I invite you to open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 21. Genesis chapter 21, verses 1 through 8. Genesis 21, 1 through 8, as we continue our sermon series in the book of Genesis. Waiting is an interesting thing, isn't it? Even that few moments there starts to feel a little awkward. What do we do with waiting? Hopefully you've picked up on the waiting theme in this service already, and certainly it is a part of our text this morning. Waiting can be a source of minor irritation. Why won't this web page load? I need to upgrade to 5G service. Waiting can bring out the, how shall we say it, the less sanctified parts of our person. Hey, buddy, the accelerator's the pedal on the right. Waiting can be a time of anxiety. Why aren't they taking off? What's wrong with the plane that we're still sitting here on the ground? Waiting can produce in us all sorts of responses. And waiting can erode relationships. I don't know if he's ever going to understand me. We have all sorts of responses to waiting. And yet, for all of those negative responses to waiting, we recognize that there are times when waiting actually builds anticipation and a positive response. 20, 30, 40 minutes of anticipation, we don't call it waiting. 20 to 30, 40 minutes of anticipation gets the crowd even more fired up before the band comes out on stage and plays. And, well, you know, honeymoons are all the better for having waited. There are times when waiting actually produces in us a better response. And of course, as you've just heard, the announcement of our first grandchild on the way, well, that nine months of waiting, what mother does not do that with anticipation and excitement? And I can attest to you that grandmothers have the same anticipation and excitement during the waiting process. It's all the more joyous on the day the baby is born, in part because of the waiting process. Here I am, ironically, waiting for my tablet to change pages. Read with me now in Genesis, Chapter 21, as we consider the conclusion of a long wait. Hear the Word of God, the inerrant, authoritative Word of Almighty God. Genesis, Chapter 21, beginning in verse 1, going through verse 8. And Yahweh visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time of which God had spoken to him." At this point, that would be about a year earlier that God had made this specific promise that's being referenced here. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. You'll note in the history of the patriarchs, Abraham and Jacob both have their names changed by God. Isaac does not have his name changed because his name was given to him initially by God back in chapter 17. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old as God had commanded him. Abraham was 100 years old when his son Isaac was born to him. And Sarah said, God has made laughter for me. Everyone who hears will laugh over me. It is lost in our English translations, but there is a tremendous amount of wordplay in this text. For recall that the name Isaac means laughter. So you could say that Sarah had said here, God has made Isaac for me, laughter for me. Everyone who hears will Isaac over me. So we have the name of Isaac and the laughter. There's a tremendous amount of wordplay. It's meant to draw it all together in a literary way, that the joy she's having is because of the birth of her son. She said Sarah said who would have said to Abraham that Sarah Would nurse children yet. I have born him a son in his old age And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. That would just remind us, as I often do, as helpful as these subheadings can be in our Bible, they're not inspired by God, but are the translator's notes about where the text breaks. And I don't disagree that verse 8 really does begin the next section, and we will read it again next week. But I think the celebratory nature of verse 8 also means it is a part of the celebration of these opening verses. And I think it should be seen as a transitional verse. And so we have there Abraham's excitement. We have heard Sarah's excitement. And here we see Abraham's joy at the growth of this child, Isaac, and him being weaned. Let's pray and ask the Holy Spirit's guidance as we consider this text. Spirit of God, you have ordained this text You ordained these events. You brought about what happened and did so for Your purposes. And You have recorded here a history of these things for Your purposes. Specifically for Your purposes among Your people throughout the ages. That we would understand Your control and that we would learn to wait for You. That we would be a people who wait upon the Lord. who are patient and faithful as we wait. Let us see that this morning and be encouraged in that today. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. We have all heard the expression, too little, too late. Too little, too late. It describes an effort made to avert something bad, but an effort that came with not enough effort, too little, or came at such a point in time that it really could not head things off, too late. So, as a former teacher, I will tell you I can testify to the fact many a student, I'm sure none of you have ever done this, but many a student will begin to study for their fourth period algebra test in my third period chemistry class. That's too little, too late. Many relationships, business relationships, go south because of the too little, too late principle. When that vendor does not deliver upon their promises, when they try, when you decide you're going to go find another supplier for the things that your business needs, and they say, oh, no, no, we'll get it for you. Give us just one more chance. And you say to them, it's too little, too late. And relationships, how many personal relationships fail for this same reason? when the husband who has not honored his wedding vows is finally served with those painful divorce papers. And he says, oh, I really mean it this time. Give me one more chance. I'll change. And she says, it's too little, too late. What constitutes too little, too late? Where is it that in that passage of time, that moment of no return, sorry we've gone too long, it's too late. How little is too little? Those really are the questions that are before us in this text here today. We really are confronted with a question of what is too little and too late with regard to God. I made reference to a group of fans waiting for a band to go on stage for a concert. They'll wait for a while, that 20, that 30, that 40 minutes. But you push it much beyond that, and it begins to have the opposite effect. They're no longer excited to see them come on stage, but rather they become frustrated and upset with the band. So what is too little, too late? Well, as we consider that, as we look at this passage, I want us to recognize the two different things that are going on here. I've summed them up this way. One, the wait is done. The wait is done. Isaac has come. The wait is done. And secondly, the wait has just begun. The wait is done, and the wait has just begun. Those really are the two points that I want to bring out of this passage as we consider that question of what is too little, too late, and how do we judge God in light of the waiting that is required. The wait is done, and the wait has just begun. So the wait is done. The human focus of the text, to be sure, you'll notice, is on Sarah. It's very interesting, and in fact, much of the last chapter was focused on Sarah. And this chapter is the same. She's the human center of activity. She's the only speaker in this text. She's the only one who has any dialogue. And all the attention is focused on her. Why? Because in many ways, she's the one who's been waiting, and waiting, and waiting. And it's not just the nine months of this pregnancy. We have to remind ourselves of how long Sarah has been waiting. You see, the divine appearance, the one that said, hey, the boy will be named Isaac, and your child will be a son, that happened a year ago. So it's at least 12 months that she's been waiting. But the reality is that this God, Yahweh, the Lord, all caps in your English Bibles, This God actually came to them first 25 years ago and began to make these promises. Now at this point in the text, Sarah is 90 years old. So backwards, go back, I can do this math in my head, she was 65, give or take a birthday here or there, but roughly 65 when this God first appeared to them. and said, I will give you a child. And initially, he said it in ways that had to be assumed. He came to them and said, I will give Abraham an heir, a legal offspring. And that legal offspring would necessarily have to come through his legal wife. So the implication is that it would come through Sarah. And along the way, we have seen that reinforced. Abraham, trying to settle things. Well, I don't have an heir. I don't have a child. God has told me to pick up and leave my homeland. He's told me to leave my whole family behind. But I'm going to take Lot, nephew Lot, with me. And he's going to be my legal heir. He's lost his father. He's an orphan. I'll adopt him. He'll be my heir. God says no to that. Abraham wasn't willing to wait. Sarah is still over here waiting. Well, that's not the child. I'm supposed to have a child. And we see the whole attempt with Eleazar of Damascus. Abraham says, well, he's going to be the heir of my household. And God says, no to that. Abraham, again, wasn't willing to wait. Sarah is still over here waiting. Finally, Sarah gets impatient with the waiting. and she decides to come up with a plan. She says, here, take Hagar, my servant, and have a child with her. She'll act as a surrogate mother. The baby will legally be mine. And therefore, we will have a legal heir. And I will have a child. And God says no to that as well. And so the waiting continues. But we have to recognize that the waiting is more than even that. It's not just the nine months of her pregnancy. It's not just the one year since the time of the specificity of the promise, named the child Isaac. It's not the 25 years from the first time Yahweh entered her life. So what is the very first thing we hear about Sarah? If you go back to Genesis 11, verse 29, we learn this. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai. and the very next verse. Now Sarai was barren. She had no child. I've already told you the mathematics of it. She was 65 at this time. She's been married for probably close to 50 years. And she's been waiting for a child. and we've considered previously but it's worth mentioning briefly all of the things she's probably done to try to get this child. Remember, prior to chapter 11 verses 29 and 30 and the call of God in 12.1, they're pagans. Joshua affirms that. They were pagans worshiping pagan gods beyond the river. And so she had appealed to her pagan gods. And in that culture, what did you do? Well, you worship the goddess who was supposed to bring fertility. And how did you do that? You prostituted yourself at the temple. That's how a woman sought fertility in that culture. So she has been degraded in her life over and over and over again in this waiting process. She has waited and waited and waited and Part of the reason, I suspect, that she was at least initially willing to consider a new god. 50 years of her pagan god failing her. Sure, I'll try Yahweh. Sure, we'll give him a shot. Sure, he can't do any worse than these other gods who have let me down. And then there's 25 more years of waiting. She has been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. And yet now, the wait is done. The wait is done. When is it done? When she's 90 years old. So what? Well, Moses, how does Moses delicately say it? The way of women had ceased with Sarah. She is beyond the age of biologically being able to have children. And they know that. The human writer of the text, the original human audience, they all know this. They're not stupid to the way these things work, the way our biology works. She has waited, and now... Yahweh delivers. And now He does what He had promised. The Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as He had promised. The wait is done. And if you ask Sarah, was it worth the wait? Was it too little too late? Or are you glad you waited? I guarantee you she's holding that baby. She's rejoicing. She's glad she waited. What do we hear coming out of the text itself? The expression of her joy. Everyone who thinks of this will laugh with me. You'll recall that the name Isaac was given in the context of Sarah's mocking laughter. She's in the tent when the angel says to Abraham, when God says to Abraham, you're going to have a son. And she laughs in a scoffing way. Now she laughs with true joy. She's no longer mocking God. She's now rejoicing in the God who has delivered. The wait is done. You know, one of the assaults of our modern world upon the Christian life, and it's one that's easily missed, and for that reason it's all the more insidious, because it is so subtle, but we live in a world where we think no one should ever have to wait for anything. You know, there was a time when communities would together wait multiple generations for their church to be built. There was a time when people would wait as a routine part of their life. Strawberries, got to wait till May. Peaches, you got to wait till June. Blueberries, July, and on and on the wait would go. We live in a culture that says you don't have to wait till the time of the month. In fact, you don't even have to wait till you have time to go to the store. On your lunch break at work, you simply call up the app, you say what you want, and it'll be waiting on your porch when you get home. We have a society that has said you should never have to wait for anything. You should have it immediately when you want it, how you want it, where you want it. You see, we have a society that has said, you're in control. You're God. You're the sovereign. You say it, and it shall be so. We have taken all sense of having to wait out of our lives. And yet the Christian life, the life of faith, is a life of waiting. What do we see in these exemplars of faith? Abraham and Sarah are the mother and father of all the faithful. They are the parents of the people of God, of the religious faithful, of the Christians today. And they are waiters. They wait for the Lord. And we do not think that should happen. to happen. Sarah waited 75 years for a baby. The last 25 of those she was waiting upon our God to deliver. Pun intended. The wait is now done. Brothers and sisters, what is it you're waiting for? What is it from God that you are waiting for? Is it sanctification? Lord, why won't you take this sin away from me? Is it the salvation of a loved one? Please, Jesus, make yourself known to my wayward, hellbound child. Are you waiting for Some other answer to prayer, Lord, can't you reaffirm my faith as I wait for you? You see, our culture is telling you, subtly and effectively, that waiting is unnecessary. If you have to wait, then there's something wrong with the situation. If you have to wait, your God isn't really God after all. But the very message of the scriptures is that because He is God, we have to wait. Because He's in control and not us. Have you ever thought about the inversion of the waiting that occurs in our culture? Think about the term, go to a restaurant and you, that term is fast vanishing, it's become a food server, a server, but we still refer to them as waiters. What does it, if you think about it, who does the waiting in that relationship? You do. You sit at the table and you wait for them to come and take your order, then you wait for them to refill your drink, then you wait for them to bring your bill. How is it that they're the waiters in that relationship? Once upon a time, In the houses, the wealthy houses of old, there was a person who would stand in the corner of the dining room just in case the master or mistress of the house needed any little thing. Unless that master or mistress should have to wait for even a second, there was somebody in the corner waiting to run and grab whatever was needed, to run and refill whatever plate. And they were the waiter. You see, we have inverted that relationship. We do the same thing with God. When we expect God to do exactly what we want on our time schedule, when we want it, when we turn God into our heavenly consumer-driven app, we've inverted that relationship. and made ourselves the sovereign and Him the servant, the waiter. God is not our heavenly waiter. He does not stand in the corner of our lives just hoping we'll need something so He has some value. And part of the lesson of the life of Sarah and Abraham is the lesson of waiting. And yet, the wait is done. God does ultimately deliver. If he does not, we would lose faith. And he knows that about us. And so he gives a measure of accomplishment. The wait is done. Isaac has come. But in another sense, the wait has just begun. Stop and consider all that's been promised to these two and how little of it's actually fulfilled at this point. The wait has just begun. in it you know so we have you'll go back to the promises that god has made to abraham and sarah if god says to abraham sarah your wife shall bear you a son jesse seventeen nineteen okay check that one that was accomplished that's a biggie have a big deal who glad we got that one off the list that was done that says i will bless you Twelve-two. Okay, yeah, sure, I mean, I guess that's kind of met. You know, a child is a blessing. I guess, Lord, I had a bigger view of that blessing, but okay, I'm happy with a child, so we'll count that one for you, God. You came through on that one also. Okay? Fifteen, Genesis 15-1. Your reward will be very great. And you can hear Abraham kind of going, well, Maybe I misunderstood the promise. I guess I thought great reward was going to be something a little bit grander than, you know, I mean, come on, everybody has a child. That's kind of a normal routine part of life. How is that really a great reward? But we'll count it for God. I must have misunderstood the promise. 17.7 I will be your God and the God of your offspring. Okay, maybe. I guess we circumcised Isaac. Does that really make you his God? I don't know, Lord. That one's a little harder to count as accomplished and fulfilled. As you start going down the list, 12-2, I will make you a great nation. No, that really isn't there at all yet, God. 15-5, I will make your offspring like the stars in the heavens. Well, I suppose on a really cloudy night when there's only one star visible, Isaac counts. But really, it's hard to count him as a fulfillment. 17, 4, I'll make you the father of a multitude of nations. There's no way you can count that as fulfilled. 12, 2, I will make your name great. At the point of the birth of Isaac, hardly fulfilled, I will make you a blessing. Not just I will bless you, but I will make you a blessing. It's hard to see how that's fulfilled at this point. I will bless those who bless you. I will give this land to you and to your offspring. I have brought you here. In 15, 7, I have brought you here to possess this land. I will give you and your offspring the land of your sojourning, 1708. And I will establish my covenant with Isaac, 1721. With the birth of Isaac, it's hard to see how those are fulfilled. In one sense, the wait is done. But in another sense, the wait has just begun. And the truth is, if we stand here, Some 4,000 years later, unbalanced in all honesty, much of what was promised to Abraham has still not been fulfilled, even to this day. Abraham's name? That's great. Certainly his name is great. There's no disputing that. And his offspring by biology? They're numerous indeed. The Jews from Isaac, the Arabs from Ishmael. Numerous people. And his offspring by faith? Well, I guess that includes you and me and a multitude of others. So we can kind of see that. It is a vast offspring by faith. And yet, what of the land promise? There was a short time under Solomon when the biological descendants of Abraham possessed most of the promised land and did so mostly in peace and prosperity. But do 30 or 40 years really count as an everlasting inheritance? Is that really the fulfillment of the promise? That's what was promised then. So here we are, 4,000 years later, And much of what's been promised to Abraham is still not fulfilled. And what of the promise that through Abraham all the peoples of the world would be blessed? How is that then met? And in fact, right now it seems to many in this world that the world would be a better place if the children of Isaac and the children of Ishmael, that is the Jews and the Arabs, if they didn't exist. The world would seem like a more peaceful place to many observers. of Abraham had never lived. And some among us are going to say, some of the reformed here are going to say, well, pastor, but through Abraham, Jesus came. That's the blessing to all the peoples of the world through Abraham. And yet again, I ask you to assess that data from the world's point of view. Wouldn't Ireland be better off if it weren't divided over Christianity? Wouldn't the Sudan be better off if Christianity hadn't divvied it up? Wouldn't America be better off if we weren't fighting over our Christian values? There are many who look at the world and have a hard time thinking it's been blessed at all because of Abraham. And we have to be honest and admit that even in Jesus, much of what is promised is not delivered. Much of what has been offered is not yet consummated. Those who walk in the faith of Abraham must also walk in the waiting of Abraham. The Christian life is a life of waiting upon the Lord. We are convinced that Jesus is salvation for those who believe, but we are still awaiting the revelation of that fact in history. We believe that believing saves, but we await the proof that the believers are saved. So as with the birth of Isaac, the wait was done, so also with the birth of Isaac, the wait had just begun. So it is with you and me. With the birth and the life and the death and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus, in one sense, the wait was done. The promised Messiah had come. All the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ. The Simeon can be spoken of having been waiting for the consolation of Israel, and his wait was over with the birth of Jesus and his presentation at the temple. There is a sense in which the wait is done, and yet, we recognize there is still much that is unfulfilled. The language of scripture recognizes that. There is a reason that the scriptures talk about Jesus as the down payment, or the Holy Spirit as the guarantor. Why do we talk about down payments and guarantees? Well, it's because the fullness is not yet realized. In a cash transaction, if you buy or sell your house with cash, there's no discussion of down payments. There's no discussion of mortgage insurance. There's no discussion of credit checks and backgrounds, because the fullness of the payment is right there up in front. The very fact that the Scriptures speak of Jesus as the down payment, or the Holy Spirit as the guarantor, is proof that the Scriptures themselves acknowledge that all the fullness of God and all the fullness of Jesus and His promises aren't ours yet, but are still out in the future. And we need assurance that they're coming. Even after this chapter, we're going to find Abraham and Sarah still waiting. still believing, still walking in faith, still waiting upon the Lord. Why? Why would they wait so long and not give up hope? Well, there really are two things that play into that. One is the nature of God. When you have hope in a faithful God, a God who has always kept His word, who has kept His word even to the point of killing His own son, then you can be assured of the follow through. One is the nature of God. The other reason they are willing to keep waiting is the nature of the promise. It's worth waiting for. Many of us who get impatient with waiting is because what we wait for ain't that big of a deal. We're impatient with waiting on our food because in the end, it doesn't matter how good that food is, we're going to be hungry again. And so it doesn't ultimately satisfy. That's the reason Jesus had the conversation with the woman at the well, the woman of Samaria. He says, listen, I can give you water and you'll never be thirsty again. True satisfaction. And true satisfaction, all of a sudden, that is worth waiting for. That is something to be desired. This world promises immediate satisfaction. But it never promises true satisfaction. And so the things that we buy quickly disappoint us, and we have to buy the newer, bigger, better one. We have to have the new version. And we let the consumer products industry just grab us by the nose and lead us around. Got to have the new version. version 3, version 4, version 10, version X, version... You've got to have the newest and the latest because they never truly satisfy. And this world has promised you moral satisfaction. We're just going to move the goalpost and declare moral victory. We're going to decide, we're going to redefine what is righteous and then declare ourselves righteous. So you can be satisfied with your life rather than living a guilt-ridden life. And what we don't understand is that the promise of God is something different. The reason we speak of the perseverance of the saints is the waiting they have to go through. But what are we waiting for? We're waiting for true satisfaction. We're not looking for momentary pleasure in a passing and fleeting relationship. We're looking for an eternity where He is our God and we are His people. An eternity of knowing our Creator intimately and knowing one another fully. An eternity where the shame of sin is removed and we can be ourselves unabashedly with one another. We await an eternity where we will not have the frustrations of these everyday lives and these failing bodies and these broken relationships. If you're struggling to wait in the Christian life, it may be that you have forgotten the big things you're waiting for. The promise of God is not a promise of momentary satisfaction. The down payment of Isaac was not meant to say to Abraham and Sarah, you have everything you're ever going to want to need. The down payment of Jesus is not to say to us, all that you want, all that you need, here it is, now, already accomplished. But rather to say, if I was willing to send him to die, how much more sure is it that I will send him back one day to conquer? We recognize that the Christian life, the life of waiting, is a life that is a life of faith. That which we don't have, we know we're going to one day get. And that which we live with right now in regret is one day going to be removed. Isaac came. The wait was done. But Isaac was also the reminder of all the other promises that weren't yet fulfilled. The wait had just begun. Jesus has come. And in Him, the weight is done. We have the Savior made flesh. But it also reminds us of the great promises that are still out there in our future. It is why Jesus framed this table up that way. That it points not only to the past, but to the future. Jesus recognized and pointed us through this table You know, I will not drink of it again until I drink of it in the kingdom. He pointed it forward. He is the down payment of wonderful promises. Yes, our wait is done. We have a Savior. But the wait has just begun. Because it's worth waiting for. The promises out there are wonderful promises. Wait for God. Wait upon the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, give us patience to wait. Give us wisdom to wait rightly, to do so patiently, to do so in a way that honors you. Give us a willingness to turn aside from the immediate gratification that this world promises in exchange for true gratification that you have promised. And as we do so, Lord, help us to be a testimony to the others around. As they are discouraged and disappointed with the things this world gives, let us be hopeful in the promises for which we still wait, that we would be a light in this dark world. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I invite you to look at page 8 of the bulletin and to stand as you do so. Page 8 in your bulletin. Let's stand together. Often on the Sundays that we celebrate the Lord's Table, we will confess our faith in some form of a creed or a confessional statement. And it is a reminder that we hold these things in common, that what brings us together isn't the color of our skin, the amount of money in our bank account. It isn't those sorts of things, but rather the reality of who God is and what He has done. and what He has done for us. And so we confess our common faith as we share a common table.