Nothing is Too Hard for God

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Nothing is Too Hard for God

Genesis 17:1-27

The Bible doesn’t fill us in on a lot of events that took place with Ishmael was growing up.  We don’t know how often Sarah bit her lip and endured the slave girl and her son, secretly hoping that they would leave, but knowing that they probably wouldn’t. 

Finally when Abram was 99 years old, and Sarah was 89, God reassured Abram that he would be a father of many nations.  Surely he told Sarah of this conversation.

God assured Abraham that Sarah would have a child.  It seemed unlikely, even impossible, for this to happen, but when God says something will happen, you can rest assured that it will.  Abraham laughed at the thought of it, though.  But, put yourself in his shoes.  You are 99, your wife 89, how could something like this happen?  God insisted that it would happen, though.

Remember, Abraham was a man of faith.  But we also have to remember that from time to time his faith was weak.  Sometimes he failed to live up to what God expected out of him.  Are we ever that way in our lives?  Sure we are.  Can we learn anything at all to help us from this episode in Abraham’s life?  Sure we can.

Look at what Abraham initially did, he laughed.  What type of laughter was it?  We all know different kinds of laughs.  Was it a chuckle like we might do when we hear a somewhat amusing story or joke?  Was it a full fledged laugh like we might do if we are watching a really funny movie?  Was it somewhere in the middle?  We really don’t know.  All we know is that he laughed.  By laughing he showed something else, though.  He showed disbelief.

When we express disbelief in our lives, we show it a number of different ways.  The slow grin can turn into a sneer, as if we feel we have a better knowledge than the one that we are smiling at.  The nervous laugh is sometimes a cover up for the fact that we really don’t believe that a person can carry out what they promised to do, but we don’t want to come flat out and say that they are lying.  The rasping, mocking laugh is one that is a blatant denial of our confidence in what a person says.

Abraham went as far as to ask God to allow Ishmael to be his heir.  He tried to change God’s plan.  How often are we guilty of that?  How often do we think that getting God’s plan accomplished would be too much work, take too much time, or too much effort?  How often do we try to bargain with God?  Far too often we try to come up with a substitute for what God wants us to do.  We may try to get someone else to do something for us.  We may try to hide our talents and abilities.  We may try to blend in and hope nobody notices us.  Today, far too many people go to church to hide.  They don’t want people to know that they are capable of doing anything for God, so they try to set back and not be noticed.  I even tried that once.  A number of years ago Rhonda and I, along with our son, started attending a new church.  This one was much larger than the one we had been in, and we kind of hoped that we could blend in and not be noticed.  That worked fine for a few Sunday’s.  But after about a month or so of attending that church, I made the mistake of sitting right behind the song leaders wife.  Of course you all know that I love to sing, so I was singing praises to God during the music portion of the service.  As soon as that portion of the service was over, she turned around and said something like, “you will be in the choir next week, right?”  My days of blending in and not doing anything at that church were over.  Soon we were both teaching Sunday School, singing in the choir, and doing other things in that church as well.  God was going to use us, and he wants to use you.  We just have to be willing to allow him to use us.

God does not compromise or change.  God has never, and will never change one bit.  He is holy.  That can never change, or else everything distinctive about God would disappear.

God is truth.  He cannot lie or be inconsistent with himself.  He is merciful, hating sin, but loving the sinner.  God may change his methods, but he will never change. 

Why did God insist that the covenant he had promised Abraham be carried out not through Ishmael, but through another child?  First, he had promised Sarah that she would have a child.  God always keeps his promises to us.  Second, God was going to reveal through this covenant a higher type of life than the pagan people around them were living.  His ideal was not just one God, but one wife as well.  God knew that it was right that the heir be through Sarah and Isaac, so he did not compromise.  Abraham just had to accept God’s will as the best thing and not try to negotiate with God.

What did this mean for Abraham?  We do not discover everything that God wants us to know in 1 day.  We do not learn everything about anything in 1 day.  If I was to bring a calculus book, or maybe even an algebra I book with me to church next Sunday, do you think I could teach you everything in those books in one day?  How about income taxes, do you think I could teach any of you, that don’t already know quite a bit about income taxes, how to do a tax return for a business or a farm in one day?  The answer to all those questions is no, it would be impossible.  It’s the same way when we are trying to learn all that God has in store for us and wants us to do.  We cannot learn it all in a short time.  It takes years upon years to learn.  In fact, just like a mathematician, a CPA, a coal miner, a farmer, or any other person, we should never stop learning the things of God.

If you don’t get anything else out of this study this evening, remember this, nothing is too hard for God.  He made the world, he will sustain the world.  He breathed into us the breath of life, and he can be trusted to guide us in the daily affairs of our lives.

God will not leave us defenseless.  He will leave his presence and guidance with us.  The Spirit, as we talked about this morning, will be with us as long as we are alive on this earth.  God will always be leading, guiding and directing.  Sometimes we will make the wrong choice and go for the easy, or the second or even third best things, but God will still be there to draw us back, to comfort us, but also to convict us.  He wants us to have the very best, and the only way he can get us there is for us to follow him unconditionally.

God doesn’t reveal himself to us to satisfy our curiosity or even to grant our desire for knowledge simply for the sake of knowledge.  He wants to give us light and strength to do what he has set out for us to do.  Trust God and do the right thing.

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