Abram and Sarai were old! I am sorry. I don't know any other way to say it. I know that now-a-days people like Abram and Sarai are called "Senior Citizens." But Abram and Sarai were just plain old. Even by modern standards they were old. Abram was 99 years old and Sarai was 90.

Picture them if you will. See them standing next to each other in front of you. Abram is mostly bald. What little hair is left is white. His beard is long and white. Sarai's hair is also long and white. Sarai is stooped over a little and Abram has a cane. "Wisdom lines" run across their faces. And given that your typical nomad in the 20th century B.C. didn't have access to false teeth, their lips are drawn in because of as lack of teeth to support them.

And they have no children. They've never had any. No descendants whatsoever. At their 75th wedding anniversary there were no children or grandchildren or great grandchildren, just Lot and a few great nephews and nieces. They are old and barren. It just so happens that God wanted to make a nation. So God decided that Abram and Sarai were the prefect couple to start with.

The prefect couple? Perfect for what? God's purpose was to create a nation; a new race of people created to serve God's will. A chosen people that were holy and set apart for God's use. To make this nation God would begin by giving a special child to just the right couple. This was a child of promise who would bear the promise of God's grace and who was destined to father a nation.

With all due respect to Abram and Sarai, by human standards they were not the perfect couple to receive this child of promise. Imagine you are an adoption agent, and you have been given the job of placing this child of destiny with a family. Would you choose an elderly couple: he's almost 100 and she's not far behind. Would you place this child with a couple that has no experience raising children. Would you let a family that lives in a tent adopt this child.

No, human standards demand just the opposite! You would find a younger couple in their late 20's or 30's. After all you would like to think that the parents would still be alive to see this child graduate from high school. You would also choose a couple who already have well adjusted children because that demonstrates parenting skills. You would also choose a family that is not moving around all the time so that the child would have a stable home environment. By human standards an elderly, childless, nomadic couple is anything but the perfect couple.

By human standards Abram and Sarai are the last couple to start with in making a nation. But by God's standards, they were the perfect couple. God works in a different way and with different criteria than people do. People look for the optimal situation. A situation where there is already hope and life. A situation where the desired goal, in this case descendants, already seems possible. Then all that is required is assisting the already naturally existing tendencies.

But God doesn't work that way. God Almighty is a God of miracles. God looks for the most impossible and the most hopeless situation to start with. Our Heavenly Father is one who makes the impossible, possible. God is the one who brings life out of lifelessness. God makes the hopeless hopeful.

You see, by God standards Abram and Sarai are the perfect couple. The book of Hebrews says that Abram was as good as dead (Hebrews 11:12), yet God brought forth life from them. A 90-year-old woman and 99-year-old man have a child! Impossible! But God makes the impossible possible. Abram and Sarai were a hopeless case, but God gave them hope. Anyone could produce a nation from a young couple. But only God could do it with a couple like Abram and Sarai. There would be no mistaking whose nation this was.

Jesus' death and resurrection is another example of God making the impossible possible, bringing hope out of hopelessness, of God bring life out of death. Jesus tried to explain this to his disciples. He told them plainly that the Son of Man must suffer and die and on the third day rise. But this didn't make sense to them. Jesus was the Messiah, a great King, and great kings don't die before they have been crowned. By human standards the Messiah was supposed to go to Jerusalem, conquer the Romans, and establish the Kingdom of God.

That was the way humans think not the way God thinks. Jesus explained God's plan to the disciples. The Son of Man was going to Jerusalem - that part was fine! But once in Jerusalem he would be rejected and die on a cross and rise on the third day. That just didn't add up by human standards. By human standards you needed a palace and an army: that was the perfect couple for bringing forth a mighty King. According to God's standards the perfect couple for bringing forth the King of Kings was a cross and a tomb.

It has been said that Christianity is the only religion that has taken an instrument of torture, the cross, and turned it into an object of beauty. We decorate our churches with crosses and we wear them around our necks. If you think about what a cross really is, it is like we are wearing electric chairs or gas chambers around our necks. But that's not completely true. Electric chairs and gas chambers are designed to put people to death as painlessly and quickly as possible. The cross was designed to torture people to death in as painful and lengthy a way as possible. Yet God took this instrument of torture and sin and turned it into the means by which sin is forgiven. Through the cross God brings and end to the spiritual torture of eternal separation from our Creator. And then God took the tomb, a place to death and decay, and made it a womb that brings forth eternal life.

That is God's way of doing things. God brings hope out of hopelessness. God creates light out of darkness. God makes the impossible possible. Our Heavenly Father brings life forth from lifelessness.

Are there situations in your life that seem hopeless? Does your family life, your marriage, or your spiritual life seem to be a hopeless case? Does your spiritual life feel dead and lifeless? Do you sometimes feel like you dwell in darkness? If so, that is the perfect situation for God to work. God specializes in bringing life out of death, and hope out of hopelessness. God majors in making the impossible possible.

Just turn it over to God. But when you do turn it over to God, you will be changed. God changed Abram and Sarai. They went from childlessness to being the parents of a nation. They went from being as good as dead to bringing forth life. They went from being no people to being God's people. And God changed their names as a sign of this change. God changed them and God will change you.

God can bring life to the deadness in you. After all God brought us his eternal love and loyalty through the disloyalty of Jesus' disciples. It was God who offers us eternal life through the death of his Son. It was God who used a cross and a tomb to bring forth new life. And if you accept Christ and put your whole trust in him, God will do the same for you. God will take the deadness and darkness in you and make it light and life. And your Heavenly Father will make hope possible even if things are impossibly hopeless.

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to dust. The story goes that a preacher was visiting a family and one of the children had a burning question to ask. Like a good student the child raised her hand during the discussion and when she got the preachers attention she asked, "Is it true that we all came from dust and we all return to dust." The preacher answered carefully because he could see how serious she was. He said, "Yes, the Bible tells us that God made us out of the dust of the earth and that when we die our bodies return to dust." Then the child looked shocked and exclaimed, "Well, someone is either coming or going under my bed!"

The Bible reminds us that we were all made from the dust of the earth, and to it we will return. In the opening chapters of Genesis, God takes clay and breathes life into it. And the first human being was created. But that same creation story tells of how humanity fell. And as a result of the fall, sin came into the world. And because of sin, death.

The season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday. The fact that we are nothing but ashes and dust is part of the theme of this season of the Christian year. This theme is perhaps the most important part of Lent. It is so important because it is true. We don't like to think of those things. We would rather accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. Lent makes us look at our own sinfulness and finiteness. Without God we are as lifeless as the dust of the earth and we are as dead as the rocks beneath our feet.

Our lessons today deal with this reality of the deadness of the human race. One is about a promise of life from a lifeless and barren womb. The other is about the death of our Lord. Both teach us important lessons.

The first of these lessons is about God making a covenant with Abraham. Now Abraham was old. That would be true even by today's standards, and life expectancy is a lot better now then it was back then. The Bible says that Abraham was 99 years old. Abraham was so old that Paul says in Romans that Abraham considered his own body to be as good as dead. Abraham was old but Sarah was not far behind him. She was probably in her late eighties. The two of them had reached that point in their lives when most people sit in rocking chairs on their front porches and spend their time keeping track of how many great grandchildren they have. The problem was they had never had any children. Sarah was barren and much too old to bear children, or so she thought.

Then God came to Abraham to make a covenant with him. God appeared to Abram and said, "I want to make a deal with you. You walk blameless before me and I will make you a great nation. You shall no longer be called Abram, exalted father, but you shall be called Abraham, Father of multitudes." But how could Abram become a great nation, he had no children? He was the end of his line. But there was Ishmael, Abraham's son by Sarah's servant. He could produce descendants. But God said, "Your wife Sarai shall no longer be called Sari but Sarah, princess. And I will bless her and she will bear you a child, and she shall be the mother of nations." Surely God was kidding! Could a 100-year-old man have a baby boy? Could a 90-year-old woman bear a child? And Abraham laughed until he was rolling on the ground. And he said "O.K. God. Just bless Ishmael and we will all be happy. Anyway, I am too old to be chasing after my own children." God said "That�s your way, I�m God around here and I have other plans. Your wife Sarah will bear a son. And my promise will be fulfilled through him."

The lifeless womb of Sarah was a reality. The physical reality is that a ninety-year-old woman cannot bear children. Life could not be produced from a couple that was so old they were close to returning to dust themselves. But God decided to make Abraham a nation that would follow the Almighty who can do all things. God decided to take something lifeless and create life out of it. That was inconceivable to Abraham, but that is how God Almighty decided to do it.

Thousands of years later Peter was sitting with the disciples listening to Jesus. And as they were sitting there Jesus began to tell them that the Son of Man must suffer. He will be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes. He will be killed. And on the third day he will rise again. Jesus said this plainly so that they would not misunderstand him.

But Peter pulled him aside. "No, Lord you have it all wrong. You are the Messiah the anointed one of God. Just a minute ago you asked me who I thought you were, and I said you are the Messiah, and I believe that. You are supposed to go to Jerusalem and all the people will hail you as king. You will not die, you will live forever. Long live the King!"

But Jesus said, "Peter you have it all wrong. That is this world's way, but my way is different. My way is to bring life out of death. The world says, �Look out for yourself, save what you've got.� But my way says, �If you try to preserve your life you will lose it and if you lose your life for my sake you will preserve it unto eternal life.� I must die to bring you eternal life. This is my way of doing things. This is my Father's way of doing things. If you can't accept that, you cannot be a part of me."

We live in a world where death is a reality. There is the death of sin. There is the lifelessness of our stone cold culture. There is the decay of our own bodies and the death of our loved ones. There is the mass death of war. And there is the lifelessness of the human soul without God.

These things are real. They cannot be denied or painted over. But that is what we try to do. Our culture exalts youth. It is part of our attempt to deny the fact that we all will die. Instead we try to project the image that we are eternally young. One example of our attempt to deny the reality of death is the way we treat war. War is a war and people get killed. Sometimes innocent people. Sometimes a bomb, which is intended to destroy a bridge, hits a house and civilians are killed. And we refer to it as "collateral damage." The truth it that we come from dust and we return to dust.

But in the face of this reality Christ offers us hope. God's way is to bring life out of death. This is what our Scripture lessons show us. God made the lifeless womb of Sarah bear a great nation. God brought eternal life out of the death of Jesus the only begotten Son of God. And God brings life out of the deadness of the tomb. God has taken the grave and turned it into a womb that bears new life. Our Creator can take lifeless dust and breathe new life into it.

God can also take the dead and lifeless parts of our lives and breathe new life into them. But if we deny that these lifeless parts exist, no life will come out of them. If we deny the sin that kills our spirits, God cannot breathe new life into those spirits. The world�s way is to say, "Life can only come where there is life." But God's way is to bring life out of death. If we cannot accept that, we cannot be part of Christ. Only when we admit that we are dust and ashes can Christ breathe life into us.

Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. We are nothing but ashes and dust. But God can make us alive again. Do we want God to bring life out of the ashes and dust of our lives? If the answer is "yes" then let's lift up the sin and death in our hearts so Christ can make new life out of it.

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"God helps those who help themselves." I am not sure where this statement came from, but it was not the Bible. It's an expression that we all have used, myself included, but what does it mean? Well, for some it means that God helps but only if we get things started. If we believe something needs to be done we have to start it. Then God will pitch in and help. For others it means that God helps but only if we take responsibility for following through. So not only do we have to start something we have to make sure it gets finished. God in a sense is just there for moral support. And for a few it means God doesn't really help us. Oh, it may look like God has helped someone who completed a huge task. But the reality is that they did it all themselves. No matter which of the above understandings you have the basic idea behind "God helps those who help themselves" is that we humans are ultimately responsible for anything we accomplish.

This is what the world believes. You know in the church we have "Creeds" or "Affirmations of Faith" that are our statements of belief. Well the world has a creed too. It is the Creed of self reliance: It states: "I believe in the human ability to begin and complete anything." "I believe that my initiative is at the center of the universe." "I believe that the power of my intellect and my will are the greatest powers in the universe." "I believe in the human spirit, the human will, in me!"

In the church we have saints who are people whose lives are living examples of our beliefs in practice. The world has saints too, people like: Henry Ford, Donald Trump, Ted Turner. Henry Ford began with an idea in a small workshop and before he was finished the automobile which had been a plaything of the rich became commonplace. Donald Trump a man who has built a corporate empire on casinos and entertainment. Ted Turner began with a small billboard business in Atlanta and he now owns one of the fastest growing communications empires and a World Series winning baseball team. These are self-made self-starters who demonstrate the worldly belief that God helps those who help themselves.

But the Bible paints for us a different picture. It hold up for us the example of Abraham. Who was Abraham? The Bible tells us that he was an old man; very old by his days standards. And all he had done in life was follow his father to Haran, marry Sari and grow old with no children. Abraham's only accomplishment in life is that he sat there. Abraham was not a self starter. He had done little or nothing worth noting. He had lived and grown old. It was God who got Abraham started. God came and I imagine Abram was sitting on his front porch in his rocking chair when God said, "Get Up! And go to a land that I will show you."

Not only was Abraham not a self starter he didn't have the ability to finish the job he started. What was the job you may ask? Producing a holy nation of decedents for God. He wasn't able to produce descendants; he was too old. And Sarah is wife was barren. And when he did try to start the job by taking a young wife Hagar, he just messed things up.

Abraham didn't start the job, he couldn't finish it without help and he didn't finish it. God had to intervene and it was over 500 after Abraham's death that the job was finished. Abraham was given the job of making a nation of righteous people for God. The Bible says that his faith was reckoned unto him as righteousness. In other words he wasn't really righteous by God's standards but because of his faith God decided to give him the righteousness he needed. He didn't even do that part by himself.

Abraham was not a self starter or a self made man, but I don't want to get the idea that he did nothing. He may not have started or completed his journey to the promised land, but he did journey. Abraham didn't start himself but he did respond when God called him to start. But he did more than just go, he went in faith. And in faith he believed in the promises God made to him even when God asked him to sacrifice his only son.

Paul emphasizes this point in his letter the to Romans. He writes (Rom 4:18-22) "18. In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations; as he had been told, 'So shall your descendants be.'" God had told Abraham that his descendants would be like the stars in the sky, but that seemed hopeless. But because he believed in God and his word Abraham and Sarah hoped anyway. "19. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead because he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb." Abraham and Sarah were near death, how could a nation be born from them? Most people would give up but their faith did not waver. As Paul said, "20. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21. fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." And in conclusion the Bible says, "22. That is why his faith was 'reckoned to him as righteousness.'"

Abraham was not a self-made man; he was a God made man. But God did not make Abraham the father of a holy nation without Abraham's consent or participation. Abraham had to first put his faith in God to receive the promises God made to him. And Abraham is an example to us. The world may say, "God helps those who help themselves" but Abraham proved that God helps those who cannot help themselves but who have faith.

The problem is that there is a part of us that believes that if we only try harder we will succeed; that only we can help ourselves. Even in the church this is true. A person feels called by God to do something. If they fail and their first response is to say, "I should have tried harder." A church or ministry feels called of God to take on a project and it falls apart and they say, "We should have applied ourselves more." The evaluation is always "we should have raised more money" or "we should have recruited more workers," or "we should have done more research," or we...we...we... Maybe the truth is that we should have prayed more or simply trusted God or that we should trust God that even though we have failed God is not finished yet.

We think that it is by our intelligence, our wealth, our creativity, or our will that things are accomplished. But the Bible tells us it is by faith that God's promises come about. Trust in the God who is able to make the impossible possible. Oh yes we may seem to fail in the short run. We may not even see the fulfillment of the plan God has stared with us, but if we trust, God will bring it to completion.

That is true about all things. You cannot do anything worth doing by your own power. We cannot do anything worth doing by our power. That is true in every part of our lives. In our personal, family, business and religious lives. We must trust God for his promises of blessing to be realized. Then why try anything? Because God calls us just as God called Abraham and Sarah. And when God calls, go in faith and your faith will be reckoned unto you as righteousness and God's promises will be fulfilled in and through your life.

God's promises are not dependent upon our goodness or strength. They are dependent upon the goodness and strength of God. So follow the example of Abraham and just do as the old hymn says and trust and obey. Think about it. Trump Towers, made by the power of humanity, is built upon human will and it will be dust in a few hundred years. But the people of God have been around for four thousand years. I think I will choose to be a God made man not a self made man. What about you?

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