Category: The New Thing

I want to invite you to stand with me as we read from God’s Holy Word on today. Open your Bible to the Book of Hebrews, chapter 11 and verse 11. That’s Hebrews 11 and verse 11. Hebrews 11____and____ 11.

The inspired sacred Writ reads as follows: “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.”

Amen. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and the doing of His Holy Word.

Amen!

For just the next few minutes, I would like to talk from the subject, “Nothing Is Too Hard for God.”

Turn to your neighbor and say, “Neighbor____, ‘nothing is too hard for God.”

Now turn to your other neighbor and say, “Neighbor___, O neighbor!___, ‘nothing____ is too hard____ for God.”

Amen. You may be seated___ in the presence of the Lord. Amen.

As we have seen time and time again, as we walk through the hallowed corridors of this Hebrews Hall of Faith, the lives of our heroes and sheroes are full of complexity. Sarah’s life is no different. She is Abraham’s wife, and she is also his sister (Genesis 20:12). She has wandered through the wilds of Canaan, trustfully accompanying her husband, even as he sold her into the harams of kings (Genesis 12 and Genesis 20). And, perhaps most pertinent to our deliberations today, she remained childless, even though she desperately wanted to have children (Genesis 17:17; Genesis 18).

In fact, on the point of being without child, it made Sarah sarcastic. In other words, she had a ‘tude. Some of y’all too young to know what a ‘tude is…it means she had an attitude…she was kinda salty.

Are you with me?

To be clear, she was not salty just because she did not have children. She was salty because God had promised that she would have children but she got to be almost 90 years old and she still did not have children. So she got salty with God.

Watch this!

Reading from Genesis 18 in the New MSG Version, that’s the Michael Scott Gayle version – we find Sarah, eavesdropping on a conversation between God and Abraham – 

Genesis 18, verse 10, God [to Abraham]: “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son”

Verse 12, Sarah [laughing to herself]: “Ha! I am too tired and Abraham…homie is draggin’. Ain’t nobody having kids now!”

Verse 13, God [to Abraham]: “First of all, Sarah need to quit trippin’. She up here talking about, she too old to have kids… Really?! Is anything too hard for the Lord?”

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Well, you know the rest of the story. One year later, Isaac is born to Sarah. One year later, Sarah literally says, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6).

I don’t know who I am talking to today but somebody needs this message: Nothing is too hard for God!

Whatever your circumstance…maybe you got relationship issues, maybe it’s your kids giving you fits, maybe you got problems with school or at work, bills to pay and no money in sight, heath issues that you just too tired to fight…whatever the problem, God can fix it. Nothing is too hard for God!

Or maybe like Sarah, you have a dream that has been deferred. It seems like you are wandering in a wilderness with no direction, even though God promised to deliver you into your destiny…

Honey, just wait! Whatever God promised, He will do. What he has done for others, he will surely do for you. Nothing___is too hard for God!

As I get ready to close, consider Jesus – Creator of this world and all the universe, all powerful God, transformed___, born as a human child, subjected to all the passions and temptations that you and I are subject to, yet without sin____,

___performed countless miraculous acts of generosity and kindness, and in return suffered the ultimate injustice of death at the hands of the very people He created___,

___ died and came back from the dead, all because

nothing is too hard for God___

all for one purpose, to save you and me from the sin that seems impossible, because

nothing is too hard for God___

to give you and me a second chance, and a third chance, and a fourth, and a million more chances, and because God “is not slack concerning His promise,” to ultimately fulfill for us and in us the promise of perfection, that we might be like him, without sin, without pain, without suffering, forever and ever___

What He said, He will do. What He has done for others, He will surely do for you.

Nothing is too hard for God!

The doors of the church are open____

The writer of the Book of Hebrews highlights the life of Abraham in what seems like fairly simple terms. In Hebrews 11, we read:

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents…”

However, Abraham’s life was everything except simple. The context of Abraham’s experience is fascinating. What is characterized in just a few short sentences in Hebrews, is actually a 100-year experience¹. Abraham was a grown, 75-year-old adult when God called him to leave his home in Haran (Genesis 12:4). Then, as described in Hebrews, “he set out, even though he did not know where he was going…”

Abraham’s nomadic travels and life took many fascinating turns. Among them: he went to Canaan; then he went to Egypt; he went back to Canaan; he fought and defeated Canaan’s greatest kings; he met God’s High Priest; he became father of Arabs (Ishmael) at age 86; and he received Christ and angels and entertained them in his tent. Then as if that was not enough, when he was 100 years old, he became father of Jews (Isaac); then he acceded to God’s request to sacrifice Isaac; then he received Isaac back from death (Hebrews 11:19). And there is more! 

After Abraham’s wife, Sarah, died, married Keturah. Abraham fathered at least six children with Keturah. Abraham then saw his grandchildren (12 from Ishmael and 2 from Isaac and maybe more from other children) and probably his great-grandchildren. Abraham died at the ripe, old age of 175. Isaac and Ishmael buried him in a cave (Genesis 25:9).

All that from a person who “did not know where he was going…” Then again, he kind of did know where he was going. He was “looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:10).

That is a lesson for us. We might not know where we are going. And we might have many ups and downs…different kinds of experiences. In all of that, what is most important is that we do what God calls us to do. We do _not_ have to “have it all figured out.” It is clear that Abraham did not have it all figured out. But he did _follow God’s call and guidance_! 

In that respect, let’s be like Abraham. Follow God’s call and guidance!

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1. The experience ranges far longer than 100 years, perhaps in the neighborhood of 245 years, if we include the preceding years when Abraham’s father, Terah, left Ur to go to Canaan but stopped and stayed in Haran. ↩︎

It has been said that there are at least two sure things in our existence: death and taxes. Apparently, Enoch did not get the memo. The Bible tells us that Enoch did not die:

”By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”—Hebrews 11:5-6

While I am not sure I will get to Enoch’s level, his story does give me hope. The hope is in the part that “anyone who comes to [God] must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” It is like that part is a whole different memo. The message is that if we hold on to the faith that God gives us and seek God earnestly, God will certainly reward us.

Each person receives the reward that is exactly right for them as an individual. Enoch received his reward — translation. I will receive my own reward. You will receive your own reward. God is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek him. Keep the faith! Your reward is sure! Did you get the memo?

Photo by Alex Shute

Wade in the water
Wade in the water, children
Wade in the water
God’s gonna trouble the water

This is a song that I grew up with. I do not know when or where I first heard the song – I suppose it was sometime in the 1960s at Emmanuel Temple in Buffalo, New York. That being what it might be, it seems like I have always known the song…all my life.

I feel like this song is one of the songs that links me – us – most closely to our ancestors. I know they sang this song. I know they moaned on the melody. I know they cried and called out their best wishes in the verses. I am sure they had this hope burning in their hearts – 

God’s gonna trouble the water

It is one of those call and response songs with what I think are called, “wandering couplets,” (or is it a “wandering quatrain – perhaps our resident poet could enlighten us on that point) that are sung as both verse and coded message in many contexts across our culture.

I look over Jordan and what did I see
God’s gonna trouble the water
A band of angels coming after me
God’s gonna trouble the water

You can hear the ancestors’ voices in Pops Staple. Now an ancestor, himself, he was a 20th Century bridge between us and all the Old Folks. His moanin’. His guitar. His humble, yet sure stance. Pops embodied the message and gave the message, as the Christ would have it given, along with his children to the world –

By and by
You will be healed
Just wait
God’s gonna trouble the water

I imagine that somewhere, somehow this song comes from the account of John of healing at the pool

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

This is God’s prayer-song-message for you today, for this Sabbath. From me. From Pops. From Emmanuel Temple. From the Old Folks. From John. From Jesus. Just wait. Wade. Wade in the water. You will be healed. God’s gonna trouble the water.

In my YouTube journey today, I stumbled on this recording from when we moved to Michigan in 2019. The first thing that I remember about this is not the music – in fact, I had not remembered this music at all. The first thing I remember is the album artwork. The background of the artwork is an acrylic painting on a small 4” x 4” canvas. The painting was made at Washington Park beach in Michigan City, Indiana. 

I remember being on the beach on a sunny, warm, and windy April day, looking at people walking on the lighthouse pier.

I remember looking out on the vast blue sea that is Lake Michigan, thinking about the ongoing search for a house to call home.

I remember thinking that this lake is my home; that is why I am here, painting my impasto feeling that I have finally arrived in the place that I need to be and at the same time wondering, ‘what am I doing here?’

Five years later, I know what I am doing here. I am doing what needs to be done for you. I am working the work, painting the pictures, making the music that God gives me to give to you. To you to navigate the vast blue sea life that is your home away from home on the way home to that home where you live on and on and on.

The best is yet to come!

While you are here…

be patient with yourself
be patient with people
“endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”

If God had not been faithful
We would not be
It is only by the grace and mercy of God that we are here
Cling to God
He will “never leave you or forsake you.”

The best is yet to come!

Do what you do…
As the old people used to say, “Keep on living…”

Work
Wonder
Write
Paint
Draw
Love
Laugh
Learn
Cry
Pray
Teach
Design
Sail
Photograph
Text
Study
Lead
Follow

God will never leave you or forsake you
Trust Him who gave His life and took it up again and ascended into Heaven and will return to bring you home.

The best is yet to come!