Covenant Confirmed and Son Promised

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0:19This morning we continue our series looking at Genesis 17 and then the first 15 verses of Genesis 18. So if you have a Bible, turn with me to Genesis chapter 17. I'm gonna read it in the body of the sermon, so as you turn there, it, it's good to celebrate God's grace at work in our people. Amen. Amen. I love to see baptisms. Why don't you join me now as we pray, father in heaven, open our eyes, incline our hearts to see what you want us to see in this text so that we would be more like your son. Jesus, we pray this in his name. Amen. Abram Sarai and Hagar did not live happily ever after at the end of Genesis 16, which we looked at last week.

1:32Abraham we can imagine is probably pleased to have a son, but it's not with his own wife. Suriah is angry and sad and still barren. They had received these God-sized promises and instead they met them with human-sized wisdom at the end of Genesis 16, look at the end of Genesis 16, it says the very last verse, Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. And then now look at verse 17 verse one, chapter 17 verse one. Abram was 99 years old when the Lord appeared to Abram. 13 long years have passed, Abram is now 99, Suriah is 89, and the promise of the offspring, the promise that God originally gave in Genesis 12 seems even that further away, even that more impossible 24 years ago, God gave those promises and now they seem entirely absurd.

2:45Yet God stacks the deck against himself to make the impossible possible. That's what we see in our passage here this morning. God is the almighty God who keeps his covenant promises and that nothing is too hard for him. And I imagine that's a word that many of us need to hear this morning. Things have not gone our way. We have impossible situations in our lives. We wonder if God sees us or knows us. We wonder, does God even care? Or why is it taking so long? I prayed about these things year after year after year and still I'm not getting the answer that I would like. Life has not gone the way we expected.

3:33Perhaps we've even endured several years or even decades of disappointment. And yet in 13 years of gloom and unfulfilled promises, God is working. What he does is he grows Abram's faith and shows him who he is and what he can do. And so what we're gonna do this morning is read and walk through this text. So I have five C words that serve as the headers for each section and we'll read each section and then we'll talk a little bit about them. So the first is covenant. We'll see that in verses one through eight. Then we'll look at the circumcision in verses nine through 14. Then we'll look at the child of Promise in 15 through 21 and then Abram's compliance in 22 to 27.

4:22And then the confirmation. And we'll look at chapter 18 verses one through 15. So look with me at chapter 17 now, and I'm gonna read verses one through eight. And why don't you follow along? When Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty, walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and you and may multiply you greatly. Then Abram fell on his face and God said to him, behold, my covenant is with you and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham.

5:04For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations, I will make you exceedingly fruitful and I will make you into nations and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and to your offspring after you and I will give to you and your offspring after you, the land of your sojourns, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. And I will be there God. So in this first section, God reiterates his covenant promise to Abram, I'm gonna make you the father of nations.

5:43I'm gonna give you offspring. I'm gonna bring you into the land. And after 13 years, it's a good thing he gave him a reminder. Uh, Abram's probably wondering, did God forget, was it a off day? He, he gave the promise originally in Genesis 12. He ratified it in Genesis 15. But I want you to notice several new things that are introduced as God kind of gives him this covenant again, reminds him of it. The first thing we notice is he introduces himself as I am God almighty. You see that in your Bible there. And if you have a ESV, you might see a little footnote and it says El shadi in the Hebrew. So this is the word that combines God el and then the word for mountain.

6:31And it probably conveys God's strength and power. And most often it's translated as God Almighty. And I think what God is trying to say to Abraham here is, I am the mighty God who can fulfill the promises that I've made to you. A a and if you're one of our ladies that's in the Book of Job coming up, it's one of the names that appears most often in the Book of Job as well. Now notice the second thing. God discloses additional elements of the covenant that he has between him and Abram. He says, walk before me and be blameless in verse one, the word covenant here is mentioned 13 times in chapter 17.

7:11And so this covenant relationship between God and Abram calls for loyalty and obedience. So every covenant has two sides. God is going to keep his promises and yet believers are to walk in obedience it. It doesn't mean that if God makes his promise with Abram that he can just do whatever he wants, like children are to obey and honor their parents, their obedience doesn't earn the relationship. But it presupposes a relationship that already exists. Now with the word blameless, God is not calling for sinless perfection but rather loyalty and obedience like a marriage. You, you make vows, right? Hopefully you did when you got married.

7:53Uh, I promise to love you and cherish you till death do us part. Not that I would get that perfect, but that I would fulfill my side. Getting married doesn't mean you just do whatever you want, but it means you stay faithful and loyal to your spouse. The third thing we want to notice is Abram finally becomes Abraham. And now I can use Abraham instead of Abram, but Abram meant exalted father and now it means father of multitudes. And so it's reminding Abraham who he is, it shows God's authority to rename Abraham just like Adam named all the animals and named Eve. God is showing his authority to rename Abraham.

8:36Imagine at a baby dedication. Like when we do baby dedication, if you know a parent brings up their child, the parents are there and I say, you know, your parents named you Ellie, but I think you're really more of a Edna. And so in this moment together with your parents who love you dearly, we're gonna change your name and dedicate you. You guys laugh because the parents would be appalled if I actually did that because I don't have the authority to do that. But here God has the authority to rename Abraham to transform his future. And names as we know throughout the scriptures are not just names.

9:12They're intertwined with identity and personality. And so Abraham means the father of a multitude of nations and every time someone would call his name, it would be a reminder of God's promise. The fourth thing I want us to see, God tells Abraham, Abraham that king shall come from you verse six. And that this covenant will be with his offspring verses seven and eight. So it's gonna be a multi-generational covenant. It's an everlasting covenant. So there's these new aspects that there's gonna be kings or royalty that come from his line that hasn't been mentioned before, that it's a covenant not just with Abraham, but it's with his offspring that come after him.

9:56And it's an everlasting covenant, meaning it will last a long time. Now do you see what keeps happening in in Genesis as it's unfolding? God keeps trying to get Abraham to lift his eyes to see with eyes of faith. Abraham, I'm gonna make you this great glorious, gigantic nation. And what does Abraham keep doing? He keeps trying to bring it all the way down. He keeps trying to downsize God's promises. He keeps looking through earthly logic. He says, I'm gonna give you innumerable descendants. And Abraham says, well, maybe you could just use ezer, my, my servant in my house. And he says, I'm gonna give you a son.

10:41And then soh says, well, maybe we could just use Hagar. And then God says, I'm gonna give you your own offspring and we'll see later how Abram responds to that. But this morning it, it's a challenge for us. It's an encouragement. Don't downsize God's promises to fit human logic. Don't shrink your faith to fit earthly expectations. This is God almighty. He is the God who can do all things. And what we think about God will determine how we live. If our God is great, then we will walk by faith and hold on to his promises. But if God is small to us, if God is miserly, if God is weak, if God is impotent, then so too will our faith be.

11:32And so God says to Abram, I am God almighty, I will accomplish my purposes. The the apostle Paul picks up on this theme in Romans four 17 where he says, Abram believed in God. And it says this, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. God is able to make the very things that don't exist exist. That's what all of creation was. And that God is still the one who is over all. Now we're gonna transition to part two, section two circumcision. And I'm gonna read verses nine through 14. So follow along with me. And God said to Abraham, Abraham, as for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

12:27This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you and your offspring. After you, every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring. Both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.

13:00Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant. So God commands the covenant sign, gives the covenant seal of circumcision. And my guess is many of us are wondering, could you have picked something a little easier? You know, uh, you know, clip your fingernails a certain way of all the things that could be commanded? Why circumcision? First it's a covenant sign. So the rainbow is a sign of God's covenant with Noah. The Sabbath is God's sign of the covenant with Israel after the exodus. So circumcision here is the sign of God's covenant with Abraham.

13:48Romans four 11 says this, he speaking of Abraham, received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So it's a sign and it's a seal. Not that he was saved or made righteous because of the sign, but rather he was counted to him as righteousness. And now he receives a sign. We, we just saw that sign practiced before us. We were very explicit. Baptism is not what saves you, but it's a sign of the cleansing that God indeed has done in our hearts that we've died with him and risen again with him as well. The second thing, circumcision I think depicts God's judgment on sin.

14:37So think about this with me. It was an act of cutting the shedding of blood and the tearing of flesh. And so it's similar to the ratification ceremony that we saw in Genesis 15. And for Abraham, the knife is applied to the organ through which he had sinned sexually with Hagar. And so this could be a picture of God's judgment on his sin and his need for forgiveness. The third thing, circumcision requires faith. Abraham has to trust God to take a knife and permanently disfigure his reproductive organ which he needs still to make a child with Sarah. It also distinguishes Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael would be a child of the flesh conceived in the flesh, whereas Isaac is a child of promised, conceived by faith.

15:33The fourth thing, it signifies commitment and consecration. It's often used to describe the circumcision of the heart. Later on in the Bible, Deuteronomy 30 verse six says, and the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. So it's a sign of covenant commitment and spiritual consecration. It it's also a reminder, every time Abraham would look down, he would remember God's sign of the covenant.

16:07It's a unique sign to males I think because the offspring of the woman anticipates the male snake crusher who is ultimately to come. So now we're gonna move to the third part. The child verses 15 to 21. Look with me in your bibles there. And God said to Abraham, as for Sariah, your wife, she shall not, you shall not call her name Sariah, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her. And moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her and she shall become nations, kings of peoples shall come from her. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to him and said to himself, shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old, Sharra, who is 90 years old, bear a child.

16:56And Abraham said to God, oh that Ishmael might live before you. And God said, no, but Sarah, your wife shall bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you behold, I have blessed him and I will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father 12 princes and will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year. In this section we get much more specifics about the covenant promise and and like Abraham, Sarah also gets renamed, Saray meant princess.

17:45The change preserves the same meaning, but again, it establishes God's authority to change names because he is God almighty. And what we notice actually in Genesis 17 is we get four new names. We get God almighty El Shadai, we get Abraham, we get saray now Sarah, and we get Isaac, we get the name of this child that is to come and God makes clear in verse 16, I will give you a son by her. Now Abraham falls on his face and laughs we, we don't know if this was a response of surprise or doubt. He, he doesn't get rebuked by God a little bit like Sarah in chapter 18. But it, it seems that his faith is stretched to its limits.

18:32He's like, I'm a hundred years old, Sarah's almost 90. How can it be possible? And again, Abraham looks for a shortcut. Look at verse 18. Oh that Ishmael might live before you. Can you just do it with Ishmael? 'cause it seems too hard to believe in the promise and yet God, it makes it clear. Sarah will give birth and around this time next year, verse 21. And we have a confirmation that Sarah and Abraham are going to be parents. Now Abraham seems to doubt and yet the scriptures often speak of him as being faithful and his faith held. And so, uh, I wanna look at Romans four, Romans four, 18 to 21.

19:21Paul is speaking of Abraham and he says this, in hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told, so shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old or when he considered the bareness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God. But he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. I think what we see here is that Abraham believed in God's promise and continued to grow in faith.

20:05Despite the doubts, despite the the laughter, the name Isaac means laughter. And that would characterize the reactions that he would provoke. Abraham laughs and Sarah laughs at the prospect of giving birth. And as Isaac is born and every time Abraham and Sarah call his name, it's gonna be reminder, a reminder of their laughing. And my guess is their friends and their community would laugh as well, a hundred. And at 90 you give birth, the son would be a symbol of their struggle to believe God's promise. That was too good to be true. Now Ishmael, he says, I've heard you a play on his name. God hears, Ishmael would also be blessed, he'll be fruitful, he'll multiply.

20:54He would father 12 princes and become great. But he would receive the sign of circumcision, but he wouldn't be a recipient of the covenant. God is going to do that specific work through Isaac, his chosen offspring. Now we come to part four verses 22 to 27. Follow me as I read, when he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Abraham, then Abraham took Ishmael, his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house. And he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that very day as God had said to him, Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.

21:38And Ishmael, his son was 13 years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised and all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner were circumcised with him. Notice that Abraham obeys right away, verse 23. That very day, as God had said to him, Abraham circumcised at 99, Ishmael at 13 years old, all the males in his home, you don't want to go last 'cause that blade is getting dull. That was a lot of cutting. He had, you know, 200 some men that he took. And so that was a lot of cutting for Abraham that day.

22:25But it, it's a good reminder of this, whatever we might be facing or experiencing right now, the path of obedience is probably not more painful than what Abraham experienced. To circumcise himself at 99 takes faith and for us to obey in the challenges and the struggles to, to hold on to God's promises. When it seems like it, it's not going to come to pass. It seems impossible. It's absurd to believe. Likewise requires faith. It's a reminder that obedience can be costly, but it's always good to trust God. And today we no longer practice the sign of circumcision. Thank you Lord. It's not in my job description.

23:17I don't have to carry around a little blade. The early church wrestled with this in Acts 15, they concluded that circumcision is not required for believers. And the reason for that is because it was fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus had once for all shed his blood so that no blood sacrifice is required. Paul writes in Galatians six 15, neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision. But what put a new creation, all those who believe in Jesus, who have their faith in Christ are now new creatures, new creations. And the sign that we receive both men and women is the sign we just saw portrayed for us the sign of baptism that we die with Christ and we're raised with Christ, that we're cleansed from our sin, that we're baptized into union with Christ.

24:10And that is a glorious reality. Baptism is not a must do, but it's a get to when you come to believe that Jesus is Lord and savior. That's why Jesus says in Matthew 28, go and make disciples, baptizing them and not circumcising them. Today we have a new and better sign. Those baptized into Christ are now the true children of Abraham. And so Jesus fulfilled the Abrahamic covenant and through faith in Jesus, we now receive spiritual circumcision. Our heart of stone is cut out and a heart of flesh is placed within. Now this leads us to Genesis 18 and we're gonna look at just the first 15 verses of that.

25:01So why don't you turn with me in your Bible there and I'm gonna read that Genesis 18, and this is the confirmation, the fifth and final section. And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of mam Ray as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of day. And 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, oh 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 while I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves.

25:37And after that you may pass on since you have come to your servant. So they said, do as you have said. And Abraham went quickly into the tent of Sarah and said, quick three seas of Flo fine flour, knead it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf tender and young and gave it to the 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's in the tent. The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year.

26:13And Sarah, your wife shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now, 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'm worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, 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. He said, no, but you did laugh.

26:57It's good to know that the Lord and angels have a little sense of humor and yet see into the heart. So verses one through 15 really do set the stage for what follows in the rest of 18 and chapter 19, which we'll look at next week. But what we're to see a little bit of is the contrast between the hospitality of Abraham and Sarah with the reception that these angels will receive from lot and the townspeople of Sodom. So stay tuned for that next week. But what we wanna see here is here we get the Lord referring to Yahweh appears to Abraham. So it's likely this is two angels and the Lord in pre-incarnate form.

27:36And Abraham bows down and impresses upon them to eat and to rest. So this would've been pretty common hospitality among eastern peoples. Abraham is perhaps recognizing, uh, maybe he doesn't recognize who these people are and he's entertaining angels unaware, which Hebrew speaks of, but maybe he does recognize Abraham at 99 moves quickly. He went quickly into his tent, he said, quick to Sarah, then he ran to the herd. Sarah takes three seas of fine flour. And so ones is seven quarts. So this is a lot of bread that she makes with curds milk and a calf prepared for their guests. And Abraham stands nearby as they ate.

28:17So there, there's dialogue and God says, I will surely return to you about this time next year. And Sarah, your wife shall have a son that's in verse 10. And to this, Sarah laughs in amazement or perhaps disbelief. I I I'm inclined to think the latter, but the way these verses conclude, it looks like Sarah gets rebuked for her laughter and for her doubt. And, and she has good reason to doubt. Humanly speaking, everything looks impossible. Uh, and the narrator makes that really clear. They're old, they're advanced in years. Like, let me just say it again, like she's really old, she's advanced in years.

28:55And then that's verse 11. Uh, it goes on the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah, she's postmenopausal. There are no more eggs to fertilize. And then she says, after I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? The the pleasure probably refers to marital intimacy, that type of pleasure. And she's saying, w we haven't been very regular. That's a thing of the past. So it's biologically impossible. It's humanly impossible, and it's just a preposterous promise. And Abraham just cut his thing like it, it just seems entirely unlikely from Sarah's vantage point. Yet Hebrews 11 says this, Hebrews 1111, by faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful who had promised.

29:54So why does the author of Hebrews call her faithful when here it clearly looks like she's doubting. I think it's this, it's looking at the whole of her life and not just this one isolated moment. W we we all go through this in, in our life, don't we? We get some bad news and we think, oh no, or we hear something and and we're just devastated for a moment. And we think, what is God doing in this moment? And, and anxiety rises up in our hearts and fear rises up in our hearts and and doubt rises up in our hearts. And, and then we say, but Lord, I believe help my unbelief. And and I think that's what is taking place here.

30:37The author of Hebrews is not looking at this one isolated moment, but it's looking at the whole of Abraham and Sarah's life and say they believed that God could do what he said he would do. They ultimately believed that God is God almighty and they held on to his promise. This is a significant moment. I think this is the only moment in scripture before the incarnation when Jesus comes, that the Lord eats a meal with people. This is a picture of intimacy and familiarity, and I think it's ultimately serving as a pointer forward to the Lord's supper where Jesus would gather with his disciples and break bread.

31:19And that's what we practice when we observe the Lord's supper. And then it's a precursor to the marriage feast of the Lamb in heaven one day. And the answer that God gives is probably my favorite verse in these two chapters. Verse 14, is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for the Lord? If you have, uh, a Bible, you can look at the little footnote there and it could be translated, is anything too wonderful for the Lord? I I think the idea here is there's nothing that's too difficult. There's nothing too miraculous, nothing too out of reach, too far away for God to accomplish. There's nothing that's too difficult for God, almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

32:12God most high, the one who possesses heaven and earth to do nothing is too impossible. It's a word of reassurance for Abraham and Sarah that God would make the very ims impossibilities the things that are impossible possible. God will fulfill his promise and call Isaac out of nothing to be their son. It it's an amazing, amazing message. So let, let, let me just try to conclude a little bit and, and tie these things together. So what does this passage teach just about God and and about us? It shows us the development of God's covenant with Abraham. There there's one covenant with Abraham. It's just that there's multiple levels of disclosure that he gets along the way.

33:05God will keep his promises. He was the only one who went through as the fire pot between the carcasses in Genesis 15. And yet God's people are called to walk by faith as his covenant people. They have obligations they are to keep. In Abraham's day, it was the sign of circumcision Today, it's putting our hope and trust in Jesus who was the one who was cut off for us. So our passage calls us to trust and obey God because nothing is too hard for the Lord. Trust and obey him because nothing is too hard for him. Why can you have confidence to take a hard step in a particular direction, to do the thing that is unpopular, that goes against the grain of our culture that just doesn't seem logical for you?

34:00Well, it's because nothing is too hard for God. He can accomplish anything. For the original audience, this was a reminder to keep God's covenant through circumcision. Galatians three, seven says, no then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. So even then, faith was needed there, there was those who were circumcised, but those who had faith and those who lacked faith. And today the true spiritual children of Abraham are those who have faith in Jesus. The the world says to us, trust in human wisdom, trust in chariots and horses or trust in education and money. The world says some things are just too far gone, too difficult, even impossible.

34:52And we're tempted to take things into our own hands. Like in Genesis 16. Well, here's a half-baked plan. God, maybe that'll work. And what we're reminded of this morning is God says to each and every single one of us, is anything too hard? Is anything too difficult? Is anything too wonderful? Is anything too impossible for me to accomplish? And the answer is no. So the question for us is, do you believe that? Do you believe that God is holding all things together by the word of his power? Do you believe that God can do anything? Even the things that seem entirely unlikely, impossible, and absurd to us?

35:39Do we really believe that God can save even to the uttermost that we keep praying, that we keep walking by faith, that we keep crying out and asking him to do that, which seems impossible. Nothing is too difficult for our God. So let me just end with a few reflections in the relational brokenness that you have in your life. Nothing is too impossible for God. You can cry out to him and bring those before him in your professional problems. Nothing is impossible for God. Bring those concerns to him in your unfulfilled hopes and dreams and we all have 'em. Nothing is too impossible for God. Lay those down before him in your hopes for your family, the estranged children, the estranged parents, the lost relatives, the ones you've been praying for for decades and decades and decades, and you think maybe I should just stop.

36:46Nothing is impossible for God. Continue to cry out and entrust them to him in the financial troubles that you face. Nothing is impossible for God. You can ask him for help in the sorrow that you feel over our world. And at times our world just feels like it's getting worse and worse. Nothing is impossible for God. Bring him your laments and don't cease to cry out and say, Lord, even in this moment, you can bring revival, wouldn't it that be like the Lord to do when we're backs are against the wall and everything looks impossible? And God says, now they'll know it's not because they're strong, but because I'm God in the anxieties that you have, the ones that flare up at night that keep you from sleeping where, where you think things are just gonna fall apart.

37:40If I don't work harder or do more or I can't control how things are going, nothing is impossible for God. You can hold onto him in your regrets from your past where you say, I can't go back and change what has already been done. And they just continue to haunt you day in and day out. And you think, oh, I, I wish I never would've. Nothing is impossible for God. Let him carry your burdens in your fears of the future where you think, I don't know where I'm gonna be, five years, three years, one year from now. Maybe the doctors have even given me a diagnosis where I won't see to next year. Nothing is impossible for God.

38:27He holds your future and he's good in the faltering of your faith. When you say, am am I really a believer? I I just keep sinning in these ways and and sometimes they get really angry and, and I doubt and and I look at all these other people who look like they have their stuff put together when they come to church. And I just feel like the odd man out, like surely I can't be a believer. Nothing is impossible for God. Look to Jesus and he will hold you fast. And in the unanswered prayers that you pray, the ones that you're embarrassed to tell other people about because you think could God even answer that, it feels so far away, so distant, so impossible.

39:22I've been asking for so long, it seems like the answer I get is either no or it's been silence. Nothing is impossible for our God. Wait on him. Jesus is the perfect revelation of God the Father. And he reveals that nothing is too hard for him. He addressed the greatest impossibility, which is that each one of us as sinners, estranged, wicked to the core, could have a glorious relationship with our father because Jesus would die on the cross, forgive us of our sins, reconcile us to the Father, impute to us his righteousness, and draw us in, bring us into his very own person. We would be brought into union with Christ.

40:18We have Jesus as our friend and brother, and he brings us to the throne of grace and says, this is your God. In the same way that God, the Father is God I, I is the Father to the Son, he's God to us. And so rest in the good news that nothing is too hard for our God. Let's pray. Father, We wanna stand in awe of who you are and what you've accomplished. You are God almighty and nothing is too great for you. You keep your promises. And so apply this truth to the hundreds of hearts here and those watching online, that there would be a delight in Jesus and all that you've accomplished and that we would cleave to you by faith, that we would trust you like Abraham and Sarah, that we would not laugh in disbelief but laugh because you are so good and we know that you will be true to your word.

41:31In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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