January 5, 2020
Micah 7: 18-20

Our Hope Can be Found in the Character of God

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January 5, 2020
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Transcript

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Micah chapter seven verses 18 through 20. And the word of God reads like this, says who was a god like you pardoning iniquity, and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance. He does not retain his anger forever. Because he delights in his staff as love read aloud with me I'm sorry, he will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot, you will cast all your sins into the depths of the sea, you will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old and I want to simply entitle this message, the character of God is the fountain of hope. The character of God is the fountain of Hope you may take your seat at this time the character of God is The fountain of hope. As we begin the new year, every single year, if I can sum up one word that just kind of puts all together everything together, it summarizes what everyone's expectations can be bound in. In the New Year. It can be summarized in this one word, hope, hope, is great expectation and hope that 2020 will be different than 2019. There's great expectation of hope for some of you that 2020 will build upon what you build upon in 2019. Some of you have lost loved ones in 2019. And so you're hoping that you won't suffer the same kinds of losses this year. Some of you have had great successes in 2019. So you're hoping that you can just build upon what God has done favorably in your midst. But in reality, if you want to sum up all of what the new year is about, it can be summed up in one word Hope now is I think about the new year being summed up in the one word hope. Here's my fear. My fear is that we contend to believe that true hope can simply be found and changing a calendar year. As though the day 2020 somehow brings about within itself some essence of hope in and of itself, and that just couldn't be further from the truth. Why to K taught us anything about 20 years ago, it taught us that just changing the calendar year means absolutely nothing. I don't know if you remember where you were in in that time, or if some of y'all were even around at that time. But I remember where I was. I was in Alaska, actually. And it was kind of crazy because it literally felt like you were in a zombie apocalypse. You went to the grocery store. There were no water bottles on the shelves. I'm talking about All the canned foods was gone. All of the kind of non perishable foods were gone because people were gearing up for this reality that everything was going to change when the new year came.

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What happened? Absolutely nothing. And if nothing happened from 1999 to 2000, and there's nothing different that's going to happen from 2019 to 2020. I hate to burst your bubble, but this is the reality. You carry the same pains with you into the new year. The same sufferings with you into the new year. The same joys with you into the new year. And Can somebody say amen the same debt with you until the new year? Man I wish the Sallie Mae's the animes and all the maze with just get it on that when we come into the new year forgive my debt please. But it don't work like that. The New Year doesn't change anything. And so if we're going Want to have hope in the new year it has to be deepened and founded upon something far greater. I even think about this. Every time I go into a new year, we all have these things called resolutions, right? And it's almost as though when we get to the new year, we're hoping that life will somehow lay out the red carpet for our resolutions. But I've learned that life is not come up coming to provide some sort of escort for your visions. It's not going to clear out traffic of chaos and suffering for your visions and your dreams, all the clutter, all the chaos, all the suffering is still going to be there. And somehow you have to drive past it in order to realize the kind of hopes and dreams that God has given you. And the question is, how can you maintain hope in the middle of all of that chaos? I'm just telling you this. It can't be founded upon the change in the calendar year. Well, if Can't be founded upon that, what can it be founded upon? I believe Michael's book is all about what real hope can be founded upon. And it's a kind of bleak situation that they find themselves in opening up this book. See Micah is riding around 750 to 715. And you might not know a lot about Michael because he was overshadowed by the big Dalai Lama prophet himself. Isaiah is almost like other basketball players who played in the Jordan era, you don't really remember them cash. So this is one of the reasons why we don't really remember mica, mica has something very clear to speak to us. What he's going to say to us is listen, judgment is coming. judgment is coming and the reason judgment is coming is because of the injustice of the people of Israel. If you look in chapter one, this is how the whole book begins. And you don't get no Saturday and this show who wants to start off a book like this? He says here you peoples all All of you. We said only nobody out. Pay attention. I'm in verse two, O earth and all that is in it and let the God the Lord God be a witness not for you, but against you, the Lord from his holy temple. So he says that the Lord is going to be a witness against the people of Israel. So why why is the Lord going to be a witness against the people of Israel? He unpacks that in verse five, look at verse five of chapter one. All this is for the transgression of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. So if you didn't know why they were suffering, the reason why they were suffering is because of their own sin. See, there's no kind of suffering that's worse than the suffering that is caused by your own failure. Because there's a kind of shame and guilt that comes with that. And in the middle of all that you might be asking yourself, so how bad is it? Is it really that bad? Is it really that bad? Well, then look down at verse nine is says this. And if you don't know how bad it is, he says this for her womb listen to the word is incurable.

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You ever had a mentor, just kind of helping you through some sin struggles? You're like, Man, I've done it again or man, I'm sending it again or man, I'll fall in again and they say, you know, I just got to tell you the truth. You are beyond health. This is what Mike is saying to the people of Israel, y'all are beyond help. And yet in the midst of that being beyond help, slowly, but surely. Chapter Two, Chapter Four. He fuses these hopes of a future promise that God will one day restore this unjust and sinful people.

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And it's almost as though all of these slow drips of promise, find their fountain, find their well in chapter seven, verse 18 through 20 So almost as though he was building up to that point in the text, and he ends a book that was all about judgment, with hope. Now, how do you end a book that's all about judgment with hope it's because of this, all of the book of Micah can be talked about and summed up in this idea. He wants to look back at Israel's past in order to understand their future, that if Israel has been sinful and deserving of judgment in the past, and God restored them then.

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Then we know that Israel who was sinful now can be restored in the future. And this teaches us something as well, that this past year I don't know about you, but I've gone through a lot and I've put people through a lot. It's easy to say, Man, I've had a lot of suffering. It's easy to say I've gone through a lot. It's easy to say I've experienced a lot. It's hard. to admit, though, that the same kind of suffering you've experienced, you've caused on others. And I'm just standing right alongside the people of Israel saying, I know I have caused a lot of people pain this year. So in the midst of causing people pain, and in the midst of experiencing pain myself, we're all asking the question, Where can my hope be found in at the end of this book, he doesn't steep their hope, in some kind of well wishes. He doesn't steep their hope in wishful thinking. He doesn't steep their hope in empty optimism, he Steve's their hope, and the only thing that is sure the character and nature of God. So we look at chapter 718 through 20. And he begins this sort of section with a question. And here's the question on the table that he asked. He says, who is a god like you Who is a god? Like? You? See, this is one of those questions that is a question underneath the question because it's a rhetorical question. See, sometimes when me and Ike are arguing we have this phrase that we go back to that is sort of like saying, Don't bring them into the conversation will be arguing about best basketball players or will be arguing about best football players of all time, or we can argue about the best tennis players but when you when you bring up Serena Williams it's like, Nah, no, no, she just different.

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And when you talk about Michael Jordan's like, nah, nah, nah, he's just different. And we talk about Jerry Rice. It's like, No, I'm just telling. We can talk about Randy moss we could talk about tomorrow, we could talk about anybody else. But when you bring up Jerry Rice, don't bring him up. He's just different. What Mike is saying in this question is who is like our God? Because I've been serving the scope of all the other There's got other gods. And I'm just telling you don't bring your way into that conversation. Because when you do that you're comparing the end comparable.

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He's just different.

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And what he's doing here is also deeper than that. Because I don't know if you've heard the phrase What's in a name. But he's actually quoting his own name to kind of close out this book. Because the name Micah simply means who is like our God. So he asked the question of his name, who is like our God, but I love that Micah doesn't end with his name in order to find hope, and neither should you and with yours, because what Micah does here is simply quotes back in a summary form Exodus chapter 34, where your way proclaimed his own name. In other words, Mike, his name begs the question God's name is the answer. So he gives us this beautiful picture of what's in a name right from the offset and what he's going to hone in on in terms of the character God or two aspects, his forgiveness and his faithfulness. See, once we walk into this new year, I'm just going to tell you, you're going to fail not only God but your own self. There are standards that you have set for yourself. There are standards that people have placed upon you. There are standards that you desire to meet, and you are going to fail. So it's not a question of if it's a question of when when you fail, where is your hope going to lie? Is your hope going to lie in your own name is your hope when a lie in another name is your hope gonna lie anywhere else but the character of God because if it does, it will fail. But But if your hope lies in the character of God, and we're talking about what theologians would call the immutable God, the unchanging God, if the God who restored the people of Israel from their judgment in the past is the same God of the tomorrow, then you can know for certain he will be forgiving and faithful to you, even this coming here. Now, what I want to do for the rest of our time, is just take an unpack each one of these statements that he makes about the character of God, so that we can know where true hope is actually found. And it's going to be all in these two categories of his forgiveness and his faithfulness. But I'm just telling you don't miss it. Because in each one of these sections, it is a sermon in and of itself. So let's rock out through each one of these sections so that we can walk away here knowing that there is a God who forgives and a God who is ultimately faithful. First thing he says in the text is this who was a god like you pardoning iniquity. pardoning iniquity. The word for pardoning literally means to lift up, to raise up to carry the weight of something. And if you want to understand the distinction between iniquity and sin hear me, the distinction is found in the picture of archery. So we know that sin simply means missing the mark. And I don't know if you guys took archery in grade school, where you would take that sucker and they had a target out about 200 yards. you flick that sucker like that, and I was kind of nice, real rap. I'm not lying to you. I'll play in hoops. And I actually got asked by my teachers to go to the county kind of competition for archery. So I know all the ways that this is crazy, right black man Archer. Yes, sir. So you have to stand here. You get your feet right. And for some reason, I think it's because like, I don't know if y'all notice when I walk my right Foot always goes out, right? For some reason that helped me because it gave me a kind of balance that was killing them suckers, right?

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I was looking to my neighbors and I was like, what are they shooting it because people are not only not hitting the middle of the target, they weren't hitting the target at all. And what I found in that is that there is a distinction between hitting the target and missing the target. missing the target is what we would call sin. But here is where iniquity comes in. See, while sin is simply missing the mark. iniquity is when you turn your attention and your focus away from the target at hand on purpose. See, sin is an accident, a mistake. I'm shooting for it, but I just can't quite hit it. iniquity says I don't even care to hit the target God has placed before me. I'm turning my arrow in a totally other Opposite direction. And the text is teaching that we have a God in heaven who pardons not just mistake sins, but purposeful, intentional, I'm doing it on purpose since he pardons that and he lifts the weight of it. And the New Year everybody got resolutions but you know the major one is getting in shape, staying fit, in other words losing this weight. And I feel like every year, people come up with like new and innovative ways to lose weight surgeries, you know, brand new pills, demonic stuff, like keto. Come on. Sorry. Like, it seems like every year people come up with like these new and innovative ways to lose this weight. And the reality is that the safest and most effective effective way to lose weight hasn't changed for thousands of years. And any doctor will tell you the same diet and exercise, diet and exercise. Same with me diet and exercise that just set somebody free right there.

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Now, I want you to know that there is a weight far greater than belly fat that is holding all of us down. And it's the weight of sin, shame and guilt. And every year, it seems like people come up with new and innovative ways to get rid of the sense of shame to get rid of the sense of guilt to get rid of the sense of condemnation. So they tell you about positive thinking, and they tell you about living a life with no regrets and that's easy if you haven't really done some city But when you know that you send in ways that you're embarrassed, even a whisper about, you know, you have regrets.

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So the question on the table is, how do you lift the weight of that kind of shame, that kind of guilt don't look at these new and innovative ways. Why? Because the safest and most effective way to rid yourself of the weight of sin and shame and guilt and condemnation hasn't changed for about 2000 years, Repent and believe the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Do you really want to be rid of that kind of pain, that kind of shame. And I know there are some in here right now who feel like now my sin is too weighty. Now my sense to have it. Now, you don't really quite understand my level of sin. Well, I just need to tell you that you don't understand my level God, because our God is able to lift the weight of even the most hefty sin. He's able to remove it completely. And he doesn't stop there. He then goes on and says that he passes over your transgressions, passes over transgressions.

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Now, this is a picture pointing back to Exodus not 34 this time, but Exodus chapter 12. What's happening in that context is there's a battle going on between God and Pharaoh, who the Egyptians believed to be God. So they're fighting it out. And almost like, you know, I don't know if you ever saw sugary linner fight, he would just kind of toy when his opponents so for nine rounds, God is toying with Pharaoh. But then in that 10th round, he lays out the 10th plague and he gives Pharaoh a taste of his own medicine, for the very thing Pharaoh sought to do to the Israelites, God does to Pharaoh literally taking the firstborn child of all the objections. But before he comes through, he says to the Israelites, y'all aren't innocent. Don't get it twisted. Y'all are innocent. Y'all are cool, y'all are perfect. But I'm going to give you a way to kind of remove from yourself the penalty of sin that you actually deserve. So he says, here's the way. Slaughter lamb. And then I want you to take the blood of that lamb, and I want you to paint the doorpost of your home so that when the Angel of Death comes to take the firstborn child in every home, he will pass by your house. Why? Because he sees the blood there.

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When the text says that we have a God who passes over our transgression, hear me millennials. The text is not saying That God Excuse me. The text is not saying that God somehow turns a blind eye to sin. The text is not somehow saying that God is cool with sin. That is not that bad. That is not what the text is teaching. The text is teaching that God is able to pass over our sins, because the propitiation has been paid in Jesus Christ. There's a payment that has been made. He can look over our sins, because he looks at our substitute. He passes over transgression. This means that you can know that you know that you're forgiven. I literally saw a book title the other day in the Christian book section about somebody saying how we need to forgive ourselves.

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Wow. I hope no one enters into that. I hope no one believes that. There's two problems with that. One, if I try to forgive myself, I'm not good enough to do so. If I can't forgive others, i'm not gonna be able to forgive myself.

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So I'm sucking all of my hope and forgiving myself I have a problem. But here's the second thing, even if I am able to forgive myself, the weight of guilt and shame is still there because there is a God who I need forgiveness from. But listen, when you look at Jesus Christ on the cross, the promise is clear. Sin has been killed on the cross. Therefore you can find forgiveness passes over all of our transgressions.

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And then the text says this. It says he does not retain his anger forever. Hallelujah.

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In other words, God relinquishes his rage He doesn't clean to anger doesn't hold to it. He's not married to anger. Can I say it like I see it. We do not serve a bitter God. He doesn't hold on to his anger and his wrath.

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I don't know if you've ever pumped a basketball before. And I've like always had these situations where for some reason I get these hammy down basketballs, and they always have a cut somewhere in the basketball. So I'll pump it up, pump it up, pump it up, think I got it. Got it. Right, I got it right. And then within two hours, it's flat again. There's a frustrating thing in the world because you're like, I got it, right, got it right credit, right, and then two hours, it's flat again. And the reason is flat again, is because the air of the basketball has found an escape valve in order to leave out of the basketball so that it can't contain the air anymore. Listen when you said and when I said, the Bible says that we are storing up the wrath of God against us. Every single time you rebel, every thought, every deed, every word, every lie told, every single one is pumping up the wrath of God against us. But when Jesus Christ came and died on the cross, when that nail hit his hand, it punctured the wrath of God forever, so that the wrath of God no longer will explode on you because it has been laid upon Jesus Christ at the cross. The wrath of God is gone, he relinquishes his anger. Not only that, he tells you why it tells you why. The reason why he relinquishes his anger is because He delights in steadfast love.

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Any good that we have a God who delights in love. He takes pleasure in love. God gets joy out of loving the unlovable. And that's really good news. Because we know what we do and we delight in something. When you find pleasure in something, when you find joy in something, when you delight in something, there is nothing that will keep you from running after it. Remember that like, and I never watched this show, but I remember there was a time where there was this show called last out.

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And this was pre Netflix era, where you can just go say today I'm going to watch all nine seasons of my favorite show. bedtime. Sad isn't my scene. You had to wait every week to watch this one hour episode of your favorite show. So I literally can remember people stopping conversations mid conversation and said, Oh my god, I lost track of the time. I'm thinking they wife has gone into labor. I think in a case just got a phone call from the nurse's office and the kids is in trouble. What has happened; Lost this coming on in 15 minutes.

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Now, when you recognize that people will do crazy stuff, like stop really engaging conversations to watch the show, you realize that when you delight in something, you will find a way to pursue it. I delight in basketball. And when I was a kid, I was shovel snow. I didn't have a car, but I would find a way to play the game that I love. Listen, if that's what it means to delight in something what the text is. saying is that God delights in love. Therefore, God will find a way to love the unlovable. He will find a way, he will make it happen. And listen, this might not mean anything to you because you think that you're already some lovable. The Goddess is looking at you like wow, my, my, my, my.

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Look at them. Just so righteous. Just so good, holy, holy, the only word that comes to my mind when I look at this. And you're fooling yourself if you think that what we need to recognize is that God is holy. We are not. God is righteous. We are not. God is perfect. We are not and sin separates creates a distance causes chasm between us and God. So it's not a natural relationship and attraction. But because God delights in love, he will find a way before the foundations of the world. Not only that he would find a way, he devised a way. And he didn't just devise a way but he made a way.

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And can I tell you how seen in the scriptures 2000 years ago, God did not simply find a way he didn't simply devise a way he didn't simply make away. But 2000 years ago in Jesus Christ, God became the way.

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He became the way the truth and the life because he took upon himself our human flesh so that he could redeem all of us into himself. God will make a way to love the unlovable. don't care how far off you think you are. Okay, away would you have felt this last year? Even those of you who know you know Jesus, but you've been walking in a way repattern Listen, God has found a way and become the way to consistently and continually love you. Now, after this, he changes the language of his verbiage. Because I've been to this point has been talking about a pattern of how God normally does things. And now here in the text, you will see promises of what God will do. But because our God is a faithful and non changing and immutable God, the same things he has done in the past, he will continue to do in the future. So God has redeemed and restored and reconciled in the past, we can know for sure and he will redeem and restore and reconcile in the future. So he says this in the text, he says, In verse 19, he will again have compassion on somebody say again, say like you mean to say again? Again, he will again, have compassion on us. See, we live this life, always making mistakes, and our minds always failing. In our words, always doing the wrong thing and our actions. And every single time and everybody's had this prayer, you're not to theologically sound to never have prayed this prayer, God. If you forgive me this one more tough. If you get me out of this situation, I will never do it. What? again. Let me tell us we prayed that prayer and went right back to that day. Why? Because our whole life can be summarized in these five words. laid out to us by the Theologian herself Britney Spears. Oops, I did it again. No humanities all about ergos you trying to get married you engage? There it goes, you seem to know this about your husband or your future wife. Listen, he will or C will be saying, oops, I did it again. This is the whole of humanity. Oops, I did it again. And for every again wrong, the text is saying that God has an again mercy. Every time we fornicated again, God had a fornication again mercy. Every time we didn't love again. God had a you hate it again. Mercy. Every time we disobeyed our parents again. God I had a disobeying your parents again mercy for every again Rome. God has and again mercy.

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I don't know if y'all remember when the iPhone first came out. And they would always say, in all their advertisement, there's an app for that. There's an app for that. There's an app for that. I want you to know that there is a God in heaven, who understands the intricacies of every single way that you would sin in the past and every single way that you will sin in the future, and God on the cross through Jesus Christ has already taken care of all of that and created a special, unique mercy for every single sin you could ever or would ever or will ever commit. For every again, wrong, God has an again, mercy. And because our God is a holistic God, a whole God. He doesn't give haffley mercy. God's mercy is not this type of mercy that says, I'll give you one last chance mercy. I'll give you as my mom was say, my patience is wearing thin mercy. I'll give you a three strikes and you're out mercy, no sir. God gives and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and just when you thought I can't do it anymore and again and again and again mercy because that's the kind of God that he is. Now, not only that, but it says he would tread our iniquities underfoot.

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And I really, this is one of those times where I'm like how like fancy the ESV right stuff. He would tread our iniquities underfoot. Like what in the world does that mean? What the text is saying is that God will stomp sin to the ground. Bus it up. In other words, there's one word that I love more than any other God would dominate our sin.

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We always talk about the best players in history reverse the most dominant players in history. If I could just illustrate this you guys know Kobe Bryant, you guys know Shaq. Kobe Bryant was a finesse player and so he would finesse his way to victory. But Shaq was a dominant player, and he will impose his Will anybody. Why? Because he's seven foot 300 pounds, and nobody else is. With this is the kind of work that the text is saying that God does to sin. He doesn't finesse his way to victory over sin. He doesn't who can devise a really cool like how do I get around this now God is like a look sit in the face and outplay sin like a puppet. Because on the cross, the greatest act of sin in human history is killing the very Son of God. So God uses sin to destroy itself. He dominates our sin. We can dominate changing the diaper rap, like, is hard work. Or like putting in a car see Yo, something seems like real simple. You start doing this, like, know who devised this.

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I mean, it's simple stuff, we can't dominate. We can't dominate making sure our kids get out of the door on time. I mean, the simplest stuff we can't dominate. So when we can't dominate so much in our life, we start to believe that there are some things that just can't be dominated. But when you know the God of heaven, and you know the reality that there is absolutely nothing that is not an under his control, you recognize that he has dominated even your greatest master sin itself, domination, but it doesn't stop there like this. It says that he casts our sins into the depths of the sea. Not the shallow in now one of them pools that got like the three feet and your neck still up, you know what I mean. He said he passed it into the depths of the sea. What he's showing you is a violent picture of what God would do to sin of those who trust in Him. So he's saying, I'm not going to play with it, I'm not going to take it to the kiddie pool, I'm going to take it out to those open waters, and I am going to tie an anchor to it, and I am going to drown it, suffocate it, kill it, so that it can rear its ugly head no more. I will cast it into the depths of the sea. And the picture here is again of Exodus, where after they were taken out because of the plagues, they went through the Red Sea. And God The Scripture says in Moses, his song, he literally stood the waters up as walls on both sides so that the Israelites compassionate Ground, tough, like just real tough stuff is still even to this day, CGI just can't figure this out, right? Pass through, and then the Egyptians came in after them. And almost as if the last person gets out of the Israelites, then God makes that wall of waters come crashing down in the Egyptians. And he says, you have a greater enemy than the slave masters of the Egyptians.

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You have the enemy of the slave master of evil. But I'll do the same thing to them, your sin, as I did to the Egyptians, who will drown suffocated now absolutely destroyed.

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Do you really believe that? Do you believe that all your sin, every single one, to actually be killed by Jesus Christ and I'm telling You I'm not just saying this just to say this. I've seen people experience it. The cross of Christ is powerful. I've seen people walk away from porn, pornographic addictions. I've seen people walk away from drug addictions, a pig. I've seen people restore their marriages, when all seem lost. I've seen people restore relationships with family members where bitterness has been set in for decades. I've seen this with my own two eyes. I'm telling you, there is a God in heaven who came down, died on the cross to completely destroy sin.

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He is able to buy turned down. He's able. There's nothing you have done this pasture anytime before that God can not utterly kill. But you must, you must you must turn to Him. And after saying all that, he says this and you will show faithfulness. Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old friends, God always shows what he has sworn.

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He always displays what he has declared he always fulfills what He has promised. The word for faithfulness. Hear me hear me the word for faithfulness simply means truthfulness. So in other words, God will stay true to his values. He will stay true to his boss. He won't go back on them. I love like doing weddings because you see people can they take these wonderful vows and they say things like to you I commit my body. I really like that. I like a whole lot for my wife, right? And we say things like, Yo I will, I will love you and only you and then it always ends with the same saying.

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Till death parts us. Or the old like King James Version I'll call it till death do us part. We think about those words. How many times have we seen divorces? How many times we've seen broken vows?

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Some of you have experienced the pain of that. And if you're honest, some of you have sinned in that mean, there's so many of these things characterized in the vows that we take. And what we must recognize is the reason why we break these vows is because we are faithful like this God. But can I take you to Romans where it just shows us that God is just different? Romans chapter eight, says it this way. He says, No, in all these things. We are more than conquerors through him who would who loved us, for I am that neither diet, death, nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus alone. So while we end our vows with till death do us part, God says, even death won't part us. His faithfulness continues for eternity. And if we know that that is the kind of God we Sir, we can know for certain that we can have hope in the midst of our suffering and hope even in the midst of our worst since that's where our hope is tie the very character and nature of God.

41:53  
So while he begins with his name, he ends with God And the reason why that is so important is because God says that for those who believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for this sense, and there's some of you have not taken the step to do this, to actually trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, to those who believe that He is the Lord over their life, and that he has risen from the dead to prove it. For those who believe in Him, the name of God now rests upon us. And I'm just going to tell you why that's so important. Because this is what he's getting at. All the he's just gone through is the nature of God, but the name of God is a declaration of the nature of God. So if you bear the name of God, guess what? All of the attributes of the nature of God rests upon you. So because God is a gracious God and His name rest upon you, Grace rest upon you, because God is a merciful God and His name rest upon you, mercy rest upon you. Because God is a piece making God and His name rest upon you, please rest upon you, because God is a faithful God and His name rest upon you, faithfulness rest upon you and hear me because first John says, God is love and loving God's name rest upon you now love rests upon you.

43:29  
And this is all done through Jesus Christ. So there's nothing you need. Nothing no one can give, that you don't already have in Jesus Christ. He is ultimately our hope in the midst of suffering and sin. And then let's go and pray. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you for blessing us with this encouraging word. Thank you Well, God that you have indeed forgiven, you have indeed been faithful. You will continue to be forgiving and you will continue to be faithful. Lord, I do pray that you will save someone under the sound of my voice who doesn't know you. Even now, Lord, they turn to you in faith. Would you just save them and make their salvation? God you and you alone are faithful and able to do this. For all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, August people say amen.

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