BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, LESSONS FROM SARAH
Genesis 12:1-5
We are all made in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity
We are all beautiful people. It does not make any difference what your race or nationality is. You are made in God’s image. The problem is our actions does not always live up to God’s image. God transforms us to His beauty.
I want to focus on Sarah, one of God’s beautiful people in the Bible. She was married to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldeans which is modern day Iraq. It was a city that worshiped idol gods. In the midst of it was a wealthy man
Who worshipped the one true living God. His wife was Sarai
A JOURNEY WITH GOD REQUIRES A MOVE
Genesis 12:1
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
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Genesis 12:4-5
4 So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
Seven Points about Sarai
She was beautiful woman
She was the mother of a nation
She was in a marriage partnership with God
She was faithful wife
She was human being with problems
Her unfaithfulness caused the formation of a bad nation
Her name was changed from Sarai to Sarah once her transformation was complete
MARRIAGE PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD
There is nothing in the Bible that says Abram had a relationship with God
Before he was called by God. What we know is he was a descendant of one of Noah’s sons, Shem. Perhaps the story of Noah relationship with God had been engrained from generations to generations to Abram.
The call from God opened Abram’s eyes to a new way of living.
Abram was obedient to God’s call and so was Sarai. A call from God
Separates you from others who have no relationship with Him. Sarai
Was pleased to leave her family and relatives to follow her husband. When God calls you may not know where you are going, but it will be a better place to serve. A partnership with God leads to opportunities beyond your imagination. The partnership with God started in the Garden of Eden with
Adam and continues to day.
SARAI WAS A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN; BY MAN’S STANDARDS
Sarai’s beauty caused Abram to fear other kings as they traveled to
Get to the land God was leading them. Abram believed that when other
Kings saw Sarai’s beauty they would kill him and take his wife. Abram
Convinced Sarai to say she was his sister to save his life.
Genesis 12:11-13
11 As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. 12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. 13 Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”
When they traveled to Egypt because of famine in Canaan the
Pharaoh took Sara to be his wife because of the lie. But God rescued her.
Sarai like us had the spiritual beauty potential given by God who grows us
As our faith matures. We were made imperfect to grow to God’s
Profection.
SARAI WAS PROMISED GREATNESS BY GOD
God promised Abram that He would make him a great nation. The promise was also made to Sarai that she would be the mother of the great nation. Abram was 75 and Sarai was 65 with no children at the time of the promise. We are all born with potential for greatness that happens over time as our faithfulness grows. To become the mother of a nation was a promise of children.
Sometimes what God has promised to us is delayed until we grow mature enough to handle it. We are not born leaders, we grow into leadership positions. God has qualified us. We must grow to the qualification. At the time of the promise, God did not give a year of the birth of a child. They would have to wait to God’s planned timing.
Because God is greater than great we have greatness in our DNA. There is no limit to our growth in the Lord. Our partnership with God entitles us to an unimaginable inheritance.
Each of us is growing a nation through our partnership with God. We impact children and parents that God places in our presence.
SARAI WAS A FAITHFUL WIFE
You and I are the bride of Christ. He is our bridegroom. The moment you accepted Christ as your personal savior, He became your bridegroom forever.
John 3:29
The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.
Sarai followed her husband who was led by the bridegroom. The bridegroom knows the way to your success because He has a timeless
World view and is the only one who knows how you fit into His plan of redemption. While Sarai did not know where she was going, she had confidence in her husband.
When I met my wife she immediately informed me that Jesus was her husband. She shared with me what God had done in her life and her confidence in His provisions. We both share the bridegroom’s vision.
SHARI WAS A HUMAN BEING WITH EVERYDAY PROBLEMS
One thing you and I can’t do is hurry up God’s plan. We cannot improve on God’s plan. We cannot change the timing of events in His plan. Our wealth and status does not influence God. He is no respecter of person.
Genesis 13:1-4
So Abram went up from Egypt to the Negev, with his wife and everything he had, and Lot went with him. 2 Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold. 3 From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier 4 and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the Lord.
Shari lacked faith in God’s timing.
She knew of God’s plan for her to be the mother of a nation. At
Her age, women had growing families. The desire of her heart was
To give Abram a child, it had not been fulfilled. She may have thought
She had run out of time for having a child. She decided to help God
Out
Genesis 16:1-4
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
Shari had a mean streak
Her plan didn’t work out because as soon a Hagar was pregnant she
She despised Shari. Hagar was mistreated by Shari to point she ran
Away.
Shari blamed Abram for the problem she recommended.
Shari showed no compassion for Hagar or the child she was caring
Allowing her to leave without provisions.
Sarai was responsible for Hagar being the mother of a bad son
Genesis 16:11-12
You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery.
12 He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone
and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers.”
Ishmael was the father of the Arabian nation.
Shari’s outside beauty was not reflected in her actions. Under close inspections we all are flawed with imperfections that God tolerated as we
Mature in faith.
FAITH QUALIFIES YOU FOR UNIMAGINABLE BLESSINGS, THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION
Once Abram and Sarai arrived in the the land of Canaan God made a covenant with Abram and Sarai
The marriage partnership with God includes good times and bad times
All designed to develop your faithfulness. For Abram to Abraham 75 to 99
For Sarai to Sarah 65 to 90
Genesis 17:1-2
17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless. 2 I will confirm my covenant between me and you and will greatly increase your numbers.”
Genesis 17:3-7
God said to him, 4 “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. 6 I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants
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Genesis 17:15-16
“As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. 16 I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”
The name Abram means exalted father. The Name Abraham means father of a multitude
The name Sarai means contentious. The name Sarah means princess
From exalted father to father of a multitude
From contentious to princess, mother of nations
SUMMARY
A JOURNEY WITH GOD REQUIRES A MOVE
MARRIAGE IS A PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD
BEAUTIFUL BY GOD’S STANDARDS
PROMISED GREATNESS BY GOD
GOD ALLOW CIRCUMSTANCES TO GROW OUR FAITH
WE ARE ORDINARY HUMAN BEINGS
GOD QUALIFIES YOU FOR GREATNESS
GOD GIVES US A NEW NAME
