The Fruit of Faith: Genesis 21:1-7

This morning we were looking at the book of Genesis, chapter 21, first seven verses.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

If you're new to us, and a lot of you are, we're taking in 32 new members this month.

Thank God.

A lot of new people.

We've been in a summer series in the book of Genesis.

We've been looking at the life of Abraham primarily to this point.

How do we live by faith?

That's something that Abraham needed to learn.

And that's something that we need to learn.

None of us do it perfectly, but we can learn.

And that's what we're asking God to teach us this next year.

And so I say next year because every year in the month of September, we introduce a new theme for the year.

And this year the elders have approved the theme of waiting.

And you say, well, we've been talking about that a lot lately, haven't we?

Yes, we have.

We're celebrating 40 years as a church.

And we've talked about waiting in the past, but there's waiting to happen.

There's going to be transitions in this church in the coming months in different ways.

And I've talked to enough of you and pastored enough of you to know that that extends to your life too, a lot of you.

A lot of you are waiting for different things.

And so this is the theme.

So it may not be brand new if you've been here for the last few months, but we're going to continue and we're going to go deeper in that theme of waiting.

And so let's pick up the story in Genesis chapter 21.

Genesis 21 · chapter mention

By the way, this would be a good week to open your Bible.

And if you don't have one, there's one probably near you under your chair.

Because we're going to look at scripture and we're going to flip around a little bit.

But let me read the text.

The Lord visited Sarah, as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.

And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him.

Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.

And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me.

Everyone who hears will laugh over me.

And she said, Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children?

Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.

This is the majestic, powerful, gracious word of the Lord that we hear, that by the Spirit's work we receive.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for the life of Abraham and his family, and you had much to teach them, and you have much to teach us.

But we need to be humble to learn.

Jesus said, You are humble.

Let your humility and your strength speak to us this morning.

Draw us, draw us to yourself through your word, by your spirit, we pray.

Amen.

Waiting for Abraham and Sarah has been about 25 years.

That's a long time to wait.

What were you doing 25 years ago?

I'll give you a moment.

What were you doing 25 years ago?

It's a long time to wait.

At this point, Abraham has been is a hundred years old.

Sarah is 90.

And they had been on a long, arduous journey.

We've been looking at their travel log, if you will, for the last three months.

And they had traveled about 1,100 miles.

Now let me put that in perspective.

That would be like kind of walking from Washington, D.C.

to Dallas, Texas.

Stephanie Olson in the Children's Church ministry told me a couple months ago when we were talking about Abraham that she talked about that in the Bible lesson for the children, and she asked the question Do you think Pastor Tom could walk 1100 miles?

And the kids all said, No.

And they were right.

Evidently, she asked the second service, children's church, and one of them said, Yeah, I think so.

I want to meet that kid.

I want to get him straight.

That's a long journey.

And we don't know, not only the half of it, we don't know that much of it, do we?

What was that like?

Traveling all those miles over deserts with people.

You probably heard some complaints along the way.

Where are we gone?

Why are we doing this?

Probably heard a lot.

But God told them to go.

So they went.

This morning we're going to look at three different things from the passage.

The first one we're going to look at are the delays from God.

And this is where I'm going to ask you to turn to your Bible.

Genesis chapter 11.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

We read verse 30.

Now Sarah was barren.

She had no children.

Okay.

Chapter 15 of Genesis.

Verse 2.

But when God came to Abram, he said, Abram, fear not.

I am your shield.

Your reward shall be very great.

But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me?

For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.

And Abram said, Behold, you have given me no offspring.

How can I have heirs if I have no children?

Good question.

Chapter 16.

Verse 1.

Now Sarah, Abram's wife, had borne him no children.

But she had a female servant named Hagar.

Are you struck by the repetition?

You know, God never repeats himself too much.

Think about that.

He repeats himself just enough to teach us the lesson.

And sometimes we need to hear things over and over before we really get it.

And so Sarah has a plan.

What we just read.

She's thinking it's obvious I'm not going to have the child that God promised.

So, Abram, I have a plan.

Take my servant Hagar.

I don't like it, I'm not in love with the idea.

There's a lot I don't like about it.

But you have a child with my servant Hagar.

Abraham is probably thinking, what?

No.

But he relents and he consents.

And he has a child through Hagar.

His name is Ishmael.

Chapter 18.

Verse 10.

Well, let's go back to 9.

They said to him, now remember if you were with us, the three visitors that went to Abraham's tent, three angels, but one of them was whom?

Jesus Christ pre-incarnate.

Where is Sarah, your wife?

And he said, She's in the tent.

The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son.

What?

I inserted that.

And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years.

The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?

The Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh?

And say, Shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old?

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

At the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.

But Sarah denied it, saying, I didn't laugh, for she was afraid.

But he said, No, but you did laugh.

I heard you laugh.

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

That Hebrew word can also be translated wonderful.

Is anything too wonderful?

Let me ask you, is there anything that is so wonderful that it seems like it's too wonderful for you?

Somebody that maybe you've dreamed, envisioned, thought, and it maybe it seemed like it didn't really come from you.

Maybe it seems as though it came from the Lord.

That's happened to me.

Is anything too hard?

Here's Abraham and Sarah at this point.

Lord, I thought you said, Lord, I thought you were leading me.

And what about you and me?

Is there something that you can look back to that you can think about that you don't have to go back too far in your files because it's still a little fresh?

Is there anything in your life that you felt like the Lord was leading you to, that the Lord was wanting to give you, but it just hasn't happened yet, and it just seems to be a long season of delay.

And you think to yourself, Lord, I thought you, Lord, I thought you said, Lord, I thought you were leading me, and it hasn't happened.

Is it really going to happen?

Maybe it's too wonderful.

Maybe you do that for other Christians, but I'm not sure you do those kinds of things for me.

Are you wondering such a thing, perhaps?

You wouldn't be the first.

When, Lord, at least 25-year wait for Abraham and Sarah.

Psalm 119, verse 49.

Psalms 119:49

The psalmist says to God, Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope.

I remember where I was.

I remember the night, I remember the place.

It wasn't in Washington, D.C., it was in New York City.

And I heard a powerful sermon that moved me deeply.

And I had a lot going on in my life, and I had a lot of stress and I had a lot of fear.

And the Lord spoke to me through that sermon.

And the Lord sealed that verse to my heart.

I'm still waiting.

But I'm waiting with hope.

We ask ourselves, what was that word that God spoke to the psalmist?

We don't know.

Remembering that word gave that man hope.

And I want to tell you today, remembering that word that I received from the Spirit that day has given me hope ever since.

And my hope hasn't been squashed.

I'm still waiting.

I believe God is going to deliver on his promise.

What about you?

Are you still waiting?

Waiting is hard, isn't it?

The delays of God don't have to squash our hope.

The delays from God can actually revive our hope and build our hope.

God's timing is always right on time.

Amen?

God's timing is always right on time.

And sometimes it doesn't feel that way.

Sometimes it feels like the clock is going very slow.

The first point, we're just looking at from the Word of God, that there are delays that come from God.

It's not coincidence.

It's not because God has fallen asleep.

It's not that God has forgotten you.

His delays are divinely appointed for divine purposes.

Secondly, the power itself is from God.

Look at verse 1 in the text.

The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised.

I mean the repetition, the emphasis.

90-year-old women don't give birth.

News flash.

100-year-old men don't procreate.

And yet, we read it just a couple minutes ago, Sarah conceived three months after the angels visited them in the tent.

And that there she was greeted with laughter.

And for emphasis again, the word of God tells us, in his old age.

They had believed God at times, Abraham and Sarah, but they had doubted at times.

We've seen that, right?

If you've been with us for the summer series, we've seen that.

Sometimes their faith is up, sometimes their faith is down.

Can you relate?

I think so.

It's not the strength of our faith, it's the object of our faith.

Abraham came back to the object of his faith time and time again.

When his faith was weak, when he messed up, he knew he had to come back to the object of his faith, which was God Himself.

So for you and me.

At times they took things into their own hands, thinking that God needed some help.

He didn't.

The passage says, now the Lord was gracious to Sarah.

And so I asked you one more time, are you still waiting?

Are you still waiting for something that feels life-giving to you?

And it's hard to continue on because it feels like there's a void in your life.

You wonder, is God going to supply what I need?

Is God going to give me that living water in a way that I desperately need?

Wait for the day when you will laugh and be filled with joy.

I've listened to the song a lot lately.

The words go something like this: God, you make a way when there is no way.

Keep me close to your heart.

Surrounded by your presence, Lord, is where my soul belongs.

I will fix my eyes on you.

In your presence I'm made new.

Man, I need to hear that.

I need to hear that a lot.

Keep me close to your heart.

My heart to your heart, your heart to my heart, God.

And see what God does.

James, Jim Boyce, the commentator, speaking of this passage, says, some of us say that it's too late for God to work in our lives, and that we're too old even.

But if the biblical record of Abraham's life is true as it is, then we're never too old for God to do a new thing in us and to do a new thing for us.

Moses was 80 when he began to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt.

Abraham lived 75 more years.

75 more years after he set out, dying finally at the age of 175.

Even if you are at the age of retirement, is he speaking to me?

Even if you're at the age of retirement, God may well have important work for you to do.

But do not say, I don't have the strength to do it.

God will give you whatever strength is necessary.

God give us faith.

What's the next task?

What's the next assignment that God has for you?

I wouldn't know.

But God knows.

Is he impressing this upon you?

What he has for you?

A next assignment.

To wait.

If God gives you a task, he will give you the strength and he will give you the time you need to do it.

And God gave us all grace to believe that.

It's true.

God has all the power to fulfill every promise that He has made.

And let's get to the last point from the text.

The laughter comes from God as well.

The delays come from God, the power comes from God, and the laughter comes from God.

Verse 6 of the text.

And Sarah said, listen to this.

The incredible word, wording here.

God has made laughter for me.

He's not laughing at me.

He's laughing for me.

He has laughter to give me that's for my good.

There's different types of laughter.

Some laughter is from unbelief.

No way.

Other laughter is cynical and despairing.

Yeah, right.

You've done that.

I've done that.

Yeah, right.

I hear it, but I don't see it.

There's another kind, there's a third kind of laughter that comes from God.

Like, wow.

You chuckle.

Really?

He did it.

He did it.

He did it.

And my heart is filled with joy.

I could even call it laughter because he did what seemed to be the impossible.

God has made laughter.

I love that phrase.

I've been just focused on that phrase all week.

God has made laughter for me.

You know the laughter you make isn't the best laughter.

The laughter I make for myself.

It's not the best.

The laughter that God makes for you is the best.

You can go down that hallway on this level.

If you haven't done that, go down that hallway and see the pictures of all the church buildings we've worshipped in from the beginning.

I've got to tell you.

A lot of godly laughter.

Most of those buildings came at the 11th hour.

We didn't know where we were going to go.

You know, how many times have I said, Lord, this is Alexandria?

There's no space.

This is one of the most densely populated cities in the country.

Did you know that?

Last time I read that from the Chamber of Commerce, we were in the top ten of the country.

Most densely populated cities.

I knew that.

That's why I didn't believe.

That's why I doubted.

Lord, where are you going to give us worship space in this city?

We're asking for worship space.

At least three times, at least three times, he took us right down to the last minute.

But he did.

He came through.

And in a certain sense, some of us were filled with holy laughter.

God, you did it.

You did it.

We know we didn't do it.

He can do that, God.

We said from the beginning of this church, at least since I've been here, we said this we want to attempt something so great for God that if he's not in it, it's going to fail miserably.

We want to attempt something so great for God that if he's not in it, it's doomed to fall apart.

That's a bold prayer.

I heard that from a man I really respected.

I respected this guy a lot, this pastor.

I said to myself, as a young man, I want to live my life that way.

I want to lead a church that way.

What did you do?

What did I do?

You prayed.

He gives us faith when we need it to pray and not grow hopeless.

He gives us faith when we most need it.

And he says, don't let go.

I've got you.

He says that to churches, and he says that to families, and he says that to singles.

I've learned that.

I believe that.

There's a plaque in my office that I asked my mother if I could have after my father passed.

And it's a plaque that I seen all my life.

But as a kid, you know, I didn't pay attention.

Truth is, as an adult, I didn't pay attention for decades.

But then as I was kind of reflecting on the message of that little on that little plaque, I said, Mom, can I have that plaque?

I want it.

I spoke for it.

I got it.

Not somehow, but triumphantly.

Let that sink in.

Think about that later today, huh?

Not somehow, but triumphantly.

I want to get through the test of in life.

I want to get through the battles.

I want to get through the challenges.

Yeah, five different church buildings.

But let's look at something much greater than that.

The greatest promise of all that looked impossible.

A 100-year-old man had a son named Isaac.

You know what the name Isaac means.

Laughter.

So appropriate.

Let's do a little compare and contrast between Isaac's birth and the birth of another.

Isaac's parents had to wait at least 25 years.

The birth of this other one, this promised one, was centuries long.

Centuries long.

Like 20 centuries.

Sarah said, How will this be?

Lord, it's impossible.

My womb is closed.

There's another young woman, well, a young woman, not an older woman.

There was a young woman in Israel who rejoiced.

Who rejoiced.

But said, How can this be?

You say I'm going to have a child, but I'm a virgin.

Virgins don't have children.

How can this be?

And a young teenage girl in Israel started to chuckle as she believed the promises.

No one else can do this but you, God.

But I do believe that you can.

And I will trust you.

Sarah, later, by the time the next year, by this time next year, you're going to have a child.

This young mother named Mary in Israel gives birth pretty much alone with her husband and baby.

And yet the angels show up and they rejoice at the birth of Jesus, the seed of Abraham.

The angels have a message, do not be afraid.

I bring you good news of great joy.

Boy, that was a lot of laughter.

Don't be afraid, Mary.

I know you're young.

I know you feel alone.

I feel like you know you feel like you.

How is this going to happen?

It's going to happen.

I am going to bless you with the birth of our Savior.

God makes ways where there is no way.

That's what I know.

We compare the birth of Isaac with the birth of Jesus, but I want to compare it with another birth, not the birth of Jesus.

I want to compare the birth of Isaac with your birth.

Your spiritual birth.

Have you ever been in the delivery room?

A lot of joy.

A lot of joy.

To witness what does everybody say everybody I know says, when that baby's born, that's a miracle.

How many of you said that?

It's a miracle.

This baby from you?

And you hear the cry and you hear the breathing.

And you hold that baby close and you say, This is a miracle.

How many of you ever been in a spiritual delivery room?

I've been blessed to be in a lot of spiritual delivery rooms where I've been with people who have come to Christ.

There's nothing like it in ministry.

To be with somebody who's saved by the grace of God in the moment.

We have 32 interviews.

The elders are very busy these days.

We have three nights that are packed with interviews.

Thursday night we had a man that came to the interview.

He'd been to the inquirer's class where he'd heard the gospel proclaimed and taught.

For those of you who were there, can you vouch to that?

Yeah, I'm looking at you.

Can you vouch the gospel was taught at the inquiry's class?

But he missed it.

And I also say in the inquiry's class that the gospel is the easiest thing in the world to miss.

It only happens by supernatural intervention.

It only happens when God does the impossible.

What's the impossible?

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 tells us we were dead in our sins when we were born.

Ephesians 2:1

Every one of us.

I find some people don't know that.

Some people think that they were born with spiritual life.

Some people think that they were born good.

The Bible doesn't say that.

The Bible can say about that baby that just got born.

That baby's beautiful.

That baby, that baby just brings you a lot of joy, but that baby's a sinner.

Born in sin.

The other night we're interviewing this new member, and in the middle of the interview, it becomes clear that he's not trusting in Jesus Christ alone for his salvation.

And God was merciful and gracious and revealed that to him.

And that's why some of you had to wait longer that night.

But that was a really well-spent 30 minutes, 40 minutes, whatever it was.

And this man just bowed his head and confessed his sin.

I asked him, I said, Do you want to wait on this?

I said, Are you still in learning information?

Do you need more time to think?

Do you need more time to pray?

Do you need more conversations?

You know what he said?

Why would I do that?

He said, Why would I do that?

I'm ready right now.

I want to receive Jesus Christ as my Savior right now.

That room down the hall was a spiritual delivery room.

Remember what Nicodemus did when he went to Jesus at nighttime?

Nicodemus, if you don't know him, he was a religious leader of his day.

He went to Jesus at night.

He was a rabbi.

He was supposed to know the answers to these questions.

He didn't.

He just knew that Jesus as rabbi was different than any other rabbi he'd ever met.

And he came to Jesus with all his questions, and Jesus says to him, You must be born again.

And do you know what he said?

I'm confused.

What do you mean?

I mean, look at me.

I'm no baby.

Jesus said, No, you must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven.

And he says, How can that be?

Is this starting to feel familiar with the sermon text?

How can that be?

That's impossible.

Jesus says, No, it's not.

Not when I do the work.

I can overcome your unbelief.

I can overcome your sin.

I can overcome everything you've done wrong.

I can forgive you.

I can give you a new heart.

I can take away the heart of stone and I can give you a heart of flesh.

You know that.

Many of you know that.

This is the power of God.

Is anything too hard for God?

Is anything too wonderful for God?

No.

There's no greater blessing you'll ever receive than that.

Your spiritual birth.

Where were you when your spiritual birth took place?

I don't know.

Maybe you didn't know exactly.

But what is important that you know that you received a new heart that only Jesus could give you.

And you confessed your sin.

And you believed, and you said, Jesus, Son of God, save me from my sin.

And he did.

And it's the best thing that'll ever happen to you.

You know what I find as a pastor?

Sometimes people forget that.

And it kind of fades into the background.

And we can get kind of used to it.

Are we kidding?

We can get so used to it that it kind of feels, yeah.

Yeah.

What was the last time?

When was the last time you got on your knees and you thanked him for giving you spiritual life?

And he took away your sinful record and he gave you a clean, perfect record from Jesus Christ.

And he said, This is what I'm offering you.

And you received it by faith.

I find myself, the older I get as a Christian, this gets better.

The good news gets better.

How's that possible?

Because the older I get, the more I live as a Christian, the more of my sin I see.

I didn't see nearly as much of my sin when I got saved.

I saw enough of my sin to know that I needed a savior.

Some of you relate to this?

I saw enough of my sin to know that I needed a savior, and I responded and I received Christ.

But man, that was a long time ago.

A lot of sin has happened since then.

How about with you?

A lot of sin.

It means more to me now.

It means more to me the older I get.

It means more to me the more I walk with Jesus Christ.

And I say, I can laugh.

Really, God?

Me?

Knowing myself?

Knowing how stubborn I can be?

And sometimes you chuckle.

And sometimes you laugh.

Can you believe it?

God saved me?

That's a good place to be.

That's a good place to live.

Don't get over that.

Don't ever get to the point by the grace of God where it starts to make sense to you why he saved you.

You start believing that, and there's pride that's really growing in your heart.

No, I understand.

I understand why he saved me.

Really?

You're not thinking.

You're not thinking.

He saved you because he loved you.

And the reason he loved you is because he loved you.

It's not because you worked harder.

It's not because you were smarter.

It's not because of your IQ.

It's not because you work out.

It's not because you watch what you eat.

No.

He loves you because he loves you.

And there's no deeper reason than that.

And the joy of our salvation ought to be getting louder.

The laughter over our salvation ought to be getting deeper.

I mean like belly laughs.

Can you believe that he did that for me?

Your birth.

The new birth.

Nicodemus.

Scoffed.

I don't know if he scoffed or just laughed.

I don't know what kind of laughter it was initially.

We have reason to believe that he got saved.

How can I be born again?

You know, if you haven't really asked that question, I'm not sure.

You know, there's probably more you need to be thinking about.

How can I be born again?

But by the power of God, but by the grace of God.

Conclusion in Genesis chapter 17, verse 16.

Genesis 17:16

God spoke to Abraham.

He said, I will bless her, your wife, and will surely give you a son by her.

I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations.

Kings of people will come from her.

Boy, was that true.

The King of Kings came through that line.

Sarah, I'm too old for any of this to happen.

God said, no, you're not.

In your strength, yes.

In my strength, no.

You're not too old.

King of Kings will come from her.

The man who wrote this hymn knew what we're talking about.

Amazing grace.

Oh, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found.

I was blind, but now I see.

Can you rejoice in that this morning?

Is that your testimony this morning?

You knew that you were lost.

But Jesus found you.

We were praying about this in the prayer meeting before the worship service this morning in the early service.

We were praying about that.

We pray about that every Sunday.

Before anything happens here, before anything happens in this room, the action is down the hall.

Just let you know that.

The action is down the hall.

The action is in a room full of people praying that the Holy Spirit will show up in powerful ways every Sunday morning in this service, in the earlier service.

That's where the power is, that's where the action is.

We are praying.

We're thinking about one of our elders read the story about Jesus going after the lost sheep.

Luke chapter 15.

Luke 15 · chapter mention

And we are praying for those lost sheep to come to Jesus this week.

Today.

Jesus left the 99 to go after the one, right?

We talk about this a lot here.

That's crazy.

That's crazy to leave the 99 to go after the one.

Except what?

If you're the one.

If you're the one, it's not crazy.

If you're the one, it's like, thank you, God, that you left the herd to come find me wherever you found me.

That's not crazy.

That's beautiful.

Where'd he find you?

Oh, if it was enough, if it just happened one time.

And salvation only happens once.

But we sheep, once we're saved, we can stray too, can't we?

Didn't we sing about that this morning?

Can't we lose our way?

Can't we wander from the God we love?

Can't we do that?

Yeah, we can.

Jesus saw me when a stranger.

We tend to wander away from the shepherd.

We tend to lose our way sometimes.

And we get diseases.

And there's friction among sheep sometimes.

Because all kinds of stuff can happen.

But Jesus.

Jesus sought me.

Jesus seeks me.

Jesus may be seeking you this morning right now.

Maybe for the first time to come to him for salvation.

Jesus may be seeking you this morning for the 100th or 1000th time.

Come on back.

Come on back into my green pasture.

Come on back where I can feed you.

Come on back where God can care for you.

Come back.

Jesus knows what you need.

And Jesus is ready to give you what you need.

As you listen to the voice of God by the Spirit of God, respond to whatever it is right now that He's speaking into your heart.

Respond.

So Lord, here we are.

We're praying now.

Would you send your Spirit fresh?

Fall fresh upon us, Holy Spirit.

People like me who are ministers and ordained, we need this just as much as everybody else.

What work, O Spirit, are you doing?

What would you have to say to us this morning, this moment?

What have we laughed at?

What have we scoffed at?

What have we thought was too wonderful for us?

What have we thought was too hard for you?

Where have we written you out of the story?

Oh, speak by your spirit.

Revive us, renew us, convince us how deeply loved we are.

Nothing, nothing communicates that better than the table before us this morning.

So, Jesus, lead us back to your table.

Jesus, use your table and the elements to speak to our hearts as you know we need.

Amen.