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GOD ALMIGHTY
A. Introduction: It’s not what you see that makes or breaks you in this life. It’s how you see what you
see. It’s your perspective, your view of reality—the way you look at life—the good times and the bad.
1. We need to understand that this world is not the way that God created or intended it to be, with all its
hardship, pain, and loss. It has been damaged by sin. Gen 2:17; Gen 3:17-19; Rom 5:12; etc.
a. You can do everything right and things still go wrong because that’s life in this broken world.
But if you learn to see things the way they really are according to God, it will give you peace of
mind and hope even in the most difficult circumstances.
1. Paul the apostle, an eyewitness of Jesus, suffered greatly in his life. Yet he was able to call
his many troubles momentary and light. II Cor 4:17
2. Paul said that his troubles didn’t weigh him down because: I don’t look at the troubles I can
see right now; rather, I look forward to what I have not yet seen. For the troubles I see will
soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever (II Cor 4:18, NLT).
b. Paul’s view of reality was shaped by God’s Word. The Bible reveals that there is more to life
than just this life and the greater and better part is ahead, in the life to come. This life is a vapor
that is passing away (James 4:14). The life ahead is not the afterlife—this is the pre-life.
1. Right now, the world is filled with pain, suffering, and death because of sin, going back to
Adam, the first man. But this world isn’t always going to be the way it is now.
2. In connection with the second coming of Jesus, the world will be cleansed of sin, corruption,
and death, and restored to a fit forever home for God and His family. Rev 21-22
3. In the life to come there will be reunion, restoration, recompense, and reward—first in the
present invisible Heaven and then on this earth after the Lord renews and restores it.
A. God’s purpose right now is not to make this temporary life the highlight of our existence.
He’s working for eternal results, a family of sons and daughters He can live with forever.
B. God will ultimately bring a permanent end to all of life’s troubles when Jesus returns, but
not right now. And, if He sees a way to use difficult circumstances to further long-term
eternal results, He will put off short term blessing (ending you trouble now).
2. Paul said he looked at what he couldn’t see. The Bible shows us what we can’t see—God with us
and for us, working behind the scenes in our lives to accomplish His plans for a forever family. The
Bible also shows us what’s ahead in the life to come. This is the way things really are:
a. Nothing can come against you that is bigger than God who is for you. Everything you’re facing
is temporary and subject to change by His power, either in this life or the life to come.
b. God is perfectly present with you right now, loving and reigning. He is upholding all things in
your life by the Word of His power. And He will get you through whatever you’re dealing with
until He gets you out.
c. God is able to bring genuine good out of genuine bad. He causes everything in your life to
serve His ultimate purposes for a family in a perfect world, as He brings maximum glory to
Himself and maximum good to as many people as possible.
1. Every one of these statements is based on specific Bible passages. In this series we’re
looking at some of those passages.
2. In this lesson we’re going to focus on the statement that nothing can come against you that is
bigger than God. Nothing is too hard for the Lord to overcome or accomplish. And there is
no situation or circumstance that is unfixable in His hands.
B. The statements that nothing is too hard for the Lord and that nothing is impossible for Him, are found a
number of times in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is primarily the history of the people group

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through whom Jesus came into this world to die as a sacrifice for sins—the Jewish people or Israelites.
1. The Old Testament is a historical record of real people who got real help from God in really difficult
circumstances. Their stories are recorded in part “to give us hope and encouragement as we
patiently wait for God’s promises” (Rom 15:4, NLT).
a. The first time the statement that nothing is too hard for the Lord appears is in Gen 18:14—Is
anything too hard for the Lord (KJV)? God spoke these words to a man named Abraham (2161
BC). Abraham became the father of the Jewish people. Let’s get the context of God’s words.
b. When Abraham was seventy-five years old and his wife Sarah was sixty-five, God promised
them that they would have a son. They’d had no children because she was barren. Gen 15:1-6
1. When the Lord appeared to Abraham and made this promise, He said: I am the Almighty
God (Gen 17:1, KJV). In the original Hebrew language, the name is El Shaddai.
2. This is the first time the name appears in the Bible. El means the strong or powerful one and
Shaddai means Almighty. Putting them together intensifies the idea of power and strength.
3. The idea is that there is no one or no thing that is more powerful than God who is El Shaddai
—There’s nothing bigger than me, and therefore, nothing is too hard or impossible for me.
2. Twenty-five years later, Abraham and Sarah were still childless, but God repeated His promise and
told them that Sarah would bear a son the next year. Gen 17
a. Not long after this, the Lord visited Abraham and once again repeated His promise: “This time
next year, I will return and…Sarah will have a son” (Gen 18:10, NLT).
b. Sarah overheard the Lord say this and laughed to herself: How could a worn-out woman like
me have a baby…and…(my) husband is also so old (Gen 18:12, NLT).
1. The Lord knew she laughed because the statement seemed ridiculous to her. He answered
by asking Abraham the question: Is anything too hard for the Lord (Gen 18:14, NLT)?
2. The statement was a rhetorical question, because the answer is obvious—nothing is too hard
for Almighty God. Sure enough, a year later, their son Isaac was born. Gen 21:1-7
A. When we read about Abraham’s descendants, not only did God appear to Abraham as El
Shaddai, He did so to Abraham’s son Isaac and his grandson Jacob. Joseph and Moses
also knew God by that name. Gen 28:1-3; Gen 35:11; Gen 43:14; Gen 48:3; Ex 6:3
B. It was built into their consciousness that nothing could come against them that is bigger
than God. As a Jew, Paul got his view of reality from reading about these people.
3. The statement that nothing is too hard for God is also found in the Book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was
a prophet sent by God to His people, Israel (Abraham’s descendants) centuries later, during a very
dark period in Israel’s history. Let’s get the context.
a. Abraham’s son Isaac had a son named Jacob, who fathered twelve sons. His sons became the
heads of twelve tribes, and these tribes eventually grew into the nation of Israel.
b. In the time of Jacob, he and his sons and their families (75 in all) travelled to Egypt during a time
of famine to obtain food. (Jacob’s son Joseph had been sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous
brothers. Last week we looked at how God took that wicked act and brought great good from it.)
1. The family remained in Egypt for 400 years, and grew to over one million people. God
eventually led them back to Canaan (Israel) under the leadership of Moses around 1450 BC.
2. At that time, the Lord warned Abraham’s descendants (Israel) that if they worshipped the
gods of the people living around them, He would allow them to be removed from their land.
A. The people repeatedly abandoned the Lord to worship false gods. God sent numerous
prophets to call them back to Him and warn of coming destruction if they didn’t repent.
B. Israel didn’t listen to the prophets, and in 586 BC Jerusalem (Israel’s capital city) was
destroyed by the Babylonian Empire. And all but the poorest people were taken away as
captives to Babylon (in Iraq) where they remained for 70 years.

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4. Jeremiah was one of the last prophets that God sent to Israel before Babylon destroyed their nation.
Jeremiah’s message was surrender to Babylon and save the nation from complete destruction. His
message was unpopular and many considered him a traitor.
a. Jeremiah was imprisoned in the royal palace of King Zedekiah of Israel when the statement that
nothing is too hard for God was made. At that time, final destruction was one year away (587
BC), and the city of Jerusalem was under siege, suffering famine and disease. Jer 32:1-5
b. The Lord spoke to Jeremiah and told him to buy a piece of land just north of Jerusalem because,
God said, people will one day own property in this land and live normal lives. Jer 32:6-15
5. Once the property was purchased and the deed sealed, Jeremiah prayed to God (Jer 32:16-25). In
his prayer, Jeremiah said: Jer 32:17—Ah, Lord God! It is you who has made the heavens and the
earth by your great power and your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you (ESV); You can
do anything (CEV); Nothing is impossible with you (NASB).
a. What God told Jeremiah seemed impossible—that his people would one day live in the land
again after its complete destruction and their forced removal.
1. When we read Jeremiah’s prayer, we get insight into his perspective. He saw the bigness
and the goodness of God. He prayed: You made heaven and earth by your power…You
are loving and kind to thousands…you are the great and powerful Lord Almighty who does
great and mighty miracles.
2. The word translated Lord is Yahweh, the name by which God revealed Himself to Moses—I
Am that I Am (Ex 3:14)—the Self-Existent One (underived existence); He is because He is.
b. Jeremiah would have known from the Scriptures (the historical record) what Almighty God did
for Abraham and Sarah. And he would have known was God did for Moses and Israel when he
supernaturally delivered them from slavery in Egypt with many signs and wonders.
1. At that point in Jeremiah’s life, his perspective could have been: I’m in jail. I’ve been
beaten more times than I can count. No one listens to me. They think that I’m a traitor.
My life is going to be completely altered by this catastrophe, and I’ve done nothing wrong.
2. But he had the right perspective: What I see is bad and big, and it’s going to get worse before
it gets better. But there’s hope in this hopeless situation because it isn’t bigger than God.
c. When Jeremiah’s prayer ended, the Lord answered him: “I am the Lord, the God of all the
peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me” (Jer 32:27, NLT)? In other words, the Lord
answered the prophet: That’s right, Jeremiah. Nothing is impossible or too difficult for me.
6. Jeremiah did not live to see his people return to their land. (It would happen seventy years later.)
After Jerusalem was destroyed, he was taken captive by people who tried to mount a resistance to
Babylon. They took him to Egypt and he continued to prophesy for about five years before he died.
a. But Jeremiah had hope in the midst of the destruction and end of life as he knew it, because he
knew that there is more to life than just this life.
1. Jeremiah recorded this message from the Lord, right after God said that Israel would be in
Babylon for seventy years: For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are
plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a hope and a future (Jer 29:11. NLT).
2. God put off short term results (quick deliverance from Babylon) for long term eternal results.
Israel’s time in Babylon cured them of idol worship, and multitudes of idol worshippers
heard about the true God, Almighty God, through Israel’s time in Babylon (another lesson).
b. Note what Jeremiah wrote shortly after witnessing Jerusalem’s fall. Lam 3:19-22—The thought
of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words. I will never forget this awful time as I
grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The unfailing love of the
Lord never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his
faithfulness. I say to myself, The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him! The

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Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for and seek him. So it is good to wait quietly for
salvation from the Lord (NLT).
1. Notice how Jeremiah talked to himself. His words are an expression of his view of reality.
There is no magic in the words themselves. The power is in what his words express.
2. Jeremiah knew God did not cause the troubles Israel and he experienced, and he knew God
used it to further His eternal plan. Jeremiah has been in the present Heaven with the Lord
for centuries, and he clearly sees the good that came out of the circumstances he endured.
3. None of this minimizes the real hurt and pain we experience in this broken world. But note
that in the midst of his pain, Jeremiah chose to look past what he could see to God with him
and for him. He chose to remember the salvation that is still to come, and he had hope.
C. Conclusion: Paul’s perspective, his view of reality, was shaped in part by the Old Testament. He
knew the account of Joseph’s life—how God brought good out of bad (Gen 37-50). He knew about
Abraham and Sarah and what God did for them, and he knew about Jeremiah and what God did for him.
1. We get insight into Paul’s understanding of how Abraham, Sarah, Jeremiah (and many others) lived
their lives (as well as their view of reality) from a letter Paul wrote to Jewish believers.
a. Paul wrote to encourage them to stay faithful to Jesus no matter what hardships they faced. Paul
listed people known to his readers from their history— some like Abraham and Sarah, who saw
God’s promise fulfilled in their lifetime, visible, tangible (short term) help from God in this life.
b. Paul listed others who, like Jeremiah, did not get deliverance from their circumstances. Their
deliverance came in the form of peace of mind and hope in their circumstances. They knew that
what they didn’t see in this life, they would see in the life to come. Paul wrote that:
1. Heb 11:35—But others trusted God and were tortured, preferring to die rather than to turn
from God and be free. They placed their hope in the resurrection to a better life (NLT).
2. Heb 11:13—All these faithful ones died without receiving what God promised them, but they
saw it from a distance and welcomed the promises (NLT); (They saw) it and greeted it from a
great distance by faith, and all the while acknowledging and confessing that they were
strangers and temporary residents and exiles upon the earth (Amp).
A. To confess means to say the same thing as. To acknowledge means to recognize the
existence, truth, or fact of something. These people lived by faith, according to unseen
realities. They talked about what they couldn’t see because they knew it was real.
B. Paul defined faith as “the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen.
It is the evidence of things we cannot see yet” (Heb 11:1, NLT).
c. In the face of trouble, we’re naturally drawn to what we see and feel in the moment. That isn’t
wrong—it’s normal. The problem is that we fixate on what we see and feel instead of on the
bigness of God. We occupy our minds and mouth with: Why did this happen? How can I fix
it? Instead, we should focus on: Nothing is impossible for God. This isn’t bigger than him.
2. We have more to say next week, but consider this thought as we close. When something big and
bad comes into my life, the first think I ask myself is: Is this bigger than God? I have never yet
encountered anything that is bigger than Him—and I never will because nothing is bigger than Him.
a. I may not like what I’m facing, but having the right perspective on what I am facing gives me
hope and peace of mind even in the darkest times. I may wish I wasn’t in the situation, but I
know I can trust Almighty God in the midst of it. He is not only big, He is good.
b. I know and believe that Almighty God is causing these troubles to serve His ultimate purpose for
a family in a perfect world. I know that He is able to bring genuine good out of things that are
bad. And I believe that He will get me through until He gets me out. Much more next week!!