From the sermon preached on October 4, 2026
Trusting God when you cannot see what's next starts with knowing who He is, not predicting what He will do. Genesis 21 shows God as a promise keeper, a provider (Jehovah Jireh), the God who is with us, and the Everlasting God. That character is what makes faith possible when the road ahead is unclear.
John Myers, Student Pastor at Believers' Chapel, opened Genesis 21 with a confession: he is a terrible fisherman. While he prayed through this message on a creek with Barry Mershon, Lead Pastor, he lost lure after lure in the trees. Each time, Barry quietly cut the line, reset it, and handed the rod back.
Then Barry tied on a new lure, pointed to a spot, and told him to cast there. John trusted the one who had set him up, and he pulled in a fish. That creek became a picture of Abraham in Genesis 21: a man who had lost plenty of lures, and whom God kept resetting and leading forward.
The point of the message is simple. We do not have faith because we know what God will do next; we have faith because we know who God is. Genesis 21 tells three stories, and each one shows another side of His character.
How Do We Know God Keeps His Promises?
Genesis 21 opens with a birth that should have been impossible. Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was long past childbearing years. Yet the text says plainly, "The LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as He had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him."
Notice the repetition in Genesis 21:1-2: as He had said, as He had promised, at the time He had spoken. The writer stacks the phrases on purpose so we cannot miss the point. God keeps His promises, and He keeps them on His own timeline.
Sarah named the moment with a laugh: "God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me." John Myers once heard a comedian explain that the best jokes set you up to expect one thing and then deliver something no one could have guessed. A son born to a 90-year-old woman is that kind of surprise, and only God could write it.
Abraham answered with obedience; he named the boy Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, as God had commanded. John compared it to his brother Charlie's friend, who sends him a ten-dollar Venmo request out of the blue and always gets paid, no questions asked, because the friendship runs both ways. When we know God keeps His promises, trusting God stops feeling like a burden and becomes the natural response to someone who has already come through.
Today, write down one promise God has kept in your life. Next to it, write one thing He has asked of you that you can obey this week, as a reminder that God keeps His promises.
God Hears My Cry: Meeting Jehovah Jireh in the Wilderness
The second story is harder. Sarah saw Ishmael (the son Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham) mocking, and she demanded that Hagar and the boy be sent away. The matter distressed Abraham greatly, but God promised, "I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring."
So Abraham put bread and a skin of water on Hagar's shoulder and sent her into the wilderness of Beersheba. When the water ran out, she laid Ishmael under a bush and sat down a bowshot away so she would not have to watch him die. Let that scene sit for a moment; this is what it feels like when the provisions are gone and no rescue is in sight.
Then heaven answered: "Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is." Ishmael's name means "God hears," and "God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water." Hagar had once called Him "a God of seeing," and now she learned that God hears my cry, too.
John Myers knows that wilderness. In sixth grade he had severe anxiety attacks for months that made him feel like he could not breathe; once he walked away from a backyard football game with his brother because he could not bend down to pick up the ball. Every night his mother sat by his bed and sang a worship song about Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides, and about grace that is enough.
He slowly learned that it was not his job to hoard his own air, because God would give what each day required. Anxiety pulls our attention inward, but Jehovah Jireh is big enough to stand at the center of a life. When God hears my cry, He does not always remove the wilderness at once; sometimes He opens my eyes to the well He has already placed there.
The name Jehovah Jireh comes from the next chapter, where Abraham calls a mountain "The LORD will provide." But Hagar met that same provider first.
Tonight, tell God honestly what has run dry in your life, and pray the simple words, "God hears my cry."
How the Everlasting Love of God Outlasts Our Failures
The third story begins with an outsider's observation. Abimelech, king of Gerar, came with Phicol, the commander of his army, and told Abraham, "God is with you in all that you do." Yet the same chapter shows how messy people are: Ishmael mocks, Sarah demands, and Abimelech's servants seize Abraham's well.
Abraham settled the dispute with seven ewe lambs as a witness that he had dug the well, and the place was named Beersheba. John Myers saw the church in this scene: God's grace lives among His people, but so do human failures. The call is to restore one another "in a spirit of gentleness" rather than walk away, because a lure stuck in a tree does not end the fishing trip.
Then comes the climax: "Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God." The tamarisk stays green year round and takes years to mature, and Abraham was past 100 when he planted it. His tree was an act of trusting God beyond his own lifetime.
Psalm 103 puts words to that hope: "But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him." "He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust," and the everlasting love of God does not run out when we fail.
Before an illness a few years ago, John kept singing a song drawn from Psalm 103 because a medical appointment was waiting at home. He did not know the outcome; he knew that the everlasting love of God would hold either way. When our hearts rest there, we stop measuring people by how well they meet our needs and start offering the kindness God has shown us.
This week, plant something (a tree, a habit of prayer, a word of encouragement to a younger believer) as a quiet confession that God's love will outlast you.
What Does Genesis 21 Reveal About Trusting God's Character?
Trusting God grows as we learn His names, and Genesis 21 reveals four of them.
1. God Is a Promise Keeper
Scripture: Genesis 21:1-2
Why It Matters: What God says, He does, at the time He chooses.
2. God Is Our Provider (Jehovah Jireh)
Scripture: Genesis 21:17-19
Why It Matters: He hears us in the wilderness and opens our eyes to His provision.
3. God Is With Us
Scripture: Genesis 21:22
Why It Matters: His presence remains even when people fail each other.
4. God Is Everlasting
Scripture: Genesis 21:33
Why It Matters: His love and goodness continue long after we are gone.
The sermon also pointed to simple ways to respond:
Obey what God asks, the way Abraham named and circumcised Isaac.
Cry out honestly when the water runs dry, as Hagar did.
Restore broken relationships gently instead of walking away.
Plant something whose fruit you may never see.
Thank God for who He has been before asking what He will do next.
Learning God's Character Alongside Others
Fear, failure, and an unknown future can leave anyone feeling like Hagar in the wilderness, sure that no one sees, and those are the seasons when we most need people who keep pointing us back to who God is. Whether you live in Murfreesboro or elsewhere in Rutherford County, or you are just settling into Middle Tennessee, Believers' Chapel gathers on South Rutherford Boulevard, directly across from Black Fox Elementary, with groups and kids classes at 9am and worship at 10am. On Sunday mornings you will find us in jeans with fresh coffee on, not perfect but in process, and glad to learn your name.
Faith That Rests on Who God Is
Genesis 21 does not tell us everything God will do next; it shows us who He is. He keeps His promises, He hears and provides as Jehovah Jireh in the wilderness, He stays with His people when they fail one another, and His steadfast love runs from everlasting to everlasting. As John Myers prayed at the close of the message, God is our provider, He is with us, and His grace is sufficient, which is reason enough for trusting God with whatever is next.
When you are ready to experience a Sunday at Believers' Chapel, our Visit page covers service times, kids check-in, and what to expect, so plan your visit here.
There is a place for you at a Life Group, where people open the Bible together and remind each other who God is, so connect here.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Faith starts with knowing who God is, not with predicting what He will do. Genesis 21 shows Him keeping His promises, hearing the cries of the hurting, and remaining faithful across generations. As you learn His character in Scripture and see it lived out in a community of believers, trust has solid ground to grow on.
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Hagar's story in Genesis 21 shows that God hears us even when the water has run out and we cannot see a way forward. Tell Him honestly what you are facing, and ask Him to open your eyes to the provision He has already placed around you. Trust grows as you remember who He has been to you before.
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Abraham did not know everything ahead of him, but he planted a tree and "called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God." Faith does not require a map of the future. It rests on God's unchanging character, which will hold whatever the future brings.
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Jehovah Jireh means "The LORD will provide," a name Abraham gave to a mountain in Genesis 22:14. It describes a God who sees our need and supplies what each day requires. Hagar experienced this provision in Genesis 21 when God showed her a well in the wilderness.
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The tamarisk is an evergreen that takes years to grow, and Abraham planted it after God had kept His promise of a son and secured a well for him. Planting it was an act of worship toward the Everlasting God, whose goodness would outlast Abraham himself. It shows faith that looks beyond one lifetime.