Redemption story through women who are walking through a broken world and we get to learn about ourselves and we get to learn about our God well a little thing about me is I love all things British and everybody besides me I love anything that BBC I love all British television I'm a sucker for it I love cheese and scones anybody else I will go for high tea with anyone any time let me know about it I love I spent a summer in England so I got a little bit immersed in the culture I love British movies you know the accent gets me every time I want to start tonight with a clip from a movie called Notting Hill who's seen it I like this movie because I watched this film back when I was still single if you don't know my story I was single for a really really really really add some decades on a really long time and in this movie so great because in the film you see Julia Roberts and when he watch her character you like she has everything right she's got everything she is this famous Hollywood actress she's her character plays this famous Hollywood actress she's gorgeous she has everything and then she says this line and I'm gonna let her say it for you but she's hot she likes this guy and they've kind of liked each other at different seasons and so we're gonna go into the movie at the point where Julia Roberts is basically standing before him and saying hey will you pick me we pick me let's watch this clip can I just say no to you kind request leave yes fine of course I of course well I'll just been going um then it was nice to see you the thing is with you I'm in real danger it seems like a perfect situation apart from that foul temper of yours but my relatively inexperienced heart would I fear not recover if I was once again cast aside as I would absolutely expect to be they're just too many pictures of you too many films you know you'd go and I'd be well buggered that really is real no I live in Notting Hill you live in Beverly Hills everyone in the world knows who you are my mother has trouble remembering my name fine good decision good decision the fame thing isn't really real you know and don't forget I'm also just a girl standing in front of a boy asking him to love her I'm just a girl standing before a boy asking him to love her I remember watching that film and that line like sent me to the floor it was like so painful I couldn't even stand up like that is it was so painful and what I loved about this movie is it shows this woman who if you look at her life you think she's got it all she's got it all together everything that money could buy she has it but the one thing money can't buy is love right and when you are hungry for something so intangible so at the core of your being it doesn't matter if you're the wealthiest woman in the world that unmet desire there's no prescription for it there's no prescription for an ache like that and the woman we're going to talk about tonight her name is Sarah and Sarah understands that longing that longing that so unfulfilled that longing that hurts so deeply that there's nothing in the world that can satisfy that longing except for the Lord God Almighty and Sarah in the Bible what's interesting about sarin is she's mentioned more time in Scripture than any other woman I think because most of us can identify with the ache that Sarah experienced Sarah's mentioned more times than Mary the mother of Jesus she is listed in the hall of fame as one of the heroes of faith why because when we look at scripture every time you look in the Bible there's this principle called first mention anytime you see the first mention of something in Bible that tells us a lot about either that word or that person and I want you to hear how Sarah is described in the first mention of her in the Bible it says this it's talking about Abraham her husband it says but Sarah his wife anytime your your name starts with a but you know that's and asterisks beside you but Sarah was barren now in our age that's not a word that has a lot of shame but in Sarah's culture where as a woman your identity was being a mother your identity was having a family you weren't a career woman you weren't doing other things your entire identity was wrapped around your family and being a mom and Sarah's first mentioned in Scripture was Sarah was barren and she had no child so when we they'll get the women of the Bible here's why I want to look at Sarah is if you've ever lived with a painful unmet desire you can relate to this woman maybe you are you've never been married and there's a longing deep in your heart for that if you've lived with an unmet desire for a long time then you can relate to the woman we're going to talk about tonight if you've ever asked the question when God our the question why God then you can relate to Sarah if you've ever struggled with envy over someone else's life can we just all confess the Instagram sometime is from the devil I'm sorry I scroll through I scroll through and I look at people's pictures and meanwhile my Spanx are wearing Spanx can we just be honest my Spanx are wearing Spanx and I see these people I'm like do they eat I don't understand this so if you've ever struggled with envy by looking at someone else's life then you can relate to Sarah if you've nearly just given up hope because hope is too painful then you can relate to Sarah and I believe we need to examine her because if we don't our secret hopelessness our silent suffering our pain that we don't want to talk about here's what it begins to do it begins to eat us alive if we don't come together as women and say you know what this is hard this is hard and I'm struggling in this if we don't come together as women and say that then we open the door we have an opportunity for the evil one to come in we have a tempter who wants to come in and our broken places in our hurt places and he wants to do a number on this so this is the place that we're going to come together and we're going to talk about these things because proverbs 13 says this a Hope deferred makes the heart sick think about that if you have a longing that you've been living with or a prayer that you've been praying and the Bible acknowledges this don't you love that the Bible didn't just sugarcoat stuff and go you know what you just need to get better and be a good church lady and put a smile on it I was never a good church lady and I was never good at smiling through pain anybody else I am raw and real and I you know in my hardest days of Hope deferred making my heart sick I would be on the front row wailing and embarrassing people because I didn't want it to fester inside of me and I wanted to bring it to the one who could do something about my problem amen and so the Bible acknowledges that this world is hard the Bible acknowledges that we are living in a world where our bodies are broken where marriages are broken the Bible acknowledges that this is not the way it's supposed to be so how do we walk by faith and not by sight in the midst of this so I want us to look at Sarah's story if you're following along in the scripture and Sierra's story is part of the bigger story can you everyone say a bigger story and Sarah's story really is a part of God's big narrative of what's happening on earth because what last month we talked about Eve if you were here we talked about how God created us to be in relationship with him he made us my earnest for one length oneness with himself but that oneness was shattered and we were left we were sent out of fellowship with God but God had this plan to redeem us and bring us back to restore us into relationship with himself and through Eve's story we learned that it was going to be a child of a woman that was going to come up and be part of this redemption story well today with Sarah we get the next piece of the puzzle as humanity as we left Adam and Eve left the garden and sin just infiltrated the world we see this unraveling of humanity as you read through Genesis 1 through 10 you begin to see how dark and depraved it came and then at Genesis 12 this light turns on and if you'd like to write in your Bibles these verses that we're about to read are really the key to unlocking the whole of the Bible it's that important because what we're about to read is where God steps back into the story and he calls forth one man his name is Abram his name is gonna be turned into Abraham and God makes a covenant with this man stay covenant with me a covenant is not a contract a contract is where two parties both agree to something and they both have responsibility a covenant is where God says I'm gonna be your God and you're gonna be my people so what's gonna happen here is this amazing moment in scripture where God calls out one family one man his name is Abraham and God makes a covenant with him here's why Sarah matters because she's married to Abraham before this ever happens okay and so we pick up in Genesis 12 verse 1 now the Lord said to Abraham go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you so pick PS Sarah pack up the house get the pod ready put everything in there get the care and get all of that put it in there we don't know where we're going but we're following God okay there's a reason the chick goes down in the Hall of faith because she packed up the pod she got the caravan and she said well God said we're going we're going and she went in verse 2 God says I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonored you I will curse and end you every one say in Abraham and you all the families of the earth shall be blessed so this is a loaded packed promise where God has told Abraham three things are part of this covenant there's land they're gonna be descendants more than I can see more than can be counted and through a descendant of Abraham the whole world will be prepped blessed now this is a prophecy about Jesus the Messiah now they don't know that at the time they're believing God by faith that he said these works now we fast forward in Sarah's story just a little bit they obey God they leave their homeland and in that culture to leave your family is a breaking and a tethering a tethering of ties here okay this is not normal behavior for them to step out and follow God in this way to leave their homeland and to go where they do not know where they're going but they do it by faith and so we see they travel and we get to Genesis 15 and God reinstates the Covenant once again with Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 15 1 we see this after these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision he says fear not Avram I am your shield your reward shall be great but Abraham said Oh Lord God what will you give me for I continue childless can you imagine as Sarah standing by hearing Abraham say this to God how much shame she felt how much probably undeserved guilt she felt and the air of my house is Eliezer of Damascus and Abraham said Behold you have given me no offspring and a member of my household will be my heir and behold the word of the Lord came to him this man shall not be your heir your very own son shall be your heir and he brought him outside and said look toward heaven and Number the Stars if you're able to number them then he said to him so your offspring shall be and notice this mark this in your Bible and he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness that's another key to understanding the entire Bible God spoke something and Abraham heard the Word of God and by faith he could not see it he could not imagine it but by faith he said what God has spoken I believe his truth and right there right then Abraham was counted as righteous before God not because of works that he did not because he tried to earn God's favor it was simply God you have spoken it and I believe it and that is what makes us righteous before him it is an act of faith now Sarah is part of the story the entire covenant promise hinges on her fertility no pressure you think she's taking her temperature she thinks he's texting him come home I'm ovulating do you think she has tried to make the thing work out the way it's supposed to you know and year after year what we know about this ancient culture is trying to imagine Sarah every month hoping God said we're gonna have generations God said we're gonna have children a month after month hoping and hoping and then that visitor comes and in that culture women would go off to the red tent together cuz you know if you get four of us and and room together we're all gonna be together and you get that right if they lock these doors on us and we were here for two weeks we would all be together for those children walking watching online I will not explain this okay so they would march to the red tent together and one out of one one after another Sarah's friends would get pregnant and they wouldn't come to the tent another friend would get pregnant and they wouldn't come to the tent and then finally Sarah stopped needing to go to the tent Hope deferred makes the heart sick so as it seemed like if once they seemed like it seemed like all hope was gone right it seemed like it was too late it seemed like God was not going to bring a child through Sarah you know what Sarah did she says hmm I think God needs my help anybody ever said that God I know you had a plan but let me present Plan B let me present an alternate route to what use a great idea you know what you can even spoke solar systems into orbit and we're real thankful what you did with the blue whales because they are magnificent and all of this creation lavender fields that was a nice touch but you know what I don't really understand how difficult it has been for me to get pregnant so I'm gonna help you out God Sarah presents Plan B and Plan B went something like this she looked at her maidservant who was probably like 17 infertile and she already hated her anyway right and she thought you know what everybody's doing it it's totally normal this is what our world does if I can't get pregnant I'll just give me my servant and he can have a baby for me through her and so Sarah does what let me just let's not judge her this was what the world did at that time this was what they thought was normal and so Sarah presented Plan B to abraham let's read about that Genesis chapter 16 now Sarah Abraham's wife had borne him no children again really we get it right she had a female at gypsum servant whose name was Hagar and Sarah said Abram the whole now the Lord has prevented me from happy marrying children go into my servant it may be that I shall obtain children by her and Abram listened to the voice of Sarah so after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan Sarah Abraham's wife took Hagar the Egyptian her servant and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife and he went into Hagar and she conceived and when she saw that she conceived she looked with contempt on her mistress and Sarah said Abraham may the wrong this may the wrong done to me beyond you I gave my surf into your embrace and when she saw that she conceived she looked on me with contempt may the Lord judge between me and you PS was it not her idea so Plan B was to help God out and you can understand how she got there right because I don't know about you if you've ever been through a waiting season it's painful and it's almost torturous sometimes and the lies of the enemy that bombard you and then that wilderness are so targeted at your faith they're so targeted at your trust in God they're so targeted at your hope in the promises of God and so when you get in that moment you want any way to escape it and you're looking for an escape route and that's BAM when the temptation strikes well the rest of the world is doing this and that works just fine for them well if you only do this or I can get what I want this way I put on your notes just a little historical insight in ancient times a man who had no son could adopt a favorite servant as his heir or a man who had no son could take a second wife to produce an heir some marriage contracts even spelled out this provision a wife was obligated to have children if she could not she was required to find her husband another wife who could now I say that was customary in ancient times that was not the biblical principle this is not God's plan that's man's plan God's plan we saw in genesis was husband wife two people become one flesh and they live happily ever after that was God's plan man's plan was what will manage things our way and that's why proverbs says this I love this verse it's one of my life verses and I come back to it every time I'm trying to figure out how to navigate in a situation proverbs 3:5 and 6 says this trust in the Lord with all your heart okay that means everything that we have that we choose to trust him we choose to not look with our eyes of what we can see but trust in God and then the next part says lean not on your own understanding here's why sometimes our minds cannot be trusted amen sometimes we evaluate a situation based on our our past feelings based on our hormones based on the what the world's telling us is truth and the Bible specifically says lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge him who acknowledge the Lord and then he will direct your paths see in this situation I don't think Sarah was trusting the Lord with all her heart because if she was she would have believed the promise where God said I am going to bring a child through you she was leaning on her own understanding which says you know what I can fix this you know what I can fix him you know what I can get what I want for myself how I want to get it has anyone ever been tempted that way I know I sure have the enemy always wants either settle for second best the enemy always wants us to settle for what we can fix for ourselves rather than what God can deliver in his perfect timing this did not turn out well for Sarah and Abraham this caused major friction in their marriage this caused a child to be born named Ishmael that caused major major can I get another thoughts the Czar's out there a lot of turmoil in the world because of Sarah's decision okay and as a result this this helping God out which we're all tempted to do at times set into motion a lot of drama and conflict within their home and within the world but here's the thing God is faithful when we're faithless amen God is faithful to his promises God is faithful to his covenant God is faithful to do what he said he will do if we turn now to Genesis 17 we see the fulfillment of what God promised them as a family in Genesis 17 I want to see the first thing is Genesis 17 here God has read the covenant again and he says verse 9 God said to Abram as for you you shall keep my covenant you and your offspring after you throughout their generations this is my covenant which he shall keep between me and you and your offspring after you every male shall be circumcised every male throughout your generations both he is it verse 15 I'm sorry go down that first 15 and God said Abraham as far as Sara your wife she shall not call her name Sarai but Sarah shall be her name I will bless her and moreover I will give you a son by her I will bless her and she shall become nations kings of people shall come for her then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself shall child be born to a man who was a hundred years old shall Sarah who was 90 years old bear a child and Abraham said to God oh that Ishmael might live before you and God said no but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac now in the stories were about to read the word laughs is mentioned three different times and here's what's cool about the Bible each time the word laughs is mentioned it's using a different word from the Hebrew and when Abraham laughed it was like you know that movie and the they go conceivable like you know the princess bright thank you when they they're talking about inconceivable abrahams like shut up really like it was like he had just won something he laughed like this is too good to be true kind of laughter in a minute we're going to see Sarah laughs and it's quite different okay Isaac however his name means laughter and here's where God is so cool in the Hebrew it's this word that means when you laugh at your enemy Isaac was named basically I'm laughing at the one who's come against me because you will not win he is the child of promise and in him it's God's already looking forward to Jesus Christ he's already looking forward to the descendant of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the one who will come as the Redeemer and he's laughing over the enemy and go you watch what I'm doing his name carried that sense of God rolling up his sleeve and saying I'm coming for my people now Sarah Genesis 18 she laughs in a different way Genesis 18 verse 9 and it says so the angel of the Lord has come he's meeting with Abraham he's about to tell him some things that are going down and by the way he drops this bomb hey we're going down to Sodom tomorrow we'll be back a little bit but he drops this bomb about Sarah he says then they said to him where is Sarah your wife and he said she is in the tent so they're outside having some you know hummus and inside of Sarah you know and the Lord said I will surely return to you about this time next year and Sarah your wife shall have a son boom mic drop and Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him and now Abraham and Sarah were old advanced in ears and way of women had ceased to be with Sarah that's so polite to say that but the way of women that seems to be with Sarah so Sarah laughed and this laugh is more the laugh of when that when you look at the word it's more of like being scorned that it was almost she laughed and disbelief like if you were to look someone and be like are you crazy that kind of laugh she laughed herself saying after I'm I'm worn out and my lord as old shall I have pleasure and the Lord said to Abraham why did Sarah laugh and say shall indeed bear child now that I'm old and verse 14 is our verse for the night it says is anything too hard for the Lord at the appointed time I will return to you about the next year and Sarah shall have a son but Sarah deny and say and the Lord said no but you did you did laughs and so we see this ongoing promise God repeatedly and repeatedly and repeatedly comes to Abraham says you're going to have a child you're gonna have descendants this is my covenant with you here's my promise abraham believed god it was counted to him as righteousness sarah meanwhile the one and whose womb all of this is depending is watching and the natural and going it's too late it's over but there was still a kernel of hope in her that wanted to believe she wanted to believe and when all was said and done God worked a miracle because what is verse 14 says if anything is anything too hard for the Lord now let's read the conclusion of Sarah's story Genesis 21 the Lord visited Sara as he had said and the Lord did to Sara as he had promised and Sara conceived and born Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him here's the thing with God his timetable is different than our timetable his clock does not run according to human standards not the way his clock works God's will and God's ways may baffle us they may confuse us but God is never late he is always on his time verse 3 and Abraham called the name of his son he was born to him whom Sara bore he called him Isaac laughter over the enemy although who said y'all are stupid for believing God right laughing at all the same why would you follow this God who you can't see why would you leave your homeland to follow this God that you do not see with your eyes all those who scorn to them this child of promise the joy of laughter in that home yes Ted watch that baby born saying God did it God did it despite what the world said God did it and Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him and Sarah said God has made laughter for me that's a different word right there in the Hebrew that's the laughter that comes from joy that has been fulfilled a hope that has fulfilled that has produced joy that is unspeakable now here's the thing I believe every woman in this room is waiting on something right if I were to come down and walk around and we would do a poll you could tell me here's what I'm asking God for here's what it's the most painful thing I am waiting for right now we could all confess something that we're waiting for and I believe in our lives all of us will spend time in a waiting room so how do we do that what do we learn from Sarah in the waiting room I love what Isaiah 40 says it says those who wait upon the Lord will get new strength they will rise up with wings like eagles they will run and not get tired they will walk and not become weak so how do we wait well number one if you're taking notes find a beauty in your season find beauty in your season October is my birthday month if you're keeping track October is my birthday month and years ago as I was doing the Sarah thing and I was clicking years by because one more year one more year one more year my birthday's were painful they weren't fun and one year and was right before I actually ended up meeting Justin and I did not want to have my birthday because it was too painful and so I booked a flight I thought where I was going to get on the plane in the morning and I wanted to land in a different time zone so I could just completely escape the birthday and so I did I had a friend that was leaving living in Seattle so I flew out of Houston in the morning and you know it's a cross-country flight and so by the time I landed you know October 10th was almost over it was almost gone so this victory for me and as I was having my pity party on row 30 to see with my peanuts and my pity party I opened my Bible and the Lord's like you done you done you done with your pity party and I was like no I still have some venting I'd like to do here by myself and they throw thirty to see if you don't mind and I was just flipping through the Bible and one of those Bible roulette things where you just open it up and I just thought there's nothing for me in Ecclesiastes so I'm safe you know and so I landed in ecclesiastes and there's this amazing passage in the Cleese vsts 3 that says there's a season for everything there's a time for mourning at a time for dancing there's a season for everything and then there's this line that everything is beautiful in its time and the Holy Spirit just hit me like a rock I was judging my season that I was in and I was declaring not good I was declaring it unbeatable and I was putting myself in the place of God to decide what was good for me and I decided that I didn't like the season I was in because I had all these unmet desires I wasn't married I didn't have children I didn't have this I didn't have this I had so I had declared a big this stinks over my season and in that moment the Holy Spirit said you have a choice right now you can find the beauty or you can live bitter you can find the beauty or you can live in bitterness and it was this mindset shift that I literally got off that plane and I felt like a command from the Lord to choose to embrace the season that God had me in and find beauty in it to experience it to understand that he is sovereign and He is good and that he wanted me this wasn't a punishment this wasn't to hurt me that there was a purpose in the season and I needed there was only one time I was going to be able to experience that season and God was calling me not to give in to the bitterness and the indulgence of the pity party that the enemy wanted me to stay in but to open my eyes and go oh my goodness I am i can run hard for jesus and give him everything in my life right now and I don't have to wake up in two in the morning with a toddler I can do whatever God's called me to do and I can run hard and do this and I began to change my mindset I began to live harder for the glory of God knowing that God was not going nuts over my life he had ordained this season I was in for my good and for his glory and that changed my mindset to be able to understand that everything can be beautiful in its time I have a friend in this room right now who I know has battled a severe illness and I've watched her over Facebook give glory to God in the midst of it and what she doesn't know is that in her season God is preaching to thousands of people through her suffering and what she's walking through it is this testimony a bullhorn that's declaring that God is good god is good what Satan is intended for evil God is using for good to bless so many people in point to his glory now what she asked for that season I don't think so but it can be beautiful when we put it in God's hands second thing the Lord taught me about the waiting room is to pray persistently pray persistently I will stand before you and tell you that everything I have in my life today is because I prayed the heavens down and I did not take no for an answer not that God gave me one I just kept praying and praying and praying and praying and praying here's what prayer is it's us coming before the maker of heaven and earth and going god this hurts God I need help god this is unfulfilled and you made it all can you fix it amen and here's the cool thing Jesus praised the persistent Widow when Jesus taught us about prayer you know what he said he goes be like the woman that's just gonna bang heaven's door' down until you get what you want my friend Helen is in the room hello you stand up and wave at everybody for a second she's not gonna stand up but if you want to hear testimony hi Helen my friend Helen has taught me about being persistent with God just about more than anybody I know because you know what she does she's been waiting on God to do a lot of stuff for a long time but she doesn't stop praying and recently every time I see her she says you never gonna guess what God did and if you know Helen you know it's this phrase I guess you're never gonna guess what I did and I can't wait because I know he's done something big because she's been praying and once she told me this week that she'd been praying years for this family member of hers years for this person that she thought was so far from God and then about six weeks ago she asked our church to start praying and so this woman's been beating God's door down beating God's door down and then that family member calls her and said grandma will you come to church with me as if he's the one dragging grandma to church and we can't stop celebrating because this prodigal has come home and you know why came home because his grandmother has been beaten heaven's door down amen someone get a hand to God over that Luke 18 1 through 8 if you want to put that on your nose Jesus praised the persistent Widow you know why because she believed God was good she believed God was able she believed God was still in the miracle business she believed what the Lord told Abraham is anything too hard for me you know what we do with our human calculations we get our calculator and we go well I am 39 and my likelihood of actually conceiving decreases every year and we start putting our human calculations into it and when God's like I'm sorry the last time I checked I suppose solar systems into orbit the last time I checked you only have breath in your body because I willed it the last time I checked all this is mine it obeys my command so let's check out who is able to do what and who's not ok and so what prayer does is we just say to God I know you can I know you can that's 37 years old and I was sick and tired of being single I got every single girl in Houston I said we are going to pray right now we're going to pray because they're all dictated to porn or they're all lost or whatever and we're gonna just have to fight some wars over these men out there okay the other half white men and we're gonna have to pray okay and so we start praying hard you know like tears on the carpet hard and I'm like I'm sorry I'm not letting Satan win and we try praying harder and I learned that from my friends who had this infertility group and they're all praying for babies and why not from one after one start getting praying I'm like well there's something in that prayer you know if the Bible didn't tell us to do it in the first place it's like we discovered this thing called prayer you know and so we started praying and I'm telling you why when I walked down that aisle I was like herky high kick Jesus she walked because it wasn't about him although you're nice it was about Jesus 1 amen and I'm sick and tired of the enemy winning so let's start praying on that point number three resists the enemy here's what we're resisting can I just talk to my single ladies for a second by all means please resist the urge to settle for less than God's best for you here's what its gonna look like you're gonna be like Jesus I want a godly man who loves you who's serving you who's taller than me all of that stuff okay the enemy is gonna bring zac efron up to you who does not know Jesus and he is gonna be the devil does not wear a pitchfork and a cape he looks like that guy front that's all I have to say okay so just realize that for the rest of us if you're not waiting on God for that here's the thing resist the enemy to walk in the world's wisdom your marriage might be going through a lot right now and you're gonna have ungodly friends give you ungodly advice here's what you need to do here's Plan B and that is that's what we've got to resist when we're waiting we've got to resist the taking matters in their own hands well I'm gonna show him whatever that temptation looks like a for you we've got to resist bitterness and hopelessness so what does Sarah teach us about God let's close with this Sarah number one she teaches us that we have a good father who gives good gifts we have a good father who gives good guess James 1:17 is up there I love this verse I'm gonna teach you really quickly something in scripture there are two words that mean the word there's the word logos which when you open the Bible that it's the logos that is the written expression of God's will that's his work now when God takes one of those words and deposits it inside of you that's called a Rhema word and once they Rhema word okay that's where that written word has become a word from God for you now this is what James 17 was for me in my wedding season it says every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation and shadow do to change and here's what that means in my darkest hours of waiting God spoke this word to me and what it means is I am good God says I am good not only that I'm a good father and every good gift comes from me to you so if in this season marriage was a good gift for you Marion you would be married if that job that you want is a good gift for me for you you would have that job if this were good because here's the thing here's what it's so hard for us to understand only God is good and only God knows what good is okay and so here's the word that he wants us to understand he is good he is a good father and he loves you he wants good for you he delights in you and if right now you're praying for something and that has not happened and you're walking as will and you know there's not an area of rebellion there's not an area where you're trying to live in the world but live with God if you're running after God and God has said no or God has said wait here's what we can know that that thing right now in this season is not his highest and best doesn't mean there won't be a season that it is but what we can rest in is we know that his goodness a understands more than we can understand he sees outside of time he knows what's coming he knows what good is and we cannot comprehend what that means Sara went decades with an unfulfilled longing decades and it seemed to her at thirty forty fifty sixty those would have been good years but God understand there was more going on than the story than Sara could understand in the natural realm and that sometimes where faith comes in that's all the time where faith comes in when we can't understand in the natural we just have to believe he is good when we can't understand in the natural we have to believe he's good that's where I second Corinthians 5:7 says for we walk by faith and not by sight the second thing we understand what this sara teaches about God is number two God's delays are not God's denials God's delays are not God's denials here's the thing I I so battled the Lord I did not want to get up here and talk about myself okay because there's so many amazing stories like Helen and other people and my friend Becky today I'm like I just sick of talking about myself but here's the thing we sang a song earlier and it said you rescued me so that I could stand to praise you okay so just let me just know that I don't want to talk about myself but I just want to give glory to God can I just give glory to God for a second got married at 38 and I thought that was the miracle I thought that was a miracle I was like God you have done it all let's go home Jesus this is the miracle has happened okay I think my mother could have gone home to Jesus at that point because she was tired of praying okay and God did more than I could have asked her imagine I had this amazing husband and his two bonus boys and so everything in me said be content you're so blessed you're so happy and I was and I was so happy and I was so thankful and I just would weep over God's goodness all the time and there was this thing in me and I didn't even want to say it out loud they wanted a baby and I was like how dare I ask God for more but I wanted a baby and I'm like how dare I ask God for more he's already given me all this I can't even ask him you know I was trying to walk with my husband he was like you know we have a great family this is good the boys need this time we're we're good and I'm like uh-huh I'm good we're good I don't think but then there would be a movie like What to Expect When You're Expecting and I would live in it's a comedy and then I would go from laughing in the comedy to saw being my eyes out the moment JLo gets the adopted baby I'm like heaving sobs and snot comes out of my face and I and Justin's like you okay I'm fine I'm so content we're great I'm all I'm happy and like in complete denial of how much I wanted a child okay and I'm sobbing sobbing and then I was like not even praying about it because God you've been too good I hope there I asked for anything else I've been too good and I'm 42 so we all know that ship has sailed you know like and then I began to simply pray about it like barely sticking my toe in the in the pool of hope just slowly praying about it and not even really telling him but just like slowly dare I hope and then we were in Australia and I watched the Lord do something in him and he looked at me he said I think we're supposed to have a baby and I say and so we come back and make the details but about six weeks later I thought I had mono I thought I had you know all kinds of diseases me and WebMD are not safe and three P sticks later I'm like like that inconceivable laughter that inconceivable laughter and her name is Sydney for a reason you know and I just I love that God's delays are not God's denials and I just want to speak to a woman in this room right now if you're like that the paint's still here here's the here's what I just I just have to before any of these things I can praise God about I had Jesus and here's what God told Abraham before he told him there would be a child before he told him on his promise he said I the Lord said I am your reward the child was not the reward the husband's not the reward the baby is not the reward Jesus is the reward Jesus is the reward and in this journey we will all walk through things that we're living with the unmet but not yet that is part of our journey until we see him face to face because the ultimate longing and the ultimate thing that we're hoping for and waiting for will not all be answered in this world it is when we are back with him face to face for eternity and so I want to be really sensitive that but here's this last point on your blanks faith pleases God faith pleases God my mom's probably watching this and she reminds me so much my friend Helen but this world is hard right I mean sickness and marriages under attack and unmet desires but here's the thing in the midst of it we are not people of denial we're people who look at our God who is bigger and stronger and we believe that what he has promised he will do and we do not look at what our eyes can see and this is what my mom teaches me all the time we look at the one who has promised and when we do that here's what scripture says to us that pleases God and when we live with him for eternity they're gonna be record books where we stood our ground in the midst of a war zone and go but I know my redeemer lives you know I know my redeemer lives and that's where we plant our feet in the faith hears that hear this scripture in Romans when Paul is talking about what faith looks like in the gospel and what it looks like us to believe God it's talking about Abraham and Sarah as an illustration that says against all hope Abraham and hope believed and so became the father of many nations just had been said to him so shall your offspring be without weakening in his face he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old and that Sarah womb was also dead yet everyone said yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God but with strengthen his faith and gave glory to God being fully persuaded everyone say that being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he promised to do can you imagine wrinkled gray-haired sera hearing that promise of God I'm gonna come back next year and you're gonna have a child once she got over laughing this seed of Hope filled her again and can you imagine as her womb began to grow and the life begin to fill her that she said you did it you did it here's the cool thing about Sarah's story Sarah's story is a power of a much bigger story when you open the Gospels where Jesus comes on the scene Jesus our Redeemer Jesus the one who came to make all things new Jesus the one who came to rescue oppressed from our sin Jesus who came to deliver us from this dark world we don't get to Jesus if we don't have Sarah and I want to touch someone going through a hard time right now your story is not over and you do not understand what God is working for your good and his glory because through Sarah came Isaac where God laughed over his enemy and through Isaac came Jacob and through that genealogy came King David and through King day became the promise of the deliverer the king of kings the king of glory and that King was born the king of heaven came to earth why so that he could rescue us that's the gospel Sarah's story Sarah suffering Sarah's waiting was for a purpose so that the King of glory could come into this world

Channel: This Redeemed Life

Views: 8,945

Rating: 4.7777777 out of 5

Keywords: Hope, Faith, Waiting on God, infertility, singleness, marriage, sarah, abraham, genesis 12, genesis 16, genesis 21, romans 4, Marian Jordan Ellis, Mission City Church, TueGather, Redeemed Girl

Id: BUAZmLyzXNo

Length: 57min 47sec (3467 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 04 2019