Thursday, October 19, 2006
By Faith... Abraham - Part II, Part 38 of 79
TEXT: "By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude--innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore" (Hebrews 11:11-12).
IDEA: Faith sometimes involves long difficult waits.
PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate that God sometimes tests us by having us wait for Him.
In 2004 the Red Sox won the World Series after waiting 86 years. In the playoff series with the Yankees, they lost the first three games, and of them the third game was lost 11-3. Everyone thought they would have to wait some more.
In the stands there were Red Sox fans that carried signs "We believe." But during the third game those signs came down. Do you think that is a parable of the Christian life?
I. We often have to wait for God to act on His promises to us.
There are times in which we think we see God working, but we sense we are wrong and we have to take the sign "we believe" down.
An example of that would be someone who has prayed for a loved one to become a Christian. There seem to be signs of response, but it didn't happen and the person gives up.
It's hard to believe and wait at the same time.
II. One of the marks of the faith of Abraham and Sarah was that they believed even though they had an excruciating wait.
In Genesis 12:7 and 13:26 God promised Abraham a son and descendants as the dust of the earth. Abraham was in his 70s at that time. God didn't say, "You're going to have to wait for this."
Could you imagine that Abraham would go home and tell Sarah and they would begin to put together a nursery? But no baby came.
It's hard to blame Sarah for trying to fulfill that promise through her Egyptian maid Hagar. She had had her hopes for a child and her plans for a child dashed by a long wait.
How do you think Sarah felt after she discovered that her plan for having a child through Hagar didn't work?
How does a couple feel who has planned for a baby and prayed for a baby and the baby is stillborn?
The deflation of the spirit often makes them worse off than before they had expectations of a child.
III. It was 40 years before God delivered on His promise and Isaac was born.
The promise did not depend on Abraham's faith. Sometimes God's promise was met with incredulity. In Genesis 17:17 Abraham laughed and in Genesis 18:11-12 Sarah laughed.
Why do you think in the case of Abraham and Sarah that God waited 40 years to fulfill His promise?
Why do you think that God seems to take His own time responding to us?
