Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the message of Isaiah 54, addressing those who feel spiritually barren and encouraging them to rejoice in God's promises. He explains that spiritual barrenness is a state where one cannot fulfill God's plans through their own efforts, and that true fulfillment comes from waiting on God's timing and methods. Beach draws parallels between the story of Abraham and Sarah, highlighting how their attempts to fulfill God's promise through human means led to frustration, but ultimately, God's plan prevailed when they surrendered to His will. The sermon encourages believers to trust in God's power and timing, rather than relying on their own strength or solutions.

Isaiah chapter 54 Sounds a little bit loud, doesn't it? A PA system when he preaches, right? Well, you're probably right, I don't. I see some smoke, so I know that's what you're thinking. Isaiah chapter 54 We're going to read several verses tonight and our main message tonight is to help you understand that Isaiah chapter 54 is referring to you. You! If! You consider yourself barren and with the help of God's grace tonight and with the help of His Holy Spirit I want to be able for a short time to help you understand what it means to be spiritually barren. Because if you are barren tonight then you have reason to rejoice because according to Isaiah 54 many wonderful things will happen to you. I believe this is going to be pertinent and it's ironic that Betty gave that testimony because you're going to find that the Holy Spirit must have known that you were going to be here and the message He placed upon my heart will really relate to your situation. Really relate to your situation. Not only hers, but all of us. If we were to entitle this message tonight we would entitle it the reward of doing it God's way. The reward of doing it God's way. You might say, doing what God's way? We'll find out. Now, Isaiah chapter 54 opens up with a very interesting statement. See, O barren, thou that didst not bear. Now, right from the beginning this seems to be an unusual statement because you normally wouldn't ask someone who is barren to sin. Is that not true? I mean to be barren in the natural is to be unable to have children. But the Bible says to sin, O barren, thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not prevail with child. Listen, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Now, here's the promise that the Holy Spirit is given to all those who are barren and who have no children. Verse number two. Enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations. Spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left hand and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. It sounds to me like this particular portion of Scripture is predicting that a barren person is suddenly going to break forth. The Bible says very clearly that this person or these people are to enlarge the place of their tent. In other words, they're to begin to expect and they're to begin to prepare themselves for that which humanly was impossible. This is the promise that God has for those who recognize that they are barren which means they are unable to please God, they are unable to grow in God, they're unable to do God's work by their own self-effort, by their own plans, and by their own ideas, but they must wait for God. Now, this particular story or this particular portion of Scripture Isaiah chapter 54, it has two meanings. The first meaning is the literal meaning and it's referring to Sarah, Abraham's wife. Now, Sarah, according to the Bible, was barren. That means she was unable to bring forth children. But that created a problem because in Genesis chapter 12, God promised Abraham a great nation. So, let's put two and two together. How could Abraham have a great nation of people when his wife was barren? Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3. Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 3. Now the Lord hath said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Now here, church, God is telling Abraham that he is going to be the father of a great nation. And here his wife is barren, and she can't have children. God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation knowing that his wife was barren in order to teach him a lesson. And the lesson that Abraham had to learn is the lesson that the church has to learn. Now in Genesis chapter 15, Genesis chapter 15, 1 through 6, Abraham is beginning to experience the frustration and the turmoil of his predicament. What was his predicament? God promised him a great nation, and his wife was barren. Hey God, this is an impossible situation. Hey God, what's going on? Listen to what he says. Genesis 15. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. And Abraham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I grow childless, and the store of my house is this erasure of Damascus? And Abraham said, Behold to me thou hast given no seed, and no one born in my house is my heir. Abraham is crying out to God, and he's explaining to God the predicament that he is in. He's saying, God, you have not fulfilled your promise to me. And the promise that you made to me, it is humanly impossible. Listen, it is humanly impossible. God promised Abraham a nation. His wife was barren. And Abraham was unable by his own power to bring about God's promise. He was stuck. He was in between a rock and a hard place. And in that place, frustration began to develop. Despair began to develop. He began to cry out to God, and he started to look for a way to fulfill God's promise. And I want you to know that every way that Abraham came up with, God rejected it. Oh, it sounded like a good idea. And it sounded like it would work. Abraham said, you know, Lord, I know that you promised me a seed, and it would be by Sarah. But let's face it, God, it's impossible. Have you ever said to God, Lord, I know what you're asking me to do, but it's impossible. So I'm going to find another way. Now, Lord, I'm going to find a way to fulfill what you promised me. So, it's not really that I'm disobeying you. You know, Lord, I know what you've said, but it's impossible to get it the way you're asking me to. So how about this, Lord? Oh, I'm sorry. I guess none of you's ever did that. I'm probably the only one. Okay. This is what Abraham said. Hey, Lord, I'll tell you what. You promised me a great nation. Now, my wife, Abraham, has a servant girl. Norman said, my wife, Sarah. That's right. Now, this is Abraham talking to God. My wife, Sarah, has a servant girl. I think, and of course, Sarah, too, was in despair. And they agreed together. Listen, Abraham, you go and have a relationship with my servant. And what fulfilled God's promise through her? Who was born as a result? Ishmael. And Ishmael then, Abraham raised up Ishmael to God and said, God, fulfill your promise through Ishmael. And God said, forget it. Have you ever lifted up an Ishmael to God and said, Lord, why don't you do it this way and fulfill your promise? Has God asked you to wait for something? If he has, then what are you doing going around looking for it? I don't know what it is. Is it a husband? I don't think anyone here wants a husband. Only Lucy I would do that to because I love her so much. Only Lucy. But Lord, it's impossible to find one the way you told me. I'll find one and I'll present it to you and then you can fulfill your promise through this one. God says, no, I won't. God is not impressed with the Ishmael that you have found. Are you, Nathan? So here Abraham is. God promised him. He's got to put it up straight. Because in that matter, the way God said it is impossible. You should not use her as a burden. A burden. It's a deep state of your heart. And if God asks you to not be a burden, then that's a burden. But don't use her as a burden. Don't use her as a burden. Like I said, Abraham, if she was not used as a burden, she doesn't deserve to be judged. A judge is supposed to be dead. In that, she shouldn't be able to bring that God upon herself. This is a judge's soul. That's what Paul said in Galatians. And Sarah needs to realize that even though she's dead, God will bring her fruit by His power. But today Sarah is so frustrated and she's so upset because she doesn't have any fruit and God's promises don't seem to be coming about. So she's turned to the methods of men. She's turned to the gimmicks of men. She's turned to the things of this world and she has presented them to God. And she says, Look God, by this great music ministry, we can bring people to the church. But God says, I'm not going to use man's methods to bring people to Christ. Then she goes and she lifts up this to God and says, God, look, you promised us this and look it, by using these things, we can get this. By using this, we can get this. And God says, No. No. Your Ishmael will not look. You've got to wait for God. You've got to wait for God's provision. Let's go to Genesis 17. And that Abraham was 90 years old and now, here he is, 99 years old and God still hasn't fulfilled His promise. And Abraham's to the point where now he says, This is crazy. It's not going to work. God said, I am the almighty God. Walk before me and be thou perfect. Going down to verse 3, and Abraham fell on his face. And God talked with him saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Verse 6, And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful and I will make nations out of thee of peace and canality. Now what God is doing here is after Abraham has gone through the frustration, after Abraham goes through the disturbance of being unable to fulfill God's promise that he had once made, and he comes to the place where he basically says, I can't do it. In the place of total hopelessness, in the place of total despair, God comes in and reconfirms His promise. Hasn't God come to you often times when you've lost all hope of God being able to do what He said He was going to do? When you've lost all hope and you're to the place where you've tried to lift up your ishmael and it didn't work, God frustrated it. And then it's during that time that God comes by and says, Remember I promised you and I'm going to do it. See what God is doing? He's bringing us down this road to where we learn to distrust self. We learn to distrust our own ability and we learn to trust God and His timing and His way. Going down, going to chapter 21. We're about to close. Chapter 21. And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said. And the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his own age at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Oh my friend, this is the victory tonight. God will do what He said He'll do, but it will only come by His plan. It will only come His way and it will only come in His time. And God, listen, God will withhold the answer intentionally so that we do the same thing Abraham did. We get full of despair. We become upset. We try and offer up our ishmael. None of it works and we give up. And that's the place where God wants us. Where we give up and recognize that it's only by God and not by our own strength. Zechariah 4, 6. How many know this scripture? I bet you know the song. It's not by power, it's not by might, but by my spirit, sayeth the Lord. I don't know how to sing it, but that's the song. May I ask in closing tonight, do you have a barren womb, spiritually speaking? A barren womb represents a refusal to try to bring about God's promise and God's work in your life by human strength. If you have a barren womb tonight, which you do, if you're a Christian, you're going to find yourself going through the same thing that Abraham went through. You're going to get frustrated. You're going to get mad. You're going to get upset. And you're going to try and bring it about yourself. I don't care what it is, spiritual growth, anything that God has promised you, it can only come about in His time. And we just must learn to trust and obey. And after you go through that despair, and after you go through that time of turmoil, God brings you to the place of surrender where you say, Lord, only you can do it. And God says, That's what I've been waiting to say. Are you ready to go on this spiritual journey? This is the end of this particular message. If you're interested in receiving more messages preached by Pastor Beach, you may write us at HCRC, post office box 697, Hackettstown, New Jersey, 07840. God bless you. Or you may call us for a quicker response at area code 201-852-5065. Thank you, and God bless you.