Latest / Scripture Central / Is Anything too Hard for the Lord? | Genesis 18-23 | Come Follow Me 2026 | John Hilton III | Feb 23 - Mar 1

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Is Anything too Hard for the Lord? | Genesis 18-23 | Come Follow Me 2026 | John Hilton III | Feb 23 - Mar 1 · Scripture Central

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Are you one of those people? Are you or I today feeling
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anxious, worried, troubled? Take heart.
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Nothing is too hard for the Lord.
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Sarah's story, Mary's story, and our stories, they all testify
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that God can do miracles. And when you and I look to the
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cross, we can see that God has already provided for our deepest
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needs to His Son, Jesus Christ. It's a reminder.
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Don't delay when God speaks. Imagine that you're scrolling
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through your social media feed and the first thing you see is a
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headline that says 70 year old woman gives birth to twins.
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So you tap on it. You think it's going to be click
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bait, but actually this really happened.
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A 70 year old mom in Uganda and her miracle babies now giving
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birth at the age of 70 is truly incredible.
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And today we'll see Sarah goes one step further by giving birth
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to Isaac when she was 90 years old.
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In the chapters we'll study today, we're going to see time
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after time of how God keeps showing up in unexpected ways.
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And today we'll focus on three stories.
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First Sarah's laughter, second, lost tragedy, and then God's
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providing. So first Sarah's laughter.
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Picture the scene. Abraham is outside the tent.
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He's entertaining some guests who have stopped by an 89 year
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old woman, Sarah. She's inside the tent
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eavesdropping on what they're saying.
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One of the visitors says that next year Sarah will be holding
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a son in her arms. She's so astonished that she
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nearly drops her bread bowl. We read.
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Sarah laughed to herself as she thought, After I am worn out and
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my Lord is old, will I now have this pleasure?
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Now we can't know the answer for sure, but I wonder what kind of
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laugh was this? You know, there are different
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kinds of laughs. There's like a giggle.
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There's a chuckle. There's a ha ha, no way.
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And then there's a bitter laugh. And I wonder if Sarah's laugh
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was more of a laugh of disappointment.
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Like, I doubt this will ever happen to me.
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For decades Sarah has wished for a child and she's never received
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that promised blessing. So we don't know what kind of
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laugh it was, but we do know that the Lord heard it.
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We read the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and
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say will I really have a child now that I am old?
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I will return to you at the appointed time next year and
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Sarah will have a son. Now I think this next part's
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kind of funny. We read Sarah was afraid so she
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lied and said I did not laugh. It's kind of like this.
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The Lord says, why did you laugh it stairs like I didn't laugh.
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Yes, you did did not did do. It's all back and forth.
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But I think what we really want to focus on is in the middle of
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the conversation, the Lord said this is anything too hard for
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the Lord? Putter that statement for a
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moment. You're going through a struggle
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right now. Your future seems uncertain.
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Maybe there's a health challenge.
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You're dealing with an unexpected expense.
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You're not sure how you're going to pay the bills.
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Take heart. Nothing is too hard for the
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Lord. Now, a quick word about the word
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Lord. You see, it's in all caps here.
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So there's two different Hebrew words.
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There's the word Adonai, which is translated as Lord, capital
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Lord. And then there's YHWH, often
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pronounced Yahweh or Jehovah, and that word is translated as
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Lord all in caps. So in this passage that we're
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just looking at, you can see that these are both references
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to Jehovah, Lord in all caps. And the word Lord or Jehovah in
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all caps shows up more than 6000 times in the Old Testament.
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Over and over we see the Lord in action.
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The Lord makes a covenant with Abraham.
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The Lord speaks to Moses on Sinai, and that's Jesus Christ.
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The living Christ says Jesus Christ was the great Jehovah of
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the Old Testament. So when we read is Anything too
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hard for the Lord, we're talking about Jesus Christ himself.
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The Lord who spoke to Abraham is the same Lord who was later born
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in Bethlehem, who did miracles and raised the dead.
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And nothing is too hard for him. So flash forward one year.
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Now we see Sarah. She's cradling a newborn Isaac.
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She's laughing this time for sure.
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It's a happy laugh. She even names her baby Isaac
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because it means he laughs. Sarah says God has brought me
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laughter and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.
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Sarah's story invites us to think about and pray for
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miracles in our own lives. After all, if a 90 year old can
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plan a baby shower, what's God willing to do for you and me?
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Remember what President Russell M Nelson taught.
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Seek and expect miracles. The Lord will bless you with
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miracles if you believe in Him. Doubting nothing.
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Do the spiritual work to seek miracles prayerfully.
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Ask God to help you exercise that kind of faith.
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Few things will accelerate your spiritual momentum more than
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realizing the Lord is helping you to move a mountain in your
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life. I love how the message
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translation of Romans 418 puts it.
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We read when everything was hopeless.
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Abraham and Sarah believed anyway, deciding to live not on
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the basis of what they saw they couldn't do, but on what God
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said He would do. Yeah, that's a powerful phrase,
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and I want to just sit on it for a moment.
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What would it look like in your life to live not on the basis of
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what you think you can't do, but on the basis of what God has
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said He will do? I think in my own life, it's,
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it's recognizing that even when there's maybe some weird things
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that happen or confusing things or unexpected things,
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recognizing that there's a reason for it all and that God
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is looking out for you. And maybe you can't see the the
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end yet, but you can at least see that little light at the end
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of the tunnel. And hopefully you can follow
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God's tunnel to get to that point.
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Thank you. I have made the connection
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suddenly that it has a lot to do with how I am raising,
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continuing to raise my adult children as some have left the
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church and are making decisions that are scary to watch.
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And I think I can't. What am I to do?
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I can't fix this. What am I to do?
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And then I come to the termination.
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It isn't about what I can or cannot do.
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It's what the Lord can and that it's up to Him.
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He is in relentless pursuit of them and that brings me great,
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great comfort. Thank you.
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Yeah. It's like we have to keep our
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eyes not on what seems like is going to happen or not happen,
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but on the power of what God really can do.
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The book of Hebrews summarizes Sarah's story beautifully.
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We read by faith. Even Sarah, who was past
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childbearing age, was enable to bear children because she
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considered him faithful who had made the promise.
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Maybe Sarah didn't believe perfectly, but she believed the
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one who was perfectly faithful. And centuries later, an Angel
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appeared not to an elderly wife, but to a teenage girl.
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The Angel said, you will conceive and give birth to a
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son, and you are to call him Jesus.
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And Mary, quite understandably, asks, how will this be since I'm
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a virgin? In a way, her question echoes
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Sarah's laugh. Because if it's impossible for
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Sarah to bear son with an old husband, how much more
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impossible is it for Mary to bear a son with no husband?
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And just like Sarah, Mary is told for nothing is impossible
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with God. Sarah's story, Mary's story, and
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our stories, they all testify that God can do miracles.
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But we also know that just because miracles happen doesn't
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mean that everything always goes perfectly.
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Yes, there was a miracle baby, but not every promise God gave
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to Abraham and Sarah was fulfilled in their lifetime.
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In the book of Hebrews we read by faith, Abraham, when called
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to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance,
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obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
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Abraham and Sarah were still living by faith when they died.
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Notice this next phrase. They did not receive the things
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promised. Abraham never receives the
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promised land in his lifetime. They only saw them and welcomed
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them from a distance, admitting they were foreigners and
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strangers on the earth. I'm really touched by that
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phrase. They were foreigners and
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strangers on the earth. Earth is not our home.
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This life is not the end. It's a reminder that sometimes a
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miracle comes, like a 90 year old giving birth to Isaac, but
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sometimes we wait on the Lord, trusting in His promises.
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Now, as Abraham continued his conversation with those 3
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strangers outside the tent, the topic turns to Sodom and
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Gomorrah. The Lord reveals His intention
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to judge these cities. And in one of the most tender
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scenes in Scripture, Abraham says, will you sweep away the
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righteous with the wicked? And if you remember, they start
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having a conversation where they bargain.
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Abraham's like, well, what if there's only 50 people left that
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are righteous? What if there's only 4540?
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They bargain all the way down to 10.
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But sadly, the Lord won't even be able to find 10 righteous
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people in Sodom and Gomorrah. And that takes us from Sarah's
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laughter to Lot's tragedy. Now I want to highlight in this
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Section 2 cautions from Lot and one from his wife.
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So first in background, Lot is Abraham's nephew.
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So they've all travelled together to the land of Canaan
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and overtime their herds become large, causing contention
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between Abraham's herdsmen and Lots.
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So Abraham generously says, let's not have any quarreling
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between you and me or between your herders and mine, for we
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are close relatives. It is not the whole land before
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you. Let's part company.
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If you go to the left, I'll go to the right.
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If you go to the right, I'll go to the left.
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Now, we've all been in situations like this before,
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right? There's only one piece of pizza
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left. And I'll tell you what, if
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there's one piece of pizza left, I'm going to get out the
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protractor to make sure I get my fair share.
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But Abraham is so generous. He's got this abundance
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mentality. There is, in this case, one part
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of the land that is much more favorable.
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One part of the land actually is better than the other part.
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And Abraham could have said, look, I'm the elder, I'm going
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to take it. But no, he says you choose.
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And so Lot takes the better part in the plains of Jordan.
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And we read Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom.
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The men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord,
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exceedingly so. It's not just like that's a
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shady part of town. These people are sinners
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exceedingly. Now this point Lot isn't living
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in Sodom, but his tent is facing it.
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Some time passes and then we read Lot Dwelt in Sodom, and a
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couple chapters later Lot sat in the gate of Sodom.
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So Lot starts out in the Promised Land, moves closer to
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Sodom, starts looking at Sodom, and pretty soon he's living
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there. There's interesting connections
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between this and modern psychological research.
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In a landmark study, a psychologist found that people
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develop a preference for things they repeatedly look at.
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That's why advertisers will flash the same image over and
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over again. Or an advertising Jingle that
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first sounds annoying. Pretty soon you can't get it out
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of your head. We start to love what we
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repeatedly see and hear. That's why I can't get the
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phrase my little soda pop out of my head.
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You know, it's just like it's there.
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Mark Zuckerberg knows this as well.
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Today, social media can track not only what you like or
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comment or share, it also tracks what you pause on.
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So as you're scrolling through your feet, if you pause even for
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an extra second, the algorithms notice.
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And suddenly what you only glanced at becomes what you see
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more and more and what you start to want.
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Consider perhaps a modern day parable.
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And again to pass, there was a return missionary named Logan.
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Logan had been the most admired missionary in his whole mission,
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and now he was ready to conquer the world.
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He wasn't perfect. He didn't make his bed every
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morning, he didn't call his mom as often as she would have
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liked, but he was a really good man.
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Right after the first round of midterms, he met some guys from
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a different part of town. He could tell that they were
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going in a different direction than he was, so when they
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invited him to a party, he didn't go, but he watched their
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Instagram stories. The next weekend he drove by the
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house just to see what was happening.
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The weekend after he went into the party, and by finals, Logan
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wasn't just attending the parties, he was throwing them.
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One day, someone asked him. Hey Logan, are you still
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religious? And Logan paused, a little
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longer than he would have expected.
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You see, the more you see sin, even if it's from a distance,
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even if you're just curious or you're just joking around, the
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more it starts to feel normal and even desirable.
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You don't have to want to be in Sodom.
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You just have to face that way long enough.
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And Jesus knew all about this long before Mark Zuckerberg or
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algorithms. He said the eye is the lamp of
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the body. If your eyes are healthy, your
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whole body will be full of light.
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What you look at shapes what you become.
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Now contrasts lots experience with the experience of the
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people of King Benjamin. We read King Benjamin's people
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pitch their tents with everyone having their tents facing the
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temple. King Benjamin's people are
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facing the temple and soon they make covenants and are called
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the children of Christ. So the principle of repeated
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exposure, it can work for us or against us.
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So there's an important first caution here.
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Be careful what you look at. Yes, this applies to
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pornography, but it also applies to 100 other things that can
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turn our attention from God, the path to sin.
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It just starts with looking and lingering.
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And that takes us to our second caution.
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Don't delay when God speaks. So by the time we get to chapter
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19, Sodom has become so wicked that God decrees it's
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destruction. They couldn't even find 10
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righteous people. So God sends some messengers to
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warn Lot. And when God sees these angels,
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he invites them to his home and he serves them a nice meal.
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But that night, the men of the city surround the house and
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demand that Lot send out his guests to be abused.
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If you've read this story, you might wonder what is going on
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here, especially the next part with Lott and his daughters
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after the escape. This is one place where the
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Church's scripture helps. Book is really valuable.
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It says the Joseph Smith translation of Genesis 19
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clearly describes the actions of Lot's daughters as wicked.
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The two young women seem to understand that what they were
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doing was wrong, as they planned to make their father drunk so he
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would not realize what was happening.
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Many naturally wonder why this account is included in the Old
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Testament. Like many stories in Genesis, it
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explains origins. The children conceived in the
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story were said to be the ancestors of the Moabites and
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the Ammonites. These nations would later
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interact with Israel, sometimes in conflict.
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This origin account is unfavorable to these people,
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which might have fueled tension between them and the Israelites.
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So when the people try to enter Lot's home by force, the angels
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cause blindness to come upon Lot's attackers.
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We then read, With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot,
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saying, Hurry, take your wife and your two daughters who are
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here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.
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When Lot hesitated, the man grasped his hand in the hands of
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his wife and two daughters and LED them safely out of the city.
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So the angels are hurrying to escape Sodom, and Lot is
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hesitating. Contrast Lot's hesitation with
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Abraham's response when the angels visited him in the
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previous chapter we read. Abraham ran to meet them.
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Abraham hurried into the tent. Abraham ran to the herd to
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prepare a calf. Abraham is always hastening
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while Lot is dragging his feet. It's a reminder.
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Don't delay when God speaks. Now let's turn to Lot's wife.
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Did you know that the Savior directly refers to her?
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It's one of the shortest passages in the New Testament,
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and it's a haunting 1. Jesus warned his disciples and
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said, Remember Lot's wife? What does he mean by that?
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You recall that an Angel told Lot and his family.
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Flee for your lives. Don't look back and don't stop
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anywhere in the plane. Flee to the mountains or you
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will be swept away. Lot's family obeyed.
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They ran for their lives and they made it safely to a nearby
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village. Now that's when Lot's wife
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looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
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Sometimes the illustrations show us something different.
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I always pictured in my mind maybe Lot's wife 100 yards
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outside of the city, and that's when she turned back.
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But actually the scripture says she's safely in another city,
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and that's when she turns back to look at Sodom.
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So what is the meaning of the story and why is it so important
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that the Savior himself reminds us of it?
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President Jeffrey R Holland taught apparently what was wrong
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with Lot's wife was that she wasn't just looking back.
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In her heart, she wanted to go back.
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So it isn't just that she looked back.
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She looked back longingly. In short, her attachment to the
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past outweighed her confidence in the future.
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God was offering salvation ahead, but she was stuck in the
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world behind. Her story illustrates a powerful
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principle. We can't move forward when we're
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looking backwards. But before we judge Lot's wife
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too harshly, we have to ask ourselves, Do we ever do the
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same? Do we ever romanticize the good
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old days, even if maybe in those good old days we weren't totally
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on the right track? Or maybe we dwell on past
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regrets. We think, if only I had done
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this differently, everything else now would be so much
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better. I know that's something that I
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struggle with. But you remember what the
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Apostle Paul taught, he said. I focus on this one thing,
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forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.
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In his talk, Elder Holland was particularly concerned about
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people who are letting their past sins hold them back.
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He said when repentance is sincere, when honest effort is
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being made to progress, we are guilty of the greater sin.
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If we keep remembering and recalling and rebashing someone
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with their earlier mistakes, and that someone might be ourselves,
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we can be so hard on ourselves, often much more so than with
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others. Now, he continued, like the anti
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Nephi, the eyes of the Book of Mormon.
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Bury your weapons of war and leave them buried.
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Forgive and do that which is harder than to forgive.
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Forget, and when it comes to mind again, forget it again.
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You can remember just enough to avoid repeating the mistake, but
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then dismiss the destructive and keep dismissing it until the
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beauty of the atonement of Christ has revealed to you your
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bright future and the bright future of your family and your
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friends and your neighbors. God doesn't care nearly as much
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about where you have been as He does about where you are and
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with His help, where you are willing to go.
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That is the thing Lot's wife didn't get.
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In his talk, Elder Holland gives another powerful application of
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this principle. He describes when he and Pat
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were a young married couple as newlyweds at BYU, they were so
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overwhelmed by financial and educational pressures that they
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wondered if they should quit. Go back home, President Holland
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said. In my best reenactment of Lot's
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wife, I said, in effect, let's go back.
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Let's go home to Saint George. The future holds nothing for us.
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Then Pat grabbed me by the lapels and said, We are not
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going back. We are not going home.
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The future holds everything for us.
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Sister Holland's faith kept Elder Holland on course.
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And years later, when President Holland was the president of
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BYU, he said he would often look out his window and he would see
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people at the same crossroads where he had been.
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And he wondered about those who are feeling anxious in their
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lives. Are you one of those people?
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Are you or I today feeling anxious, worried, troubled?
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President Holland said. To all such of every generation
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I call out, remember Lot's wife. Faith is for the future.
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Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there.
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Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us
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and that Christ truly is the High priest of good things to
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come. You and I are invited to leave
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our sodoms, whatever those might be, in our lives, whether it's
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our sin or our worries, and to not look back.
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We look forward to Jesus Christ, and that takes us to our third
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story, God's providing. The story is sometimes referred
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to as Isaac's binding or Abraham's test, but I want to
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call it God's providing, and in a moment I'll explain why.
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In Genesis chapter 22, God presents Abraham with an
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unthinkable request. He says take your son, your only
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son whom you love, Isaac, and sacrifice him as a burnt
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offering as you would expect with what you know about
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Abraham. Abraham doesn't delay.
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Early the next morning he gets up and saddles his donkey.
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He takes 2 servants and Isaac along with him on a three day
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journey to Mount Moriah. When they arrive Abraham told
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his servants, we will worship and then we will come back to
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you. What do you think Abraham meant
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by the word we? As far as he knows, he's going
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to take Isaac back up the mountain and they are not both
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going to come back down. Do you think by saying we,
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Abraham was just trying to allay suspicion or do you think he had
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a secret hope that somehow God was going to perform a miracle?
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As Abraham and Isaac walked up the hill, Isaac realized that
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something was missing. He said, Father, the fire and
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wood are here, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?
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Can you picture Abraham? His throat tightens, his pulse
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quickens. He says God himself will provide
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the lamb for the burnt offering. My son, do you think Abraham
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really believed it? I wonder if walking up the hill,
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Abraham kept repeating to himself, God will provide, God
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will provide, God will provide. I love how Pastor Timothy Keller
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frames Abraham's life. Back in Genesis 12, God had
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said, I'm sending you to a promised land.
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Abraham said where? God says, I'll tell you later.
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Years past, God says you'll have a son.
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Abraham says, how? God says, I'll tell you later.
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And now God says, sacrifice your son.
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Abraham asks why? God says, I'll tell you later.
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Abraham's faith is incredible. When they reached the summit,
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Abraham builds an altar and then turns to Isaac.
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We read he bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top
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of the wood. Now, we don't know exactly how
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old Isaac was at this time. Actually, it does seem likely
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that Isaac was a teenager or a young adult.
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And Abraham is a very old man, so almost certainly in a
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struggle, Isaac could have overpowered him.
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But Isaac humbly submits. Abraham raises the knife, and
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then at the last moment an Angel stops him.
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Abraham, Abraham, do not lay a hand on the boy, Do not do
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anything to him. Now I know that you fear God,
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because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.
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At that very moment Abraham looked, and there in the thicket
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he saw a ram caught by its horns.
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Abraham takes the ram and offers it on the altar instead of his
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son. I picture Abraham and Isaac both
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embracing each other, shedding tears of joy.
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Now, it's totally possible that some of us, when we read the
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story, we think this is actually crazy.
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Abraham should have said to God, there is no way I will sacrifice
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my son. And I'm definitely sympathetic
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with this approach. There are certainly aspects of
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this story that are very troubling.
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But at the same time, God never intended for Abraham to
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sacrifice Isaac. This was painting a picture of
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prophecy, looking ahead to another Father, another beloved
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Son, and another sacrifice. Let's talk just for a moment
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about typology. In our class, I'll frequently be
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referring to a scriptural account and saying something
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about how it points to Jesus Christ or we see an echo of it
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in the Savior. This is called typology, and
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there's different levels of typology.
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First, there's what we might call typological foreshadowing,
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which means God really intended it, the prophets foretold it,
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and the people, either in their own time or retrospectively
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recognize this as applying to Jesus Christ, for example, the
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Passover lamb. Then we have what we might call
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illustrative parallels. Maybe there wasn't obvious
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divine or prophetic intent, but there's still connections.
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For example, we'll see lots of connections between Joseph in
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Egypt and Jesus Christ. Then we also have what we might
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call false typology, where there's really no actual
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connection between the event and Jesus Christ.
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For example, Saul is going to search for a lost donkey for
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three days. That's probably not a
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foreshadowing of Christ being in the tomb for three days, right?
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Some things just take three days.
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But in the case of Abraham offering up Isaac, it's clear
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typological foreshadowing. In fact, the Book of Mormon
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prophet Jacob taught Abraham offered up his son Isaac, which
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is a similitude of God and his only begotten son.
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So when Abraham and Isaac's experience God is painting a
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prophetic picture of the ultimate act of love that would
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later take place on Calvary. Think about the parallels.
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In both cases, Isaac's and Jesus Christ, there's a miraculous
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birth. In both cases, a father offers
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his beloved only son to Abraham. The Lord said, take your son,
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your only son. John wrote for God so loved the
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world that he gave his one and only son.
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Another parallel is in the carrying of the wood.
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Isaac carried wood up the hill. Jesus carried his cross to
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Golgotha. With Isaac.
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There was a substitute. A ram was found to be offered in
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Isaac's place. But in Jesus's case, he is the
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substitute, a substitute for each of us.
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In both cases, we see obedient sons who were submissive to the
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will of the Father. And both events took place in
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similar locations. You notice that God told Abraham
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to go to the region of Moriah. Later we see that Solomon builds
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his temple in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.
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So according to Jewish tradition, the place where
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Solomon builds his temple is the same place where Abraham nearly
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sacrificed Isaac. And so within a mile of the
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place where Abraham nearly sacrificed Isaac, Jesus Christ
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would be crucified. In both cases we see that the
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father did not withhold his son. The Angel said to Abraham, you
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have not withheld your son. And Paul wrote, God did not
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spare his own son. Consider one more parallel, and
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this one we might sometimes overlook, a parallel between the
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mother of Isaac and the mother of Jesus.
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Joanne Seeley says Sarah being silent in the story of Isaac's
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sacrifice is a type of Mary. She is the mother of the son
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who's going to be offered, and she's silent just like Mary was
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at the cross. We have to think about our
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mothers from the Scriptures, what part they played and what
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they did and how important they were, even if we don't hear
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their voice. These parallels are beautiful.
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And do you remember what Abraham called the mountain in the King
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James Version? It says Abraham called the name
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of that place Jehovah Jira. Now I'll be honest, when I read
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that before, I was kind of like, I have no idea what that means.
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The New International Version makes this clearer by providing
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the Hebrew translation. Abraham called that place the
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Lord will provide. Do you remember what Abraham
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said as they walked up the hill? God himself will provide the
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lamb. In some ways, this is a story
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about Abraham's obedience, but more deeply, it's about God's
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providing. After all, Abraham didn't call
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them out. I will do it because I am
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awesome. He called it.
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God will provide. So here's a key lesson.
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Every challenge we face is an opportunity to trust that God
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will provide. When Abraham looked up, he saw
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the ram in the thicket God had provided.
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When Jesus looked up from the cross and said it is finished,
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God had provided. And when you and I look to the
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cross, we can see that God has already provided for our deepest
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needs through his Son Jesus Christ.
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I love this insight from Timothy Keller.
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Think about what it means to you.
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He said if Abraham had been at the foot of Calvary the moment
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Jesus died, do you know what he would have done?
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He would have taken the words of God to him and turned them
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around. He would have looked up at the
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Father and he would have said, now I know, now I know that you
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love me because you did not withhold your Son, your only Son
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whom you love, from me. How do you know God loves you
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and values you so much that you can really rest in his love and
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be free? How can you know he loves you
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like that? Not by saying I'm just going to
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trust in Him by the Spirit. You have to see that Abraham and
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Isaac going up the mountain was a picture of the price the
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Father paid at Calvary. It has to move you and it has to
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change you. You have to from the bottom of
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your heart, by the power of the Spirit, say now I know, Now I
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know that you love me because you gave your son.
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You did not withhold your only Son from me.
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God truly has provided for us through His only begotten Son.