The God of the Impossible: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda
The God of the Impossible • Sermon • Submitted
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Intro:
37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
For the next three weeks I want to preach on [The God of the Impossible]. The title of my message is [Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda].
Who has ever been in an impossible situation?
For some reason, when I thought of impossible situations, I thought of my grandma. She was fun, thoughtful, helpful, but most of all, she was impossible.
It was next to impossible to please grandma and because of this she placed all of her family in impossible situations.
She was also very stern, with strict rules that no one dared break. One of those was that you HAD to be twelve-years-old before you could sit in the front seat of her van.
Once, my aunt and uncle were in the middle row and I was in the back row. My aunt said, Daniel, you can sit in the front. I told her grandma’s rule and she assured me that it was okay.
Being the dutiful and obedient child I was, I promptly planted myself in the front passenger seat.
Grandma came out of the house got in the driver’s seat, looked at me and I got the chewing of my life. DANIEL, YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THIS. WHAT ARE THE RULES. YOU ARE TO NEVER SIT IN THE FRONT. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS?
I looked to my aunt, hoping for reinforcement, and she shrugged her shoulders and didn’t say a word. I was in an impossible situation with no way out except to go to the back row and silently weep for my life.
Looking back, it was not a huge deal, but it felt impossible.
All of us have been there at one time or another. I have heard people speak about impossible situations with regret, then shake their head and remark, woulda, coulda, should.
I would have done that different
I could have done that different
I should have done that different
In life, we face situations that seem impossible, meaning, not able to be done or to happen
not possible
out of the question
impracticable
unfeasible
beyond the bounds of possibility
Often, when the impossibility is complete, we might look back with regret and think of how we wish we would have handled the situation.
I feel strong in my spirit that the Lord wants to increase our faith. We’ve discussed [People God Trust]. We want to live in such a way God can trust us.
But, we can and should TRUST Him. There is nothing too difficult for Him. Nothing is impossible with Him.
17 ‘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.
The word impossible is found four times in Scripture,
The word possible is found fifteen times in Scripture,
And all of the references are found in the New Testament.
What should this tell us?
God can do anything. We should never limit God by our situations that we deem impossible. To see this truth, I want to look at two situations where the God of the impossible worked on the behalf of His people.
We will look at the angelic visit with Zacharias and Mary and see how we can trust in the God of the impossible. When we do, we will not have to live life with regrets. We will not have to rehearse the woulda, coulda, shoulda.
I have three points, [We See What Wouldn’t Happen], [We Wonder What Could Happen], but [God Knows what Should Happen]
1. We See What Wouldn’t Happen
1. We See What Wouldn’t Happen
5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.
6 And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.
7 But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.
8 So it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division,
9 according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.
Before Luke writes about the life of Jesus, for some reason he begins telling about a priest named Zechariah. He had an interesting background and a unique position.
He was Jewish priest married to a woman, Elizabeth, who was a direct descendant of Aaron, Israel’s first high priest.
From his childhood, he would have known his responsibility as a future Jewish priest. He was responsible to work in the Temple:
managing the upkeep
teaching Scripture
leading people in worship
At this point in Jerusalem, there were 20,000 priests throughout the country. They were divided into groups of about 1,000 and the priests would serve one week in the Temple two times each year.
That was his position, a priest who would work in the Temple twice a year.
In addition to his unique background and position, he also had a sad circumstance, he and his wife had no children. What makes it worse, is that he and his wife were faithful to God.
They lived righteously, carefully obeying all of the Lord’s commandments, but they still did not enjoy the blessings of having children.
At a certain point, it was Zechariah’s week to serve in the Temple with about 1,000 other priests. Two times a day a different priest would enter the Holy Place and burn incense before the Lord as a sign of worship.
With 1,000 priests, how would they decide which of the fourteen priests would get such an honor?
They cast lots, or we could say that they drew names out of a hat. A priest could only do this ONCE in their lifetime and many priests never got the chance.
It just so “happened” that on this particular day, Zechariah’s name was drawn and he went into the Holy Place. As he is burning incense an angel from God came to him.
Terrified, the angel began to speak with an amazing message from God:
you will have a son
you will name him John, which means the Lord is gracious
you will raise him as a Nazarite
he will live set apart, never drinking alcohal
he will be filled with the Holy Spirit in the womb
he will live in the spirit and the power of Elijah
There is a lot packed into this promise. In essence, the angel told Zechariah that John will become a prophet. It had been 400 years since the Holy Spirit had anointed a prophet to speak for God.
How did Zechariah see this?
18 And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
19 And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.
How would this every happen to me? I am old, my wife is old, we have prayed for decades for this to happen and now all of a sudden you promise that God will give us a son?
In other words Zechariah thinks it is too impossible.
The angel’s answer? I AM GABRIEL. I stand before the Lord who sent me to speak to you.
I imagine Zachariah felt really small now. This was the same angel who spoke to the Prophet Daniel. And he came to Zechariah on the day he just so happened to stand in the Holy Place?
He should have believed, for he was struck mute, unable to speak until after John was born.
If only he would have believed in the God of the impossible!
2. We Wonder What Could Happen
2. We Wonder What Could Happen
26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.
As Luke wrote the narrative of Jesus’s life, he opted to interject in this part of the story to tell about the next assignment of Gabriel. He went to Nazareth to speak to a young lady named Mary.
Right here we see some differences between the two impossible situations:
Zechariah was a priest with a prestigious position
Mary was a lowly girl
Zechariah had most of his life behind him
Mary had most of her life in front of her
Zechariah lived in the elite city Jerusalem
Mary lived out in the sticks, in a place called Nazareth
Zachariah had a public announcement, hearing from the angel while everyone waited outside of the Holy Place
Mary had a private visitation, alone at home.
The angel Gabriel came to Mary, and she had a similar reaction, she was terrified. The angel told her not to be afraid for she had favor with God.
The Lord looked at her faithfulness and determined she was just the right type of person God can use.
His message was amazing:
she will have a son
she will name Him Jesus
He will be great
He will be the Son of the Highest
He will sit on the throne of David
He will reign forever and ever
His Kingdom will never end
This promise was just as impossible as the one Zechariah recieved. The difference was their place in life.
For Zechariah, he had held onto desire of a son for so long, he had lost all faith that it would ever happen for him. He was too old. The dream was too crazy. It was too hard.
Mary was different, she had an entire life in front of her. She was engaged to Joseph. No doubt the discussed or at least thought of children.
But she would have had hopes of a child who would take on the family business and become a good and moral man in Nazareth. And what did God promise?
A son who would make the way for EVERYONE to become sons and daughters of the Father in heaven.
While Zechariah doubted he WOULD ever have a son, Mary had a different question, which led to a different answer.
34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”
35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.
She did not doubt like Zechariah, she just wanted to know HOW? How CAN that happen? She looked at her situation, trusting God she just needed to know how this seemingly impossible situation could come to pass?
The answer was simple— the Holy Spirit will come on you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
The Holy Spirit will do for Mary what is humanly impossible!
Zechariah assumed that the promise was too impossible to come to pass and WOULD NOT happen.
Mary heard the promise, and believed that the situation was not impossible and could come to pass.
But...
3. God Sees what Should Happen
3. God Sees what Should Happen
36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren.
37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
To further confirm the power of God, Gabriel informs Mary about what has happened to Elizabeth, she too will have a child, he will be six months older than Jesus.
Then he gives the promise: with God NOTHING will be impossible.
37 For the word of God will never fail.”
37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
37 Not one promise from God is empty of power, for nothing is impossible with God!”
Luke 1:37, For with God nothing is every impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment. AMP
What is the message?
God sees what we cannot see. Both Zechariah and Mary faced impossible situations.
Without God’s intervention it was impossible for the older couple to have a son.
Without God’s intervention, it was also impossible for Mary, who was unmarried and had never been with a man to have a Son.
Furthermore, without God, there is NO way one would turn into a prophet and the other would be able to save us from our sins.
But when we see what would not happen and what could happen, God ALWAYS sees what SHOULD happen.
He knew that when John came to this earth, Zechariah’s tongue would loosen and he would be able to speak again.
He knew that Jesus should be born in Bethlehem, complete with angels singing glory, shepherds worshiping, and wise men presenting gifts.
He knew that John should baptize sinners in the Jordan river with the promise that I baptize with water, but one mightier than I comes who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
He knew that John should see Jesus coming down the road and declare BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD.
He knew that John should baptize Jesus for everyone to see.
He knew that John should decrease as Jesus would increase.
He knew that Jesus should:
call the twelve disciples
heal the sick
cast out demons
raise the dead
teach the masses
perform miracles
He knew that Jesus should face:
betrayal
arrest
denial
death
burial
Because He knew that in order for humanity to have any hope of redemption that Jesus should rise from the dead!
And NOW, God knows what SHOULD happen for us:
He believes that we should
get saved
get baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire
get commited to His call
He knows everything that SHOULD happen to us for NOTHINg IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH HIM!
God saw all of this when Zechariah saw what WOULD never happen and Mary believed that the impossible COULD happen, God knew exactly what SHOULD happen.
Close:
Woulda, coulda, shoulda. If we will believe in the God of the Impossible, we will not have to live with regret of the woulda, coulda, shouldas of life.
I have felt for some time that the Lord wants me to share that we have to believe that NOTHING is impossible for God.
God does not see our circumstances and situations the way we see them. He knows EXACTLY what should happen to us and for us.
And I feel that the Lord is calling us not to look at WHY something would not happen. How deceitful the enemy can be to us. He will get us to verify that yes:
God does answer prayer
God does heal the sick
God does deliver the addict
God does heal the broken hearted
God does restore broken situation
But then he brings the doubt, but why WOULD God ever do that for me?
NOTHIGN IS IMPOSSIBLE!
The better mindset is to have:
God answer
God heals
God delivers
God restores
I believe you, how could you do that for me?
With that attitude the Lord can send the Holy Spirit to come upon us and the power of the Most High to overshadow us.
For God knows what should happen in and through us. So Lord, we believe that you will remove doubt and give us the faith to believe that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD!
Who wants to live with that type of faith?
I do not want to look back on life and regret the woulda, coulda, shouldas. For God will never put us in an impossible situation if we will but only trust Him and believe that He knows EXACTLY what He is doing and what should happen in our lives!
So if any of us in this sanctuary faces a situation that seems impossible, the Lord is here today to say, TRUST ME! I can do the impossible.