Sarah Jakes Roberts - Promise Problems (01/16/2026)
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In this sermon titled «Promise Problems» (or «More Promise, More Problems»), the preacher uses the story of the Israelites in Exodus 1:7-12 to illustrate how fulfilling God’s promises often attracts problems and affliction. Drawing from a personal moving experience—where the promise of a new home created burdens for the movers—the message emphasizes that promises and problems are intertwined: affliction can lead to multiplication and growth, past places of bondage (like Raamses) become paths to freedom, and what others intend for harm, God uses for good. The core encouragement is to view affliction as a teacher producing inner strength, trusting that every problem contains a promise, and that God’s plan prevails through trials.
Promise Problems: More Promise, More Problems
So my message for tonight, I want to talk about the topic: promise problems. Promise problems. I wanted to name it «Mo Problems, More Promise» or «More Promise, More Problems» because no one ever talks about the marriage between promise and problems. PT preached an incredible message called «Finding Home» on Sunday. If you haven’t heard it, you’ve got to get the podcast. It was so powerful, and he talks about how we’ve been moving and moving. Anyone who moves knows it’s just… you never know how much stuff you have until it’s time to move.
And we have six children, so you don’t even know how much stuff they have until it’s time to move. Like, my daughter—Jesus bless her—just stuff, just stuff. Like, where did you get this from? Like, she takes all the things from lost and found at school and stuffs it under her bed, just in case someone’s looking for it. She’s going to bring it the next day. So there’s just like so many issues going on at our house. And so we’ve been traveling so much, we hired movers. The movers came, and I realized I was so excited about moving because, uh, Pastor and I have been sharing a room with our baby, which like seemed so sweet when we had the idea, until we wanted to watch a movie.
And then we realized that we would have to put on the subtitles because she’s not the boss of us, but if she wakes up, it could get real interesting in our house. So we started doing stuff like not closing cabinets all the way. Once again, she runs nothing. I don’t… I don’t… cuz this is on the live stream, it’s going to live forever, so it’s important to me that I tell her she runs nothing. She’s one now, but y’all know YouTube lives forever.
And so we started doing things like whispering. And in this house, she was going to have her own room, so I was excited. The movers were late. I was like, no, no, no, I want to watch movies, I want to close cabinets, I want to have this promise of this house where my husband and I have our own space. And it was about halfway into the move when we made it to the new house, and I started seeing the movers bring in the boxes, that I realized that they were struggling a little bit with all of our stuff.
You know, I was excited about the promise of the new house, but my promise was their problem. My promise meant that they had to work hard and lift boxes and figure out where things went. I was excited about the promise, but I didn’t realize that my promise would be someone else’s problem. Has your promise ever become someone else’s problem? Like, you got promoted at the expense of someone who has more seniority not being seen at all? It’s your promise, your reason to celebrate, but it was someone else’s problem.
The Israelites Fulfilling Promise in Egypt
I want to open up the text. When we recognize that the children of Israel are living out their promise—a promise that God made with Abraham that they would have many, many descendants. He would be the father of many nations. And they’re thriving, and they’re living in their promise. But something happens when the new king recognizes what’s happening.
I want to go to Exodus 1:7. It says, «But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly.» They were home. They were exactly where God said they were supposed to be. They were increasing abundantly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty, and the land was filled with them. Verse 8 continues: «Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.»
So it’s important that you all recognize that the king didn’t know Joseph, because there was a covenant between all of the other kings and Joseph. Because they learned over time that there was favor over Joseph’s life. But the new king didn’t care about the old favor that existed over the children of Israel.
So the new king didn’t realize really who he was messing with when he started getting ideas. He didn’t recognize that the children of Israel had a history of surviving. He didn’t recognize that they had a history of being counted out and not having enough, but yet somehow still coming out on the other side. They didn’t know at the time, when they were spreading the rumors and having these secret meetings and trying to figure out what was going on, that there was a promise over their life. He was just threatened by the fact that they had found their promise.
Verse 9 tells us: «And he said to his people, 'Look, now the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we.'» And verse 10 continues: «Come, let us deal shrewdly with them.» So he calls this secret meeting with his people, and he says, «Look at them over there fulfilling their promise. I’m threatened by that.» Has anyone ever been threatened by your ability to fulfill your promise?
See, the tricky thing about fulfilling your promise is you were so focused on what you’re doing that you don’t even recognize the side meetings that are taking place by people who are threatened by you doing what you’re doing. You don’t even recognize that your acceleration means that someone has to step up their game or watch you move. There was something happening that the children of Israel didn’t even know about. And it says, «Come, let us deal shrewdly with them.» The Old King James Version says, «Wisely, let us deal wisely with them.»
And I wondered why he said, «Let’s deal wisely with them,» instead of just like, you know, like running up on them and just, you know, telling them, «This is how it’s going to be. I’m the king.» But he recognized that he was going to have to finesse this situation because they had more influence and power.
Have you ever had someone who couldn’t exactly cut you off because they still had to see you? So they had to learn to deal with you a certain way? Like, «I can’t exactly tell them how I really feel, so I’m going to have to smile when they come into the room, but on the inside, I’m trying to deal with them wisely,» because they don’t want to risk being disconnected fully. Promise problems—when it means more that I stay connected to you than it does that I tell you how I really feel. Promise problems. «Come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it happen, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.»
Affliction Leading to Multiplication
And verse 11 continues: «Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.» And verse 12 says: «But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.» So the king was a little too late, because they had already multiplied in such a way that there was nothing he could do to stop them.
See, God had covered them while they were multiplying, so that by the time it came to the attention of people who had the power to maybe stop them or throw a little salt in your game or throw fears your way, it was already too late. Because you had this confidence already that you already knew who God had called you to be. You knew where you were supposed to be. So it was too late by the time they started hating on you, because you were already recognizing who God had called you to be.
So therefore, the affliction started working for their favor. Because even though I was afflicted, sometimes God causes us to grow through affliction. He causes things to take place in our life that feel like affliction, but it’s really growth. It’s really growth. I want to go back to verse 11, because there’s a part here that I want you to fully understand. Because he said, «Taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens.»
So the king gave his burdens to the children of Israel. And this is something that you have to be aware of, because as you are manifesting your promise, there are going to be people who manipulate your strength for their advantage, because they think that it will slow you down and keep you from manifesting fully who God has called you to be. They’ll start using your talents and your connections and everything else for their advantage, because they recognize that there’s some type of race taking place that you don’t even recognize.
See, when you have a good heart, you think everyone else has a good heart. So you give so freely that you don’t recognize that they’re trying to sabotage what you’re giving to them so freely. But the text tells us that that didn’t work out for them, because you intended it for evil, but the Lord turned it around for good. The affliction didn’t work out the way they wanted it to. Yeah, yeah. Every promise has attached to it a set of problems. And it’s difficult to comprehend that, because we’re so excited about the promise that when we run into the problems, it’s kind of shocking. Because, for all intents and purposes, the children of Israel had already manifested their promise. They were… Abraham was the father of many nations, just as God had promised. Their promise had already been manifest. They were just doing what they had been called to do. And all of a sudden, God says, «I’m going to increase the children of Israel, but I’m going to have to increase them through affliction.»
And as we came in this room, I couldn’t help but feel the pain that comes when you’re being increased by affliction. When you’re trying to understand what’s going on in your life and why does it seem like I’m winning on one side but losing on the other side? I have my promise, but I don’t have any friends. I have my promise, but I don’t have the job. I’ve got the idea, but I don’t have the resource. I have this promise, but I also have these problems attached to it.
And in a way, it almost neutralizes the excitement of the promise, because nobody said that more promise, more problems. That the more that I move in the direction of home and I follow where God is calling me, the lonelier this road gets. No one told me that manifesting this promise was going to cause so many problems. And that’s why destiny is not for the weak. It’s not for those who need to be accepted and validated and want everyone to like them.
This thing called destiny is for people who recognize that every problem also has a promise. Yeah, that is the yin and yang of promise and problems. Because as I was feeling sorry for the movers as they were moving the boxes in—you know, cuz it was hot, and I wasn’t helping, like cuz the way my muscles are set up—and so I felt bad. And we kept offering them water and ordering pizza, trying to like, you know, like «we with y’all» kind of. And it wasn’t until the end of the move that I realized that I thought it was a problem, but for them, they saw it as a promise. Cuz they were going to get a paycheck at the end of this.
And if you aren’t careful, you will forget in the middle of the problem that there’s also a promise attached to it. Because the work that you have to go through to figure out the problems, it doesn’t feel like there’s a promise attached to it in the moment. This was such a pivotal moment in the text, because this was before the children of Israel were going to be held in bondage and captivity. They didn’t realize that though they had manifested promise on one level, in order for God to take them to the promised land—to the land that would ultimately be theirs—they were going to have to go through a period of affliction.
And there are people in this room who have been wondering, «Why am I in this place of affliction?» And God said to keep holding on and keep holding on to this promise that I gave you since you were a child. It’s been down on the inside of you, and my word will not return unto me void. Keep holding on in the middle of this problem, because when I get finished, you’re going to see that the problem was actually a promise. What looked like affliction was actually me multiplying you and showing you how strong you were and showing you what I had down on the inside of you, that you could break off chains off of your life. When God takes us to the next dimension and the next level, he often does it through affliction.
From Bondage to Freedom: The Role of Raamses
So the king, he set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities. So supply cities—for those of you who are Bible scholars, so I’m just going to say this for those of you who don’t know—the supply cities were for the treasures of the king. So he made the children of Israel build where he would hold his treasures. It was a reminder to them every single day that they were working for someone who seemed like they had more than them, that seemed like he had more to give them. And he kept making them see this every single day.
Have you ever been in this situation where you were working for someone who seemed like they had more than you, but you had a promise down on the inside of you? And it wasn’t really adding up while you were exposed to something but couldn’t actually lay hold of it? Couldn’t actually start your own production company? Couldn’t actually write your own book? But you were exposed to this thing over and over again. Exposed to the industry, but not where I should be in the industry. Feels like affliction.
And I love this, because as I was studying, I recognized that Pithom was one city, but Raamses—this city Raamses—ended up playing an important role for the people of Israel. Because when God got ready to set them free from bondage, he took them through the city of Raamses. The same place where they were afflicted ended up being the same place that they would walk through in order to become free. That means that as you look back over your life, over all these places where you were afflicted and people were walking away from you and you didn’t have enough and you felt like you were coming up short—that that same place, that same sour spot, would ultimately be the place where God would trot you through, chains broken off of you, with a new direction and future ahead of you.
And you would strut through the same place that used to hold you down, with your head held high, in a new confidence, because you were no longer the person who you used to be when you were building a supply city for someone who didn’t even understand your value. I was given to you in this same area, and when God saw fit to bring me out, he took me through the same alley where I was once in bondage. So when we break chains off of our life, we need to hold on to the chains, because the chains are a promise that what was once a problem will eventually become the promise of God over my life. That it hurt me in one season, but I’m going to have victory in the next season.
Paul said that I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared—not even worthy to be compared. How many Raamses are represented in this room? You came in with the Raamses on your mind, with the city where you felt bondage, with a problem that you felt like had no freedom. You came in with this bondage on your mind, and God wanted to send a word on a Wednesday night that the same place where you feel that bondage, that same place that you feel the affliction, the same place where you feel like you were coming up short—that you’re too insecure, that you don’t have the resources, that you don’t have the team—that same place is going to be the same place where I walk you and your people through, where I walk you and your generations through.
You’re going to walk through the very place that was meant to hold you down, and you’re going to walk through with such confidence that you remember that it was me who was there even in the midst of the struggle. That I had a plan even when you were afflicted. You, Pharaoh, showed them the way out by making them build the supply city in Raamses. He didn’t even realize that he was showing them the way out. Somebody doesn’t even realize that they were being your GPS. They thought that they were abusing you and mistreating you, but what you were really doing was showing me my worth.
What you were really doing was showing me the way out. What you were really doing was helping me to recognize that I don’t have to live like this anymore. You showed me I had options. I thought I had to stay in this one little part of Egypt, but because you took me out of my comfort zone, because you made me feel uncomfortable, I was able to recognize that there was no limits and no boundaries to what is possible for me. You messed around and set me free. You thought you were talking about me; you messed around and showed me the keys. You showed me that I was more than a conqueror. You showed me that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. You thought it was bondage. You thought I wouldn’t come out on the other side. I thought I wouldn’t come out on the other side.
The people of Israel didn’t know when they were building those supply cities that that would be the same city that God took them through. You made me count myself out. You made me think I wasn’t good enough. But when God’s wisdom collided with my experience, I recognized that he makes all things work together for our good. That I needed that place of bondage so that I would recognize the way out. I needed that place of bondage so I would have passion and fuel to be who he called me to be.
So the new king probably should have taken into consideration a bit further that they were related to Joseph. Because had he taken that into consideration, he would have recognized that he didn’t have to honor the covenant between Joseph and God, but ultimately he would need to honor the covenant between God and the children of Israel. Because they had this history of coming out on the other side.
The Blessing of Affliction
And verse 12 continues—and this is my last little point—"But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.»
There’s one thing that I want you to take away from this message. For me, it is the most important thing that you can take away, and that is, in moments of affliction, you’ve got to recognize that affliction is your teacher. You’ve got to recognize the blessing of affliction. Because there was something about them being afflicted that made them multiply and grow. I reckon that there was something about having things so hard in their life that made them stick together so much, so that there was a love that was produced down on the inside of them that even bondage couldn’t break. There was something about this affliction—this affliction that made you who you are. There is something about this current affliction that is trying to multiply you and grow you in ways that you don’t even fully understand.
They were afflicted, and they multiplied, and they grew. And they didn’t even know about the promised land. And they didn’t even know that ultimately the Messiah was going to come through their bloodline. They didn’t even know why they were being afflicted. In the moment, you don’t know why God is afflicting you in this moment. You don’t know why it’s so hard. You don’t understand why you have promise and problems in the same hand. But you’ve got to trust the one who causes all things to work together for your good, and start looking at your affliction with fresh eyes. Instead of seeing it as punishment, instead of seeing it as isolation, start asking, «What are you trying to multiply on the inside of me? Where is there an area of lack down on the inside of me that can only grow through this process of affliction?»
When you make the affliction about what God is trying to produce in you and not the problems that are on the outside of you, then you’re going to come out on the other side more quickly than you even realize. Because you learn the beauty in growing under affliction. You learn the beauty in growing when there is pressure. Pressure. What is this affliction trying to teach me?
Altar Call: Recognizing Promise in Problems
Would you stand with me as I prepare to close? And if you don’t have to go, please don’t go, because this is the most precious moment in a service. This is a moment when someone who has been struggling with problems recognizes that there is a promise attached to it.
You see, it’s so easy for us to say that every promise has a problem and every problem has a promise, but when you’re in the middle of that affliction, it’s hard to believe that something’s being multiplied down on the inside of you. As a matter of fact, it actually hurts to even think that God would allow you to prosper to a certain point and then all of a sudden you don’t see his hand at all. Up until this point, the children of Israel were doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing. They were multiplying. They were being fruitful and multiplying, just like it said in Genesis. And all of a sudden, it seemed like they were being punished for multiplying. But they didn’t recognize that man’s punishment could not override God’s promise.
That man’s ability to control them in the moment would not override what God was going to do long term. Sometimes God will use a pharaoh in your life to point you in the right direction. I use Pharaoh. I use their greed. I use their ignorance. I use everything about what was wrong with him to show you what was right about you. And some of us need to thank our pharaohs instead of regretting what we think we lost in the time that we were in bondage. Maybe you’re here, and you’re saying, «I understand the affliction part, but I don’t see the promise very clearly anymore. I used to see it. It used to seem like things were working out for me, and they were lining up, but now I don’t see it any longer.» I want you to meet us at this altar, because God’s going to give you clarity and focus and vision to recognize that you’re moving at his pace, not yours.
That he has a plan even in the midst of trouble. That though you’re being slain, you can trust in him. That there is a rhythm to this thing. And I’m not just having you out here so that you can be afflicted, so that you can be made a fool of. I got a promise. I got a promise in this problem. I got a promise in this problem. I got a promise in this problem. Some of you need to start telling your problem, «I got a promise down on the inside of you. There’s a promise in my finances. There is a promise over my career. I don’t care that it looks like a problem to everyone else. There’s a promise down on the inside of this.»
And I prophesy to that promise to come forth. I prophesy to that promise that you will not be bigger than any issue or struggle. I prophesy, I prophesy, I prophesy that promises are going to start springing up like never before. That where you once saw a problem, you’re going to start getting so creative because you recognize it is a promise. That God didn’t bring you this far to leave you. That he wouldn’t open the door and bring you into this land to turn around and forsake you. But you have to recognize that you are a part of the righteousness of God, and that his history in seeing his people through bondage and seeing them set free from affliction dates back to Genesis and Exodus and last week and this week.
That he’s been doing this thing for a long time. And if you would just dare to believe that you are a part of a master plan, that you are connected to divinity, so humanity cannot hold you down. That even when the world means it for evil, that God will turn this thing around. There’s a promise in this problem. There is a promise. There’s a promise down on the inside of you. You’re not a problem child; you’re a promised child. Even before I placed you in your mother’s womb, he said, he says, «I know you. I know your afflictions. I know what you’re dealing with. I know that some of these afflictions you subscribed to on your own, that you didn’t need anyone else to afflict you, that you’ve been afflicting yourself with your insecurities, with your negative thoughts. That you’ve been afflicting yourself.»
And he said, «I will bind up the weapon that’s in your own hand, and it won’t prosper against the promise I have down on the inside of you. That I spared your life for a reason. There is a promise down on the inside of you that not even you could take out, that not even you could rob.» I have to ask, cuz I see it so clearly, that there’s someone who’s been so high off the promise that they’ve been ignoring the problem.
And as I was speaking, this message was convicting you, but you are so proud of the promise that you don’t even want to address the problem. Because there’s something about addressing the problem that takes away the sweetness of the promise. And God says, «I want you to taste all of it, because you need me even with the promise. You can’t be so high off the promise that you don’t need me any longer. Let me solve those problems that you’re ignoring.» He says, «I’m God enough to do that.» If that’s you, I want you to come to this altar, because God wants to give you the strength, the wisdom, and the strategy to attack the problems that exist.