Real Life Christian Church | Saints & Struggles - Sarah

[Music] [Music] hey friends we are so glad that you are tuning in today we're getting ready to continue our series saints and struggles and today we have pastor matt sanders with us but before we get started let's pray god we thank you so much for everything that you're getting ready to do god we pray that you would have your way in our lives today in jesus name we pray and everybody says amen let's worship together [Music] jesus at the center of it all jesus had the center of it all [Music] from beginning to the end it will always be it's always been you jesus and jesus [Music] nothing in this world will do [Music] revolves around you jesus [Music] my [Music] it's always been you jesus oh jesus [Music] [Music] everything revolves around you jesus you [Laughter] from my heart to the hands jesus be the center it's all about you yes it's all about you from my heart to the heavens jesus be the center it's all about you yes it is [Music] [Music] turns [Music] jesus be the center of your church and jesus be the center of your church and every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess you jesus and jesus say his name [Music] that jesus name that wonderful name [Music] jesus [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] one day jesus was sitting around the table with his disciples and in his hand he had a piece of bread and what the bread represented was the body of jesus that was beaten on the cross for your sins and for my sins his body was broken so that you and i could be made whole he passed the bread around and the disciples took the bread together then jesus took a cup of wine and he lifted it and what the wine represented was the blood of jesus that was shed on the cross for your sins and for my sins he passed it around and as their disciples reflected on his sacrifice they took it together so in this moment what we want to do is take these elements together as we remember the sacrifice and the faithfulness of jesus [Music] let's pray god we thank you so much for your goodness we thank you so much for the sacrifice on the cross thank you so much for your goodness your grace and your mercy i pray that you would do what only you can do today god that you would speak to us god and that would we would lean in to hear everything that you want to do in and through us in jesus name we pray amen hey what's going on real life so excited that you're here with us today if you're new here we want to connect with you so on the screens you're going to see a qr code you can scan it with your phone so you can find out everything happening in the life of our church yes that is a great way to get plugged in also if you need prayer today like we say every week we're all about that so if you're on a platform that has a chat all you need to do is drop your request there or you can email us at prayer real.life and we will get right on that absolutely we would love the opportunity to pray with you speaking about prayer september 24th we're going to be having our worship night and it's going to be absolutely amazing val tell us about it yes so we're so excited we just feel like hey yeah this is such a good time with everything that's going on in the world everything that's so crazy just to come together and worship and to lift the name of jesus hi remember who is on the throne and that he is good and he is faithful so september 24th marketing your calendars from 7 to 9 pm seven to nine yep seven i'm gonna be there i'm gonna be there i'm gonna be there it's gonna be a great time we wanna invite you to come you can find out all the information on the upcoming worship night at real bat life connect yep it's gonna be so amazing to worship with all of you together and hey in this moment we just want to take an opportunity to partner together through generosity one of the things that i love about our church is that we don't have to give but we get to give and when i think about everything that god has done for us i just can't help but to think how could we not be generous so today if you feel led to no pressure we want to ask you to partner with us in everything that god is doing through our church so if you want to give you can just go to real.life give in order to do so all right well it is time to jump into the message we are excited because today we have our soto campus pastor matt sanders here to preach and continue our saints and struggle series it's going to be amazing i'm confident that we are going to hear from god and be encouraged today so without further ado let's get started [Music] [Music] [Music] what's up real life i'm so glad to be here today now as we begin let me share a little something about me see i grew up in sunday school from the age of four every sunday we went to church and i was in sunday school so a quick shout out to all of my sunday school peeps and i'm talking about your old school sunday school not the amazing kid life programming we have here at real life i'm talking crafts felt bored and songs and i'm sure some of you know exactly which songs i'm talking about they're the ones that you can't shake they're the ones that still randomly pop into your head the ones that will earn you some odd looks from your friends for example and feel free to sing along with me if you know it so don't leave me hanging the b-i-b-l-e yes that's the book for me i stand alone on the word of god the b-i-b-l-e did you know that one okay how about this sunday school classic i've got the joy joy joy joy down in my heart where down in my heart and of course you always have to shout where as loud as possible and finally who could forget this little ditty father abraham had many sons had many sons had father abraham and i am one of them and so are you so let's just praise the lord see father abraham should be on every sunday schoolers greatest hits playlist now hopefully you're still tracking with me after all of that but we're going to talk today a little bit about abraham's story for those of you who did not grow up on the song and may not know his story let me give you the cliff notes version of it in genesis after adam and eve after noah and his ark we are introduced to a guy named abram and his wife sarai they would later be renamed abraham and sarah they are important because at this time in history even after the flood the world was still broken and rebellious but god makes an amazing promise to abraham that he was going to bless abraham make his name great and build a great nation through him and his family he was going to have sons and many sons had father abraham now here's a hot take do you know who i think the unsung hero of the song and story is abraham's wife sarah i mean father abraham kind of needs mother sarah to make all of this work right and what we find out is that sarah plays a big part in abraham's story and is a saint in her own right so i'm excited to take some time today to dive into her story however like we've been talking about throughout this series saints aren't without their struggles to be a saint is to be in struggle the same is true for sarah sarah's a real person like all of us she struggled just like us she wrestled with many of the same questions that we do is god really going to come through for me can god really use me can god be trusted is god forgetful is god just slow to respond have you ever asked any of those questions well despite her struggles god used her to bless many generations in fact we can trace the lineage of jesus back to sarah which is kind of a big deal now here's what we're going to see through sarah's story if we want god's will we have to wait on god's win if we want god's will we have to wait on god's win to see that we're going to be reading through hebrews chapter 11. many refer to this part of the bible as the hall of faith because it gives an account of men and women who displayed great faith in hebrews 11 verse 8 we get to abraham and sarah by faith abraham when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance obeyed and went even though he did not know where he was going by faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country he lived in tents as did isaac and jacob who were heirs with him of the same promise for he was looking forward to a city with foundations whose architect and builder is god again what we see here is that god made a promise to abraham that promise is of a new land and a new home it was also the promise of a family and a generation of blessings we are usually and understandably so quick to pat abraham on the back for his faithfulness i mean god said go and he just got up and went but let's not forget sarah is part of this journey to she left everything along with abraham they left their home they left their family and friends their livelihood pretty much everything they knew they abandoned everything that was comfortable and familiar and traded them for uncertainty and a life of tent living now i'm not sure how many wives would be down with being in a constant state of camping all i'm saying is that it took a lot of faith from sarah along with abraham to follow god's promise and then we get to sarah's part in hebrews chapter 11. verse 11 says and by faith even sarah who is past childbearing age was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise and so from this one man and he as good as dead came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore as we know from verse 12 god came through on his promise to abraham and sarah but this promise didn't come without its confusion and problems both sarah and abraham had their doubts and if we're being honest i think many of us would be scratching our heads as well the big problem here is that they were old like really really old even the writer of hebrews said that abraham was so old that he was as good as dead sarah was 90 years old at the time and beyond the years of childbearing how many 90-year-olds do you know having kids today i'll wait for your answer my point is exactly that doesn't happen and apparently abraham and sarah had a great sense of humor about things because moses a couple of times throughout his writing the book of genesis points out how much they laughed at god genesis 17 17 says abraham fell face down 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 90. and then in the following chapter chapter 18 sarah overheard god speaking to abraham letting him know that a year from now sarah would have a son and sarah laughed to herself as she thought after i'm worn out and my lord is old will i now have this pleasure and if you're up for a good laugh read the verses after that where god calls her out for laughing and she tries to deny it can you imagine though what that must have felt like for sarah god made this promise to her and her husband however there is no way logically that this promise seems like it could work out they didn't have any kids and it didn't seem like they'd ever be able to so it didn't seem possible from that standpoint but here's what i think was the bigger challenge especially for us it took 25 years for god's promise to come to fruition two and a half decades passed from the time god made his promise and the time sarah gave birth to isaac 25 years is a long time to wait let me just be real with you waiting 25 years would have been very difficult for me honestly even amazon prime's two-day shipping isn't fast enough for me sometimes now before you judge me too hard i'm not the only one struggling with patience i was doing some research on patients and this is what i found and i wonder how many of us can identify with it a majority of those surveyed said that more than 30 seconds of waiting in a line is not acceptable now clearly they're not floridians nor are they disney pass holders 96 of americans are so impatient that they knowingly consume extremely hot food or drinks that burn their mouth now come on raise your hand if that's you and more than half of americans admit to honking their horns if the person in front of them does not start driving as soon as the light turns green please don't be that person 72 percent of millennials admit to pushing an already lit elevator button over and over again with the hopes that it will get them to their floor faster listen y'all we struggle with patience so the thought of waiting 25 years for a promise that didn't seem possible would be excruciating for us as it was for sarah but if we want god's will we have to wait on god's win and while waiting is tough it is what the bible tells us god's people are supposed to do over and over again david who pastor jay talked about last week writes in psalm 27 14 wait for the lord be strong and take heart wait for the lord multiple times we were told to wait on the lord so what does that mean waiting on the lord means being faithful being hopeful it's expecting god is going to come through for you on his promises the problem is like sarah that we don't always know how and rarely do we know when but we can know that he will so we wait on god to move and do his thing god doesn't always work according to our timeline but his timing is always perfect so if we want god's will we have to wait on god's when and again i know waiting can be hard patience can be difficult and because of that it can allow space for doubt to creep in and this is what we see happen to sarah i mean i'd have to think that sarah like any expectant parent is excited about this promise that god has given them so she runs off excitedly to bye bye baby to create the baby registry prep the diapers build the crib plan the gender reveal party and get everything ready for this child that god promised to bless them with but then time moves on week by week month by month and year by year and still no baby i can only imagine her discouragement and frustration i have to think she probably cried out to god saying god i have done all the things we've left everything our home our family our friends we've left our old life i'm sleeping in a tent for goodness sake where is this blessing god when are you going to make good on your promise i think sarah hits her breaking point and fell into a place of total desperation her faith was running low and like we've said many times before when we get to that place the opposite of faith is control when our faith is low we tend to take things into our own hands when we don't trust god we try to be god when we don't have the faith to obey god we tend to play god instead of waiting we are tempted to force things we will do things we know are wrong in order to get the things that are right this is where we find sarah in genesis chapter 16. this happens after 10 years of waiting on god now sarai sarah abrams abraham's wife had borne him no children but she had an egyptian slave think servant named hagar so she said to abram the lord has kept me from having children go sleep with my slave perhaps i can build a family through her now did you catch that she's playing god i can build a family abram agreed to what sarai said now come on abraham you could have done better so after abram had been living in canaan 10 years sarai his wife took her egyptian slave hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife he slept with hagar and she conceived now think about it how bad do things have to be in order for you to have your husband sleep with another woman sarah's faith was weak the grind of waiting was becoming more than she could handle so rather than waiting on god's win she took control of the situation and tried to make it happen on her own with her own wisdom and cleverness rather than waiting she thought she could build her promised family and i know that there are many of you who have been waiting on god for a long time and like sarah the weight is starting to wear you down maybe for you literally like sarah you and your spouse have been waiting for god to bless you with a child with a family you have tried everything you can but the weight is getting exhausting and you feel defeated and inadequate maybe you're single and while being married isn't the end-all be-all you're hoping and waiting to find the right partner and it's getting more and more difficult to wait as you are seeing more and more of your friends getting married you're seeing everyone else find the love of their life and you're wondering where yours is maybe you're waiting for a job you went to school and got the degree maybe you have the experience and the talent you've tried and applied and interviewed over and over again but you're still in a holding pattern for others of you maybe you've been praying and hoping that god would change the life of one of your children or one of your family members or one of your close friends you've been praying for a long time you feel like they've been close to putting their faith in jesus but it's not happened just yet and you see them continuing to struggle in making bad decisions you just want god to wake them up and the length of the weight is disheartening some of you are just waiting for god to come through for you you're waiting on your breakthrough it would be so easy for us to just give up faith it'd be so easy for us to try to force it to play god in these situations but listen if we want god's will we have to wait on god's win and just being real with you all in my life and experience i tend to only screw things up by trying to take control and rush things i get it it's like the great theologian tom petty said the waiting is the hardest part so if we want god's will and we have to wait on his when how do we do that how do we remain faithful in our season of waiting the first thing that i would recommend on the most practical level is that we worship while we wait when there are times that i am struggling or that my faith is weak or that i'm running on empty nothing helps fill me up and builds my faith like listening to and singing some of my favorite worship songs how many times have you woke up on a sunday morning and said i'm so exhausted i really don't have the energy and strength to go to church today but then after you went and worshipped you left energized and grateful that you went have you ever been in a bad headspace but then one of the worship songs that we sing comes on the radio or randomly plays on your playlist and it just feels like your mind is right you feel at peace and your strength is renewed i literally have a spotify playlist on my phone that i play as needed or i'll turn one of our worship teams worship videos on facebook on when i need that boost one of the reasons why i think worship works like that is because it forces you to look up rather than focusing on your problems worship refocuses you on god it strengthens your faith it changes your perspective and it renews your joy if you don't have a playlist set up build it today if you don't know where to start here's a quick pro tip when i'm worshiping and we start singing a song that really impacts me i type it in my notes app and i add it to a playlist later sometimes i don't even know the name of the song so i jot down a couple of the lyrics that i can google when i get home we can worship while we wait and we can also work while we wait for some of us when our patience runs low when our faith is weak when we're weary from waiting it's easy to just throw up our hands and to give up james jesus's half-brother coaches us with this in james 5 7 he says be patient then brothers and sisters until the lord's coming see how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop patiently waiting for the autumn in spring reigns you too be patient and stand firm because the lord's coming is near here's the thing there wouldn't be any valuable crop to wait on if there wasn't work being done in the process the lord is coming for sure and while we are waiting for that day be praying god is listening be preparing if you know what god is calling you towards start preparing for it you have to be ready i think there are times when we think we are waiting on god but in reality he's waiting on us so take the classes get the training read the books get the counseling do what you need to do to be ready god's will for us depends on god's when but we can do what we can do to be ready for when that time comes and finally we can witness while we wait and i know that the word witness can be extremely churchy and even intimidating but think about it from a courtroom standpoint all a witness is doing is saying this is what i've seen and this is what happened and in our time of waiting i think it is extremely helpful to tell others and to remind ourselves of all the times that god has shown up for us in the past it always strengthens our faith to remember all the different ways that god has shown us that he is good that he is faithful and he is more than capable to come through for us again looking back at hebrews 11 11 we see that by faith even sarah whose past childbearing age was unable to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise she considered god who made the promise faithful she was focused on him and recalled all the ways that he has shown up for her and believed that he would do it again sarah was a witness and i think that we need to be the same and here's the good news for us more than likely we're going to mess this up we will get impatient like sarah we'll do the things that we know are wrong in order to get the things that are right but here's what i love about sarah's story check out genesis 21 1. 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 that god had promised him and what i love about that is even though sarah struggled with doubt along the way even though she laughed at god and even though that she got in the middle and tried to take control and play god at one point god was still faithful to abraham and sarah even when they didn't seem to deserve it the good news for us is that god is crazy about us and even though we will more than likely get it wrong and mess up the lord is gracious and compassionate slow to anger and rich in love the lord is gracious and righteous our god is full of compassion because god is crazy about us he is constantly gracious towards us in giving us what we don't deserve god is faithful to us even in our times of struggle you just have to trust him and remember that if we want god's will we have to wait on god's win to be a saint is to be in struggle that was absolutely true for sarah sarah failed she was confused she felt pressure she struggled with jealousy and she wrestled with the waiting but god is gracious and faithful and he always comes through on his promises we just have to wait on his when and while we don't control when we do control what we do until then and here's what else i know we win when we wait i promise you that there's something better ahead for you so wait for god's win stay faithful worship in the waiting it may be really tough right now you may feel defeated and deflated but we win when we wait because god always comes through on his promise and he always makes it worth the wait let me pray for us father we thank you for this opportunity to look back and reflect on how you have shown up over and over again throughout history god we're so thankful for what you've done in the life of abraham and sarah and the example especially that sarah is for us she's an example what it means to be faithful and keep her eyes on you even when it's difficult but she's also an example of how gracious you are towards us even when we don't deserve it so lord i pray that we will live in your grace i pray that we would live in your love and that we would constantly remember that you are crazy about us and because of that we can wait on you knowing that there is good ahead for us that we win when we wait so lord help us be patient help us stay focused on you help us worship you while we wait help us do what we can on our end to work while we wait and father help us be a witness while we wait reminding others and reminding ourselves how faithful you have been over and over again and how faithful you will be to us tomorrow and every day over god we love you and we thank you and pray this all in the name of your son jesus amen hey what an incredible message today by pastor matt i really hope you enjoyed that message as we went through the story of sarah and maybe today you want to dive deeper into the message if so in a few moments we're going to ask some discussion questions that are going to come up on the screen for you and don't forget check out our connect page before you go real.life connect that's where information about our worship night is and a few other things we have coming up as well as if you're new here we want to help you get plugged in so there's a place there where you can take a next step hey it's been real we love you guys it's been fun we do love you guys we hope to see you next week don't forget [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] my [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Real Life Christian Church

Views: 664

Rating: 4.7777777 out of 5

Keywords: Real Life Church, Real Life Church Clermont, real life christian church clermont, real life christian church saints and struggles, saints and struggles, saints & struggles, Sarah, Sarai, Abraham and Sarah, Waiting on God, Patience, How do we wait on God, patiently waiting on God

Id: VzCG_HkQ1D4

Length: 37min 1sec (2221 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021