Daughters of Sarah

00:01 Thank you, Corbin, for those songs this morning. It's a lot of good stuff packed in those songs that we sang. I don't know if you were paying attention to the words. I hope you were. I hope you always do. But a lot of good material, good things that we promised the Lord, that we praised the Lord with, that we prayed to the Lord about. 00:18 And now we want to also offer our ears to hear from Him through the Scriptures this morning. Well, it's a special day on the calendar. And we oftentimes think about having a Mother's Day message on Mother's Day, or a Father's Day message on Father's Day, 00:38 and kind of take advantage of some of those opportunities. But I'm also always a bit nervous when we have special days like this because of the people who feel left out. And that some sisters among us are not mothers. 00:57 And yet God has a word for women, of whether they're mothers or not, whether they'll ever be mothers or not. And so I'd like to approach it this morning more from a message to our sisters among us. But I do want to pay special recognition to the mothers among us. 01:16 And just kind of remind you and remind the rest of us that you are worth your weight in gold, literally. Since the pandemic, your net value as a mother has increased over $6,000 since the pandemic started. I don't know if you realize that or not. But there are those who study these things. 01:37 And so I read an article, "How Much Is a Mom Really Worth?" And when they kind of crunched the numbers and they figured out all the things that she does, if you were to pay for those things to be done, her salary would be $184,820 a year. 01:57 And so, women, you are seriously underpaid. I have no doubt about it. But to watch your children grow in the nourisher and admonition of the Lord is worth the payment. You can't pay for a mother. She is a Chief Financial Officer, a Chief Operating Officer, 02:17 a Logistics Analyst, a housekeeper, a laundry manager, a van driver, a public school teacher or a school teacher, a facilities manager. She is an event planner, a kitchen manager, assistant athletic director, a staff nurse. She is a bookkeeper, 02:36 physical therapy supervisor, nutrition director, a consumer loan officer, a fast food cook, a server, a conflicts manager, an interior designer, and a fundraising coordinator. That's all the things that they looked at, what she does, and compared them with going rate for paying for those kinds of operations. 02:56 Well, a little bit of humor doesn't hurt us a lot. But we do want to thank this morning about a woman in Scripture, a historic woman in Scripture. She was a real woman. She was not just a myth or a character that somebody made up. She was a princess. She was a princess. 03:15 Her name means princess. And her original name actually meant my princess. And that name was changed to mean mother of nations, of many nations, a princess of many nations. She was the one whose Scripture says that women should strive to be like. 03:37 And so she's an example. She's also one who modeled the godly character of submission, of being a submissive spirit, having a submissive attitude, and one of respect to her husband. She was one who wore her natural beauty well. Scripture talks about her natural beauty. 03:54 I don't think it had to have a lot of adornment or embellishment. She was just naturally beautiful, even as an elderly woman. She was one who respected her husband, did what is right, and exercised courage in the face of fear. I don't know if you've figured out yet who we're talking about this morning. 04:15 But I'll keep going. She was worth her weight in gold. She was delicately strong, keenly perceptive, and in spite of her mistakes and running ahead of God at times, learned to trust God, to be faithful to His promises in the midst of impossible obstacles. Her given name was Sarai. 04:34 Her redeemed name was Sarah. We know her as Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Now, would you turn in your copies of the Scriptures to 1 Peter 3? We're going to spend most of our time in the book of Genesis looking at the life of Sarah and kind of do a character sketch on her this morning. 04:53 But she is referred to in the positive in 1 Peter 3:6-7. 1 Peter 3, you may remember, is talking to wives specifically and then husbands about being submissive, about their conduct, about their adornment, their natural beauty, and the beauty of a meek and quiet spirit. 05:13 And then verse 5 says, "For in this manner, in former times, the holy women" she is called a holy woman "who trusted in God also to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord" but we'll talk about that a little bit later, what that means. 05:36 It's Lord with a small l, not a capital L. "And whose daughters you are, if you do good and are not afraid with any terror." She fits in this passage here as an example because she modeled this as she grew in her faith. Now, I'll be honest with you. 05:54 When I first look at first glance at Sarah, I would not have necessarily put her in this chapter, chapter 3:1-6. But nevertheless, she grew in her faith and became a woman of God. Her name means princess or my princess. 06:13 Her redeemed name means mother of many nations. She was to be a blessing to her family. 06:19 But even then, as she opened her heart to God and her life to God, she moved out of her realm of her personal privacy into being a mother of many nations and an example for women throughout the ages. She was a woman of strength. According to this passage, 06:40 she did what was right and good. Some translations translate this that she obeyed him, Abraham, calling him, "Lord, whose daughters you are, if you do good or if you do right." And she was not intimidated by anything frightening because this is a characteristic of Sarah. 07:00 She was not afraid with any terror. And she had plenty of opportunity for some terror in her life. 07:07 Now, when I look at her initially, at first glance, you see, well, how did she really use her beauty when she was down there in Egypt and in Gerar with the events where Abraham said, "She is my sister," and she was taken? 07:26 And then why did she blame Abraham when her scheme went sour, the scheme with Hagar, the handmaid? Here she offers her handmaid to Abraham. Abraham says, "Sleep with her so you can have a son through her." And then when that whole thing falls apart, she blames Abraham. "Why did you do this to me? 07:45 You're responsible for my suffering." So she seems to be looking for blame. She comes across as a bit petty and jealous and as somewhat heartless and demanding in her treatment of Hagar when Hagar was distressing her. But upon closer observation, we see a woman who was a woman of faith. 08:05 We see something else. Like Abraham, Abraham's faith was growing. Even so, Sarah's faith was growing. Abraham didn't start out as being a stellar example of godly manhood. Neither did Sarah start out as being a stellar example of female femininity. 08:26 But as they came to know God, the living God, with very little role models. Now, we have role models. We have other people who have for hundreds and thousands of years set the example of what biblical masculinity and biblical femininity look like. And yet they didn't have that. 08:46 The only thing they had was the knowledge that great, great, great, great, great grandpa Shem was still living somewhere. Because if you do the math there in the book of Genesis, you find out that when she was born, Shem was still alive. And so there was some example there somewhere. 09:06 But Abraham was being called out of idolatry. And so she was being called out of that idolatry along with him. And so she had a growing faith. And like all biblical characters and not just biblical characters, maybe we should say all humans, we don't start out as mature and well adjusted, do we? 09:25 We start out as immature. And we start out as needing adjustment, spiritual overhaul, first of all. And then even in our sanctification, we need spiritual adjustment in order to become the obvious or the example that we should become. So I want to give you four areas this morning where Sarah trusted God. 09:46 Number one, Sarah trusted God to lead her husband. Sarah trusted God to lead her husband. Now, if you're going to obey Abraham, Sarah, and you're going to call him Lord, you're going to respect him and honor him, there's somewhere along the line you're going to have to trust God to lead him. 10:07 Because not every man well, no man for that matter is perfect all the time. And sometimes where we start out, we make some pretty big mistakes when it comes to our relationship with our wife or our family or our relationship with God. And so she had plenty of opportunity to trust God to lead her husband. 10:28 In chapter 11:31, she literally followed him around Canaan. They started out at Ur of the Chaldees and started out with Terah and Abram and Lot and some of the family, some of the kin folks. And they went from Ur of the Chaldeans to the land of Canaan. 10:49 They came to Haran and dwelt there. And then in chapter 12 hope you have your Scriptures open there and looking. Chapter 12:6, Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem. And in verse 8 and 9, he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel. And he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. 11:10 There he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. And so Abram journeyed going on still toward the south. So this man is a man on the move. And can you imagine, sisters, following your husband every time he's got an inkling to move? And sometimes I think he was following the plan of God. 11:31 And other times, it was probably just time to move. We got to get out of the situation, whether it was a famine or something else. In chapter 12:11, we find her following him to Egypt. And then we have them lying, of course, deceiving Pharaoh, claiming, "This is my sister," instead of, 11:50 "This is my wife." And we'll talk about that a little bit later. And then from Egypt, chapter 13:3, he went on his journey from the south as far as Bethel. So they came back to Bethel where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai. And so then they went from Bethel to Hebron. In chapter 13:18, 12:10 Abram moved his tent and went and dwelled by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord. And then from Hebron, they moved to Gerar. 12:22 In chapter 20:1, again they're trying this trick down in the Philistine territory with Abimelech and claiming again that, "This is my sister." And you know how that turned out. And from Gerar, they went to Beersheba. In chapter 20:19 well, 12:44 there is no verse 19. 12:45 So I've got a wrong reference here. But they went from Gerar to Beersheba. And then in chapter 23, we find out that she went and they went back, ended up in Hebron where she died in Kirjath-Arba. That is Hebron in the land of Canaan. 13:05 So this was a man on the move. And everywhere he went, he took her with him. And that's a good thing. And she was willing to trust God to follow her husband. But more than that, more than that, she embraced the faith of her husband's God. She embraced the faith of her husband's God. 13:26 Now, we don't know how her faith developed. There's not much that's said about her faith. Much is said about Abram's faith and how he became Abraham. And we see Abram building altars. But one thing, we never see her resisting Abram's God. 13:46 We never see her standing aloof from this. We never see her resisting Abram's faith. 13:54 And this was a profound switch from following a God, the gods of the idols of the nations around them, to following an unseen God who spoke in mysterious speaking and didn't fulfill His promises for up to 25 years. 14:11 So never see her ridiculing Abraham or hanging on to the promises that took 25 years to fulfill. And so she can be a lesson to sisters today. Can you trust God to lead your husband? 14:30 Can you trust God to lead your husband? Now, men, if we were preaching to you this morning, we'll just insert this. Can you be trustworthy to lead your wife and your family? And one of the things about being in leadership is you are responsible to lead. 14:47 You're responsible to make the final decision in various areas where there may not be agreement. Sometimes decisions have to be made. And can your wife trust you that you are making the best possible decision unselfishly and following God that you can possibly make? 15:07 And then those under authority have to say, "Okay, I'm going to trust. And even if I can't trust my husband fully, I'm going to trust God to work in and through my husband." Can you do that? Can you do that? That's a good question. Can I really trust His leadership? 15:25 Can I accept God's call upon His life? Now, there are those sisters sometimes who have a call of God. And they are looking for a husband. Or a husband comes their way. And then they're faced with the question. Do I embrace my husband's call of God and move and follow him? 15:46 Or does he embrace my call and follow me? I believe that when a woman gets married to a man, that her call is to follow his call. Amen? Her call is to follow his call. 16:01 If she cannot do that, then she probably shouldn't get married unless there's some way that they can agree that this call is theirs together. But can you trust God's call upon His life? Is He safe? What do I do when I disagree with Him? 16:21 And she ultimately trusted God respecting Him, calling Him Lord or Sir. Now, I'm not suggesting today, ladies, that you call forsake, calling your husband, honey, or whatever you term of endearment and start calling him, 16:40 "Sir." "Yes, sir." "Where's the supper?" "It's coming, sir." No, we're not in the military. But may I suggest to you that that statement there in 1 Peter 3 is the same word that means master. It is the same word that is translated Lord, 17:02 capital L, when it comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have to do something with that. And I think what we have to do at least is honor the husband and his role, even at times when he makes mistakes. I thank the Lord for a wife who has done that. I have made mistakes. 17:22 I have made financial mistakes. Most of the time, those financial mistakes were because I didn't consult her and I didn't hear her wisdom. And I've made other mistakes that I wish I could undo. But I thank the Lord for a wife who has said, "I'm willing to trust God to work through you. 17:41 And I'm willing to come alongside of you and lend my support, my counsel, and then take a step back and let God work in your heart." And that's what has to be done to all of us who are under authority. 17:55 If you have a job, if you're involved in a ministry, there's all kinds of opportunities where we have to take a step back from demanding our own way and trust God that He's going to deal with the one in charge and then take the posture of prayer, 18:16 the posture of prayer. She trusted God to lead her husband. And she followed Him. The second thing, she trusted God with her husband's failures. Now, this is much like the first. She trusted God with her husband's failures. Turn to chapter 12. 18:36 And we'll look at chapter 12 and chapter 20. We know the account. It's fairly easy to understand. Abraham goes to because of the famine in the land, he goes down to Egypt. And the famine was severe in the land. They went down there as Sarai. They had an agreement. 18:55 It sounds like this agreement was early in their marriage that wherever they went, because she was so beautiful. "Indeed, I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance. And therefore, it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say, 'This is his wife.' And they will kill me. But they will let you live. Please say you are my sister, 19:15 that it may be well with you for your sake and that I may live because of you." So it was when Abram came into Egypt that the Egyptians saw the woman that she was very beautiful. The princess of Pharaoh also saw her or the princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house. 19:34 She didn't volunteer to go. She was abducted somehow. This is a terrorizing event. Now, remember what it says about Sarah's faith in 1 Peter chapter 3. "If you are not afraid with any terror." This linked back to here. And she was not afraid with any terror. 19:55 Why? Because she trusted God. And she trusted God with her husband's failures. I mean, Abraham, where are you after all? There's no indication in chapter 12 and no indication in chapter 20 that Abraham even tried to defend her and even tried to get her back. Now, maybe he did. We just don't know about it. 20:14 It's not recorded. But for all practical purposes, had it not been that she trusted God and God came through for her, this story would have had a very different outcome. So Sarah trusted God with her husband's failures. 20:32 He left her vulnerable, did not defend her. But as she was taken away, she was abducted and had no and was terrorized, he failed, it appears. But she still trusted God. Wow. 20:52 How can we do that? How can we do that? This type of a lifestyle, sisters, takes a regenerate, a born-again heart, one who knows God, one who is coming to know God in greater ways and who is trusting God in spite of their husband's failures. What is your response, 21:12 sisters, if your husband leaves you either by default or by carelessness or by no fault of his own, leaves you vulnerable? Men, we need to do what we can to try to provide for our wives financially, even after our death. We should make provisions so that she's taken care of. 21:33 That's easier said than done, especially with uncertain futures. But what about a husband who leaves his wife and dies suddenly and leaves her vulnerable financially? What about a wife whose husband takes unnecessary chances and isn't safe? 21:53 I've done this. I remember God kind of convicted me about something. And I didn't even talk to my wife about it yet. So we can talk about it after lunch or during lunch if you'll feed me anyway when you hear this. But I remember years ago, I had my four children with me. And I had four at the time. And we had a little minivan. 22:13 And we were driving across the western US on our way home from Oregon. And it was snowy. I don't think it was snowing. But there were bad roads. And my wife is sitting on pins and needles. And my children, I think, are sleeping. I don't know what they were doing. But here, 22:32 I'm having a great time just driving through the snow and not oblivious to the fact that, wait a minute, if we got sideways here and ended up down one of these berms, they wouldn't find us till spring. Was it safe? Well, that's an exaggeration. But it was not safe. And I put my children, 22:52 my family in a dangerous situation. Now, it turned out okay. 22:56 But there's times when us as husbands, we can handle this. And our wives feel vulnerable. And so can we take a step back and say, "Honey, I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable or vulnerable in any way. 23:15 And I will lay aside my manly drive for adventure so that I can take care of you and provide for you and protect you"? What does a wife do whose husband leaves her vulnerable sexually? This is a very, very difficult subject we're not going to delve into. 23:35 But can I, can you, will we trust God in the midst of vulnerability and difficult circumstances? The third thing that she did was she trusted God with her infertility. 23:58 She trusted God with her infertility. Now, one of the major points of the whole Sarah narrative is the fact that Sarah was barren. You take that out of the picture and the whole story, it makes no sense whatsoever. Sarah was barren. Saren could not have children. She wanted a child. 24:18 She so wanted a child. 24:20 She was following Abraham's lead in embracing the promise that God had gave to him of a multitude of descendants. Remember that while this was happening, she couldn't have a child. And Abraham's getting these words from God that, "You're going to be the father of multitudes. Look out there and see the sand. 24:40 Your descendants are going to be like the multitudes of sand in number. And look up and see the stars. You're going to have descendants like the stars of the heavens." And Sarah can't even bear a child. And she's embracing this God, this faith. But what does she do with this infertility? Yes, she made mistakes. 25:02 She plotted and conceived the plan of Hagar, which, by the way, 25:07 was not just a thought out of the blue. 25:13 This was established culture in that day that if a woman could not have children for her, especially a husband who was wealthy and well-known and important, she could take her slave girl and give that slave to her husband. And then that baby that was produced from that union would be hers. 25:35 She could take it and claim it. This is not something she just dreamed up out of the blue. But it's still wrong. It was still wrong what she did. And I think she understood as it unfolded that she was wrong, that she should not have done that. She discovered that it wasn't right and then blames Abraham for it. You say, "Where's that?" Verse 5 of chapter 16. 25:57 "Then Sarai said to Abram, 'My wrong be upon you.'" In other words, "You're the reason for my suffering. You're the reason I'm having this harassment. It's your fault." Well, sometimes we have to deal with that, husbands. And what is interesting to me is that in the context of infertility, 26:20 oftentimes there can be blame. "Well, it's your fault because you can't conceive. It's your fault because you can't conceive." And you can't do that. 26:30 You have to come to the place where you say, "We trust God with our children, how many we have, if we have, and how we handle those situations, how we raise them." She did have some discernment. Of course, 26:50 after Hagar got pregnant, and then she began to despise her master, Sarah. And Sarah then treats her really, really roughly. And verse 6, "So Abram said to Sarah, 'Indeed, your maid is in your hand. Do to her as you please.'" And when Sarai dealt harshly with her, she fled from her presence. 27:12 She ran away. She ran away. Got so difficult. And God has something He was trying to teach Hagar too. He said, "Go back home and submit to your master." That was God's message to her. "You have a son. You're going to have a son. I'm going to take care of him. He's going to be a great man. 27:28 But you need to go back and do your part and come under submission." So Sarah didn't get it all right. But she still had this pain of childlessness. Now, as I pondered on this, there are more people that are infertile than just those who are married that can't bear children. 27:50 There are those who are not married and have no husband and are committed to God's boundaries of marriage and sexual purity. They have no children. 28:03 And we come alongside them as well. Not only do they deal with the fact that they have no children, they have no husband. And so these are things that bring pain. 28:17 These are things that a woman oftentimes does not feel fully fulfilled in those situations. Now, some do. Some don't. 28:28 So the question is, can you, sisters, trust God with your childbearing ability or inability? That's just being blunt about it. Just being blunt. 28:45 Studies have shown that infertility can be more painful to many women than divorce. They've done studies with women who have divorced and women who have never been able to have children for various reasons. And the infertility is a greater trauma to many women than divorce, 29:06 similar to the trauma of discovering you have a terminal illness. It's a big deal. It is. And it hurts. 29:20 Then there are those who can become pregnant but miscarry and are unable to carry a baby to term. Our hearts go out to those in this situation because we love life. 29:39 And we want to see godly families raised up that love life and love life for the glory of God. But can we trust God instead of taking measures into our own hands? 29:53 Because we can very soon, in the era of modern medicine, step into areas that are not pleasing to God to try to take control of infertility. So such things as surrogacy, donor banks, frozen embryos, 30:14 in vitro fertilization. A person has to look very, very carefully at these things and say, "Is God pleased with treading into this area? Or should I just simply trust Him?" Difficult things. 30:34 Can we or will we surrender reproduction? We live in an age where there's all kinds of talk about women's reproductive rights, reproductive rights, reproductive rights. I get so tired of hearing that. Anybody's reproductive rights has to be surrendered to God and saying, "God, 30:54 whether I'm married and unmarried, never able to have children, 30:58 or finding children through adoption or through foster care or through mentoring." I know some of the people that have impacted young people's lives in unusual ways have been couples that have never had children. 31:20 I can think of three of them right off the top of my head without even trying. 31:25 And there are more who have said, "We will invest in the lives of young people and in the lives of children." And their children, while they do not have them biologically, through adoption, through fostering, through mentoring, through investing in the lives of children and youth, they have made tremendous impacts on the world around them. 31:47 You see, we must be clear, as Scripture is clear, that God opens and closes the womb in His sovereign will and plan. 31:58 Can we, will we trust God in those areas of life? To trust Him in the pain of life's disappointments. 32:10 And instead of becoming self-focused of what I cannot have, give glory to God by faith to find fulfillment in what I do have in the areas that God has called me to serve and to give my life for others. Number four, she trusted God with her impossibilities. 32:33 By the way, I don't think it's wrong to pray for children. We prayed for children before we had them. Prayed for them when we had them. We prayed for them after we had them. We still pray for them. But it's not wrong to say, "God, would You do a miracle and provide us with a child?" But then in His sovereignty, 32:53 God holds the final answer in His hands. And when we face impossibilities, what do we do with those impossibilities? When God gives a promise like He did to Abraham on a number of occasions, what do we do with that when it looks impossible, when it looks unlikely? When God said to Abraham, 33:14 "You will be the father of many nations. And by the way, it's not going to be through Eleazar. And it's not going to be through Ishmael. It's going to be through a son, through your wife, Sarah." And Abraham laughed at God. I used to think that Sarah was the one that laughed. 33:33 And she did. But Abraham also laughed chapter 18 or chapter 17 when God said, "This heir is going to come through Sarah. And through her, she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples shall be from her." Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said in his heart, 33:53 "Shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? And shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?" I mean, this is unbelievable. But Abraham believed God. Sarah believed God. 34:10 And their laughter of doubt turned into laughter of joy. And Isaac's name means laughter. They had the last laugh. God had the last laugh, actually. And they laughed along with God, not at God, but with God in their joy. 34:32 Her laughter of unease. Now, be patient with Sarah. I mean, she's sitting in the tent. It's inappropriate for her. These three men come, one of them which is the Lord Himself, come and start talking to Abram. Abram tells Sarah, "Make some food for these men. 34:51 Give them something to eat." So she's doing that. And it would be improper for her to be out there with them. So she's staying in the tent. And then one of the men says to Abraham, "About a year from now, I'm coming back. And Sarah's going to have a child." And she's about chokes, chokes on her own laughter. Said, "What in the world? 35:09 That's impossible." Now, we just said and one of the questions I ask as I study this is, I mean, Zechariah in the temple, he doubted God. And he couldn't speak for nine months because he didn't believe God. And other people, when God told them something and they didn't believe it right away, God disciplined them for it. 35:31 And here Sarah is laughing in her heart and then denying it and lying to God. "I didn't laugh." Yes, you did. And yet God has tolerance with her and forbearance. What's going on here? Well, then I thought, Sarah had no role models. Sarah had never seen this happen before. 35:51 I mean, she had no Hannah to look at who prayed and prayed and prayed that God would give her a son. And God gave her a Samuel. That's way down the road. She had no Rebecca who was barren and Rachel who could have no children for a period of time. And they prayed and prayed and prayed. And God opened their room. That's still down the road. 36:11 This is Sarah, the princess, the queen of the faith. She had no Elizabeth carrying John the Baptist as an elderly lady. And there was no Mary showing us the miracles that God can do with the womb that's surrendered to Him. 36:29 But something I believe resonated deep within her. And she responded to that. And she trusted God with her impossibilities. So brothers and sisters, will we trust God? I'm not asking the question this morning, "Can we trust God?" Yes, we can trust God. 36:49 But a bigger question is, will we trust God? Will we trust God with our impossibilities? Will we trust God in His word? Will we trust God when we pray for a miracle that His power is not shortened? 37:05 And He can, if He chooses, do a miracle as a blessing to His children and a glory to His name. Will we trust Him when we ask for healing? When we trust Him with a wayward child, will we trust Him with a financial crisis? Will we trust Him when we need another job, a new job, when things are falling apart all around us? 37:24 Will we continue to trust Him? Pray, yes. Intercede, yes. Ask God for blessing, yes. But at the end of the day, put it in His hands and say, "God, no matter how You answer this prayer, I trust You." And see what God can do. 37:44 See what God did. A miracle, a miracle. Well, can you imagine what it was like for Sarah feeling the first twinges of morning sickness at 90 years old? 38:00 I see some women with interesting facial expressions as that sinks in. 90 years old, never had morning sickness before. Can you think about her wondering what's going to happen to her 90-year-old body as she bears a child? Does it have strength to do it? 38:22 Just this week in the Amish community in west of east of Goshen, there was a mother and a stillborn child that both perished. They gave their lives in this birth process. I don't know details. I just read it in the paper. What happens to a woman's body when she's bearing a child 90 years old? 38:43 This impossibility. But the Bible says in the book of Hebrews that she trusted God. And He gave strength for her body to conceive. He gave her the strength. And He carried her through, lived another 37 years. She bore Isaac when she was 90, lived to be 127, 39:04 and died before he married, died before he had grandchildren. She had grandchildren. And she never lived to see much of what happened with her family that even Abraham got to see. So the question this morning is, will you trust God? Will you trust God as a daughter of Sarah? 39:26 Hey, how about that? Being a daughter of Sarah, that's what the Scripture says in 1 Peter, whose daughters you are. You are Sarah's daughters. Imperfect, yes. Difficult situations, yes. Sometimes unable to have children, yes. 39:45 Sometimes unable to trust their husband the way they'd like to trust them, yes. But can you trust God to work? And ultimately, Sarah becomes the one by whom Messiah comes forth in form. 40:06 The daughters of Sarah produce Christ in their lives. Christ is formed in their lives in some tremendous and impactful ways. 40:15 Can we open our hearts and let Christ be the one who fills our lives so that in a unique way, you as sisters can fulfill the godly role that He has for you to represent Christ to us as men in the unique way that you have been created to do so? 40:37 Let's pray. Lord, we thank You for this day. We thank You, Lord, for this example of Sarah. We're amazed at how You use people with issues. You use people with problems. You use people with impossibilities. You use people with imperfections. 40:58 And yet, 41:02 as we grow in faith, You're able to conform us more and more into the image of Christ, as Paul said, "Until Christ be formed in us." The greatest privilege of all is to have Christ formed in us, 41:22 not just to have a baby formed in the womb of a mother, as wonderful as that is, but to have Jesus Christ and His character and His love and His mercy and His compassion and His Spirit birthed in us to bring forth glory to God. There's no greater joy than that. 41:44 And no one is without that potential as they are filled with the Spirit of Christ in the name of Christ for the glory of Christ. We pray this to this end, Lord, that You would increase our faith in Jesus' name. Amen.