Our faith must come to realize that all things are possible with God.
Luke 18:27 NKJV But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
A man had a situation with his son that the Lord’s disciples could not handle.
Try as hard as they could, they were not able to bring necessary deliverance and relief. The man’s son truly had a very difficult problem that their family had been faced with since he was a child. In this case, the son had a physical condition that was brought on by a spiritual attack. Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” Jesus was telling the man, “all things are possible for God,” (Mark 14:36).
We are looking at God’s help where we live.
In life, we all face many impossibilities. There are many things that we want, that just cannot happen.
Scan through your Bible and you will see many impossible situations that God solved.
- Abram and Sarah were advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing, (Genesis 18:11).
The Lord asked Abraham, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” The Lord told them that He would return at the appointed time and Sarah would have a son.
- Both Sarah and Elizabeth were given a son in their old age.
- Mary asked the angel of the Lord, “How can I have a child, since I do not know a man?” (Luke 1:34) The angel of the Lord told Mary, “With God nothing will be impossible,” (Luke 1:37).
- When God was bringing Israel out of Egypt, they came to the Red Sea, (Exodus 15)
Everyone thought they were going to die by the hands of the Egyptian armies. Nothing is impossible with God. God was not only able to make a way where there was no way, He also destroyed Pharaoh’s chariots and his army in the Red Sea.
- The Israelites were in the wilderness and they were hungry for some meat.
Moses told God there are six hundred thousand men on foot; yet You have said, “I will give them meat, that they may eat for a whole month.” (Numbers 11:21)
Moses asked God, “Shall all of the flocks and herds be slaughtered for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to provide enough for them?” (Numbers 11:22)
Numbers 11:23 NIV84 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”
- Job had lost everything.
His health and wealth were gone. All his children had died in one day. His wife and friends had turned against him.
Job 42:2 NKJV “I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.”
- Isaiah reminded a backslidden people of God’s ability to save.
Isaiah 59:1 NKJV Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.
- Of all of the things that seem impossible, nothing seems more impossible than the creation.
Jeremiah 32:17 NKJV ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.
Do you really believe that all things are possible with God?
We should not limit God to our impossibilities.
Luke 18:27 NKJV But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”
I am laying the IMPOSSIBLE before God.
The Bible reveals situations that are impossible with man. We are not exempt from these things arising in our lives.
The complications of life and the difficulties we face often leave us with the feeling: “It’s impossible!”
- Sometimes we face impossible situations with our health.
- Some conflicts and trials of life seem impossible to overcome.
- Sin, addictions, and temptations often leave us feeling that it is impossible to conquer.
- Evil powers and influences of the kingdom of darkness present what appears to be impossible obstacles.
How are we to deal with these things?
What are we supposed to do when we are overwhelmed and hope begins to fail?
Where do we go when our personal resources are depleted and we are going under?
Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he became king in Jerusalem.
The Bible says he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. This is a very important point for each of us to know. Hezekiah trusted the Lord and was successful in what he did. He fortified Jerusalem and did everything humanly possible to secure them from their enemies.
When Hezekiah was twenty-nine years old, Shalmaneser king of Assyria surrounded them.
This continued for three years until the Assyrians took the land and deported the people to Assyria, (2 Kings 18:6-10).
2 Kings 18:13 NIV In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah’s reign, Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
Hezekiah attempted to work this out on his own with Sennacherib.
He told Sennacherib: “I have done wrong. Withdraw from me, and I will pay whatever you demand of me.” The Assyrian demanded 22,500 pounds of silver and 2,250 pounds of gold. If you try to compromise with the enemy it will always cost you more than you are able to pay. Hezekiah stripped the gold from the temple of the Lord and gave him all of the silver in the temple and the royal palace, (2 Kings 18:14-16).
Nothing he did stopped the insults and attack against Hezekiah.
You cannot compromise or surrender to evil and find peace. Through everything that happened, Hezekiah continued to trust the Lord his God for help. All of his enemies knew that he had strong faith in God.
2 Kings 18:28-29 NIV84 Then the commander stood and called out in Hebrew: “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you. He cannot deliver you from my hand.
2 Kings 18:30 NIV84 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to trust in the Lord when he says, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us; this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.’
2 Kings 18:31 NIV84 “Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then every one of you will eat from his own vine and fig tree and drink water from his own cistern,
2 Kings 18:32 NIV84 until I come and take you to a land like your own, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and honey. Choose life and not death! “Do not listen to Hezekiah, for he is misleading you when he says, ‘The Lord will deliver us.’
2 Kings 18:33 NIV84 Has the god of any nation ever delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
Do you see what is going on here?
Sennacherib is not just challenging Hezekiah, he is mocking and limiting the Lord God Almighty. He continued repeating this slander against Hezekiah’s faith and the Lord God Almighty. No other kingdom or god had been able to stop the Assyrians.
You need to know that when no one else can help, you can go to God.
2 Kings 19:1 NIV84When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the Lord.
We should always start with God. He is a very present help in times of trouble.
2 Kings 19:2-3 NIV84 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz. They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.
2 Kings 19:4 NIV84 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the Lord your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”
2 Kings 19:5–6 NIV84 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah, Isaiah said to them, “Tell your master, ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid of what you have heard—those words with which the underlings of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.’
Do you want to know what the Lord says?
Do you know that when everyone else says give up, God says do not be afraid?
Keep on trusting in the Lord. Keep your faith strong.
2 Kings 19:9-10 NIV84 Now Sennacherib received a report that Tirhakah, the Cushite king of Egypt, was marching out to fight against him. So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah with this word: “Say to Hezekiah king of Judah: Do not let the god you depend on deceive you when he says, ‘Jerusalem will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’
The enemy of your soul does not want you to have faith and trust in Almighty God.
The King of Assyria was determined to defeat Hezekiah. He did not know the God that answers prayer.
2 Kings 19:14 NIV84 Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.
Listen closely to what Hezekiah said next. His words relate to what you may be going through.
2 Kings 19:15 NIV84 And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: “O Lord, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.
2 Kings 19:16-17 NIV84 Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God. It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands.
2 Kings 19:18–19 NIV84 They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by men’s hands. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.
The situation looked terrible and frightening.
Hezekiah brought the letter before the Lord, laid it on the altar and presented the whole situation to God.
Hezekiah knew that their only help came from the Lord.
If God did not save them, there was no hope. There was no other place to go. They were encircled and cut off. If God did not hear his prayer, no one would.
- He knew that God is a very present help in the time of need.
- He knew that our God is a refuge and shelter in the time of the storm.
- He knew that God is the living God.
- He knew that God, our God, can deliver.
The enemy said: “Your hope and trust in your God is in vain.”
This man of God said: “O Lord, You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Listen to the insult against the living God.”
When you come up against your impossible situation, you need to hear what Jesus said.
Matthew 19:26 NIV84 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Is this where you are? Have you found no solution to what you are up against? Have you become cornered without the resources for the answer? You can bring your whole case before the King of kings!
Jesus said, “This is impossible for man to handle.”
He was telling the truth. You have attempted to work it all out.
In 2 Kings 19:20 NIV84 The prophet Isaiah told Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I have heard your prayer concerning…”
You need to know this today. The Lord has heard you and is ready to turn things around. He is the God of the impossible.