The women in Bikers For Christ are partners in the ministry. Whether they are behind the scenes giving prayer coverage as prayer warriors or riding side by side, sharing the gospel. God’s plan is that we are partners in ministry. See below from God’s holy word in the story of Abraham and Sarah.
ABRAM AND SARAI (Abraham and Sarah)
It is my hope that you will find it helpful in your calling to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am writing this as a guide for those couples that are in a ministry. The story of Abram and Sarai is the story of two people in a ministry that birthed a nation under the One True GOD. They each had different roles but changed the face of the world as we know it. It starts in Gen 11: 29 when Abram took Sarai as his wife.
First, let us take a moment to understand the word TOOK. As I see it, this means no courtship, no dating. Just a knowing that God has called them to each other. Now when Abram took Sarai as his wife, they knew that God had put them together. It was that ‘love at first sight’ thing going on. See, Sarai was ‘quite a looker’, as the way we would put it. God’s word never said Abram stood out in that way though. He was plain. (Gen 12: 11 – 13)
But God’s Word clearly shows that Abram was afraid for his own life. He had Sarai tell a lie. Why would he have her lie? Abram did this so that the rulers and the people of the land in Egypt, would not kill him and take her. Abram wanted Sarai to deny being married to him. He did this in fear of being killed. Another thing; Abram never told Sarai to hide her beauty, just to lie and say that he was her brother. With a beauty so stunning, many would kill to keep her. He was not the best catch in the pond if you ladies know what I mean. However, he was very prideful in his catch.
I want to stop and look at the relationship that Abram and Sarai had. Let’s start with what we know from the Word of God. The promise and the blessing were given to Abram AFTER he and Sarai were married. We know by reading the Scriptures that Abram only had one wife, Sarai. Abram was true to Sarai and the vows of their marriage. Once he took Sarai to be his wife (Gen 12: 1 – 7), the Lord appeared to Abram. God told Abram that through him, the whole world would be blessed. He, himself, would be the father of a great nation. He believed in God Jehovah as the one and only God.
Abram believed in the promise that God gave him and nothing would change his mind. He thought this blessing would not only include himself but Sarai as well. He did not even take other wives, even though it was common during these times for men to marry more than one. He didn’t take another wife even when Sarai was barren and unable to have children. It was not until Sarai gave her slave to Abram so that they could conceive a child, was he ever with another woman. Remember, Sarai she was unable to bare children and was trying to ‘help’ God. This was the wrong thing to do, which she learned when God blessed her with a child of her own. As God’s word said, they were one in the flesh; but more than that, one in spirit and beliefs. Sarai had believed this until she offered up her slave Hagar. Sarai is God’s idea of what a wife’s relationship with her husband should be. This is why Peter said what he did about Sarah in 1 Peter 3: 5 – 6; that she was hoping in the promise, adorning herself in the love of God and Abram.
Now Sarai was a beautiful woman, and supported her husband in the promise, believing what the Lord had said to Abram. Hoping she could fulfill the promise that God gave to Abram, Sarai would do anything she could to support her husband. Even if it meant lying for him or giving another woman unto him. She knew that he was going to be the father of nations and would stand by him to see it happen. When Sarai was taken to be Abram’s wife, she went into the marriage completely and wholehearted. Not only did she take him as her husband, but she also took his relationship with God to heart. She supported the promise that God made to Abram and lived her life looking for the promise to be completed in him.
God made his covenant with both Abram and Sarai. As written in Genesis, God changed both their names; Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. (Gen 17: 5 and Gen 17: 15) In changing their names, it shows that it took both of them to complete the promise.
They honored God and honored each other. This was a sign of their relationship with God. Our relationship with each other reflects our relationship with God. If the promise was only with Abraham(Abram), then when Sarah’s (Sarai’s) handmaid, Hagar, gave birth to a son, that would have completed the promise. But God’s chosen people came from BOTH Abraham and Sarah. Only through them, TOGETHER, was the promise.
With this being said, how does the relationship between Abraham and Sarah relate to our lives?
Well, God made a nation, a way for all men to be righteous, and to receive the promise through His son Jesus.
Jesus came through God’s Chosen People. Abraham and Sarah were the father and mother of these Chosen People. They, Abraham and Sarah, had to be of ONE in mind, body, and spirit. Because they stood strong in their faith and trust in God’s promise, their descendant is Jesus. Their obedience allows you and me today to have a personal relationship with God and Jesus Christ.
Understand that the promise was first with Abraham, since he bore the mark of the Covenant, then with Sarah. God sees a husband and wife as ONE, and they need to work together towards one goal. Supporting each other and honoring each other in their ministries as Sarah did with Abraham.
Sarah supported the promise without question, lifting Abraham up and hoping in God. I can see her in prayer for Abraham sometimes, and at other times working hand in hand beside him.
She was about 76, still trying to support the promise God gave to Abraham when she gave Hagar to Abraham to ‘help’ with the Promise from God. When Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 99, God told Abraham that Sarah was going to be pregnant (Gen 17). It was then that God told Sarah that the Promise God’s chosen people was through HER, not Hagar. The Promise was through Abraham and Sarah NOT Abraham and another woman. Abraham was the father and Sarah was the mother.
Two different roles in the same promise. Each one supporting the other to fulfill the roles God gave them. Neither of them could have done it apart from the other. That is God’s plan for all of us. Not everyone is called to be a nurse or a truck driver, but we ARE called to support and pray for each other. And we must remember to work together in what God has called us to do, and in the position that God has ordained for us.
As husband and wife, we are a team. Whatever God has called you to do, support each within your calling. If it is praying, or going out in the field, that is exactly what you should be doing. We must remember to work together, in unity, in Christ.
Ladies, you have the same Blessing as your husband.
Men, without your “Sarah” how can the Blessing be fulfilled?
Thank you,
Pastor Don and Cyndy
(Taken from a sermon by Pastor Don)