In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the story of Abraham and Isaac from Genesis 22. Abraham obediently follows God's command to sacrifice his son Isaac. He takes Isaac and two young men on a three-day journey to the place God had told him. When they arrive, Abraham tells the young men to stay behind while he and Isaac go to worship. The preacher highlights the constant accusations of the devil in heaven, questioning the faithfulness of believers. He emphasizes that despite the struggles and trials, God's faithfulness to Abraham and Sarah should give hope to believers today.

The life of Abraham and Sarah. So turn to Genesis chapter 12 and as we go through this series and just looking at couples and their their marriages, see the great lessons in them. It says, Now the Lord said unto Abram, get out of your country and from your kindred, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great. You shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse those, or curse him who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him and Lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from Haran. Then Abraham took Sarah his wife and Lot his brother's son and all their possessions that they had gathered and the people whom they had acquired in Haran. And they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abraham passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the tenerbeth tree of Mereth. And the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the Lord appeared and Abram said, To your descendants I will give this land. And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. And he moved from there to the mount east of Bethel and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. And so Abram journeyed going on still to the south. And verse 10, there was a famine in the land. But as you look at Abraham and Sarah and study them not so much as individuals that we tend to do, but just to look at their marriage, they're really quite a wonderful study. They're a study in roles in a marriage, the role of a husband, the role of a wife. They're also a role, a great study in just the area of faith. And watching this couple in their lives grow in faith. No one on the world, on the planet, had it like they did at the time. They were quite unique. They didn't have a church they went to, they didn't have a fellowship, they didn't have a body of people that they could go and fellowship and encourage and be built up in. They were starting it all themselves as they went out and built this altar and they journeyed in essentially to start a whole new faith. A whole new way that the world would come to know God. It's quite unique when you look at it in its text. They had some struggles along the way and we'll sure look at them, but they're establishing the roles and God is doing a lot within them. Not only the roles of following him, but also the roles in the marriage. In Genesis 3.16, the Lord said to Eve, you shall desire, pardon me, yet your desire shall be to your husband and he shall rule over you. And they learned this and as Peter tells us in 1st Peter 3, how on Sarah called Abraham Lord, they learned in their relationships and they learned in their roles and they learned in faith. It's interesting as part of the the judgment of sin that happened with Adam and Eve in the garden, that's carried on through history. A lot of people don't like it, but there's two aspects of it. One is is that the the woman has to submit to the man and from which she came and man submits to the earth from which he came. It's like the the the say the elements of which Adam came out of the Lord sent him back to him. He says now you're gonna go out you're gonna work this and till the soil of the land by the sweat of your brow whatever its whim is and whatever it's you know how it goes and if there's famines and if there's struggles and then you'll learn to deal with them and you'll learn to trust me as I work in those things and then he looked at Eve essentially and he says now you young lady where you came from that is for man you'll learn to deal with him and both Abraham and Sarah had to deal with famines. Sarah famines at times in her husband and and Abraham famines at times in the land but they both had to learn there wasn't a higher or or lower role by any means but they were different and and they had to learn but here as you watch this couple they wonderfully learned. Both of them end up in Scripture to be wonderfully commended. The New Testament looks at these two and calls them and of course puts them in in Hebrews and in Romans for their great faith ultimately it remembers them for that they struggled doesn't mention that in the New Testament but they did it mentions it clearly in the Old Testament but at any rate their early married life to begin with it. The story begins in the year of Chaldees and not known to us that way any longer it was essentially part of the Persian Gulf as we know it now in a thriving metropolis that was named after the moon god Ur of which the whole of the nation in the world of course at that time was just all into idol worship making gods fashion them all to their own but there somehow another at that time while Abraham was there at in the city of Ur this huge metropolis at the time Abraham somehow another became repulsed by the idolatry that had been there and come to somehow another doesn't mention the scriptures but got familiar with the one true God who had spoken to him and called him and and called him quite clearly get out of your country from your kindred your father's house all and to a land that I am going to show you and with such a promise like that Abraham took Sarah Sarah I at the time and is aging father Tara and his nephew a lot and what belongings in that they had and they ended up venturing off to a city of Haran moving is obviously always quite difficult and but it was even more intensified with Abraham when he went off because he went off not knowing whether he went as it tells us in Hebrews 11 8 Abraham God spoke to him he says I want you to go and of course he went and says okay family we're going God speaking to me and he's going to show us someplace and says great where well that's we're just supposed to go and we'll know along the way and I can imagine Sarah say no and I think you wives probably understand that feeling though don't you and it's so often when you're you know following your husband you oftentimes have to wonder well I've got a lot more in common with Sarah than I ever thought I've never he doesn't Abraham didn't know where he was going either that's a little comfort and oftentimes you know we look at a husband we fall in love with him we're so excited and and whether thou goest I will go but we fail to ask him do you know where you're going and most of us don't but the but at any rate out they headed and it was probably harder on Sarah than Abraham I would imagine most men at least speaking for myself you give me a bed in the refrigerator and I'm pretty content but women seem to want more you know I mean you don't for some reason a lot of other things and they think about all of the other things that you need to make life work and I'm sure that she had to carry a lot of these things but at the same time she wonderfully went along and there is they they went it's a comes to me in a sense of just what even between the lines I think of both of these people both Abraham and Sarah in the senses this is no not young he was 75 she was 65 when we pick it up but yet young spirited young at heart young and desire about them it's something to where she was no when you look at her you find she's no weaker spineless woman by any means the name Sarah I that she was given by her earthly parents means princess and she was a very beautiful woman it's mentioned twice about her on several occasions that come up and comes up in her life later on it was changed from princesses Sarah I to Sarah which means the mother of a nation or a mother of nations and she's obviously quite intelligent when you go through and pretty incapable and I think when she found herself married to Abraham though one of the things that she seemed to do rather well for the most part was to establish her task in life essentially is one of just wanting to fulfill her husband's purpose in a sense there to look at her life and to say she every time we really follow her in Scripture that she's there in many cases with this phenomenal ability in this phenomenal capacity essentially almost to give her whole identity away that's the way the 20th century would look at her at least the 90s woman oftentimes would tend to look and and judge her to say woman you've made a terrible mistake you're spending your life at this man's side and you might be making a terrible mistake of all the sides to pick to grab him and he doesn't know where he's going oftentimes he doesn't know what he's doing and then some of the things he does do as we'll see are quite disastrous to say the least some of them just downright no courage whatsoever about them but it's something to where she found her niche essentially there I'm called to his side I'm called to encourage and to support and to build him and and that's a unique thing I think always through history but it seems like these two people did know their roles though they struggled with them they seemed to define them and I think that's a secret of a lot of marriages when even though you can make a lot of mistakes in marriages you can let each other down and fail them one of the things that as I look at them in the overall way is that Abraham essentially he's the leader and Sarah is the influencer and I think those are two different roles I don't think and I've mentioned this before because this is my own opinion on it but my observation of great marriages is that when the man knows that he's a leader and he leads and a wife knows she's an influencer and she influences I don't think either role is higher or lower I don't think there's one that's greater or lesser I don't think there's one that's important or unimportant but when they realize that they don't they're not contesting each other you know for roles in life they're blending together and niching together he's leading she's influencing they're working back wonderfully together they're not a threat to one another they complement each other when they see them I think if anything sometimes when you look through scripture and you see the phenomenal influence that women had when they saw that role the power of it the magnificence of it and you see behind many of the great leaders in the scripture you'll see a mother or you'll see a wife whose influence was was stamped so wonderfully upon their life that the man became what he became because of the influence of another and the role I don't know which is the greatest becoming something or being the tool that allowed it to become what it is and it to be the what's molded or fashioned or to have your hands and the influence of fashioning and molding when somebody though just looks and just realizes well God's determined the day of my birth what my role is and therefore I'll do it with all the glory in it and with all my heart in it that's what I see to me somewhat with Abraham and Sarah they seem to understand and so they complimented each other to me quite wonderfully I think when you have somebody that doesn't understand that I look at somebody like a bar or a have been Jezebel they will study them sometime and you look at their marriage they were doomed their roles were all messed up they they had no sense of them they were jealous for each other's roles if they there was havoc in their marriage it could have never succeed at all because of the way that the thing he was even established from the very ground up but well anyway back here to the story here we have is Abraham and Sarah though they head off they've got there for his father Tara with them who was an idol worshiper himself it tells us in Joshua I'll just read it to you 24 and in verse 2 says in Joshua said to all the people that says the Lord God of Israel your fathers including Tara the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor dwelt on the other side of the river and in old times and they served other gods and here we have Abraham as he's heading out he's taking his father with him but his father and idol worshiper not a man of God at all but he they headed for a while and they got to the city of Iran and their dad said I don't want to go any farther this is far enough for me and there they sat for years and Abraham you know torn between going on and honoring his father perhaps and sometimes family relationships have a way of getting in and not always for the best they can slow down some of the will of God but ultimately I don't think they'll destroy it if we learn but at any rate they finally begin on with their journey after Tara died and there they begin to head off it with just the complete freedom of faith God where you want us to go we're now ready to go and something that would seemingly be wonderful now that they're free just to go wherever it is he has to do whatever it is that they want him to do just to serve him however it would be but they didn't realize that along in every marriage and in every home there's a lot of tests there's a lot of problems that will arise and and Abraham and Sarah had to deal with these tests they had to deal with these problems if you run from them you'll be faithless if you try to avoid them you'll be a coward but and spineless and these couples struggled like all couples do with some of them but ultimately they all grew through them and as they head out they get to their first test it tells us in Genesis 12 and verse 10 says that there was a famine in the land and Abraham went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was severe in the land and it came to pass when he was close to entering Egypt that he said to Sarah his wife indeed I know that you are a woman of beautiful countenance therefore it will happen when the Egyptians see you that they will say this is his wife and they'll kill me but they'll let you live please say that you are my sister that it may be well with me for your sake that I may live because of you and so it was when Abraham came to Egypt and Egypt that the Egyptians saw the woman and she was very beautiful and the princes of Pharaoh also saw her and commended her to Pharaoh and the woman was taken to Pharaoh's house and he treated Abraham well for her sake he had sheep and oxen and male donkeys and male and female servants male donkeys and camels but the Lord plagued Pharaoh in his house with great plagues because of Sarah Abraham's wife and Pharaoh called Abraham and said what is this you have done to me why didn't you not tell me that she was your wife why did you not say she is my sister why did you say she's my sister I might have taken her as my wife now therefore here's your wife and take her and go your way so Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him they sent her away and his wife and all that he had but here the first test of their marriage came along and it was a real difficult test not the first one they'd had others I'm sure but here is it now and they're heading off in their life of faith and following God soon after as they arrive into the land that God had pointed out to him there was a famine there in the land and you may wonder what God ever said I know there's a lot of theology today that God will never send you into a famine well Abraham would have a few comments about that I would too he sent me here I don't know where that came from moving on here but and he did but it and it's wonderful because that's where you grow but here is God sent him there into this and it was to test him it was that he could grow but as soon as he got there he decided we got to go down to Egypt and it's just not going to work here and so Abraham he asked Sarah to willingly surrender herself in the most tragic of ways to save essentially his skin he basically looked there and he analyzes they're about to head into town and he realizes and she must have been some woman she's 65 and here is they're coming into town and Abraham looks over and he says to her you know you're such a beautiful woman I know we're gonna get there and Pharaoh's gonna want you and if they know that you're my wife will they kill me because you know to get you but if you just say you're my sister then I'll have preferred status and so we'll be fine if you can imagine this something there for you to imagine listening you know to this I mean here's this man as he's heading off you may wonder this is the man that's listening to God this is the one that God is gonna bless the whole world through him this is the one where all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed and you know the amazing thing is is anytime the God ever chooses a human that's exactly what he does he picks a human he picks somebody anytime he calls anybody into a life of faith into a life of surrender he doesn't pick a finished product he doesn't pick somebody that's got their life together he picks somebody that's rough and rugged and has all sorts of humanness about them all the weaknesses and the failures that we all have so much within us sometimes we rule ourselves out so God wouldn't call me I know what you're supposed to be if you're following him but you might pick up the scriptures and read a little you come to quite a surprising understanding that when God calls somebody he calls what oftentimes we may call some of the raunchiest people for some of the things that they're liable to do but through those things he fashions and he forms some of his most glorious work some of the most wonderful of things and here Abraham he actually turns to his wife and he's asking her to surrender you know that fidelity of their own marriage to save his own skin and and the immorality essentially of his own heart how pathetic it would be and there she went along with it and it's it's always a sad thing when the thing like this happened it happened another time 20 years later same thing they went through the same scenario again another King preferred her when she was 85 I said she must have been she must have been some woman you know on this for a king's when she came into town for her her beauty was definitely a plague and but at any rate or at least it was for Abraham I don't know if it was for her but he couldn't handle it very well but at any rate the thing is though is that their marriage had this this was the issue in which they were to grow I think every marriage so often there'll be things in your marriage that are unique to it there'll be trials and tests to you what your struggle is maybe in your home or in your relation it may be entirely different but it'll be but it'll be the same and it'll be the same in the sense that that in a marriage I'm convinced God he lifts the veil over each other's soul and through time you get to know one another you know the fabric of what you're made up of you God you know all things are open and naked before the eyes of him with whom we have to do in the next level of nakedness is in a marriage in a sense where God exposes one another you know your own nature to one another in the ability of a couple what do you do when when that exposure of another person's soul when their weaknesses when their failings when their shortcomings when their nature is exposed to you maybe others don't see it others don't know it on the outside on the surface there may be a wonderful person but to you it's known but what do you do with it how do you handle it it's going to be the issue that either strengthens the marriage or destroys it they'll usually never remain the same after a thing like this after Abraham said these words to Sarah she was not challenged he was ignorant he was absolutely out to lunch at this time wasn't he but the challenge now was to her it was now God exposed something of him to her and how are you going to handle it it'd be very easy almost at that time to say you know that's fair was a pretty good-looking feral you know I mean be almost pretty sick guys pretty rich you know and it's interesting by the way he he half lied when he asked if you know to be her sister she was his half-sister in Genesis 20 I'll just turn to it if you want to but it tells us in verse where is it verse 11 and in verse 12 he said that he says but indeed she is truly my sister she's the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother and she became my wife when the second time when he lied the the story really comes out clearly she was his half-sister that was not all that uncommon in those days but it's something there to where a half-truth before God is really alive and the whole world even the the the pagan world looked at it Pharaoh looked at it and the other king of Imalac when it happened again they both knew the man was lying to save his skin he was taking a half-truth twisting around to his advantage and he was lying but the thing here is it'd be easy at this time for Sarah maybe look say you know I've been hanging around this guy for 65 years I don't know if he's ever going to get it together you know I mean she grew up with him she grew up all around him and now as she has it fully exposed to see what a human he is what do you know how he can fail her it'd be awful easy to look over and say let's see there's a famine with this guy in more ways than one and the Pharaoh of Egypt to be his wife when he's taken such a liking to me you know I can I don't have to hang around a much longer if I don't want she could just look and say you know he's my half-brother but he's my full husband and if you want to deal with it that's up to you or whatever yeah I'm sure that had to cross her mind unless she was more spiritual than the rest of human beings but it's something there to look there and probably wonder here's if here's Egypt at her feet she's got it all she doesn't have to wait later on for blessings to come into her life and she's there looking at this man and what will I do and there she chose she said I'll stay with him you may wonder she probably who needs this idiot there she had to weigh this out to think he would do this to think you would ask of this but at the same time I'm convinced I really am that I think most marriages have a time like this it may not have anything to do with the same illustration but when the same realization that you are married to a human being with weaknesses frailties things of which can so let you down and if you don't know how to handle it you see from then on the marriage even if you kind of hold it together it won't hold together long but if a person can spiritually rise to the occasion these are the things that make them or break them they'll never usually begin be the same but once they rise to it once they can take it and Sarah she rose in this terrible of occasion and she proved that she was a remarkable woman whether or not she sensed that God was gonna intervene as he did or not but there it was something that she put her life into tremendous jeopardy for this man who was doing a foolish thing it ends up where Abraham there when the Lord plagues him of Pharaoh and then Pharaoh finds a says what in the world's going on this terrible plague in his house he's just doing what an Egyptian Pharaoh would do he wanted her he was taking her and innocent enough as far as he was concerned and there as he's about to to take her you know God intervenes and then he goes is why in the world didn't you tell me she was your sister why'd you tell me she's just when she's your wife and he ends up the world rebukes him and Abraham gets a heavy rebuke from a king and but so often I think that when there's a husband that fails and there's a faithful wife that's there being faithful God oftentimes saves him and he saves her and you'll usually give him a lesson in the process of it and this is vice versa either way I believe whoever it is is the failure it's not important but whoever it is that sees the failure now the balls in your court you see what God's always seen let me tell you when you marry somebody you'll just start seeing what's always been there it doesn't just start it it's been there latent maybe unknown to others only known to the person around them but when there's but when you decide God make me a mate that when my when my mate is exposed to me when they're failings when their weaknesses when their humanness God make me a husband or make me a wife that I'm truly helpmate I'm truly one there to stand with them when they can't even stand alone those are the secrets to me of a great the foundation of a great and of a wonderful marriage and and even though in the thing is it may even happen again as it did with them but even then to be able to grow through it all another test that you find in their marriage as it continues to grow is that there was a great strain in their marriage simply because they didn't have any children God had promised Abraham and Sarah that they would be the father and the mother of a nation that all the nations in the world would be blessed because of them he'd taken him out and he says look at the stars of the sky so shall thy seed be told me to see if you can number the sands of the sea so shall thy descendants be God had come in and promised him all these things but here when the man comes along he's 90 years old I haven't got anything there's not a child in sight and you know and after you know 50 60 70 years of working at this project having children when you don't you kind of easily get down on it I suppose but here at this time it tells us in Genesis 16 it says now Sarah Abrams wife had born him no children and she had an Egyptian maidservant whose name was Hagar so Sarah said to Abraham see now the Lord has restrained me from bearing children please go into my maid perhaps I shall obtain children by her Abraham he did the voice here the thing that happened is that now in their marriage Sarah perhaps maybe feeling guilty maybe feeling inadequate maybe feeling I've let him down it's my fault of course it wasn't was it at all but anybody again one of the things in marriage that is quite common is that oftentimes we feel that we're there's things about us that are restricting and holding back another one we there are subtle ways that that can happen and get into us but here Sarah somehow another she's feeling I don't know what's wrong with me I'm not the woman I'm not the mate I'm not the person that the other one needs this is common it's very common in marriages and in times where you go through and just feel your own inadequacies what the person really needs somehow another you're not but let me tell you every marriage is fashioned that way if you were the one that they needed in the sense of the that you could be all that they needed they'd never need God and God is ultimately though as much as we're helpmates and as much as we're there to help and encourage and bless one another the older one who had who himself is accountable to fulfill all of his plans and his promises in our life it isn't each other it's God and and here though Sarah at one point she feels well it's her fault somehow another so she devises a scheme and she says this Egyptian handmaid I've got Hagar and he says she says take her I have a child with her and I'll take her from mine of course then the the handmaids or the servants they were a little more than chattel they were owned at that time and so this is just take her and have a child with her and you know it's an interesting thing here at this point is that so many sins in our life if you look at the sins in your own heart in your own life you begin to find pretty quickly that so many of our sins they're rooted in previous sins there the person who who is quite innocent when the person who is who is what who is wise to simple who is part of pardon me why is it simple who is who is simple to evil and wise to what is good the person who just decided I just want to be simple minded to what is evil I don't want to know it I want to stay away from the person that is wise to the things that are good is a person who doesn't have a lot of things and struggles within their own heart in their own life but the person who's wise to evil they've got a resource to go back and pull more more evil back into their life again and this is what happened here you see Sarah and Abraham never should have even set eyes on Hagar the sin there that happened in the production of this child was rooted in a previous sin here this unbelief was rooted in a previous unbelief had they never gone down to Egypt had they stayed in the land where they'd called they'd have never had this woman she was given to them back when when they went down every Pharaoh said here you take all the things he'd given a med servants maidservants oxen cattle and sheep is here you just take it all and get it all out of here and so they came back figuring hey we did okay well they didn't what seemed to be okay at a time the devil snuck in something there that would come back to get them later and when somebody learns just I think the phrase is nip it in the bud I think that's a horticle I don't know much about horticulture of plants but one of the thing with a with a plant when it's growing if you get the you know before the flower blossoms before it comes of age and it drops its seed if you nip it quickly before the seeds can go down and all become individual plants it'll come back and produce more if you can nip something snip it off quick when it's there just as a thought or as a temptation deal with it then cut it off and say God I want it out of my life but when somebody lets something blossom in their life let it take its full thing in the process they may finally cut it off but in the process is oftentimes dropped a lot of seeds that later on come back and this is what happened here the now there's Hagar who they never should have seen and they decide well let's have a child it's interesting Abraham and Sarah as great as they were in faith they were they they struggled with patience that's true with most Christians I think Hebrews 612 says it is with faith and patience we inherit the promises of God Abraham was great on faith but they struggled in patience they knew God would come through they knew he would work they knew he would answer but they failed in the area of just letting it be in his timing and all they ended up doing was of course setting the whole process back farther didn't they here it was something that they went on ahead and they had a child they had Ishmael you know who was was born here in chapter 16 but notice and what a trial what a child they had it tells us in verse 11 it says in the age of the Lord said to her behold you're with child and you shall bear a son you shall call his name Ishmael because the Lord has heard your affliction but look at the description you'll be a wild man his hand should be against every man and every man's hand against him and he'll dwell in the presence of all of his brethren oh isn't that a picture of the flesh isn't that the nature of what we produce through our own impatience what we do in our own unbelief what we do with our own when we just step in and we have to take control or we got to do something next thing you know you produce a wild man who dwells right in the midst of his brethren his hand against his every man and every man's hand is against him and what a thing you've got there to deal with well that would that's what they had more so than that it cut off fellowship with God for some time for look at Genesis 16 verse 16 Abraham was 86 years old when Agar bore Ishmael to Abraham doesn't it's just a small comment there but pick it up the next verse in 17 1 and when Abraham was 99 years old the Lord appeared in him the end of chapter 16 he's 86 the beginning of the next chapter is 99 13 years silence 13 years when Abraham and Sarah decide we're going to handle this we're going to fulfill God's promises our own way we think we know how to do it and we've got a way to do it there was 13 years at this man who was a friend of God this man who knew fellowship and communion with God who knew his voice who followed him in a wonderful way but here when he took his life into his hand he wasn't exempt from anything and God let him sit for 13 years until finally and it's always this way isn't it God broke the silence Abraham never not a word there of any communion between the two not anything whatsoever worth recording of any potential conversation any behavior anything in the relationship between these two friends the father of all of the nations in the world are gonna be blessed for 13 years of his life he shut things down it's not uncommon though is it but there God came before him and he challenged him now says in when he was 99 years old the Lord appeared him said I'm the Almighty God you walk before me and you'll be blameless grow up Abraham let's get on with it could going around and struggling with you know with your own unbelief in your own you know struggles in your own way of fulfilling it and of course during those 13 years there was quite a bit of pain that went on between this home here Abraham now he's got both Sarah and and Hagar to deal with and they didn't get along that she's Hagar's proud and there's jealousy in the home and there's division going on it was quite unmanageable and then it end up where Hagar blamed her part of Sarah blamed Abraham for the whole thing she came to him and you know said it's all your fault is what you know in verse 5 of Genesis 16 says then Sarah said to Abraham I wrong be upon you you know I gave my maid your embrace and when she saw that she had conceived I became despised in her eyes the Lord judged between you and me they had more than a little tension in this relationship in this wonderful father and mother of all the world God shows us that you can in the processes of growth you can have some real things there she's looking there and she says I'd like God just to step in and take care of you or me but I think it's you that's what she said you know she says you know that's well that's exactly what you said you know the wrong my wrong be upon you that's a good kind of reverse of the garden there wasn't it and the garden he says the woman now gave us me he sure she now turns and returns the favor and says it's the man that God gave me my wrong is your fault I did it but you did it somehow another that's a we can rationalize that way can't we when we want but anyway the thing is is as you watch these two and and you see the struggles they had they all you know in your verse 6 this is Abraham said to sir deed your main your maid is in your hand do to her as you please and then when sorry Del harshly with her she fled from her presence and here was something to wear here now when Sarah is looking for leadership looking for help wanting somebody in the head office to make a decision she says now you the Lord be between you and me and I need your leadership and I need no it's gonna be says I'll take care of itself she's in you she's in your hand you do what you want to sound like home or somebody else's home that you know maybe but the so often I mean they had the real issues that most homes go through here God as he puts these things in Scripture I think it's something here to watch though at the same time these are two people God loved he loved their marriage he had a plan for it that they himself could you imagine for them in a moment trying to sit come into their home and sit down and visit with them on any spiritual terms hi how you guys doing how's your marriage you know over by who's your handmaid here looks a little heavy oh she's a child who's the father oh how's your fellowship you know I mean I mean you look at this marriage I mean put it in real terms this is what we're talking about but amazingly and God and his mercy you know to me when you look at these two it's something I think by the way that is so refreshing to me in the New Testament the record there says that Abraham staggered not yet the promises of God think about that you know I would think no he didn't stagger he just fell flat on his face you know or something in in one sense you did but but that's what the New Testament says God looks at these two people and he says they staggered not that's his when you would ask the Holy Spirit years later and writing down the record of this couple's life the record of their marriage the record of their home and saying you know and now the New Testament the writers are writing about it and of course it's all written by the Holy Spirit first Peter tells us is there that men wrote as they were inspired to the Spirit and there is a New Testament writers on one hand having you know the Old Testament in their hands and yet is the Holy Spirit is inspiring them to write he says you write down he staggered not at the promises and you got to sit look and say wait a minute wait a minute here staggered not how can I write this I would say they staggered and that would be very nice you know about them but you know the wonderful thing this tells me it's a Bible this is a powerful book and it tells us that God he takes our sin he removes as far as the east is from the West and he says behold I'll remember it no more years later when you would ask God did Abraham and Sarah fail never they staggered not isn't it wonderful it's wonderful because it gives me hope it's wonderful because it gives every marriage hero gives every one of us something to grasp on to that when we could look and maybe we know so much in the Bible says no no man after the flesh but so often we in marriages you want to destroy your marriage just know the facts about each other know the truth about each other but a spiritual you know couple they look there and they're each other's greatest defenders they're one there that they're determined above all else I don't know the facts I know heaven's facts not the earth's facts I don't not interested in them and as the earth gives me a fact I'm going to take it to prayer and find out spiritually what heaven's is to do with it and how it's to be handled there for the glory of God and the edification of my mate who I want to build up and not tear down and if I know them after the flesh and if I record the flesh and I remember the flesh how can we go on how could this couple ever make it how would you counsel this couple when you watch them there if you can if they came in here at about 90 years old Mary arguing fighting Lord be between you and me you know sort of a thing my sin is upon you you know and they're all just handle the kid himself I don't care what you do they handmade and all that yours he'd sit there and realize man how are we gonna help this couple you know realize what you do but the thing is is when two people determine their heart God I want to know my mate after the Spirit after what heaven says then is when we find it you know and there ought to be that a husband looks and as Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that the husband being there the head of the house and there is the priest of the house he's love his wife as Christ of the church and washer and cleanser with the Word of God his whole thing is when he finds something in his mate that isn't becoming you find some weaknesses there is his first in this first task before as anything else to say is I know I'm here to forgive and I know I'm here to cleanse I know I'm here to wash and when people have got that when they've got that in their marriage when they look there and they realize they have married their greatest defender next to their defender in heaven that they are married to their greatest advocate next to their advocate in heaven they're married to their greatest intercessor next to their intercessor in heaven and they're both determined I want to be like the one in heaven you're gonna have marriage oh you still fail oh you still struggle because you're still human and God still dealing and helping us to grow but you got the foundation for a wonderful wonderful thing and they did they still went on with thing and finally in Genesis 17 the Lord comes he tells Abraham you're going to have son he comes and he tells him but then of course Abraham struggling there he tells me says well just take the Ishmael he says what do you mean I'm going to have a son I don't need a son I got one just he asked him take Ishmael just take this product of our flesh our own creation come on we got it was 13 years old we're well into the project here now why don't you just use him but of course God couldn't do that he was a product of expedience he was a product of unbelief he was a product of their own flesh she said no don't need him and essentially what happened is Abraham laughed it says in verse 17 it says of chapter 17 then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and he said in his heart shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old and shall Sarah who is 90 years old billet you know bear a child he just laughs you know the wonderful thing after he rebuked them and they obviously received the rebuke because it rekindled their faith their lives wonderfully and gloriously picked up and then the as you you find out about this couple it's written for us what God had to say about them Romans chapter 4 verse 19 it says and be not weak in faith and pardon me but and not being weak in faith about Abraham he did not consider his own body already dead since he was about a hundred years old in the deadness of Sarah's womb and he did not waver at the promises of God through unbelief but is strengthened in faith giving glory to God and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was able also to perform therefore was accounted in him for righteousness now was not written for his sake alone but it was imputed him but for us it should be imputed to us if we believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead but here is Paul writes he says you know this story about Abraham it's not a unique story it's the story of everyone of God's children he comes to you and I and there's something that he is promised everyone of us I'm convinced of that to you is dead to you is impossible to you it can't happen Abraham isn't unique God's no respecter of persons what do you want to teach him he wants to teach you he wants to teach me and you bring us into a world where it's dead he'll bring us into something where there's a famine he'll bring us into things in our own life our own individual experience or in our home or our family to where beyond it's beyond our ability but when we can sit before God and be as insane as the world would think of Abraham and sit before him and say God I believe you God I want to rest in you and trust in you and see what you can do for your glory this is the wonderful thing these two people against hope the Bible says they hoped against all evidence of it there they sat before God in the end they trusted the same is said of he in Hebrews 11 of Sarah and on how she trusted when she was beyond the age of conceiving on how God would do it for her and their faith was wonderfully rewarded and it tells us there that they called his name laughter that's what Isaac means when they named him you know the hitters he was born the name that came to him and what to call him his laughter it says in chapter 21 verse 6 of Genesis and Sarah said God has made me laugh so that all who hear me will laugh with me she looked back there and she I'm sure in a humble state there was something she laughed but there this laugh of sorrow or laugh of unbelief and now turned into a laugh of rejoicing turned in a laugh of praise a laugh of joy is there she looked and she'd hold this you know child in her arm you just have to laugh sometimes I look at things in my life I look at things around me where God will put you the thing to where you couldn't happen and he says it will and then it does and you just kind of hold on to it and all you can do is just call it laughter just kind of look at it just smiles Lord you've got a wonderful sense of humor you're so good you long after it was humanly possible you came through and you were life wasn't over for him he still had other things as it goes on in the home for time there God allowed that Hagar and Ishmael were there and oh how they irritated you know as it tells us in Galatians on how the child of of unbelief persecuted the child of faith in there there was this agitation went on in this pushing around in this tension the home to finally it tells us in chapter 21 in verse 10 here Sarah comes to Abraham she she'd had enough of it in verse 10 this is therefore she came to Abraham she's cast out this bond woman her son for the son of this bond woman should not be here with my son named namely with Isaac this matter was very displeasing to Abraham's sight because of his son here he's looking there and and now he's kind of in a thing where she comes to him one day and she says throw him out I want the bond woman out of here and I want the child now she says their history they're done well Abraham went to the Lord verse 12 God said to Abraham don't let this be a displeasing your sight because of the lad because of your bond woman whatever Sarah said to you listen to her voice here was something you know he he listened to her once and should have and he didn't want to listen to her another time in area and he listened to her once and shouldn't have when she suggested the start of this thing but this time she came and though angry though probably hostile she was right he went before God and God said listen do what she says I think a lot of marriages I can grow if they listen to each other and find themselves praying through things one more thing before we have community together and perhaps the greatest test of all their life is that one day it tells us in chapter 22 and of this marriage if you can imagine this this couple finally having laughter but in chapter 22 it says now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and he said to him Abraham and he said here I am and he said take now your son your only son Isaac whom you love and go to a land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on the one of the side of the mountains which I shall tell you and here if you can imagine this day to where now God came and he says take now your son your only son well Abraham remember he had another one didn't he not as far as God was concerned not in this case and he looked at him he says take now your son your only son whom thou lovest he says I know how you care for him but I want you to take him offer him as a sacrifice to me and here he asked him essentially what I believe he's doing here of course is he's asking he says Abraham I've given you the greatest promises in the world all everything that God had ever promised Abraham was wrapped up in Isaac was all there all of his future all of his dreams all of his hopes was in this child and here God comes to him one day when this believed he was maybe 17 18 years old and he says I want you to go and offer him as a sacrifice as he's right about the age to where the whole next act of this is going to come on we're soon after he's about to be married and produce and make him a grandfather and begin to catapult this whole plan into existence but here as he comes to him and he says I want you to offer him to me and you know it's something to us I think that this is not uncommon again to marriages that were ultimately God may bless us and give us wonderful things and do many many a wonderful thing to us and he though may come and then the day says I want you to give them to me and here it's interesting Abraham his faith by now it had so matured it had so grown it had become so rich it becomes so deep it becomes so strong that Abraham as the New Testament tells us in Hebrews chapter 11 it says Abraham accounted that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead so he said ok I'll do that you want him I'll give him to you and here is he went off as God was able to raise him up even from the dead from which he also received him in a figurative sense here was something to where God now says Abraham I want you to give me your son well Abraham believed God so much he was willing to let something die knowing that the promises of God are yea and amen ok I'll let him die but God you'll have to raise him from the dead and this is before there's a resurrection known to man the concept wasn't even known but he says I want you to give me all I've given you trust me and may give him back and may not want him in the interesting thing here I don't think I at this point I think it moves into another stage of life that none of us understand fully there was another contemporary of Abraham and another place in the planet at the same time believed by most historians named Job and here this other contemporary well God is dealing here one of the great accusations in heaven is that Satan comes to God and he accuses God and there he says God the only reason he loves you is your blessing only reason he does anything to you at all as you put a hedge around him he just given given and given and given you protect him and you just pour all this in you take that away and you'll curse you to your face God says no but the interesting thing here what's going on in heaven over your life and mine and what the devil is looking at God and saying God you touch their life they'll curse you they'll be bitter at you and they'll be angry at you I'm convinced that the devil who's the accuser of the brethren he's doing this constantly with every one of us where there's some blessing there's some thing that goes on in our life and there is it happens what's going on in heaven behind the scenes where the devil comes he says you just take this away from him you take this away from her you let her see your husband for what he really is she'll turn against him and you you watch it you watch him now in this situation you watch this this is going on constantly in heaven we don't understand it finally and gloriously the book of Revelation tells us one day he'll be thrown into a pit and there'll never be another discussion between heaven and the devil but they're going on now and he's constantly accusing and he's constantly accusing no doubt us to God saying they only love you because you bless them take away or put a trial or ask any other blessing from them and watch them they'll turn on you as quick as anything you saw you just dry up his business you take away this thing and you watch him he'll be wondering if you loved him if you care if you're ever real you watch them in their marriage you watch their kid you do this you do that you let some health go wrong you do something there and you see well here God came to Abraham he says to Abraham I want you to take Isaac give him to me what a thought what a thought but Abraham verse 3 rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son and he split the wood for the burnt offering he rose and he went to a place of which God had called told him on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and he saw the place afar off you know this is there's only one story in all of history that all out shines this one and that is when the great father in heaven took his son on a three-day journey and only he didn't get his back like Abraham did but Abraham said to the young man he said stay here with the donkey the lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you and you know one of the thing that's so beautiful about Hebrew it's much like Spanish in the sense that the verbs are all conjugated everything in it it's all broken down when it just says a word in here it's not clear to us but in you like when you're going in English in Spanish the word is ear but any conjugates I'm trying to remember now it's a long time boy boss of almost fun vice fun but somebody's always going anytime you conjugate a word I'm going we're going they are going it's always not just go it's it's always conjugated in the in the tense as to who's going or how many are going and here the Hebrews the same way and what is said here literally as he says Abraham tells his men stay here with the donkey the lad and I we will go yonder we will worship and we will come back to you and here it's something there to raise looking there and he now though when he took him and knew he was going up there and as he bound him and as he brought up that knife and was about to come down can imagine faith like this that here he is you know just about to do it as he's about to come down upon him verse 10 Abraham stretched out his hand he took the knife to slay his son but the angel Lord called him from heaven and said Abraham Abraham and he said here I am and he said do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son your only son from me you know the interesting thing to me for God to look at a human being and saying now I know now I know you know I think we sing and God loves the songs of his children we worship him we tell him wonderful things and we ought to we tell him how we love him we tell him how we trust him we tell him all that he means to us all through our life but I don't know that how much he knows until the day comes that he looks and he says now I want you to offer that prayer that you sung that song you've sung that trust that you have I want you to do it you do yes I want you to give me all I've given you will you give it up for me and me alone could you go back to it's just you and me or is it my promises have now become more important than me am I enough the wonderful thing is is that Abraham had so grown it's this it had so matured in his life a long long way away is some you know we read this book but we don't realize that we've just read through 50 years of a life when he started off and he went down from his first tragic experience in in in Egypt about 50 years have gone by and now for this man to take and say God is yours you made the promises you'll have to raise him from the dead I trust you that's there's there's a couple and of course Sarah no doubt as she's there staying back it probably was harder for her than even the goal for her faith there to wait for Abraham to come home and would Isaac be with him and of course now they really had a son didn't they I don't think you ever have anything in this life till you've given it up I don't think you ever own anything in this life till you don't have to own it it owns you until you can look out there and lay it down and say they're yours fortunately God doesn't ask these things of us yet but the day will come he will every one of his children one day he'll ask for your mate he'll ask for your children he'll ask for your business he'll ask for all that it is that's the schedule you're on if you're a child of God and when we can turn and say yours scary thought isn't it but let me tell you to be able to say it is the most wonderful of all to be able to surrender it to be able to offer it up because then when it's honestly his is when now it's really ours and his and heavens and his work isn't done but that's growth that's what it is when you look at this couple they started off he'd look at them in the early years and said this these are my grandparents you know these are the these are the parents of all of the household of faith and the wonderful thing is is God says yes yes they are they ought to give you great hope they ought to give you great hope you know all the struggles and all the things that we may have where God looks at us and says don't worry look what I did for your relatives whom I built your whole life on let me do it with you let me do it in your marriage trust me now let's pray father how we thank you dear Lord for your wonderful word thank you for the things Lord that you are bound and determined to teach us the things Lord that you have and plan and store for our lives forgive us Lord we settle for so little we have most of our aspirations right here on this planet in this life we would be happy with such a weak marriage in such weak faith but Lord you challenge us you say oh no you won't I can make you so much happier may have to give you trials to have that happiness take root to have your love become strong may have to test it in some of the most painful of ways but I believe you can rise I believe something can emerge as you determine God make me a lover and an intercessor and an advocate make me one who covers my mate not exposes them but Lord did I find that it could go deep and strong I asked Lord you'll bless each life here maybe there's some not married and you spoke to them a word of what you have for them they're laughing maybe there's some that we in many of our areas of our life there's something out there that you would tell us that we'd laugh forgive us but Lord when it comes may we call it Isaac and may we just smile at heaven Lord you've outdone yourself but Lord with all of us may we grow may we be ones that one day we can look at all that you've given to us and be able to offer it up to you say Lord is precious as they all are and they're all worth it all the things in the world to me Lord they're yours I love you more and Lord I give them to you knowing that as I do only then will they really live it all anyway Lord teach us an abiding faith in love we ask it in Jesus name