Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan

January 21, 2026 - Genesis 18 & Psalm 18:1-12

• Josiah Smith - Compass Bible Church South Valley

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We read Genesis 18 and Psalm 18:1-12 and trace a single, steady thread: nothing is too hard for the Lord. From Sarah’s laugh to David’s cry, we explore how to pray boldly, trust deeply, and anchor our hope in God’s character when life feels uncertain.

• hospitality of Abraham and the promise to Sarah
• the piercing question that confronts doubt
• Abraham’s humble, bold intercession for Sodom
• Psalm 18’s portrait of God as rock and deliverer
• practical ways to remember and rehearse truth
• applying trust to parenting, work, and church life
• prayer in distress as a pattern for daily faith

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path.

Welcome And Today’s Readings

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Josiah Smith, joined by Tyler Sanborn. Today is Wednesday, January 21st, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Genesis 18. And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamur, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth, and said, O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread that ye may refresh yourselves, and after that ye may pass on, since you have come to your servant. So they said, Do as ye have said. And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, Quick, three seas of fine flour, knead it, and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them, and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, Where is Sarah your wife? And he said, She is in the tent. The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I am worn out, and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh and say, Shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. He said, No, but you did laugh. Then the men sent out from there, and they looked down towards Sodom, and Abraham went with them to set them on their way. The Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. Then the Lord said, Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me, and if not, I will know. So the men turned from there and went down toward Sodom. But Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near and said, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city, will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked. Far be that from you. Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? And the Lord said, If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. Abraham answered and said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five? And he said, I will not destroy it if I find forty five there. Again he spoke to him and said, Suppose forty are found there, he answered, For the sake of forty I will not do it. Then he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there. He answered, I will not do it if I find thirty there. He said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there, he answered, for the sake of twenty I will not destroy it. Then he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there. He answered, For the sake of ten I will not destroy it. And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

SPEAKER_01

Psalm eighteen, verses one through twelve. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death encompassed me, the torrents of destruction assailed me, the cords of shield entangled me, the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord. To my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked, the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth. Glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and flew. He came swiftly on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water. Out of the brightness before him, hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.

SPEAKER_00

The verse that really stuck with me from Genesis 18 is verse 14. There is a question that God asks to Abraham and really to Sarah, because of the doubt that they had in their hearts about whether or not they could conceive. Now, of course, God is telling them, Well, yes, you're gonna conceive, you're going to bear a son. But Sarah is laughing. It says in verse 12, Sarah laughed to herself, saying, After I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, Why did she laugh? Tyler, imagine that. The Lord is saying something, the God of the universe, the one that spoke and created all things, and your response is to laugh and to kind of be like, Come on, let's be real.

SPEAKER_01

That reminds me of one of our distinctives, Pastor Josiah. What's that? Seems like there's a lack of a high view of God here.

Applying Trust To Daily Struggles

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, certainly there's a lack of trust ultimately in his providence and his promises that he's actually going to provide, what he's saying he will provide, and the the limits that she's placing on God of her age or the way of women as it's described there in Genesis 18. She laughs and uh she's ultimately just doubting in her heart in this moment. I love this question, this response in verse 14. Is anything too hard for the Lord? And of course, that's a rhetorical question, and the answer is a resounding no. Of course not. Nothing is too hard for God. And Tyler, what an encouragement that that is for us in seasons where our faith is being stretched, when we're being called on to really depend and trust on the Lord in the midst of uncertain circumstances, when our heart is heavy, when relationships are broken, when your expectations aren't met or fulfilled or wherever you might be, ask yourself this question: Is anything too hard for the Lord? And Tyler, well, what uh just even the question itself brings encouragement to my heart because the answer is, of course not. Nothing is too hard for God. So if you're listening to this and you're praying for someone's salvation that you've been praying for for years, is anything too hard for the Lord? If you're listening to this and you're worried about that child that feels like they just they're not obeying, their character is not where it needs to be, they're you're concerned about their future, you're concerned about your relationship with them. Ask yourself, is anything too hard for the Lord? If you're someone that's in in the midst of looking for a job, maybe you lost your job, maybe you're concerned about where the next paycheck is coming from or how things are going to work out financially, is anything too hard for the Lord? And again, just the question itself brings great encouragement to me. Because no, nothing is too hard for God. And use this as just an encouragement where we see Sarah, who, according to her, the way of women has left her. What a way to put that. And yet the Lord says, no, no, no, I will provide. This time next year I will come and visit you again. You will have a son. Listen to just the surety, the certainty of those words. And Tyler, I know uh just in in our lives here at Compass Babel Church, South Valley, and just the throes of church planting, or even just in our personal lives, what an encouraging question to ask. Is anything too hard for the Lord? We have this grand task ahead of us is planting a church. And we were just talking today as a staff. We feel the weight. It can be easy to be overwhelmed. It can be easy to feel like we don't have the resources, we don't have the time, we don't have the energy, and we just need to ask ourselves Is anything too hard for the Lord?

Prayer, Dependence, And Reminders

SPEAKER_01

Where is my hope, PJ? Where where is my where is my trust? Where's my confidence? Where is my comfort? These are these are questions that we can be asking ourselves when we doubt God's provision, when we doubt, when we doubt the the place that we're in, and we imagine oftentimes we have this this expanded view of where life life is gonna take us, right? And maybe we we we should check ourselves and and ask, well, life, uh who is really in control here? Yeah, is is am I am I the master? Am I am I the am I the rudder? Am I the the person that is the guiding and leading myself? Am I trying to lead myself here? Uh am I looking for help? And I I'm connecting I'm connecting this Genesis 18 to Psalm 18 verse 6, and there's this theme of this calling out to the Lord in distress. David calls out to the Lord in distress. I called upon the Lord to my God, I cried for help. Pause. Where are we where are we in our devotional times calling dependently upon the Lord? I need your help to lead me through this situation. I need your help for today. As far as we may know, today might be the greatest. Everything is where it should be. All we gotta do is just take take step after step our schedules filled out, our our our weekly calendar and monthly calendar are planned out, and all we have to do is just do the things we have to do. Um, but we we know that life's temptations and trials, uh, it's not a if, but it's a when we we face these things, and we we need to frame our minds to uh and prime our minds to go to the Lord and and meet him because he hears us. Yeah, he he's inclined to hear our voices and our cries do reach his ears.

Returning To God As Our Refuge

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. And I would even just say that that that question, is anything too hard for the Lord? Put it in your phone as a reminder, write it on a three by five card and stick it on your mirror. Ask yourself that when you're when you're discouraged, when your heart is heavy. Is anything too hard for the Lord? And again, your heart should know if you're truly a child of God, the Spirit will bear witness in your spirit that you are a child of God, crying, Abba Father, you you should in your heart go, No, of course not. In this situation, though I can't see what's in front of me, though I can't see where my foot's gonna land as I take this next step, I know that nothing is too hard for God. And we need to get to that place where David is in verses one through three, where he says, I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. I mean, think about that. Like all of these things that David is saying, the question underneath them is is anything too hard for the Lord? Well, no. We need strength. Is it too hard for the Lord to provide it? Well, of course not. The Lord is our rock, our fortress, our deliverer. Is it too hard for the Lord to be those things? Of course not. Our shield, our horn of salvation, our stronghold, our salvation. Is any of that impossible for the Lord? Is it too difficult for him? No, is the answer. And we ought to just cling to that truth. And I just want to say sometimes we we undervalue the simple truths of scripture. We get so caught up in trying to find the quote unquote deeper things that we can bypass just the simple truth that nothing is too hard for the Lord. And so today, and my hope for you, if you're listening to this, is just that you would cling to that truth. Nothing is too hard for God. And that truth, I pray, would just encourage your heart, would anchor your soul. It's simple, it's a few words, it's a simple phrase. Oh, but what beautiful truth is packed into that simple phrase. There's nothing too hard for God. Again, in your parenting, in your work, uh in your own thought life, your own emotions, whatever it is that you're struggling with, your marriage, nothing is too hard for the Lord. And my hope is that you read things like Psalm 18 or Genesis 18, and you can, like Tyler, you were just saying, in your distress, I call upon the Lord. You call upon the Lord to your God, you cry for help. From his temple, he will hear your voice and and he will hear your cry, and it will reach his ears. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. So I know I've said that 30 times in this episode, but I just want that to stick and lodge into your heart and just to be encouraged by that today.

Closing Encouragement And Resources

SPEAKER_01

The repetition, Pastor Josiah, that we we see in the Psalms, seeing the life of David, the sons of Korah, the psalmist, we see this repetition. The lives of of God's people in in the old testament times are not much different than our own. Um we have a lot of similarities. Um though they might not have a phone in their pocket to to call 911 uh or to to call call your mom or your dad for help, or um to call your friend who who's been praying for you, who you know is has been waiting for you to call them. Um we can see that it's such it's such an encouragement to know the people of God have been calling out to him, and it's a pattern for us to follow. Um we sometimes get into this mindset of I have it under control, I I don't need to call out for help. I've made a game plan, I have a strategy for this, I have a I have an emergency fund, I have a an emergency fund for my emergency fund. I I have I have a I have an exit strategy for this. Yeah um does that does that in include God? Is is God the foundation in all this planning? Is is your planning made with with God in mind? And and that's an encouragement for us is David's on the run. David is is fleeing from from his enemies. He's being pursued by King Saul. And in the distress, he he opens with, I love you, Lord. Yeah, I love you. Remember, remember the one who is who is never gonna break a promise. Remember the one who's never gonna let you down, who holds true and is steadfast from generation to generation. Your 401k can't say that about you. You're you're even the people we trust the most let us down, and our God does not.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, what a what a comfort. Yeah, absolutely. Uh and again, I just as we close, I want to leave you with the same question we've been asking. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? And I hope that in faith and in humility, you can say, just within your soul, no, of course not. God is above all things, he's completely sovereign, he's providentially working. And as Paul says in Romans 8 28, he's working all things together for your good. Nothing is too hard for God. Well, thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.