What’s in a name?

Sarah
Introduction
 How many ladies had a hard time remembering to write their new
name after they got married?

 In the Bible, people’s names were very important.

o A name described a person’s character or experience.

Scripture
Rev 2:17
17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also
give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him
who receives it.
NIV

 In this series we are going to take a look into different biblical

characters and discover how God changed their names and thus
changing their Character and or experience.

Scripture
Gen 17:15-19
15 God also said to Abraham, "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."

17 Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be

born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of
ninety?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under
your blessing!"
19 Then God said, "Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you
will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting
covenant for his descendants after him.
NIV

1. Hello my name is Sari

a. Sarai, whose name meant “My Princess”, was the daughter of a

wealthy Chaldean tribesman named Terah.

i. She married Abram, her half-brother.

ii. This gorgeous Bedouin debutante had no idea she was in for
such a wild ride when she married Abram!

iii. Sarai left her family, her wealth and position to follow her
crazy husband to “a land God would show him.” (1,426
miles)

b. She willingly obeyed

i. She must had been spunky because I don’t know how many
wives would respond well if their husbands packed a U-Haul,
declared he was uprooting them to go to a strange land that
he knew nothing about… to do God knows what…

ii. Sarai was brave she didn’t even know where the U-Camel
was going!

c. Sarai’s Test of Trust

i. The journey to this new home was difficult for Sarai.

1. Searing heat and famine almost destroyed them.

ii. Abram and his entourage took a detour to pagan Egypt.

 1. It was a risky move for any nomad (Genesis 12:10).

2. Sarai’s next test was to lie for Abram to Pharaoh.

3. She was gorgeous.

4. Abram willingly offered Sarai to the powerful Egyptian

ruler because he knew Sarai was beautiful and he
feared Pharaoh would want her as his wife.

5. Sarai obeyed Abram, though she shook in her sandals

and hid in Pharaoh’s harem.

iii. She trusted God even when her husband didn’t protect her.

1. And by the way, Abram gave Sarai to King Abimelech

later for the same reason (Genesis 20)!

2. At this time she was older and was still considered quite
beautiful.

iv. Some theologians say the Egyptian harem is where Sarai

first encountered God for herself.

1. God sent a plague on Pharaoh’s house and Sarai was

returned to her husband with riches and livestock in tow.

2. Sarai trusted God in tough situations.

d. Sarai’s Test of Patience

i. Sarai, like all of us, often faltered in her faith.

ii. God promised to make Abram the “father of many nations”

(Gen. 17:4) but she was barren.
 1. So, like most desperate women, Sarai went into “fix-it”
mode and gave Abram her maidservant Hagar to
produce a son.

2. It was a lousy practice, but it was customary in her

society.

3. Sarai grew impatient and ran ahead of God.

iii. Let’s try to put ourselves in poor Sarai’s shoes.

1. “What a horrible disappointment!

2. What a terrible moment to arrive at!

3. All these years, the echo of His magnificent promises

kept Sarai through the hunger, the endless wandering,
the Egyptian humiliation, and those sharp pangs of
loneliness that would seize her whole being whenever
she thought of what she had left behind to follow her
husband.

4. Sarah was able to go through all of that because she

firmly believed that someday she would give birth to a
son, and then finally, everything that God promised
would start to be fulfilled.

5. After all, God promised her husband: “I will make you a

great nation, Genesis 17:4

6. Didn’t that mean that she, Sarah, would give birth to a

son who would become a father of this multitude of
descendants?

iv. Sarai waited for an unfulfilled promise for decades.

1. Had God forgotten her?

 2. Abram, her husband had heard God speak, but Sarai
had to trust her husband’s divine revelations.

e. Like All of Us, Sarah Endured Suffering

i. Sarai suffered, waiting and waiting for this “child of promise.”

ii. We often try to wiggle out of the trials and suffering God uses
to mature our faith.

1. Such actions could be called “Christian atheism,”

because Christians often live their lives as if God doesn’t
exist.

2. God is not small, simple or shortsighted.

3. He is eternal, all-powerful, and omniscient. And we are

not.

iii. Sarah eventually grew to be a mighty oak.

f. Sarah Became Angry

i. Hagar, Sarai’s maidservant, flaunted her rotund baby belly

and belittled her mistress.

1. Sarai, filled with jealousy and rage, cruelly threw her out
of the family tent, much to Abram’s dismay.

2. What a cat fight those two women must have had!

ii. The fight was so bad that pregnant Hagar fled but later
returned

Transition
And this brings us to the point in Sarai’s story that is in our main verse.

Scripture
Gen 17:15-19
15 God also said to Abraham, "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."

2. Hello my name is Sarah

 From Sarai to Sarah (Princess)

o Sarah is the only woman in the Bible whose name was changed
by God.

1. She was first called Sarai—meaning “my princess”—but God

changed her name to Sarah—signifying “princess” to all.

o Why did this name change occur?

1. God reveals that answer in verse 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.”

a. Sarah in the Bible: a princess

i. Sarah was blessed by God to become a royal princess.

1. She would be a mother of nations to come.

2. She would also be a mother of kings of peoples.

3. Royal lineages would come from her.

4. She would be the mother of the royal line of King David

from which Jesus the Savior would come.

5. Sarah was promised a son, and his name was to be

called Isaac (verse 19).
 6. God would establish His covenant with him (as He did
with Abraham) for an everlasting covenant, and God
would also establish His covenant with the descendants
of Isaac.

ii. Notice what God said to Isaac in Genesis 26:3-4:

1. “Dwell in this land, and I will be with you and bless you;
for to you and your descendants I give all these lands,
and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham
your father.

2. And I will make your descendants multiply as the stars

of heaven; I will give to your descendants all these
lands; and in your seed all the nations of the earth shall
be blessed.”

iii. That promised Seed was Jesus Christ!

b. Sarah in the Bible: a symbol of the New Covenant

Scripture
Gal 4:22-28
22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman
and the other by the free woman. 23 His son by the slave woman was
born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the
result of a promise.

24 These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two
covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are
to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in
Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in
slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and
she is our mother. 27 For it is written:

"Be glad, O barren woman,

who bears no children;
break forth and cry aloud,
you who have no labor pains;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband."

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

NIV

i. The apostle Paul refers to Sarah as the “freewoman” in

Galatians 4. What did he mean by that?

1. In the early years of Isaac’s life, he was scoffed at by

Hagar’s son Ishmael.

2. “Therefore she [Sarah] said to Abraham, ‘Cast out this

bondwoman [Hagar] and her son [Ishmael]; for the son
of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac”
(Genesis 21:10).

3. God told Abraham to listen to Sarah (verse 12).

ii. Paul used this situation as symbolic of the spiritual

inheritance God offers.

1. God’s promise was not fulfilled by Abraham and Sarah’s

efforts or their plan to have a child through Hagar.

2. By a miracle God gave Abraham his promised heir

through Sarah.

iii. Sarah’s prophetic words were quoted again by Paul to teach

an important lesson regarding the New Covenant:

1. Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid, was a bondwoman and

symbolized Jerusalem “which now is, and is in bondage
with her children.”

2. Sarah, on the other hand, was “the freewoman,” the true

wife of Abraham, and she was a symbol of heavenly
Jerusalem above.
 3. Jerusalem above is the mother of all of us who are born
of God, children of faith and promise.

iv. "Through faith, Sarah received the miracle of being able to

conceive a child in her old age, and she bore to Abraham a
son of promise, Isaac.

1. She became the mother of many nations and the mother

of a royal line of kings.

c. Sarah became a symbolic type of Jerusalem above.

i. "This is further explained in verses 28-31:

Scripture
Gal 4:28-31
28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 At that time
the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of
the Spirit. It is the same now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? "Get rid
of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never
share in the inheritance with the free woman's son." 31 Therefore,
brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
NIV
ii. We are children of promise as Isaac was.

1. And Sarah and Abraham are now counted as our

ancestors in the faith, if we have faith.

iii. They will be counted as the parents of many believing

nations.

Scripture
Gal 3:29
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise.
NIV
Transition
What does this mean for us today?

Sarah’s example for Christian today.

3. Hello my name is……

 As a wife and mother, Sarah set an example that Christian’s to follow:

Scripture
1 Peter 3:1-6
3:1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any
of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by
the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of
your lives. 3 Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such
as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. 4 Instead,
it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and
quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. 5 For this is the way the
holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make
themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, 6 like
Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her
daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.
NIV

a. Submissive

i. Sarah was not a push over she was a strong woman but she
also was a powerful example being on how to be submissive.

1. She had and internal beauty that was even more

beautiful that her external beauty.

ii. Wives you might be thinking if my husband wasn’t such a

mess up then maybe I would.

1. Well has you husband given you to Pharaoh or King

Abimolech

2. Not even one of the greats men who walked the face of
the earth was all that!
 iii. But this submissiveness not only relates to family but also to
work, church, school, and nation.

Scripture
1 Peter 3:1-6
3:1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any
of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by
the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of
your lives.

1. This is a powerful result of being submissive, it draw

people to Christ.

iv. In our nation this week we have felt a great turmoil the truth
is that we have been trying to fix our nation through politics
when the true problem is spiritual.

Scripture
Eph 5:21
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
NIV

b. Faith

i. Who would have said to Abraham that his wife would have a
child at an advanced age?

ii. Only God could have said so and also brought it to pass.

iii. Sarah is truly one of the women of faith.

iv. She came to know that no obstacle is too hard for God to
overcome.

v. Nothing is too hard for God to accomplish.

vi. That is the faith she had. Is that the faith you have?
Scripture
Gen 18:10-12
10 Then the LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next
year, and Sarah your wife will have a son."

Now Sarah was listening at the entrance to the tent, which was behind
him. 11 Abraham and Sarah were already old and well advanced in years,
and Sarah was past the age of childbearing. 12 So Sarah laughed to
herself as she thought, "After I am worn out and my master is old, will I
now have this pleasure?"
NIV

Scripture
Gen 21:5-7
5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

6 Sarah said, "God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears
about this will laugh with me." 7 And she added, "Who would have said to
Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in
his old age."
NIV

c. Laugh

i. Sarah once laughed when told that she would have a son.

1. But her laugh was turned into a laugh of amazement,

triumph and delight when Isaac was born:

ii. Who would have said to Abraham that his wife would have a
child at an advanced age?

1. Only God could have said so and also brought it to pass.

2. And all of Sarah’s children will hear her story and laugh
with her through all the ages—a laugh of the triumph of
faith in the mighty power of God.
Closing
Sarah is truly one of the women of Submission, faith, and Laughter.

She came to know that no obstacle is too hard for God to overcome.

Nothing is too hard for God to accomplish. That is the faith she had.

This remind me that when Sarai got married to Abraham she took on his
name so we take on a new name when we become the bride of Christ.