So we're going to continue on now. And as we looked in the first session, we saw that we're looking at the story of Abraham and Sarah right now. And their particular outcome that they were now really expecting and hopeful for was that they were going to have a child. This child was actually going to be the progenitor of a great nation. And through that, many nations or many all people will be blessed in the world. So we saw that God created this Abrahamic covenant. This Abrahamic covenant that He gave to Abraham in Genesis 12, which you looked and you saw, should list it in your notes, the different blessings specifically that God gave to both Abraham and the nation of Israel. And this is God's blueprint. This is what's going on in His plan of history. This is where we see what God is doing. And He's going to secure all of this for His people Israel in the future. future. Right now there's a big delay period where God is calling out to the Gentiles, to everyone else in the world, to come and get in on this whole program that God has. To come and have life. To have life freely. To buy without price. To have life on the basis of the grace of God. And so we're in this period now where all are invited, all are bid, because that's what God desires. He created us for relationship. He created every one of us to know Him. And so when God has then completed building His church, and this era has come to an end, then this is exactly what's going to unfold forever, for eternity. We're going to see a land and the new heavens and the new earth. First a millennial kingdom on earth, but then a new heavens and a new earth. We're going to see Jesus Christ as the King forever and ever, in this land forever and ever, and the Jewish people will receive the benefit of these promises in Genesis 12. They will be fulfilled forever. But what about the rest of us? We are all getting in on this through the blessings of Jesus Christ. Remember in Genesis chapter 12, He said, In you, Abraham, all nations will be blessed. And we saw that what God is going to do is, through the blood of Christ, is going to take the blood and the sacrifice of Christ to be the basis of and to secure all that's in the Abrahamic covenant. But by that same blood and sacrifice of Christ, He is going to then extend an offer to all people that are not part of that covenant. The Gentiles. to come in and be part of a state of blessing called the church, and to have a status and a connection with God, not in a covenant arrangement, like a business arrangement, but as family, as a child of God, or as the bride of Christ, the church is referred to. So this is an important thing to understand. And these promises were very significant then made to Abram. And he, by faith, left the land of Ur. That's a positive. This is great. He and Sarah both get a thumbs up as they followed the Lord to go to a land and a place and such that wasn't clear and wasn't laid out for them in specifics. We saw in the meantime though they had a couple of setbacks. We saw in Genesis chapter 12 that in Egypt, Abram got a little scared and he said to his wife, hey, how you doing sis? and to protect his own skin. He has her go along with him and pretend she's his sister and so forth. We saw that this morning. We saw how putting ourselves in that situation, you can hopefully just even sense the anxiety that Abram would have had. He's literally very, very concerned for his own life. And we can obviously then sense and understand the great fear and the great distress that Sarai would have been, the disappointment, the anger, the frustration, the betrayal, all of this was going on in her thinking. And yet amazingly, from 1 Peter 3, verse 6, we saw one emotion that did not grip her and dominate her, and that was fear, a great fear of this terrifying thing. You know, someone had mentioned to me, I thought it was really good to put in this in today's language, she was risking herself, she was potentially going to be put into, to be sex trafficked. Isn't that what we're talking about? Some foreign king says, hey, you, come with me. You're in my harem. That's a very fearful, troubling prospect. And Abram is just kind of counting on the fact that he's got some bargaining leverage as the brother, that somehow he might be able to protect her, keep her from that. Who knows? Right? Who knows? So put yourself in those shoes. And here's Sarah. You can't give her a greater thumbs up in the sense that facing this great dilemma and possibilities of horror, she wasn't gripped by fear. Why? And the only answer would be she knew Jehovah, and she had faith, and she trusted in Him. Abram kind of gets a thumbs down. But his wife gets a thumbs up. Not once, but twice. As this is repeated, we saw in Genesis chapter 20, the same scenario, the same outlook. We see Sarai's honor was particularly important and was restored by Abimelech, making sure that, as he offered gifts and things, to make sure that she wasn't perceived in a wrong light. So God is working here, behind the scenes, even in the midst of that failure. And He doesn't take the promise off the table, though He doesn't say, boy, Abram, that's one too many. That's one too many problems here. So forget it. Aren't you glad? That's not how God works. Because God, see, isn't adding up. He's not so consumed with the failure. And He's not measuring our life by the sin. Why not? Why isn't He going to measure your life, my life, Dane's life, Matt's life? Why is He not going to measure it by the persistent problems and things that were dragging us down? The failures, the patterns. Why not? Because sin has been what? It's been paid for. Because sin has been dealt with in a judicial sense, once and for all, by Jesus Christ. Sin is not the picture. When God looks at you, He's not seeing your sin. He's not seeing my sin. He is seeing the potential. And in His love, He is just seeking to woo us and to encourage us to have steps of faith. steps of faith, in spite of our failure, in spite of what we are, God's Word stands true, His promise is there, the potential is there, and to step into that, and that's exactly what Abram did in Genesis 15, where we left this morning. He believed God. Genesis 15, 6. Right in between the two lapses, in the middle of it, we see this great statement of Abram's faith. And we know that without faith it's impossible to please God. And so how pleasing this is to God to see Him being taken by faith. Genesis chapter 16 is where you can turn now as we're going to continue on and just see the dilemma that they're facing as they have been promised a child. There will be a great nation coming after them. But Sarai is barren, and there is no nation. In Genesis 16, we're going to see, you know, it's one thing to promise, to believe a promise initially, but it's another thing to wait for it. Waiting. Waiting. That's just downright annoying, isn't it? We're in a society where we really discourage or we really think low of waiting or patience. Waiting isn't something that we even think about with great sympathy. In fact, most of us would consider waiting a waste of time at a red light. On the pot. Standing in line. What do we do? Right? Every moment we get, every idle moment, we're on here, whatever it is, your social media fancy, your preference, whatever you do. And so we find ourselves, we don't know how to just even at times be reflective or to pause or to think. We're not conditioned to wait. Stop talking about it. There's this awful desert between where we are and where we want to go. And we don't like that place. And that's where Abram and Sarai are finding themselves. And you know, when you're in that place of waiting, we can easily lose the sense of God's nearness. of God's presence in our life, while we instead focus on the issue at hand, and it becomes larger. So we see a human scheme here, this waiting. In chapter 16, verse 1, Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him still no children. And she had an Egyptian maidservant, whose name was Hagar. By the way, where do you think she got an Egyptian maidservant? in Egypt. When was she in Egypt? This incident in chapter 12 with the Pharaoh, right? So, coming out of that already lapsed and kind of unfortunate situation, now on hand, visibly there in front of them, is this Egyptian maid servant. And so she sees her, looks at her and says, hmm, I got an idea. Verse 2, Sarah, I said to Abraham, see now the Lord has restrained me from bearing children, so please, go into my maid. And by go in, it means, you know, go in. And let's have a child through her. Perhaps I shall obtain children by her." And Abraham heeded the voice of Sarah. And so he agreed. And so we see this is a very human or fleshly opportunity to try to help God out. Verse 3, Sarai, 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. And he went into Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. So, Hagar, really just two options here on how we would take that. She kind of despises Sarah, or looks down on Sarah now. One could be because, hey, we're in a competition, as humans always think everything's a competition, and I've got a baby, and you don't, haha, na-na-na-na-na, almost a childish kind of despising. Could be that. Or you know what else it could be? Here's an Egyptian slave woman who, again, is told, basically, a date rape. Right? Here, you go in here. You go and let Abram have you. There could be resentment and despising on that side. So which one is it? We don't know. Right? Could be either one. But either way, it's not good for Sarai, because now there's a difficult woman, Hagar, on her hands. who is now pregnant. So, this human scheme, taking the initiative, trying to make a situation better, trying to help God out, causes a problem. You know, there's a tremendous comparison we could make here between Sarai, Genesis 16 and Eve in Genesis chapter 3. It's quite interesting when you think about it. We see in chapter 16, verse 2, Sarai said to Abraham, see how the Lord has restrained me. And so she feels a sense of restraint. Eve said to the serpent that we may eat of every tree of the garden, but What is Eve pointing out in Genesis chapter 3? We can eat freely of every tree, but we're not supposed to even touch this one, right? What is she restraining? Remember we talked about that in college age in the past, a little bit of how Eve is trying to really show a sincere desire and to restrain and restrict and qualify even further what God had said. Chapter 16, verse 2, we just saw Abram agreed to what Sarai said, okay? Good plan. Chapter 3, verse 17, God says to Adam, because you listened to your wife. And now we see a little idea. Sometimes when you see people talking about Genesis 3.17, because you listened to your wife, you're never supposed to listen to your wife. Is that what this is saying? Is that what this is saying at all? What it is saying is He agreed, and together they were part of a plot, whatever you want to call it, that was not what God had wanted. Then Sarai took Hagar and gave her to Abram. In Genesis 3, Eve in verse 6, she took the fruit, she gave that to Adam. She gave it to her husband. She also gave some to her husband, literally. So do you see some parallels here? And again, what is it? There was in Eve perhaps a sincere desire to become more like God, to become a better version of herself. And there was a good intention there, as we know, that she was deceived. And here, that's the same with Sarai here. It's hard to wait. Let's get this rolling. This is a good intention. Maybe this is the way we can get this over with and we can move on. And it sounds pretty reasonable because Abram himself said, okay. Notice in the first one what this reveals about Eve's thinking, about limitations. Notice what this says again about The fact the issue isn't just listening to your wife, it was the agreement of working and going together in that fall. Notice it's not the item, hagar, or fruit that is the issue, but the fact that this was not God's plan. Sarai could easily be deceived. Because culturally, was it okay to do what they're going to do here? Culturally, that was an accepted thing, if a woman was barren. In fact, in some cultures in ancient times, it was actually upon the woman, she was to go find another woman to have children, so her husband could have children. So culturally, this was an acceptable way of dealing with the problem of barrenness. But she's deceived then. She's allowing that to be the frame of her reference, not what God says. So it doesn't work out, right? Genesis chapter 16, we see that Hagar, now successfully pregnant, there's some tension between her and Sarai. So notice verse 5, Sarai said to Abram, My wrong be upon you. Well, thanks, honey. And she says, I gave 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. This is now division between Sarai and Abram. What does that tell you, by the way? If this now creates division, if this now brings a real relational difficulty, what would that say about their relationship before? It was good. We actually see Abram and Sarai talking on several different occasions throughout this account, which is good. In some cases, we know that men would treat women very horribly. But here, there's obviously some relationship, some camaraderie, but it's very strained now in verse 5. So this isn't God's plan and she knows it. And so things are complicated. Temporarily, she's going to lose her maid. Hagar is going to lose her home. Abram's going to lose his second wife and his son that comes through Hagar. And Sarah here is encountering, really, the consequences, the fruit of her own proposal. But as she does, who's she taking it out on? She's taking it out on Hagar. Get rid of her. kicks her out, puts her at peril and in danger. Because verse 6 says, Abram said to Sarai, indeed your maid is in your hand, do to her as you please. He takes a rain check on doing something. And so then Sarai dealt harshly with Hagar, and Hagar fled from the scene. She's encountering the consequences of kind of a bad decision, but she's taking it out on someone else, on Hagar. And boy, we can do that, can't we? We've all made a poor decision here or there sometime in our life of some sort, got into something that wasn't so great of a circumstance, and sometimes it's the person, some other person that gets caught in the crossfire. And we ended up taking it out on someone else and finding blame on someone else. So here, if we're looking at thumbs up or thumbs down, we see both Sarai and Abram, what? Thumbs down. And their impatience and such, they collectively are part of the scheme that is not what the Lord would have. But this is what's encouraging in Genesis 16, verse 7. The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur. And this is some dangerous territory. I mean, first of all, it's a desert. There's the elements that could be a problem. Secondly, she's a woman with a pregnant woman. It was a tough situation. And Sarai just cast her out into it. But who found her? And the Lord found her. The angel of the Lord, as we know, is often understood to be a theophany or a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus Christ. He finds her in verse 7. Verse 8, He said to her, Hagar, Sarah's maid, He calls her by name in verse 8. The only one to call her by name in our account. You see Hagar named many times, but it's always in the narration. Never once does Sarai, or even Abram, call her by name in our account. But God finds her and calls her by name. And then in verse 11, He tells her, First, he promises her in verse 10, that I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, and they shall not be counted for multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, Behold, you are with child, and you shall bear a son, and you shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has..." What? "...the Lord has heard your affliction." He found her. He calls her by name. He assures her that he has heard of her dilemma. And then he gives some prophecy about that son. And then verse 13, she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, you are the God who sees. And she said, have I also here seen Him who sees me? She names Him the God who sees me. So what did He do? He found her, calls her by name, He hears her, and He sees her. If you can't find some comfort in that, friends, I don't know. This is amazing. This is God, who takes this Egyptian Gentile woman, who knows that really she hasn't done anything wrong here in this story at all, other than perhaps what was the source of her despising of Sarah. Even that. It could take it one way or the other. And so God is aware. What can we learn about God's character in this account? What can you write down? Things you can see and know. This is what my God is like. Can we write something down? What can we write down? Someone? We're going to have a little group on this, but I think we lose too much time doing that. He's loving, clearly. That's a compassionate, caring God. Something else? Merciful. Omniscient, all-knowing. Very good. And He's faithful. We don't know, again, Hagar's status with God, but surely as an Egyptian slave, being with Abram and Sarai, she would have heard or would have been made aware of Jehovah, had some connection there. So we can see, and it's various times like this in our life, where hopefully we too can know we're not forgotten. We're not forgotten when things are looking rough. So to make applications to areas of difficulty or perhaps unjust trials in your life, we could say, look, we can be comforted. God will find me. God will hear me. God will see me. And God is sovereign. In fact, he gives her specific directions. He tells her, go back. Go back to Abram and Sarai, because that's a place where there'll be some provision, some protection. And so he gives direction as well. And this is awesome. This is a very personal, relational God. This is not someone that she has to do repetitive ritual to, and never know if it's even been heard. Right? This is personal. So we see then how God even takes care of Sarai. And we see how human failure does not upset God's plans. God has a plan. What's his plan in the Abrahamic Covenant? Sarai, Abram, you will have a child. And through that child, great things are going to come. And they, getting impatient and as some years have gone by, end up finding a different way for Abram to have a child. Would this not be a great time for God to take that off the table? This promise, right? That's it. You've ruined it. But that's not what happens. In fact, go with me, give a marker here, go with me to Galatians chapter 4 for a minute. Because Galatians gives some commentary about this very incident. Galatians chapter 4, he's writing here in Galatia to New Testament Christians, particularly about, for some reason they had this desire to go back under a law system, to go back under qualifications and limitations and you can do this but don't do that. For some reason, they seem to like that. Can any of us figure that out? That seems so bizarre, doesn't it? Until we all look in the mirror. And we know that we're prone to that. And so Paul's trying to really arrest their thinking in Galatians and trying to show them that's not how God's going to work. And in verse 7 of Galatians 4, Paul writes, Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son. Christians, you are sons of God. In fact, verse 6, because you're sons, he sent forth the Spirit. In fact, I'm sorry, let's go back to Galatians 3.26 for a minute. Chapter 3, verse 26. Here he says, you are all sons or children of God. But then there's a statement following it that needs to be true. You are all children of God, how? Through faith in Jesus Christ. You see, that relationship with the Lord happens at a point in time like birth. That's why it's called likened to being born again. You're all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Chapter 4, verse 6, and because you're a child of God, because you're now connected to Him, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father, which we sang about earlier. And as a child then, verse 8, verse 7, you are no longer a slave. That's what you were before, under a law system. But no, you're a son and an heir through Christ. So then going on in chapter 4 after stating that, let's look at verse 21. He writes, Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. Who's the bondwoman? Hagar. And who was that son? His name, we'll find out, was Ishmael. And the other was by the free woman. Who's that? Sarah. And who's that son? Isaac, we'll find later. Abraham had two sons, you see? Bondwoman, free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh. And he of the free woman through the promise. So now we know what going by the flesh is. How can we define what is according to the flesh? If we look at the story and let the story interpret that, what is it to be doing something according to the flesh? Someone? We're sparing you group discussions. Taking things in your own hands. Very good. Doing things really apart from God really being factored in. Maybe it's your impatience. Maybe it's your desire. Maybe it's this or that. Whatever it is. We're like a bull in a china shop. We're just going for it. Now we see what doing something according to the flesh is. Boy, that's practical for us, isn't it? We can hopefully be honest and say, yeah, I've done that. But Paul is reminding us. He that is Ishmael was born according to the flesh, but of the free woman through promise." Which things are symbolic going on, verse 24 in Galatians? For these are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which we know gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. That's Moses and the Law. A legal covenant, that's what Ishmael is going to represent. Law. And verse 25, for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, O barren you who do not bear. Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor. For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband." And he's applying a verse from Isaiah, applying it to the blessing of Sarah. Many more children. So here's our point. God, did he take this problem with the two of them coming together in Acts 16 and having a child according to the flesh, does God take that and wipe everything out? That's it. Does he? What do we see in Galatians? He uses it to put in direct contrast the issue of something according to the Spirit, something according to the promise, and how that's going to be in contrast and much different to that which is according to the flesh. And so amazingly, God's going to, through this incident, use it as a great teaching lesson for millions of people. to hopefully learn some things, that our human failure does not upset God's plans. Human effort, the flesh, is to do and to not to do, consumed with sin management. According to the flesh, we'll live a life of tell me what to do, tell me what not to do. Let's have some standards we can just find out. Everyone should bring up their iPods or their phones here later and we'll find out what you're listening to. Right? And we'll tell you. Nope, this is bad. Nope, this is bad. According to the flesh, show me what to do. To do and not to do. To do and not to do. When you're under promise, you're from the free woman. And now it's the grace of God that is designed to motivate our heart. It's the grace of God that's going to anchor us in this freedom. And the supernatural will flow as we respond by faith. So we go back to Genesis chapter 18. That's Sarai though. She throws out Hagar. Genesis chapter 18. She treated her harshly and kicks her out. Has this plan. It's all Sarai's fault. She has this plan to Send Abram to have this baby through Hagar. That's all Sarah's doing. This is how we might start to think. And then in Genesis 18, we've gone a number of years later. I mean, come on God, when are you going to deliver? And He visits them again. And He reaffirms again His plans for them to have a child. And Abram, in verse 10, God says, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, when it's the right time, and behold, Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. Because he had reaffirmed to Abraham that he's going to have a son, and he's thinking, boy, there must be some other, must be, I don't get it. And he says, no, it's your wife, Sarah, that you're going to have a son. Now look at what she does in verse 11. Abraham and Sarah Excuse me, verse 10. Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. See the end of verse 10? What does it say? Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him. And Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age, and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. And therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, sensual pleasure, my Lord, being old also? Who is she laughing at? Come on, who's she laughing at? God. What's she doing with God's promise? In a sense, she's mocking it, right? Ah, come on. I'm even much older now than when this promise was first given. She's struggling with this. This is hard for her to... This is an impossible outcome. This is most unlikely. Isn't that what she's saying? She's laughing going, positive outcome, most unlikely. No. And she's laughing. Look at her. It's all her fault. She's the one who sets Abram up with Hagar. She's the one laughing at God and outlying this wicked woman and all her doubts. This is how sometimes we interpret this and see her. We put the blame on someone. Boy, we like to do that, especially if it's a woman. Some woman laden with anxiety or doubt or being bossy, chapter 16, or scheming. It's all your fault. And we, something about us, we just feel better when we can point out that someone's done wrong. I like, this is kind of a humorous take on that, but... Here's a goalie. They scored against the goalie. We can all chime in. It's all your fault. Sarah, it's all your fault. And I love the commentator now. That's a wonderful atmosphere. Wonderful atmosphere. And I know that he's joking, but you know, it is. Why do we really like and are prone to that? Because when I can go, you, it's all your fault, I get lifted up in my own twisted way, right? Well, we just rub your nose in it. And so let's be careful we're not doing that with Abram, which I'm not familiar with hardly any commentator that would do that, or with Sarai, as I am familiar with some that do like to do that. So, 2 Timothy 2.13 applying that, when we are faithless, he remains faithful. In this case, Sarai, thumbs up or thumbs down? Here's a thumbs down. So we've seen both of them, Abram and Sarai. We've seen them on a good day, and we've seen them on a bad day. But then, this is what's amazing. Go with me to Hebrews chapter 11 now. And here's what hopefully we can find encouragement in. We're now in a chapter that's called the Hall of Fame of Faith, in which the writer of Hebrews is going to recount a number of people and characters from the Old Testament and how they endured and how they went through great things. It's a hall of fame of faith, and he describes faith in the beginning of Hebrews chapter 11. Notice, he says, faith is verse 1, the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. There's evidence. Abraham, Sarah, do you have evidence for things not seen? This baby that's coming. And their evidence is going to be found in the written, excuse me, the promise of God. So we go to verse 11. By faith, read this, we might even fall off our chairs. By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age. Why? Look at that last statement. Because she judged God faithful who had promised. What? We just saw the Hagar plan. She wasn't judging him faithful there. We just saw the laughter in Genesis 18. She wasn't judging him faithful there. But we also saw how she judged him faithful in a different manner when twice she was passed off as her husband's sister. God makes an assessment here. A grand scope assessment of her life. And as he addresses Sarah's life, he says, now here's a woman who was found faithful. And what a beautiful expression of what faith is. It is judging him faithful. It is making analysis. We're not just stupid going bleh. We're thinking. And she's thinking and judging and determining her experience with God, what He is, who He is, what He said. And her final conclusion is He can do it. She judged him faithful in what he promised. How did she do this? What's the answer? Two words. How did she do this? By faith. What is she known for here? Her faith. And what did she do? She judged him faithful. And she's now a hero of the faith. And boy, we could say objections like I just said. Man, she looked at the, she had Hagar plan, and she failed, and we know that she struggled, and she laughed when God said he's gonna come. We see it, it's there, what about? Objection, objection! Like a courtroom, and God says, overruled. Because then what that means is God, who is personally involved in her life, He knows that she worked it out. Do you have doubts? Are you sometimes gripped with anxiety? Are you sometimes unsure? Do you sometimes say, God, where are you? When are you going to show up? And we see that's part of being human. That's part of this relationship. And yet, what wins the day? Clearly because of her appearance in Hebrews 11. What wins the day is God ultimately convinces her. Remember, faith is to be persuaded. She was persuaded by God. And He didn't stop trying to persuade her when she was having a Hagar plan. He didn't stop trying to persuade her. which finds herself struggling and laughing at God's most unlikely promise. I just think that's so encouraging. In your life, you take a step backward. God doesn't write you off. He doesn't give up. He doesn't take a promise off the table. Let's step out by faith. God is there. And He's for us and He's with us. And we're going to have our dilemmas and we're going to have our moments. but we can judge him faithful and have that be the overall assessment. Now that's a gracious assessment, isn't it? In Hebrews 11, verse 11. Yet Sarah, I want to point out, she's mentioned more times in Scripture than any other woman, even Mary, the mother of Jesus. Sarah's name to the Hall of Fame of Faith And Sarah is given, in 1 Peter 3 we saw this morning, even as an example for other women to follow. This is all according to God. This is His assessment. That's a real legacy there. Not bad. We think of Sarah in general, we think of Sarah's overall personhood, we think of her, what we know of her. Is she faithless or faithful? Thumbs up. She's faithful. What about Abram? Go with me to Romans chapter 4 for a minute. What about her husband? We saw that he had a couple of Sarah's my sister lapses. We saw that he also jumped on the Hagar train plan. We saw that he was faithless in his time at various points. But as we are assessing this in chapter 4 verse 13 of Romans 4, the promise, he's using Abraham as an example, the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. Notice, he's an heir to who? Isaac? To the world, because in him all nations will be blessed. For those, verse 14, are of the Jew, are heirs. Faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath. Where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, this whole promise is of faith, that it might be according to grace, so the promise might be sure to all the seed. Not only to those who are of the law, but also those who are of the faith of Abraham, which is the father of us all. That's us. So as it is written, verse 17, I have made you a father of many nations in the presence of him whom he believed. Notice, what did Abram do? He believed God, who gives life to the dead, meaning the sexually dead here, and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. Who, contrary to hope, all human perspective, outcome most unlikely. Contrary to hope, in hope he believed. And he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be. And notice verse 19, this is God's assessment again. Would this be our assessment of Abraham? He was not weak in faith. And we should jump out and go, wait a minute! What about? What about? What about? And God says, no. This is my assessment. He was not weak in faith. Verse 19, he did not consider his own body already dead, even though he was 100 years old and the deadness is Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promises of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and became fully persuaded, convinced. that what he had promised, he was able to perform. Notice, this is progressive. He became and then fully. So he was convinced a little. He was more convinced. He became fully convinced. We see times when he's convinced a little where there's a lapse or we see a moment of his doubt. But there's a progression so that God can summarize and say, This man, Abraham, didn't waver. He was not weak in faith. And we can scratch our head, but that's how our God sees us. Isn't that encouraging? He sees not the markings of sin and how often and how many, because that's all been paid for. And the markings of you and I, as a human, are the moments that we took Him by faith. His heart is delighted. He is pleased. It's impossible to please God apart from faith. He is delighted when He persuades you. That's why we come. That's why we open the Word of God. That's why we're here. To be persuaded, to be reminded, in the moments, in the dilemmas, that we put in this supernatural element and ingredient, and we have a whole different perspective on life. Go to Hebrews chapter 6, flying back there for a moment. One more verse that talks about Abraham. As God is again summarizing, in verse 12, it's after He's just encouraged these Hebrew believers who are taking a lot of persecution to don't quit, don't go back to their Judaism. He says in verse 11, I desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. Verse 12, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises in verse 12. So, what are two things that are mentioned in verse 11 and 12? He's saying it's desire that you show the same diligence that you keep going. Do you follow that? You should write that down. That's one of the things. Keep going. Keep pursuing. Don't quit. The second thing the writer is encouraging them in is We are to imitate those who faith and patience inherited the promise. Keep going, keep your eyes forward, so that we might imitate those who have successfully gone before us. Are you with me? Now who is the example that he gives? For example, who? Verse 12, 13. Who's he mention? Abraham. Abraham. Let's call up Abraham, who God made a promise to Abraham, verse 13, because he could swear by no one greater. He swore by himself. In other words, God affirmed these promises, saying, surely blessing I will bless you, multiply I will multiply you. This is the Abrahamic covenant. You're going to have a child. And so after he had patiently endured, notice that's how God describes these wandering difficult times from Genesis 12 to chapter 21 when Isaac comes. Patiently endured. Would you read those chapters and say that's the description we'd give? Humanly we don't see that. Because we're so fixated on a failure. Like someone who takes a step backward is a worthless scum who needs to be kicked. Where do we get that? God looks at this, and he sees all of them taking a step or two backward, but he sees those forward steps. And he says, they patiently endured. Abraham patiently endured. Years waiting for this promise. We read where he struggled with it, but God says, he's my man. He patiently endured, and he obtained the promise. So what is God's gracious assessment? He patiently endured. And God, when He says that, He's obviously aware of all the human BS that goes on. And yet, rising above that are the moments we take Him by faith. The moments we stand and just say, wow, Lord, I'm persuaded. And those rise above. And they are like a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord above. You know, this isn't just Abraham that surprises us. In fact, if we go to look at James 2.23, which we won't, but there, Abraham is called a friend of God. He's my friend. Friend of God. And that's what friendship is, right? Stick through it. Yeah, there are times where he was not a good friend. But there are times God can say, we connected. We communicated. He trusted me. Friend of God. Amazing. What about David? Thinking of David, we know his story. He wrote a lot of the Psalms. We see things about David where he was intensely relational, had much devotional positive things. He had a relationship with his God. And he wrote, he even expressed, I mean, haha, he wrote poetry. That was intensely expressing fellowship with his God. So we see David in a positive light in many places in scripture. But we also see him in some negative light, don't we? We also see him involved with most, we remember the Bathsheba incident, and the arrangement of Uriah the Hittite. We also sometimes forget, but he numbered the people when he shouldn't have, and it cost literally thousands of Jews to die. He has some real whoppers on his record. 1 Kings 15, in an assessment of him, We read, because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and did not turn aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life. And you're going, what? At least God does put a little star on this, a little asterisk. Accept that thing about your eye. What a great assessment, isn't it? It's repeated in Acts 13. We read here, when He had removed him, God had raised him raised up for them David as king, as he's going through a historical account, and he gave to him also testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will do all my will. Is that always the way David was? Answer? But this is God's general assessment. This is God's final conclusion. Why? Because what rises up and gets the glory, what it is that pleases the Lord, is faith. And what is faith? It's when you are persuaded so that you will trust. And here are times, many of them, where David was persuaded and connected and enjoyed fellowship with his Lord. And that's what the Lord remembers. That's what the Lord has seen. Why? Because as far as the East is from the West, so far has He removed the sins. God's not into remembering our sins when Christ has already, He's been propitiated already by Christ and His work. Imagine the negative self-talk that could have dominated in Abram's mind. Imagine the negative self-talk that could have been perpetually going through motions in David's thinking. When they were doubting, questioning, when they were going through the Hagar moments or the Uriah moments. Imagine what they must have been thinking. I'm going to imagine the negative self-talk that goes on in your mind when there's a step back, when there's a failure. Right? I know because I've talked to you and I know you've shared. We are really good at pistol-whipping ourselves, aren't we? We're really good. Such an idiot. Such a fool. I'm never going to mount anything. I never get it. We're really good at going over, what a failure. We're really good. Where's the grace in that perspective? You know, we talk about scrubbing the grace out. You know what? We're all really good grace scrubbers right there, aren't we? And we talk to ourselves from the perspective of our sin and our success-win-loss record against our sin, and that's never what God does. The assessment He has is when we are found pleasing to Him. we can hopefully learn to talk to ourselves from the perspective of what God has been saying. What God says is true. To be persuaded that God actually likes you, and He loves you, and He's never going away. Doesn't that make a difference? And no, He's not applauding, oh, I love that sin. Duh. Why do we even have to say that? But we understand that God is not against me because of my sin. He's with me against my sin. You see the difference? It's a huge difference. And therefore, as we respond to the fact that God is with me, We then find the very grace which is the motivator and the changer in our lives. That's what's going to make an amazing difference as we respond to that. So where does all this pressure come from? When we build up in our Christian lives, in our thinking, in our hearts, a lot of self-hatred or anxiety over failure or constant worry or fear, this barrage of self-criticism and expectation, where does that pressure come from? Is that coming from the grace of God? Isn't that an obvious answer? No. Romans 6.14, but we're not under law, we're under grace. What does God want? to be speaking into our subconscious. What does God want? He wants these truths, these promises, this attribute and character of who He is. Even we sing songs because we might remember this line or that truth, and we memorize a verse because that comes up in these times and this place in our life, and all of it draws us to Him and draws us to the fact that He's with me and He's not against me. And it's faith that pleases Him. Can I be persuaded enough to talk to myself from the basis of the truths of what God says? That changes perspective. And isn't it a surety? God knows everything already. He knows all the stuff that's gone on. And He knows everything that's yet future. But He loves us anyway. died for us anyway. Go with me to Genesis chapter 21. Just a little bit more and then we'll take a break. I refuse to get further behind. You know, we're going to probably do the second lesson next time and then skip three and four in your handout, right? And just do five tomorrow morning. So just if you're I'm hoping that we're all going to get out of here before the Super Bowl. We will. But Genesis chapter 21 is the story of the birth of Isaac. And here's one more. It's just really interesting. I just kept seeing things this time when I was going through this. Here's another. Another time when they're not quite on the same page. Verse 8, the child grew. Isaac, this miraculous birth that finally happened, the positive outcome, most unlikely, Sarah has a baby. Well beyond. It's clearly of God. Verse 8, they had a big feast. Abraham is thrilled. So the child grew and was weaned and Abraham made a great feast on the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had born to Abraham. And now he's scoffing. Here's Ishmael. He's some years older. I don't know how old. Maybe we could have figured it out. I didn't. Let's say he's seven. Sounds good, right? Seven and a half. And he's scoffing. Remember, Hagar went back, right? Went back to Abraham and Sarah. So remember, in Genesis 21, verses 1-9, 8, we see a happy scene, miracle fulfilled, promise coming to light, reality, joy. This is our Son. And now, in verse 9, Sarah sees this Hagar boy scoffing. Therefore she said to Abraham, cast out this bondwoman, second time, and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, namely with Isaac. And the man who was very displeasing in Abraham's sight because of his son. So God had to come along and say to Abraham, don't let it be displeasing in your sight because of the lad or because of your bondwoman. Whatever Sarah has said to you, listen to her. For in Isaac, your seed shall be called." Isaac is what this is all about. Isaac's the son of promise. Do you follow? Isaac is where the spotlight is. That's not going to change. Don't worry about the woman, Hagar, etc. Because verse 13, I'll make a great nation of the son of the bondwoman because she is your seed. Let's contrast the response of Sarah with that of Abraham in this situation. Anyone, what have you got as an observation here? I'll ask you, looking for you now, to say something. What did you say? Something we can interpret. Yeah, I do ask bad questions, don't I? The response of Sarah with that of Abraham. What was Sarah's response? When this kid's scoffing? Get him out of here. Why? Because he's not the heir. Isaac's the heir, right? And I'm not going to have this amazing, miraculous birth and this clear gift from God and have this boy scoffing. Do you see how this is A response that has faith behind it. Anyone? You want to dispute that? Do you get it? Because she highly values the promise, the deliverance, and the fulfillment of what happened, and she's in a very positive state of mind, and her son, not going to have this one here, scoffing as if he's got something on Isaac. The heir is Isaac. The promise is through Isaac. Do you see this? And so she's saying, remove this. How do we know that's the right response? Because two verses later, what does God say to Abraham? What does He say? Listen to your wife. She's right. I'll take care of the bondwoman. I'll take care of Ishmael. I'll make him a nation too because he is of your seed. So He extends blessing. He doesn't have to do that. To Ishmael even. But Isaac is the star, the spotlight here. So she's elated in fulfillment of the promise. The hand of God became real. And Ishmael, he's not the promised son. She's right this time. Abraham, why is he struggling with this? Why is he not so clear on this? Why is he hesitating? It tells us in the text. Why? The text. Because of his... What do you think that means? because he loves his son, right? This is his son too, even though it came about through a wrong means. Does that mean that we're to punish this son? You know, you were born under the wrong circumstances, so boom, boom, boom, boom, all your life, you worthless piece of junk. No. And so because of that, God's going to give blessing on his son as well. Ishmael is a person. No one is even going to be given a place in God's plan as well. So, It's his emotions. Abraham's emotional. Abraham's the emotional one. Abraham's the one going, uh, uh, I kind of like... And God has to come along and say, no, listen to your wife here. And so, we see. that he does it, though. And the next day, Abraham rises early and off goes Ishmael. And here is just something I find so cool with Abraham and Sarah. You know, in Genesis 12, they're both on, thumbs up, as they leave Ur in Genesis 12, by faith. In Genesis 12, with Pharaoh, and she's my sister, Abraham's not on, but she is. Then they both are not on in Genesis 16 with the Hagar plan. And she's really not on at all in Genesis 18 when she's laughing when God says she's going to have a kid. He's not on in Genesis 20 when he says she's my sister again. But they're both on in the first part of Genesis 21 with the birth of Isaac and the feast and the happiness. And then she's on and he's not so much on when it comes what to do with Hagar in Genesis 21. Now that's what I call a dynamic relationship. That's what I call one's on, the other's off. Hopefully that's a mutually helpful situation. Because sometimes the husband's not on and the wife is and she can be of great benefit. Sometimes the wife's not on, the husband is. He can be of great benefit. Sometimes they're both off and that's kind of a bummer. Ask Hagar. But also sometimes they're both on. And that's a dynamic, powerful relationship. And this is a relationship of two people who we hopefully have seen in these incidents and stories. That they're together. Do you see that? They're together. And they're working through. their issues of life. But what about, as we wrap this up, those voices, the voices, we've heard them all. The voices that you have, you hear in your mind, you speak to yourself, when you lost your job, when you flunked the exam, when the habit you just can't seem to break, when your marriage went south, or when you went south. Those voices begin to howl in our mind, laughing at us. And we hear them and we join in, don't we? We join in on the chorus of anti-you. And we disqualify ourselves, and we berate ourselves, and we sentence ourselves to hard labor in the prison of poor self-worth. The voices of failure. You see, failure finds us all. The issue is then what? Because God finds us too. God's Word is written actually for failures. And God's Word works and His truth is there amidst our failures. In the face of sin, in the face of our doubts, in the face of our unbelief, right in the midst of our fear, our selfishness, there is God patiently working and seeking to get our attention and allowing His Word to correct our thinking and insisting on sticking with us. And He's not departing and He will not forsake. He has moved in. He has packed up. He's moved into you and dwelling you. He's in your room, right? He's unpacked His suitcase. He's put His clothes in the drawers. He says, I'm not going anywhere. And there He is. And we're in this together. I'm with you. And if you learn faith, it's going to be awesome. God's Word is written for people just like us. And He uses it in spite of us. And God is alive. And He never gives up. And Abraham and Sarah are such an example. They had their moments. They had their mistakes. And yet, they pleased the Lord by faith. So I thought I have to give you at least a couple of fill-ins, don't I? Right? So here's a little note in wrapping this up. And I didn't even put it on the PowerPoint. I thought I did. I know I did. I don't know where it went. But, oh well, I guess we won't do them. You'll never know. All right. Failure is rarely fatal. Failure is rarely fatal. Our God is about life. Our God is about love. Our God is about seeing the potential in us and doing what He can and will to draw that out. Failure is rarely fatal, but we tend to really fixate on it and try to reduce it of our own human ways. God's grace is greater than your failures. God's grace is greater than your failures. That's the other fill-in. Is there only two, right? Yeah, there you go. And just remember that. That is not true of Abraham and Sarah when you read their account. God's grace is greater than their failure. And you know what? They responded by faith and so can you and I. One step at a time. You know, one step of faith, two steps of failure. That's what we see in Abraham and Sarah maybe at the beginning. But maybe by the end of life we see two steps of faith and one step of failure. And that's the reality of our life. And what's God's assessment? Friend of God. A man after his own heart. Did what was right. His grace got every inch out of us. And we can delight in that. Positive outcomes, most unlikely. Yeah. When we leave God out and factor in natural thinking, yeah, this is impossible. We're going to bring this in tomorrow morning, how we sometimes treat our Christian life. What? Victory over sin? Positive outcome? Never. Ever think that way? Never. We bring that right into our Christian life. The whole point was to have all these great stories instead of like seven where you're going to get like two. But bring them in to Romans and to the Christian life tomorrow morning. When you factor in God, when you bring in what He says, when you walk by faith, positive outcomes? Most unlikely, but there they are. There they are. And that's how God assesses when we please Him by faith. So then there is God waiting for us. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this example here of Abraham and Sarah, this couple, this together, they had their ups, had their downs, but we can find much encouragement We find encouragement in them and the various things that they did, but mostly we find encouragement in you and your constant presence and wherever they were and whatever they were going through. And so may we find encouragement in that and may we realize that we can bring you into our thinking. We can allow the negative self-talk to get chased out the back door as we welcome through the front door your truth, your goodness, your assessment, your viewpoint. And what you say, may we believe. So we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.