Good News for the Seemingly Forgotten (Genesis 18:1-15)

Hi, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into Newsong Churches Podcast.

We're a biblically faithful, gospel-centered Anglican church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

You can learn more about us at newsongportperry.ca.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

Our first reading this morning is taken from Genesis chapter 18, verses 1 to 15.

Genesis 18:1–15

And the Lord appeared to Abraham 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.

And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed down himself to the earth, and said, O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.

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.

So they said, Do as you have said.

And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, Quick, three sears of fine flour, knead it, and make cakes.

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.

And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

And they said to him, Where is Sarah your wife?

And he said, She is in the tent.

And 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.

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years.

The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

So she laughed to herself, saying, After I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?

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?

At the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.

But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid.

He said, No, but you did laugh.

The word of the Lord.

Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Let's pray.

Oh Lord, just as Abraham called upon your favor.

And Lord, just as you in Christ proclaim your favor to your people, we pray that you would confirm your favor towards us by your word and Holy Spirit today.

That in the hearing of your word we would know your goodness and generosity and grace afresh.

That our faith would be strengthened, and that we would find our greatest joy in you, the God who makes and keeps his promises.

This we pray for Jesus Christ's sake.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So one of the most influential plays of the last century is a play called Waiting for Godot.

Have you heard of this play before?

It's uh by a playwright named Samuel Beckett, and it's often listed amongst one of the most influential uh works of literature in the Western canon.

In Waiting for Godot, the two protagonists, uh Vladimir and Estragon, are waiting for Godot to show up.

And spoiler alert, Godot never does.

It is a hallmark of absurdist, you could call, you could call it postmodern uh art theater.

And it's all about the longing for, uh the human longing for a sense of resolution, for a sense of meaning, for a sense of fulfillment and purpose.

That the things we aspire for, the things we hope for, come to pass.

And if they don't, what does that mean for the meaning of our life?

So one of the people that Vladimir Nestrogan uh encounters is named Pozo, and his famous line is this: he says, human beings give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams for an instant, and then it's night once more.

That's pretty bleak, isn't it?

The play is asking us to take seriously the absurdity of life, our desire for meaning, life's inability to provide it, life's inability to provide any assurance that our hopes will come to pass, despite all of their hope, Godot ain't coming.

And, you know, I'm not the first to sort of see shades of uh a commentary on religious belief here.

Let's put it that way.

You know, G-O-D is the first three letters of Godot, after all.

So the question is: do you know what it's like to feel passed by?

Like Vladimir and Estragon, waiting for someone to show up who never does.

This is how we find Abraham and Sarah, right?

Feeling overlooked, perhaps feeling forgotten by God.

We've been going through this sermon series, encountering God, Abraham and the life of faith, with a desire to encounter this God that Abraham encounters, to experience the living God in a way that Abraham and Sarah experience this living God who makes promises to them.

And when we find Abraham and Sarah this morning, they're still waiting for God to show up in the way that He's promised.

And maybe the question is looming for them, is God going to come through or not?

Is this just another episode of waiting for Godot, or is this the real thing?

In Genesis 18, here's what we find.

We find good news for the seemingly forgotten.

Encountering this God is good news for the seemingly forgotten for at least three reasons.

And here's what we want to see this morning.

Encountering God is good news because God is close.

It is good news because God confirms.

And it's good news because God is capable.

He is close, he confirms, and he is capable.

So, friends, this is a message of hope.

That's what Genesis 18 is meant to convey to us.

Hope in the God who makes his promises and keeps his promises.

A God who doesn't leave us in the lurch, but he visits us, and by his visitation, he confirms to us his promises, his purposes, his power.

So if you're here today feeling hopeless, feeling like your faith is on its last legs, I hope this is a message for you.

And I hope you find hope in the God who makes and keeps his promises.

Let's open up the scriptures to Genesis 18 and look at verses 1 to 15 together.

That's page 12 and the Bible's in front of you, or you can open up your order of service to Genesis 18.

Encountering God is good news for the seemingly forgotten.

Here's the first reason it's good news.

Because God is close.

So, in what ways is God close to Abraham?

Number one, God is concerned, and he stops by.

Let's look at verse one.

And the Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, and he sat at the door of his tent, pardon me, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day.

Abram lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him.

And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the earth, and said, O Lord, or my Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant.

So let's pause there.

When we catch up with Abraham and Sarah in chapter 18, they are still sojourning, right?

They're waiting for God to fulfill the promises that He's made to them.

You've probably had seasons of life like this, if you've been living the Christian life for any period of time.

You know the feeling of waiting for God for yourself.

At times, waiting tempts us to despair, doesn't it?

Right?

Tempts us to the conclusion that God has forgotten us, or perhaps he's thought better of the things that he's promised to us.

But to leave no doubt of his good will, God visits Abraham and Sarah unannounced.

Because he's in the neighborhood, or perhaps because he's never left the neighborhood.

Some interpreters suggest that these three visitors correspond to the three persons of the Trinity.

That is a very tidy and enticing interpretation.

And for someone who you know loves the doctrine of the Trinity like I do, very tempting.

But I'm not sure this text lends itself to that conclusion.

Rather, Abraham addresses one visitor as the Lord, as Adonai, right?

Which is a title that refers to God alone.

And this particular visitor speaks God's own word to Abraham, right?

He speaks as one with the authority to speak God's word.

So alongside what seem to be two angels, Abraham is being addressed by God's living word, embodied as a human being.

Any bells going off so far?

Perhaps we are made to wonder if God the Word desires to be close to human beings, to embody himself and dwell in our neighborhood, maybe one day he'll choose to be made eternally and permanently incarnate, so that we might enjoy fuller and more perfect fellowship with him.

Just a thought to wonder about.

In any event, Abraham and Sarah have not escaped God's attention, have they?

He is concerned for their well-being, so he visits them.

Abraham recognizes his visitors, invites them in, promises them a bite to eat, and asks Sarah to prepare a feast.

And here we see a second expression of God's closeness.

The God who is concerned and stops by is also the God who spends time and fellowships.

Did you see that?

The feast is prepared, Abraham serves his guests, the second half of verse 8, and Abraham stood by them under the tree while they ate.

God eats with Abraham.

He spends time, he enjoys Abraham's hospitality and his company.

Imagine that.

We've noted before the significance of table fellowship in ancient cultures like Abraham's.

So we'll eat with whomever, wherever.

But for ancient cultures, as for many majority world countries today, table fellowship was a special intimacy requiring trust and loyalty and generosity between two persons.

God was not obligated to accept Abraham's hospitality, and he certainly didn't need to eat.

You know, he's God.

But he was glad to.

He chose to spend time, fellowship, and be close to Abraham because he cared for him, because he cared for Sarah.

This God is close, and that's good news for those of us who might feel neglected.

This is a very different conception than God than we're often tempted to have, I think.

One of my favorite philosophers is Aristotle, and he uh refers to God as the unmoved mover, perpetually contemplating himself.

Because God is perfect, he can only think about perfect things, and that leaves him one thing to think about, and that's what?

Himself.

God is continually self-absorbed in his own perfection.

Why would he spend time thinking about us?

Imperfect beings we are.

Epicureans, another ancient uh philosopher, Epicureus, and his followers understood that God, the divine, really has nothing to do with our realm of day-to-day life.

That's a removed thing altogether.

And then this gets carried forward in a popular idea of uh deism, right?

That God is the great watchmaker who assembles the universe, winds it up, and then lets it tick on its own without any real involvement or interest in what's going on.

It's a very fashionable uh philosophical idea in previous centuries, and it goes in and out of fashion today.

In fact, all three go in and out of fashion.

But that is not a biblical conception of God, is it?

Do we see the difference of what's going on with Abraham and Sarah here?

God is close, he's interested, he's invested.

Church reformer John Calvin reminds us that God is close to us as a father, is close to his children.

We saw some of that in our catechism class this morning.

He writes this He alone is truly a believer, right?

A Christian, who, convinced by a firm conviction that God is a kindly and well-disposed father toward him, promises himself all things on the basis of his generosity, who relying upon the promises of divine benevolence toward him, lays hold of an undoubted expectation of salvation.

What's Calvin saying?

He's saying for the Christian, the basis of our trust in God is his fatherly goodness towards us.

He is as invested in us as a father is as invested in his children.

And that means we can approach God in a very different way than Aristotle could, right?

Not just intellectually, but with trust, with intimacy, with the sort of intimacy that we see expressed here between him and Abraham.

Abraham promises God a bite to eat, as it were, but what's prepared for him is a feast.

Did you notice that?

Verses 4 to 8?

One commentator describes it as hospitality on a lavish scale.

Why would Abraham see fit to welcome God on a lavish scale?

Maybe it's for this reason.

Because God has lavished his blessings on Abraham.

Right?

God has given Abraham his lavish promise.

And only in receiving God's lavish word and his lavish promise and understanding his lavish fatherly goodness towards us are we inclined to respond with lavishness of our own.

So if the Christian life feels like a drudgery, maybe it's for this reason we haven't spent adequate time delighting in God's lavishness towards us.

His lavish intimacy, his interest, his love for us.

When we grab onto these things, when we approach God on the basis not of my morality or my intellect or what have you, but on the basis of his fatherly care, suddenly we have good reason to think God is close and to delight ourselves in him.

Now, God has never knocked on my door and asked for a meal.

I don't know about you.

But I'd be wrong to say that I don't have opportunities to extend my hospitality to God.

Is my heart inclined towards lavishness?

I need only understand God's promises in Scripture to have my heart enlarged.

Do I spend the time with God?

Do I extend a trust, a loyalty, a generosity towards him?

Do I trust him with all of the things he's entrusted to me, my time and my talents and my treasures, right?

It's not in handing these things over to God that I earn his hospitality.

It's that God has already been so hospitable and gracious and lavish towards me that he invites me into this kind of intimate relationship.

He invites you too.

God is close and he is interested in you, and he has not forgotten you.

Now, if that's true, some might be wondering, then why hasn't God come through yet?

And if you're wondering that, you're in good company.

Because I think Abraham and Sarah are wondering that too.

The God who is close is also the God who confirms his promises.

And this is what we see in the verses that follow.

Verse 9.

They, that is the uh heavenly visitors, said to Abraham, Where is Sarah your wife?

And he said, She is in the tent.

And the Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah, your wife, shall have a son.

Okay, so to grasp the significance of what the Lord is saying here, I think a quick review is in order.

In chapter 12, where we started our series on Abraham, God called Abram, as he was then named, out of his homeland and into a life of faith, a life premised on this basic trust of who God is.

God intends to work his plan of salvation for the world through Abraham and his descendants, promising him and Sarah a son through whom God will carry forward this promise.

So far, this sounds familiar, yeah?

The significance of this son is not merely that he is the solution to Abraham and Sarah's infertility, as heartbreaking a reality as that was for Abraham and Sarah.

We need to understand that Isaac is intended to be the first link in a lineage that will ultimately result in the birth of the promised offspring, the savior of the world.

Abraham has only to live life on the basis of faith, trusting this God to do for him what he cannot do for himself.

And that's why in chapter 15, God makes a covenant with Abraham, a binding promise that results in blessing.

And then in chapter 17, God ratifies this covenant with the covenant sign of circumcision to be passed down from one generation to the next, an ongoing witness of God's faithfulness to his promises.

So now here we are in chapter 18.

It's been about 20 years since God has first called Abraham and given him his word of promise.

It's been thirteen years since the birth of Ishmael, whom Abraham fathered by Hagar, Sarah's servant, in an effort to speed along God's plans on their terms.

Remember Kenneth opened that scripture to us, right?

That's a long wait.

Wouldn't you say?

It might be easy to conclude at any given time during those decades that God has given up.

That this promise given decades ago might never be fulfilled.

In fact, it might just be easier to give up hope.

Because hope can be a painful thing in the waiting, don't you think?

But God reminds Abraham of his promise here in chapter 18, and he declares that the time has come for its fulfillment.

Surely the Lord says, I will return to you this time next year.

Sarah, your wife, will have a son.

Now consider this.

Why is God visiting Abraham and Sarah in the first place?

God didn't have to visit them, did he?

He didn't owe it to them.

And his promise to Abraham and Sarah could have been fulfilled in the same timeline without this visit.

Don't you think?

So why visit at all?

God visits simply because he wants to remind, restate, and reassure.

In a word, he wants to confirm his promises to Abraham and Sarah.

I think this gracious word of confirmation says at least two things about our God.

First, it says that God is sovereign over his timing.

Despite the long wait, he has not neglected his promise, has he?

He has orchestrated circumstances such that Isaac would be born when the fullness of time had come.

Just to borrow a phrase from Galatians 4.

God is in control.

His timing is not our timing.

In fact, it's better.

We are asked only to trust him and to let God be God.

Second, I think this tells us that God is compassionate enough towards us to reassure us of his promises.

He knows that in the waiting our faith wavers, and our hearts are prone to wander.

So he draws near and speaks the word to confirm his trustworthiness, his goodwill towards us, his unbreakable promise.

God does not forget nor forsake us.

God wants Abraham and Sarah to know this, and that's exactly why he's visiting.

This God confirms his promises, and that is good news for those of us who might feel forgotten, isn't it?

Imagine for a moment worshiping a God who offers no guarantees.

We were talking about this a little bit this morning as well, weren't we?

Imagine worshiping a God who offers no guarantees.

Might seem strange at first, but in fact, I think this is how the majority of world religions have worked for the majority of world history.

This occurred to me when I was having a conversation a few years ago with a member of our extended family who self-identifies as a pagan.

You know, paganism, by the way, is very much on the rise in terms of its interest and its engagement, right?

So, you know, I was asking about this, because I don't get to talk to someone who calls themselves a pagan every day, right?

So what's that like?

What does that mean for your prayer life?

What does that mean for your so he's describing to me all the different gods that that you know he prays to, and you know, he says I use their Roman names and I pray to Zeus for this and I pray to Apollo for this, and da-da-da-da-da.

And you know, I'm I'm just asking him questions like, okay, well, I said, what happens if, you know, you pray to Zeus for this circumstance to work out in life?

You got a job interview, let's say.

And so you're praying to Zeus, would you make this happen?

But let's say Zeus wants you to have that job, but Apollo doesn't.

He's got other plans in mind for you.

What do you do?

And I remember he sort of goes, huh?

I never really thought about that.

I guess it just works out.

And that's an honest answer, isn't it?

But I walked away from that conversation for the first time, going, My Christian faith offers me something I never realized, which is a guarantee.

Not just that God has a good will towards me, but that he'll actually confirm that, right?

That his promises are a sure thing.

That it's not whether or not God feels like it or he's in competition with another God to bring his promises to fulfillment.

If he's given me a promise in Christ, it's a sure thing.

And that assurance is not something to be taken for granted, is it?

I pray for this person.

I pray they'll come to know these promises for themselves.

But what's true for pagans, I want to say, is also true for anyone who would call themselves non-religious or an atheist.

We just hope life works out, don't we?

In Christ, we have good reason for assurance, for confirmation that God will actually follow through on what he's promised to us.

For us Christians, our whole faith is based on the sureness of God's confirmation, isn't it?

And what a wonderful thing that is, don't you think?

God visits Abraham and Sarah to confirm his promises to them.

The Christian understands the same, right?

God visits us, maybe not with angelic visitors and over, you know, a lamb or a meal or whatever.

But he does visit us by the means of his personal, empowering, indwelling Holy Spirit, who illumines the promises that he's made to us through his word, right?

Where we we go to the Bible to read God's promises that we receive by faith, through reading, through hearing, right?

This is why we make much of the Bible at news song, by the way.

Right?

We spend a lot of time reading it, we spend a lot of time studying on.

We spend a lot of time preaching it.

Why?

Because here's where God's promises may be found.

And God's promises are the surest thing that we can possess as human beings, as Christians, right?

We go to the Word and we find God's promises.

We also come to the table.

We come to the we come to baptism, don't we?

And we receive God's promises not just through the hearing, but through the washing and through the tasting.

Because here's where God joins his word of promise with these material means, presses them into our hands, washes them over us, and confirms his promise of forgiveness and eternal life.

These are ongoing witnesses to us of God's benevolence and goodwill towards us in Christ.

They are effectual signs of his grace, so our Anglican articles tell us.

God visits Abraham and Sarah and reassures them of his promises.

God visits us by his Holy Spirit through the word and through the table and reassures us of his promises to us in Christ.

And so we walk away feeling confirmed in his grace and goodness towards us.

But we might be left wondering if God has given us ongoing witnesses to his promises, why doesn't God just go ahead and fulfill them?

Is God impotent to do that?

And he gives us an answer to this as well.

God is close, God confirms, finally, God is capable.

Let's look at the second half of verse 10.

Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him, right?

Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years.

The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah.

So Sarah laughed to herself, right?

She hears what the Lord's saying.

She's hearing him repeat his promise.

And what does she say?

She says, After I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?

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?

At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.

Here's a delightful little scene.

But Sarah denied it, right?

She acted falsely, saying, Well, I didn't laugh, for she was afraid.

And he said, No, but you did laugh.

Okay, so here we are confronted with an uncomfortable human truth, aren't we?

There are circumstances in life which we are entirely helpless to change.

Sarah knows that God has promised her a son, but she also knows that she is well past childbearing age.

When we say the way of women had ceased to be with Sarah, that's a delicate way of saying she's no longer fertile.

She can't bear children.

Sarah knows God has promised her, pardon me, she is a realist, Sarah is, and the idea of bearing a child at her age seems absurd.

Perhaps she thinks that if God really had intended this for her, he would have made it happen decades ago while it was still a realistic possibility.

So she laughs, much like Abraham laughed in 1717, prompting God to name their son Isaac, which means laughter.

Sarah's is a laugh of incredulity, right?

The result of decades of unfulfilled hopes and aspirations.

Maybe we can identify with Sarah a little more.

Maybe God's promise is possible in another world, but not in this one.

I'm helpless to change things.

So what should I expect God to do?

Maybe you know this feeling for yourself, right?

Does God promises, do God's promises ever seem unrealistic?

Do they ever seem absurd?

We've seen that God visits, God's visit confirms his promises to us, but why should Abraham and Sarah expect anything to happen at this point?

Here God asks a rhetorical question intended to cement the most basic truth about who he is, perhaps a question that ties the whole book of Genesis together, in fact, the whole Bible together.

And the question is this is anything too hard for the Lord?

See, from a human point of view, this promise seems absurd.

And rightly so.

Abraham and Sarah cannot accomplish it themselves.

They don't need a new plan.

God's asking them to reconsider who they're dealing with instead.

This is the God who spoke the heavens and earth into being, who created humanity in his image and directs all of history and all of its happenings.

If creating the universe from nothing wasn't too hard for God, why should this miraculous birth be one step too far?

The great theologian Thomas Aquinas puts it this way: Since the divine essence through which God acts is infinite, it follows that his power is likewise infinite.

God is omnicapable, so to speak.

And here's a lovely detail that we should notice.

This word hard can also be just as well translated as wonderful.

As in, is anything too wonderful for the Lord?

See, I wonder if we often expect too little from God, as if God were a miser with his promises.

We know that we've encountered the God of the Bible not simply when we've when overwhelmed by its power, by his power, but when we see how wonderful he is in accomplishing his promises.

We know we've encountered him when we can say with the psalmist, your works are wonderful.

I know that full well.

His limitless capability to keep his promise can graciously take our laugh of incredulity and in his time transform it into a laugh of joy.

God is capable of accomplishing his promises, but I want us to note this.

This requires us to know the difference between God's promises and our preferences.

I'll say that again.

It requires us to know the difference between God's promises and our preferences.

And friends, I think this is so crucial.

If you only listen to two minutes of my sermon this morning, I hope it's these two minutes, because this might save your faith.

I've seen, I've lost count of the number of Christian influencers on social media, even the number of friends that I've had that I grew up in church with, who at some point have lost their faith for some variation of God didn't come through for me, why would I stick around?

And I do not mean to sound unsympathetic, but I do make mean to make a helpful distinction that I hope gives us a sense of orientation and a sense of hope here.

See, we need to know the difference between God's promise and our preferences.

God's promises are aimed at his purposes and are clearly given to us by his word.

As with Abraham and Sarah, we are promised blessing and renewal.

In Christ, these promises are fulfilled and furthered.

We are promised the forgiveness of sins.

We are promised the hope of the resurrection.

We are promised his return and the renewal of all creation and his glorious kingdom to come.

These are promises that he makes to us, and he confirms these promises in his word, which is why we open his word on such a regular basis.

But my preferences are different.

My preferences are my personal desired outcomes in life.

Maybe they have to do with how my career goes, or how big my family is, or my sense of success, or my financial security, or my reputation.

All of these things are good things, by the way.

Not trying to suggest they aren't.

All these things are worthwhile things, and so we endeavor towards them.

But I need to admit that God has promised me none of them.

Right?

And that a life of faith in God is no guarantee that he will, you know, supply the goods that I want from him, or my preferences, I should say.

But here's the other thing I need to notice.

These preferences of mine are far, far outmatched by his promises to me.

Doesn't the hope of the resurrection and everlasting life make my aspirations for a career look really rather small?

See, his promises to me offer me my supreme joy and satisfaction.

In his promises alone will I find my supreme joy and satisfaction.

So, yes, it's not that we don't pray and endeavor into our preferences.

By all means we bring those to the Lord.

But do we set our life on them?

Do we set our faith on them?

God gives us promises, sure promises, that he confirms to us.

And it's to his promises we go by faith to know the God who keeps them.

Encountering God is good news for the seemingly forgotten friends.

Godot might never come, but God sure does.

In fact, he comes supremely in Jesus Christ.

See, what God promises to Abraham and Sarah, and what he fulfills when he moves forward through Isaac, will be fulfilled ultimately in Jesus Christ.

Today is St.

Luke's day, and I think it's appropriate we conclude with a passage from Saint Luke here.

God promises blessing, renewal through Abraham, passed down through Isaac from generations to generations, all the way through to Christ.

In the miraculous conception, as Jesus, God the Son, is entering into the world, Mary has a song to sing, recognizing that God fulfills his promises.

What is it that she sings?

The Lord has helped his servant Israel, his people, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, Abraham and his offspring forever.

What's Mary saying?

God has fulfilled his promises to Abraham in this child that I am bearing into the world.

And it's at the Anunciation earlier as the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and shares God's word with Mary.

He reminds Mary that God is close.

Greetings, O favored One, he says, the Lord is with you.

It's in the Annunciation that the angel Gabriel confirms God's promise to her.

He says, Jesus, this son, will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give him the throne of his father David.

So, in other words, now in the fullness of time, God will fulfill his promises through the promised offspring.

I've confirmed it.

And finally, the angel Gabriel reminds Mary that God is capable.

How will all this be, Mary says, since I am a virgin?

Notice Mary and Sarah both are unable to conceive for different reasons, but unable nevertheless.

And the angel answered Mary, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Why?

For nothing will be impossible with God.

I wonder where I've heard that before.

That's nice, you might say, but I can tell you one thing, I am not the Blessed Virgin Mary.

What does all this mean for me?

Let's remember what we just recited in the Creed.

Did God conceive the Lord Jesus in Mary's womb for Mary's sake?

Rather, it was for us and for our salvation.

He came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Virgin Mary.

The incarnation of God, Jesus Christ, means we, his people, are not passed by, are not forgotten, are not overlooked.

We have only to go to Jesus to see God's generosity and kindness and promises fulfilled to us.

So friends, if you are looking for hope, if we wonder, will God fulfill his promises, the answer is yes, in Christ.

So we go to him.

God visits us, and by his visitation, he confirms his promises, purposes, and power.

It is in light of the cross and the resurrection that we can say nothing is impossible for God.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at Newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.