Well, today is the Lord's Day and we have gathered together to worship and honor Him. Today is also on the calendar, Mother's Day, and it's an appropriate day for us to celebrate motherhood and to recognize God's design in making fathers and mothers and homes according to His plan. Every one of us here today owes our life to a mother, to our mother specifically, and to a mother whom God used to bring us into this world. Motherhood is God's design and the human family would not exist or continue to perpetuate itself upon the earth unless God's plan of motherhood is carried out faithfully. In fact, there are some who might argue that motherhood is the most important job in all the world. I'm not quite sure how we properly evaluate different jobs and decide which one is most important.
Whichever job gave you is the most important one for you and God takes all of these tasks and He brings them together to fulfill His will in this world. But certainly motherhood is one of the most important assignments that God can give to any human being and yet as we know there are many attacks upon the home, upon motherhood, upon the family, upon God's design for the human family, and some of those have gone to the absurdity that makes it clear that wisdom denied, God's wisdom denied brings insanity to the human mind because what more insanity can we have than to declare and insist that it's possible for men to have children? Isn't that the most ridiculous thing you ever heard and yet there are some today who are insisting that that is so.
Insanity, denial of God's truth, what foolishness it brings us to. But those who are wise acknowledge God the Creator and those who are wise acknowledge that His design is always wise and as I was thinking about motherhood and how to talk about that today, my mind kept going back to the text that we actually examined a couple of weeks ago, maybe three or four weeks ago now in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 in our series through that book about Sarah which tells us in Hebrews 11, 11, 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 Sarah the almost not mother but by the power and grace of God she became a mother and therefore I thought about the life of Sarah and I picked out seven aspects of Sarah's life that I'd like for us to consider today and we'll be roaming in the Bible in several places but particularly between the book of Genesis and then some statements in the New Testament as well but first of all will you consider with me Sarah's remarkable beauty? She was an amazingly beautiful woman.
We read that in our earlier passage in Genesis chapter 11. We were told that when Abram and Sarah went because of famine down to the land of Egypt that Sarah said to his wife before they arrived in the location where Pharaoh the king of Egypt was reigning, he said to Sarah his wife you are an exceptionally beautiful woman and I'm afraid for my own life that when the Egyptians see you they will kill me in order to have you and so please say that you are my sister in order to spare my life and it turned out exactly as Abram had predicted the Egyptians saw this beautiful beautiful woman. She must have been strikingly beautiful to be singled out among all the beautiful women of Egypt and how old was she when this took place, at least 65 and so beautiful that she was considered an appropriate trophy, an appropriate person to put in the harem of Pharaoh the king of Egypt and so Pharaoh's servants took her and placed her in the place where the concubines were kept and yet God kept Pharaoh from having relations with her and it wasn't long until Pharaoh realized that this woman is not an unattached female. She is not simply this man's sister. She is his wife.
Now I'm not sure how he came exactly to that conclusion but he did and he went to Abram and said why did you lie to me and Abram backpedaling said well it wasn't exactly a lie. She is my half-sister but what's the most important part? She is your wife. She was my half-sister and she became my wife and I was afraid that you would kill me to have her and Pharaoh said take her, take her, take her, get out of here and take all of these treasures I gave you and please leave us alone. The hand of God must have been so significant that Pharaoh recognized that he was up against something bigger than he was but the beauty of Pharaoh is so remarkable in this case and physical beauty as we know is very, very important to people in this world, no question about it.
It is certainly not the most important aspect of our lives but many people treat it as if it is. Beauty though it is the secondary matter nevertheless receives favorable treatment in scripture. Passages like this, the beauty of Sarah. You keep reading in Genesis you come to a description of Rebecca who becomes the wife of Isaac and the Bible tells us that she was beautiful in face and in form. Something similar said about Joseph when he went down to Egypt that he was a handsome man, handsome in face and in form.
He was buff, he had a nice physique and that is pointed out, that is noted in scripture and on it goes throughout the word of God. Beauty is not something to be denied or ignored, it is an important factor in human reality but nevertheless it is not the most important part of our lives and we should certainly know that but it can bring some benefit if God has blessed you with beauty then there are benefits that come with that in some ways but there are also some extra temptations and difficulties because of that beauty as well. There is often unfavorable attention played toward those who are of unusual beauty.
There are often special temptations that come to those who have been given physical beauty by God and so if God has made you a beautiful or handsome person and again who is the judge of that exactly because different people view that in different ways but if God has made you that way then you need to recognize that you must be aware, you must be ready to face certain temptations that will come your way and you need to trust God, you need to be ready to face the tests which will come into your life maybe in ways that they would not come into the lives of some others, you need to be obedient to the Lord and you need to remember what the book of Proverbs says in that well-known passage on the godly woman in Proverbs 31 and coming almost to the end of all of the things that it says regarding this woman, it says in verse 30, charm is deceitful and beauty is passing but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. Charm is deceitful. Some people think they can live by their charm and they try to do that but that is deceptive. You do not get along best in life by employing your charm. You get along best in life by employing the wisdom of God's word.
You need to learn that. Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing and we know that to be true. It is remarkable that Sarah was still of notable beauty at age 65 that it does not usually turn out that way because the passing of the time begins to take its toll and those who were once beautiful and sometimes outstandingly attractive in the passing of time become just the opposite and everyone loses their beauty as time goes on. Not godliness you will not lose.
Godliness will not fade or need not fade. Godliness may and should and can continue to grow within your soul and to become the most important part of you but Sarah certainly was a person of remarkable beauty. But the point is this, God made Sarah beautiful. He had purposes and designs for that.
He used that no doubt to be a test to Abraham and Sarah's faith and they failed that test twice once in Egypt and again in the land of Canaan where they failed to trust God and looked to their own charm, their own wisdom, their own deceitful ways in order to bring about what they considered to be a favorable result of sparing Abraham's life. But God may have made you more beautiful than others. We tend and I would encourage you not to do this but we tend to size people up. Am I more attractive than she is? I'm not too sure. I think maybe I am. Am I more handsome than he is? Well I'm not sure but I think maybe I am.
Cut it out, cut it out, cut it out, stop it. Ask questions like am I more faithful to God than he or she is? Am I more attentive to the word of God? In fact we really shouldn't be comparing ourselves with others at all, should we?
We should just look at ourselves and say am I being as attentive to the word of God as I ought to be? Am I being as godly as God would have me to be? Am I utilizing whatever God has made me, beautiful in the eyes of many, maybe not so beautiful, whatever your situation may be. But the point is God has made all of us the way he wants us to be for the purposes he has for us in this life. And if God has made you beautiful then he has certain plans and purposes that will be fulfilled in that but you better be aware of the liabilities. If God has made you what some people would consider to be homely, please understand that God can use you in remarkable ways if you will trust him and follow his path. Outward beauty is not the most important thing. Inward godliness is the most important thing.
And Sarah indeed was a beautiful woman. But let all of us be humble to accept God's purpose and design for us in all aspects of our lives and yes in our appearance. God made me to look the way I look because he made me that way. Whether I like it or not, most everybody at some point in their life growing up is not satisfied with their beauty. I wish I had blue eyes instead of brown. I wish I had blonde hair instead of brown. I wish I were, I always wished I were six foot too tall and I never got there.
It didn't work for me. God didn't make me that way. He made some of you that way but he didn't make me that way. I've got a grandson who inches taller than I am and still growing and I thought that's what I wanted to be. I wanted to play basketball and be a tall basketball player but God didn't have that in mind for me. God made me the way he wanted me to be. God made you the way he wants you to be. Let's accept that from God, humbly accept it and say God take what you have made and show me the path that you would have me to take where the attributes that you gave to me, not only physical ones but mental ones and other gifts and so forth, the attributes which you gave to me can be used for your glory according to your design.
That's what we all need to do. But we consider Sarah's remarkable beauty but we move on. Let's consider Sarah's disappointing infertility. That's almost the first thing that is said about her that we read in Genesis chapter 11, remember? Or chapter 10 rather. Oh, I'm in Hebrews, no wonder it isn't coming up.
That won't work. In Genesis chapter 10, no, chapter 11, I'll get it here in a moment. Here it is. Then Abram and Nahor, Nahor was Abram's brother, took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarah. The name of Nahor's wife Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah but Sarah was barren. She had no child. How many children did Abraham's brother's wife, Nahor's wife have, Milcah?
Eight. You can read about that in Genesis 22, 20 through 22. Eight children had Milcah bore to her husband. Now came to pass after these things it was told to Abraham saying indeed Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor and it goes through all their names, Hus, Buzz, I don't think I'll read them all but they're all there, eight, eight children. Don't you realize how much extra disappointment that brought to Abraham and to Sarah when Abraham's brother's wife had such a large, healthy, robust, satisfying family, his quiver just filled with children and Abraham and Sarah desired children and they were denied for long years, long decades, they were denied that possibility. Infertility. Sarah suffered infertility. It took a toll on her marriage.
It created great strain. It was a trial to her faith. She had trouble believing God in his word by faith because of this great disappointment of infertility and yet God had given that to her for his gracious and wise purposes as he always does and God had given it to her in order to grow her in faith and eventually to bring to her a miraculous child that I suppose if you're weighing the relative value of children, her one child turns out in the purposes and plans of God to be far more significant than all eight of Milka's children, wasn't he?
That child Isaac who became one of the patriarchs of the nation of Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What a child she bore, what an amazing child she bore, what a miraculous child she bore but for most of her life she struggled, she no doubt wept, she was burdened with this problem of desiring to have a child and not being able to have one and some of you may be in the same situation. It may be that you desire to have children but God has denied that to you. It may be that God has denied that to you because he has not brought you into marriage. He has directed you at least up until this point to be single and you therefore have not been able to have a family, to have children. It may be that within the bonds of marriage that God has denied you the fruitfulness of a child.
Some of you have been through that. We've had some wonderful experiences in the history of our church with women who thought, who finally gave up thinking that they could have a child and so they adopted and sure enough as soon as they adopted the Lord brought children to them of their own and God does that sometimes. Our oldest daughter and her husband struggled for years with the desire to have a child and it seemed to be denied to them.
They tried everything medically known to man and nothing was producing a child until until Jordana was 40 and then had her first child and 42 and had her second child. Beautiful children as I can attest to if you want me to tell you about Meadow and Noah, those two particular grandchildren, I will be delighted to tell you about them but we saw our own daughter struggling, struggling, struggling with the burden of infertility and Sarah struggled the same way and God may have brought that into the lives of some of you. What are you to do with that? Admit it to the Lord, act what you say you believe. You say you believe in the sovereignty of God, that he designs our lives according to his purposes. You say you believe in the wisdom of God, that he designs our lives according to the wisest possible path for us. You say you believe in the love of God, that God loves his children and does what is best for them. You say you believe in the grace of God, now act like it. I know it's difficult but act like it as you may be struggling with this burden of infertility or may have a desire for more children than God has granted to you. You've had some but you want more and God so far has denied you that blessing.
Commit it to the Lord, commit it to the Lord. We can learn from Sarah the right path to take when we consider Sarah's disappointing infertility. We can consider thirdly Sarah's unwise machinations. What did she do as she was struggling, obviously struggling, struggling with this problem of infertility?
Well we know what she did. Genesis 16 one, now Sarah, Abraham's wife, had borne him no children and she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar. So Sarah said to Abram, see now the Lord has restrained me from bearing children, please go into my maid.
Perhaps I shall obtain children by her. And Abram heeded the voice of Sarah. Then Sarah, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan so now Sarah must be at least 75 years old. So he, Abram, went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she, that is Sarah, saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes, in Hagar's eyes. Then Sarah said to Abram, my wrong be upon you, I gave you my maid into your embrace. And when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes, the Lord judged between you and me. Don't you see how these human machinations to make things work because God isn't answering prayer as quickly as we would like.
Don't you see how each one leads to a bad result and the next result is worse than the one before it? Well I'm not having children so I'll give you my servant, my maid, my handmaid. And perhaps she'll bear children in my place. And the Bible tells us that Sarah gave her to Abram as a wife. That was customary in that day, as we know, in days when men often had more than one wives and so it wasn't uncustomary for this to take place but nevertheless it clearly was not God's plan. But she gave Abram, Hagar, her servant, and Hagar conceived a child by Abram and now she's lording it over Sarah, ha ha ha, I have a child, you don't have a child, I've given Abram a son, you haven't given Abram anything. So now she is not only envious but she is feeling the sting of this kind of reproachful treatment, she's being dishonored by her maid and so she comes down hard first on Abram, it's your fault Abram, well why in the sake of common sense would you say this was Abram's fault? You're the one who came up with the plan, you're the one who did this, why is this Abram's fault?
Just because it is. You know sometimes our logic has a way of going out the window when we're not happy with what is taking place and what God is doing. So she comes down hard on Hagar, or she comes down hard on Abram, and she comes down hard on Hagar and starts mistreating her so she decides she needs to run away.
And what's going on here? Well she is suffering the results of her own human efforts to make happen what God isn't doing for her in the way she wants him to do it. Didn't work, made things worse, consider Sarah's unwise machinations and don't you succumb to the same kind of foolishness. Don't you take matters into your own hands, trust your affairs to God and wait patiently on him. Part of God's growth in our life is teaching us to trust him, teaching us to wait, teaching us to continue trusting his word even when it's not being fulfilled the way we think it ought to. To trust him and his wisdom to bring things about in the perfect way. Number four, consider Sarah's shameful unbelief.
We considered that a couple weeks ago. The account is found in Genesis chapter 22, I think you know it, no in Genesis chapter 18. And that was the day that God sent three messengers to Abram, one of them evidently was the Lord Jesus Christ in his pre-incarnate appearance upon earth.
And two of them were angels and in the Bible angels often take upon them bodies of men or that appear to be men in every discernible way. And these three messengers came to Abram and told him God is going to fulfill his promise to you and at this time next year Sarah's going to have a child. Now how old is Sarah?
89, 89, am I going to have a child? It'll take of course nine months plus for this to be fulfilled so she will be 90 years old when this promised child comes about if in fact it does come about. And she is listening to this conversation out of sight. She's behind the tent flap but she's listening and she hears this announcement, this time next year Sarah's going to have a son as the Lord God Almighty promised you. And Sarah laughs and says that's impossible, I can never have a son. And this is God, the son who is standing out here, he knows what she said and he says why did Sarah laugh and Sarah says I didn't laugh but you did. Shameful unbelief, God had promised a child, years have passed but now God announces that the time has come for the fulfillment of his promise and Sarah doesn't believe that announcement. She is unbelieving, consider her unbelief. In spite of her husband's exemplary faith, we've noted some of that as we've been preaching through Hebrews, amazing faith of Abraham, though not perfect faith, he certainly lapsed in Egypt and again in Canaan when it came to the matter of his beautiful wife. But Abram manifested amazing faith on so many occasions, Sarah was right there with him, she saw him trusting God in this circumstance and that circumstance and so many things that God did in their lives and yet she is not manifesting the same level of faith that Abraham did in spite of the example of her husband. After all that God has done for them in blessing them with flocks and herds and with so many things but she sinned by laughing at the promise of God and then making it worse denying that she did so.
We need to guard against similar temptations. It's easy to say I believe the word of God but when it comes down to where the rubber meets the road we act the opposite as if we don't believe it. I believe the word of God but certain parts of it embarrass us and we consider those to be questionable and maybe even laughable.
I believe the word of God, I am a Christian but sometimes we dishonor the Lord with a lack of faith and then many times like Sarah deny that we have done or would do or could do such a thing, don't do that, don't do that, learn from Sarah, don't fall into these temptations. Trust God when it's easy, trust God when it's difficult, that's when your faith is really tested right? Trust God in everything all the time. He has never deceived, he has never lied, he has never failed, you or anyone else. Trust God, he will fulfill the promises he has made to you. Now don't attempt to trust him foolishly for a promise that he has not made. It's not up to you to conjure up in your own mind what you think God ought to do or to conjure up in your own mind that God has told you this, I've had I don't know how many people tell me things like that, God told me this, I'm believing it, I trust it, well it's not in the Bible, it's not a promise, how can you be so sure? I can think of a dear lady, dear lady whose husband got cancer, this goes back many years and she said God told me he's going to heal my husband, she buried him, God didn't tell her that, don't conjure up, imagine things and say God's got to keep this promise that he made to me when it's not in the word of God, everything must be tested by the word of God but what God has promised in his word, you can bank on that.
Now God hasn't promised you like Sarah that he will give you a child but God has made many promises to you and they are all true, they are all righteous, they are all fulfilling, they are all designed to bring fulfillment to your life as you serve the Lord, trust the promises of God, don't deny them and certainly don't lie about your unbelief. Number five, we now come to a New Testament text as we consider Sarah's exemplary obedience. We see some remarkably good things that come out in the life of Sarah and one of them is found in 1 Peter chapter 3 and this is a tough one for people in our day so it's all the more important that we look at it honestly. Sarah is commended for her obedience, her obedience to who? Well her obedience ultimately to God but it manifested itself in her obedience to her husband. We read in 1 Peter 3, 6, as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord whose daughters you are if you do good and are not afraid with any terror.
As Sarah obeyed, if we just read that far we think the next word is going to be God. As Sarah obeyed God, nope, and called him Lord. Now as Sarah obeyed Abraham calling him Lord, wow that doesn't go over very well in this modern age does it? You say something like that in this 21st century in America and you probably better duck but no we don't duck, it's in the word of God. He's got a purpose for it and this is certainly not the only place where the Bible tells us that it's God's design that wives submit themselves to their husbands and Sarah did.
Perfectly no but she did. The general tone of her life and her relationship with Abraham was to submit. You say well it's going a little far to call him Lord and the Bible doesn't say you have to do that, it just tells us what Sarah did, right? It doesn't command you to call your husband Lord.
Some of these things are culturally colored in that culture that was not unusual or inappropriate at all but the general principle is the same in every culture in every generation in every place in every country. Sarah understood that it was her responsibility to submit to her husband and to follow his leadership and to obey him and folks you can say what you want to about this. You can say that's unreasonable and I say anything that God commands and this is commanded elsewhere in scripture, wives be subject unto your own husbands. It tells us that even earlier in this very passage the command is there, verse one, wives likewise be submissive to your own husbands and it goes on from there. The Bible tells us the same thing in Ephesians chapter five and also in the book of Colossians. It's told us throughout the word of God. You can object to that, you can reject that but you'll do that to your own peril.
I'll just ask you this and this is not the ultimate test but I'll just ask you this. Are things generally better in society in America today for all of this rejection of God's design and plan than it was in an earlier era when at least more people were endeavoring to follow God's design than they are now? When was society better? When was the crime rate lower?
When was the incidence of divorce lower? When was society more peaceful? When could parents let their children go out anywhere in town at any time day or night without any fear of danger for their well-being, their health, their safety, their life? I grew up in an era like that.
You say you must be old, guilty, but I promise you I did. When I was a boy, 10 or 11, I would get on my bicycle and ride any place in the town where we lived and my parents weren't a bit concerned that anything was going to happen to me. I'd get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, I'd get on my bicycle and go out in the dark and deliver morning newspapers and nobody gave a thought about anything ungodly happening to me in that town at that time.
Why? Because everybody was a Christian? No, not actually, but most people still honored the Bible, respected the Bible, acknowledged that it was true, acknowledged that it ought to be followed, and in many areas of life endeavored to at least follow the general pattern of God's word. There weren't very many divorces. When I was a boy at that age, I only knew, for a long time, only knew one friend whose parents had divorced. Every other of the scores of friends I had in school and likewise all had intact families.
Divorce was very rare in those days. Now do you think it's better today that we've gotten wiser than God and we're not going to do things God's way? Or do you think it would be better to say, look, something's not working.
Yoo-hoo, I've got a suggestion how to make it better, how to make it work better. Yoo-hoo, let's get back to God's way. And Sarah did, at least in this area, she is commended. Consider Sarah's exemplary obedience and couple that with, I can't leave that without saying this, God gave husbands great responsibility, maybe even greater than their wives. Notice what it goes on to say in verse 7 of 1 Peter 3, husbands likewise, there's a requirement for the wife to be submissive to her husband, there's a requirement likewise for husbands, but it's not the same requirement, but husbands likewise dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel, as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. Husbands, what are you doing? Dwell with your wives in an understanding way. What does that require?
At least two things that I know. You have to talk to her regularly to be able to understand her, and you need to know God's word to understand the truth about the human condition. If you're going to dwell with her in an understanding way, you're going to have to be a man of the word and you're going to have to be somebody who talks to your wife on a regular basis.
You'd be surprised how many marriages failed to do that. Just two people living in the same house under the same roof but going their own separate ways with their own schedules and their own things and hardly ever talk, and there's no way that you can dwell with your wife in an understanding way. I would recommend, among other things, that you have a daily time of family worship with your wife. You ought to have it with your children, of course, too, but with your wife and include in that not only a study of a portion of God's word together and not only taking prayer requests that you're going to pray about together, that's an important thing, but just a time where you talk about what's going on in your lives that day, what's on the agenda that day. And tomorrow talk about what, or maybe when you come home at night depending on what your schedule is, talk about how things went according to what you talked about in the morning. And if you'll do that, that's a simple thing, that's a simple thing, but if you'll do that regularly you'll be amazed at how close your marriage will become as you're talking together brings unity together.
And who's the one that's responsible to take the leadership in that? Husbands. It doesn't say wives, dwell with your husbands in an understanding way, it says husbands dwell with your wives in an understanding way.
Now there are a number of things here. Honor your wives. Don't belittle them, don't make fun of them, don't make jokes about them, don't dishonor them, honor your wife, honor your wife as heirs together, treat your wife as a partner in life and a partner in your walk together before the Lord. Treat her as a partner.
What else? Understand that the level of your walk with God depends a great deal upon your relationship with your wife, that your prayers be not hindered because they're going to be hindered if you don't dwell with your wife in an understanding way, if you don't honor your wife, if you don't treat her as a partner, your prayers are going to be hindered. I was rather pleasantly surprised in recent months when I realized that there's a new phrase that has become popular among some people in America today. Do you know what a trad wife is? How many of you know what a trad wife is? Raise your hand.
A few of you. That's short for traditional wife. There are a lot of young women today who are proudly saying, I am a trad wife. I am a traditional wife. I am happy to take the role that God has assigned for wives, and I am looking forward to being a wife and a mother in a marriage where I follow the leadership of my husband and recognize that God has given him the primary leadership in the home. I honor that. I submit to that.
I'm going against the tread of society today. I gladly identify myself as a traditional wife. I hope the next time you hear that phrase, trad wife, you'll know what it is, and you'll say, yes, yes.
About time we tried to start doing things God's way, yes. So at least that was good about Sarah, right? We can say Sarah was evidently a trad wife, okay? Consider number six, Sarah's unexpected blessing, and I'll have to cover this quickly. We read about it in Genesis 21.
We read about the promise that she's going to have a child, and guess what? It came about exactly as God said, Genesis 21. And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him.
And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore to him, Isaac. Impossible, says the world. With God, nothing is impossible. He's God.
God created the universe simply by speaking it into existence. You don't think God can make a 90-year-old woman bear a child? If it's his will, he not only can, if it's his promise, he will, and he did. Consider Sarah's unexpected blessing.
God gave her a miracle child. God fulfilled his promise, as God will fulfill every promise he has made to you. God will bring you a fulfilling life according to his plan, and if you will look for his plan and follow his plan, you will be fulfilled.
You will be satisfied, no matter whether it fits into what your original idea was or not. If you'll submit to God's plan, you will be fulfilled and satisfied. If you will walk with the Lord, your life is going to be filled with love, joy, peace. If you're having trouble having joy now, you need to give attention to what I'm saying.
If you're having trouble being at peace with the circumstances that God has brought into your life now, you need to give attention to what I'm saying. And then finally, number seven, consider Sarah's notable faith, and that brings us back to Hebrews 11, where we started. 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. Consider Sarah's notable faith. Her weak faith is forgotten. It's gone. It's committed.
It's under the blood. Her present faith is honored and rewarded. And folks, God can grant you faith. You see, I'm having trouble believing. Then ask God to give you the faith you need. Like that man in the Bible, Lord, I believe, but help thou might not believe. It sounds like he's saying, Lord, I have a little bit of faith, but I need a whole lot more. Lord, I do have faith, but I'm still struggling with certain areas.
And he asked the Lord to deal with that, to solve that problem for him, and the Lord did. Ask God to give you faith. Ask God to help your faith to grow and develop as it should. Trust God for his wisdom, power, love, and grace, and to find your place of fulfillment. Well, in this we learn that God's ways are always best.
Let's honor and trust him with that in mind. Father, thank you for this portion of your word that we have looked at today. Bless it to our lives. Bless it to our mothers. Bless it to our fathers. Bless it to those who are single. Bless it to those who are suffering disappointments in life. Bless it to everyone to trust you fully and completely as we ask it in Jesus' name.
