So we've been journeying here through the narrative. We have really a beautiful section here where we have three visitors, three strangers, and yet one of them very familiar in a dialogue with Abraham. And then we'll move into a piece of the narrative in the middle section of the 18th chapter where Sarah, will be a major character in the narrative, even though she's not a major part of the conversation. The author, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wants us to see some things about Sarah and how she responds to the news from the messengers of God or from God himself, the Lord. So here's what we're going to do. We've already read in previous weeks verses 1 through 8. Today we're going to read verses 1 through 8 and we'll add to the reading verses 9 through 15. That will expand the narrative of where we're at in the text. So this is Genesis in the 18th chapter. In just a moment, I'm going to invite you to stand with me for the reading of the Word of God. And we do this really as an act of honor. that we are hearing God Himself speak to us through His messenger, through the preservation of the Word, through the translation of the text into our English language. So that's why we stand. And so, in just a moment when I invite you to stand, while you're standing, there's an opportunity for you to give instruction to me by saying, everybody together, give us the book. And then when I'm done reading the text, verses 1 through 15, I'll make the claim this is the Word of God and from that then we'll make the proclamation together by saying, and we believe it. So, if you found your way to the 18th chapter of Genesis, will you stand with me for the reading of the text? Verse 1, Now the Lord appeared to him by the oak of Mamre while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he lifted up his eyes, this is Abraham, when Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth. And he said, My Lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by. Verse 4, Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves here under the tree. And I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and then after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant.' And they said, So do as you have said." Verse 6, So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it, and make bread cakes. And Abraham also ran to the herd, and he took a tinder and a choice calf, and gave it to the servants, and he hurried to prepare it. He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them, and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate. Then they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, There in the tent. He said, I will surely return to you at this time next year, and behold, Sarah your wife will have a son. Sarah was listening at the tent door which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age. Sarah was past childbearing. Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I've become old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being so old also? And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh, saying, shall I indeed bear a child when I am so old? Is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son. Sarah denied it, however, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. And she said, no, or they said, no, you did laugh. This is the word of God. Heavenly Father, we do. And we now ask that while the reading and the hearing of your word is recently and currently upon our mind, We ask that your Holy Spirit would come now and move in our midst. Come and sit with us, dear God. Do not pass us by. Come and land on our hearts and move us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated, and as you're doing so, keeping watch here over the text, Genesis chapter 8. In the more intentional focus here, we've moved through the text from verses 9 through 15. And here is the announcement of the birth of the promise. And the announcement is to Abraham. So let's just, in as fast of a way as I can, just recap. Let's make sure that we're comprehending here. This is not the first time God has told Abraham that he will bear a son, that he will bear a child. It will be, namely, son to carry on the descendants, the descending line of the promise. We go all the way back into the 15th chapter, which is where we'll hear the direct instructions to Abram. At that time, his name has not been changed to Abraham until recently. But at that moment, the Lord will instruct Abram. We'll call him Abraham right now so I don't get myself confused. that there he's instructing him while they come out of the tent where Abraham is dwelling. And there you remember, the messenger tells Abraham to look into the night sky. It's dark. It's late at night. And he invites him to look at the stars of the heavens. And there the messenger says, your descendants will be so numerous that if it were possible to count these stars, that they would be that many. keep this in mind, Abraham, Abraham and Sarah had no children. We learn in the 15th chapter that Abraham or excuse me, that Sarah was barren. She was unable. She had not bore children until this moment. And so and they were already advancing and they were not. It would not be that they were beyond childbearing years at this time, but they were definitely moving in that direction. And remember that Sarah decides that in order for this promise to come about, that it's going to require her intervention. And so she instructs her servant Hagar to marry Abraham and that they would bear a child. And they do. And it is not what God intended. And yet, in spite of their misbehaving and disobeying or not believing how God was going to do this, that God still, in spite of that, blesses them, blesses Ishmael, their offspring, blesses Hagar, and has still not given up nor changed course on the covenant promise that God made to Abraham. that your descendants, in that marriage in which he had with Sarah at that time, that's what God is meaning, in this marriage, you will have offspring. Even though they were unable to, and now, late in their ages, they still have not, and the argument of the text here is that they cannot because of their age. Well, we have some things to consider in this. Listen, so it's the Bible that calls her old. It's not me that calls her old. So I'm just putting myself in safe territory. All right. So it's the Bible that calls her old. She calls herself old, advanced. Even we learned that in certain translations of the Bible, Sarah will say that she is waxed old. Now, that's just old English saying she's really old. All right. So you can choose to use that phrase if you want to describe yourselves, ladies. I don't I'm not I'm not going to use it to describe anyone unless I'm reading the Bible. And this is what the Bible says. But she she's hearing. So you get from the first verses of Chapter 18, verses one through eight. Abraham is thrilled that the strangers have stopped by. He's running into the tent, instructing Sarah, get some get some bread cakes ready. He runs to the herd and he finds the choice calf. There he goes to the herdsmen and gives them instructions. Make this the best calf you've ever made. That's my insert of the excitement that Abraham is in. He runs back to the strangers, has them sit. Even before that, he's instructed his household to bring water, to refresh the servants, to wash their feet. These are customs of this time, but they are also actions of great respect, great honor that Abraham is showing them. And this is helping us to see that this one of the three strangers is a pre-incarnate or a Christophany, as the theological world describes these. And one of those moments where the Lord Jesus Christ visits in a pre-incarnate status. He looks like a man. He's eating like a man. He's behaving like a man. He's talking like a man. Every way in which he will behave when we get to the Gospels is this pre-incarnate condition of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can make this argument from verse 1. Even though the grammatical usage of the word Lord will change, we'll have our first mention that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that this is Yahweh, this is God Himself that has appeared to him at the Oaks of Mamre, verse 1. And some of your translations, we've noted this along the way, they tip us off to this by spelling the word LORD with all capital letters. This would be a translational prerogative of the translators Rather than using the name of God here, they're using the word LORD, and they note it with the all caps. You'll notice in the narrative, the next time that it speaks of this individual, Abraham will refer to him as MY LORD. The translators, and this is in verse 3, the translators have capitalized the word LORD, but they've lower-cased the rest of the word. This is not altering who Abraham is speaking to, It's the word in which Abraham is using to speak to the Lord. He's using the word Lord. He's using this word that describes who God is in reference to who he is. Now, a little tip of the hat to us as we move along. Sarah is going to use the word Lord to refer to Abraham. And it's going to be the translators show us that indication. If your translation is making this notated difference, by all lowercase letters describing how she speaks to Abraham. We'll get to that in just a moment. So here's the announcement of the birth of the promise. It's not the ratification of the promise, but it is, hey, don't forget, God Almighty has made a promise. And so as these three strangers have stopped by Abraham's dwelling, They've come with the reminder, the promise is at hand, the promise is soon. The next time, we'll be traveling through here again, they tip them off and instruct them as our travel plans. We have things we're on our way to do right now. We can't stay long here, but we are going to stop because you've invited us and we're going to let you show hospitality toward us. We have actions that are still in front of us. We have a duty. We have a responsibility. We have, essentially, judgment to bring to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which, by the way, is just beyond this narrative of where we're at here in the text. And then there is the promise that in one year's time, we will return at this same season. And when we return, Sarah, will be holding a baby. And it will be namely a baby boy. And it will be namely Isaac. We'll learn all of that. The narrative will continue to walk us through the beauty of how God is fulfilling His promise from Genesis chapter 3 where of the seed of the woman God will bring the Messiah who will crush the head of the serpent. Now Isaac is not the seed of the woman. Isaac will be the seed of Abraham. So he is not the fulfillment of the promise, but we'll have to have Isaac in order to get to the seed of the woman, which will be Mary, through the inspiration, through the work of the Holy Spirit, where she will be conceived by the Holy Spirit and bear a child whose name, Isaiah tells us, is wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God, Jesus the Christ. All of this is part of the big narrative of the Bible, though, isn't it? And part of this narrative is God is regularly bringing His people to the brink of utter disbelief. Sarah, as we've seen, we've heard, we've seen with our own eyes in the reading of the text, we're familiar with this narrative. We're already familiar with this story. I'm not really expressing anything new in the sense of anyone who's walked through the Bible before. You're fairly familiar with this narrative. Sarah is beyond childbearing years. Not only is she barren, but she is advanced well beyond the capacity to bear a child. And this is something we should stop and make note of. The moment when it appears as though all is lost, we must not forget the promise maker will come through with his keeping of his promise. It may seem dark. It may seem impossible. It may seem too hard. It may appear too difficult. The day may be too far advanced in our own eyes to think of how can God recover and restore glory. These are good places that God wants to bring His people to. So I want us to keep this in mind as we not only navigate through this text, but as we navigate through uncertain days. God is pleased to walk us to the brink of near disbelief. Sarah's response will be at a very similar condition in which we might even find ourselves in this day. Sarah laughs. Now, let's remember that Abraham has laughed at this news as well, but it's different than Sarah's laugh. The text that we've read before of Abraham, when he hears the news from God that he's going to that he's going to bear a son with his union with Sarah, Abraham laughs. And that laughter is, I knew it! I knew the promise God gave us. I believe it. God's going to do it. And wouldn't you know it, he's told me again he's going to do it. Now, he still doesn't know how. He still doesn't know when. But that laughter is not credited or charged against him. But Sarah's laughter is. And so it's important here that we see the setting of the narrative. Now we believe the Word to be true. We believe that Abraham is an actual historic figure. Matter of fact, nobody in religiosity world thinks anything other than that about Abraham. Many faiths around the world want to attach themselves to Abraham. But not all can. And not all should. But the watching world, nobody who's legitimately being critical of historic narrative text questions whether Abraham was a real figure or not. And so we believe this to be true as it's recorded for us and we receive it as true. And so then that means the duty and the responsibility is on us to interact with the text accordingly and appropriately. The messengers are speaking with Abraham outside the tent. They're in the shade. It's the heat of the day. They've been refreshed. They've been washed. Food is perhaps even still being prepared for them. While they ask the question, where is Sarah, your wife? That's verse 9. Now, let's just realize something. First of all, this is actually a very tender request. Meaning these individuals, one meaning the Lord in particular, is very familiar with Abraham and Sarah. He's very much aware of their situation. He's very much aware that Sarah, and I think we can draw some conclusions. We can't find a chapter and a verse to make this kind of bold claim, but I think we can argue that Sarah has longed to bear a child. all of her married days, and perhaps even before she was married, a desire that she would have a husband who they would bear children together with. And you know that in their home, many children have been born. And how difficult this must have been for Sarah. Filled with heartache of wanting a child, and as of until now, has never been able to. through various circumstances, but obviously it's the workings of the Lord God Almighty. Remember, who appears to find the benefit to humanity to bring us to the brink of near disbelief while bringing the promise. So I think verse 9 is actually a very tender request. Where is Sarah, your wife? Where is your princess? Remember, we learn this whenever Abraham and Sarah travel south into Egypt. We learn the name Sarai and the name Sarah are so closely related that they are essentially this argument of princess. And we learn that while they're in Egypt, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the description of Sarah is that she's a beautiful woman. And I think it would be even fair to say that as she moves into her late waxing of days, that she's still a gorgeous, beautiful woman. So these messengers, they ask, where is she? So Abraham says, well, she's in the tent. Verse 10, he said, the Lord himself said, I will surely return to you at this time next year and behold, Sarah, your wife will have a son. So keep kind of, you're tracking this, you know what's next. It's hard to say don't get ahead of yourself because we're already so familiar with this text. But think of yourself reading a narrative story. Think of yourself hearing, you're sitting around the campfire and you have a gifted and talented storyteller who's telling the narrative of your patriarchal ancestral line. And they're describing this. So scene one is this, scene two is this, scene three looks like this. So you have You have Abraham and the messengers outside the tent talking. The question is, where is Sarah, your wife? And then they say, after Abraham says, well, she's in the tent, so it's all theatrical. It's not all theatrical, but if you can at least hear it and think of it in this manner, you're at the campfire and the story is being untold like this. She's in the tent, scene cuts from outside the tent to inside the tent. And there's Sarah. You know what it's like when you hear someone mention your name, right? It's like, I'm all ears now. You're not talking to me, but you use my name. I'm hearing. I'm listening. Listen, our children do this too, don't they? You could be sitting in a loud house with lots of children noise, and mom and dad, you can mention one of the children's name, and it's like immediately they're right next to you. Kind of, hmm, what are you saying? What do you got to say about me? It's like Sarah has heard her name mentioned. They're inquiring. I'm sure this must have even been really even tender for her to hear the question, where's Sarah, your wife? I don't think we have any reason to think that they're saying, hey, we've come by to chastise your wife. I think she's really interested in what they have to say. They have a statement that they want to make. Next year, when we come by here, your wife Sarah will have a son. And so scene cuts inside the tent, she's perhaps still kneading the bread or pulling it out of the oven. Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him. So she hears this news. And then the narrative, so the narrator, the teller of the story, tells us something in verse 11. Now, it's as though we don't know this yet, right? Now Abraham and Sarah were old. Advanced in age, in case you didn't know what old was. Sarah was past childbearing. She laughed to herself, saying, after I've become old, shall I have pleasure? My Lord being so old also? So there's a laughter here. This is, coincidentally, And you've probably already been tracking on this. When we have the narrative of the Old Testament, there's so much criticalness of the meaning of names, that the name Isaac literally means laughter, that there is this ongoing narrative of the story. Sarah laughs at the news that she's going to bear a child. Is she going to have a son? Now, we'll be careful here. Because we cannot say this is the laughter of disbelief, but it appears it's right on the brink of it. And we won't charge her of disbelief because the Bible doesn't charge her of disbelief. We have the aid of the book of Hebrews that tells us as well, not only that Abraham is accredited to him of having faith, but it will say nearly the same thing of Sarah. that Sarah will be credited to her as faith. So Sarah is not unbelieving in this laughter, but her laughter is attached to what appears to be impossible. All through my childbearing years I was barren, unable to bear children. And now that I'm old, past childbearing age, And they're out there talking about that I'm going to bear a child? I mean, I think it's OK for her to laugh to a degree. I mean, the audience might be thinking there might be an outbreak of some kind of a laughter. I don't think this is intended to be comedic relief, to relieve the tension of the room. But it both brings some tension and I think even helps us show the humanity and the reality of the circumstances. You're telling me, after all of these years, that I'm now going to have a child? After I've become old, verse 12, shall I now have pleasure? And then she makes some kind of a unqualified, but rather reasonable claim about Abraham himself. Not only am I old and past childbearing years, but my Lord is past At least the expecting, we'll learn some things by the time when we get to chapter 25. So a little bit of head knowledge or forward knowledge here. We'll learn that it appears as though Sarah has died by this point. Abraham remarries and he conceives, he and his new bride will conceive more children. So Abraham is old. It's not unreasonable for Sarah to be thinking even he's unable. But sure enough, he is able and will bear, or he won't bear children, but he will be part of the conceiving of more children. And so Sarah brings this question here. And so then the narrative will somewhat, we've been outside the tent, we're now inside the tent. Now we're back outside the tent. After Sarah has laughed and made these claims about being old And am I now finally going to be one who will bear a child? And look, my husband Abraham. I mean, look at him. He's old. And the Lord said to Abraham outside the tent, why did Sarah laugh? Now, there's a couple of things for us to observe right there alone. Possibly, did Sarah inside the tent by herself, to herself, laugh out loud? Certainly. It's not unreasonable today. I've been by myself and laughed out loud. And there you're thinking, man, if anybody walks by right now, they're going to think I'm flat out of my mind. But let's also remember that it was the Lord himself who's in the dialogue. And that whether it was out loud or to herself, without the audible laughter out loud, it is not too much for us to conclude that the Lord would have heard or would have known the condition and the spirit of Sarah. Why did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I indeed bear a child when I am so old?" He's still speaking to Abraham. There's been no dialogue between the Lord and Sarah. We're having these cut in scene from back and forth. Still outside the tent. The Lord speaking to Abraham, is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you. So he's saying it again. At this time next year, and Sarah will have a son. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too difficult for the Lord? Another way of saying this is nothing is impossible. for the Lord. Now, the conceiving of the son Isaac here will be in all natural means. This is not a supernatural, even though there's clear there will be some intervention of what the Lord will do in the capacity for a out of childbearing woman who's always been barren with a very old husband to be able to conceive a child. No doubt. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. Nothing is impossible. But we're not talking about the same kind of impossibility when we get to the New Testament and the angel of the Lord appears to Mary, who's not married, who's never had any relations with anyone. And the instruction to her is that she will bear a child, a son. who will be the fulfillment of the Genesis 3 text, the one who will crush the head of the serpent. That is altogether supernatural, otherworldly, godly miracle that happens. Now I know, and I've read lots of arguments that this is no less a miracle than that. But let's be sure that we identify them as different kinds of miracles at this point. So Sarah laughs. The messenger, the Lord Himself has said, why is she laughing? And by the way, we're about to leave, and when we return this time next year, she will have a son. And then we have the aid of the Hebrews text that tells us that Sarah believed. She's on the brink of unbelief. She's assessing the reality of the circumstances. Her claims are not are not foolish. Her claims are not beyond what she should be claiming. But there is a glorious story being told here. That after she laughs, after they say, why is she laughing? And a restatement of the promise. In the 15th verse is the only place that we have the dialogue that appears to now be between Sarah perhaps. We can see the scene shifting from outside the tent to inside the tent to outside the tent, that Sarah is now at least in capacity or proximity to speak to the Lord as well. Sarah denied it, however, saying, I did not laugh. But she was afraid. And he said, no, but you did laugh. This really should sit on us with seriousness here. Where Sarah hears the news, responds to herself, and then is engaged in conversation, even though it's so minor and so little, this kind of fear that Sarah is experiencing here is complicated for sure. First of all, you know what it's like, don't you, when you've said something in a deceiving way, and it's found out that that wasn't accurate. It's discovered that you're denying something that really happened, but it really happened. And it's now full disclosure. Everyone knows that you did. There is a level of fear, isn't there, that comes over us. Children will especially be perhaps even closer to this than adults. But adults, you're not too far away from this, are you, that you can't remember, that you don't recall times that you've denied saying something, only to later be proven that you did. There is a proper kind of fear that would sit on us, because we've used our words to misrepresent, and now we're using other words to misrepresent and make claims and denials of. Well, this is definitely worth an observation. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit giving us this detail in the narrative is not something we should just laugh off and move away from. There's actually something that we really need to think seriously about. There's this promise. There's laughter. There's not disbelief to the point of judgment. But there's serious consideration, how is this possible? And then the question is raised, why did she laugh? And then it's no longer Abraham saying something, it's Sarah saying, I didn't laugh. And the messenger, the Lord himself saying, oh, but you did. She was afraid. I think it's a proper response. And actually it's quite helpful for us as well. The very mention of this in the narrative, it tells us that we really should take a moment and consider a couple of things. Let me bring conclusion in this manner from the observation of the narrative. We've already seen in the first eight verses the beauty of hospitality, the kindness of the landowner, the house owner, the tent owner toward the messengers. We see that it's helpful, it's beautiful. There's other things for us to observe here though in this conversation. Sarah is displaying for us, even in some of the wrong behavior that Sarah is displaying, we're seeing helpful things to observe. First, I know that you've attended a church today or you belong to a church for a long time now that it's possible that people in our community misunderstand your church quite a bit. And we don't try to live in a non-understanding way with the community. We just strive to live as a people who obey the book, who obey the God who gave us this book. As a matter of fact, in a moment, the conclusion of our service, we do this every Sunday, we'll give an opportunity for believing men, if they have any other edification, words to encourage and strengthen the church with, we'll invite them to come to the microphones on both sides of the room. It's easy for the community to misunderstand our actions because, well, why don't you invite the women? It's because what other argument have we got with scripture other than what the Bible instructs us and what we're to do in our corporate public meetings? It doesn't mean that women don't have good things to say, is it? Amen, men? Most of you got an elbow from your wife and said, Jesus, that's a good moment to say amen. No, they have good things to say. They have helpful things to say. It's not that a woman should never be heard. This has everything to do with the way in which God orders all of creation. And how will creation respond to the God who orders it. Will we obey it or will we say, well God really must have meant this. So there are some things that we can see here that maybe will fit into this same category. That it's possible outsiders will hear us say and misunderstand what we're trying to say. The most obvious is whenever Sarah refers to Abraham as her Lord. Now here's where the men are or waking their wives up and say, well, you should pay close attention to this moment. Your translation may also say, master or Lord. This is the way Sarah is being respectful to the created order. She's not saying that she's a servant to her husband, even though she is serving him, but she's not under him. She is beside him. As many scholars make the argument, Eve was not created from Adam's foot so that she would be under him. She's not created from his head that she would be above him. She's created from her side, from her rib, because she is beside him. She's equal with him. Well, that's actually a pretty helpful way to try to comprehend the beauty of what God's done in the creation of man. But also, we should not miss that God does not throw aside the created order. And that humanity expresses glory to God when we live in the created order of God. So Sarah is being respectful. And so to the daughters of Sarah, I would say today, look to Sarah. Learn from Sarah. She's actually helping us here. Matter of fact, if you go and read the text in Hebrews chapter 11 and Let me also include 1 Peter. So let me do that. 1 Peter 3. This is verse 5 and 6. For in this way, in former times, the holy women also, who hope in God, so their hope is not in their husband, their hope is in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands. And so that we have a model, so that we have something to point to and say, where can we see this being lived out in Scripture? Peter tells us in verse 6, just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, calling him master. And you have become her children. We are their children. If you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. Now this fear is different. than this kind of fear that we read of in Genesis 18. So what should we do as we pass through the text? Not to make too much of it, but certainly not to just, well, that's a weird conversation and an awkward moment, especially in a culture that thinks very differently than what God instructs His people to behave as. So to the daughters of Sarah this morning, I say to you, This is really beneficial for you to see the way in which Sarah is responding to Abraham. There is a closeness in this relationship. There is a understanding in this relationship. There is a partnered enterprise in this relationship between Abraham and Sarah. They are both engaged in the hospitality that we see in verses 1 through 9. They're still both engaged in the ongoing hospitality that's being expressed in verses 9-15. When they ask, where is Sarah? Abraham's response is, she's partnered with me in the enterprise of hospitality. Now that's my expression of what we're seeing here. She's in the tent. She's preparing the cakes. She's overseeing and directing the orders of the preparation of the calf and the milk and the goats. or the goat products, the dairy products, all these things. She's in charge of it all. She's the enterprise brain of it, if you even will. And so we're observing this. So women, there are beautiful places that God has ordained you for in the enterprise of your household. Don't fight against it. glorify God in it for God's glory. It's not like all of your homes are going to look exactly the same, that every position, every thought, every expression of it is going to look the same. I don't think we have a cookie cutter expression here. I think we just have an observing moment to stop and consider the relationship between Abraham and Sarah and that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wants us to observe some things. And then we certainly want to see here as well that there is the confirmation that God has not forgotten his promise. It's in chapter 17, verse 17, that we learn that Abraham's laughter is different than Sarah's. It's in chapter 18, verse 12, where we've already seen here that Sarah, her laughter is different than Abraham's. But this is happening while the announcement of the promise and the confirming of the promise is happening. There is a responding of the two, the patriarch and his princess, his beautiful wife, Sarah. There will be tendency for us to think that the Old Testament narrative is in contradiction to the New Testament instructions. But there then sits the responsibility to us, the reader, the hearer, to not make the claim that they contradict, but to see that they're actually saying and stating the same. It's as though we've heard the messenger has come to Jesus to appeal that He would come and heal His child. And the man is instructed to go back home because his daughter is well. You remember his statement? So Lord, I believe. Now help my unbelief. I think that this is part of what we're understanding here in the text. I believe that God has said these things. I believe Abraham and Sarah have worked this together. They've realized that what they tried to do was not what God wanted, not what God promised to them. And they would wait and they would trust. Now God help my unbelief. I believe you. Now, this part of me that says, I don't know how you're going to do it. The part of me that says everyone knows women my age can't do this. And everyone knows that women who are married to men as old as Abraham, this can't happen. So Lord, I believe, now help my unbelief. Sarah's attempting here now to conceal her laughter by refusing to acknowledge that she did laugh like this. And it appears as though there is something still happening inside of the soul of Sarah, where she is believing, now help my unbelief. Now help me, God. And here's where I would want to say to you and I, as we part from the narrative of the text this morning, what are you trying to conceal from God? You don't want others to see that you have some unbelief in you. It's not meaning that you don't believe God can save you and that He has saved you, but yet there's still some actions of your life that are displaying the opposite of that. Why conceal it? The Lord knows. He's exposing it, even through the narrative of Genesis chapter 18. It's clear that he who covers his sins, the psalmist will tell us, he cannot prosper. Matter of fact, the psalmist will even tell us that his body bears the evidence of his desire to conceal his sin. It keeps him up at night. It causes distress and anxiety. It causes physical problems for him. Listen. God can and God will bring truth to light. We can believe that. We should rest in that. We should rejoice in this, dear church. What's before us? What is your family facing? What are your circumstances? They could be vastly different across this room. But this is consistent. God can and God will bring truth to light. It appears as though the day has grown dark, doesn't it? But I say to you, dear saints, it is not too late for our God. Your personal circumstances, they may seem really difficult. You may be in some real serious financial hardships. I'm not saying go out and get another credit card because it's all going to change. I'm saying trust the Lord. Believe Him. Wait on Him. Look around and you say, there's no way out of this darkness. And in man, there is no way out. But in God, nothing. Say that with me. Nothing is too difficult for God. OK, now you know what I know. I would have been a little resistant as well. I want to know what you're going to have me say before I say it. But now that you know, will you say it all in one phrase? Let me say it and then you repeat it. There is nothing too difficult for God. There isn't. Now I'm not saying go home and say that seven times and all of your problems will disappear. You may go home and you find that your problems are even worse than you thought. Remember, nothing is too difficult for God. Blessed be His name. And so God, we will trust you. Everywhere we look, it appears the wicked man has prospered. We will wait and we will trust.