Transcription
[Music] That's wonderful. I, I serve a God who just cannot [Applause] [Music] fail. He couldn't fail if he tried because there's no failure in it. [Music] Hallelujah. Open your Bibles to the Book of Genesis. In Genesis, we're looking at chapter 17. By the way, God bless all of you. All that, uh, set your clocks right. Amen. We, we're probably about 350 to 400 short of what we were last Sunday, um, but they're just sleeping. They'll be on later. Amen. Genesis chapter 17. Let's read verse, um, 15-19. You have it, say amen. Amen. Come on, let's read it aloud together.
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is 100 years old? And shall Sarah, that is 90 years old, bear? And Abraham said unto God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.
Now skip down to chapter 18 and let's begin reading with verse 10, and we'll read verse 10-14. Come on. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door, which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.
Now, the beginning of verse 14, it simply asks a question. And that is the question that I want to pose this morning: Is anything too hard for the Lord? God bless you, ushers. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Uh, I think that we've already answered that, even in the psalm, that God can do anything. The only thing he cannot do, he cannot fail. Amen.
Now, we believe in the miracle-working power of God, not only just because we have read it in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, but most of us have experienced to some degree the miracle-working power of God within our lives. If you have not ever experienced the miracle-working power of God in your life, you're not saved. Now, why did I say that? Because the first and greatest miracle that God ever performed for any of us was when he saved us. Don't fool yourself. Salvation itself is a miracle. Yes. And if anybody that I'm talking to, uh, was saved from some habit that had control of you, then you know, oh yeah, that your salvation is a miracle. Think about it. There are persons here who were chemically dependent. Oh, you said, "That doesn't apply to me. I was never on heroin. I was never on, uh, crack. I was never on marijuana." But those cigarettes were just as bad. Amen. Yeah, you tried your best to stop. Oh, yes. You even fooled yourself. You said, "I can stop anytime I get ready." And yet, that time of getting ready never came. Even though the Surgeon General determined that smoking cigarettes was hazardous to your health, but you still could never get ready enough to stop. No matter what you tried, you could not stop.
And then there were those that, uh, were chemically dependent to, uh, uh, the contents of the bottle. You didn't really understand what it meant if you bought it from the place that said "House of Spirits." You thought it was only liquor. You didn't know that there was a spirit, all right, that would catch a hold to you. And, and you would automatically, yes, get your check and get it cashed at the liquor store. Something had a hold to you. And it didn't matter how you talked to yourself, how others talked to you or talked about you, you couldn't break free. Somebody, "Well, I was not chemically dependent." But, but what about that old nasty mouth? That language? That other tongue? Not the one as the Spirit of God gives, but that tongue that comes from anger and that tongue that comes from just talking a whole lot of stuff. Couldn't get free from it. That's right. Or maybe it was just that old thing that you just couldn't stay on track where the truth is concerned. Now, I know there are folk that are church members that say they're saved, and, and they got that old lying habit. But now, you haven't experienced the miracle of salvation because one thing that you notice is when you read, even about the Lord coming into your life, he says, you know, "they shall speak with new tongues." Then there's other tongues, then there's unknown tongues. But when he says, "you speak with new tongue," that simply means that old lying tongue, you stop lying, start speaking truth. All that profanity is gone. You start speaking, you know, stuff that didn't make sense, clean language. When you get saved, God gives you a new tongue. Oh, yeah.
And when you look back at what God brought you out of, I'm not talking about if you just joined the church, but I mean, if you are really saved, you have to say like the song: "It took a miracle to hang the world in space. It took a miracle to put the stars in that place. But when He saved my soul, when He cleansed and when He made me whole, that was a miracle of love and grace." And, and if you are really saved, you know that God does work miracles. Now, I know that doesn't apply to everybody. Some folk just go to church 'cause you think it's nice and what people in the civilized society are supposed to be, and that's church members. So you don't have to say nothing. But is there anybody in here that when you look back out the back door of your life and realize where God has brought you from, you have to say, "My salvation is a miracle"? He, God is a miracle worker. Yes, he is. Oh, yes. And you got to get it in your mind, no matter what the devil tells you.
And then, I'm not going to be before you long. We're going to share our Lord's body and blood in Holy Communion, and hopefully not be before you too long. And I know I got on all these vestments, but I'm still going to walk down here just like I do every, every other Sunday morning. Amen. I want you to know, in, in these few minutes that I'm before you, I don't know what it is going on in your life. Yeah, I don't know what problem there is that is confronting you. But you have got to understand what God's word has to say concerning miracles. Well, here the question is asked, "Is there anything too hard for God?" But when you check over there in Jeremiah 32, uh, I don't know, verse 20 something in there, where God asks the question, "Behold, I am the Lord God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?" And around verse 17, the prophet himself says, "Oh, Lord God, he said, there is nothing that is too hard for you." You may have a medical problem. Yes. You may have a domestic problem. Yes. You may have a mental or an emotional problem. Hallelujah. You may have a financial problem. It doesn't matter what kind of problem you have. Oh, they used to sing a song, "If your problem is too hard for you, that problem is what? Just right for God." All you got to do is turn that problem over to him. Oh, I know you're sleepy. I, I can tell by the way you're responding that, that you're sleepy. But even if I can break through that haze of not getting enough sleep last night, I, I still want you to hear it. Sifting through that, there is nothing that God cannot do. There is nothing broken in your life that God cannot fix. Yeah, you talking about Mr. Fix-It. Yeah, one of the automobile manufacturers talk about Mr. Goodwrench. Yeah, can fix anything that happened to your car. I want you to know God's got a way of fixing anything that can happen in your life. He is the original Mr. Fixing. And if you let him. See, the thing about it, you don't let him. We have a tendency of trying to tell him how to do stuff. Yeah, but he's got his own way. Oh, yeah. Of doing what needs to be done. Yes.
Some of you all have even prayed for God to save, save a particular family member. And the next thing you know, that family member suddenly gets sick or gets hurt in an automobile accident and has to lie up in the hospital for six months. And you're talking about, "Lord, I want you to save him. I didn't tell you to kill him." But God said, "I got to stop him so I can talk to him." Yeah. You see, a lot of times God is working on your case and you don't understand what he is doing. But when you turn it over to him, you got to let him do it his own way. He's not going to do it your way. He's got a way where he can do everything that needs to be done. But the end result is, uhh, that when he gets through working, yes, that thing is going to be fixed. Yes, it is. And it's going to be fixed forever. Glory to God.
Well, sit down a minute, y'all. I'm going to finish here. Thank you. This is not a new story. This is not a story that hardly many of you are, are unfamiliar with, right? It is the story of Abraham, whom when we first meet him in the 11th chapter of the Book of Genesis, down at the end of the chapter, uh, he is just called Abram. Yeah. His wife Sarai. They've left Ur of the Chaldees and gone down in the land of Mesopotamia. Yes. He has ancestors that are idolatrous worshippers. And the time of Abram is recently, not too long after the flood. Yeah. And God had destroyed the earth by water because man, his creation, had gone into idolatrous worship. But God called Abram out from Ur in Mesopotamia and he tells him that, "I just want you to walk before me." Yeah. "I'm going to bless you." Yeah. And, uh, he let him know in the 12th chapter that he was going to bless him, he was going to make him a blessing, he was going to make his name great. He said, "And in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of earth be blessed." "I'm going to bless him that blesses you, I'm going to curse him that curses you." Oh, Hallelujah. And he talks about all of the blessings he's going to bestow on him. But one of the big ones was that, "I'm going to make of thee a great nation." Yes. Well, you would think that if God talked about making him, of him and his wife, a great nation, that these are young, fruitful people. But when you check it out, it's not so. He's 75 and his wife is 65. Yes. And, and you would think that if God is going to make a mighty nation out of this man, he's got to do it in a hurry because at 75 and her at 65, they're already over the hill. But the thing you got to understand about God is that if God makes you a promise, there's no need you trying to set a time limit, right, on how long it's going to take God to do what he says he's going to do because he holds time in his hand. Yeah. He holds life and death in his hand. Yeah. You can't hurry him. No. You can't rush him up. No, no, no, no, no. He's going to do it when he gets ready. Oh, yeah.
But God lets this man go 14 years, uh-huh, and still, yeah, no children. Oh, my God. And this is where the trouble that we're experiencing in the world today, where it started. Yeah, because God moved slow as man counts slow, slowness, uh, Sarah came up with an idea. And her idea was, "Now, you've been 14 years since you got that promise from God and nothing has happened yet. So, well, why don't you go on into my maid, Hagar? Young, beautiful, black Egyptian girl. She'll be your child. That'll still be ours because she's my bondsperson." He didn't argue with her. "You sure that's what you want?" "Oh, yeah." So Abraham, 75-year-old man, or rather 84-year-old man now, goes in to this young, beautiful black girl, and she conceives a son, names him Ishmael. And finally, when the Lord talks to Abraham, see, 16 years later, yes, 100 years old, uh-huh, God said, "You know what I told you?" "Oh, yeah, Lord, I know, I know about that." But just, just use Ishmael. And God let him know, "I'm going to bless him because he's your seed. But the covenant that I'm going to establish will be between you and me, and between the child that Sarah will bear." Oh, yes. And at this point, as we read in the 17th chapter, Abram falls down on the ground laughing. And in the next chapter, 18, Sarah laughs. And God decided, "I'm not going to ever let you live it down that you laughed in the face of God." That's right. Right. When the child is born, just name him "Ha." Yeah, because that name Isaac means laughter. Name him "Laughter" because you laughed in the face of God. Oh, yeah. Some of us now have marks and and things that are etched in our memory that God put there to remind us that when I told you what I was going to do, you didn't believe it. But one thing about it, if he says it, you can believe it because it doesn't matter how long it takes, it is going to come to pass. Oh, Hallelujah.
You see, when you go back and read this thing and read it carefully, after the Lord took time in, uh, not allowing Sarah to conceive, God calls to Abraham at the beginning of chapter 17, and he tells him a name that Abraham has never heard before. Oh, yes. He says to him, "I am El Shaddai." Yes. When you read it, the translation there is, "I am the Almighty God." He had never known him by this name. El meaning the strong one. Shaddai really referring to the breast, like the breast of a woman that nourishes a child. Abraham is worried about the fact that he's old and that Sarah is old and how in the world are they going to bring forth a child. And about this time is when God says, "I'm going to do some name changing. Your name has been Abram. I'm going to make it Abraham, meaning father of multitude. Her name has been Sarai, but I'm changing it to Sarah, yeah, meaning mother of nations. And then, since you don't really know my capability, let me give you my name: El Shaddai. I'm the one that can take the barren and make the barren fruitful." Hallelujah. Glory to God.
You got to understand that whatever is going on in your life, God, yeah, is able, yeah, to bring about whatever needs to be done. Yes, he is. When Moses met him on the backside of the desert in the third chapter of Exodus, Moses wanted to know, "What is your name?" Yeah. "We're down here in Egypt, and the Egyptians got a whole lot of gods. They got all kind of names: Osiris and Isis and Khufu and Geb and Set and Nut and all of these different gods. What is your name?" God said, "My name is I AM. I AM. I AM THAT I AM. I'm the self-existent one. What, whatever you need, I'm that." Hallelujah. If you want money, I'm more than enough. If you're sick, I'm Jehovah Rapha. I'm the God your physician. If you are in want, Hallelujah, I'm Jehovah Jireh. I'm the one who does provide. I AM WHAT I AM." I wish you'd tell somebody, "My God's name is I AM!" Woo! Glory to God. He can be whatever you need him to be. Oh, I'm getting ready to go to my seat, but even when I get over in the New Testament, around Luke 1:37, he says, "Even there, yeah, nothing, nothing is impossible with God." The angel is here talking to Zachariah, who is also worried because an angel told him that he and his wife Elizabeth, yeah, who has cast the flower of her years, that you're going to have a child. But he's thinking, "I don't see how this can be." But the angel says, "With God, with God, nothing is impossible."
I want you to know, you might have gotten some bad news from the doctor as it relates to your health. But I, I got to tell you this morning that even cancer is not beyond his ability to heal. Even AIDS is not beyond his ability to heal. I told you some years ago that when this thing of HIV first came, came into the forefront, and the word was that anybody that got it was going to have to die from it. And I'd be getting letters from folks saying, "Pastor, pray because my brother has AIDS, my husband has AIDS, or my son has AIDS." And I'm wondering, "Lord, how can I pray? Because they say if you get it, you got to die." And the Lord spoke to my spirit and said, "They said it about leprosy, that anybody that got leprosy had to die. They said it about cancer, that anybody got cancer had to die. But God said, 'I want you to know this one thing, and you don't ever have to ask me again. It doesn't matter what it is. If you can have it, God said, I can heal it.'" Whatever it is. I wish you'd tell somebody, "If, if you can have it, God can heal it." That, that, that, that is nothing impossible with God. Woo! Whatever your problem. I'm getting ready to go to my seat because I know it's about communion time. But just as I told you four Sundays ago, we made this area, according to the word of God, this is the healing pool. And I want you to know that when faith comes alive in your spirit, I don't care what's going on in your life, you can just step into this area and say, "I believe God. There's nothing impossible with him. He is a God that can make the impossible possible. He makes a way out of nowhere. He makes a highway in the desert. He sends joy in the midst of sorrow." Whatever's going on in your life, I serve a God. He's able. He's [Applause] able.
You may be in the fiery furnace. Woo. Look like your job has turned into a furnace and look like you're about to get put out with no visible means of support. But I want you to know that the same God that stepped in the furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he'll step into your situation. He's able. He's [Applause] able. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Somebody ought to claim your healing. Somebody ought to claim your deliverance. Somebody ought to stop praising him. [Applause] Now. Woo. [Music] [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] [Music] Praise, praise. [Music] Right there where you are. I don't know what it is you need him to do. But if you need a miracle, think about that thing you want God to do, and look up and lift up your hand and just said, "Lord, I receive my miracle in the name of Jesus, right now." Wait. The Bible says, "If any two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything you can ask, what you will." Reach over and grab hands with somebody and tell them, "Neighbor, I'm agreeing with you. I'm agreeing, and I want you to agree with me that our miracle is on the way." And begin to praise God for [Music] it. Woo! Up, up! [Music] Up! [Music] [Music] I. [Music] [Music] Woo! Hall, hallu, hall, hallu, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. [Music] [Music] Hallelujah. Come on and give him some praise. Come on and give him glory. Hallelujah. Glory, glory, glory, glory. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
While we're standing, our world has a problem. Our nation has a problem. Oh, yes. Glory. But I want you to know the God that we serve, yeah, yes, can even bring this war, oh, yes, under subjection. I just received a note that we have a member that's supposed to be deployed, Sister Virginia Simmons. And I don't know how many others that we have had, and how many members of your family and people that you know. Oh, yes. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. But we can pray that God, oh, yes, will stop the bloodshed in Iraq and in Kuwait and send our loved ones back [Applause] home. I don't think that's too big to ask God for because he, he's able to do it. Oh, yes. Yes. Join hands with somebody. Lord Jesus, Thou Prince of Peace, we come before You at this hour on behalf of those on foreign [Music] battlefields. Send Your word, send Your word, a word of peace in the midst of confusion and war, Lord. Oh God, I know that You said in Your word that we would hear wars and rumors of wars, but I also know from reading Your word that so many times You intervene and You shorten the duration. Oh, yes. And You spare the lives of Your people. Yes, Lord. Do it now. Do it, Lord. [Music] Hey, we beseech Thee, Thou Prince of Peace. Oh, yes. To bring peace, Lord, on that battlefield in the name of Jesus. Name of Jesus. Send our sons and daughters. Oh, yes, Lord. Send them back home. Yes, Lord. Send them back home with breath in their body. Send them back home with the activity of their speech and utilization of their limbs. Send them back home with their minds intact. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Glory to Jesus. Lord, knowing You like we do, we're just going to start praising You for it now. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. [Applause] [Music] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God bless you. You may be seated.