When God's Promise Feels Impossible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCI396iaLVc

Where Do You Come From?

How many of you have ever worked on your family tree? Done any genealogy research, traced your ancestry back through the generations? It's fascinating work, isn't it?

I love genealogy. I've been able to trace my family tree back over a thousand years, and I've discovered I have ancestors from about a dozen different countries all across Europe. I even did one of those DNA tests that tells you what percentage of your DNA comes from which countries.

Why do I like this stuff so much? I like to know where I came from. It helps me feel rooted. It helps me understand myself a little better. And I want to believe that the people who came before me mattered, that their lives and their choices helped shape who I am today. There's something powerful about knowing we're part of a larger story that started long before us and will continue long after we're gone.

The same is true of Jesus' family. Jesus didn't just appear out of nowhere. He came into this world through a family line that stretches back thousands of years. And today we're beginning a new series called "Broken Branches: Jesus' Family Tree," where we're going to examine the lives of the people who came before Jesus.

Here's what's interesting. If this family tree wasn't actually true, if Matthew had just been making it up when he wrote his Gospel, many of these names would have been taken off the list. Because some of them are, frankly, unsavory. Some of them were liars, adulterers, murderers.

But Matthew leaves them in there for a reason: because God doesn't wait for perfect people to accomplish His purposes. He uses broken people. Flawed people. People like us.

Today, we begin with Abraham. The father of the faithful. The man through whom God promised to bless all the families on earth. And his story is a story about waiting, about trusting a promise when there's no evidence that it will ever come true.

The Call

Genesis 12:1-4 records the founding moment: "The Lord had said to Abram, 'Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.' So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed."

God makes an audacious promise to a man who has no reason to believe it. And here's what we need to understand about Abraham. He was not a primitive nomad who stumbled into faith. Abraham came from Ur, which was one of the most advanced civilizations on earth at the time.

Ur, located in modern-day Iraq, was a thriving metropolis. Archaeological excavations have revealed a city of stunning sophistication. Two-story houses with a dozen or more rooms. A library and school system with specializations in accounting, mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. Ur was a trade center importing precious metals, ivory, pearls, and spices from as far away as Asia Minor and southern India.

And Abraham was part of it. He was most likely educated. He was probably wealthy. And almost certainly, he was pagan. He came from a family of idol worshipers.

The story of Abraham is the story of a man whom God called out of a sophisticated, idol-saturated culture into a life of radical trust.

So God comes to this man and says, "Leave everything. Leave your country. Leave your relatives. Leave your father's family. Go to a land I will show you." Notice that. God doesn't tell him where he's going. Just go. And I'll show you when you get there. The promise is enormous. The instructions are uncomfortably vague.

So Abraham leaves. He takes his wife Sarah, his nephew Lot, and all their possessions, and they set out for the land of Canaan. They settle there. They build altars. They accumulate wealth. And years go by.

Years go by. Abraham is living his life, building something, making a home in this foreign land. But there is no son. There is no great nation. There is just a man and his wife getting older in a land that was supposed to be theirs but still feels foreign. And the silence from God stretches on.

Think about what that must have felt like. Abraham heard a clear word from God. He stepped out in faith. He left everything behind. And now, years later, he's wondering if he heard God correctly. Did he mishear? Because nothing is happening. The promise feels further away with every passing year.

We're living in the gap between promise and fulfillment. And that gap can feel uncomfortable. It can feel long.

The Covenant Confirmed

Finally, after years of silence, God speaks again. Genesis 15:1-6:

"Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, 'Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.' But Abram replied, 'O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don't even have a son?'"

God takes him outside and says, "Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That's how many descendants you will have!" And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.

Abraham believes God when he has zero physical evidence to support that belief. No son. No nation. Just stars and a promise. God points to the sky, and Abraham, who is now well into his eighties with a wife who is long past childbearing years, looks up at that sky and believes.

This is what faith looks like before the answer comes. Faith is not certainty. Faith is trusting God's character when we can't see God's plan.

But here's where the story gets very human. Abraham and Sarah have been waiting for decades now. And they do what we often do when we've been waiting too long. They try to solve the problem themselves. Sarah suggests that Abraham have a child through her servant, Hagar. Abraham agrees. Hagar becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son named Ishmael.

And the plan that seemed like a solution becomes a source of heartbreak. The household is torn apart by jealousy and pain. Hagar eventually flees into the wilderness with her son.

Trying to make God's promise happen on our own timeline doesn't cancel the promise, but it creates complications while we wait for the real thing.

Sarah Laughs

More years pass. Abraham is now ninety-nine years old. Sarah is ninety. And then one day, three visitors show up at their tent. Genesis 18:10-14:

"Then one of them said, 'I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!' Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. Abraham and Sarah were both very old by this time, and Sarah was long past the age of having children. So she laughed silently to herself."

This is one of the most human moments in all of Scripture. Sarah is listening from inside the tent, and when she hears this promise, she laughs. And we understand why, don't we? Sarah is not a villain here. She's exhausted from hoping. She's tired of waiting.

And then God asks the question that changes her life. "Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

That's not a rhetorical question. That's the turning point of the entire story. Your impossible situation. Your unanswered prayer. Your long wait. Is anything too hard for the Lord?

And then, exactly as God had said, exactly when God had said, it happens. Genesis 21:1-3: "The Lord kept his word and did for Sarah exactly what he had promised. She became pregnant, and she gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age. This happened at just the time God had said it would."

Notice those phrases. "The Lord kept his word." "Exactly what he had promised." "Just the time God had said it would." Abraham waited twenty-five years between the promise and the fulfillment. Twenty-five years of silence, doubt, failed attempts, and exhausted hope. And then, right on schedule according to God's calendar, Isaac was born.

The Test

But the story doesn't end there. Years pass. Isaac grows from an infant to a boy, probably a teenager. And then God speaks again with the most dramatic test of Abraham's entire life.

Genesis 22: God tells Abraham to take Isaac, his only son, the son he waited a quarter century to receive, the son through whom all of God's promises were supposed to be fulfilled, and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.

Let that sink in. Everything God promised hinged on Isaac. And now God is asking Abraham to kill him. The logic doesn't work. The math doesn't add up.

But Abraham obeys. And along the way, Isaac asks the question that must have torn Abraham's heart in two. "Father, we have the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?"

Abraham answers: "God will provide."

Abraham doesn't know how. He doesn't know when. But he knows that God keeps His promises, even when the path forward makes no sense. They arrive at the place, Abraham builds an altar, arranges the wood, ties up his son, lays him on the altar, and raises the knife.

Genesis 22:11-14: "At that moment the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, 'Abraham! Abraham!' 'Don't lay a hand on the boy!' the angel said. Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means 'the Lord will provide')."

The Lord will provide. Not "the Lord provided once." The name Abraham gives to that place is a permanent declaration about who God is. The Lord will provide. Always. In every generation. In every impossible situation.

And here's where we need to see the connection to Jesus. Because two thousand years later, another Father would bring His only Son to be sacrificed. But this time, there would be no ram in the thicket. This time, the Son would die. God provided the sacrifice then because He was going to become the sacrifice later.

What This Means for Us

First, for those who feel too old or too late. Abraham was seventy-five years old when God called him. He was one hundred when Isaac was born. God's biggest work in Abraham's life didn't begin until most Americans would have been decades into retirement. We are never too old to begin something new with God. Never.

Second, for those who feel too broken or disqualified. Abraham lied about his wife. Twice. He put Sarah in danger. He tried to help God along by having a child with Hagar. He laughed at God's promise. And yet, Scripture calls him "the friend of God" and "the father of all who believe." Every branch in Jesus' family tree was broken. God doesn't wait for perfect people. He calls broken, doubting, failing people and weaves their stories into the greatest story ever told.

Third, for those still looking up at the stars waiting. Abraham waited twenty-five years. Some of us are waiting for a prodigal child to come home. Some of us are waiting for healing. Some of us are waiting for clarity on what's next. And the waiting feels endless. But faithful waiting is not a pause in the spiritual life. It is the spiritual life. The waiting is where we learn to trust God's character when we can't see God's plan.

The God Who Keeps His Promises

We began with a promise made under a night sky to a man who couldn't see how any of it was possible. God pointed to the stars and said, "That's how many descendants you'll have." And Abraham believed.

It took twenty-five years. There were detours and mistakes and moments of doubt. But through it all, God kept every word He said. Every single word.

And now, thousands of years later, we are part of the fulfillment of that promise. We are the descendants of Abraham, not by blood but by faith. Through Jesus Christ, who came from Abraham's family line, all the families on earth have been blessed, just as God promised.

So if we're looking up at our own night sky right now, holding a promise from God that hasn't come true yet, we need to hear this. The God who kept every word He said to Abraham is faithful. He will keep every word He says to us. It might take longer than we want. It might not look the way we expected. But He is faithful. And the Lord will provide.

Small Group Questions

ICE BREAKER QUESTIONS

1. Have you ever done any genealogy research or traced your family tree? What's the most interesting thing you discovered about your ancestors? If you haven't, what would you most want to know about your family history?

2. Tell about a time when you had to wait much longer than expected for something important (a job, a diagnosis, a relationship milestone, etc.). How did the extended waiting period affect you? Did you ever doubt it would actually happen?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. The sermon explained that Abraham came from Ur, one of the most advanced civilizations on earth at the time—not a primitive nomad culture. He left a sophisticated, wealthy, cosmopolitan society to follow God's vague instructions ("Go to a land I will show you"). What does it cost us today to leave behind cultural sophistication, comfort, and security to follow God's call? What modern "Ur" might God be calling you to leave?

2. God's promise to Abraham was enormous, but the instructions were "uncomfortably vague"—that tension defined Abraham's entire story. Have you ever felt God calling you to something without giving you clear details about how it will work out? How do you distinguish between genuine faith and foolish presumption when the path isn't clear?

3. Abraham waited 25 years between the promise (age 75) and the fulfillment (age 100). The sermon said "years go by" and Abraham must have wondered, "Did I mishear? Did I misunderstand?" When you've been waiting a long time for God's promise, what doubts creep in? How do you keep trusting when nothing seems to be happening?

4. The sermon connected Abraham's story to the church survey result: "I firmly believe that God will work even more powerfully in our church in the coming years." Most people scored high on believing God has more in store for us. Like Abraham, we're "living in the gap between promise and fulfillment." How do we trust God's future promises when we can't see the path yet? What would it look like for our church to wait faithfully rather than anxiously?

5. When the wait got too long, Abraham and Sarah tried to solve the problem themselves through Hagar and Ishmael. The sermon said: "Trying to make God's promise happen on our own timeline doesn't cancel the promise, but it creates complications while we wait for the real thing." Can you share (without naming names) an example where you or someone you know tried to force God's timing and created painful complications? How do we know when to act versus when to wait?

6. Sarah laughed when she heard she'd have a baby at age 90 (Genesis 18:12-13)—not out of joy, but out of "exhausted hope." The sermon emphasized she's not a villain, just tired of waiting. God's response was: "Is anything too hard for the Lord?" What impossible situation in your life needs to be met with that question? What would change if you truly believed nothing is too hard for God?

7. The test on Mount Moriah (Genesis 22) made no logical sense—God asked Abraham to sacrifice the very son through whom all the promises were supposed to be fulfilled. Abraham obeyed anyway, saying "God will provide" even when he didn't know how. When has God asked you to do something that contradicted His previous promises or made no logical sense? How did you respond?

8. Abraham named the place "Yahweh-Yireh" (the Lord will provide), and the sermon emphasized this is a permanent declaration: "Not 'the Lord provided once'... The Lord WILL provide. Always. In every generation." Where in your life right now do you need to declare "the Lord will provide" even though you can't yet see how? What's the difference between presumption and faith when making that declaration?

9. The sermon gave three applications: (1) never too old to start something new with God, (2) never too broken/disqualified (God specializes in using broken branches), (3) faithful waiting IS the spiritual life, not a pause. Which of these three speaks most directly to where you are? What specific lie do you need to stop believing (too old, too broken, stuck in limbo)?

10. The sermon connected to another survey result: "I know that other church members pray for me regularly" (we scored low). Abraham's story shows waiting is hard and harder when we feel alone in it. Do you know that people in this church pray for you? Do you pray for others regularly by name? What needs to change to create a culture where we genuinely carry each other's burdens in prayer during seasons of waiting?