Participants:
Series Code: WHO
Program Code: WHO210034S
|
00:28 Hello, I'm Jill Morikone,
00:29 and thank you for joining us 00:31 for this edition of 3ABN Worship Hour. 00:34 Our title today is How Big is Your God? 00:38 Are you abandoned and need a Faithful Father? 00:41 Are you sick and need a Heavenly Healer? 00:43 Are you stuck in sin and need a sympathizing Savior? 00:47 Are you lonely and need a Forever Friend? 00:51 Are you sad and need a Compassionate Comforter? 00:54 Are you broken and need a Loving Lord? 00:59 Are you afraid and need a Sovereign Shepherd? 01:02 Do you feel you are unreachable, 01:05 unredeemable, unlovable, unwantable? 01:10 Who is your God today? 01:12 Do you know Him? 01:13 How big is your God? 01:15 Have you experienced Him? 01:18 Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 40. 01:20 This is our opening scripture 01:21 before we go to the Lord in prayer. 01:23 We are spending the balance of this entire message 01:27 How Big is Your God, 01:28 based on Isaiah chapter 40. 01:31 So turn with me to Isaiah 40. 01:32 We're gonna look at verses 25 and 26. 01:36 Isaiah 40:25-26. 01:39 "To whom then will you liken Me," 01:41 this is Jesus talking, the Lord God. 01:43 "To whom will you liken me? 01:46 Or to whom will I be equal? 01:48 Says the Holy One. 01:49 Lift up your eyes on high, 01:52 and see who has created these things, 01:54 Who brings out their host by number, 01:57 He calls them all by name, 01:59 by the greatness of His might 02:01 and the strength of His power, not one is missing." 02:05 Let's pray. 02:07 Holy Father, we come before You in the name of Jesus. 02:09 This is Your time. 02:11 This is Your Word. 02:12 And would You speak? 02:14 Would You make it come alive to us right now? 02:17 I ask for the infilling of Your Holy Spirit, 02:21 that You would touch me 02:22 and You would touch the ears and hearts 02:26 of each person listening and watching right now, 02:29 that we could be changed in the knowledge 02:31 of who You are. 02:33 In Jesus' name. 02:35 Amen. 02:36 It was June 2007, 02:39 a hit and run incident left Daniel paralyzed 02:42 from the waist down. 02:44 A year after his accident, he wrote this. 02:48 I would call it simply a lament to God. 02:52 "Oh, Lord, my God, why do You wait to show up? 02:56 I cried out to You when trouble struck. 02:59 I asked You for restoration. 03:02 I know that You heard me. 03:03 I know that You answered, yet nothing, 03:07 nothing of meaning happens again today. 03:11 Infinitesimal changes dog my days. 03:15 I am hounded by the prayers of the fickle 03:17 looking to me to prove their faith. 03:21 Wearily, I drag on tiring of the waste, 03:24 hating the horror, 03:26 the pain, the suffering, the never-ending trial. 03:29 The endless story drags on, and on, and on. 03:34 When will the clouds break? 03:36 When will the night cease? 03:38 When will the tunnel end? 03:40 When will You smile again, God? 03:43 What a two-edged sword Your voice is. 03:47 You speak. 03:48 And then wait? 03:50 You give hope, and then vanish into the mist? 03:53 Have You forgotten me? 03:55 Have more important things absorbed Your attention? 03:59 Hope turns black, this evil I have seen. 04:03 Nightly, my dreams they show me restored. 04:06 And yet in the morning I am broken again. 04:10 Please slay me, blot my name from the ranks of the living. 04:15 From the grave I can finally rest. 04:18 How long? 04:19 How long must I wait here in the middle, 04:22 suspended between heaven and hell, 04:25 between healing and horror? 04:28 Who am I that God should remember me? 04:31 My only salvation is that He will not forget His image 04:36 or let His Word be broken. 04:39 There is nothing I can do. 04:41 But one day I by His promise, 04:44 I will stand 04:46 restored as His message of hope is fulfilled. 04:49 The Lord will turn this horror into a fading dream 04:54 and I will honor His name forever." 04:57 I don't know if that reminds you 04:59 of any stories in the Word of God. 05:02 It reminds me of David. 05:04 Remember him? 05:05 Hunted, haunted, hiding from Saul 05:09 as he sought his life crying out to God, 05:12 "Where are You? Why haven't You come? 05:14 Why aren't You helping me?" 05:16 I think of Job, stricken, afflicted, 05:20 boils covered head to toe, 05:23 lost his children, lost his possession. 05:26 His wife said, "Just give up on God." 05:28 Saying, "God, where are You in the midst of my horror?" 05:34 I think of Jesus on the cross crying out saying, 05:39 "My God, My God, why? Why have You forsaken Me?" 05:45 I think of the children of Israel, 05:48 in Babylonian captivity, crying out to God, 05:52 "When is our deliverance going to happen?" 05:57 If you have lived any length of time, 05:59 you will have experienced some sort of mental anguish, 06:04 some sort of physical anguish, 06:07 or maybe it's spiritual anguish in your walk with God, 06:12 or even emotional anguish. 06:15 And if you have not already experienced that, 06:19 then you will at some point in your life. 06:22 The children of Israel, 06:23 crying out to God in their Babylonian captivity. 06:27 That's where Isaiah chapter 40 actually picks up, 06:30 is right at the end of that Babylonian captivity. 06:34 Before we get to Isaiah 40, 06:36 let's just lay a little groundwork. 06:38 Who is Isaiah? 06:40 Probably one of the greatest biblical prophets 06:42 in the Word of God, 06:43 he is one of my personal favorites. 06:46 He's known as the gospel prophet. 06:47 Why? 06:48 Because there is so many Messianic prophecies, 06:51 there's so much of the gospel, 06:52 there's so much of justification by faith, 06:55 there's so much of looking forward to Christ, 06:57 the coming Messiah that we find 07:00 within the pages of the book of Isaiah. 07:03 His name, of course, means the Lord saves 07:06 or salvation of Yahweh. 07:08 And it's a fitting name for this book, 07:10 which is really divided into two different sections. 07:14 We have section number one, 07:16 which is chapter one through chapter 39. 07:19 This is the historical section. 07:21 This is the narrative. 07:23 This is the section 07:24 we call the book of judgment and salvation. 07:28 This is what happened during the time Isaiah lived. 07:30 Then we jump over here 07:32 and we have the second section of the book. 07:34 This is chapters 40 through chapter 66. 07:37 This is the prophetic section. 07:40 This happened a century and a half after 07:43 Isaiah even walked this earth, it's after he passed away, 07:47 this section happened. 07:48 And this is a section of comfort, 07:51 the section of restoration. 07:53 In fact, these sections are so disparate 07:55 that some people say, 07:57 "Well, two different people 07:58 must have written the book of Isaiah." 07:59 But if you look at the scrolls in the Qumran, 08:01 you can see there is no division 08:03 between chapter 39 and 40. 08:05 You can see that the same person, Isaiah, 08:08 authored the entire book, one part being historical, 08:11 the other part over here being prophetic. 08:14 The historical portion 08:17 is really two different sections 08:19 in that as well. 08:21 You see, Isaiah prophesied 08:22 during a time of great national crisis 08:25 for the people of Judah. 08:27 Remember that Israel used to be one United Nation 08:30 that's under Saul, that's under David, 08:32 that's under his son Solomon. 08:34 And then when Solomon's son came to the throne, 08:37 the children of Israel had had enough. 08:39 Solomon had really taxed the people 08:42 and there was a lot of heaviness 08:44 for the people and they said, 08:45 "We're done with you. 08:46 Are you going to treat us like your daddy did? 08:48 And if you're not going to treat us 08:49 like your daddy did, we're done. 08:51 We're doing our own thing." 08:53 And what did his son say? 08:54 "Well, my father chastised you this way, 08:56 but I'm going to be even worse." 08:58 So the kingdom split at that time. 09:01 Ten tribes stayed 09:03 with the northern kingdom of Israel, 09:04 two tribes, the larger of the two, 09:06 of course, being Judah would be with this southern kingdom. 09:09 So in the time of Isaiah, 09:10 we had this first major national crisis, 09:14 the northern kingdom of Israel, 09:16 combined with the neighboring kingdom 09:17 of Assyria, 09:19 and they came on the warpath 09:21 against the southern kingdom of Judah. 09:22 Now Ahaz was the king at this time. 09:24 You can find this in Isaiah chapter 7. 09:26 It's about 734 BC, and Isaiah is the prophet, 09:31 Ahaz is the king. 09:32 And Ahaz is terrified 09:34 and he wants to reach out to Assyria for help. 09:36 He says, "I can't do this." 09:38 And Isaiah says, "No, trust in the Lord. 09:41 He will deliver you 09:42 no matter what you're going through, 09:43 no matter what it looks like. 09:45 The neighboring kingdoms are coming against you, 09:47 God will deliver you." 09:50 But Ahaz chose not to trust in God. 09:52 He chose to turn his back on God 09:55 and go his own way. 09:57 And he reached out to Assyria for help. 10:00 We fast forward several years to Ahaz's son. 10:03 Ahaz is dead now 10:04 and his son Hezekiah is on the throne, 10:06 or about 701 BC. 10:09 And Hezekiah says, "You know what," 10:12 he says, 10:13 "I'm no longer going to pay this tribute to Assyria. 10:15 We're done with that, 10:16 we're going to trust in the Lord." 10:18 And so he refuses to send the tribute 10:19 and all of a sudden, the Assyrians now come, 10:21 and they attack the tiny nation of Judah 10:24 and they take one city after the next after the next. 10:28 And then they come to Jerusalem and begin to siege Jerusalem 10:32 and Isaiah is still the prophet and he says, 10:34 "Trust in the Lord. The Lord will fight for you. 10:36 The Lord will defend you. Trust in Him." 10:40 And Hezekiah chooses 10:41 to pour out his soul before God. 10:45 He chooses to trust in God. 10:47 And guess what happens? 10:49 God kills 185,000 of those Assyrians 10:54 in one night, 10:55 that's Sennacherib's entire army is destroyed. 10:58 God shows up and God defends His people. 11:00 Now that is all 11:01 in the beginning part of Isaiah, 11:03 that's all in chapters 1 through 39. 11:05 Then we jump to chapter 40. 11:07 This fast forwards, you could say, 11:10 this is the prophetic portion, 11:11 this is what we're looking at now, 11:13 100 years after that siege, 11:15 100 years after God showed up and delivered the people 11:19 from this Assyrian siege, the Babylonians come, 11:22 and the Babylonians take them. 11:24 Remember Daniel and his three friends 11:25 take them into captivity. 11:27 They are in captivity for 70 years, 11:30 70 years in bondage, 11:32 70 years away from their homeland 11:34 and away from their people 11:36 and maybe even feeling as if God has forsaken them. 11:40 And at the end of that 70 years, 11:42 God promises to bring them back again to their land 11:46 and to restore all those years that the locusts had eaten, 11:50 that's what we see in Isaiah 40. 11:52 Isaiah 40, we see the mercy of God. 11:55 God wants to save His people. 11:56 They're in Babylonian captivity, 11:58 but He wants to save them, and He wants to deliver them. 12:01 We see the power of God, 12:03 God is able to deliver them because He is powerful. 12:07 He can deliver them from their enemies, 12:09 which would be the Babylonians 'cause they are in captivity. 12:12 He can deliver them from the gods of their enemies 12:15 and the Babylonian gods 12:16 that the Babylonians worshipped. 12:18 The main argument in Isaiah 40 is that God can do it, 12:21 He can make the second Exodus happen, 12:24 that would be this deliverance from Babylonian captivity. 12:28 He can end the exile, He can defeat the oppressors, 12:32 He can liberate His people. 12:34 So you know me, I have a list for you, 12:36 5 characteristics 12:37 that we find from Isaiah chapter 40 of this God, 12:41 5 characteristics of who this God is 12:43 that was going to deliver them from Babylonian captivity, 12:46 and this God who wants to deliver you and I 12:49 from whatever we go through. 12:51 But before we do that, 12:52 let's lay a little more groundwork 12:54 with the first couple of verses in Isaiah Chapter 40. 12:58 Isaiah 40:1, 13:00 "Comfort, yes, 13:01 comfort my people says your God, 13:04 speak comfort to Jerusalem, 13:07 and cry out to her that her warfare is ended, 13:10 that her iniquity is pardoned." 13:13 Now how many times was the word comfort used? 13:15 Comfort is a command in this passage, 13:18 you can really see that. 13:19 "Comfort, yes, comfort my people, 13:22 speak comfort to Jerusalem." 13:24 Three times, we see this comfort mentioned. 13:27 It is in the Hebrew, it is second person plural, 13:32 which just means in Texas style, 13:33 they would say y'all have comfort now, 13:36 it means you all, everyone, have this comfort. 13:40 The word in Hebrew, 13:42 literally, if you look at the original route, 13:45 it means to breathe deeply. 13:49 Now I don't know about you, 13:51 but I find it sometimes 13:53 there are certain people that I feel comfortable with. 13:57 Have you found some people that you feel comfortable with? 13:59 People maybe you go out to eat with them 14:01 and their friends and you're comfortable. 14:03 People that you can sit down 14:04 and just share what's on your heart 14:06 or what you're going through or what you're experiencing. 14:08 It may be your spouse, it may be your best friend. 14:11 Hopefully that's one and the same, 14:13 but maybe you're not married and maybe it's another friend. 14:15 It could be a family member, 14:17 it could be maybe someone that you work with. 14:19 But these particular people I have found in my own life, 14:23 sometimes I'll be sitting and we'll be eating 14:25 or doing something and I'll just go... 14:29 and they'll say, 14:30 "Jill, what was that all about?" 14:31 That's called comfort. 14:33 That is that deep breath in... 14:37 Why? 14:39 Because I feel at peace, because I feel at rest, 14:41 because all that stress, 14:43 and all that whatever you were carrying is gone, 14:46 because you are comforted. 14:48 Why were they to be comforted? 14:49 Because their captivity was over. 14:53 It said speak comfort to Jerusalem 14:55 that her warfare was ended, 14:56 meaning their 70 years of captivity 14:58 in Babylon was over. 15:01 David expressed it this way in Psalm 30:5, 15:04 "Weeping it may endure for the night, 15:06 but joy, it always comes in the morning." 15:11 Song of Solomon says it this way. 15:12 Song of Solomon 2:11-12. 15:15 "Lo, the winter is passed, the rain is over and gone, 15:19 the flowers, they appear on the earth, 15:22 the time of singing has come." 15:26 God sees and knows everything that we go through. 15:31 Do you feel like 15:32 you're going through a time 15:33 of Babylonian captivity right now? 15:35 Do you feel like you're going through a time physically 15:37 or emotionally or spiritually that God seems distant? 15:41 God seems far away from you. 15:43 You feel like you have been in bondage? 15:45 And you say, 15:47 "Where am I supposed to find this comfort? 15:48 Where is God?" 15:50 As we started, where is God in the midst of my anguish 15:53 and my angst and what I am experiencing? 15:57 God saw the Israelites in their Babylonian captivity, 16:00 and I want to tell you today, God sees you. 16:03 God knows your name, 16:06 and God will seek to deliver you. 16:09 I think of the children of Israel, 16:11 not in this Babylonian captivity, 16:12 but this is centuries before 16:15 when they were in Egyptian bondage. 16:17 And remember, this is when God called Moses. 16:20 This is Exodus 3:7, the Lord said, 16:22 "I have seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt. 16:26 And I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. 16:30 I know their sorrows." 16:31 God sees you 16:33 in the midst of what you are going through. 16:36 He doesn't just see you, He hears you, 16:38 He knows and He understands. 16:40 Now this comfort that was to be extended 16:42 to the people in Babylonian captivity, 16:45 you and I are to extend that comfort 16:47 to others as well. 16:48 2 Corinthians, turn with me to 2 Corinthians 1:3-4. 16:54 Now tell me how many times if you can count at home, 16:56 how many times you hear the word comfort 16:59 mentioned in these two verses. 17:02 "Blessed be the God 17:03 and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 17:05 the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who..." 17:08 Wait a minute, that's right, we missed one. 17:10 "The God of all comfort." 17:11 That's number one, 17:13 "Who comforts us..." 17:14 number two, 17:16 "In all our tribulation, 17:17 that we may be able to comfort..." 17:20 number three, 17:21 "Those who are in any trouble with the comfort 17:24 with which we ourselves are comforted by God." 17:29 Five times in those two verses, we see that word comfort. 17:35 God comforts in what we are going through. 17:38 Why? 17:40 So that we can extend that comfort to someone else. 17:43 God is a God of comfort. 17:45 God is also a God of discipline. 17:47 We see that in verse two, Isaiah 40:2, it says, 17:51 "Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry to her 17:54 that her warfare is ended, 17:56 that her iniquity, it's pardoned, 17:58 for she is received from the Lord's hand..." 18:00 Wait a minute, she received it. 18:02 Did you catch that? 18:03 From the Lord's hand, double for all her sins. 18:10 Now I would say, 18:11 "Okay, she received from Satan's hand, 18:13 she received from the Babylonians hand, 18:15 she received from... 18:16 When we go through experiences and trials 18:19 that are not always very pleasant, 18:21 many times we say the enemy has done this, 18:23 and that is true. 18:24 Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. 18:27 But there are also judgments that come that are redemptive, 18:32 and those come from the Lord, the Babylonian captivity, 18:36 it was redemptive. 18:37 God allowed that to happen 18:40 because the children of Israel had turned their back on God. 18:44 They had spat in His face, 18:46 not just once, not just twice 18:48 but over and over and over again. 18:53 God had called to them 18:54 and they had repented and turned back 18:56 and then they did their own thing 18:57 and followed idols 18:58 and intermarried with a heathen. 19:00 And then God called to them, 19:01 and they repented, and they turned back 19:03 and then they did their own thing 19:04 again and again and again. 19:07 And the final judgment was this Babylonian captivity. 19:12 In Hebrews, we find this, Hebrews 12:6, 19:15 "For whom the Lord loves He chastens," 19:21 Oh, that's kind of hard for me sometimes. 19:22 "For whom the Lord loves He chastens 19:26 and scourges every son whom He receives." 19:30 Verse 11, 19:31 "Now no chastening for the present, 19:33 it's not joyous, but it's grievous. 19:35 Nevertheless, afterward, 19:37 it produces in you and in me 19:40 a peaceable fruit of righteousness 19:44 to those who have been trained by the trial." 19:46 What does that mean? 19:48 The trial seems difficult, it looks difficult, 19:50 it is difficult, 19:52 but in the midst of that, 19:55 you and I are developing a character 19:58 that looks more and more every day, 20:01 like the Lord Jesus Christ. 20:04 Romans 5, you know, I love the book of Romans. 20:06 Romans 5:3, 20:08 God's discipline always has a purpose, 20:11 and I love that about our God. 20:13 Romans 5:3, 20:15 "And not only that, we glory in tribulations..." 20:18 Wait a minute, we glory, that means we rejoice, 20:21 we're happy, we exalt, we exalt in tribulations. 20:27 That word for tribulations in the Greek is thlipsis. 20:31 And it means internal pressure. 20:33 In the Greek, there's two words for this type of trial 20:36 or tribulation. 20:37 One is an external pressure, things that come against us. 20:41 The other one is an internal pressure 20:44 or a mental pressure. 20:46 Have you ever noticed that when you go through things, 20:48 a lot of times, 20:50 the biggest challenge is what you face in your mind. 20:52 It is that internal pressure. 20:54 So we are supposed to glory or exalt or be glad 20:59 when we have times 21:01 where we experience this internal pressure. 21:04 Why? 21:05 Knowing that tribulation, that's the internal pressure, 21:08 it produces perseverance. 21:12 Now the word perseverance in Greek means to remain under. 21:18 Wait a minute. 21:19 So if I'm happy, if I rejoice, if I'm grateful, 21:24 when I go through times of internal stress and trial, 21:28 that allows me to remain under, 21:30 if it stopped there, 21:32 I wouldn't be very happy about that. 21:33 But it doesn't. 21:34 This remaining under, 21:36 this perseverance produces character. 21:39 There is a point in all of that. 21:41 This trial, this pressure, what I am going through, 21:46 and I am experiencing allows me, 21:49 produces in me eventually character, 21:53 growing into the image of Jesus. 21:55 It produces character, 21:57 and afterward that produces hope. 22:02 God is able to comfort us, 22:03 God is clearly able to discipline us, 22:06 God is able to prepare our hearts to receive Him. 22:11 Let's look at verses 3 and 4, Isaiah 40:3-4, 22:15 "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 22:17 'Prepare the way of the Lord, 22:19 make straight in the desert a highway for our God, 22:23 every valley shall be exalted...' " 22:24 The low places are going to be lifted up, " 22:27 And every mountain will be brought low, " 22:29 that means the high places are going to be brought down. 22:32 "The rough places will be made smooth, 22:35 the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, 22:38 and all flesh shall see it together." 22:41 You know, in ancient times, 22:43 that king was not allowed to be jolted by a rough road. 22:45 So they would have people go before 22:47 to prepare the way for the king, 22:50 they would smooth those rough places, 22:52 they would fill in the potholes. 22:54 And if there was a hump in the road, 22:56 they would grind it down. 22:59 In the same way, 23:00 there is a spiritual roadwork 23:02 that is necessary for you and for me 23:04 in order to prepare our hearts to receive Him 23:07 as the King of kings and Lord of lords. 23:10 This particular passage here, 23:11 I think, has three applications. 23:13 Now you might say it has more and maybe it does. 23:16 But there's the immediate application. 23:18 There was those 23:19 who were in Babylonian captivity, 23:21 needed to be prepared to return to their homeland, 23:25 the captives in Babylon, they needed some heart work, 23:28 some spiritual work done 23:29 before they were ready to go home. 23:32 What was that heart work? 23:33 I think they had some obstacles of apathy, 23:36 obstacles of complacency, 23:38 maybe even self-centeredness 23:40 we find in Ezra and in Nehemiah, 23:43 when the call was made, 23:44 "Go back to your homeland. 23:46 Go back to Jerusalem," 23:48 only a small amount of the people went back, why? 23:51 They were comfortable in Babylon, 23:54 they were settled in Babylon, 23:56 they needed this heart work to be done 23:59 in order to prepare them to return to their homeland. 24:04 Then we see a future application 24:06 and the Gospels make this very clear. 24:08 John the Baptist fulfilled this, 24:10 the voice of one crying in the wilderness 24:12 and what was he preparing the way for? 24:14 The hearts of the people needed repentance, 24:18 in order to be ready to receive Jesus. 24:21 This was His first coming as their Messiah. 24:25 And there was a great deal of self-righteousness 24:28 that we saw with the religious leaders of that day, 24:30 and religious externalism. 24:32 And then I see a third application 24:34 which would be you and I today 24:36 waiting for the second coming of Jesus. 24:39 We are, you could say, 24:40 captives on this earth waiting for Him to come again. 24:43 And there is a message again, coming to you and I, 24:46 a message of repentance, a message of obedience, 24:49 a message of the hard work that needs to be done 24:52 in our hearts and in our lives 24:54 for we are Laodicea 24:56 and God says that 24:57 He wants to turn up the fire in our hearts and lives, 25:01 and make us ready for Him. 25:03 So who is this God? 25:04 Who is this God that's able to comfort us? 25:06 Who is this God that's able to discipline us? 25:09 Who is this God that's able to prepare our hearts 25:12 to receive Him? 25:15 I'm going to look at the five characteristics 25:17 of our God 25:19 that I see from Isaiah Chapter 40. 25:20 I'm going to give you the five and then we'll unpack them. 25:23 This God, your God, my God, our God is omnipotent, 25:28 that's number one. 25:29 Number two, He is omniscient. 25:32 Number three, He is sovereign. 25:34 Number four, He is without compare. 25:38 And number five, He is our Creator. 25:41 So let's unpack them. 25:43 We're in Isaiah 40:12, who is your God? 25:45 How big is your God? 25:47 Our God is omnipotent. 25:50 That just means He's all powerful. 25:52 His power is limitless. 25:55 Let's look at Isaiah 40:12, 25:58 "Who has measured the waters 26:00 in the hollow of His hand? 26:03 Measured heaven with a span 26:05 and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure. 26:08 Weighted the mountains in scales, 26:11 and the hills in a balance." 26:13 Who is this God? 26:14 Who is this God that can hold the waters 26:17 in the hollow or the palm of His hand? 26:20 Now I don't know about you, 26:21 but I could maybe hold a cup of water, 26:24 I could definitely hold this, you could too, probably. 26:28 Maybe we could hold a quart. 26:29 If you're a really strong body builder, 26:31 maybe you could hold a gallon or maybe five gallons. 26:34 I couldn't even attempt that. 26:35 But maybe you could hold five gallons 26:37 outstretched with your hand. 26:39 But do you know how much water is on the earth. 26:45 If you count the oceans, and the rivers, 26:47 and the sea and the vastness of all of it, 26:50 we're talking 326 million trillion gallons of water. 26:56 We're not talking about a God 26:57 who can hold five gallon bucket and balance it. 26:59 And we think that was a pretty tremendous feat, 27:02 or God who can hold 100 gallons 27:04 or 1,000 gallons or 100, 000 gallons 27:08 but 326 million trillion gallons, 27:11 who has measured the waters, 27:13 he can measure all the waters of the earth 27:15 in the hollow of His hand. 27:16 Measured heaven with a span 27:18 and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, 27:21 how can you even calculate the dust of the earth? 27:25 They say that earth's atmosphere contains 27:28 17 million metric tons of coarse dirt. 27:32 Now that's quite a bit of coarse dirt, 27:34 17 million. 27:35 That would be the mass of 17 million elephants 27:38 all put together. 27:39 And he measures that in a measure, 27:43 weighted the mountains in scales, 27:45 there's over 1 million mountains on earth today, 27:48 weighted them in a scale, and the hills in a balance. 27:53 Do you feel like 27:54 you're going through a hard time? 27:55 Do you feel like your problems are insurmountable, 27:58 and you can't even measure them, 28:01 and you can't even see over them. 28:03 Our God, your God is omnipotent. 28:07 He can hold the sea in the palm of His hand, 28:10 He can hold the dust. 28:12 Our God is omnipotent. 28:14 Our God is omniscient. 28:16 That just means that He is all knowing. 28:19 His wisdom, it is unsearchable. 28:21 Let's look at the next verse, Isaiah 40:13-14, 28:26 "Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord 28:30 or as His counselor has taught Him?" 28:32 So what's He saying? Who's taught God? 28:35 So how did God get to be so smart? 28:36 And I mean that 28:38 in the most respectful way possible. 28:39 How did God develop wisdom? 28:42 Who taught Him? 28:43 How did He learn all that? 28:46 You know, my uncle is a nuclear physicist. 28:49 And when I was growing up, I would always say, 28:52 "Uncle, what do you do?" 28:54 And he would try to explain 28:55 and it would go in one ear and out the other 28:58 'cause he is incredibly brilliant. 29:02 He works at a teaching hospital. 29:03 He teaches nuclear physics to aspiring other doctors. 29:09 He works with the machines and works with patients, 29:13 he's incredible. 29:14 My grandfather is a doctor, and my dad is a doctor, 29:17 and my other uncle is a doctor. 29:19 But that means nothing, 29:21 if you had the best doctors in the world, 29:25 if you had the best legal defense team 29:27 in the country, 29:29 could they teach God anything? 29:30 If you had a Nobel Prize winner, 29:33 would they be able to teach anything? 29:35 Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord 29:37 or as His counselor has taught Him? 29:39 Our God is omniscient. Our God knows everything. 29:44 He sees everything, His wisdom is unsearchable. 29:48 "With whom did He take counsel, 29:50 who instructed Him 29:52 and taught Him the path of justice? 29:54 Who taught Him knowledge 29:55 and showed Him the way of understanding?" 30:00 Number three characteristic of God. 30:02 God is sovereign, His authority is absolute. 30:08 Let's look at the next verse, Isaiah 40:15-17. 30:12 "Behold, the nations," 30:13 they're just a drop in the bucket, 30:15 "are counted as small dust on the scales. 30:19 Look, He lifts up the isles or the islands 30:21 as a very little thing." 30:23 Now the nations are a drop in the bucket. 30:25 How many nations do we have here on earth? 30:28 There's 195 countries, if you don't count Taiwan, 30:32 you don't count the Cook Islands 30:34 and other dependencies. 30:35 So there's at least 195 countries. 30:37 He measures them, all those nations, 30:40 all that landmass, all those governments, 30:42 all those people, He measures them what? 30:45 As simply a drop in the bucket. 30:48 They're counted as small dust on the scales. 30:51 He lifts up the islands 30:53 and the islands in the sea as a very small thing. 30:57 "Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, 30:59 nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. 31:02 All nations are before Him as nothing. 31:06 And they are accounted by Him 31:07 less than nothing and worthless." 31:09 Verse 23 says, 31:11 "He brings the princes to nothing. 31:14 He makes the judges of the earth useless." 31:17 It reminds me of Daniel chapter 4. 31:19 Remember, Nebuchadnezzar, and he was king of Babylon. 31:24 He was a good king, 31:25 and he was a brilliant military leader. 31:27 He was also quite stuck on himself 31:30 and egotistical. 31:31 And I have a feeling 31:33 if you and I associated with him, 31:34 he'd probably rub us the wrong way. 31:35 And so he believed that Babylon was its greatness, 31:40 its beauty, its power, 31:42 its might was a result of what he had done. 31:46 His power, 31:47 his superior military intelligence, 31:50 his genius. 31:52 And so God through the Prophet Daniel worked with him, 31:56 gave him a dream, vision. 31:58 Daniel interpreted it, said, 31:59 "Please, oh, king, repent and recognize 32:02 the sovereignty of God." 32:04 And he did for a time and then about a year later, 32:06 he walked in Babylon and said, 32:08 "Is not this the great Babylon that I have built?" 32:12 And then at that very moment, 32:14 as the words were just coming from his mouth, what happened? 32:18 He became like a raving lunatic, 32:20 you could say, and he crawled on the grass, 32:23 and he ate grass for seven years, 32:26 until he knew and acknowledged and understood 32:31 that the Most High the God in heaven is God, 32:37 and He is sovereign. 32:39 And His authority is absolute. 32:41 And when Nebuchadnezzar's sanity 32:43 was returned to him toward the end, 32:46 he said what? 32:47 Those who walk in pride, 32:49 he is able to abase 32:51 because Nebuchadnezzar had experienced that firsthand. 32:54 Our God is omnipotent, He can do anything. 32:59 Our God is omniscient. 33:01 He knows everything. 33:03 In fact, He created all knowledge 33:05 and all intelligence that any one of us have. 33:08 Our God is sovereign, His authority, it is absolute. 33:12 Number four, 33:14 our God, I love this one, is without compare. 33:19 Isaiah 40:18, 33:21 "To whom then will you liken God?" 33:23 Isaiah said, 33:24 "Okay, so this God can hold the seas 33:26 in the palm of His hand, 33:27 and this God can measure heavens with a span, 33:30 this God can pick up the islands from the sea, 33:32 and He can put the mountains down. 33:35 This God can do everything, this God knows everything. 33:38 To whom are you going to liken God? 33:40 To whom will you liken God?" 33:42 And of course, the answer is Nobody. 33:44 Nobody. 33:46 Our God is without compare. 33:49 "Or what likeness will you compare to Him? 33:52 The workman molds an image, 33:54 the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, 33:57 and the silversmith casts silver chains. 34:00 Whoever is too impoverished 34:02 for such a contribution 34:03 chooses a tree that will not rot. 34:05 He seeks for himself a skillful workman 34:09 to prepare a carved image that will not totter." 34:12 To whom we liken God? 34:14 The answer is nobody. 34:16 Nobody compares with our God. 34:19 Workmen can't create an image, they can't create an idol, 34:23 even the best crafted workmanship, 34:26 the most beautiful designs and architecture 34:28 or in art that we see today is nothing compared to our God. 34:35 Characteristic number five, 34:36 our God, your God, my God is our Creator. 34:41 Let's look at Isaiah 40:21, "Have you not known? 34:47 Have you not heard? 34:50 Has it not been told you from the beginning? 34:52 Have you not understood 34:54 from the foundations of the earth?" 34:56 From the very beginning of time, 34:58 have you not known this? 35:01 "It is He..." 35:02 God, our God, 35:03 "Who sits above the circle of the earth, 35:05 and the inhabitants, we're just like grasshoppers. 35:08 He stretches out the heavens like a curtain 35:11 and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in." 35:15 Jump down to verse 25, 35:18 "'To whom then will you liken Me? 35:21 Or whom shall I be equal', says the Holy One. 35:26 Lift up your eyes on high, 35:28 and see who has created these things, 35:31 who brings out their host by number, 35:35 He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might, 35:39 and the strength of His power, not one of them is missing." 35:43 Did you catch that? 35:44 Who set the world in motion 35:46 and keeps the galaxies in their orbit? 35:48 Who created the universe and hung the stars? 35:51 Who can compare with a God who does that? 35:54 Lift up your eyes and see, the Lord, your Creator, 35:59 your redeemer, He did that. 36:02 He hung the galaxies, He hung the moon and the stars, 36:05 He created this earth, 36:07 He spoke it into existence and formed you and I, 36:13 with His hands, the dust of the earth, 36:15 but He formed us with His hand, Adam and Eve, and by extension, 36:20 the rest of us. 36:21 He created us. 36:22 Who is a god like that? 36:25 Our God, your God, 36:27 my God is omnipotent, He's all powerful. 36:30 He's omniscient, He is all knowing, 36:33 He is sovereign, 36:35 He is without compare, and He is our Creator. 36:40 So what does that do for us here today? 36:42 You might say, "Okay, that's great, Jill, 36:44 I'm glad to know that God's all powerful. 36:45 I'm glad to know He can do anything. 36:48 I'm kind of glad to know that He knows everything 36:50 and that He's sovereign, omniscient. 36:54 I'm kind of glad to know that He's without compare, 36:57 and there's nobody who compares with Him. 36:59 I'm kind of glad to know that He is creator, 37:01 but what's that mean for me today?" 37:03 These are the lessons that I learned 37:06 from what we've just studied here in Isaiah Chapter 40. 37:12 First lesson, look at your problems 37:15 against the backdrop of your incomparable God. 37:20 So if we have an illustration here, 37:22 imagine that God is here, 37:24 okay, just for the purpose of imagination, 37:26 imagine God is here. 37:28 And your problems are right here 37:29 where the lectern is. 37:31 Often, we look at our problems this way, 37:38 God's here behind me, 37:39 I turned my back to God. 37:41 And I look at my problem here and what happens? 37:43 They grow. Have you ever noticed that? 37:45 They become insurmountable. 37:47 I look and I say, 37:48 "But what am I gonna do with that? 37:50 God, that's a cancer diagnosis." 37:52 Are you facing that? 37:53 "God, that's a marriage that's splitting up." 37:55 Are you facing that? 37:56 "God, that's a friendship that I've had for years, 37:59 and it's destroyed." 38:00 Are you facing that? 38:02 "God, my kids have walked away from You? 38:04 And I don't even know what to do with that." 38:06 Are you facing that? 38:08 "God, I'm afraid during this time," 38:12 are you facing fear? 38:13 "God, I feel alone, God, I feel abandoned. 38:17 God, I don't even know." 38:18 And so we turn our back to God, and we put Him behind us, 38:21 and we look at our problems here. 38:23 And they look insurmountable. 38:27 Instead, we should look at our God. 38:30 And the problems 38:32 are going to go into perspective. 38:33 So instead of having your back to God, 38:35 and looking at your problems, 38:37 and looking at the greatness of them, 38:38 and the grandeur of them, 38:40 and what you are going through right now, 38:42 and there's some tough stuff, 38:44 there's some tough stuff in this world. 38:46 So that is not negating what the problems are. 38:49 But if you turn around, and you face this way, 38:52 and you look at the problems 38:54 through the lens of God on the other side, 38:56 those problems are like a grasshopper, 38:58 as we just read. 38:59 They become like a one grain of sand 39:01 on the seashore. 39:03 If you look at what you are going through, 39:05 if you look at the experiences in your life, 39:08 through the lens of who your God is, 39:11 your God can hold the water, 39:13 all the ocean in the palm of His hand. 39:15 Your God can measure the grains of sand, 39:18 your God can pick up the mountains, 39:20 and He can pick up the islands of the sea, 39:22 your God knows everything. 39:24 What's He going to do with this problem 39:26 of not having enough food to eat? 39:27 What's He going to do with this problem 39:29 of not knowing what I'm going to do 39:30 with my health? 39:31 Your God can do anything. 39:34 What matters supremely in the last analysis 39:37 is not the fact that I know God. 39:40 Rather, it's the fact that my God knows me. 39:44 If you hear nothing else today, I want you to hear that. 39:47 What matters most 39:48 is not the fact that you know God 39:50 and you're seeking God, and that is powerful, 39:52 but what is even more powerful is that your God, He knows you. 39:58 And I want you say this with me. 39:59 I am graven on the palm of His hand, 40:03 know that today. 40:05 You are graven on the palm of His hand. 40:08 You are never out of His mind. 40:11 All of my knowledge of Him 40:13 depends on His sustained initiative 40:15 in knowing who I am, 40:17 even what I think 40:19 I understand in the Word of God, 40:20 that depends on Him revealing it to me. 40:22 Even what I understand when I spend time in prayer 40:25 or I study or I experience Him in nature, 40:28 that whole depends on His initiative 40:31 in knowing me. 40:33 I know Him because why? 40:35 Because He first knew me. 40:37 And there is no moment when His eye is off me. 40:40 There is no moment 40:42 when His attention is distracted from me. 40:45 There is no moment when His care for me falters. 40:49 This is momentous knowledge, this is unspeakable comfort. 40:54 My God, your God 40:57 is constantly watching over us for our good. 41:01 So the first lesson I learned 41:02 from this whole passage in Isaiah 40 41:04 is that I am to look at my problems 41:08 against the backdrop of who my God is. 41:12 If you understand who your God is, 41:14 if you know Him, 41:16 if you know that He knows you, 41:19 and you look at that against the backdrop 41:21 of who your God is, 41:23 those problems, they're going to change. 41:26 It doesn't mean they go away. 41:27 It doesn't mean that we don't sometimes walk 41:29 through the valley of the shadow. 41:31 It doesn't mean that there isn't pain, 41:33 but it means that God walks with you. 41:36 And He is with you in the midst of that, 41:40 it kind of puts life into perspective. 41:43 The second lesson I learned is to change my focus to God, 41:47 instead of complaining about the present. 41:50 I don't know about you, but I can complain sometimes. 41:52 I can say, "God, why is this happening? 41:54 Or, God, I don't understand, or God... 41:57 Could you change this?" 41:58 And yet, if we look at Isaiah 40:27, 42:02 it says, "Why do you say, O Jacob, 42:04 and speak, O Israel. 42:06 Why do you say my way is hidden from the Lord? 42:09 And my just claims is passed over by my God." 42:14 Job cried out the same type of complaint. 42:17 We see that in Job 19:7, he said, "I cry out help. 42:23 But You don't answer me. 42:24 I protest, and there is no judgment." 42:29 There is no justice. 42:31 So instead of complaining, I just call it whining, 42:35 about what is going on right now in your life. 42:40 Change your focus to who your God is. 42:43 Look at Him against that backdrop. 42:47 Remember, look at the problems 42:48 against the backdrop of who your God is. 42:52 Lesson number three that I gained, 42:54 our almighty God, 42:56 our omnipotent God, our omniscient God, 43:01 our sovereign God, our Creator God. 43:04 He specializes in reaching the unreachable, 43:07 and empowering the hopeless, 43:10 in strengthening the weakest and encouraging the lowest, 43:14 and lifting the oppressed. 43:17 Isaiah 40:28-29. 43:20 I love this passage, 43:22 we're coming to the climax of Isaiah Chapter 40. 43:24 We're almost done with this chapter. 43:25 I love this. 43:27 "Have you not known? 43:28 Have you not heard? 43:31 The everlasting God..." 43:33 That's the omnipotent God. 43:34 That's the omniscient God. 43:35 That is your Creator God, the everlasting God. 43:39 "The Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, 43:42 He neither faints, nor is weary. 43:46 His understanding is unsearchable. 43:49 He gifts power to the weak, 43:51 and to those who have no might, He increases strength." 43:56 Do you feel unreachable? Do you feel hopeless? 43:58 Do you feel weak? Do you feel low? 44:00 Do you feel oppressed? 44:02 Our God, your God, my God, 44:05 He specializes in reaching the unreachable, 44:10 and empowering the hopeless, 44:12 and strengthening the weakest, and encouraging the lowest, 44:17 in lifting the oppressed. 44:21 Finally, the last lesson I get is waiting on God 44:25 increases your power and your strength. 44:29 Do you need power? 44:30 Do you need strength? 44:33 Wait on God. 44:34 This is the final two verses of this section, 44:36 Isaiah 40:30-31. 44:39 "Even the youths shall faint and be weary, 44:42 and the young men, they shall utterly fall. 44:47 But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. 44:51 They shall mount up with wings like eagles, 44:54 they shall run and not be weary, 44:57 they shall walk and they're not going faint." 45:02 Do you know sometimes 45:08 the Christian walk we make 45:09 more stressful than it needs to be. 45:13 Let me give you an example. 45:15 This applies right here in this Isaiah chapter 40. 45:18 I think of Isaiah 26:3, what does that scripture say? 45:21 "You will keep him in perfect peace, " 45:23 God will keep us in perfect peace 45:26 whose mind is stayed on Him. 45:27 Because why? Because we trust in Him. 45:32 That verse used to stress me, 45:34 I would say, "Okay, God, if I want perfect peace, 45:38 I need to keep my mind on God, 45:39 I need to focus on Him, I need to keep focused on Him. 45:43 If I want perfect peace, I need to be focused on Him. 45:46 But what it really means in the Hebrew 45:48 is that we are called to lean on, 45:51 we are called to rely on, 45:55 so instead of me focusing and thinking, 45:57 "Think harder, Jill, focus more on God." 45:59 All it literally means is I put my head in His lap, 46:03 and He will keep my heart in perfect peace. 46:05 When I read this verse, 46:07 "Those who wait on the Lord renew their strength," 46:09 that's not meant to be a stressful time of waiting, 46:12 it simply means you lean your head on Him, 46:16 relax on Him as your Abba, daddy, 46:19 and know that He will renew your strength, 46:22 that you can mount up with wings like eagles run 46:24 and not be weary, walk and not faint. 46:27 How big is your God today? 46:30 Is your God omnipotent? 46:32 Is your God omniscient? 46:34 Is your God sovereign? 46:36 Is your God without compare? 46:38 Is your God your Creator? 46:42 It was a Monday night 46:43 and I was with the women from church. 46:47 And we were at our local jail, 46:49 doing Bible studies to the women there in the jail. 46:53 And the music swelled as we approached the refrain, 46:57 "I need thee, O I need thee. 46:59 Every hour, I need thee. 47:02 O bless me now my Savior, I come to thee." 47:06 There was never enough room in the little cell, 47:09 a cement block wall cell 47:10 that we had our Bible studies in, 47:12 and so the girls would sit four across on the desk. 47:15 And then they would line the wall. 47:17 Sometimes they would sit cross-legged on the floor. 47:22 And we always sang, and then we prayed. 47:26 And then we would begin to share something 47:29 from the Word of God. 47:30 And this particular night I asked them to share 47:32 about the temptations that they had each experienced. 47:35 And they went around and I was struck 47:37 as they talked by the similarities 47:39 between those temptations. 47:41 Now they might not sound similar. 47:43 It was food, and fear, 47:45 and anger, and cutting, sex, drugs, 47:48 they don't sound similar, 47:49 but there's the same emptiness inside, 47:52 the same void that was inside 47:55 that they were struggling desperately to fill. 47:59 And I brought to the jail that night 48:01 these cups that you see here, colored with crayons. 48:04 The first cup, 48:06 I don't know if you can see this, 48:07 the first cup was pretty dirty. 48:09 It's covered with dirt, 48:10 we can imagine it's covered with mud. 48:12 And if you look inside, it's pretty dirty as well. 48:15 It reminds me 48:16 of how Satan twists our thinking, 48:19 and he defiles our hearts 48:22 and he smears us up on the outside. 48:24 He can do a pretty good job of breaking us, 48:27 a pretty good job of making us alone, 48:30 putting us in bondage, 48:32 making other people look at us even with revulsion 48:35 because of the sin that sticks to our lives. 48:39 Sometimes we try to clean up, this cup looks pretty nice. 48:43 It looks pretty clean. 48:45 But if you look inside, it's dirty, it's filthy. 48:49 This reminds me of hypocritical Christians, 48:52 and people with a holier than thou attitude who think, 48:54 "I got it together 48:56 and I'm going to do everything just right." 48:58 But yet the heart is deceitful, 49:01 above all things and desperately wicked, 49:03 who can know it? 49:05 When Jesus gets a hold of us, 49:08 we might look like this to other people initially, 49:10 we might look like there's mud on the outside. 49:13 But if you look inside the cup, we're pure, we're forgiven. 49:17 We are made new. 49:20 I think the thief on the cross would fall into this category. 49:23 On lookers, they saw nothing but a thief who was dying. 49:27 They saw a lot of mud and a lot of actions 49:29 that they thought had smeared him up 49:30 on the outside. 49:32 But when heaven looked at his heart, 49:33 they saw that he was forgiven. 49:35 They saw that he was cleansed. 49:36 They saw that he was restored. 49:38 And of course this cup represents our Savior. 49:40 Perfect without any spot, without any blemish, 49:43 outside and inside. 49:46 And I just got to that point. 49:47 And Karen, that's not her name, but we'll call her Karen. 49:50 She said, "I know which cup I am," 49:52 and I said, "Which cup, Karen?" 49:54 And she said, "This is me right here. 49:56 When people look at me, I look filthy, 49:59 I'm in jail, I look dirty. 50:01 But I know Jesus has changed me inside, 50:03 but nobody else can see it." 50:05 And I reached out to her. 50:07 And I said, "You know, Karen, you may feel like this cup, 50:10 you may feel that you're dirty, 50:11 you may feel that other people look at you 50:14 in that fashion. 50:15 But you've been coming to Bible studies 50:17 for many months, 50:18 and we have seen the change in your life. 50:20 We've seen how you encourage the other girls, 50:22 and we see how you want to study 50:23 the Word of God 50:25 and even your face has changed. 50:27 From guarded and dark 50:28 to being open, transparent sunshine. 50:32 When we look at you, Karen, we see the pure cup, 50:35 pure inside 50:36 'cause Jesus has changed you but pure outside 50:39 because when God gets a hold of our life, 50:41 when He gets a hold of us inside, 50:44 we are transformed from the inside out." 50:50 How big is your God today? 50:51 I don't know what bondage you're in, 50:55 what addiction you struggle with, 50:57 what insurmountable trial is in your life right now, 51:01 and you're looking at it with your back to God and say, 51:03 "That problem's too big, God, I can't climb that mountain. 51:07 God, I can't swim that river. 51:09 God, I can't go down into the ocean. 51:11 God, I can't do it." 51:13 But if you turn around 51:15 and look at whatever you are dealing with, 51:17 whatever is in your heart today, 51:21 whatever is dirty, whatever is defiled, 51:23 our God is able, 51:25 our God is able to forgive, our God is able to restore, 51:29 our God is omnipotent. 51:31 He is all powerful, He is omniscient. 51:35 Our God is sovereign, our God is without compare. 51:39 He is your Creator. 51:41 Will you let Him come in? 51:43 How great is our God? 51:46 Sing with me how great is our God. 51:50 All will see, all will rejoice, 51:53 how great, how great is our God. 52:02 The splendor of the King 52:08 Clothed in majesty 52:12 Let all the world rejoice 52:15 Let all the earth rejoice 52:19 He wraps himself in light 52:24 And darkness tries to hide 52:29 And trembles at His voice 52:31 And trembles at His voice 52:36 How great is our God 52:41 Sing with me how great is our God 52:47 And all will see how great 52:50 How great is our God 53:00 And age to age He stands 53:04 And time is in His hands 53:08 Beginning and the end 53:11 Beginning and the end 53:14 The Godhead Three in One 53:20 The Father, Spirit, Son 53:24 The Lion and the Lamb 53:26 The Lion and the Lamb 53:30 How great is our God 53:34 O sing with me how great is our God 53:39 And all will see how great 53:43 How great is our God 53:51 Name above all names 53:56 He is worthy of all praise 54:01 My heart will sing 54:04 How great is our God 54:12 How great is our God 54:18 Sing with me how great are you God 54:23 O all the world will see 54:27 How great 54:30 Is our God 54:48 Are you grateful who our God is? 54:51 Are you grateful 54:52 that He's a God that created you, 54:54 that He's a God that knows you, 54:57 that He's a God that understands you, 54:59 that He's a God that sees 55:01 in the midst of what you're going through? 55:03 In the midst of your battle, in the midst of your trial, 55:06 in the midst of your Babylonian captivity, 55:09 we could say, 55:11 you could be walking 55:12 through Isaiah Chapter 40 right now, 55:14 saying, "God, 55:15 I've been in captivity for years, 55:17 I want to be set free. 55:19 I want to be delivered. 55:22 I want to go home. 55:24 But I don't know how. 55:25 Look at your God. 55:28 Take a look at who your God is, know that He is omnipotent. 55:34 Your God is all powerful. 55:37 Your God can do anything. 55:39 Your God can walk on water and deliver you from any trial, 55:44 any affliction, 55:45 anything that you are experiencing 55:47 right now in your life. 55:48 Know that your God is omniscient. 55:51 Your God knows everything. 55:54 No matter what decision you are facing today, 55:59 He says, "I have the answer. 56:01 I can deliver you. 56:04 I can provide you the solution and the way out." 56:08 Your God is sovereign and without compare. 56:14 Your God made you 56:15 and He wants to recreate in you the image of Jesus. 56:19 Would you open up your heart to Him right now and say, 56:21 "Yes, God, I want to accept You. 56:24 Yes, God, I know I'm dirty. 56:27 I know that Satan has done a good job of sparing me up, 56:30 but I want to be made whole. 56:32 I want to become pure. 56:34 I want to be changed from the inside out"? 56:36 And you might think you've gone too far, 56:38 you might think you've done too much, 56:40 you might think you have exhausted 56:43 God's patience, 56:44 but the truth is 56:46 that you have never gone too far 56:47 where He cannot see you, 56:48 and know you, and understand you, 56:50 and reach you, and redeem you, 56:54 and change you into the image of Jesus. 56:56 Let's pray. 56:58 Holy Father, we come before You now 56:59 because we are your children. 57:01 Thank You that You are our Father. 57:03 Thank You that You are our God. 57:06 We accept You just now. 57:08 We ask that You would come in, that You would change, 57:12 that You would transform 57:14 by the power of Your Holy Spirit. 57:16 Thank You for revealing to us today 57:19 who You are. 57:21 We accept You by faith 57:23 and we ask all this 57:24 in the precious and the Holy name of Jesus. 57:27 Amen. |
Revised 2021-02-05