Divine Visitation

Sermon June 14, 2026, Genesis 18:1-15

Divine Visitation

Reverend Fred Okello

Dream Big. Have you ever dreamed of something that seemed impossible? A dream so far outside of your current circumstances that when you told others, they laughed?

I come from a low-income family of seven kids. I was the first to graduate from high school back in 1995. I remember telling my mom as a teenager that I had a dream of living in a permanent house with running water and electricity. When she looked at our current living conditions, she laughed at me and said, “Boy, that will never happen. It is just a dream.”

Looking at our circumstances, she had every reason to believe that. But many of those dreams came true years later. I bought my very first brand new motorbike in 2012. There were many days I wished my mom had lived long enough to see how God opened doors for her laughing son that once seemed impossible. When we focus only on our current circumstances, hope can easily slip away.

Abraham and Sarah find themselves in this exact situation in Genesis 18. They have spent decades waiting for God to fulfill His promise to give them a child. Years have passed. Their bodies have weakened with age. Their hope had begun to diminish. Then God shows up with a question that cuts to the heart of our every dream: Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? 

God Shows Up in the Middle of the Waiting (vv. 1-8). The passage begins with Abraham sitting at the entrance of his tent. Keep in mind, this scene is taking place during the hottest part of the day. Abraham is not seeking a spiritual adventure. He is going about his normal routine.

Then, out of nowhere, three visitors appear. Immediately, Abraham springs into action to provide hospitality. He offers water, a place to rest, bread, and even a rushed steak dinner. What Abraham does not realize is that this normal encounter is about to become divine.

God shows up after years of silence on his end. Abraham and Sarah have been waiting nearly twenty-five years since God’s original promise. Waiting was not a season of their lives. It was their life. No menus were on the waiting.

We, as believers, know what it feels like to wait on God. We wait for healing to come. We wait for relationships to be restored. We wait for directions. We wait for the doors to open. We wait for answers to prayer.

In those moments when God seems silent, it can seem as if He is nowhere to be found. But Genesis 18 is talking directly to us in those moments. If you are waiting, God has not forgotten you. If you are waiting on God’s promise, He is working behind the scenes.

Just because we cannot see it does not mean He is not doing something. The God of the Bible is a God who shows up near to His people.

God Speaks Promise into Impossible Circumstances (vv. 9-12). The visitors ask Abraham, “Where is your wife, Sarah?” The famous promise is then restated: “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” This is not a new promise; it is a promise on repeat.

Every physical detail around them screams that this promise will not come true. Abraham is nearly 100 years old, and Sarah is ninety. For Sarah and Abraham, the ability to have children was humanly impossible. By all logical reasons, the story should have ended a long time ago.

But Sarah laughs. Can you relate to Sarah? I know I can. We may not laugh out loud when we hear God’s promises, but we think them inside our heads. We have been told hope will come, healing will come, restoration will come, and a new season will come. Yet as we sit and wait day after day, our current circumstances mock those promises.

Sarah reminds us that even the most faithful wrestle with doubts about God’s promises. But God is not shocked by our lack of faith. He reminds Sarah (and us) that His promise does not depend on how much we believe. It depends on how much He desires to keep His word.

God Calls Us to Trust His Power Rather Than Our Limitations (vv. 13-15). God responds to Sarah’s unbelief with a question: “Why did Sarah laugh?” Then comes the crux of the passage: “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” God leaves Sarah’s statement unanswered. With that one question, he completely changes the subject from human inability to His infinite ability. 

Sarah sees defeat. God sees possibilities. Sarah sees despair. God sees life. We are engaged in that battle today. The battle of trusting God when our circumstances say it is impossible. We are far too quick to trust in what we see rather than who God is. The older I get, the more I realize that life will not always unfold the way I want it to.

But what I can trust is that no circumstance can stop God from working all things for the good of those who love Him (cf. Romans 8:28). Jesus Christ is the proof we need that God can bring life from death.

The God who gave life to a son through Sarah’s barren womb is the same God who raised Jesus from the dead. The resurrection proves that God’s power can bring life when all hope is lost, and humanly speaking… it is impossible.

In conclusion, Sarah laughed because she knew the promise seemed impossible. One year later, she was holding that baby boy in her arms. Isaac, by the way, means “he laughs.” God took Sarah’s laughter of doubt and replaced it with laughter of joy.

God does that kind of stuff. He takes our cries of “it is impossible” and replaces them with “I am possible.” He turns our hopeless situations into a testimony of His grace.

So the next time life stares you in the face and whispers in your ear that it is impossible, let God whisper back… Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? Nothing! Nothing is too hard for God. Nothing is impossible for those who love Him. Amen.