"Examples of Faith – Sarah" Hebrews 11:12
- Senior Pastor, Robert Dennison, preached this message on October 15, 2023.
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Audio Transcript
Hebrews 11, 11, 12. We read that by faith, even Sarah herself, when she was unable to have children, received power to conceive offspring, even though she was past the age, since she considered that the one who had promised was faithful. Therefore, from one man, in fact from one as good as dead, came offspring as numerous as the stars of the sky and as innumerable as the grains of sand along the seashore. We’re going to be looking at the story of Sarah in the Old Testament today. She’s the first lady here that’s mentioned as an example of faith.
And if we didn’t have these verses in Hebrews, by reading the story that we looked through today, we might say, well, it doesn’t sound to me like she had any faith, but the record sets it straight here through God’s word and what that tells us, that even as believers, there are times in our life that we do things like Sarah did that might look like we don’t have faith. And we’re going to see how God graciously continues to bless her in spite of that. Let’s have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for a chance once again to look at your word. Every opportunity that we have to read it, to hear about it, Father, to interact with it, to discuss it, it’s each time a great time of blessing.
We thank you for the love of your word in this body of believers, and we ask that you would help us to hunger more and more for it as we see the end times approaching ever more rapidly. In Jesus name we pray. Amen the stories about Sarah today. But keep that in mind as we read these first few snippets. In Genesis 12:1, the Lord said to Abram, Genesis 13:14.
After Lot had separated from him, the Lord said to Abram, Genesis 15:1, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision. Genesis 15:4. Now the word of the Lord came to him, and then Genesis 15:13. Then the Lord said to Abram, So in a story, a rendering of what happened in Sarah’s life, what’s missing here in all of this, Sarah’s missing. We don’t have any record that God had spoken directly to her leading up to this situation of infertility and not having a child.
Now, maybe God did, and we don’t have a record of it, but it looks, as far as we know, that God had spoken directly only to her husband, Abram, and that he relayed to her what God had said. She was having to rely on the testimony of her husband. And we Spoke about how Abram had left so many things behind. But I imagine it was even harder that Sarah had left behind so much in er. She left behind her family.
She left behind all the familiarities of where she had grown up. She left behind her school aged friends, her high school friends, her adult friends. She left behind the neighborhood where she knew everything was. She left behind the schools that she had maybe hoped that her children one day would be going to. She left behind all the foods that she was comfortable with cooking.
She left behind a lot of conveniences of living in the city. So she, like Abram, had given up quite a bit of things. And you could think or say that she was thinking, God, I have given up so much. And then she comes to this point now where she doesn’t have any children at this age in her life. Let’s look at Genesis 16:1 3.
Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. Sarai went to Abram, since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave. Perhaps through her I can build a family. And Abram agreed to what Sarai said. So Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband Abram, as a wife for him.
This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan 10 years. He was 75 when he moved to Canaan. He lived there 10 years. So at this point now he is 85 years old. And at age 86, he’ll have his first child by Hagar.
His name is Ishmael. You know, we have to keep in mind what it was like here at this time. It wasn’t like Abraham and Sarah had one or two servants and they were one tent out in the wilderness. Abram had 318 men trained to fight in his household in the previous chapter. And with those 318 men, I just imagined that there were a few women.
Would you agree with me? And where there were men and there were women, then there were what? Children. And possibly grandchildren. So Sarai, she wasn’t out in the wilderness by herself without seeing kids.
Everywhere she went, she saw what she saw children. And that stirred a desire in her that she wanted to have a child. It was like a large koa campground where they were living.
And she’s thinking in her mind, possibly I gave up all this and God made these promises to my husband, but I don’t have any children. And she’s like 89 years old at this point. Sarah recognizes that the reason why she wasn’t having kids. She says that the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. She recognized that God was keeping her from having children.
It doesn’t say if she was okay with this. It doesn’t say if she was angry. It doesn’t say that she was upset or confused. The passage just doesn’t say. But if any of us have dealt with infertility or who had family members that have or friends.
When people don’t have children and they want to, it stirs up all types of emotions that Sarah might have been having. She could have been sad, she could have been angry, she could have been depressed, she could have been experiencing anxiety or guilt, or even feeling unworthy that God had not given her children. It doesn’t tell us here how she was feeling, but we can just imagine what we know from our friends and family, what she might have been going through. And so when she says that God prevented her from bearing children, that word prevented can also mean kept in slavery. That God has kept her locked up in this place where she can’t have children.
And here’s Sarah, the person of faith that we know from the New Testament. We see that the first things that she does is she does something that doesn’t look very, very faith. Like it doesn’t really look like she’s trusting the Lord. Because what we learn here, that she was impatient and she made her own way.
You know, sometimes we’re like that we try to circumvent God’s plan or we try to speed up his timing in our lives. We try to help God. That’s what Sarai was doing here. She was trying to help God. And I had this vision of a two year old that’s trying to help his dad build a house.
I mean, how ridiculous is that? What type of help can a two year old give to build a house? Well, that’s basically what Sarai was doing. Hey God, I can help you with this. I got a great plan.
Why don’t you go with what my way is though? When we are impatient, when we don’t wait for God’s timing. Proverbs 3, 5, 6 gives us this warning. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways, know him and he will make your paths straight.
So here we have Sarai. She’s recognizing that she’s been kept in slavery by God. So she turns around to the woman that she is also keeping in slavery. And she says, here Abraham, take my maid. Now the customs of that day, they would have seen this as being okay.
Jacob had 12 sons, and they came from two wives and two maidservants. That’s how we get the 12 Tribes of Israel. But we have to always remember this was not God’s intent for marriage. Multiple wives or multiple husbands created multiple difficulties. It’s difficult enough for two people to get along, but when you have a larger amount in that close relationship, it’s difficult.
There’s going to be jealousy. We find that in Scripture. There are arguments. There’s the problem of favoritism. Who’s the best wife or who’s the most loved son.
God didn’t intend for it to be that way. But even when we sin as they did, God still blesses. And we want to see that in the text today. She had faith. She kept faltering and doing things that she shouldn’t.
But God continually continues to bless her. Sarah, the example of faith in Hebrews 11 is just as normal as us in trying to sometimes make our own way instead of waiting for God. So she created immediately present problems for herself, and she also created future problems for her descendants. Because the descendants of Sarah’s own way are the Muslim nations today that are warring on the very family of Abraham in Israel. And we need to pray for that situation, that God would bring peace to his chosen place, Jerusalem, and also pray for all the innocent people that are involved.
Sarah made her own way. She created problems immediately in her family, and she created problems for the future.
Genesis 16, 4, 5 says that he slept with Hagar and she became pregnant. And when she saw that she was pregnant, her mistress became contemptible to her. And then Sarai said to Abram, you are responsible for my suffering. I put my slave in your arms. And when she saw that she was pregnant, I became contemptible to her.
May the Lord judge between me and you. You see the problems that she already created here. Hagar is only pregnant. She hasn’t even had the child yet, and already there are problems in the household. Hagar despised her mistress when she became pregnant.
Perhaps she was jealous that she was not Abraham’s main wife. Perhaps Hagar was troubled that Sarah was going to actually claim this child as her own.
Hagar was wrong to despise Sarah, but Sarah was also wrong to be intimidated by her servant. This word here, to hold someone contemptible, it means someone who is despising their superior and they’re acting out in a number of ways. Now, it doesn’t say that Hagar did these things, but these are some examples of what she might have been doing to show her contempt. She might have been disobeying Sarah. Well, I don’t have to obey you anymore.
I’m pregnant. I don’t have to carry the water for you. I’m pregnant. Whatever she was saying, she could have started arguing with Sarah. She could have sneered at her with hateful looks.
She could have been slamming pots and utensils and whatever. She could have started lying or being deceiving to her mistress. Or maybe she just ignored Sarah, gave her the silent treatment or the cold shoulder. Or maybe she hibernated. She hid and just avoided Sarah as much as possible.
Maybe she was just mocking Sarah to those that were around. Any of those things would have shown contempt to Sarah. And Sarah let it get under her skin. She let it bother her. And that’s kind of odd, because who created the whole problem to start with?
It was Sarah. She got what she wanted. Her idea was a very good idea. Hagar got, as I say, good. That’s in quotations.
Hagar got pregnant quickly, but she created her own problems. Hagar’s contempt made Sarah feel frustrated and anger, resentful and jealous. And how does she respond? She says, I’m so sorry I’ve made such a mess of things. Is that what she does?
No. She blames Abraham. You know, Abraham wasn’t a very good leader in this situation. Who had God spoken to over and over again? Abraham.
He should have said, you know, God has made these promises. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to wait on him. But here we have Sarah, like hurt people. Today, when people are hurt, they often turn around and hurt other people, especially those that are closest to them.
She was impatient. She made her own way. She tried to help out God instead of waiting on him. And it caused problems. Genesis 16:6.
Further problems arise. Abram replied to Sarai, here your slave is in your power. Do whatever you want with her. Then Sarai mistreated her so much that she ran away from her. Abram has used her as a wife to bear his child.
She’s carrying his very son. And he just hands Hagar over to Sarah and says, do whatever you want. And Sarah’s response is that she mistreats her.
Hurt people. Hurt people. Abraham was not the leader that she had been. Sarah dealt harshly with Hagar, who was caught up in all of this, not having any choice in the matter. But this woman of faith, this man of faith, like us, they didn’t do everything exactly right.
But Genesis 17:1 shows us the balance of this that When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to him. Here we see that God is gracious and he blessed in spite of her way. And that’s how God is with us. We can never walk so far away from him or do so much wrong that if we are his children, that he doesn’t continue to care for us and to be gracious toward us. Genesis 17, 15, 16.
We read, God said to Abraham, as for your wife Sarai, do not call her Sarai, for Sarah will be her name. I will bless her. Indeed, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she will produce nations. Kings of peoples will come from her.
God changed her name from Sarai, which means persistent, to Sarah, which means princess, because she is going to produce offspring that become nations and kings of peoples. You know, God could have said, okay, we’ll just go with your way. We’ll let Hagar’s son be the one that I bless. But God didn’t do that. He didn’t hold it against Sarah.
He still continued with his promise and he blessed her in spite of her way.
Genesis 17, 17, 18. We read, Abraham fell down and then he laughed and said to himself, can a child be born to a hundred year old man? Can Sarah, a 90 year old woman, give birth? So Abraham said to God, if only Ishmael were acceptable to you. So I’ll see if you have the same response as the first service.
I said, this would be like Audrey and Bernie coming to church and saying, we’re going to have a baby a year from now. Okay, what do you do? You laugh, right? Whether it’s, wow, that’s pretty amazing, or that’s, that’s just outright ridiculous, you know, laughter is going to be the response. And that’s what Abram did here.
He laughed. Now, Abraham’s father was 130 when he had Abraham. So it wasn’t unusual for older men to have children. But it was unheard of for a woman at 90 years old to have a child. Abraham laughed.
It could have been a joyful laugh or a laugh of mockery or scorn. It doesn’t really say. And later on we’re going to see that Sarah later laughs also at the prospect of having a son. And if you look at the name Isaac that they give to your child, you know what that name means? Laughter.
Or he laughs and you’re going to see it’s like there’s just ongoing joke through the whole thing that everybody keeps laughing and laughing about the impossible that is possible with God here. We find that Abram, our example of faith. He also doubts God. And he made his own way. He gave advice to God.
He said, well, why don’t you just accept Ishmael, Let him be the chosen one and like us, even if we have faith in the Lord, sometimes we doubt what he says. Sometimes we are impatient, like Abraham and Sarah were. Believe me, they had a right to be impatient. They were old and they were still looking forward to a child. He tries to make his own way.
He tries to help God. He gives God advice on how to rectify the situation. He’s the two year old that’s telling his dad how he should properly install an H VAC system in a house. Okay, it’s just utterly. What?
What word you describe it? It’s ridiculous. That would make us laugh to think about that. But that’s what pitiful Abraham and Sarah were doing. They’re trying to help the Almighty, omnipotent God.
Genesis 17:19 through 21 we see the balance. But God was gracious. He not only blessed in spite of Sarah’s doubt, but he blessed in spite of Abram’s doubt. God said, no. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son and you will name him.
Laughter I will confirm my covenant with you as a permanent covenant for his future offspring. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. I will certainly bless him. I will make him fruitful and will multiply him greatly. He will father 12 tribal leaders and I will make him into a great nation.
But I will confirm my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this time. Very specifically, next year, God corrects Abraham and says, no, I am serious. You will have a son. And when he is born, remember that you laughed at my words and give him that name. And God also honored Abram and he promised to take care of Ishmael, who was the result of their bad decisions.
He said that Ishmael will be blessed with descendants, but they will turn from the Lord. And what we have today is the religion of Islam from these descendants. Because they hold that the eldest son, Ishmael, is the one that had the right to all of this. They also believe that it was Ishmael that was sacrificed on the altar. It was not Isaac.
Because they feel like the Jews have twisted all this to their advantage. So that’s why there’s this undergoing hatred that has been there all the way back in time. That’s continued Genesis 18, 9, 10.
What we have here is that God has come with his two angels and he was on his way to Destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And he stops to talk to Abraham. Sarah isn’t in the tent. She’s outside the tent. Because the custom is still in this place, and Amber and Mike deal with this, that they have to have a room for women to eat in and a room for men to eat in.
But if the men are talking about something interesting, what do you think maybe some of the women are tempted to do? Go over to the door and listen? Well, they didn’t just have thin walls here. We’re talking about a tent. Sarah wanted to hear what was going on, because who were they talking about?
They were talking about her. And God doesn’t ask, where is your wife Sarah? Because he doesn’t know. What he’s basically saying is, Sarah, I know you’re listening, because God knows all things. Abram said, well, she’s there in the tent.
And the Lord, knowing that Sarah is listening, finally speaks to her in an indirect way. And he allows her to hear when he says, I will certainly come back to you in about a year’s time, and your wife Sarah will have a son. Now Sarah was listening at the tent. At the entrance of the tent behind him, she finally hears God’s word herself, that he is promising her that she will have a child.
Genesis 18, verses 11 through 14. Abraham and Sarah were old, getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. So she laughed to herself, after I’m worn out and my Lord is old, will I have this delight?
But the Lord asked Abraham, why did Sarah laugh, saying, can I really have a baby when I’m old? Is anything impossible for. For the Lord? Because at the appointed time I will come back to you, and in about a year she will have a son. Sarah’s laughter here appears to be a laugh of doubt.
And like we often have in our walk of faith, sometimes we doubt God’s word. And we may even doubt his ability to do something. The example of faith questioned God’s word, and she questioned God’s ability in the matter.
Genesis 18:15. Sarah, who thought nobody knew that she was listening, all of a sudden she blurts out, I did not laugh. And then Abraham knew that she was listening. She said, because she was afraid. And God said, no, you did laugh.
She has this doubt in her life. The next thing that she doubts about God is she doubts his omniscience. You know, so often people think, well, God’s not seeing me do this evil thing, or I’ll do something in the dark. God knows everything. He knows your thoughts.
He knows what you’re planning to do. And here’s Sarah in the very presence of God on the other side of this tent wall. She argues with him and she says, no, I didn’t laugh because she’s not accepting the fact that God is omniscient in all things. Whatever your problems are, whatever your struggles are, don’t think that God doesn’t know and that he doesn’t understand because he’s very well aware of what’s going on in all things.
Here again, the person of faith not trusting God, not believing God, doubting God, even laughing at God’s word, We find the balance that God is still gracious and he blessed in spite of her doubt. We read in Genesis 21:1 7, the Lord came 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 appointed time, God had told him, in God’s perfect time, she had the child.
And Abram named his son who was born to him, the one that he had laughed about, the one Sarah bore to him, who she had laughed about. They gave him the name of laughter, Isaac. And when his son Isaac was eight days old, Abram circumcised him as God had commanded him. And here we find out that Abraham was 100 years old old when his son Isaac was born to him. I would have started calculating, he’ll be in middle school when I’m 113 and I’m going to have to teach him how to drive when I’m 116.
I mean, it’s nerve wracking enough to teach someone to drive when you’re 30, but 116, and then when he graduates from high school, I’m going to be 118. I mean, and then there’s going to be a wedding. Am I going to have the money? You’d be thinking all these things as an older parent. But this was all because God was blessing Abraham and Sarah in spite of her doubt and in spite of his doubt.
And God does that for us. We can’t ever doubt him so much that he doesn’t still love us and decide to continue to bless us. Then Sarah’s laughter changes. She says, God has made me laugh and now it’s a good laugh. And everyone who hears will laugh with me.
She also said, who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne a son for him in his old age. I’ll use Audrey and Bernie again. I told you earlier they were going to Have a baby. And you, what, you laughed now, I think nine months from now, if, lo and behold, Audrey walked in carrying this new baby, what would you do?
You would really laugh then, would you not? Well, that’s what was going on here. Her laugh of scorn became a laugh of delight. And Isaac’s name would remind her of this growth that she had spent spiritually in her life. And God graciously blessed her in spite of her doubt.
We come back to Hebrews 11, 11, 12, and without this verse, we would think, well, she didn’t have faith. That’s why she acted like she did. But this verse tells us that she did have faith. And that’s why we can relate to it today. Because in our journey of faith, we often do things that we shouldn’t do.
We doubt God, we try to bargain with him, we try to give him advice. Her faith came with doubts. Her faith came with making her own way. Her faith came with trying to help God. Her faith came with questioning God’s word.
She was doubting his omniscience, she was doubting his patience, power, and she was doubting his ability. But God still credits her that she had faith. If you are a person of faith, there are four things that I just want to make as applications from the life of Sarah. Because that’s why we have all this recorded in the Old Testament for our benefit. Not just to know how to be saved, but also how to live out our salvation.
If you are a person of faith, you can learn several applications from Sarah. Number one is if you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. It’s really obvious. Don’t make the mistakes that Sarah did. Okay?
Don’t make the mistake of doubting God’s word. Don’t make the mistake of giving him advice.
Second thing is, if you do make the mistakes that Sarah did, know that God is gracious and merciful and he will still carry through with his promises if you mess up. Now. If I had been God, which I’m not, I would have given up on Sarah and Abraham a long time ago. I would have just picked somebody else. But even in the face of them acting to God like they did, he still carried through with his promises and he’ll do the same for us.
That’s why we have certainty of our salvation. Because he has promised us that he will make sure that we are carried through to eternal life. Jesus said, I hold you in my hand, and the Father holds my hand. There’s no one that can remove you from us. And it doesn’t matter how far away we walk from God, or how much we doubt him, or how much we try to give him advice, we’re never going to offend him so much that he doesn’t love us and still carry through with his promises.
If you are a person of faith, you can learn several applications from Sarah. Here’s number three.
If you do make the mistakes that Sarah did, know that there may be consequences that you and your descendants will have to live with. Sin always bears fruit. God still loves you. God forgives. But any decisions that you make that go against him or against His Word will have consequences that may not only just affect you, but they will affect your loved ones even for generations to come.
And the fourth thing that we can learn is be faithful, trust God, believe His Word, wait for his timing, rest in his power to keep you, and don’t worry that you can ever mess things up so bad in your life that he cannot help you, your situation. No matter how far from God, no matter how many times you failed him, he’s still faithful to come back and to forgive you and to embrace you and to keep his promises.
So in preparation for communion today, we end with the verse First John 1:9. And this verse is about what we’re supposed to do when we find ourselves doubting God, or when we find ourselves not trusting him, or we find ourselves giving him advice or trying to get ahead of his schedule or any other sin. God promises us that all we have to do is come to him and confess our sin and he is going to forgive you. John says, if we confess our sins, whether it’s the first time or the 1999th time that you’ve done something. God is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
It’s something that none of us are capable of doing because eventually we get tired of forgiving other people. But God never tires. He always rejoices when we come back and confess our sins. So in preparation for the Lord’s Supper today, you need to examine your life because you need to take this time to confess any sin to him so that you’re pure in coming to the Lord’s table. Today, worship team is going to come up and lead in a song.
We ask that you remain seated so you can sing. Maybe that’s the way you need to prepare, but maybe you just need to bow your head and pray and confess to the Lord so that you’re right with him in all things before we partake of the Lord’s supper today.