Leading The Way

Guest (Female): Hi, my name is Tammy. I would like to tell Dr. Youssef that he can make a horrible morning absolutely wonderful. I can be in the midst of feeling so sorry for myself and my circumstances and turn on Dr. Youssef and listen to his passion that he has towards Christ and absolutely turn my heart around and make me so thankful that Jesus Christ is who he is, who he says he is, and what he always will be in my life.

He has an impact on me through the radio, through his newsletters, and I so enjoy his encouragement in my personal Christian life. I'm so thankful for his ministry in my life. Thank you, Dr. Youssef.

Guest (Male): Dr. Michael Youssef is the author of more than 50 books, including his most recent life-impacting, Winning the Invisible War. So as we begin, please do remember that Leading the Way is listener supported. Dr. Youssef relies on God's provision through those blessed by the worldwide ministry of Leading the Way. He also volunteers all of his time and gives all of his proceeds from books to the ministry.

Learn ways to stand in generosity with Leading the Way when you give us a call at 866-626-4356. And online, we're at ltw.org. Right now, listen with us as Dr. Michael Youssef begins today's teaching from his series, Counting Stars in an Empty Sky: A Deep Dive into the Life of Abraham.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Scientific study has shown that laughter is connected to our immune system. Laughter actually affects our hormones and our white cell counts. Laughter even raises the level of pain tolerance. I just thought about this for a minute and then I said, all the scientists need to do is to go 3,000 years ago and read Proverbs 17:22. Here is what the word of God said 3,000 years ago: Laughter does the heart good like a medicine, but a broken spirit makes the body sick.

I think of all the people in the world that ought to be joyful all the time regardless of the circumstances are the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet, I think the reason why we're not joyful and we easily lose our joy is because we take ourselves too seriously. We really do. That's part of the problem.

If you want joy unspeakable and if you want the joy to stay with you, I want you to turn with me please to Genesis 21. I'm going to show it to you in those first seven verses because here you're going to discover that counting stars when you see none, the count begins with one. And we find it here.

We have been seeing this story of the life of Abraham, that Abraham was a man to whom God said, look up to the heavens and you start counting stars. In the Middle East, in the desert, when you look up at night, you can see the stars with clarity, not like in the cities here. And he said, you start counting and that's how many descendants you'll have.

Of course, he was talking about spiritual descendants that come through Jesus Christ because Paul said that the blessing of Abraham came through a seed that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Abraham looks up to heaven and starts counting: one, two, three, four, five, 1,000,000, 1,000,001, 1,000,002. Then he loses count, go back, start counting again. He was doing that for between 25 to 30 years.

Finally, at this point of his life when he's 100 and Sarah is 90, they get star number one and they named him Isaac, which means laughter. That's what it means. But the one thing I couldn't get out of my head for over a week as I'm praying and thinking and reflecting on this passage, the one thing I could not help but find it here is the graciousness of our God. It is absolutely mind-boggling.

Because the Lord takes Sarah's laughter of disbelief and he changes it and gives her a laughter of joy. He takes her laughter of being incredulous and he turns it into the laughter of the indescribable. He takes her laughter of sarcasm and he gives her the laughter of salvation. What a God we worship. What a great God we have.

After all of the waiting, finally, a son of promise comes, has been born and his name is Laughter. Sarah could have sung Psalm 126:1 and 2, except it was not written yet. It was written 3,000 years later. When the Lord brought back the captives to Zion, we were like men who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.

I think Sarah would have paraphrased that. Sarah would have sung: While the Lord brought back fertility to my old body, I was like one who's dreaming. My mouth was filled with laughter and my tongue with a song of joy. That's what Sarah said. She said, the Lord has brought me laughter. But he did not bring laughter only to her.

He brought laughter to generations and generations and generations and generations to come who are going to read the story of Sarah and they will laugh. But there's something here I don't want you to miss. The reason for joyful laughter in Sarah and Abraham's life, sure, the birth of Isaac, I wouldn't minimize that whatsoever, but I genuinely believe that the real joy that has come into their heart is their delight in the Lord.

Question: what lessons did Abraham and Sarah learn through these 25-30 years of waiting? What lessons can you and I learn from this? What God had done will cause generations to come to trust in the faithfulness of God. And here we are 4,000 years later. We are reading and we are encouraged about the faithfulness of God.

We can read of how in spite of their doubt, in spite of their partial belief, in spite of their taking matters into their own hands, in spite of the fact that they thought they could help God out, in spite of only a year earlier they were distrusting in the promise, and yet they learned the important lessons. There are three in number, I want to share them with you.

First of all, they learned that God always keeps his word. That's why I told you in the last message that you must never, ever, ever give up praying for an unsaved family member. Must never give up. Trust the Lord. I pray that if you're praying for an unsaved family member, that you will see it in your lifetime. But even if you don't see it in your lifetime, God is going to keep his word. He keeps his word, all the time.

Secondly, Abraham and Sarah learned that God is a powerful God. God is a mighty God. He is El Shaddai. Nothing is impossible with God. Can you say that with me? Nothing is impossible with God. For emphasis at the supernatural power of God that worked and brought about star number one, for emphasis, it is repeated three times in seven verses.

Three times: verse 2, verse 5, and verse 7, as if to say, don't ever forget this lesson. What is impossible for man is possible with God. But some of you probably say, well Michael, I understand that, it's in the Bible and I believe the Bible, but you don't understand my situation is different. You don't understand my problem is huge. You don't understand my opposition is so strong. You don't understand it is too late for me. I'm too old or I'm too young or I'm too this and I'm too the other thing.

Our God is a God of the impossible. Sarah was not only given the strength to conceive a baby—this is the amazing part—she was given the strength to nurse the baby. And not only that, but she was given the supernatural strength to nurse the baby. Abraham, his body was so rejuvenated, so renewed by the power of El Shaddai, that he fathered six more children after Sarah died when he married Keturah. How do you like them apples?

Now, when God miraculously heals, it is not a partial healing. When God miraculously heals, it is complete. It's instant restoration. When God calls you to a task, he will equip you to the task to perform it. The third lesson Abraham and Sarah have learned and we should learn is that God is in no hurry to carry out his promise.

Now this is the bugaboo to a lot of Christians. Am I right? I know it is because I know it in my life. He rather, as the Bible said, makes all things beautiful in his time. I know and you know that one of the hardest things we face in life is what seems to be God's delay. And I've been saying throughout this series of messages, God's delay does not mean denial.

The word of God is true whether you experience it or not. The word of God is true whether you believe it or not. But I think most of us can testify to the difficulty of dealing with God's delays. You see, when we pray and God delays in his answer, doesn't come immediately, we fume, we fuss, and we fret. And sometimes we're tempted to answer our own prayers. We've seen it here. Abraham and Sarah learned to trust God while they waited.

But there is a far bigger picture here than even those magnificent lessons that they learned and we are learning. There's a far greater picture. Isaac's birth to Abraham and Sarah brought them delight, taught them three things about God, but there's even more, what the kids will call a humongous picture beyond that. This is far bigger and far greater and is beyond the birth of Isaac, the son of promise.

The birth of Isaac is a foreshadowing of another supernatural birth. The birth that would take place 2,000 years after Isaac. This is a foreshadowing of Jesus's birth. It will become actually clearer in the next message. You see, when God saved Isaac from sacrifice and Abraham said, Yahweh Yireh, Jehovah Jireh, God will provide, he was saying that God will provide himself the sacrifice. Indeed he was prophesying of the coming of Jesus.

And that is why Jesus said to those hard-headed Pharisees, he said, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced. And they want to kill him. What do you mean? You're not even 50 years old. Can you say Abraham saw your day? If you look closely at Isaac, you will find him prefiguring of Jesus in many points and I want to just share seven of them.

Seven similarities between the birth of Isaac and the birth of Jesus. First, Isaac and Jesus were sons of promise. In Genesis 3:15, God said to Adam and Eve that he's going to send his son and he's going to come and he's going to crush the serpent's head. That was the first promise about the coming of Jesus. And God affirmed it again and again and again in the pages of the Scripture until you come to Isaiah 7:14, 700 years before the birth of Jesus.

The second commonality between Isaac and Jesus is the period of delay between the time they were promised and the time actually took place. Now, in the case of Isaac, it was 25-30 years. In the case of Jesus, the delay was thousands of years. The third commonality between Isaac and Jesus is that when Sarah asked in chapter 18 verse 13, Will I really have a child at my old age? Verse 14 answers it. God said, Is anything impossible for God?

At the birth of Jesus, Mary, who had far greater faith than that of Sarah, when she asked in Luke 1:34, How can that be? I'm a virgin, I've never been with a man. Verse 37 of Luke 1, the angel said, Nothing is impossible with God. Let's say that again: Nothing is impossible with God.

And the fourth similarity is this: the names of both Isaac and Jesus were symbolic. They were symbolic. They were given these names by God himself. He's the one who named them before either were born. God told Abraham, you shall call his name Isaac. In Matthew 1:21, God said to Joseph that Mary will give birth to a son and you shall call his name is Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin.

And the fifth similarity: both births occurred at the appointed time. This probably is the most stunning similarity of all. Like the birth of Isaac, Jesus's birth was exactly on God's schedule. Not too early and not too late. Sixth similarity between Isaac and Jesus is that both were regarded as miraculous births. Now, of course, the miracle of Jesus's birth is far greater because it did not require a man at all.

But that is expected because the shadow is not greater than the real. The real person is greater than its shadow. And therefore Isaac was a shadow, but the greater is the real thing, and that's Jesus. Finally, the seventh is that matter of joy. To be sure, the birth of any child brings joy to the family, they bring joy to the community, they bring joy to the relatives.

But the joy of Abraham and Sarah continued from generation to generation to generation. In Mary's case, her unspeakable joy is your joy, it's my joy, it's the joy of millions of people around the world who come to put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Luke 1:46, Mary said, My soul glorifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

But think with me just for a minute. The birth of Jesus and the joy of Mary and Joseph had nothing to do with the surrounding circumstances. In fact, if they were dependent on the surrounding circumstances, they would have been miserable, not rejoicing. Oh, you know the story as well as I do. Pregnant, no father. Back then, you'll get stoned. Outward circumstances were miserable.

Pregnant in a strange part of the country, no place to have the baby. Going from door to door looking for a place. All of these difficult outward circumstances could have stolen their joy. Oh, but they didn't. Beloved, listen to me. In the same way for all of us who are saved only through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, only saved through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, we have inner joy regardless of our circumstances.

We have inner peace regardless of our surroundings. We have inner contentment regardless of the events in life. If there are seven similarities between the birth of Isaac and the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe there are four similarities between Isaac's birth and our rebirth. Our being born again. Our spiritual birth.

Number one, the birth of Isaac was humanly impossible. The bodies of Abraham and Sarah for all intents and purposes were dead. Though they were living, their bodies were dead. And that's precisely what we were before our hearts were invigorated, regenerated, and the Holy Spirit awakened us to the desperate need for salvation.

Ephesians 2:1 says that we were dead in our sin and it had to take a supernatural intervention of God to wake us up. We could no more rise ourselves to rebirth and to a new life and be saved than Sarah could have naturally borne Isaac. Both needed supernatural intervention and that is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. Unless you're born again, you will not see heaven.

That's the bottom line. You could be in church all of your life, but if you're not born again, you will not go to heaven. But if you're born of the spirit of God, it is supernatural. Secondly, the second similarity between Isaac's miraculous birth and our supernatural spiritual birth is faith. The Bible said Abraham believed God and was counted to him righteousness.

And when you and I are raised spiritually to life, we placed our whole trust, we placed our faith in Jesus as our Lord and as our Savior. We were spiritually reborn. And the third similarity here, we see again clearly in Romans chapter 4, between Isaac's birth and our spiritual birth, it was so that God may get all of the glory. All of the glory.

In our spiritual rebirth, it is not of good works, good as that may be. It is not by good works that we are saved. Why? Lest we get the glory. Through faith alone we're saved, lest anyone take the credit. 1 Corinthians 1:28 and 29, Paul said, God chose the lowly things of this world, the despised things, the things that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast.

Fourth and the final similarity between Isaac's birth and our spiritual rebirth, you see again in Romans 4, that even the events of the life of Abraham were not written for him alone. They were written for us so that we may come to believe and receive the righteousness of God, just as he believed and received the righteousness of God. Abraham received a miracle and it's only a miracle that will bring about a spiritual birth.

Guest (Male): Spiritual birth is an amazing miracle. We pray this Leading the Way episode helped you see how your faith is supernatural. It's worthy of honoring and cherishing. And if you have any questions about beginning a personal faith journey or deepening your faith walk, please begin a conversation with one of the Leading the Way pastors or counselors.

All you have to do is fill out a contact form at ltw.org/jesus. And as we close out this episode, I want to mention several free resources available from Leading the Way. First of all, a reminder that the place to get these resources is ltw.org. Now when the page loads, click on Store, it's right near the top of the page, and then look for Digital Resources.

It's a link right below the banner and those resources will then populate. Staff and listener favorite is Why Does God Allow Evil? That touches on so many life experiences of people today. You see, faith questions always rise to the surface when tragedy or loss occurs. And the words of Dr. Youssef in Why Does God Allow Evil? really shed some light and clarity on those times of struggle.

Read this to be ready to encourage someone you know who's going through difficulties or read it to draw yourself closer to God in those struggles. Ordering is so easy, just add that to your cart and then go through the simple checkout process. Again, the website is ltw.org. Okay, while you're online, make sure that you look through the entire resource store.

You'll see another free resource called My Devotional. My Devotional is the daily email with encouraging words from Dr. Youssef and the Bible, and know that My Devotional is also available as an email and as a daily audio podcast. Remember that you can always speak to a ministry representative at the Leading the Way call center about resources. That number is 866-626-4356. Well, on behalf of Dr. Michael Youssef, allow me to extend this invitation for you to listen again next time right here for more Leading the Way audio.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Before we run out of time for today, as an encouragement to our fellow listeners, I would like to invite you to share how God is using this program to encourage you in your walk of faith. I believe it is important to give testimony of how God is working in your life, and if Leading the Way is part of that, we would want to know.

You can call our testimony line at 877-941-7934. Now I want to hear all about it and we just might share it on the program. That is 877-941-7934. Do it today. Thank you in advance and God bless.

Guest (Male): This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.