New Series April 17, 2016

We all make mistakes. Failure is not the end.

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No two human beings are exactly alike. Each of us has a unique personality, background, life experience, and even DNA. But we all share something in common: we’ve all made mistakes. We’ve all failed. 

Whether it’s a speeding ticket, a bad business decision, or a failed marriage, we all know the pain of regrets and hurts. We often struggle with the consequences of our actions, feeling burned and abandoned in a pile of ashes after everything went up in flames. 

Yet, in these broken moments, Jesus comes to us with tenderness and grace, offering to do something beautiful in us and through us—for His glory and the good of others. Christ extends forgiveness for our sins. He offers mercy in the midst of our mess. 

Jesus has come to give us “a crown of beauty instead of ashes” (Isa. 61:3). This study looks at the lives of six people from Scripture whose actions were wrong—people who failed unquestionably. Yet in spite of their failures, each one experienced God’s redemption.

They received a crown of beauty instead of ashes. And so can we.

REDEEMING YOUR BROKEN MOMENTS

Session 1 Redeemed from Poor Choices
Genesis15:1-6;16:1-5;17:18-19

Session 2 Redeemed from Broken Relationships
Genesis 27:41; 33:1-11

Session 3 Redeemed from a Critical Spirit
Numbers 12:1-11,13-15

 
Session 4 Redeemed from Crippling Doubt
Luke 1:11-20,63-65

Session 5 Redeemed from Devastating Failure
Luke 22:54-62; Acts 4:8-13

 
Session 6 Redeemed from an Unbelieving Past
Acts 26:9-20 

 


THE BIBLE MEETS LIFE

I hate waiting. Right up there with spiders, clowns, and cilantro, few things cause me more anxiety and discomfort than waiting to see if someone will come through on a promise. 

I’m not alone. Many of us don’t like to wait. And many of us have learned the hard way what happens when we rush ahead and don’t wait. 

Two friends of mine had an opportunity to purchase a piece of property that could have been a great financial investment. If they waited for the property to go into foreclosure, they could have bought it far below market value, held it for a year or two, and then sold it for a huge profit. But because they hated to wait, they purchased the property at its full appraisal price. Six months later, the stock market crash of 2008 sucker-punched my friends, and the value of their purchase plummeted. Because they rushed ahead, they were the ones who eventually lost the property to foreclosure. 

There is value in waiting—especially when you’re waiting on God. 

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

 Genesis 15:1-6; 16:1-5; 17:18-19

 

15:1After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great.”
 

2But Abram said, “Lord God, what can You give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?”
 

3Abram continued, “Look, You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.”
 

4Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.”
 

5He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.”
 

6Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. 

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16:1Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar.
 

2Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.” And Abram agreed to what Sarai said.
 

3So Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife for him. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan 10 years.
 

4He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she realized that she was pregnant, she treated her mistress with contempt.
 

5Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave in your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you.”

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17:18So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael were acceptable to You!”
 

19But God said, “No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his future offspring.“

Credited (15:6)—The Hebrew word translated credited means “to reckon” or “to count.” In God’s estimation, Abram’s faith had the value of righteousness—right standing with Him. 

Through her (16:2)—According to the custom of the time, Sarai could adopt a son born of Abram’s union with Hagar, and that son would become the family’s heir, replacing Eliezer. 

Covenant (17:19)—The Hebrew term means “treaty,” “alliance,” or “agreement.” Parity covenants were made between equals; others, called suzerainty covenants, were made by a superior with binding obligations placed on an inferior party.

 
Genesis 15:1-6
We’ve all made poor choices. Whether it’s something huge, like losing millions of dollars on a hasty property purchase, or something more minor, like sending a hasty email when you were frustrated—none of us is immune to this experience. Not even the great men and women of the Bible.

Consider Abram, for example. Abram was hand-picked by God to be the father of the Jewish nation. We first meet Abram in Genesis 11:26-31, living in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans (an area in modern day Iraq). God chose Abram, who would later become Abraham, to build a nation through which the world would be introduced to God through His Son, Jesus Christ. 

God promised Abram He would give him a son, and through his bloodline all the nations on earth would be blessed (see Gen. 12:3). His descendants would be greater than the stars in the sky (see 15:4-5). This promise did not come without challenges, however. Sarai, Abram’s wife, was unable to have children. Worse, at the time God promised to make a great nation of Abram, she was 65 years old. Abram was 75. 

In spite of how impossible this seemed, “Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness” (v. 6). It was Abram’s faith that God recognized. 

God still speaks to us—through His Word, through His Spirit, and through other believers. He still challenges us to step out in faith in order to go places and do things we’ve never done before. And He still doesn’t always give us the entire picture; He expects us to trust Him, as Abram did (see Heb. 11:1-3). It’s our faith that pleases God. 

Even when we don’t know what He’s doing, we must remember God has a plan. Disaster strikes when we reject that plan and take matters into our own hands—when we think we can help God with His plan. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Abram tried to do.

What expectations do we typically have when we take steps to follow God’s leading?

Genesis 16:1-5

It’s easy to take the first steps of faith, but it can become more difficult as time passes and it seems like God isn’t coming through. 

The period between the promise and the fulfillment is where Sarai grew anxious. She likely stared down at her body every day with awareness of her ever-increasing age. She began second guessing God—and she devised a plan. Notice her words: “Sarai said to Abram, ‘Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family’” (v. 2). Sarai went so far as to blame God for her inability to have a child.

In the ancient world, anything belonging to a slave—including a child—could be considered a possession of the master. Therefore, Hagar’s child could technically be viewed as the child of Sarai.

Abram slept with the maidservant, and she conceived. But immediately the scheme began falling apart. Animosity grew between the two women, and then Sarai became upset with Abram. Earlier, Sarai had given Hagar to Abram “as a wife for him” (v. 3). Now, Abram relinquished any rights and restored Hagar to her former role under Sarai. As Sarai’s possession once again, Sarai could “do whatever you want with her” (v. 6).

Before we judge any of these people too harshly, let’s consider their situation more closely. Abram believed in God, but he had no Bible to consult about God’s character. Abram and Sarai had no community of faith, church, or small group to pray with them or encourage them. All they had was a promise, and it didn’t seem to be materializing—even “after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan 10 years” (v. 3). That’s a long time to wait for a promise to come true!

Still, instead of scheming, it’s far better to let God be God. None of us is big enough, smart enough, or strong enough to do His job.

How have you experienced spiritual growth during a time of waiting?

What does this passage reveal to you about
the heart of God?

Genesis 17:18-19


God tells us all we need to know—when the time is right and when we are ready.

• Abram and Sarai couldn’t see God’s big plan to create a nation, but God saw it.
• Abram and Sarai couldn’t open a barren womb, but God could. 

When they had unsuccessfully tried things their own way, Abram and Sarai refocused their attention on God and His plan. Neither His promise nor His character had changed. He intended all along to deliver on His word, and indeed He did.

Sadly, it often takes the pain and frustration of our own failures to point us back to God. We have to come to the end of ourselves and exhaust our limited resources before we can really surrender control to Him. It’s only after we’ve made a series of poor choices that we yield ourselves fully into His hands.

God renewed His promise to Abram and Sarai. In His timing, He gave them a son—when they were, respectively, 100 and 90 years old (see 21:1-3)! From that child came the nation of Israel. And, ultimately, through the nation of Israel another baby was born. That child was also born to a woman who wondered how she could have a baby, because she had never slept with a man. God’s plan was still unfolding, and His Son Jesus was born to the virgin named Mary. 

God’s ways are never predictable, but they are always reliable. So trust Him. And wait.

 

How can you develop deeper trust in God’s timing and
God’s plans?

LIVE IT OUT

How will you focus your energies on God’s plans this week, rather than your own? Consider the following options:

• Confess. Talk to God about your sins—especially the ways you have abandoned His plans in favor of your own. Confess these to God and ask for His forgiveness.

• Pray constantly. To the best of your ability, spend a quick moment in prayer before you make any decisions this week. Ask for God’s guidance each time you make a choice, and recommit yourself to following His plan.

• Let go. Identify an area of life in which you have been following your own plan rather than God’s—anything from your entertainment choices to your career. Take whatever steps are necessary to let go of that path and return to where God wants you to be. 

You may never become fond of waiting, and that’s OK. You may never become fond of not knowing the end of God’s plans, and that’s OK, as well. All that’s required is for you to trust that He is God and, therefore, His plans are better than your own.

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Our Lesson Today: 

REDEEMED FROM POOR CHOICES 

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When was the last time you leaped before you looked?

• Barney jumps the gun and buys his first car without really checking it out first. Sometimes we too jump the gun and do things believing we are doing the right thing, but later discover it was a mistake. However, as we will see in today’s lesson, God is bigger than our mistakes and He can and will work in us and through us.

Lesson Point: God’s plans are always better than our own.



The story: Abram and Sarai make some poor choices while waiting on God’s promise. Why did they make poor choices? What should they have done?

I. Trust What God Tells You – Genesis 15:1-6

15:1After these events, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield; your reward will be very great.” 2But Abram said, “Lord God, what can You give me, since I am childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3Abram continued, “Look, You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.” 4Now the word of the Lord came to him: “This one will not be your heir; instead, one who comes from your own body will be your heir.” 5He took him outside and said, “Look at the sky and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” Then He said to him, “Your offspring will be that numerous.” 6Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.


This encounter between God and Abram in chapter 15 is connected to the events of chapter 14 by the phrase, “After these events.”

• Abram refused to take the spoils of victory as the king of Sodom suggested (14:21).
• Abram affirmed that he was placing his future prosperity in the hands of God (vv. 22-24).

Why would Abram be afraid?

• Perhaps he feared revenge from the kings he had just defeated.

God gave Abram two good reasons not to be afraid, what were they?

1. I am your shield. He promised to defend and protect Abram.
2. I am … your reward. When you fear what lies ahead, remember that God will stay with you through difficult times and that He has promised you great blessings.

Why was Abram still troubled?

• What good are all these possessions if I have no heir to receive them? What’s the future of all this if there is no one to carry it forward?

What was Abram’s plan to assure he had an heir? Was he wrong to consider this?

• In absence of a son as heir, Abram either had or would have to resort to naming a favorite or trusted servant as heir, a practice common in that time for those without natural heirs.
• Abram made it clear that his childlessness was not his fault; it was God’s doing. “Look, You have given me no offspring, so a slave born in my house will be my heir.”

How did God reaffirm His promise?

• Just when Abram was despairing of ever having an heir, God promised descendants too numerous to imagine. God’s blessings are beyond our imaginations! “Look at the sky and count the stars the Lord always does more than we expect. He who put the multitude of stars in place had the power to overcome the barrenness that Abram and Sarai faced.
• In our times of doubt, the Lord gives us assurance of His presence and promises.

How did Abram respond?

• Abram believed the Lord, (trusted, had confidence in)
• The Lord may not provide all the details we desire, but we still can trust what He makes known.
• Those who believe in the Lord are in right standing with Him.
• God still speaks to us—through His Word, through His Spirit, and through other believers. He still challenges us to step out in faith in order to go places and do things we’ve never done before. And He still doesn’t always give us the entire picture; He expects us to trust Him, as Abram did (see Heb. 11:1-3). It’s our faith that pleases God.

Main point: Even when we don’t know what He’s doing, we must remember God has a plan.

• Disaster strikes when we reject that plan and take matters into our own hands—when we think we can help God with His plan.

II. Don’t Take Matters into Your Own Hands – Genesis 16:1-5

16:1Abram’s wife Sarai had not borne any children for him, but she owned an Egyptian slave named Hagar. 2Sarai said to Abram, “Since the Lord has prevented me from bearing children, go to my slave; perhaps through her I can build a family.” And Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3So Abram’s wife Sarai took Hagar, her Egyptian slave, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife for him. This happened after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan 10 years. 4He slept with Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she realized that she was pregnant, she treated her mistress with contempt. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for my suffering! I put my slave in your arms, and ever since she saw that she was pregnant, she has treated me with contempt. May the Lord judge between me and you.”


Why was Sarah’s idea to give Hagar to Abraham wrong when it was acceptable according to the custom of that time?

What do you learn about Sarah from this passage?

How did Abraham respond to Sarah each time she “confronted” him (vv. 2-6)?


What was the result of their decision to take things into their own hands and what can we learn from this?


Main point: We need to keep on trusting God that His timing is right. 

 

III. Refocus on God’s Plan – Genesis 17:18-19

17:18So Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael were acceptable to You!” 19But God said, “No. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will name him Isaac. I will confirm My covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his future offspring.“


God appeared again to Abram when he was 99 years old to remind him of the covenant he had made, and he changed their names to Abraham and Sarah.

• Abraham – Father of many
• Sarah – The Mother of nations

What is Abraham’s response when God tells him “I will give you a son by her” (v. 16)?

• Abraham fell facedown and laughed.

What does his response indicate about his faith?

• How could Abraham doubt God? It seemed incredible that he and Sarah in their advanced years could have a child. Abraham, the man God considered righteous because of his faith, had trouble believing God’s promise to him. Despite his doubts, he followed God’s commands (17:22-27). Even people of great faith may have doubts. When God seems to want the impossible and you begin to doubt His leading, be like Abraham. Focus on God’s commitment to fulfill His promises to you, and then continue to obey.

It is helpful to look at a timeline of the events in Abraham’s life to understand why he might have had trouble waiting on God to fulfill His promises. Trace the timeline through the key events from these passages.

• Age of Abraham when God called him: Genesis 12:4 - 75
• Age of Abraham when Sarah gave Hagar to him as his wife: Genesis 16:3 - 85
• Age of Abraham when Hagar bore Ishmael to him: Genesis 16:16 - 86
• Age of Abraham when God revisited him, changed his name, and established the covenant of circumcision: Genesis 17:1–14 - 99
• Age of Abraham when Isaac was born to him: Genesis 21:5 - 100
• How many years did Abraham and Sarah wait for the arrival of their promised heir, Isaac?  - 25

 
How can we develop deeper trust in God’s timing and God’s plans?

• Confess. Talk to God about your sins—especially the ways you have abandoned His plans in favor of your own. Confess these to God and ask for His forgiveness.

•  Pray constantly. To the best of your ability, spend a quick moment in prayer before you make any decisions this week. Ask for God’s guidance each time you make a choice, and recommit yourself to following His plan.

• Let go. Identify an area of life in which you have been following your own plan rather than God’s—anything from your entertainment choices to your career. Take whatever steps are necessary to let go of that path and return to where God wants you to be.

 

You may never become fond of waiting, and that’s OK. You may never become fond of not knowing the end of God’s plans, and that’s OK, as well. All that’s required is for you to trust that He is God and, therefore, His plans are better than your own.



Main point: How long we wait on God is directly proportional to how much we trust Him.


It’s the impossible situations in life that cause us to exercise our faith.


If God's making you wait there is good reason for it!

• If He is telling you "NO" today, maybe it's because He has a better "YES" waiting for you tomorrow.

• Maybe there's nothing physically happening that your eyes can see, but there's definitely something happening spiritually that God can see. 

Conclusion: Like Sarah in the Bible, most of us are waiting for something and we are neither hopeless nor helpless while we wait. But it doesn’t often feel that way in the waiting. Nobody drifts to the top of a mountain; it takes planning, discipline and effort to climb. There is much to be done in concert with God and others while we wait for our dreams and more importantly, God’s design for us. Sarah’s dream came true and she spent 37 years with her own, birthed son, Isaac. (She lived to 127.)



Looking at the lives of Abraham and Sarah causes me to search my own heart.

• How will I respond when God calls me to step out in faith and follow Him?

• Can I wait on God’s timing in my life? 

• Am I able to trust Him for the impossible?

Prayer of Commitment

Lord, forgive me for those times I try to “help You out” by taking matters into my own hands. I trust You and know that Your promises are sure and will be fulfilled when You are ready. Amen



Hope to see you on Sunday!



In His Love,


David & Susan