Nothing is Too Hard for God

[0:00] Good morning again.

[0:18] Good morning. Good morning. The scripture reference for this morning is two passages, one Genesis chapter 18 verses 1 through 15.

[0:29] It's Genesis 18, 1 through 15. And then Hebrews 11, 8 to 12. Genesis chapter 18, beginning at verse 1.

[0:46] And the Lord appeared to him 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.

[1:03] 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.

[1:21] 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, and after that you may pass on, since you have come to your servant.

[1:38] So they said, Do as you have said. And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, Quick! Three sets of fine flour, knead it, and make cakes.

[1:54] And Abraham 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.

[2:08] 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.

[2:23] The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year. And Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him.

[2:37] 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 am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?

[2:55] And 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?

[3:07] At the appointed time, I will return to you. About this time next year, Sarah and Sarah shall have a son.

[3:20] But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. He said, No, but you did laugh.

[3:32] And then Hebrews 11, 8-12. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

[3:46] And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

[4:00] For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive when she was past the age.

[4:19] Since she considered him faithful who had promise. Therefore, from one man and him, as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the star of heaven, and as innumerable, and as many as innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

[4:42] Amen. Thank you very much, Fay.

[4:57] And congratulations once again. I believe all of us have lived long enough to have experienced circumstances where the odds were stacked against us in such a way that hopes and desires that we have had in our hearts seem very unlikely that they will ever come to pass.

[5:28] Perhaps some of us find ourselves in that place this morning. Perhaps it's a time factor. And it seems like time is passing you by.

[5:41] And day by day, as time passes by, the realization of that desire, that goal, seems to be slipping through your fingers. Perhaps it's a resource issue.

[5:51] Perhaps it doesn't seem like the resources that are needed are materializing for you to fulfill that desire or that plan.

[6:08] And maybe in some circumstance it's beyond your control, and factors are just not lining up the way they need to line up. Whatever the reason, whatever the circumstance, the longer our desires and our plans take to come to fruition, the less hope we have that they will.

[6:32] And the more we tend to question if they will. Well, this morning we come to a passage in our continued study through the book of Genesis.

[6:44] And we come to an account where we find Sarah herself facing hopelessness that she would ever bear a child. Twenty-five years had elapsed since the Lord first gave the promise to her and Abraham.

[7:02] And at this point, Abraham is going on 100, and Sarah is going on 90 years old. And she is in a place of hopelessness.

[7:14] As we consider this passage this morning, I want us to recall the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 15, verse 4, where he tells us that whatever was written in the former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

[7:37] And so I especially pray that this would be the effect of this passage on our hearts this morning. Whether you're gathered here, whether you're watching online, that if we are in a place in our hearts where we are losing hope, whether we are becoming discouraged, I pray that the effect of this passage on our hearts will be to fill our hearts again with hope and faith in our great God.

[8:04] Let's pray first before we look further at the passage. Father, we bow our hearts before you this morning, and we ask that you would speak to us through your word.

[8:16] Lord, you know where each one of us is? And our circumstances are not hid from you. Lord, you have ordered our steps.

[8:27] In your providence, you have brought us to this place at this time to hear this sermon. And so, Lord, would you superintend how we hear and how we engage it?

[8:39] I pray, Lord, that you would grant me grace to faithfully stay within the four corners of your word and to faithfully bring your word to your people for their good and for the glory of your great name.

[8:56] In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, the heart of this passage that we have come to this morning is about Sarah's reaction to overhearing that she was going to have a son in a year's time when she was 90 years old and her husband 100 years old.

[9:21] As we consider this passage this morning about Sarah's reaction to this news, I pray that we will see that we should believe God's promises because he can and will bring them to pass.

[9:38] I pray that is what we see. That we should believe God's promises because he can and he will bring them to pass.

[9:49] And why is this true? It's true because nothing is too difficult for God. Nothing is too hard for the Lord to do. No matter how impossible it might seem, nothing is too hard for the Lord.

[10:08] This passage begins with Abraham giving us a wonderful example of hospitality. Hospitality to strangers. And it reminds us of the important place that hospitality should play in all of our lives.

[10:25] But this morning, I want to spend the lion's share of our time focused on the last seven verses, verses 9 to 15. And I want us to consider them under three headings which I hope are helpful to work through the verses.

[10:40] And the first is God's promise. The second, Sarah's reaction. And third, God's assurance. So first, let's consider God's promise.

[10:52] God's promise to Sarah was incredible. It was difficult to believe. The account starts out with in verse 2 telling us that three men came to Abraham.

[11:08] They appeared to him. And from the rest of Genesis 18 to 19, we're able to see that it was not just three men but it was actually Yahweh, the Lord himself, and two angels.

[11:22] We're able to see that because in verses 10 to 15, we see the Lord is the one who's speaking. And that's also the case in verses 16 to 21 which we'll look at next week.

[11:36] And in verse 22 we read this. We read, So the men turned from there and went towards Sodom, but Abram stood before the Lord.

[11:46] So that helps us to see clearly that of these three men, one was the Lord to whom Abraham continued to speak and then two went towards Sodom. And then if you look over in verse 1 of chapter 19, it tells us that the two men were angels.

[12:04] It says the two angels came to Sodom. So just a bit of reminder as to what is happening here. This is the Lord and two angels.

[12:20] Now you may recall from the last sermon in this series in chapter 17 that the Lord had appeared to Abraham in a similar way and had again announced that he was going to have a son, that Sarah was going to have a son.

[12:36] But this announcement was different. This announcement this time in the past was just a blanket announcement, you're going to have a son. Believe me, you're going to have a son. Count the stars, you're going to have a son.

[12:47] God made a covenant with him, a unilateral covenant, I'm going to give you a son. But this time the Lord in chapter 17 came to Abraham and told him the name of the son and told him this son is going to be born in a year's time.

[13:04] So it was a very different repetition of the promise. And again, we see the Lord speaking to Abraham again and it appears to be in close proximity.

[13:20] As a matter of fact, when you read the way verse 1 of chapter 18 opens it, it gives the impression that it's really a continuation that shouldn't be a chapter division.

[13:31] And we know it's a short period of time because the Lord announces the same period of time roughly at this point when he speaks to Abraham again.

[13:42] He says about this time, about this time next year you're going to have a child. Sarah is going to bear a child.

[13:54] But this promise is again very different from all of the other promises that he would have received. But it's still an incredible promise.

[14:06] This was so incredible that Abraham and he was told it in chapter 17 he burst out laughing he fell on the ground fell on his face and he began to laugh.

[14:18] But this time he doesn't laugh. when the Lord repeats to him that about this time next year Sarah is going to have a son he doesn't laugh and it would appear that Abraham is a different man at this point than he was a little earlier when the Lord spoke to him.

[14:41] By this time God had given him the covenant of circumcision and he obeyed the Lord to the letter he was circumcised Ishmael was circumcised all the men in his house were circumcised and it seems like he took to heart that command from the Lord that he was to walk up rightly before him.

[15:04] But this was an incredible promise I mean so incredible that Moses draws attention to it in verse 11. Look at what Moses says in verse 11. Now Abraham and Sarah were old advanced in years the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

[15:24] He's not only saying that Abraham was old that he and Sarah were old but he says Sarah had reached the stage in her life where she was in menopause and she biologically could not have children.

[15:40] In essence what he was saying was it was a human impossibility for Abraham and Sarah to have a child.

[15:52] But it should be pretty clear that a lot is going on in this passage because you see the supernatural aspect of it in that you have this stranger who comes to Abraham and knows he's married and knows his wife's name.

[16:14] And this is not a widely publicized name. This is a private name that God just gave her a little while earlier. So something supernatural is going on.

[16:27] This promise that God gives is an incredible promise. It's hard to believe based on all the circumstances and yet there's something that is supernatural about it.

[16:43] Now Sarah was not a part of the conversation. It seems like part of the custom was that she would not be in the company of these strange men who her husband was entertaining.

[16:55] But she was hearing the conversation from the inside of the tent. She was at the door of the tent. And what was her response to the news about having a child in a year's time?

[17:09] Well we find it in verse 12. And it brings me to my second point, Sarah's response. Look at what it says in verse 12.

[17:22] So Sarah laughed to herself saying, after I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?

[17:34] let's think about this for a moment. Sarah heard a stranger call her newly acquired and privately given name, say to her husband, your wife Sarah, about this time next year is going to have not a child, but a son.

[17:57] and so at the time that his birth is announced, she's told when it's going to happen, about a year from now, and the sex of the child is he is going to be a boy, and Sarah laughs to herself.

[18:18] And the only reason she laughed to herself was she didn't want to expose herself, that she was listening on the inside of the pen.

[18:28] She didn't want them to know that she was listening in on their conversation, more than likely. That's the only reason she didn't just burst out laughing as some people would to that prospect.

[18:39] And I think when we consider Sarah's reaction, when we consider her response, it's understandable. Her reaction is an understandable reaction.

[18:51] reaction. She did what humanly speaking, I think any of us would do, even though this was God who was uttering this promise to her.

[19:08] Her laughter seems to question and even point back to the years of disappointment, the 25 years that she had been waiting to bear a child.

[19:21] probably reflecting back to when she was much younger. It was 65. She was 65 when the Lord first gave this promise to her and Abraham and thinking that, yeah, that was probably a more doable time for this to happen and now she admits that she is worn out and Abraham is old.

[19:44] There are commentators who believe that the pleasure that Sarah is referring to is the pleasure of sexual relations while there are others who say it was the pleasure of having a child.

[19:55] There are pretty good arguments on both sides. But I land on the side of thinking that what Sarah was referring to, the pleasure she was referring to, was the pleasure of bearing a child.

[20:09] Because first of all, there was no certainty that at that stage of her and Abraham's life that there would be any pleasure involved in sexual relations. But it also is hinted to in the Lord's response to her laughter, which we'll look at in a short while.

[20:28] But the Lord says, why did Sarah question, why did she say, shall I indeed be a child now that I am old? Now if you look at what Sarah said, she simply said, shall I have the pleasure?

[20:41] So it seems like the pleasure being referred to was the pleasure of bearing a child. And especially in that day and time in that culture, this was a very important thing to women, and Sarah had gone all these years without bearing a child, and she is more than likely asking, shall I have the pleasure of child bearing?

[21:08] It really doesn't matter which place you land on that, whatever you think pleasure is referring to. What matters is that Sarah rejected the idea altogether that the Lord was proposing to her.

[21:24] Her response was the equivalent of saying yeah, right. Or some behaviors would say, child, don't play with me. Don't play with me and try to tell me those kinds of things. She reacted in a very understandable way.

[21:39] Sarah had high hopes of bearing a child. She had waited 10 years and nothing happened and they were in the land of Canaan and she was tempted and she had this brilliant idea that maybe God will help me to have a child through my slave and so she gave a slave to Abraham and Ishmael was produced by Hagar but all that brought was a wife rivalry and strife between her and Abraham.

[22:15] And now 14 years had passed and she is about to turn 90. Abraham is about to turn 100 and God tells her you are going to bear a son.

[22:29] And she is so disheartened. She had so given up on this promise that she laughs. She doesn't believe it. And perhaps this morning there are some of you present or watching online and you're able to understand Sarah's reaction in a very personal way.

[22:55] Perhaps you have held promises and desires in your heart which you believe are from the Lord and perhaps you're watching.

[23:09] Maybe you've seen them apparently just gone to the wayside. Maybe it was the desire to return to school or to change jobs or perhaps to go in business.

[23:22] Perhaps it was the desire of marriage or a child or something else. And the big fact is time and you're watching time just go by.

[23:34] Time marches on and so does the promise or the desire. And you lose heart. I don't think Troy and Faye would mind me referring to them this morning.

[23:54] What is the purpose of the laughter? laughter. I have to find out what that joke is. I don't know that joke. But I don't think they'd mind me referring to them and just making the point that I imagine that they were content with their singleness.

[24:16] As you observed them they were living a rich single life, serving the Lord, serving others, doing things that they probably couldn't do if they were married.

[24:28] But it would not surprise me if both Troy and Faye, if they were not at the place yet, they were coming to a place where even though they desired marriage, they were wondering, is singleness my future?

[24:43] Is this my lot for the rest of my life? As time passes on, it'll do that to us. It'll cause us to wonder whether these desires in our hearts and sometimes even promises we believe that are from the Lord will ever be fulfilled.

[25:06] And it is heart wrenching to find ourselves in such a place where time is passing and these promises and these desires are fading.

[25:19] And again, perhaps some of you find yourself in such a place this morning. So much so that even if some of those things were announced to you right now that they're going to happen in three months or six months or in a year, you'd wonder.

[25:37] Maybe you would laugh inwardly as well. but you shouldn't despair. You shouldn't despair because time seems to be marching on, because factors seem to be not coming together.

[25:55] You should not, because of those things, lose despair. despair. And the reason you shouldn't lose hope and have despair is because of the reason that we find in the Lord's assurance to Sarah in the face of her doubt.

[26:21] And this brings me to my third and final point. In verse 13, the Lord asked Sarah, sorry, the Lord asked Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? Why did she question and say, will I bear a child when I am now old?

[26:42] And then the Lord in verse 14 asks another question. Is anything too hard for the Lord? It's a rhetorical question.

[26:54] It's a question that gives the answer to it. The answer is obvious. The answer is no. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

[27:07] A resounding no. But I want us to consider this morning how the Lord could have simply responded to Sarah's doubt.

[27:21] And he could have said, why is Sarah questioning? why does she believe that I cannot give her a child? Why does she think I cannot enable her to bear a child in her old age?

[27:39] But he doesn't ask that question. He doesn't respond to Sarah in that personal and in that specific way. He refers to Sarah, he responds to her in a more universal way.

[27:55] He goes further than just that. And what he says is, is anything too hard for the Lord? And in asking the question in this universal way, is anything too hard for the Lord?

[28:12] What the Lord does is he speaks not just to Sarah, but he speaks to all of his people who would be looking to him to fulfill desires and promises against odds, against obstacles that make them seem like those promises and desires will never be fulfilled, that they will be unlikely.

[28:36] He says, is anything too hard for the Lord? Not just the issue of bearing a child in old age, but is anything too hard for the Lord?

[28:51] And brothers and sisters, that speaks to all of us. I don't need to know what the desire is in your heart. I don't need to know what that promise is that you believe that it's from the Lord and doesn't seem like it's going to be fulfilled, where the odds may seem to be against you at time, may seem to pass you by.

[29:10] What I can say to you this morning is that the Lord says, is anything too hard for me? There's another important insight into the Lord's assurance to Sarah that is important that we see.

[29:30] The Lord was the one who made the promise to Abraham and Sarah, so the burden was on him to fulfill it, not Abraham and not Sarah. And the Lord was the one who in his providence decided that he would take an old man and an old woman and give them a promise and then wait 25 years to fulfill the promise.

[29:51] He decided that. It wasn't happenstance. He decided all of that. The burden was on him to do it. And he did it in such a way so that he would bring Abraham and Sarah to this place where they would recognize that they were utterly dependent upon him to fulfill this promise.

[30:14] But when you look at Sarah's response again in verse 12, Sarah had put all the burden on herself and Abraham. She says, after I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?

[30:30] Shall I have the pleasure of bearing a child? Sarah was looking to herself and to Abraham and not to the Lord who promised. He said, is there anything too hard for me to do?

[30:44] And so the Lord utters again for the third time this promise to Sarah and he says, at the appointed time, I will return to you about this time next year and Sarah shall have a son.

[31:17] In verse 15, we see that Sarah denies it. Moses tells us that she denied it. She denied laughing and Moses tells us that she denied laughing because she was afraid.

[31:35] Why was she afraid? afraid? Why was Sarah afraid? Perhaps she was afraid because she realized that her inner thoughts were being laid bare.

[31:47] She laughed inwardly and Yahweh speaks to her husband and says, why did she laugh? Maybe that's what gripped her heart with fear that her thoughts were being laid bare.

[32:00] fear. Or perhaps it was the idea that she was going to fear a child in an old age, a woman who described herself as being worn out, and she didn't know what all that entailed.

[32:21] It would be a scary prospect to consider. But whatever caused her to be afraid, let's not miss the grace of God to Sarah in this.

[32:38] The New International Version puts verse 15 in a more graphic light. It says, Sarah was afraid, so she lied.

[32:53] She lied and said, I did not laugh. And we see that God was merciful to Sarah even though she lied. As I consider this, I was reminded of Psalm 103 verse 10 that says, the Lord does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

[33:21] And in Psalm 103 verses 13 and 14, the psalmist writes, as a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

[33:34] For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust. That's the kindness of the Lord, that's the grace of the Lord to this discouraged woman who in her fear lies and says, no, I did not, I did not laugh.

[33:51] the Lord knows our frame, he knew Sarah's frame, he knew that she was dust. The story doesn't end here with Sarah, there were other things going on with Sarah, and even in that we see the kindness of the Lord.

[34:14] If you flip over to Hebrews chapter 11, the second passage that was read, we see that the Lord clearly dealt with Sarah.

[34:33] It tells us in verse 11, by faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

[34:50] Now, how did that come about? How did Sarah move from laughing at the prospect of having a child when she was 90 years old, to what the writer to the Hebrews says here in verse 11, that by faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive?

[35:12] Did she just work herself up and get strong in the faith and just said, you know, I have to get myself together and get in a position to receive this great promise from God?

[35:23] Is that what she did? That's not what she did. As a matter of fact, when you read this entire chapter of Hebrews, it's easy to read this and think, oh, these are wonderful people of faith, they had great faith in all the other kinds of things, and they did.

[35:47] But we should never for one split second think that this faith was of them. Faith, brothers and sisters, is a gift from God. It is a gift from God.

[35:59] If it were not a gift from God, we could boast about it. If this faith that Sarah had come to, that the writer to the Hebrews tells us about in verse 11, was of herself, if she was able to bring herself from a place of doubt to a place of faith, then she had every reason to boast and look to herself.

[36:21] But no, God was merciful and kind to her. And God granted her the gift of faith to bring her from the place of doubt to this place of belief that she would receive this wonderful promise that she gave, that he gave to her.

[36:42] And this is the grace of God. This is God's patience with Sarah. This is God's compassion towards Sarah. There are people today who have faith in faith.

[36:57] And they believe that you can have enough faith, and if you just have enough faith, you can just get this, and you can get that, and you can command this, and you can command that. And brothers and sisters, that is unbiblical. That is unbiblical.

[37:10] thank God that he is mindful of our friend, that we are dust. Thank God that he condescends to our condition of weakness.

[37:23] Some of you have heard me say this again and again. One of the most precious accounts in the Bible to me is the account in the Gospels of the man whose son had a demon that would throw him in the fire, and he brought his son to the disciples and they could not cure him and cast his demon out, and he brought his son to Jesus, and he asked Jesus, would you heal my son?

[37:53] And Jesus said, do you believe that I can heal your son? He said, Lord, I believe, but I struggle with unbelief. Help my unbelief.

[38:03] And the Lord didn't say, well, get away from here because you don't have enough faith. The Lord healed his son. He healed his son.

[38:16] And brothers and sisters, if it required perfect faith to receive from the Lord, none of us would receive from the Lord. If Sarah had to, in and of herself, come to a place of faith and conviction that God would do what he said he would do, she would never have had a child.

[38:37] But she had a child for one reason. God was merciful to her. God was kind to her. And God gave her the gift of faith that moved her from this position of doubt that a 90-year-old woman and a 100-year-old man could have a child.

[38:56] And she believed that. God brought her to a place of belief. And that's why the writer to the Hebrews says, by faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive even when she was past the age since she considered him faithful with promise.

[39:20] And wherever you may be this morning, wherever your heart is, wherever you may be in despair over whatever promise or desire has been in your heart over the years, just understand that you are under the gaze of a compassionate, all-seeing, all-knowing God who relates to us as a compassionate father, relates to his children, and he knows your frame.

[39:50] And the same way he gave merciful grace to Sarah, he will give you merciful grace regardless of what the odds may look like, regardless of how time may seem to be passing you by.

[40:05] That is a gracious, compassionate God. God. Now I realized this morning that there's a vast difference between the promises and the desires that are in our hearts that we believe are from the Lord, and this promise that God gave to Abraham and Sarah that they were going to have a son.

[40:31] There's a big difference. The answer was very specific, it was very direct, it was from the Lord, and he repeated it to them again and again.

[40:41] For the rest of us, the best we're able to say is we sense it's from the Lord, we believe it's from the Lord, and we hold on to it trusting that it is the Lord and we carry it in our hearts.

[40:56] And the temptation with a sermon like this is to leave wrestling and wondering is this promise from the Lord, is this desire from the Lord?

[41:08] And I want to ask us not to do that this morning. I want to ask us not to leave here letting that be the focus of our attention, trying to discern one way or the other, is this from the Lord or this is just my desire?

[41:24] I encourage us to just leave that to the Lord altogether, but instead let us look to the one for whom nothing is too hard and trust in him that he will act in accordance with his will and in his way and in his time he brings all of his purposes to pass.

[41:46] All of them without exception. He is the one who works all things in accordance with the counsel of his will. And so we can trust him.

[41:59] And we can remember that he is bound by no circumstance. He is not bound by time. He is not bound by biology. He is not bound by the economy. He is not bound by anything.

[42:13] Because nothing is too difficult for him to do. And instead brothers and sisters, let us leave this place this morning remembering that God has already fulfilled his greatest and his best promise to us.

[42:33] All those other promises that we may carry in our hearts this morning, they are time bound. They are confined to this life and to this life alone. But God has already fulfilled his greatest and his best promise to all of us who belong to him.

[42:52] He has sent his son to redeem us. He has fulfilled that age-old promise, that promise that he uttered that the seed of the woman will come and crush the head of the serpent.

[43:06] And Christ has come and he has lived the perfect life that none of us could live and he died a substitutionary death in the place of sinners so that sinners like you and me can be reconciled to God, that we can be forgiven, that we can receive eternal life.

[43:25] Nothing else compares to this, brothers and sisters. in Luke chapter 10, Jesus had sent out a group of his disciples.

[43:38] He sent them into the neighboring towns and they came back and they were rejoicing and they said, Master, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

[43:51] And Jesus questioned them and he said to them, don't rejoice that demons are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

[44:07] That's what you rejoice about. And brothers and sisters, may this be the ultimate source of our rejoicing as well, that our names are written in the book of life.

[44:19] Not that we experience some fulfillment of a promise or a desire that is confined to this life. But that we have a life beyond this life.

[44:34] We have the joy of knowing that our names are forever written in the book of life. That our sins are forgiven, that our consciousness are cleansed, that we have right standing with a holy God.

[44:48] And let all those other things, those desires in our hearts, those promises that we believe from the Lord, let them fall where sovereign God will bring them.

[45:01] But let us hold on to this wonderful, amazing, unchanging joy that we've been reconciled to God. that God kept his promise, that he's going to send the redeemer to deliver his people.

[45:24] If you're present this morning or you're watching online, maybe you don't have this assurance of salvation, this joy that comes with it.

[45:36] And I say to you this morning that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. And the Bible says that all who come to him, he will never turn away.

[45:47] He will receive them. And he will forgive them. And he will reconcile them to him. That they will never come into condemnation.

[45:59] And so if you are here this morning or you're listening online and you don't know the Savior, turn to Jesus. Come to him. You will find one who is quick to pardon all of your sins no matter what those sins are.

[46:14] And I pray that you would do that this morning. Let's pray together. Father, thank you for your compassion and your mercy towards us when we doubt, when we struggle to believe the promises that you have made.

[46:42] When we struggle to believe that you're able to fulfill desires that we have carried in our hearts that are good and godly. Lord, I pray that you're drawn near to each of us this morning where we find ourselves in doubt and despair.

[47:06] And would you remind us, O Lord, that nothing is too hard for you to do. And that every promise that you have made, the burden is on you to fulfill them.

[47:20] Father, would you work in all of our hearts and would you truly turn our hearts to you love? That we may look to you, that we may trust in you and your sovereign goodness all of our days.

[47:36] We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Santa Claus. I invite you to sing along as we trust our Savior Jesus.

[47:52] I will trust my Savior Jesus when my darkest doubts befall. Trust him when to simply trust him seems the hardest thing of all.

[48:10] I will trust, I will trust my Savior Jesus. Trust him when my strength is small. For I know the shield of Jesus is the safest place of all.

[48:28] Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus, help me trust you more and more. Jesus, only Jesus, may my heart be ever yours.

[48:48] I will trust, I will trust my Savior Jesus. He has said his way is best and I know the path he's chosen leads to everlasting rest.

[49:06] Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus, help me trust you more and more. Jesus, only Jesus, may my heart be ever yours.

[49:24] know on that cross. Oh, on that cross. Oh, on that cross. How it was seen.

[49:36] I can go now ever trusting in the one who died for me. what could I bring for your gift is complete.

[49:52] So I trust you, simply trust you, Lord, with every part of me. Oh, on that cross. And oh, on that cross.

[50:06] how it was seen. Jesus, only Jesus, I can go now ever trusting in the one who died for me.

[50:19] What could I bring for your gift is complete. So I trust you, simply trust you, Lord, with every part of me.

[50:36] Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus, there be trust you more and more.

[50:50] Jesus, only Jesus, may my heart be ever yours. May, may my heart be ever yours.

[51:06] Lord, with every heart be ever yours. Let's pray together. Lord, would you help us to trust you more and more.

[51:23] Would you help us, O Lord, to remember that you are the God who cannot lie. You're the God who cannot fail. You are the God for whom nothing is to harm.

[51:40] And Lord, that we struggle to believe that this morning. Would you do for us what you did for Sarah? Would you infuse our hearts with fresh faith to believe every promise, every good and godly desire that you put in our hearts.

[51:59] would you help us, Lord, to believe you. Lord, most of all, would you help us to remember that you have already fulfilled your greatest promise in sending the redeemed, sending the saved, so that we may be forgiven, so that we may be reconciled.

[52:27] Lord, most of all, I want to him who's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before his presence with great joy to the only God and Savior through Jesus Christ, our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and those now and forever.

[52:59] Amen. Amen. Amen. The Lord bless you. Thanks for being here this morning. As the others leave in prayer, please come and be a joy to pray with us.

[53:10] Thank you.

[53:40] Thank you.