My pulpit message notes: SARAH - A Character of Strength

SARAH

My Pulpit Message Notes are transcribed from the sermon preached at the Nairobi Baptist Church (NBC) Ngong Road on Sunday 29th January, 2023. Preacher - Pastor Melina Kemboi, Worship Ministry NBC. Scripture: Hebrews 11:11. Topic: Characters of strength - SARAH

11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.

When we look at this verse at a glance it seems like Sarah was such a strong pillar of faith that she appeared in this famous hall of faith of heroes of faith among Abraham, Enoch etc. However, when we look at the details of her life in Genesis, we realise that this journey of faith was not an easy one.

When we read through several versions of the Bible, the NIV, Amplified, NLT, we realise they use the phrase “Even Sarah…” in Hebrews 11. I found this interesting because it is not used with the rest of the people who are in that chapter. For example, “4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did”, “By faith Enoch was taken from this life,”V5 “By faith Noah…,”V7 “By faith Abraham….,”V8 “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age…V11,

When we look at the English language in the context of how this word ‘Even’ is used in the sentence it is usually used to show something that is surprising, unusual, unexpected, or extreme.

What is it about Sarah that was surprising, or unusual or maybe just a bit different from the rest? When we look at many of the heroes recorded in Hebrews 1,1 we realise that all of them faced difficult circumstances, almost impossible situations and Sarah was no different.

As Genesis shows us, she and her husband Abraham had received a promise from the LORD that they would have a son and through this son, they would birth many nations, they would have generations upon generations, that they would be blessed through this son.

However we know from Genesis that Sarah was unable to conceive up to the point where she was past child bearing age. She was almost 90 years old and Abraham was almost 100 years old. They had received this promise when Abraham was 75, so it had been 25 years of waiting.

And so it probably seemed to her that this promise of God was impossible to achieve and so Sarah, like may heroes of the faith faced difficulty, an impossible situation. However unlike many of the other heroes that we see in Hebrews 11 Sarah’s journey was full of doubt.

- Some example of this in Genesis is when the promised son didn’t come, Sarah decided to devise her own ways to make this happen so she gave her servant girl, Hagar, who was working for them to Abraham as a wife so that she would bear a son in her place.

- Another example of Sarah’s doubting character is seen in Genesis 18 again where we see three visitors coming and meet Abraham and they are sitting and having a conversation with Abraham and Sarah is outside the tent listening to the conversation and when these three visitors who were from the LORD, reminded him again, you are going to have a son around this time next year, Sarah laughed.

- Genesis 18:10-15

“Then one of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.”Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already very old, and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

13 Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” 15 Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But he said, “Yes, you did laugh.”

- Sarah not only laughed, but tried to hide her doubt by lying.

- Looking at her character, Sarah on the surface does not seem like a strong candidate to feature in Hebrews 11, the hall of faith, yet even with her fears and doubts, her strategising and trying to make God’s plans happen in her own way, it is clear that she came to a turning point in her faith such that she is mentioned in this chapter 11 of Hebrews.

Doubt confronted.

- Sarah is confronted about her doubt. She has to face it head-on . Genesis 18, they asked her, “Why did you laugh?” These angels from the LORD came and said, actually what is behind that laughter. What is in your heart that is causing you to laugh? When we are telling you what the LORD is going to do? What is in your mind? So they forced Sarah into a place where she had to come face to face with what was in her heart.

- God does the same thing with us. He doest want us to hide when we have doubt, or struggling to believe Him, but He prefers that we bring it out into the open before Him, to share it, to confess our doubts with Him and to ask Him for help, that He may restore our faith.

- When we think about the man who had the demon possessed son, the one who had fits, had fallen into fire, water in Mark 9 and this man brings his son to Jesus and wants Jesus to heal him and asks Jesus to heal his son.

Mark 9:22

“But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” 23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

It seems like a contradiction, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief”. He didn’t hide that there was some unbelief in his heart, but rather he asked the Lord for help. He said Lord, I believe, but I am also struggling. I believe, but there is still some doubt in my heart. Help me overcome my unbelief.

Jesus didn’t reject Thomas. In fact He said come put your fingers in my wounds. He helped Thomas come to the place where his faith in the Lord Jesus was strengthened.

- So we need to come to a place where we acknowledge, to confront, to be open with the Lord about what doubts, or forms of unbelief we have in our hearts.

Shift in Focus

- Sarah was heavily focused on her circumstances. Her age, her situations, what was humanly possible, yet when the Lord asks her, is anything too difficult for the Lord? This must have caused her to stop and actually think, who is this God and what is He able to do? What is possible with Him? Maybe as she pondered and looked back on her life she must have thought, this God took us from a land that we had been in for years and took us to a place that is unfamiliar and he sustained us. He built our wealth. This same God delivered me when I was going to be the wife of two other men in different situations and supernaturally the Lord intervened.

- Maybe she looked back at Psalm 77, the psalmist says, “And I looked back and I remembered the years of the right hand of the Most High.” In her dif-

ficult circumstances she probably stopped and pondered, who is this God? Who have I seen Him to be? What has He done and what is He able to do? So that she may have gotten to a place where she realises that once again this God is faithful. As Hebrew 11 says, “She considered Him faithful”.

- Where is our focus? Are our eyes fixed on the circumstances that we are facing, or on the LORD and who He is? Is there anything that is too hard for the LORD?

Standing on God’s Promises

- Sarah came to a place where she chose to stand on God’s promises.

- As she came to a new realisation of God’s faithfulness, God’s power. She must have realised the weight / value of God’s promise because of who He was. He is faithful, He is the all powerful God, He is God of miracles, God of the supernatural and He can / shall keep His word. She can therefore stand on His promises. Even though it has been 25 years waiting, I can stand, because it says, ‘next year this time’, I can stand on His promises.

- Do we know what God has promised us? Do we know the promises in Scriptures as His children, His sons and daughters? Maybe 25-30 years ago like Sarah? Are there promises that God has whispered into your heart even this year? Perhaps you have lost sight of His promises and you need Him to repeat them again, or reaffirm them again in our heart.

- We see the LORD doing this with Sarah and Abraham. He repeated the promise over them many years. He kept repeating them. In Genesis 12, 13, 15, 17 and finally the three visitors in Genesis 18. The LORD repeated His promises. He knows that as humans we can be shaky, but He comes and He says let me remind you of my promise. Remember my promise.

- So even Sarah who was doubtful many times, laughing, devising her own plans, focused more on her circumstances than God, even this Sarah, by faith got to a point where she fully believed that God is faithful and because He is faithful He would keep His promises, and as a result of this she was enabled to bear a child and became one of the heroes, the stalwarts of faith in Hebrews 11.

- No matter how many doubts may flood our hearts at times, no matter what fears, times of despair and disillusionment we may have, as we wait on the LORD, that we will have hope, that we can become characters of strength like Sarah because of the faith that she had on the LORD.