Foundation of Our Faith

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Lomacang (Host), Abraham Jules PhD

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Series Code: FDOF

Program Code: FDOF000014A


00:19 Hello, and welcome to 3ABN Worship Center
00:22 for the second in a series of meetings
00:24 brought to you here at Foundation of Our Faith.
00:28 If you've tuned in for
00:29 Dr. Abraham Jules' first message,
00:31 How God Makes It Possible, you know that you are blessed.
00:36 It's always good to know that we serve a God
00:38 who never has to worry about what to do next.
00:40 God is always a step ahead of our problems.
00:43 He's always ready to move our mountains.
00:45 And that's the God that we need to know
00:47 is always available for us today.
00:48 And I know that this message is going to build on that
00:52 because the message is entitled The Faithfulness of God.
00:56 If you missed our first message,
00:57 let me introduce you to our speaker, Abraham Julius Jules.
01:02 Dr. Abraham Julius Jules is a native of
01:06 the Caribbean island of Trinidad.
01:08 I've been to Trinidad before.
01:09 A matter of fact, the lady that raised me
01:11 is from Port of Spain in Trinidad.
01:14 And we've gone to a number of places there,
01:15 if you're tuning in from Trinidad,
01:17 so good to have you, invite your family and friends
01:20 for that reason to sit down and enjoy this message.
01:24 He is also, as you've discovered,
01:25 a fourth a generation Seventh-day Adventist.
01:29 Dr. Jules shared how God brought him into the conversion
01:31 as a young man from the streets of Trinidad
01:35 to the streets of New York.
01:36 And then began a path to ministry that has now
01:39 extended all around the world.
01:42 He received most of his early formal education
01:45 in the country of Trinidad.
01:46 But when he came to the United States,
01:48 he received a bachelor's degree
01:50 from Oakwood College in 1983.
01:52 A master's degree from Andrews University in 1987.
01:56 And his doctorate degree in 1995,
01:58 from the United Theological Seminary.
02:02 More than just the qualification on script
02:05 and by a certificate is the heart of this preacher.
02:10 He has preached in a number of venues.
02:11 Let me share some of those with you.
02:13 He has held the evangelistic series in Little Rock,
02:16 a Trinidadian preaching in Little Rock,
02:18 that's an amazing thing.
02:19 In Harlem, New York. Los Angeles, California.
02:22 Tacoma, Washington. Anchorage, Alaska.
02:25 Kingston, Jamaica. Sydney, Australia.
02:27 Hamilton, Bermuda. Toronto, Canada.
02:31 The West Indies, where he baptized
02:32 more than 450 souls in the year 2000.
02:36 He was in London, Johannesburg,
02:37 South Africa, New Zealand, a number of other places.
02:41 As you can see, he has quite an international itinerary.
02:45 To add to that, he was one of the featured speakers
02:47 in the year 2010 at the General Conference Session,
02:50 where he preached to a stadium of more than 70,000 people.
02:54 That's just the local audience,
02:55 not including the international audience.
02:58 But Dr. Jules has been a husband for 12 years
03:00 of a doctor of dentistry, Dr. Dominique Jules.
03:05 He's the father of two children, lovely children.
03:08 As a matter of fact, his young son
03:10 has quite a smile that's infectious.
03:12 He's a young man that has quite a bright future
03:14 along with his daughter.
03:16 He's been in ministry for 32 years.
03:18 And he's presently in the Northeastern conference,
03:21 where he's pastoring the Community Worship Center
03:24 in Queens, New York.
03:27 Now before I introduce Dr. Abraham Jules,
03:29 we're gonna be blessed by a song
03:31 by our featured speaker Mark Udo Williams,
03:34 who is a resident of Houston, Texas.
03:37 He's going to bless us with one of my favorite songs
03:39 "Wonderful Merciful Savior."
03:41 But before he comes out,
03:43 let's invite the Lord's presence to be with us.
03:46 Heavenly Father, we thank You,
03:48 that once again as we sit at this table of grace.
03:52 Lord, You have prepared for us a meal,
03:55 to remind us of Your faithfulness,
03:58 Your goodness, Your mercy.
04:00 Lord, we can say that You truly
04:02 are a wonderful merciful Savior.
04:05 And so Lord, we invite You now to come
04:07 and fill Your manservant Dr. Abraham Jules,
04:10 make him a conduit of the power
04:12 that is available through Your Holy Spirit.
04:16 And to those who are tuning into this program,
04:17 may their hearts be filled and challenged
04:20 to take that step of faith,
04:22 to trust their lives to the God,
04:23 who is always faithful.
04:25 So come now, Holy Spirit,
04:26 speak to us and minister to our needs,
04:29 we pray in Jesus name.
04:32 Now, Mark, come and bless us.
04:33 And the next voice that you'll hear after
04:35 Mark Udo Williams will be that of Dr Abraham Jules.
04:58 Wonderful, merciful Savior
05:05 Precious Redeemer and Friend
05:11 Who could have thought that a Lamb
05:16 Could rescue the souls of men
05:22 Oh, You rescue the souls of men
05:33 Counselor, Comforter, Keeper
05:39 Spirit we long to embrace
05:46 You offer hope when our hearts have
05:52 Hopelessly lost the way
05:57 Oh, we've hopelessly lost the way
06:05 You are the One that we praise
06:11 You are the One we adore
06:17 You give the healing and grace
06:22 Our hearts always hunger for
06:29 Oh, our hearts always hunger for
07:11 Almighty, infinite Father
07:17 Faithfully loving your own
07:24 Here in our weakness You find us
07:30 Falling before Your throne
07:35 Oh, we're falling before Your throne
07:43 You are the One that we praise
07:49 You are the One we adore
07:55 You give the healing and grace
08:00 Our hearts always hunger for
08:06 Oh, our hearts always hunger for
08:14 You are the One that we praise
08:21 You are the One we adore
08:27 You give the healing and grace
08:32 Our hearts always hunger for
08:38 Oh, our hearts always hunger for
09:03 Thank you so very much, Mark, for blessing our hearts
09:07 with that song reminding us of the faithfulness of God,
09:11 and of His might and power in this world.
09:14 John, thank you for your
09:16 gracious and kind words of introduction.
09:19 It's great to be here for this series of sermons
09:23 on foundations of our faith.
09:26 And we direct your attention to the Book of
09:27 Lamentations 3:22-24.
09:35 And it reads, "It is of the Lord's mercies
09:41 that we are not consumed,
09:44 because his compassions fail not.
09:48 They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness.
09:55 The Lord is my portion, saith my soul,
09:59 therefore will I hope in him."
10:03 We'll talk to you today about the faithfulness of God.
10:07 Loving Father, we are mindful of Your presence in our lives,
10:13 and Your goodness to what is.
10:16 We ask as we look back on Your hands upon this world
10:22 and in our lives that we would be reminded that
10:26 You have been faithful to us, every step of the journey.
10:31 May we in turn, oh, God, be faithful to You,
10:34 until that day when we shall see You in peace
10:38 and hail You as our Lord and our King.
10:41 We pray this prayer in the name of the Father,
10:43 and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
10:49 "Great is thy faithfulness."
10:54 In the year 1888, a man named Thomas Obadiah Chisholm,
11:01 who lived in Franklin, Kentucky.
11:02 And was the assistant editor of his local newspaper,
11:07 known as the Franklin Favorite, became a Christian.
11:12 And after becoming a Christian, Chisholm decided to write poems
11:17 articulating and expressing the joy of his newfound faith.
11:24 Many poems Chisholm wrote were published
11:27 in the Franklin Favorite.
11:30 And on one occasion, a musician by the name of
11:33 William Runnion read one of those poems
11:37 and was so inspired by it that he decided to put
11:41 music to the words of that poem.
11:44 That song, after it was published and released,
11:48 swept the United States and the world,
11:50 the same way, some contemporary songs
11:53 like Marvin Sapp's anthem of praise
11:56 never could have made it, has swept our day.
12:00 That's song, several years after
12:02 was adopted as the theme song,
12:05 by the prestigious Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois.
12:11 That song, several years later,
12:13 was made one of the features sung...
12:15 featured songs sung by George Beverly Shae
12:19 for Billy Graham, and the Billy Graham Crusade.
12:23 That's song, almost 130 years after
12:27 Thomas Obadiah Chisholm wrote the words,
12:31 is still sung with great force and fervor in our churches.
12:36 That song, " Great is thy faithfulness,
12:41 O God my Father,
12:43 there is no shadow of turning with thee,
12:47 thou changest not, thy compassions,
12:50 they fail not, as thou hast been thou forever will be.
12:57 Great is thy faithfulness!
13:00 Morning by morning new mercies I see,
13:05 all I have ever needed thy hands hath provided,
13:10 great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!"
13:15 I remember, in 1981, I drove from Oakwood College
13:19 now Oakwood University, in Huntsville, Alabama
13:23 to New Orleans, Louisiana, where my brother lived
13:26 at the time in my 1975 Chevy Caprice,
13:31 with this song playing on my ATRAC.
13:35 I played this song for eight continuous hours.
13:39 I just had it on replay.
13:41 That song was very meaningful to me on that day.
13:45 And as the days and the years have gone by,
13:48 that song with its divinely inspired words,
13:52 have been the theme of my life.
13:54 I know that God has been faithful.
13:58 And for those of you who are students of scripture,
14:02 you wouldn't know that Thomas Obadiah Chisholm's poem
14:05 is in fact a poetic rendering of a scripture,
14:09 written by the great prophet Jeremiah,
14:12 and found in the Book of Lamentations 3:22,
14:18 "It is of the Lord's mercies, that we are not consumed,
14:23 because his compassions fail not.
14:27 They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness.
14:31 The Lord is my portion, saith my soul,
14:35 therefore I will hope in him."
14:37 Now this idea, my brothers and sisters,
14:40 that the God we serve is a faithful God,
14:43 is at the very foundation of the Christian faith.
14:46 All of our hope in this world, and all of our hope
14:49 for the world to come, is undergirded
14:52 by this idea that God is faithful.
14:56 And when we say that God is faithful,
14:58 basically what we are saying is that God does what God says.
15:03 In other words, whatever God says
15:05 He's going to do, He surely does it.
15:09 When we say God is faithful, we are saying in effect,
15:13 that God sustains whatever He creates.
15:17 When we say God is faithful, we are saying that God finishes
15:22 whatever He starts.
15:24 Look at me at the implicit contrast,
15:27 the text says "Great is his faithfulness."
15:31 Now we really can't say that about ourselves
15:34 because we do not always do what we say.
15:37 And we do not always sustain what we create.
15:41 That's why our courts are filled with women
15:43 trying to get child support for children that we created.
15:48 They are not sustained.
15:50 Oh, we can create, but we don't always sustain what we create.
15:56 And we do not finish what we start.
15:59 That's why there's so much divorce in this world today.
16:02 We don't finish what we start.
16:04 That's why we have so many high school,
16:07 college and university dropouts.
16:09 We don't finish what we start.
16:12 That's why we have so many backsliders.
16:15 We don't finish what we start.
16:17 That's why we have so many delinquent church offices.
16:19 We don't finish what we start.
16:22 And that's the truth about me and that's the truth about you.
16:26 We don't finish what we start.
16:29 But when it comes to God, Hallelujah, God is faithful.
16:34 God is dependable. God is reliable.
16:39 God does what He says.
16:43 And God sustains what He creates.
16:46 And God always finishes whatever He stars.
16:52 Thumb through the pages of scripture from the first Amen
16:54 in Genesis to the last Hallelujah in Revelation.
16:58 And you will find this theme woven
17:00 through the pages of Holy Writ that God is faithful.
17:04 It is the dominant note of the Psalms.
17:06 And the underlying assumption behind everything
17:09 Jesus taught is this, that God is faithful.
17:13 It is the conviction of all the prophets in the Bible,
17:16 God is faithful.
17:18 Whenever the prophets prophesied,
17:21 they were really saying, you can depend on my prophecy,
17:23 not because of me, but because God is faithful.
17:27 Consider with me just a few textual testimonies.
17:31 Exodus 34:6, the writer says,
17:33 "And the Lord passed by before him,
17:36 and proclaimed, The Lord God,
17:39 merciful and gracious, longsuffering,
17:42 and abundant in goodness and truth."
17:45 Deuteronomy 7:9, "Know therefore
17:49 that the Lord thy God, He is God,
17:51 and He is the faithful God, which keepeth covenant
17:55 and mercy with them that love Him
17:57 and keep His commandments to a thousand generations."
18:00 He is faithful. And He keeps His word.
18:03 Consider what the New Testament says in I Thessalonians 5:24
18:08 "Faithful is he that calleth you,
18:10 who also will do it."
18:12 Consider Hebrews 10:23, "Let us hold fast
18:16 the profession of our faith without wavering,
18:19 (for he is faithful that promised;)"
18:22 And ladies and gentlemen, as Joshua,
18:24 as he summarizes the whole Exodus event,
18:28 and the wanderings of the children of Israel
18:30 through the wilderness, and the crossing
18:32 of the Jordan in to the land of Canaan.
18:35 As he looked over at Israel,
18:37 as they are now settled in Canaan.
18:39 And remembered from whence they came.
18:42 And now they've got houses they didn't build.
18:45 And they've got vineyards they didn't plant.
18:47 And they have wells they didn't dig.
18:49 Joshua looked back over this divine landscape
18:53 and gave a summary of why they were so blessed.
18:56 And so he says in Joshua 21:43, "And the Lord gave unto Israel
19:02 all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers,
19:05 and they possessed it, and dwelt therein."
19:08 What he was saying was that God had promised
19:11 their father Abraham, a thousand years earlier,
19:15 that Israel was gonna live in the land,
19:17 and here they are.
19:19 God doing just what He said He was going to do.
19:23 Look at verse 44, "And the Lord gave them
19:26 rest about, according to all that
19:29 he sware unto their fathers, and there stood not a man
19:32 of all their enemies before them,
19:34 the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand."
19:39 Their enemies couldn't get to them.
19:41 He told their fathers,
19:43 I'm gonna keep the enemies away.
19:44 And Joshua looked up and said, look at this,
19:47 everything God said was going to happen, happened.
19:51 As a matter of fact, ladies and gentlemen,
19:52 we need to be very careful that we decide
19:55 to take our enemies into our own hands.
19:57 God said that He would make our enemies our footstool.
20:01 And do you know what a footstool is?
20:03 A footstool is used to take you higher.
20:07 We use footstools to take us higher.
20:10 And God says He will use our enemies to take us higher.
20:16 And verse 45 said, "There failed not ought
20:21 of any good thing which the Lord had spoken
20:24 unto the house of Israel, all came to pass."
20:28 Everything God said He was gonna do,
20:31 came to pass, because God is faithful.
20:36 And that's why Paul writes in II Corinthians 1:20,
20:40 "For all the promises of God in him are yea,
20:43 and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us."
20:47 Now that might not make sense to you until you stop to think
20:50 about what Amen means.
20:52 We use the word Amen rather loosely in church.
20:56 We just, kind of, throw it around very liberally.
20:59 And it's a non thinking response.
21:01 But the world Amen has power in it.
21:04 It literally means, so let it be.
21:07 To be said about something that God said.
21:11 And that is why you shouldn't say Amen to everything.
21:13 Because some things you're not certain about.
21:16 But you can say Amen today, because God is faithful.
21:23 I want you to know, ladies and gentlemen,
21:25 if you are not sure whether or not to say Amen
21:27 because you think that some promises are not yet fulfilled.
21:30 I suggest on the authority of exegetical consistency,
21:33 that if God has come through in the past,
21:36 He will do it again.
21:38 Notice the text tells us,
21:40 "For all the promises of God are yea."
21:43 In other words, it's going to happen.
21:46 I am certain that everything God said is going to happen
21:51 because of the faithfulness of God.
21:55 Now this text shows us three specific things to look at.
21:59 Number one, creation.
22:01 Let's hear the text again, "It is of the Lord's mercies
22:05 that we are not consumed,
22:06 because His compassions fail not.
22:09 There are new every morning."
22:10 The text says that His mercies are new every morning.
22:15 The song says, morning by morning,
22:18 new mercies I see.
22:20 Morning by morning has to do with nights and days.
22:24 Nights and days are a part of the weekly cycle.
22:26 The weekly cycle is a part of God's creation.
22:29 Now if you just spun the creation,
22:31 you can see the faithfulness of God.
22:34 Have you ever thought about how dependable creation is?
22:38 What God creates, He sustains.
22:41 Just think about it.
22:43 On January the first, the earth will be
22:45 in a certain position in relationship to the sun.
22:48 Three hundred sixty five days later,
22:50 the earth will come back to the very place it was
22:52 three hundred sixty five days earlier.
22:55 And it is only because of the mathematical dependability
22:59 of this happening that you and I can have a calendar.
23:02 Because you break your calendar up into months,
23:05 365 days based on the earth, coming back to its
23:08 original point as it revolves around the sun.
23:12 Ladies and gentleman, you and I know,
23:14 and we're gonna testify about God's goodness.
23:17 See, I know and you know that January and December,
23:21 and the seasons are given to us and are reminded,
23:24 it's a reminder that God created.
23:27 I know how to dress in February.
23:29 And I know how to dress in July.
23:31 Because God governs the weather, it's dependable.
23:34 I already know that somewhere around March,
23:38 the twelfth... the second,
23:39 we're gonna experience what is called Spring Equinox,
23:42 which means you have an equal day and night,
23:44 on that one day.
23:46 And the folk who studied the seasons and weather
23:48 already told us that on September 22,
23:51 we're gonna have Fall Equinox, which means that on that day
23:55 there will be as much daylight as there is night time.
23:58 They already know it's gonna happen,
24:00 and that is because of the dependability of nature,
24:03 because God is faithful in nature.
24:07 And it's been happening every year,
24:09 there has not been one year that spring didn't show up.
24:13 Not one year that summer didn't come.
24:15 Now there have been years
24:17 when some of us hadn't shown up in church.
24:19 But there has not been one year that summer did not come.
24:23 God never forgets to send the springtime.
24:27 God never had to write an apology saying,
24:29 "My bad. I forgot to send spring."
24:32 Because everything God starts, God finishes.
24:36 And everything God creates, He sustains.
24:40 Every day of your life,
24:42 the sun has risen in the east and set in the West.
24:45 And do you know why? Because God is faithful.
24:50 The sun is in certain proximity to the earth.
24:54 If it moves just one inch away from the earth, we'll freeze.
24:58 If it moves one inch closer to the earth, we'll all burn up.
25:02 Guess what?
25:03 The sun has not moved one inch from the day that God said
25:06 "Let there be light."
25:08 Because God stuck it there. And God holds it there.
25:12 Because God is faithful.
25:14 And you may worry about some stuff.
25:16 But none of us have ever had a maalox moment
25:19 wondering if the sun is gonna rise in the east,
25:22 because of the faithfulness of God.
25:25 If the sun broke down and if gravity failed,
25:27 who's gonna fix it?
25:28 NASA? Or the government?
25:30 They can barely fix the economy.
25:32 They can barely handle crime.
25:34 How in the world they're gonna fix the sun and the moon?
25:36 But they don't have to fix it,
25:38 because of the faithfulness of God.
25:42 Consider God's faithfulness,
25:44 every time you heat up water to 212 degrees.
25:48 Every time you do it, it starts boiling.
25:52 God says, "I'm gonna be faithful to 212 degrees.
25:57 And when you heat it up to 212 degrees,
25:59 I will make it boil."
26:01 Every time you have a cup of decaf,
26:04 you can praise God,
26:06 because it's a sign of divine faithfulness.
26:10 Every time you cool down water to 32 degrees Fahrenheit.
26:14 God says, "I'm gonna make it turn it to ice."
26:17 And every time you drop some ice cubes in your ginger ale,
26:20 you should stop and say thank you, Lord.
26:23 Have you ever thought, my brothers and sisters,
26:25 that they are seven times more water than there is land?
26:29 Water should just envelop the land.
26:32 Water should just cover all the land mass, but it doesn't.
26:35 And the reason why it doesn't is because
26:38 when God created the earth and the moon,
26:40 He created spinning objects that create
26:43 such centrifugal force, so that it creates levees.
26:46 And these levees protect the earth.
26:50 Men have made levees.
26:52 But the levees that men have built in New Orleans,
26:54 they have failed.
26:56 But the levee that God made, God put a levee in the sky,
27:00 and said to the water, come only so far,
27:02 because of the faithfulness of God.
27:04 In fact, when you read the God story in the Bible,
27:08 have you noticed that the Bible never tries to prove
27:10 that there is a God?
27:12 It never gives you an argument for God's existence.
27:15 The Bible simply assumes that if you have any sense
27:20 that you would know that there is a God.
27:23 The Bible opens up, not in defense of God.
27:26 But it opens up this way, "In the beginning, God..."
27:31 it doesn't argue for God.
27:33 It just assumes there is a God.
27:35 Because Psalm 19 says
27:37 "The heavens declare the glory of God,
27:40 and the firmament showeth his handiwork."
27:43 All you have to do is look around you and say,
27:47 you know what?
27:48 Who made the rivers? Who made the trees?
27:51 Who made the rivers that flow to the seas?
27:54 And who hung the moon in the starry sky?
27:58 Somebody bigger than you and I.
28:02 That is why Paul says in Romans 1:20,
28:05 "For since the creation of the world,
28:07 my invisible attributes, my eternal power
28:10 and divine nature had been clearly seen,
28:13 because they are understood through what has been made."
28:19 I don't have to prove the faithfulness
28:20 of God just by creation.
28:22 I can prove this thing secondly, by contemplation.
28:26 Let's hear the text again,
28:28 "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed,
28:32 because his compassions fail not.
28:34 They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness."
28:38 Notice the text says when my soul decides to tell the truth,
28:42 it will testify that it is of the Lord's mercies that
28:46 we are not consumed because His compassions fail not.
28:51 If you just stop and think about it.
28:54 You can see the faithfulness of God all around you.
28:58 If you just stop to contemplate from whence you have come,
29:03 where you started from and where you are right now.
29:07 Then if you have any sense, you should be saying
29:11 "Great is thy faithfulness."
29:14 Don't think you have made yourself
29:16 for because you're so proficient.
29:19 It had nothing to do with your ingenuity.
29:21 It had to do with the faithfulness of God.
29:24 God's been faithful to us.
29:27 God has brought every last one of us from a mighty long way.
29:32 Some of us just forgot how messed up we were
29:35 and God overrode our foolishness,
29:37 and blessed us anyhow.
29:39 He's been faithful.
29:41 That is why every time you think about
29:42 what has been affected in your life,
29:45 you ought to say, "Great is thy faithfulness."
29:49 If your child gets married, you should be saying,
29:52 "Great is thy faithfulness."
29:55 When your children graduate, you should be saying,
29:57 "Great is thy faithfulness."
30:00 If you've got a little sanity in your mind right now
30:03 and you know your address
30:04 and your social security number,
30:06 you should be saying, "Great is thy faithfulness."
30:10 If you've got in a job in an economy like this
30:13 and a place to call your own, you should be shouting,
30:17 "Great is thy faithfulness."
30:20 If God blessed you, so you can employ someone else,
30:24 you should be saying, "Great is thy faithfulness."
30:28 If you've got a car, or a little hoop jeep
30:31 and it takes you from point A to Point B,
30:34 you should be saying, "Great is thy faithfulness."
30:37 If you woke up this morning and you're able to put
30:40 one foot in front of the other, you should be shouting,
30:43 "Great is thy faithfulness."
30:46 Every time you think about how your kids are doing
30:49 and what they could be doing, you should be shouting,
30:51 "Great is thy faithfulness."
30:54 Anytime you get a promotion, you should be declaring,
30:58 "Great is thy faithfulness."
31:00 Every time a bill comes to your house
31:03 and you're able to pay it, you should be shouting,
31:05 "Great is thy faithfulness."
31:08 Every time you go to the doctor and the doctor says
31:11 "You're doing all right," you ought to shout,
31:13 "Great is thy faithfulness."
31:18 Every time you make a sale, every time you seal a deal,
31:21 every time you get a loan, every time you meet payroll,
31:24 you ought to just be shouting, "Great is thy faithfulness."
31:27 Food on your table, clothes on your back,
31:30 God's been good, you ought to say,
31:34 "Great is thy faithfulness."
31:37 But you know many of us, my brothers and sisters,
31:40 we are not grateful, because we are delusional.
31:45 We think we did it.
31:47 Well, while we try to take credit for ourselves,
31:50 while we forget to sing "Great is thy faithfulness."
31:54 The angels are singing all around us,
31:56 "Great is thy foolishness."
32:00 Because if we contrast ourselves with God,
32:03 God is characterized by faithfulness.
32:07 And you and I have been
32:08 characterized by our foolishness.
32:11 Many people say,
32:13 "Well, God hasn't done anything for me,
32:14 look at my situation."
32:16 Oh, it's not that God hasn't been faithful to you.
32:19 Most of the problems we have in our lives,
32:22 we can trace right back to the lack of God's faithfulness,
32:27 not to the lack of God's faithfulness,
32:29 but to some of our foolishness.
32:33 Come on, talk to me.
32:34 Don't act like you haven't been foolish.
32:38 Amen, somebody. I have a book in my library.
32:42 And the title of the book is
32:43 "How come every time I get stabbed in the back,
32:46 my fingerprints are on the knife."
32:49 It's our choices.
32:51 You are the one who made the telephone call.
32:56 And now your life is a mess.
33:00 You are the one that invited him over,
33:01 now you have cursed the day you met him.
33:04 You are the one who allowed your emotions to become
33:06 entangled with someone you know
33:08 you should not have fallen in love with.
33:10 God's been faithful but we've been foolish.
33:15 Oh, it's not God.
33:17 He's been faithful while we've played the fool.
33:21 You are the one that abused your body
33:23 and now everything is out of whack.
33:25 And you're blaming God.
33:27 God's been faithful while you've been foolish.
33:33 We've been our own worst enemies.
33:36 But even though we have messed up,
33:37 God is so faithful.
33:39 He has not allowed us to be
33:41 completely destroyed by our stupidity.
33:43 God has intervened. And He has blessed us.
33:47 And saved us from our own self's.
33:49 In other words, God's been faithful
33:52 while we've been foolish.
33:55 And you contemplate it, God's been faithful.
33:58 There's a song that has blessed me over the years.
34:01 And here are the words of the song,
34:03 "How many times must I prove how much I love you.
34:07 How many ways my love for you, I show.
34:10 How many times must I rescue you from trouble,
34:13 for you to know just how much I love you?"
34:17 Then in the chorus, God says
34:18 "Woke you up this morning, clothed you in your right mind.
34:21 When you walked upon a problem, didn't I step right in on time?
34:24 Strength, along life's journey. My angels carried you.
34:28 So you would know just how much I love you."
34:32 Then God continues to talk to us in that song.
34:35 He says "Food on your table.
34:37 Showed up when the bills would do.
34:39 When the pain was wrecking your body,
34:41 send down healing to you.
34:43 Lost in sin and sorrow, I died to set you free.
34:48 So you would know just how much I love you."
34:53 Finally, we see a confrontation.
34:58 God is not only faithful in creation and in contemplation.
35:03 But He's also faithful when there's a confrontation.
35:06 The only reason why real Christians
35:08 don't lose their minds, when crises come,
35:12 is because of God.
35:14 You see when Jeremiah said "Great is thy faithfulness."
35:18 It was during a crisis.
35:20 This is the book of Lamentations.
35:22 And Lamentation means weep.
35:25 Jeremiah's world had fallen apart
35:28 and he had experienced a tsunami of grief.
35:32 The Babylonians had come and destroyed Jerusalem.
35:35 And destroyed Jerusalem
35:37 and brought Jerusalem to ashes and rubble.
35:40 And there was nothing left.
35:42 I don't know if you've ever been in a situation
35:44 where you had nothing left, everything was gone.
35:49 And in the midst of not having anything,
35:52 Jeremiah stood up and said, "It is by thy mercies,
35:57 we are not consumed.
36:00 Great is thy faithfulness."
36:03 Which is to say, my brothers and sisters,
36:06 anybody can sing it, when you've got a job.
36:11 But if you're like Jeremiah, you learn to sing
36:14 when you just lost your job.
36:17 And you learn to sing, when you don't know
36:19 how you're gonna pay your bills.
36:21 And you learn to sing,
36:22 when you cry yourself to sleep at nights.
36:25 And you'll learn to sing, when everything
36:27 and everyone seems against you.
36:29 You'll learn to sing while everything is against you.
36:35 Because anybody can shout, when you've got good health.
36:40 Jeremiah is saying "Great is thy faithfulness,"
36:45 with chemo and lymph nodes all over your body.
36:49 The reason you can hope,
36:51 is not because of the party in power.
36:54 The reason you can hope
36:56 is not because your friends are in power.
36:59 My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood,
37:04 and righteousness.
37:05 I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
37:07 but a Holier lean on Jesus' name.
37:11 On Christ, the solid rock, I stand.
37:14 All other ground is sinking sand.
37:17 All other ground is sinking sand.
37:20 My hope is not in humanity.
37:22 Faltering and the failing human beings.
37:26 My hope is built on nothing less than Christ our Lord.
37:31 On Christ, not you.
37:34 Human beings are too funny and fickle.
37:37 But on Christ, the solid rock, I stand.
37:40 Christ is faithful to take care of you.
37:44 And notice what he says, "Every morning, new mercies,
37:49 he's gonna bring into your life."
37:51 What he is talking about,
37:53 is when the children of Israel were in the wilderness.
37:56 And they didn't know what they were gonna eat
37:57 and they didn't know how they were gonna survive.
38:00 And we're told that they complained to God.
38:02 And God said to Moses,
38:04 "Moses, tell them in the morning.
38:07 Just go to bed tonight. And in the morning.
38:11 They're gonna see some mercy."
38:14 Problem with most of us is we take tomorrow
38:16 to bed with us tonight,
38:19 that's why we can't fall asleep.
38:21 By the way, Isaiah said,
38:23 "It's only wicked folk who can't sleep at night."
38:27 Isaiah said, "The wicked folk are tossed to and fro.
38:29 While they're trying to go to bed at night's
38:31 they are tossed hither and yon, can't sleep."
38:36 And so the Bible says that God told them,
38:38 "You all, just go to sleep, go to rest tonight.
38:41 Don't worry about the provisions,
38:43 tomorrow morning, when you wake up,
38:46 all over the ground, would be the provisions,
38:49 that I would provide for you."
38:51 And the Bible says that they were wafers
38:53 on the ground that tasted like honey.
38:55 They didn't know what it was so they called it "Manna."
38:59 Manna literally means, what is this?
39:03 Whenever I cook for my children, they tell my wife,
39:07 "Daddy gave us manna."
39:12 So God said, "Eat it.
39:14 But only get enough to get you through today.
39:19 Gather two pints per person.
39:21 And don't hold any." Don't ask for take home box.
39:23 Because you don't need a take home box.
39:25 Because when the next day comes,
39:27 there'll be some new mercies.
39:29 God says "I'm gonna have manna for you,
39:32 one day at a time."
39:34 And one way you stay sane in a crazy world,
39:37 is to trust God, one day at a time.
39:42 I'm not worried about Sunday.
39:45 I'm going to trust God that He's got enough mercy
39:48 to get me through Saturday.
39:50 And when Sunday comes, He'll give me new mercies
39:53 to get me through Sunday.
39:54 And when Monday comes,
39:56 He'll give me some Monday mercies.
39:58 And when Tuesday comes,
39:59 God will provide some Tuesday mercies.
40:01 And when Wednesday comes,
40:03 He's gonna give me some Wednesday mercies.
40:06 All my life, all 55 years, I've been getting new mercies,
40:12 55 years of 365 mercies a year.
40:16 God has given me over 20,000 mercies.
40:20 And I want you to know, ladies and gentleman,
40:22 He has said that when He gives the mercies,
40:24 they will be new every morning.
40:27 They will not feel the same.
40:30 And by His mercies, we are not consumed.
40:36 Some of us should have been wiped out a long time ago,
40:39 but it's God's mercies.
40:41 When I think about my own life, I think about God's goodness.
40:45 God has been faithful.
40:48 I don't have the time to tell you
40:49 what the Lord has brought me through.
40:51 How many prayers He has answered.
40:53 How many tight spots He's gotten me out of.
40:56 How many days He has lifted up my bowed down head.
40:59 How many times He has seen me through.
41:02 How many opportunities He has created.
41:05 How many times He has looked
41:06 beyond my faults and saw my needs.
41:09 How many doors He has opened. How many doors He has shut.
41:13 I don't deserve them all, but I am thankful.
41:16 Because God's been faithful.
41:19 His faithfulness is evident in creation,
41:22 it's very clear to me in contemplation.
41:25 And His faithfulness does not fail in confrontation.
41:28 Great is thy faithfulness.
41:31 And great faithfulness demands great faithfulness.
41:36 If God's been faithful, you ought to be faithful.
41:39 You know, my father and mother
41:41 were faithful to us as children.
41:44 And I made sure, when I got old,
41:46 and can provide whatever they needed for them, I did it,
41:50 because they were faithful to me.
41:52 God's been faithful to you, count your blessings
41:55 and name them one by one.
41:58 Faithful is our God.
42:00 I'm reaping the harvest God promised me.
42:02 Take back what the devil stole from me.
42:05 And I rejoice today because I'm gonna recover it all.
42:09 When I think about how far He has brought me.
42:12 What shall I render unto the Lord?
42:15 The Bible says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so."
42:20 Tell somebody, if He's been good to you,
42:24 if he woke you up this morning, say so.
42:28 If you were able to pay your bills
42:30 because God is faithful, say so.
42:33 If you used to be an emotional wreck in your relationships
42:37 but God gave you new confidence, then say so.
42:42 If your life was nothing short of hopeless
42:44 but when Jesus came in to your life,
42:46 He changed you, then say so.
42:50 So if he has changed you and remade you,
42:53 and cleaned you up, and given you a new name,
42:56 and a new hope, and a new life, say so.
43:00 If he has helped you, say so.
43:03 If you're gonna trust Him, say so.
43:06 If the devil is a liar, say so.
43:09 If you know He is with you, say so.
43:12 If you know no weapon formed
43:13 against you shall prosper, say so.
43:17 If you know that when one door shuts,
43:19 He'll open another, then say so.
43:21 If you know He'll prepare a table before you,
43:24 in the presence of your enemies, then say so.
43:27 So when I think of the goodness of Jesus
43:31 and all He has done for me, my soul cries out,
43:36 thank God, for saving me.
43:40 I want you know, my brothers and sisters,
43:44 that God is a faithful God.
43:47 He will never fail you.
43:49 The Bible says, "He will never leave you."
43:52 The Bible says, "He will never forsake you."
43:55 Trust in the Lord.
43:57 Delight thyself also in the Lord.
44:00 In all thy ways, acknowledge Him.
44:03 And He shall direct thy path.
44:05 You and I, can trust God
44:08 because He has never and never will fail us.
44:12 He's the God who keeps His word.
44:16 Whatever He starts, He finishes.
44:20 Our God is a faithful God.
44:23 His mercies are new every morning.
44:27 You and I can anticipate God doing what God says.
44:32 I have learned to trust in Him.
44:34 I've learned to depend on His Holy Word.
44:37 I've learned to believe whatever God says.
44:41 My brothers and my sisters, you can trust Him tonight.
44:45 Whatever He started in you,
44:47 Bible says, He will complete it.
44:50 We can believe on His word.
44:52 We can trust every word, from Genesis to Revelation,
44:56 because our God is a faithful God.
45:00 Mark will now come and sing for us
45:02 and I'll come back and have an appeal for you.
45:32 Lord, let Your light
45:38 Light on Your face
45:42 Shine on us
45:47 Lord, let Your light
45:53 Light on Your face
45:56 Shine on us
46:01 That we may be saved
46:08 That we may have light
46:15 To find our way
46:19 Through the darkest night
46:24 Let your light shine on us
46:44 Lord, let your grace
46:49 Grace from Your hands
46:53 Come over us
46:58 Lord, let Your grace
47:04 Grace from Your hands
47:08 Come over us
47:12 That we may be saved
47:20 That we may have life
47:27 To find our way
47:30 Through the darkest night
47:35 Let Your grace come over us
47:44 Lord, let Your love
47:50 Love from Your heart
47:53 Come over us
47:58 Lord, let Your love
48:04 Love from Your heart
48:08 Come over us
48:12 That we may be saved
48:20 That we may have life
48:27 To find our way
48:30 Through the darkest night
48:37 Let Your love
48:39 Come over us
48:45 Let Your light
48:47 Shine on us
49:17 What a wonderful song,
49:19 "Lord, let Your grace shine on us."
49:25 Pastor, tonight you talked about the Faithfulness of God.
49:30 We highlighted your journey from Trinidad to,
49:33 to New York to Oakwood, Andrews,
49:36 to the United Theological Seminary,
49:38 to where you are today.
49:40 But as I looked at your itinerary,
49:42 you're not just a local preacher,
49:43 you're not just in New York City,
49:45 you're all over the world.
49:46 You're not just a Pastor but you're an evangelist.
49:48 And I know that in some of the stories that you've had,
49:50 in some of the evangelistic series,
49:52 I've seen the numbers of souls
49:54 baptized in different locations.
49:55 And I know some of them are challenging.
49:57 Can you share with us, maybe,
49:59 from some of those places you've been,
50:01 some of the stories that express
50:02 the faithfulness of God,
50:04 as you've seen God work in your meetings?
50:06 John, I remember that meeting in Harlem.
50:08 We had come to the end of the crusade.
50:11 And it was the closing night, we were thanking the workers.
50:15 And someone came to me and said,
50:17 "Pastor, do you still have water in the pool?"
50:19 I said, "Yeah."
50:21 He said, "Well, there's a drunk guy here,
50:24 who wants to be baptized."
50:26 I said, "Which one, the only drunk guy
50:28 who came to attend all summer?"
50:30 His name was Paul.
50:32 So he said, "Would you baptize him?"
50:34 I said, "Yeah, I'm gonna baptize him."
50:35 Well, my elders began to talk about me like a dog.
50:39 They said "Pastor Jules wants to baptize anybody."
50:42 Well, Paul got baptized that night.
50:46 And when we were coming up out of the pool, they said,
50:49 "Pastor, stay in the pool.
50:50 There's somebody else who wants to be baptized."
50:53 It was this woman who said we would never baptize her.
50:56 And she was in tears. No sermon had been preached.
50:59 No appeal was made.
51:01 But God's spirit was still working and I saw that woman
51:06 about five years ago on a cruise.
51:08 And that she was rejoicing about how God blessed her.
51:11 Back to the guy who was drunk, after he was baptized,
51:15 he invited me to his house to have dinner.
51:19 And I said to myself, "Lord, have mercy."
51:22 And I went one Wednesday evening to his house,
51:25 surprised by the cleanliness of the home.
51:29 And then, this woman walked out,
51:31 beautiful woman she is.
51:32 And he introduced her to me as his wife.
51:35 Had a sumptuous meal.
51:38 And while I'm sitting there eating,
51:40 he said to me, he says,
51:42 "Pastor, do you know during the crusade,
51:45 everything you said and you were saying,
51:47 I knew everything you were talking about."
51:49 I said, "Is that right?"
51:50 He said, "Well, my grandmother in South Carolina
51:53 in Columbia gave me a book many years ago.
51:56 It's called The Great Controversy.
51:58 And I read it from cover to cover.
52:00 And you were preaching everything
52:02 that I read from that book."
52:04 Amen. Amen.
52:05 And so I knew everything you were talking about.
52:08 Well, Paul was a faithful member.
52:12 When the elders were not in church, he was there.
52:14 He never missed prayer meeting.
52:15 He never missed Wednesday night prayer meeting
52:17 or Sabbath school.
52:18 Divine service. He was always there.
52:21 And one morning about 3 am in a morning,
52:23 I got a call from his wife.
52:25 She said to me, "Pastor Jules, Paul is dying
52:28 and he's asked me to ask you to come to the hospital."
52:31 Went to the hospital, I was there before he died.
52:34 He died that next day, prayed with him.
52:38 But Paul was faithful till the end.
52:40 And what I learned then, is that God is faithful.
52:43 That young man knew God. He had learned about God.
52:48 And God was faithful to him.
52:50 He made it into the kingdom before it was too late.
52:54 The Lord sent us there on time for him.
52:56 Praise the Lord.
52:57 And the folk who talked about him,
52:59 he was more faithful than they were.
53:01 You think that's an amazing story because sometimes
53:03 we have those "thief on the cross" moments,
53:06 where we forget that the Lord calls us to be fishers of men,
53:10 not the cleaners of the fish.
53:12 And sometimes we want to do that too because
53:14 from all external appearances, it sometimes doesn't appear
53:17 that that person is ready
53:19 but the Lord is the one that is faithful.
53:20 That's right.
53:22 You've also been to Anchorage, Alaska.
53:24 I take it, you went there during the summer.
53:26 Yes, I was.
53:27 Tell us about Anchorage, Alaska.
53:28 I've never been there before but it's quite a different
53:30 venue from Harlem, New York.
53:32 Talk about God's faithfulness there.
53:34 Well, the Lord was faithful.
53:35 The night they picked me up at the airport
53:37 to take me to my residence,
53:38 I was gonna be there for four weeks.
53:41 The Pastor drove me to the conference offices,
53:43 where it's out in the boondocks.
53:45 I had just left Brooklyn, New York, with sirens,
53:47 and noises, and lights, and buildings, and people.
53:51 And they put me in the conference office.
53:53 There was an apartment to stay inside.
53:54 I looked at the Pastor, I said,
53:56 "Pastor, I'm not staying here."
53:59 I said, "Find me a hotel room.
54:01 Because I'm not gonna comfortable out here."
54:03 So that was my introduction to Anchorage.
54:07 Well, you should come to Thompsonville.
54:09 Yeah.
54:12 So he got me a hotel room.
54:14 And I was more comfortable, they were people around.
54:18 But my four weeks in Anchorage, was a blessing, in this regard.
54:22 I saw people, who-- it was a small church.
54:25 But I saw people who loved God. Amen.
54:28 And wanted to be used as conduits in God's hands
54:31 to bring others to know Him as Lord and Savior.
54:35 After that meeting, I don't remember exactly
54:37 how many we baptized, but the church rejoiced,
54:40 I rejoiced because every soul we got
54:42 became very, very, very precious.
54:46 Because they were few and far between out there.
54:48 Wow. Well... It was a wonderful experience.
54:50 And you're here now,
54:52 talking about the faithfulness of God.
54:54 You know, it's these stories,
54:56 it's these experiences that take us from
54:58 whether we know God can do it to God can do it.
55:01 But now I think one of the biggest stories
55:02 of God's faithfulness is to take you back you
55:04 to your humble beginnings.
55:06 Tell us about the church that you were raised in,
55:08 in Trinidad, when you went back for the dedication.
55:11 Last year, last January,
55:12 they invited me back to Trinidad, to our church,
55:14 the Carenage Seventh-day Adventist Church.
55:16 I think they were trying to build that church
55:18 for about 50 years.
55:20 And they completed the facility.
55:23 The edifice was beautiful, I went back.
55:26 It was just one of those most precious moments in my life,
55:30 in my professional life, to be there and personally
55:33 to be a part of something like that.
55:36 I didn't see a whole lot of people that I remember,
55:39 the older folk had died out.
55:41 Some of the young people I met by going back and forth.
55:44 But that was just a wonderful experience.
55:46 And they have now a facility that they can be
55:49 proud of and I certainly was proud of it.
55:52 And so, so you look at these stories and you say,
55:55 well, Lord, when we go back to our humble beginnings,
55:58 it often reminds us of who we were.
56:00 And then who we have become in Christ.
56:03 There's someone that is watching this program,
56:05 even right now, could be day or night
56:07 wherever they are,
56:08 what would you like to tell them about God's faith,
56:10 and I know you preached it but just give them a word from
56:13 the Lord about how faithful God is and the payment,
56:17 the eternal blessing of trusting their lives
56:19 to such a faithful Lord.
56:21 John, I would love to say, that when it comes to God,
56:27 whatever we give to Him, God takes good care of it.
56:31 If it's your life, if it's your resources,
56:34 if it's your time, whatever it is you give to Him,
56:38 God will bless it.
56:40 And I have found in my own life,
56:43 in little things and big things,
56:44 if I could trust Him with it, God does marvelous things.
56:49 So if you're listening to us now.
56:51 And you are desirous of giving God an opportunity in your life
56:55 to multiply some things to, to bring out of you your best,
57:00 you can trust Him because He's faithful.
57:03 He says he'll never leave you. He'll never forsake you.
57:07 You could never be disappointed in God.
57:09 In all my years, my 55 years on this earth,
57:13 God has proven time and time again, to be faithful.
57:18 And Pastor Jules, as you go from here
57:20 back to your field of ministry,
57:23 what can you say as you preview,
57:26 because we have another message coming up,
57:27 just give me a capsule of what we have to look forward to?
57:31 Well, one of the messages I'll bring, we have two more,
57:34 and one of the messages I'll bring to you,
57:36 will be a message on the family.
57:39 It's for both singles and married people.
57:42 Half of the message is for single people.
57:45 What to look for in a spouse?
57:47 Biblical principles you should be governed by.
57:50 And the second half is for all the married people.
57:53 So that message is for the single folk,
57:55 the married folk and all the folk
57:57 who are sorry to ever got married.
58:00 And we're looking forward to that message
58:02 because I'm not sorry I got married,
58:04 and neither are you.
58:05 And those of you that are tuning into
58:07 watching this program, I want to thank the Lord.
58:08 Thank you Pastor Jules, Evangelist Jules,
58:11 Dr. Jules, for allowing the Lord to use you.
58:14 For instance, the text in I Corinthians 10:13,
58:17 and in the midst of all the difficulty,
58:20 it says "But God is faithful."
58:23 Yes.
58:24 Here at 3ABN, we believe in the faithfulness of God.
58:26 Continue to stay tuned for the next message
58:29 as God speaks to your heart through Pastor Jules.


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Revised 2015-11-30