Good morning. Welcome to our vignette today. It is a scripture and song and I hope you enjoy the song I hope you enjoy the vignette. I hope that you're blessed by it. It is our think Biblically vignette it is entitled the blessings of what is missing and then we have a subtitle that is the hall of faithers the faithers I call them the faithers of Hebrews chapter 11 they were the faith walkers. I call them the faithers. They walked out their faith and when we read Hebrews 11 It defines faith for us. Let's look at that verse 1 of chapter 11 of Hebrews now faith is the assurance of things hoped for the conviction of things not seen and Okay, now look at verse six. Without faith, it is impossible to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. So there we have faith defined. And then, guess what? It gives examples of a historical list Though incomplete, it's not everybody that's there, but they could have been, but then there would have been a longer chapter. But the Lord has given us those that he wanted in this particular chapter that I'm calling the Hall of Faithers. And it's a historical list of these folks that walked out their faith. obedience when you read their stories or think about their life obedience was a huge part of of these folks they did not see They did not see it all, the final results of their life's blessings and their sorrows, the victories, defeats, and neither will we until we're home with the Lord. But obedience is a biggie. It was and it is a biggie. on those who are trusting God and God wants our obedience. He wants our hearts. He wants our obedience. We can learn volumes of who God is, His love, His forgiveness, His patience. Oh my goodness, His patience, His love, His forgiveness. We can learn volumes about Him in this little chapter and we can learn of Human nature that old sin nature often takes over and we forget as they forgot to walk the walk Take any person listed any person listed in the hall of faithers or faith walkers One of my favorites is Sarah the wife of Abraham the mother of Isaac and You probably know her story as well turn back with me to Genesis chapter let's look at chapter chapter 15 just for a second and 15 is about Abraham her husband or Abram at that point and God has promised him a Land that he's going to give him the land of Canaan. He's also promised him now Abraham's and is an old fellow and they have no children and God says I'm going to give you a son I'm going to give you a son and coming verse 4 of chapter 15 a man this his servant was not going to be that's what Abraham thought his servant would be his heir God said nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope. I'm gonna give you a son and And he's coming forth from your own body. He's gonna be the heir and so Abraham knew that well Sarah look at verse Look at chapter 16 Look a little bit about about Sarah now Sarah Abram's wife had born him no children She had an Egyptian handmaid whose name was Hagar now look at verse 2 So Sarah I said to Abram now behold the Lord has prevented me from bearing children Please go into my maid perhaps I can obtain children through her And see, she had a better idea. She's circumventing God's promise. She's tired of waiting. She's just sick and tired of waiting. Other women have children. She's getting older and older and older, and she has no children. So she has a better idea. She's going to get her a child any way she can, and not waiting on the Lord, but she's going to have, as it was in that culture, they she can have a son another way a child another way and that's what she did and so she gave Abram her handmaid he took her as his wife and Hagar becomes pregnant she conceives and then she began to tease and and torment Sarah Nana nana boo boo. I am pregnant you are not you can't get whatever she said But it infuriated Sarah and so look what she says in verse 5 now We're looking at all the blessings things all the blessings. What is missing the blessings of what is missing? What is missing in Hebrews 11? And so Sarah says to Abraham, may the wrong done to me be upon you. I gave my maid into your arms, but she saw that she had conceived and I was despised in her sight. May the Lord judge between you and me. I just find that hilarious because she had no concern about God in her life, the Lord in her life, making that decision that she would create a child of her own, though she knew God had kept her from bearing child a child she knew that didn't matter now it matters so she now she's become religious and she's telling the Lord seeking getting getting for me judge between and it really wasn't his fault except it was when Abram like Adam should have said no sweetie we're not going to disobey God ain't doing it but Neither of them did, and so now we have a mess. And Sarah created a huge mess that is with us to this day in the Middle East. So her idea just didn't work out. This is for another class, but I'm going to kind of briefly touch it right now. And I can say these things because I'm a woman. And we women have lots of issues, but three major ones that I see in myself, have seen in myself, and I've seen in others. I've worked a long, long time with people in counseling, women. I know women. Women can have a control problem. Comes from Genesis 3. Your desire shall be for him. We want control of the family. We can have that control. We can have an independent streak, which is what Sarah did. She swung out from under Abraham. She swung herself out from under God. And I'll do it myself. I'll get her done. That's what she did. And we can also have a vanity problem. Just plain vain. and we can and that's going to be another subject for another day but right here we can see that Sarah is totally woman just like us and we can have those three snags at least that will snag us if we're really not careful and so now she's wanting God to take care of her problem that she has created all on her own Then I want us to look at chapter 18 and we're still looking at Sarah and The blessings of what is missing when we look at Hebrews 11 and it goes like this In chapter 18 we find that the Lord It's actually the Lord pre-incarnate Christ and it's three men and they are standing opposite of Abram and Middle Eastern hospitality Abram runs to them says, you know, I'm gonna hang out here and and I'll fix you dinner And so he runs to the tent where Sarah is in verse 6 and tells her to prepare some flour and make some bread cakes for these visitors and he goes to his herd and he chooses a an animal and he has his men prepare it and he brings these things back, all this prepared food back to these three men, which is one, which is the Lord. We'll find that out in a minute. And they ask him in verse nine, where is Sarah, your wife? And he said, she's there in the tent. And he said, I will surely return to you this time next year and behold, Sarah, your wife shall have a son Sarah was listening at the tent door which was behind him That's another thing about we women. We're eavesdroppers. We want to know We want to know what's going on in that next room or who's talking and what they're saying We loved that we can be eavesdroppers yes, we can that's what she was doing and so I We find out in verse 11 that Abraham and Sarah were old, they were advanced in age. Sarah was way past, I'm adding way past, but she was past childbearing age. And what does Sarah do with this wonderful promise that was given to her husband that she overheard? Well, Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I'm old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also? see she thinks nobody knows nobody knows what she's thinking and nobody knows that she's dying laughing inside but the Lord knows verse 13 and the Lord said to Abraham why did Sarah laugh saying shall I indeed bear a child when I'm old I'm so old verse 14 is there anything too difficult for the Lord at the appointed time I will return to you at this time next year and Sarah shall have a son verse 15 Sarah denied it however and said I did not laugh for she was afraid and he the Lord said nope but you did laugh And see, we can't get out of our mess. See, we just can't get out of it. The Lord knows, the Lord knows, but look, the blessings, the blessings of what is missing. Turn with me now to Hebrews chapter 11, chapter 11, and we're going to look at 11, 11, 11 about Sarah. This is the blessings of what is missing. and we're looking at the hall of the heroes of the faith or what i'm calling the hall of the faithers these people walked out their faith they walked out their trust look what it says about sarah 11 11 by faith even sarah herself received ability to conceive even beyond the proper time of life since she considered him faithful who had promised. Wow. After all we read, where's all that stuff that we read about her presuming, uh, taking her, her situation into her own hands and forgetting God. And then finally, where's all that? It's not here. Oh, Oh, Oh, the blessings of what is missing. Oh, the, what is the blessings? You know, Sarah was, let's see, Abraham was a hundred when Isaac was born. sarah was 10 years younger she was 90 years old and so look what she now look look look we've read that now look at 21 look at chapter 21 genesis 5 and 6 and we're going to see where 11 11 hebrews picks up her faith up to this point everything we've read she had no faith she had independence she had blame she used the lord for her own benefit trying to get him to get Abraham for making a mess but it was her idea in the first place and it just goes on and on but that's not listed y'all you don't find it there look at Genesis 21 verse 6 Sarah said God has made laughter for me let's look at verse 5 Now Abraham, who was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him, verse six, Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh with me, not at me, with me. And she said, who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have born him a son in his old age. And look in Hebrews 11, 11, her faith is listed in that passage, not her failures, not her failures. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. The blessings of what is missing. And that's such good news for you and me. If we've ever thought about it, if you haven't, you need to do so. Because when we come to faith in Christ, All we've ever done before just won't matter anymore. It is not listed in God's records. It's just not there Because of Jesus if Jesus is your Savior you were placed the millisecond that you put your faith in and trust in the Lord Jesus you were born again, and you were placed in the body of Christ a millisecond and and faith in the blood of Jesus. That is the death of Christ redeems us and he places us in Christ in the body of Christ and he gives us his righteousness were placed in the family of God. There's three tenses of salvation in in the scriptures and their salvation from the in the past the present and the future and when we come to faith in christ that is our past sins he it's justification it's it means it's a legal term it's legally acquitted we have been illegally acquitted we've been justified and christ god says not guilty not guilty we are saved from our past we are saved from sins uh penalty and uh guilt and that's not all he does with us because there's a second tense in the salvation process in the New Testament. And it's sanctification. And that's the present. We were saved in the past. That's justification in the present. We are being saved. We're being sanctified. And it's an ongoing process. The Holy Spirit is working in our life. And as we learn to yield more, you know, the question is we don't get more of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit gets more of us. And so as we yield to the Lord and he brings more transformation to our life and we become over a process of sanctification more like Christ. And then the final tense of salvation is glorification. And that's our future. That is total salvation when we are there with Christ when we are there in our Heavenly home with him and so we the tenses are We were justified. We were legally acquitted. We were declared not guilty in the past. None of our sins are there It's not recorded. Nowhere. Can you find isn't that great news and And the present, we are being in the process of being saved, sanctified. We're being sanctified. And finally, our glorification someday, when we go home, by the rapture or by our death, a believer has that to look forward to, our home, when we are finally and totally 100% saved. We're saved from the past, present, and future. Those are the tense. and it's just believers were justified through faith in Christ are in the past we stand in the grace in the very present and we anticipate the glory of God in the future and we're going to have a new body we're going to have a new life we're having a new home and what a blessing it is the missing what blessings of what is missing It's such a wonder, as we study God's word, that's such good news for us. God never, ever, ever brings up our sins, ever, because Jesus paid it all. Not 90%, but all at the death, all our sins at the death, His death on the cross. There are no sins recorded. Jesus paid them all. During the present, we live for Him, knowing and rejoicing in the blessings of what is missing. This is Lacey Couch. It's been from my heart to yours.