The Power of ONE Week 2 – “The Power of ONE Decision”
Message Big Idea: ONE Decision has the power to redirect the course of your life.
Introduction:
How many people here today are suckers for shortcuts while you’re driving? I mean, when you drive, you
are always trying to find the quickest easiest way to get to where you are going – raise your hand. Ok, me
too. In fact, my favorite app for getting around is the Waze App. Anyone else? It’s just awesome! Always
giving me new ways to get places: including alleys and parking lots, Waze will do whatever it takes to get
me somewhere sooner! However…taking too many shortcuts can sometimes put us in quite a
predicament. Take for example these short-cutters…
OR …
OR…
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Now, I kind of feel bad for these people, because as I already confessed to you, I’m always looking for the
shortest most efficient way to get around. And I can understand their desire to get ‘er done. In fact, I’m
always cutting across medians like that last guy! I’m always looking for a shortcut. And why?
Well, I think it’s in our human nature. I don’t think this is just a “me” thing. I think it’s an “us” thing. And I
think it’s often because we don’t like to wait. This can be especially true when it comes to waiting on God.
Instead of trusting him, we take matters into our own hands. Instead of him being #1, we decide to make
ourselves #1.
During this series, The Power of One, we’re looking at the lives of a couple in the Old Testament: Abraham
and Sarah. And they too, like us, were looking for a shortcut. Except instead of trying to cut across a
median on highway, they were trying to take a shortcut in their journey of faith.
Setting The Context:
Last week we began our story of Abraham and Sarah as we watch it unfold in Genesis, chapters 12 and
15. We read that God promises Abraham that he would be blessed so he could be a blessing -- be made
into a great nation (Gen. 12: 1-3), and that he would have as many offspring as there are stars in the sky
(Gen. 15:5).
God called Abraham to follow him on a journey. He was called to leave the familiar and enter into the
unknown and unpredictable, clinging only to the promise that God would bless him and give him a family
that would impact the entire world.
But time went on and on and on…and on. And still no offspring. And Abraham and Sarah were growing
weary. Why?
According to theologian Von Rad, During that time “There was no greater sorrow for an Israelite woman
than childlessness.” For a woman to be without children in the patriarchal world was a misfortune of
overwhelming proportions. In Sarah’s day, that was the most important part of her existence, and for
Abraham it was the only way to pass on his inheritance and leave a legacy.
Childlessness in our time can be extremely painful, but in Abraham and Sarah’s day, it meant you had no
future.
Abraham & Sarah’s Shortcut
Faith Falters.
As the wait for God’s promise to be fulfilled seems to drag on and on with no hope in sight, Abram and
Sarai’s faith begins falters. Let’s pick up the story in Genesis 16 . . .
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian
servant named Hagar. 2 So Sarai said to Abram, “The LORD has prevented me from having children.
Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.’” (Genesis 16:1-2a)
It’s difficult for us to imagine the desperation Sarai must have felt at this point. It had been 10 years since
God promised her and Abram a son. She was now 75 years old.
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One translation says her first words to Abraham were something like: “Behold now . . .” (ESV). It’s difficult
to convey the depth of Sarai’s despair -- to understand the suffering, pain, and bitterness this brought the
couple; it is all compressed into Sarai’s opening words. It’s as if she is screaming to Abraham, “I can’t take
it anymore!
And as her faith falters, she makes a desperate proposal, suggesting that her husband, Abraham, sleep
with her servant in hopes of having a child through her. How desperate must she be to suggest that her
husband sleep with another woman in a last ditch effort to have a child?
Sarai’s proposal was desperate enough, but Abraham’s response conveys just how much their faith had
faltered as he agrees to her suggestion. (On screen: “And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal.” - Genesis
16:2b)
Guys, please take note – ladies don’t necessarily want you to take them up on everything they suggest,
especially when they are angry. And if the suggestion involves taking a leap or you being with another
woman, just give it a little time.
Doubt Overpowers
(Genesis 16:2-4a,15-16 on screen) So Abraham and Sarai do what we’re often tempted to do when we’re
weary from waiting and our faith falters: Our doubt over powers, and we take matters into our own
hands – we look for a shortcut. So Sarai arranges for Abram and Hagar to be together. She becomes
pregnant and gives birth to a son, and they name him Ishmael. So Abram and Sarai have a son, but he’s
not really what they hoped for and it’s not how God planned it.
Time for a moment . . .
 When was the last time you felt like God had forgotten about you or failed to come through for
you?
 Have you ever let doubt over power till you take matters into your own hands?
 Ever convince yourself that your only alternative is to take a shortcut even when you are pretty
certain it’s not what God would want for you?
For some reason this whole notion of shortcuts reminded me of this popular scene from an old Friends
episode where Ross, Rachel, and Chandler, and are moving a couch up a flight of stairs and Ross’s idea of
a shortcut is to simply . . . (wait for it) “PIVOT!”
(Video: Play Friends Clip “Pivot” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n67RYI_0sc0)
That scene cracks me up every time! Actually, over the summer one of my neighbors was moving out and
he knocked on my door asking if I had any tools. I said, ”Sure…but why?” He said he and his roommate
had tried to get their couch out of the living room and it got stuck in their stair hallway…and they were
going to take off the banister and try to get it out that way. I had wondered what all the noise was!
Turns out they didn’t want to pay movers and were trying to do it their way – you know, kind of a
shortcut! I really didn’t have too many tools and we had to do the treacherous and cut the couch in half!
Seriously, we had to destroy the couch cause it was stuck and we cut it up with this:
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Seriously! This shortcut ended in a couch being destroyed. And sadly, that’s what happens when we
don’t feel like God is coming through for us, and we take matters into our own hands. We can mess
things up pretty bad!
Cynicism Sets In (17:1-8,15-19) –
So not only does Abraham and Sarai’s faith falter and their doubt overpower, it wasn’t long until
cynicism set in.
Abraham was now 100 years old. It’s been 25 years since God first promised him a son. And now God
appears to him and says to him, “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a
multitude of nations! 5 What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead,
you will be called Abraham,[a] for you will be the father of many nations. 6 I will make you extremely
fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them!” (Genesis 17:46)
Then God says this about Sarai: “Regarding Sarai, your wife—her name will no longer be Sarai. From
now on her name will be Sarah. 16And I will bless her and give you a son from her! Yes, I will bless
her richly, and she will become the mother of many nations…” (Genesis 17:15-16)
And what is Abraham’s response to this news now? He laughs. And then he says, “How in the world can I
be a father now – I am 100 years old? And how can Sarah be a mom? She is 90 years old!” (On screen:
Genesis 17:17)
And when Sarah receives this news once again, she couldn’t hold back her cynicism. She laughs and gets
a little personal when she says, “How could a worn-out woman like me enjoy such pleasure,
especially when my master—my husband—is also so old?” (Genesis 18:12)
Apparently this was pre-Viagra! 
Our Faith Journey:
Cynicism. At Community believe the Bible isn’t something that just happened a long time ago, we believe
it is happening. What we mean by that is this: Aren’t we just like Abraham and Sarah? We too can become
cynical in our own spiritual journeys. Let me explain.
Here at Community we believe God designed us for 3 core relationships:

Our relationship with God
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

Our relationship with the Church
Our relationship with the World
We alliterate them by calling them: Celebrate, Connect, and Contribute.
When you first arrived at Community you likely heard us say something like:
 Come back, try more services, make this your home and attend regularly.
 After a while you heard us say join a small group – get connected! We want you to experience
biblical community and share life with those with who you are on a spiritual journey.
 And then shortly after, chances are you were invited to serve on one of our ministry teams: Kids’
City, StuCo, First Impressions, Creative Arts, Restore efforts.



Come to a weekly service
Join a small group
Serve on a team
And my guess is, you’ve loved them all (but of course I have a bias ). Here comes the tricky part.
We start off on our faith journey like Abraham and Sarah started their journey. We’re excited, motivated,
maybe even blown away by our new found friends and faith. But then we hit a wall:
 A small group lets us down
 A ministry isn’t quite what we thought it would be
 Church keeps talking about finances and money
 The music keeps getting louder
 Or That one teacher keeps teaching WAY TOOOOOOO LOOONGGG 
You feel let you down and over time your faith can falters, doubt overpowers, and cynicism can settle in.
And things aren’t quite like they used to be. The honeymoon is over and we find ourselves taking matters
into our own cynical hands: sometimes leaving the church or even worse, leaving God.
God Is Faithful
Speaking of God. There’s another character in Abraham and Sarah’s story that we haven’t said as much
about…
 He’s the one making all the promises.
 He’s the one assuring Abraham and Sarah that he hasn’t given up on them.
 He’s the one who remains constant even when cynicism sets in.
Yes, our God remained faithful to Abraham and Sarah, and you know what? He promises to remain
faithful to us, too. He never stops working towards what he promises even when it seems like there’s no
possible way.
And what is it that he promises?
 A life of comfort?
 A trouble-free existence?
 A worry-free life?
No. But what he does promise is that he will always be with us no matter what this life may bring.
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And I know some of you are here today and you’re feeling a lot like Abraham and Sarah. Maybe you can
relate to this story all too well, and what you want more than anything is what Abraham and Sarah
wanted more than anything, a child.
Others of you have been let down by a relationship that has gone south. You put so much hope in it and
now it’s nothing like what you thought it would be, and you are losing hope that it will ever be what you
want it to be.
Maybe you’re here today and you haven’t been following Jesus very long. And when you first made the
choice to follow him, everything was new and exciting. But over time those feelings have faded and you
long to feel once again what you know you once felt.
For some, maybe this whole ONE initiative hasn’t been what you hoped it would be. Maybe you made a
pledge, confident that God would come through for you, and it hasn’t happened or at least it hasn’t
happened the way you thought it would.
For others, you’ve never made God number one when it comes to your finances because you just can’t
imagine how it works. You hear about people being ridiculously generous - giving well beyond 10% and
they talk about how they’ve seen God come through over and over again, but you just can’t make sense
out of it (no pun intended).
In his letter to Christ-followers in Thessalonica, Paul has some reassuring words for us: “God will make
this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.” (1 Thess 5:24)
If you have hit a season in your spiritual journey where it seems like God has forgot his promise or he
may not be so faithful after all, you’re not the only one who has felt that way. Abraham and Sarah felt that
way, I have felt that way, and _____________________ felt that way.
Here is their story.
Video Testimony (Possibly the couple from Plainfield who left and then returned?)
Challenge :
I hope this doesn’t sound to cliche’, but when we stop making God #1 – that’s when doubt overpowers
and cynicism sets in. And I realize all sorts of circumstances can lead us put distance between us and God.
And doubt is part of the journey. But it’s never God who is walking away. God was always faithful to
Abraham and Sarah, and he is always faithful to you. He is absolutely unchanging. David, in Psalms,
reminds us of God’s faithfulness, when he says, “Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your
faithfulness to the skies. (Psalm 36:5)
Even if your faith has faltered and you feel overpowered by your doubts, the very next step you take can
be an opportunity to reaffirm your trust in him, to make him number one all over again.
This is not just about ONE. This is about LIFE. The ONE Initiative is a chapter in our faith story, it’s one leg
in the journey your life. But it’s a great opportunity to trust God with something very tangible and to
follow him in a very specific way. And there ay be moments in this ONE chapter when you will feel like
God has forgotten his promise and failed to remain faithful.
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In a couple of weeks we’re going to have what we call commitment Sunday. For some of you it’s an
opportunity to join us on this journey we call ONE. It’s an chance for you to come alongside thousands of
others who so want to make God #1 that they are making a faith-filled pledge
 So that more people can find their way back to God,
 So that children in places like the Philippines can have a pillow to rest their heads and food to fill
their stomachs,
 So that they can experience the amazing faithfulness of our God who promises to be there for us
when we step out and join him on a faith journey.
Conclusion:
You probably know how the story of Abraham and Sarah ends . . . God comes through on his promise and
they have as son. His name? Isaac. Anybody know what Isaac’s name means? You got it. “Laughter.” You
might say that from laughter, came “Laughter.”
(On Screen: “The LORD kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. 2 She became
pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God
had said it would. 3 And Abraham named their son Isaac. – Genesis 21:1-3)
God finally fulfills his promise and gives Abraham and Sarah a son. Abraham is now 99 years old. And my
favorite line in that part of the story is this: “This happened at just the time God said it would.” It wasn’t
when Abraham and Sarah wanted it to happen. And it wasn’t when it made sense or seemed practical. It
was 25 years later...but God was faithful to them and he will be faithful to you.
The question is will you take a shortcut, figure out your own way, or will you trust him.
Communion:
You know there is one shortcut that wasn’t our idea. It was God’s idea. It wasn’t really a shortcut for him,
but you might say it was a shortcut for us. And it’s a shortcut that I think you’ll like even better than the
Waze App. His name is Jesus.
Jesus is God’s way of creating a divine shortcut that is actually efficacious. Rather than having to attempt
to atone for our sins via sacrifice or good deeds, Jesus atones for us. In fact, it is wrong for us to even
attempt to atone for ourselves. We must place our trust in Christ and allow his salvific work to impact
how we live our lives and how we trust God. We must be confident of this, that he who began a good work
in us will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
When Jesus died on the cross and rose again, he destroyed the hold sin had on our lives.
He willingly gave himself up so that we can draw close to the Father, so that we can find our way back to
God.
In this moment, we remember Jesus. We remember his sacrifice. We receive the bread that represents his
body that was broken for us and the juice that represents his blood that was shed.
We allow him to cleanse us. Here at the table, we can start fresh, we can begin again.
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