Main idea: Drive doubt from your heart by trusting God’s personal and powerful promises.
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Well, good morning my brothers and sisters, my church family and good morning our visitors. I've seen some new people, new faces. It's a delight to see you, and I'd love to get connected with you after what a great testimony, what an encouragement to us. If you're visiting with us today, we would love for you to follow along in the Bible with us. So along with the church family, stand up for the reading of God's Word. We are going through the book of Genesis, which is the book of the beginnings of God's saving plan for a people for Himself, and that's what we're watching unfold in front of us. Genesis, 18, one through 15 is going to be our reading text today. But as you read this, I want you to know that God does the impossible. God does miraculous things. You watched it today at a baptism, taking a teenager, changing his heart. You've watched it all the time. We get to witness these kinds of things all the time as a church. And if you're visiting with us and you want to see miracle work, the greatest kind of miracle work, it is the work of transforming lives. And God does that week in and week out. Here we're going to see a woman, a 90 year old woman who needed to hear those words, Sarah, who is told that she's going to have a baby at 90. Wow, that's a significant thing. Let's see what God does with this story and what he wants to do with us. And the Lord appeared to Abram by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked and behold three men were standing in front of him when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. For while, I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves, and after that, you may pass on since you have come to your servant. So they said, Do as you have said. And Abram went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, quick, three seahs of fine flour, knead it and make cakes. And Abram ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, Where is Sarah, your wife? And he said, she is in the tent. The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife shall have a son. Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him now Abram, Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years, the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? The Lord said to Abram, why did Sarah laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. And he said, No, but you did laugh. This is the word of the Lord God. We thank You that You give us your word, your Word speaks we, we have some relation in our hearts to what Sarah must have gone through, although nobody's ever experienced this but her an impossible, what seems like an impossible promise, and she had a very important role in the line of you saving your people. She would be, she would be the beginning of the line of promise that led to Jesus. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you have entered not just at a meal for an old man and an old woman, but by your Spirit. You have entered here in this room, you are here, Lord Jesus, you entered when you came, to live, to die, to rise, so that we could have the true food, the true nourishment of life. And we thank you for that. There are many of us, we confess ourselves, have a lot of things right in front of us that are big. Concerns. And probably all of us want to hear that nothing is impossible, meaning our concerns are going to get addressed. But Lord, that's not always the case. What concerns this passage is the greatest things in the world, the saving of souls the building of a kingdom, and we do want to trust you as we go through the daily issues of life, we want to remember that you are fulfilling your plan. Nothing is impossible with you. I pray for churches around our city. I had the joy of of training with a number of pastors in our city. I pray for the pastors at Soma church that they would be faithful expositors, preachers and teachers of your word, getting your word right, and I pray that You would help them hold fast to your promises. I pray for my friend Brett sweet, who is preaching this week over at Grace, light grace, Christian Fellowship Central, I pray that you would be at work in Him, God. They're they're all, all these churches that are proclaiming you. We want your glory, your power, your grace in the Gospel declared, help it be so in us that we're eager to hear in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. Well, let me start out by talking to the high schoolers, because I think the high schoolers are probably the farthest away from understanding this passage. But let me try to bring it to you. There's a day coming pretty soon, pretty soon, where you're going to invite somebody very important to you for a meal in your apartment. I know you're 16, you're like, Mom does all the meals. Dad does all the meals. One day it's going to be you, you're going to have to host them, and you're going to have to decide, what kind of appetizer, what kind of protein, what kind of bread, what kind of vegetable, what kind of dessert you will serve, and of course, you will ask for their dietary concerns. You'll have to help them feel physically comfortable. You'll need chairs, a table, plates, silverware, napkins. And if that person is really important to you, all of that's really going to matter. I remember the first very important dinner I hosted. I borrowed my RDS apartment at masters college, and I invited my girlfriend over for dinner and like that was a big deal. I needed to think of all the food. Sadly to say, I can't remember what I served, but I bet if you ask her, she'll remember she did. Was she impressed? I doubt it. Did she keep on with the relationship? Yes. Girlfriend, fiance, wife of 35 years this month, this coming month, it's pretty exciting. I bet everybody thinking about your teenagers like you got your teenagers, they've never hosted anything in their life. They've said, Come on over, mom. Will cook for you, but they've never hosted, I bet you're smiling a little bit thinking about your son or your daughter hosting their first meal. Yesterday, we were at a wedding, and this couple that just got married is going to do that in probably two weeks, right? And it's like that was a big shift of life. I say this because something really significant happened when someone when Abraham hosted God for dinner. Now think of that. Imagine if you had Jesus showing up for a meal like we do. We praise Him every day. We say grace like Yeah. But what if he showed up in flesh? None of that's lost on you, as Yahweh and two angels show up unannounced, Abraham and Sarah go into host mode. If God showed up for a meal, what would that be like? How would you handle it? And just like today, the meal isn't the thing. Really, it's not the thing. No, I'm serious. It's not the thing. Like, yeah, every hostess is like, it is too the thing it's what the meal means. That's the thing. It's what the meal means is the thing. It's the conversations that matter. At a meal. In a home, you find out what's really important to a person. And at a meal, God directly confirms to Abraham and to Sarah that she's going to experience what is humanly impossible. God didn't have to show up. He could have just left the promise to Abraham and stayed distant, but God showed up. Yeah, and she told a 90 year old woman that she's going to be or an eight, nine year old woman that she's going to be pregnant within a year and have a baby. Sarah hears this,
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and she says to herself, this is my, my version. Yeah, right. That's how, that's how the Hebrew is properly translated, yeah, right. She doesn't respond with joy like Abraham did in the chapter before fell down on his face laughing. Like, I can't believe it. This is so amazing. She's like, I'm so old, I can't believe it. Now that I'm old, you're going to give me a child that's at the intimacy of a fellowship of fellowship at a meal that God reinforces to Abraham and Sarah his great promises. God is serious about his promises. It ends kind of abruptly, right? You did laugh. It's just that's it. That's the conversation. He will do as he promised. He has the last laugh. The long version of the big idea is this. I turned this in on Tuesday because I was at a preaching workshop. And a preaching workshop, one of the things they said is, your big idea is too long. You need to shorten it. Here's the long version. Drive doubt from your heart by trusting God's personal and powerful promises. Here's the short version, the one I want. I want you to take away. I want every single person, whether you today's the first time you're encountering Jesus, or whether it's the 400th time you're encountering Jesus, I want you to believe God for the greatest things. I want you to believe God for the greatest things. You have, things that you come in with that are great concerns. They're great concerns. Are they the greatest thing? How do we decide what the greatest things are? Well, we're going to decide it by the context. To turn back to chapter 17 for our visitor friends, is just going to give a brief, Swift recap of this, this great thing called the Abrahamic covenant, a committed relationship between God and His people and He defines the greatest things. These are what he is going to accomplish. First and foremost, the greatest thing to God is a proper relationship with God. So he wants to make a people for Himself who are in a proper relationship to him. You could see it as he starts, because he says, I want to make a covenant. Verse seven, he says, I will establish my covenant between me and you. So Abraham, you and I are going to be in a really special relationship, a mutually exclusive relationship between me and you and your offspring after you, throughout their generations. For an everlasting covenant, I'm going to make a whole people. It's not just going to be you. It's going to be a whole set of people. And this is the key phrase in that chapter, to be God to you. God wants to restore a relationship with you to himself. He wants to have a relationship with you that was lost with sin. Direct relationship with God was lost with sin. There needs to be redemption. He now promises to be God to you. Verse eight, I will give to you and to your offspring after you, the land of your sojournings all, the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. He wants to be God to a people, his future generations. This is what God is doing. It's the greatest thing he's doing in the world today, making people for himself. He is redeeming now there's a second that goes right out of these. He wants to redeem them to a place to have a relationship is going to require a place to have that relationship. And he is forging an eternal place. All the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, I will be their God. To have a relationship with God is going to require a place to have that relationship. The third thing he's concerned about is a body in that relationship. It's not explicit, but you can't escape it. Abraham can't be given an eternal covenant without a way to live out a life before him. And here we have the implicit promise of resurrection. There's going to be a real life, a real body and a real place to worship God forever. And the fourth thing that he's concerned about is that men and women from every tribe and tongue and nation are part of that people, every race, part of that people. Where does it say that verse four? Behold. My covenant is with you, and you shall be father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. There are nations going to come. There are nations going to be redeemed, people of all kinds, men and women. To the women, Sarah is given a new name. Sarai was his name. Was her name. Sorry, you shall call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her. This is verse 16. I will bless her. And moreover, I will give you a son by her, and I will bless her, and she shall become nations, Kings of peoples shall come from her. These are the greatest things God is doing. These are the greatest things God is doing. What you notice throughout the Bible that there are everyday, lamentable and difficult situations that are impossible for man and God gives installment and installment after installment to move our faith, to trust Him, to get us to that end. This story is about an impossible situation for the mother of all the patriarchs, for the one who is going to be the lead in the line of promise, God will do a great work in her. I want you to go away believing God for the greatest things and recognizing that in all the daily things, God is moving you to that end. How are we going to see that? I think two ways we're going to see that. We're going to recognize that God gets up close and personal. He shows up second. We're going to be reminded that nothing is impossible with God. Nothing is too difficult for him. What is the concern on your dashboard today? You know, we we drive a car certain time, there's a little light that goes on. Says, maintenance required. What's your maintenance required today? What's in the dashboard of your concern? You God can handle the greatest things. He can handle the smaller things, but it's the greatest things that should shape how we deal with the smaller things. He does promise to work good in every circumstance. The greatest things, according to God are faith, fellowship, holiness, fruitfulness, until he brings the fullness of the kingdom, and God shows up to Abraham and Sarah to bolster their faith and get them ready for this. So believe God for the greatest things, number one by recognizing that God gets up close and personal. God gets up close and personal. He does it here. We're gonna find out how he does it. In the whole of the Bible, the Lord shows up because he wants Sarah and Abraham to know he personally cares. He just gave a promise to Abraham. That promise was good enough. He didn't have to show up. He didn't have to come but he wants to reinforce to them that he does show up in our history and our time and acts. So we need to believe God for the greatest things, because he is personally involved. Verse one, it says, Then the Lord appeared to him Abraham by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. We've just gotten the Abrahamic covenant. Chapter 17, and they're going about their life, waiting for these fulfill, this fulfillment, and during siesta time, that's the heat of the day. We don't know what time of year this is, but in the heat of the days, the Spanish call it siesta. So it's hot. You don't want to be out in the field. Everybody finds air conditioning. You know, the tent or the shade of a tree, and they sit it out for a while, the Lord appears at the most distressing physical time of the day. That's what it says here. Now, it's interesting that narrator tells us something that Abraham doesn't know immediately, and Abraham comes to realize what's going on. The Lord appeared to him. This is one Yahweh, eternal, self existent, covenant keeping God shows up. Abraham lifts up his eyes and looked and behold, three men were standing in front of him. Abraham doesn't recognize this. There's one person who's really important. I aan, these are to Abraham, like three dignified men, there's clearly a leader. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth. 99 year old, Abraham pauci. Pops up, runs, falls on his face, which was a way to greet a visiting superior.
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Abraham is a humble man. He falls at his face, on his face before them, and he says, oh, Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. O Lord, and it doesn't mean this, this word, Adonai was just a common title of respect for somebody you decided was very important to you. Might have been a nobleman. If these are angels, like we think, they have this angelic appearance, and they they look to be people very important, if I have found favor in your sight, if give me the privilege, give me the grace to stop here and eat with me. Verse four, let a little water be brought and wash your feet. Any traveler walking through Israel at this time, especially in the location he was, somewhere near Hebron, if it was spring, summer, fall, it's hot and dusty and your feet are aching and burning, and a cool wash of the feet is very refreshing. Rest yourselves under the tree. That's that's the air conditioning here. Sit on my air conditioning unit. It's called a tree. Sit in the shade. We're going to wash your feet. We're going to give you refreshment while I bring a morsel of brown. Just bring you a little snack, little morsel, not much. Just bring you a little something that you may refresh yourselves and after that, you may pass on. Since you have come to your servant. Now, just picture in your mind. Remember, Abraham has quite an entourage. He has hundreds of fighting men, he has dozens and dozens of shepherds, and he's got lots of servants. So for this threesome to walk through and find Abraham's tent, Abraham's tent is going to be the most prominent tent. It's going to be the one that everybody looks to. If you're visiting us, then you've got to go see Abraham. And Abraham says, You have come to see me. I acknowledge that you made your way to the middle of camp, to my tent. You have come to see me. Don't pass me by until you have done what you have come for. And so they take a long time deliberating. I just find it so interesting. They said, Do as you have said, that was it. Do as you have said, Abraham. Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah. Now notice Sarah is engaged in the visit right away as hostess and Baker. He says, quick three seahs of fine flour, knead it, make cakes. Your footnote is going to say a Seah of flour is seven quarts of flour. He's doing three of those. I whatever the modern equivalent of it is, my math was 33 pounds of flour, a Costco bag of flour. And open the second one and get about a third of the way through it. We're just making them a little snack, and they're going to they're going to throw the water and the yeast, and they're going to make a version of a quick bread that they will roll out, and it will come out like pita, a flat bread, quick to make, as quick as it takes to make 33 pounds of flour into cakes. Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly. How quick can this isn't fast food. This is not McDonald's. You don't order and show up in two and a half minutes with burgers coming out like a quick meal was going to take a couple of hours. And the three angels, the three visitors, we'll see one of them, especially in a second, sitting in the shade, cooling off their feet. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before him. What is this? This is a feast for royalty. They are going to make such a feast with a freshly slaughtered and roasted animal and enough enough pita bread to feed half the village. And it was going to be just for these three. It was the idea of, we're going to treat you as royalty. I want you to look at the pile of food and the pile of meat and the cheese curds and the yogurt and the rich, luscious milk. The last thing you should feel when you leave is hunger. You. It's my wife's philosophy of hospitality. If there's a empty serving dish of anything, she's like, I should have made more. They might have thought about eating more, but it was not there. Like, It's okay, honey. I think they left full. I think they left full also, her philosophy is good conversation about the most important things in life. And she says to me, it'd be nice if you shared some of that with me. I'm the one who has to keep that up and feed everybody. Oh, here we are Abraham and Sarah making a feast. And notice what Abraham does. He stands as an attendant, which is a pretty, pretty normal Middle Eastern thing. Even today, we visited in China. We visited the Uyghur people many years ago, and they're, they're still almost all Muslim, and we went to somebody's house, and they fed us a feast. And they they brought the goat in on the back of a bike, freshly skinned. Mmm, here's the motorcycle and the fresh goat. Mmm, this is going to be great. They took the time to feed it. We got to we were refreshed. When the meal finally came, the host just stood making sure glasses never went empty, making sure the bread was always supplied, making sure the dishes and the vegetables and all of the things were there all the time. He wouldn't dream of sitting with us. This is Abram, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. Now there's something really important to note. We saw it in verse one, because Moses tells us something that it takes a little time for Abraham to realize Yahweh was in the group. The Lord was there. The Lord appeared to him. Then it describes the three. And we have a name for it in the Bible. They're called a theophany when God takes on human form. In this case, he's attended by two angels. We think he's attended by two angels because of what Hebrews 13 two says, Do not, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers first. Thereby, some have entertained angels unaware, probably referring to Abraham. So Jesus and two angels were at the meal. Now there's a more specific title when God shows up in the Old Testament, in human form, in flesh, we call that a christophany. And here is Jesus concerned and showing up at a meal. And when Jesus shows up at a meal, he is interested in what's going on in the hearts of his people. Jesus is recorded eating this meal here. But the greatest time Jesus came was when he was born of the Virgin Mary, when he grew and ministered on Earth. If you read through the Gospels, many people hosted Jesus, and every time Jesus exposed someone's heart, Levi, the tax collector, was one of the first Levi has after he's called to follow Jesus, he has a big feast for all his tax collector friends and all the prostitutes, all the ill repute people and the religious leaders outside are like, How can you eat with them? They showed their part that they didn't think they needed to be saved and Jesus shouldn't be eating with them. A group of religious teachers, not very long after that, hosted Jesus after a Sabbath day talk, and they were so self superior toward Jesus that they didn't wash his feet. Jesus sits down for the meal, lays out like they do at those long tables, and a woman, a sinner, probably a prostitute, comes in flowing with tears, and she washes Jesus feet with her tears. And the people at the meal like, I can't believe you would let somebody like this do that. It's like she washed my feet and I came in here and you didn't do anything. And she he looks at the woman and says, Your sins have been forgiven. The religious leaders say, Who is this that can forgive sins? Only God can do that. Jesus is like finally, you're catching on, but they reject him for that,
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I think one very important here, if we're tying to this theme about what's most important is in Luke 10 410, 38 to 42 Jesus shows up at his good friends Lazarus house. Mary and Martha are to be the women who help with the host. Mary sits at Jesus feet, listening to the listening to the teaching. Fall. Like honey off his lips, and Martha is the one making the meal happen. She eventually goes to Jesus, can't you get my sister to help me? Tell her to help me. I've got to do all this work. And Jesus answer to her was, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about so many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion which will not be taken away from her. What was the greatest thing? What was the greatest thing, the relationship with Jesus, hearing from Jesus, or as the wording from Genesis 17 said, walk before me and be blameless, fellowship with me. Yahweh is going to use a meal. He uses it many, many times to expose the heart and to enlist faith. So what needs to happen here? What needs to happen here? Doubts are going to have to be driven from the hearts of many people. Prime is Sarah. Remember, I want you to take this away. I want you to believe God for the greatest things. I want you to believe God for the greatest things. And the first thing you have to recognize is that he shows up personally to do that. Jesus makes this promise at a meal in John 14, six. He says, The Spirit is with you, but very soon he will be in you. How does Jesus make himself personal to you now, through the power of his Spirit, as this word is speaking, his spirit is nudging you. And as you go out, if you're a follower of Jesus, that spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus, is working in you. He is up close and personal. He's in you so close and personal. Number two, you need to remind yourself that nothing is too difficult for the Lord. Believe God for the greatest things, because God Almighty can do anything. It is to say as we turn this next section, it's to say to Sarah, it's God Almighty sitting under a shade tree, feasting on your pita bread, feasting on Abe's roast veal, feasting on your cheese curds and yogurt and drinking the fresh milk. That's who's here. How do we know that that's that's true, because chapter 17, God introduces himself when Abraham was 99 years old. The Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, I am God Almighty. God Almighty is sitting there at a meal. This is in verse nine. Says they said to him, Where is Sarah, your wife? Now we understand what the story is for. This is what it's been for. Sarah needs the reassurance, don't you all need to hear God's promises. Over and over again. Sarah needs to hear these promises. Where is Sarah? Your wife? And he said, she is in the tent because they're here to personally deliver a message to Abraham and Sarah. Verse 10, the Lord said, I will, surely, I will absolutely, certainly return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife, shall have a son, the waiting will soon be over. Since Sarah is in a tent, she can hear everything. You know when you camp. You know when you camp. You can hear everything. Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him, the narrator is zeroing in on Sarah, zeroing in on Abraham's relationship to Sarah. Now, let's just their Narrator wants this to be crystal clear. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years, the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah, she's going to get pregnant. Biblically possible, humanly impossible, impossible. The narrator can't go farther out of his way. You have to use a highlighter in your mind on this. This is a humanly impossible situation in the previous chapter. Abraham was 99 she was 89 at the time of this happening.
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One imminent theologian, Brian Sayers said it this week. Ian. We are one menopausal woman away from breaking all the promises of Abraham like this looks impossible. Sarah laughed to herself, saying, after I'm worn out and my Lord is old. Shall I have pleasure? I mean, I suspect there's a few things going on in her heart, doubt certainly she is 89 menopause is long gone. More poignantly, there's probably a long standing bitterness in her heart. I mean, even if I get pregnant at 90, am I really going to be able to hold the baby in my arms and enjoy my son? It'd be kind of a sarcasm like now you're giving me a child. I do sarcasm really well, so I really understand that. I would, I would import a lot of sarcasm in here. We know in chapter 16, her faith wasn't very strong. She was the one who suggested that Hagar be Abraham's second wife. When Hagar got pregnant and started despising her, we knew she erupted and harshly treated Hagar, and they had spent 13 rough years so bitterness, hostility, one of the promises that God makes, and it's an important promise that God makes, is that he wants to make for himself a holy people in 17 when he initiates the reminder of the Covenant, he says, walk before me and be blameless. Here, God Almighty, is on mission, in part, for Sarah's holiness, for her faith and her trust, to deal with her bitterness, her sadness and her doubt. God Almighty has shown up to change her heart and not just give her a baby. That is one of the greatest things God wants to do in your life, is change your heart.
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Sarah was an angry first wife, bitter first wife, a doubting first wife. The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old? Why does God address Abraham like this? Why does the Lord address Abraham? Where's your wife? Sarah, well, Abraham's not been a stellar example as a husband, either, has he? He asked his wife to lie for him. Instead of believing the promise, believing in God's protection, she was even taken into Pharaoh's harem for a moment before being rescued when the fight erupted in chapter 616 Abraham didn't go to both of them and say, God is good and God is sovereign. Ladies, he loves you both don't fight with each other. We have no evidence of Abraham doing any intervention to forge a godly solution after an ungodly decision. There's nothing about that. There's even little about the fact that God has told Abraham about this promise. It doesn't seem like Sarah knows much about it. Abraham, I need you to be the kind of man that I've made men to be if your wife is struggling with bitterness and difficulty, are you showing her the goodness and grace and glory of God, and are you reminding her of his covenant promises? Are you helping her find her soul's rest while Abraham isn't doing it? Lots of men don't do it. It's a good call to us. Now I want you to notice something. Who did? Sarah laugh to just look at it to herself, she laughed to herself. Now maybe there was a little out loud, yeah, right. But I think this is going on, and the narrator is telling us it's going on in her heart. Now, if you want to know something a little scary, right now, God is listening to your heart. He hears the conversations that are happening in your heart.
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You need to believe God for the greatest things, the. Things in your heart. Sarah's heart was very important to God, and he had come to transform her heart. Proverbs, 423, says, Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life, and from Sarah had come bitter, hopeless, sarcastic unbelief, and you have to step back, because God is very concerned about your heart and my heart. God judged the entire world with a flood because, as Genesis 65 says, every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. God judged the world for their hearts. So he cares about your heart. At the same time, God promised to save the world because of your heart by changing your heart. Genesis, 821, says, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth, so he sent Christ to cleanse your heart. He sent Christ to give us new hearts. By Christ's death, by His resurrection and his transforming Spirit, God can change your heart. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the Lord. I mean, this is a truth you need to meditate on when you deal with doubt, bitterness and hopelessness. Is anything too hard for the Lord? When something seems humanly impossible for God's redeeming work, we need to remember this promise, nothing is too hard for the Lord. Throughout the scriptures, we find these statements about God doing the impossible. These kind of statements show up in the book of Job. For instance, Job has everything taken away from him, all his wealth, all his children, all his health, the only thing he is not is dead. That's the only thing God didn't take from him, and Job is a long lament and a long argument. And eventually, job thinks he's been mistreated. And then in chapters 38 through 41 God tells job about his awesome power over creation and how God keeps alive and preserves every creature on the Earth only He can do this, all these Where were you? Statements. Look what I do, job. And Job repents in sackcloth and ashes. And he says, I know that you can do all things that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. I know you can bring this death back to life. No purpose of yours can be thwarted after promising to judge Israel in the book of Jeremiah, destroying Jerusalem for their wicked hearts, telling them that they are going to be carried into captivity. But there would be a promise in the future that one day he would call convert and restore them to their land. Jeremiah writes this, ah, Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm, nothing is too hard for you. Remember, God will do the greatest things. He will complete them. He has the power to do it after a rich man refused to follow Jesus Christ. This is in Matthew 19. A rich man comes to Jesus one day says, What must I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus tells them, obey all the commands. Well, I've done those. What do I lack? And he says to the man, well, you lack one thing, so all your possessions give to the poor and come and follow Me. And the man turned aside, I won't do it. And Jesus looks to his disciples and says, it is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for our rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And Peter speaks up there and says, who can be saved? I mean, who could be saved? Then
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Jesus says, with man, this is impossible, but with God, all things are possible. God can save any sinner, and the most important of them all, Mary, a virgin girl like what's one harder thing than a 90 year old getting pregnant? A virgin getting pregnant, that's one thing harder. That's one thing harder. Mary was told that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Messiah. Who would save the people from their sins. And he says to her, for nothing will be impossible with God. How did Mary respond to this? Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed is not that the breath of faith and trust that God can do the impossible. She's not snarky, she's not bitter. She is saying, Yes, Lord, I am your servant. Do with me as you wish, and it was going to cost Mary. It was going to be hard for Mary, but nothing was too difficult for God to save a multitude of nations from their sin, to give them a permanent land to live in, restore personal, eternal loving fellowship. And here in our text, says, At the appointed time, I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son. Sarah denied it. Said I did not laugh, or she was afraid, and he said, No, but you did. You did laugh. God just leaves it there, like a dead thud on the ground, boom. God was serious about his promises. If we fast forward to Jesus, it's frequently at a meal where hearts are revealed. It's frequently at a meal where God reveals the heart. In the mary martha story, Mary chooses the better part, Jesus, there's a couple of more meals we should mention specifically related to this promise. Matthew 811, through 12, Jesus says to the religious leaders at this big feast, I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. God is fulfilling his work saving the nations. We need to believe God for the greatest things. I want you to leave here believing God for the greatest things. What do I do with the small things? Then, like cancer, I or like church trouble, like this impossible conflict I have with a friend or a spouse. What do I do with the little things I do want to give you some perspective. God is able and powerful to change your heart in those we take frequent enough trips to the west side, there's a spot between ritzville and Moses Lake, early in the morning or late at night. There's it gets watered regularly, and so early in the morning or late at night, what do you run into? Lots of bugs driving along. It's sunset. The bugs are finally cool. They come up for the day and they come across your windshield, and they end their life on your windshield, and your windshield is filled with that. Can I just compared to what God is doing for the greatest things in life, your greatest earthly troubles are just bugs on the windshield. That's all they are, in comparison with the great things God is doing. Just need to have some washer fluid. God gives us His word to keep reiterating and re clarifying, so you see to the end. God has good purposes in this life, even in its sufferings, and he has the power to get you to the end. See the things that are probably most burdensome and most concerning for you are the state of your kids or your grandkids, their spiritual state or their practical state. The greatest things in your life probably aren't about your money or about your home or about politics. Probably the greatest things in your life that you are concerned about are the people that you love and care for. So what do you do? You go to God Almighty, the one where there is nothing too hard for him to do, and you pour your heart out in prayer, and you seek to please Him in every circumstance. See, the greatest thing is not a political party winning. And I want to tell boomers, I want to tell you 60 pluses. You you feel like you lost. You lost the generation, the Moral Majority generation. And the way you talk about the world, the most important things in the world, is the politics that you lost, or the influence you lost. And I want to tell the 25 year old guys who are pouring into the church because they think they're in the church, they can get their politics. Back, I want to tell you they're not the greatest thing. They're not the greatest thing. We talk about morality, which is good. Abortion is one of the worst things that exists on the planet, but ending abortion is not the greatest thing. So if that's what you want to talk about, that's the badge you want to wear. That's the hat you want to carry. What you need to carry is the greatest thing. And what the generation who's growing up right now wants to care about, do you care about an authentic godliness in the home? What your kids want is to watch you walk with God. What they want to watch you do is they want to watch you pursue purity, kill the bitterness, grow in joy by entrusting yourself to Jesus. There are men and women from every tribe and tongue and nation that needs still to be reached with the gospel. That is the greatest thing, and they live next door to you, and you need to be a testimony to them. And God has the power to change you and transform you and make you a testimony to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, you need to believe God for the greatest thing. First of all, that you are a sinner, and your only hope is Jesus, death and resurrection for you, and that He is building an eternity for you to dwell with Him in that's not you. That's that's the greatest thing you need. Ian, it's not too hard for God to give Sarah a baby at 90. It's not too hard for him. So the things that concern God most are the things that he will work and those are the things that you need to trust him for, and you need to pray to him for, and you can enjoy him in believe God for the greatest things. Nothing is too hard for him. Let's pray God. We thank you for what you show us in this passage, how often I confess I have been Sarah, doubting and sarcastic, bitter, brooding, confess that. How Prayerless I have been and we have been, we confess that. But oh, what a refreshing word to old Sarah, it's a refreshing Word to us. You didn't abandon her or leave her. You didn't shrug her aside because she didn't believe enough. No, you reminded her and called her to trust, and you are doing that today. We thank You for it, Christ's name. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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