everyone and welcome to steadfast baptist church great to see you all here if you can go ahead and
find a seat we'll go ahead and get started start this morning off another great christmas hymn
song number 429 hark the herald angel sing song number 429 and sing it out nice and loud all
together song 429 hark the herald angel sing sing it out on the first 29 on the second singing
everybody go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer heavenly father we thank you for
steadfast baptist church and everyone that's gathered here we thank you for your son jesus
christ sending him to us to offer free salvation lord lord god we ask that you fill pastor shelly
with your holy spirit help him to preach an edifying sermon so we can walk out better
christians we came in for your honor and glory it's in jesus name we pray amen all right next
up we have uh oh come oh come emmanuel it's in your white handouts if you do not have one go
ahead and raise your hand bring one on to you oh come oh come emmanuel this is a new one for us so
if you know it sing it out nice and loud if you don't know it sing it out nice and loud sing it
out together oh come oh come emmanuel on the first uh looks like we had different lyrics i
apologize for that let's go ahead and take it a second if you don't have a bulletin you'd like
one just lift your hands up nice and high that was your sample into special music for this morning so
good thing brother rich can sing really well we really enjoyed that thank you for those specials
and if you look on the inside of our bulletin we have our service times our soul winning times
and church stats also on the right we have some expecting ladies if you'd please be in prayer for
them i really appreciate it if you have any additional prayer requests that you would like
for us to be in prayer with you can email that to us or fill out a communication card and put it in
our offering and we'd like to be in prayer with you throughout the week on the back we have a note
we have a cleaning volunteer luncheon this afternoon and I think most people had already
responded but if you if you haven't just please see me immediately following it's just a luncheon to
talk about our cleaning volunteer rotation and everything and so we'd like for you to join us
just this Sunday we're just going to have that fellowship room only for that cleaning luncheon
so if you normally kind of use that area if you could just use some other area for today
then we have our Christmas cookie bake-off it's going to be happening on Christmas day
and so we're having our normal regular service time at seven. I'll be preaching a different
message I won't be preaching Matthew six we'll have to wait another week to get there but I'll
be preaching a message we'll have a candlelight service and then immediately following we're going
to have our Christmas cookie bake-off and so we'll have milk and some soft drinks to go along with
those cookies but we'd love for you to join us for that Christmas day celebration. There is
going to be a couple prizes for a few different categories so we have a prize for the best tasting,
the best decorated and then the most creative and so we allow everybody to end up voting and whoever
gets the most wins. It is possible technically for one cookie to win all three categories.
I don't think that we've ever had a year where anybody won two categories even with the same
cookie but it is possible. Of course you can also enter as many kinds or types so if you want to
enter multiple options you can so we don't discriminate against you bringing cookies.
The only other tip I would give is just because there's so many people often if you have a larger
batch or several samples it really helps as far as getting more people to try your cookie and
everything like that but we've really had some pretty amazing cookies in times past especially
from the creative categories and everything like that and so definitely you should put some energy
into it all right so but uh really looking forward to it it's it's a lot of fun our church really has
a good time with it down below is a couple other announcements we have the January 1st we're going
to have a men's preaching night as well as pizza and so instead of having a normal preaching time
we're going to let men do popcorn preaching so any men that want to preach prepare about a five
minute sermon wear a button-up shirt and tie and we'll allow various men from our church to preach
a shorter sermon to us and then we'll have pizza fellowship immediately following that. January
11th through the 12th I've been invited to go down to the Houston area for a soul winning and
a preaching event so that's going to be a Saturday and Sunday I'm going to be down there and we're
going to be doing soul winning at 10 a.m. so we'll be meeting at the church there at 9 a.m.
we'll go out soul winning for a couple hours have lunch and then go soul winning again in the
afternoon for a while and then I think we're going to have a fellowship event in the evening
and then I'll be preaching both services that Sunday and so if you would like to
join us down there we'd love to have you I'll probably have a sign-up sheet for those that are
planning on attending and we might be able to help with lodging for people that may want to
come down there so I'm going to wait probably a week and I'll get a sign-up sheet but you can
at least put it on your radar if you would like to join us for the soul winning event and everything
like that. We have plenty of other soul winning events and opportunities scheduled for next year
and hopefully by the beginning of next year we'll kind of give you an idea of what
next year is going to look like but we have tons and tons of soul winning opportunities.
We are going to be going back to Mexico and it looks like we'll probably do it at the beginning
of February that weekend that's kind of at the beginning. I'm going to make sure to confirm a
few more things and then I'll make a public announcement about that exact trip but we're
going to be going back to Reynosa and so we've been going to Matamoros several years in a row.
This year we're going to go back to Reynosa and Reynosa is a very receptive area it's larger than
Matamoros and it doesn't have La Cansaria but it has La Fogada and it's a great restaurant as well
and in fact it's funny because the first time we went to Matamoros I was like thinking man I'm
disappointed we won't get to eat at La Fogada there's nothing as good but then I found La
Cansaria and I was like wow I didn't realize that this is so good but again La Fogada is a great
who's been to La Fogada okay somebody there I saw that hand you almost snuck it up yeah it's good
isn't it all right can I get a witness all right so La Fogada is a great restaurant really enjoyed
it um that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements so we'll go ahead and sing our
third song we're going to sing psalm 119 it's in our special psalm booklets psalm 119 that's
uh psalm 119 luckily we all have the lyrics to this one so this should be uh much better
sing it out all together
buddy as the offering place you're going around would you please turn your bibles to isaiah
chapter number seven isaiah chapter number seven isaiah seven bible reads and it came to pass
in the days of ahaz the son of jotham the son of aziah king of juda that reason the king of syria
and pika the son of rimaliah king of israel went up toward jerusalem to war against it
but could not prevail against it and it was told the house of david saying syria is confederate
with ephraim and his heart was moved and the heart of his people as the trees of the wood
are moved with the wind then said the lord unto isaiah go forth now to meet ahaz thou
and sherath jasheb thy son at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the
fuller's field and say unto him take heed and be quiet fear not neither be faint-hearted for the
two tales of these smoking firebrands for the fierce anger of reason with syria and of the son
of rimaliah because syria ephraim and the son of rimaliah have taken evil counsel against these
saying let us go up against judah and vex it and let us make a breach therein for us and set a king
in the midst of it even the son of tabiel thus saith the lord god it shall not stand neither shall
it come to pass for the head of syria is damascus and the head of damascus is reason and within
three score and five years shall ephraim be broken that it be not a people and the head of ephraim
is samaria and the head of samaria is rimaliah's son if you will not believe surely you shall not
be established moreover the lord spake again unto ahaz saying ask thee a sign of the lord thy god
ask it either in the depth or in the height above but ahaz said i will not ask neither will i tempt
the lord and he said hear ye now oh house of david is it a small thing for you to weary men
but will you weary my god also therefore the lord himself shall give you a sign behold a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son and shall call his name emmanuel butter and honey shall he eat that he
may know to refuse the evil and choose the good for before the child shall know to refuse the evil
and choose the good the land that thou of horus shall be forsaken of both her kings the lord shall
bring upon thee and upon thy people and upon thy father's house days that have not come from the
day that ephraim departed from juda even the king of assyria and it shall come to pass in that day
that the lord shall hiss for the fly that is in the uttermost part of the rivers of egypt
and for the bee that is in the land of assyria and they shall come and shall rest all of them
in the desolate valleys and in the holes of the rocks and upon all thorns and upon all bushes
in the same day shall the lord shave with a razor that is hired namely by them beyond the river
by the king of assyria the head and the hair of the feet and it shall also consume the beard
and it shall come to pass in that day that a man shall nourish a young cow and two sheep
and it shall come to pass for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter
for butter and honey shall everyone eat that is left in the land and it shall come to pass
in that day that every place shall be where there were a thousand vines and a thousand silverlings
it shall even be for briars and thorns with arrows and with bows shall men come thither
because all the land shall become briars and thorns and on all hills that shall be
digged with a mattock there shall not come thither the fear of briars and thorns but it shall be for
the sending forth of oxen and for the treading of lesser cattle inspire heads for a word of prayer
father in heaven we thank you for the christmas season and just for this day in our church and i
pray that you fill pastor shelly with your spirit enable him to preach the sermon he played on his
heart with boldness help us to pay close attention to the message to apply it and to glorify you
better in our everyday lives we love you and in jesus name i pray amen amen before i get into the
sermon i forgot the most important announcement we had a special uh insert in our bulletin about
the congratulations to the brooks on the birth of their daughter rosa lee marie and she was born on
the 12th 252 pm weighing six pounds seven ounces congratulations with them and that goes really
well with our sermon because we are talking about birth and birth is a special miracle it's a
special event and the bible brings us up here in verse number 14 therefore the lord himself
shall give you a sign behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name
emmanuel and so the bible tells us that the lord jesus christ being born is a special sign this is
a prophetic message that's being delivered here in the book of isaiah about the lord jesus christ
i'm not going to have you turn there but in matthew chapter one the bible basically quotes
this passage and it says behold a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son
and they should call his name emmanuel which being interpreted is god with us and so in isaiah chapter
number four i'm sorry isaiah chapter number seven verse 14 it does not tell us explicitly the meaning
of the name but in the new testament it tells us what emmanuel means and it means god with us and
that's the title of my sermon this morning is god with us when we celebrate christmas we're
celebrating the fact that god was with us god came down from heaven and dwelt among men the word
became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as of the glory of the only begotten of the
father full of grace and truth and so according to the bible we celebrate god being with us
but this theme of god being with us is not limited to the 30 so years that jesus christ lived on this
earth but god is always with christians god is always with us and even in the book of isaiah
even though they didn't have jesus christ god manifest in the flesh to come and physically
dwell among them he gave them another child as a sign that god was with them that god is for them
now look at verse one of chapter eight moreover the lord said unto me take thee a great role and
write in it with a man's pen concerning mayer shella hashbaz and i took him to meet faithful
witnesses to record uriah the priest and zechariah the son of Jebrechiah and i went under the
prophetess and she conceived and bear a son then said the lord to me call his name mayer shella
hashbaz so the prophet has a child names them this unique name mayer shella hashbaz and you
could look it up it's something like quickly to the plunder and really the whole the whole point
that's being made is that there's two enemies coming against jerusalem and going to attack them
but god is going to send someone else to attack them and that's going to cause jerusalem to not
be destroyed not to succumb to the pressures and that's why it's being bring up all these
different places for syria and damascus and reason and all these different things and he's saying
hey by the time this child you know before he can really even understand his left hand from his
right hand he can understand who his mom and his dad is before he's going to understand butter and
honey and all these different things he you know you're already going to be delivered of these
enemies that are coming against you and that's what the name of this child is signifying and he
is a sign that god is still with them because in the midst of battle in the midst of opposition
in the midst of persecution sometimes it can feel like god is not with you but god wants to sometimes
give us a sign and say no no god is with us god is with us in the bible now look at verse 13
sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself, and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.
The world wants you to fear them. Enemies want you to fear them.
Persecutors want you to fear them. The godless want you to fear them.
The government wants you to fear them. But we are to fear God. We are to allow God to be our dread.
We are supposed to make God our fear. And we are supposed to tremble in His presence,
not at the presence of man. And so when they have man coming and putting pressure
and forces against them, they're not to be afraid of them. They are to be afraid of God.
And we are supposed to fear the Lord. What does it look like to fear the Lord? Well,
keeping His commandments, going to church, praying, still seeking the Lord. You're afraid of what God
will do to you. You're not afraid of what they will do to you. Obviously, God can use man to
afflict us and things like that. But really, our fear should be of God. As Christians, God does not
want us to fear anything but Him. He only wants us to tremble at His Word, to fear at His Word and
His commandments, and to seek Him for the remedy of all of our problems. What does it mean to
sanctify? That means to set apart. Set apart to make holy, to sanctify, to set apart. These are
all three the exact same thing. So when the Bible says to be holy, that means to set yourself apart.
When it says to sanctify yourselves, that means to set yourself apart. What would it look like to
set yourself apart? Well, setting yourself apart from the world and coming to church one day,
coming to church for a service. How about dressing differently and sanctifying yourself and setting
yourself apart? When the whole world is going out to drink and to get drunk, you separate yourself,
you sanctify yourself, and you say I'm going to be sober. And so there's a way in which we can be
holy where we can be set apart, where we can sanctify ourselves. And that's what the Bible is
saying is sanctify the Lord of hosts himself and let him be your fear and let him be your dread.
How do we set God apart? By saying I don't fear anybody else, I only fear God. I'm going to set
him apart and then say, you know, I'm a terrified of him, but I'm not afraid of you. I don't care
what you say or what you do. I only care what the word of God says and I'm only going to let him be
the one that I'm afraid of. And what does it say in verse 14? And he shall be for a sanctuary.
This is the good news. When you fear God, it's not that we need to necessarily tremble at just being
around him or coming to see him. We should more be afraid of not coming around him, not coming to see
him, not trying to improve ourselves, because God is a merciful God. He is a gracious God.
And so we should seek unto him to be our sanctuary. Say, I'm afraid of not being in his sanctuary.
I'm afraid of not seeking his grace. I'm afraid of not seeking his mercy. The Bible tells us that we
should be running unto the Lord as our sanctuary, as a safe place, as our refuge from the day of
trouble. But what happens for the people that don't? But for a stone is stumbling and for a
rock of offense to both the house of Israel and for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. So those that don't trust in the Lord, he ends up becoming a trap. It says,
"And many among them shall stumble and fall and be broken and be snared and be taken,
bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples, and I will wait upon the Lord
that hided his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold, I and the children
whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts,
which dwelleth in Mount Zion." So God gave Meir Shalhahashbaz as a sign, as a comfort to say,
just trust in me, just rely on me, and I will protect you and deliver you from these enemies.
Whereas those who did not trust in the Lord, but sought to man, sought to Egypt, sought to get
delivered in some other way, it ended up being a trap, a snare, and they were taken by those
things. But those that trusted in the Lord allowed Him to be their sanctuary, He ended up delivering
them. And so we have to constantly realize that God is with us, and He's going to give us signs,
and He's going to give us wonders, but those signs and wonders are going to be coming from His word.
When we celebrate Christmas, one of the things that we need to be celebrating and recognizing
is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ gives us hope in a sea of darkness, and that's what
He was a picture of. In Isaiah chapter 9, look at verse 1, "Nevertheless, the dimness shall not be
such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land
of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea beyond Jordan
and Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light,
they dwell in the land of the shadow of death upon them hath the light shine. So he's describing an
area that's been forsaken, that hasn't been very godly, it's in great darkness, but then a light
comes and that light gives them hope and that hope is the Lord Jesus Christ and the whole world lies
in darkness the Bible describes and that only hope, that only light is the Lord Jesus Christ
and he is still with us. It's called the King James Bible. The King James Bible is a sign and
a wonder. Its majesty and its glory excels everything else on this planet and so we still
have a light. We still have a hope and you know what it still performs miracles every single day.
Every single day we go out there and we preach the gospel to those who are in darkness and we
heal the blind. We give life unto those that are dead in trespasses and sins. We are constantly
recovering people out of the prison of darkness. We're taking them from being children of wrath
and children of disobedience and we're making them servants of the most high God. And that is a
miracle every single time that we go out there and we have a bright and shining light to deliver
people from this darkness. Why? Because God is with us. When we go out preaching the gospel,
it's not me by myself, it is God that is with us. And I have God in my hand and without God
I can do nothing. Without this book, I can't go out there and heal the blind and heal the lame
and heal the sick. Now, of course, I'm speaking spiritually. I don't go out and actually do what
Pentecostals do and slap people in the forehead and somehow that makes them not sick. Because,
frankly speaking, a lot of people in our church need that right now, you know? It's not even just
our church, it's everywhere. I've been noticing, it's like an epidemic lately, just everywhere.
Churches everywhere, friends everywhere, family, people are just getting sick way more.
And I even looked it up online and they said, "Well, after COVID, everybody's been hit with
this immunity debt." And I'm like, I don't even know what that, I've never heard of this.
Not only do we get more debt from our government, we get immunity debt now too, okay? All right?
So it said this immunity debt was just the fact that so many people were locked up and just kind
of caged up that it caused everybody's immune systems to get like a little bit worse. And then
as a result of that, now we're kind of suffering the consequences of everybody going back out in
the world. More bustle, more hustle, more people just interacting. And you know, you got to think
about it, even a church like ours, we literally gather people from all parts of the city, all
parts of the world. We're bringing people from all kinds of different countries. It's kind of a
melting pot. And so just reality is we're probably going to have to experience a little bit more of
that. And I'm telling you, if I could walk around and smack you in the face and you would get healed,
I would do it. All right. I would, I would make you bark like a dog or do whatever. You know what?
That's not real. You know, what we can do is we can go out and preach the gospel to someone
that doesn't understand the Bible and they get saved now they understand the Bible.
And that's that miracle. And that's because God is with us. Now look at verse six is the most
probably famous verses that we have in the book of Isaiah, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ,
for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father,
the prince of peace, of the increase of his government, and peace there shall be no end
upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
So we have Meir Sheleh Hashbaz as a as a current prophecy that's happening in the book of Isaiah,
happening at that time, but then there's a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ and
that's being prophesied and mentioned here in verse number six about the Lord Jesus Christ
and how the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be someone who rules. Now this is pretty much,
you know, if you understand the context, it's talking about the millennial reign of Jesus
Christ and it's talking about how when he is essentially upon his throne, people are going
to call him, what, wonderful counselor, the mighty God, and really you understand the
word God as ruler. He's the ruler. He's the one that's in charge of everything. He's the
everlasting father, like we think of a father of the nations or a founding father. He's the
one that's the ruler or the governor. He's the prince of peace. Prince is also another word for
ruler, governor. And then again, it says in verse seven of the increase of his government and peace,
there shall be no end. Now the first coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, though, we recognize that he
had to be a sacrifice and die first before he could then take on his throne, take on this,
but just the birth of Jesus Christ signified. Hey, he has been given to us and he will rule
and reign on this earth. All be it, we are going through the process of still gathering more gentiles
into his flock. That's what the Bible makes abundantly clear. He said he had more sheep to
gather and he was going to gather them into the fold. And so right now we're in the times of the
Gentiles. I mean that's what's basically the, and then we're going to get to a point where it's the
end of the times of the Gentiles. All the flock has been brought in and there's going to be a great
tribulation. There's going to be an incredible seven-year period of end time events. At the end
of that, then he will literally rule and reign in Jerusalem. And the Bible says at that time,
all Israel shall be saved. And so we won't have this distinction anymore of Jews and Gentiles
there. We won't have this distinction of essentially like physical saved people
and spiritually saved people. It'll just all be one. It'll just all be Israel. We'll all be saved.
And only the saved can enter in through the gates. Only the saved are there ruling and reigning
with Christ. And they will reign over the nations of the Gentiles. And we'll see how a good ruler,
a good governor, a good leader can actually have peace on the earth despite man's humanity. I mean,
despite the fact that you have humans still on the earth, you could still have peace with the right
governor, with the right ruler. And the Bible says he's going to rule with a rod of iron. Jesus
does not rule with a rod of gentleness. He rules with a rod of iron. And that's why there's peace.
That's why there's safety. That's why it's going to be such a wonderful time. It's going to be
wonderful. He's that counselor. He's the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace.
And that's when God will literally, physically be with us. After the million rain, then we'll
eventually have God the father come down and we'll have God the father with us. But what I want to
tell you is that even right now, even though we don't have the physical manifestation of the Lord
Jesus Christ, God is still with us and we need to help people be encouraged in this Christmas season
and at this time to realize no matter where you're at in your life, no matter what difficulties
you're facing, God is still with you. God is with us and we should be reminded of that for this
Christmas season. Go through Romans chapter number eight, go to Romans chapter eight. I'm going to
read a couple of verses for you, but you know, Jesus said this, that if two of you shall agree
on earth is touching anything, that they shall ask and it shall be done for them and my father,
which is in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I
in the midst of them. So Jesus Christ said when two or three are gathered together,
there am I in the midst of them. What does that mean? God with us. The Lord Jesus Christ is with
us when we are gathered, when we are here together, and God is for us. The Bible says in Romans chapter
8, look at verse 28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose." That can be a challenging verse. It's
a challenging verse because a lot of times we're going to go through difficulty. We're going to go
through problems. We're going to go through issues. And you could think like how in the world is this
going to work out for good? You could think like I just don't understand this. This doesn't make
sense. It seems like everything's going bad. It seems like everything's failing. But the Bible
says that all things work together for good to them that love God. And that's where we have to
take that faith and recognize, hey, God is still with us even in our adversity, even in our difficulty,
even in our moments of loneliness, or maybe you have some kind of an issue. Maybe you have the
loss of someone. I mean, we all struggle with great grief and sorrow and problems and issues,
and we have low points, but God is still with us. And what God is trying to do is he's trying to
comfort us in Romans chapter number eight, by helping you realize that God is still going to
work in your favor. God is for us. It says in verse 29, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many
brethren." I have good news for you. Even if you're not a very good Christian, you will one day be
conformed to the image of his son if you're saved. I mean, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
and you took the free gift, you will be conformed to the image of his son regardless of how well you
do in this life. That's good news because some of us, all of us, would fail. Let's just be honest.
Some of us sooner than later, but we would all inevitably fail. For all of sin that comes short
of the glory of God, none of us could keep it going. None of us can last forever. We all have
sin in our flesh and that old man, which is bringing us into bondage.
And so we have to realize that we're never going to be perfect.
No one's perfect before getting saved.
No one's perfect during getting saved.
No one's perfect after getting saved.
And I think what we could do is we could think, well, God's not for me right now because I'm
not perfect.
But wait a minute.
You weren't perfect when he wanted you to get saved.
You weren't perfect when he wanted you to get baptized.
You weren't perfect when you started getting into church.
You weren't perfect when you started trying to clean up your life.
You weren't perfect when you first started going soul winning.
So don't expect you to be perfect right now either.
And eventually we'll need God's help again just to conform us into the image of his son
because we can never sanctify ourselves perfectly.
It's a process and we try our best, but we'll never be perfect.
Now he says in verse 30, "Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and
whom he called, then he also justified, and whom he justified, then he also glorified."
What shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us?
Hey, if God's on your team, then who can be against you?
Nothing can stop you from being justified and glorified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
God is for us, and even when we screw up, even when we're not perfect, even when we
have problems, and even when we fall short, God is still for us.
So why in the world could anybody be against us?
Look at this, this gets even better. "He that spared not his own son, but delivered
him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justify it.
Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us."
Important point.
None of us deserve salvation.
We'll never deserve salvation.
There's nothing we were doing that caused us to deserve salvation a little bit more
than than before.
But I just want you to play with me this thought for a second.
You didn't really deserve God's grace when you got saved, right?
We were at a pretty big low point.
We haven't really done anything for him.
And then what did he do?
He sent his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to shed his blood to give
you the grace to be saved.
So he gave the ultimate gift at your ultimate low.
Now after being saved, think about this, do you think you were even just a little bit
better than you were prior to getting saved?
I mean it's probably likely that you did at least something good, that you maybe did at
least one good work.
So you're probably in some category slightly more worthy or slightly more deserving of
God's grace than you were prior to.
And if he was willing to give you the ultimate gift when you deserved nothing, how much
more after being saved would he still then want to make intercession for you?
And that's the point he's basically making.
Hey, if God literally didn't even spare his own son to save you when you deserved none
of it, when you were just a sinner deserving of hell, when you had done no good works,
then how much more now that you are saved would he not also continue to give you grace
and make intercession for you and to be merciful and long suffering for you?
He still cares about you.
I think sometimes we think like, okay, well, salvation was free and God liked me then.
But no, no, God likes you even more.
God is still willing to make intercession for you.
God is still willing to come alongside your failings and your imperfections and your difficulties
and your struggles and your backslidings.
He still is gracious with you.
Why don't you read Jeremiah with me?
Why don't you read Isaiah with me?
And you look at the children of Israel, you look at the children of Jerusalem.
They are committing rampant idolatry, rampant adultery.
They're slaughtering their children and God's saying, please just turn and I'll forgive
it all.
And like most of us in here are probably not killing people, worshiping idols and committing
adultery on the regular.
And yet, sometimes I think we beat ourselves up more than we realize that we need to.
And look, I'm not saying we shouldn't get right with the Lord.
I'm not saying we shouldn't confess our sins.
I'm not saying we shouldn't feel bad about our sins, but what I'm saying is that God
is still with us, that God still cares for you, that God is still wanting to help you
get past those things and don't let other people condemn you.
Who is He that condemneth?
You know, God still loves His children, just like you love your children, just like your
children screw up every single day and it doesn't stop you from loving them or caring
about them or wanting the best for them.
And the same is with God, how He's constantly wanting the best for us and coming alongside
of us, and God is with us.
That's why the Bible makes it clear that, hey, He's also making intercession for us,
not just for the salvation, but even now, Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of
the Father still making intercession for us.
The Bible says that we should come boldly under the throne of grace, in Hebrews chapter
number four.
What a great God that not only gives us free salvation, but also often gives us free intercession,
gives us free grace beyond this to cover.
We do not get what we deserve for our sins in our lives.
God is constantly being merciful and gracious and long-suffering, and you know why?
Because God is with us.
Look what it says here in verse number 35.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
"Shall tribulation or distress or persecution
"or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
"As it is written for thy sake,
"we are killed all the day long.
"We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
"Nay, in all these things,
"we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
"For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,
"nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
"nor things present, nor things to come,
"nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
"shall be able to separate us
"from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
There is nothing that can stop God from loving you
after you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Once you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ,
you are sealed under the day of redemption.
You have the Holy Spirit inside of you.
The Bible says, "I'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
God is with us.
God's love is upon you.
God's love could never be taken from you.
We have to recognize that God is with us,
that God is for us.
No matter what we face, no matter what opposition,
no matter what problem, God is with us.
Now I want to go through this list here.
Notice it said tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, peril, sword.
At none of these points will God give up on you.
God will still be with you.
Go to Genesis 39.
I want to look at a lot of these as we kind of study
this passage for this morning, because God is with us.
And this Christmas season, not only does God give
salvation to the lost, but He also is with us
that are saved.
You know, we emphasize soul winning and preaching
the gospel, and we'll never stop.
That is always going to be our primary emphasis.
But we also want to realize that God is not just for the lost,
He's also for the saved.
And He's for us.
And He's with us.
And even when we go through difficulty, God wants to
comfort us through the difficulties that we have.
Look at Genesis 39.
Look at verse 20.
"And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison."
Now this has got to be rough.
"And Joseph has been forsaken by his brethren, betrayed by his brethren, almost killed by
his brethren, sold into slavery, moved into a foreign country, and then he started to
prosper."
And you might think as Joseph, "Hey, God didn't abandon me.
Look, I'm still prospering in Egypt."
But then he gets lied about by Potiphar's wife and falsely accused and thrown in prison,
and I could just see myself thinking like, "God is not with me.
Where is God?
Why is this happening?
I mean, I'm trying to do the right thing."
I tried to be honest.
My brethren were evil, and they got mad at me for recognizing they were doing bad things.
They're bad businessmen.
They're doing bad moves in the business, and I came and said, "Hey, this is an evil report
of them," and they didn't like that because he was honest, and so he gets falsely accused.
He doesn't want to commit adultery, falsely accused, thrown in prison, but what does the
Bible say?
"And Joseph's master took him and put him in the prison, a place where the king's prisons
were bound, and he was there in the prison, but the Lord was with Joseph."
Hey, God was with him.
God is with us.
Even if we get thrown in prison, God is with us.
And I would even say this, you know, the Bible really highlights righteous and godly people,
but even somebody that's screwed up, even if you got thrown in prison, God's still with
you.
God is not, God's not going to walk away.
God is with us, and even in tribulation, being thrown in prison, the Bible talks about people
in the book of Revelation being thrown in prison, but God is still with them.
He's going to give them a crown of life.
So many godly people are thrown in prison throughout the Bible.
I mean, you have Jeremiah thrown in prison, Jesus put in prison, John the Baptist put
in prison, Peter and John put in prison, Paul put in prison.
I mean, it's pretty much just like every great guy is thrown in prison at some point in his
life, but you know, God didn't abandon them in their moment of need, in their difficulty,
in their tribulation.
God was with them.
Did God stop loving Joseph?
No.
Go over to Psalm 4, I'll just read for you Psalm 46, it says, "Be still and know that
I am God.
I will be exalted among the heathen.
I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge."
Selah.
We are to seek God for refuge.
And no matter what tribulation, no matter what difficulty, no matter what evil we face,
we have to realize that God is still with us.
So we should never give up on God.
If God won't give up on us, then don't give up on Him.
I could see myself and I could see any normal person kind of saying, "You know what?
I'm done serving God in prison."
Like once he gets there, he's just like, "I'm kind of done."
Or even frankly speaking, when he got thrown in the pit by his brothers, or he got sold
in slavery, or any kind of moment in the Bible where we see men of God struggling, failing,
having problems.
The goal of the devil is to try and get you to quit and to stop serving God and stop trusting
in Him.
We want to keep God as our refuge no matter where we are.
That's why in Romans 8 it's saying like, "We are as sheep counted for the slaughter."
It's like, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."
It's like, hey, even in whatever tribulation I have to go through, I need to just stick
with God, whatever that looks like, even if you have to be Stephenan stoned as a martyr.
But you could also just go through distress.
And I think for most of us, we're all going to experience this and have experienced this
throughout different times, especially for this church.
And distress, really, it's just stress.
It's just anxiety.
It's grief.
It's sorrow.
It's being upset.
It's being frustrated.
It's being discouraged.
It's just, just every negative emotion, just distress.
That's basically what it's saying.
And you know what?
You're going to face that in the Christian life.
You're going to face times where people want to make you afraid.
I mean, that was the whole point of Isaiah seven, eight, nine, is that these kings are
trying to distress the children of Israel.
They're trying to discourage them.
They're trying to give them anxiety.
They're trying to give them worry.
They're trying to give them sorrow.
What does it say in Psalm chapter four?
I'd like to read the whole Psalm, but I'm just going to read the first few verses.
"Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness, thou has enlarged me when I was in distress.
Have mercy upon me and hear my prayer.
O ye sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love vanity and seek after leasing, Silah?
But know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself.
The Lord will hear when I call unto him.
Now this passage is important for a few reasons.
Number one, he's calling on God.
He's asking for his grace, his mercy in verse one.
He says, thou's enlarged me when I was in distress.
So he's anxious.
He is grieved.
He is in sorrow.
What does mercy mean?
Mercy is something you don't deserve.
Sounds like this guy is a sinner like the rest of us.
Sometimes we screw up.
Sometimes we make a mistake.
Sometimes we have problems.
And I like how the Bible describes how God will sometimes enlarge our steps.
What does that mean?
Think about it.
If you're walking up a flight of stairs and your foot misses the step, you could trip
and fall.
But what if when your foot goes to miss the step, the step just magically just grows a
little bit.
And so you just, you're about to miss the step and then it's just like, oh.
And then you're just like, okay, then you don't trip.
You don't trip.
You don't fall.
Right?
That's what God is constantly doing.
He's constantly going up a flight of stairs and we're missing the stair, literally.
And he's just like, hey, let me enlarge that.
Let me just grow that real quick.
Apparently you need some big steps.
And then you just step and then you don't trip.
You don't fall.
That's what God is implying here.
And again, why?
Because we can't hit the steps perfectly.
We can't climb the stairs without making a mistake.
But praise God that the Christian life is not one where you have to be perfect.
You don't have to get a 10.0 on your routine to move on to the next round.
You can screw up and God can still catch you and help you.
A just man falls seven times and rises up again.
So we don't have to be perfect.
We pray and we seek the Lord.
Notice in verse two, the sons of men, they're turning his glory into shame.
But what do they like?
They love vanity and they seek after leasing.
Now, this doesn't mean that they rent, okay?
Leasing is just another word for lying.
It's that simple, or deceit, or being cunning.
And so the leasing here is basically, it has nothing to do, it's not related to the other
word that we normally think of like leasing a house or something.
It sounds like deceit, but you know, I'm just saying it's not related.
If that helps you remember what that word means, then go for it.
But I guess you just think of the word lying and it's just kind of another word for lying.
So just people that seek after lies, they seek after deceit.
They don't really care about the things of God and they make fun of the things of God.
It says, "But you know what?
God's going to set you apart that's godly for Himself and the Lord is going to hear
when we call."
The Lord likes the fact that we're not perfect so that He can intervene.
God likes the fact that you're going to miss the step and He can grow it a little bit just
so you'll still land.
God likes the fact that we can't do things like you run up to the Red Sea and He gets
to part it for you.
God likes that.
God wants to do those kind of things.
He in fact loves it when people have great faith in Him and recognize, "I can't do it."
And they just get out of the boat and they just walk on the water.
What God doesn't like is when you start noticing the water.
Is when you start getting fearful and afraid and then you start drowning.
But you know what?
Even when you fail, think about this.
When Peter was walking on that water, he had great faith.
He was going in a good direction.
And then what happened?
Distress.
He got worried, didn't he?
He started getting nervous.
He started the boy string, the tribulation, all the storms of life, all the problems.
They started worrying him and scaring him and making him nervous, and he started getting
paying attention to that, and then he started drowning.
But then what happened?
Lord save me, and he immediately saved him.
Just by and by, the Lord just stretched down and saved him.
So even when you're on the right path and then fail, as long as you're just like, Lord
save me, he's still going to save you.
That should be encouraging to realize that even in your distress, even if your distress
is because of your own fault, I mean, it's Peter's fault that he's drowning because if
he had just been really faithful and really steadfast, he would have just walked straight
up to Jesus and never been hanging out, staying on water.
But you know, he's human.
We're all human.
We make mistakes.
We fail.
We get nervous.
We get afraid.
We make mistakes.
And yet, even in that stress, even that anxiety, even in that backsliding, God is still ready
to save.
God is still with us.
God still wants what's best for us.
And so we should recognize that God is not going to give up on us.
So we should not give up on him.
We should call upon him.
When you're in distress, when you are anxious, when you are nervous, when you are worried,
what do you do?
Pray unto God to help you.
Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you.
That's what we should do.
Go over to Psalm 107.
Go to Psalm 107.
Hey, he didn't stop loving you just because of your distress.
He didn't stop loving you because of your tribulation.
He can't stop loving.
Nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What a great message.
What a great love.
And you know people will say like God has unconditional love.
I don't really believe that that's the right way to word it because He doesn't love everybody
unconditionally.
It's conditional love but praise God there's only one condition if you believe on Jesus
Christ.
If you believe on Jesus Christ then after that it's unconditional love so there's unconditional
love in that context but God does not just give unconditional love period.
He has one condition that you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and that when you believe
in him and what he did for you, you are saved, you're sealed, you become a child of God and
now you have eternal life and you can never lose that.
There's nothing that could ever stop you from having that.
So when we are saved and we go through difficulty, we go through struggle, we should realize
God still loves us, God still wants the best for us and when we're stressed God says, "You
know what?
I don't want you to stress about these things.
There's only one thing you're supposed to be stressed about and that's me.
Let me be your dread.
Let me be your fear.
Don't worry about the tribulation and the difficulty and the worries of this world though.
Psalm 107 verse 6, "Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble and He delivered
them out of their distresses."
Notice again, they're in trouble, they call upon the Lord, delivers them.
Go over to Psalm 118, go to Psalm 118.
Read the Old Testament and it'll be a comfort unto you because you'll notice that the children
of Israel, they screw up all the time.
You realize that they're not good, that they're not perfect, that they make mistakes and not
just kind of mistakes like big mistakes, like huge mistakes.
But then God's always constantly delivering them, wanting to rescue them, wanting to give
them healing, wanting to help them.
And you should recognize that's God in our lives.
God is constantly reaching forth His hand, is constantly trying to make intercession,
is constantly being long-suffering, is constantly trying to draw us closer unto Him.
He's there knocking at the door, wanting to have fellowship with us.
And it's often us just not having the faith to recognize that God is with us, that God
is for us, that God is on our side, that God wants to deliver us out of all of our distresses.
Look what it says in verse 1, "Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, because his
mercy endureth forever."
Let Israel now say, "That his mercy endureth forever."
Let the house of Aaron now say, "That his mercy endureth forever."
Let them now that fear the Lord say, "That his mercy endureth forever."
I called upon the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place.
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.
What can man do unto me?
Notice what he's saying.
Hey, don't fear man, fear God.
God will deliver you.
God will put you in a large place so that you won't fail, that you won't trip, that
you won't stumble.
God is constantly delivering them.
And notice, it's his mercy that endures forever.
It doesn't say the children of Israel, their righteousness is forever.
Their steadfastness is forever.
Their goodness is forever.
Notice, the Lord's mercy is forever.
The Lord's mercy endures forever.
It's what God did.
God put me here.
God gave me the grace.
God was merciful unto me.
You know, we don't stand by our righteousness.
We stand by his grace.
That's what we stand by.
And so, you know, people say, "Oh, church is full of hypocrites."
Well, if you mean sinners, then yeah, because, let's just be honest, none of us do everything
this book says.
So, if you want to say we're all hypocrites, sure, but let me explain something to you.
Everybody outside the church is hypocrites, too.
So, it's not like there's this magical group of non-hypocrites, okay?
There's not this magical island of non-sinners.
We're all sinners.
We're all hypocritical to some degree.
We're all imperfect to some degree.
None of us have arrived.
There's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sineth not.
And so we stand not by our righteousness, we stand by His grace.
We stand by His mercy.
We stand by His long-suffering.
We are here by the grace of God.
And God is with us.
God was with us when we got saved.
God was with us when we got baptized.
God is with us now.
Does that mean we shouldn't seek after righteousness?
No, we should set ourselves apart.
We should let Him be our dread.
We should let Him be our fear.
We should seek unto the Lord.
We should clean ourselves up the best that we can.
But we have to recognize when we fail, when we inevitably come short, when we inevitably
trip, that we need to trust in the Lord and allow Him to comfort us in our distress, in
our anxiety, in our woe. Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 4. I want to go to another place. The
Lord is on my side. I will not fear. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear what man can
do unto me. God does not want us to fear man. He wants us to fear God and we should tremble
at His presence. We should tremble at His commandments. We should tremble at the house
of God. But you know what? We should not be afraid of other people. When other people
say, "Oh, God's not for you. God's not going to rescue. God's not going to give you mercy."
Well, you know what? You're not God. I'm not afraid of what you say or what you do. I'm
going to seek unto the Lord for His grace and for His mercy and I'm going to be like
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego that say, "Hey, we're not careful to answer thee in this matter.
God can deliver us and even if He doesn't deliver us, though He slay me, yet will I
trust in Him. I want to be in the house of God no matter what has to happen to me, no
matter what we face, no matter what tribulation, no matter what distresses are happening in
the world. Let's just go to church. Let's just keep reading the Bible. Let's just keep
going soul winning." And we haven't faced any... Read the Bible and you realize you
don't even know what stress is. I mean, how many of you all have been standing at the
mouth of a burning fiery furnace about to be tossed in? You haven't resisted unto blood.
You haven't had to face a Roman horde of soldiers trying to drag you off to be crucified with
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, it's real easy for us to sit here and criticize Peter
for forsaking the Lord Jesus Christ, but you weren't facing crucifixion and being drug
away with the Roman soldiers with him. You haven't had to face the Red Sea with an Egyptian
army marching down to destroy you. You haven't had to face many of the evils and the horrible
woes that exist out there, the devil putting you into prison for ten days and then slaughtering
and martyring tons and tons of people. You haven't necessarily had to face the Goliath.
I mean how many people in here, and I'm not trying to talk down to any of us, but I'm
just saying how many of us would genuinely, if there was a ten foot giant that was going
to fight us physically, would just be lining up just like I got it with a slingshot. Now
if I won in a slingshot it would be only by the grace of God because I don't even know
what to do with that thing, okay. I haven't proved that either. It's like I haven't proved
Saul's armor or David's weapon. I'd be in big trouble. It would just be simply by grace.
You have to recognize that hey, some of our stress is pretty much just like put to bed
when we recognize the stresses of the Bible. There's some real stresses in the Bible. And
I'm not trying to say that to undermine the worry and anxiety that you have because we
all do have it. But at the end of the day when we put it in perspective sometimes we
can recognize it's not, it's probably not that big a deal. We need to just not really
be worried about that as much. We need to worry about the Lord. 2 Timothy chapter 4
verse 16, "At my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me. I pray God
that it may not be laid to their charge notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me
that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear and I
was delivered out of the mouth of the lion and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil
work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory forever and ever
I'm in. The Apostle Paul says hey at some point in his ministry something happened where
every single person was against him. Every single person didn't want to know Paul or
stand with him or believe him. I mean notice what it says, "At my first answer no man stood
with me." Sounds like he's having to respond to something. Sounds like there may be some
kind of an accusation or there may be some kind of something that happened to him and
nobody really sides with him, nobody really believes him and he's saying hey even when
I gave my first response still nobody believed me. Think about Job. Job is basically giving
his response to what's going on. Nobody believes him. His wife doesn't believe him. His three
friends don't believe him. Nobody believes him. Everybody thinks you're just bad. Nobody
stood with Jesus. Nobody stood with Paul. Nobody stood with Job. You could argue probably
nobody really stood with Joseph. Joseph's like hey I didn't do it. Everybody turns on
him. That's what you call stress. That's what you call loneliness. Let me explain something
in the Christian life. There will be times when you feel rejected. There will be times
when you feel alone. There will be times when you feel like maybe nobody really believes
you. Nobody really gets it. And you know it may not be to this extreme but for many of
us we do face this don't we? We face this where maybe a relative, a close relative,
a family member, a child, a grandparent, a friend, a co-worker, your boss, your work,
the world, whoever. You say hey I just love the Lord, I love the Bible, whatever and they
just slander you and lie about you and attack you and at your first answer no man stands
with you. But you know what? The Lord is still with you. The Lord is still with you and the
Lord can strengthen you and the Lord can deliver you. And what was the point of delivering
the Apostle Paul? That the Gentiles could be saved. And there's so many men that have
to face such great opposition so that more people will get saved. What was the point
of being strengthened? What was the point of him going through all those lies? I'm sure
he wanted to give up. It was so that more people could get saved. And you know what?
There's going to be people that have to face great opposition and great lies and great
stresses and you know what? The whole point is so that more people will be saved. That's
That's what the Bible says.
Why?
Because God is with us.
Good way to 2nd Timothy 3.
We're right there.
Verse 8.
"Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further,
for their folly shall be manifest in all men, as theirs also was.
But thou'st fully known my doctrine, man of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity,
patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.
What persecutions I endured!
But out of them all the Lord delivered me.
I love that.
But out of them all the Lord delivered me.
This sounds extreme.
Did you read that again?
Let's read that again.
He says in verse number 11, "persecutions, afflictions, which came to me at Antioch,
at Iconium, at Lystra.
What persecutions I endured!"
You think the apostle Paul is being bombastic here?
He couldn't be bombastic enough.
He couldn't exaggerate enough.
He couldn't use enough hyperbole to explain the extremes that he went through.
Being, just being whipped almost to death, being stoned to death, being shipwrecked,
being in the deep for a night and day.
I mean, how many of you have had to doggy paddle for more than 24 hours straight?
Or like hang on to some driftwood or something?
I mean, I don't even know how he did that.
That's insane.
He said so many times he had wished in himself to die.
He said he was hoping he would die.
He was in so much pain, so much stress,
so much worry, so much woe, constantly on the run,
constantly trying to be killed by many different people.
And then what does the Bible say?
But out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Why? Because God is with us.
Because God is with the apostle Paul.
And what does the Bible say in verse 12?
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
This Christmas season, you have to realize
there might be persecutions, but God is still with us.
God gave us a son.
Yea, you might go through tribulation.
Yea, you might go through distress.
Yea, you might go through persecution.
But you know what?
If God be for us, He can be against us.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Go to 1 Kings chapter 17.
Acts chapter number five.
The Bible says, "Now I say unto you,
refrain from these men and let them alone,
for if this counsel or this work be of men,
it will come to naught.
But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it,
lest happily ye be found even a fight against God."
Even the unsaved can recognize the fact
that if God is for you, nothing can be against you.
And even Gamaliel recognizes,
"Hey, we don't wanna fight against God."
Even the unsaved Philistines recognize,
"Hey, this is the Ark of God, let's give it back,
because this thing is causing us so many problems."
The unsaved tremble at the Lord.
Rahab the harlot says,
"You guys have terrified the hearts
of all the men of Canaan,
because we realized that the Lord is with you.
And all they had to do was just march around the city
and blow the trumpet and the walls came tumbling down
because of God before you, who can be against you?"
He said, "Hey, these giants be meat for us."
That's what Joshua and Caleb said.
And they went in there and the giants were meat for them.
Because if God be for us, who can be against us?
It doesn't matter what persecution.
It doesn't matter what tribulation.
It doesn't matter what stress.
It doesn't matter what famine.
And look, we might go through famine in our life.
We might go through economic downturn.
We might go through depressions or recessions
or losing of jobs or losing of money
or all kinds of evil.
But what does the Bible say?
Look at verse Kings chapter 17, verse eight.
"And the word of the Lord came unto him saying,
"Arise, get thee to Zarephath,
"which belonged at the Zidon and dwell there.
"Behold, I commanded a widow woman there to sustain me."
So there's a famine in the land.
The prophet of God has to go to a widow.
A widow's gonna take care of him.
Verse 10, "So he rose and went to Zarephath,
"and when he came to the gate of the city,
"behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks,
"and he called to her and said,
"Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel
"that I may drink.
"And as she was going to fetch it,
"he called to her and said,
"Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
"And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth,
"I have not a cake, but a handful of meal and a barrel,
"and a little oil and a cruce,
"and behold, I am gathering two sticks
"that I may go in and dress it for me and my son,
"that we may eat it and die."
That's extreme.
You know what I like about this woman?
She's about to die, doesn't have much to live for.
The man of God says, "Hey, will you get me some sticks?"
And she's just like, "Yeah, right away."
And then he's like, "Okay, now make me a meal," and she's just basically explaining her situation.
She's saying like, "Well, honestly, I only have a meal left and it was going to be our
last meal.
It's over.
We're going to die."
Verse 13, "And Elijah said in her, 'Fear not.'"
How much famine and economic downturn have you experienced where you were on your last
meal of your life?
That's pretty extreme.
I don't think anybody here is that poor.
If you are, please see me and I'll give you a meal, okay?
Just say you're willing to clean the church and you'll get a free lunch.
You know what I mean?
I'm thinking like nobody's that destitute, but this woman, and what does he say?
Don't be afraid.
Like wouldn't, of all the situations, wouldn't that be a kind of a scary situation where
you're literally at the point of your last meal left and you have no money and there's
no economy and there's no rain?
I mean, you'd be like, what do you mean fear not?
How is that going to work?
What does he say?
Fear not.
He says, hey, I know there's a famine, this is what I should do.
Just put God first, just put the man of God first and you'll never run out, you'll always
have enough.
Isn't that great?
I mean, isn't that an awesome example of, hey, even in famine, God didn't forsake this
widow.
God didn't give up on her.
And you know, a widow is in the most dangerous position, especially in this type of a situation,
because she can't go out and put the mom jeans on and go work for some corporate company
and get paid as a boss babe.
She doesn't have the ability to make income, to harvest crops, to go out and feed her family.
She relies on others.
She's a dependent.
You know, when you fill out your taxes, there's these things called dependents.
Yeah, it used to be homemakers and children are considered dependents and you get tax
write-offs for your dependents, okay?
So here she's a dependent and she's depending on the Lord and the Lord sustained her because
nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You could be a hundred percent dependent and God will take care of you.
You could be completely helpless and God will take care of you.
You could have nothing and God will take care of you.
God is not going to fail you.
God is someone that is with you even in your destitution, even when you're a widow.
And you know what?
She's not even a widow of the children of Israel.
She's a widow of Zarephath.
She wasn't even raised Christian.
She wasn't even raised Baptist.
She wasn't even raised doing the right thing and God still cared about her, didn't he?
Because God cares about us.
You know if you go through economic issues, you go through job issues, God's still there.
Go to 1 Peter chapter number four, go to 1 Peter chapter number four.
God didn't give up on you even though there may be famine, even though there may be economic
downturn, even if you lose a job, even if you get fired, even if you make a mistake.
You know I've known tons of people that make mistakes, cause problems, but that doesn't
mean God's going to give up on you.
I've been let go of jobs.
There was a job that I thought was going to work out for a long time.
I thought I was going to work for them forever because they liked the sodomite deception.
You know what I mean?
I was thinking like if I'm going to get fired it's probably going to be from something like
that, right?
But I'm like these people were on board.
But then it just didn't work out for other circumstances.
And I was like oh man.
But you know after losing that position or losing that job I end up getting a way better
job.
And I didn't think I was going to get something like that.
But I realized hey God was still with me.
God didn't forsake me.
It might have felt in the moment like oh man what happened.
There's definitely been times where things have been tighter or things have not seemed
to make sense.
I've had people take advantage of me.
I've been ripped off.
I've been lied to so many times.
This is what you'd think I'd figured out.
I think God's looking down like do you still trust people?
Like what's wrong with you?
But you just keep thinking good about people and they just take advantage, rip you off,
lie about you, whatever.
But you know what?
God didn't forget you.
God is still with you.
Even in nakedness.
Now, I was thinking about nakedness.
Praise God nobody has that problem right now.
But what does nakedness kind of picture?
It's being without.
Right?
I mean you're without.
You need clothes.
You're needing something.
You're completely dependent.
Here's another aspect of nakedness.
It's embarrassing.
There's a shame factor with being naked and so even though you may not be physically naked,
couldn't there be times where you're without or you're needing something?
You're even needing things that are, you know, essential in a sense?
Or you could do something that's just frankly embarrassing.
But what does the Bible say in 1 Peter chapter 4 verse 8?
"And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves for charity shall cover the
multitude of sins."
So when someone's naked, you clothe them to cover their what?
Cover their shame, cover their embarrassment.
When they're lacking something that they just need and you give it to them, you're kind
of covering their embarrassment.
And here what the Bible is saying is that our charity, we can cover other people's
embarrassments.
We can cover other people's shames.
We can cover other people's lack of need, the necessities that they have, and we can
help them.
And God will not forget us.
Even when we may be doing something that we lose out, we're without, we do something embarrassing,
God can still come along and cover that, and God can still be with us and to cover our
shame.
Adam and Eve are naked in the garden, but God closed them with a garment and covers
their shame, just like He's going to cover our shame.
We're not going to stand before God at the great white throne judgment naked and have
to take an account.
He's covered our sins with His robe of righteousness, with that shed blood, with the lamb sacrifice,
with that animal sacrifice, and we've been washed in His blood and He's covered those
things.
You know, that's the Christian attitude is one to not make fun of the naked person, but
to clothe the naked person, is to not take advantage of people when they're in an embarrassing
situation or having problems, but rather coming along and providing charity and grace and
helping them in those situations.
For a second time, I'm not going to go through the rest of these, go to Hebrews 13, but
we have in Romans chapter 8 several examples and we can go throughout the whole Bible and
look at these.
Tribulation, God is still with us, distress, he's still with us, persecution, he's still
with us, famine, he's still with us, nakedness, he's still with us, peril, he's still with
us.
Peril is just danger, something impending that could harm you, destroy you, sword, that's
like literal death and there's plenty of times, there's a verse I was thinking of in peril
where the man of God Elisha is there and his servant comes and he's nervous because all
these armies gather around and Elisha says to him, "Fear not for they that be with us
are more than they that be with him."
If we had faith we would recognize, hey God's with us.
The Bible tells us to be strong and courageous and not be afraid or dismayed at the enemies
of the Lord because the Lord is with us.
It says this, "With him is an arm of flesh but with us is the Lord our God to help us
and to fight our battles."
Hey they might have flesh on their side but we have God on our side.
Hebrews 13, look at verse 5, "Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with
such things as you have.
For he hath said, 'I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.'
So that we may boldly say, 'The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do
unto me.'"
Isn't that a constant theme we just see over and over in the Bible?
Hey the Lord is my helper.
Notice we need a helper.
We cannot be successful without the Lord.
We will screw up.
We will make mistakes.
We'll do things that are embarrassing.
We'll cause problems.
We'll have anxiety.
We'll have woe.
Why is the Bible telling us to cast our care upon Him?
It's because we have care.
It's because we have worry.
Why are we told to call upon Him when we're distressed because we'll have distresses?
Why are we called to rely upon Him when we have persecutions and afflictions?
"Yea, and all that will be godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
These things will happen.
But you know what?
Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God is with us this Christmas season.
God gave us the Lord Jesus Christ.
God gave us that perfect child in Bethlehem.
God allowed him to die a horrible sacrificial death for us.
God allowed him to go to hell and to be risen again for our sanctification, justification
and glorification.
And you know what?
It's not just extended to that period.
It's also beyond because he still is making intercession for us in heaven.
And we need to make sure that we're not fearing what man's going to do unto us.
We can boldly say, "The Lord is my helper."
I'm seeking refuge in the house of God.
I'm going to sanctify the Lord God in my heart.
He's never going to leave me.
God will never forsake me.
God will always be my helper.
I should not fear what man can do unto me.
Verse 7, "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word
of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
Take those who are taking great steps of faith and follow them as they follow Christ."
Follow them as they seek refuge into the Lord.
Follow them.
Why?
Because they are the ones that are to lead you into the arms of the Lord, not into the
arms of man.
Not to fear man.
You know, some of us need some difficult stuff this season.
Go to Matthew 28 and we'll finish.
Maybe you need a miracle.
But you know what?
God is with us.
God performed miracles all throughout the Bible and he can still perform miracles today.
We should not give up on the Lord.
If this Christmas season you feel like you need a miracle, do not give up on the Lord.
Keep praying for that miracle.
Maybe you have a hard case for salvation.
Maybe there's somebody in your family you've been praying for for a while to get saved.
There's somebody that's very close to you.
There's somebody that you want to be saved.
Don't give up on them.
The Lord is with us.
God is with us.
God could still get that person saved.
Maybe you have family issues.
Maybe your family has something weird going on.
I know there's been people in my life where I thought this situation may never change,
but through prayer, God changed them.
And I didn't change them.
I couldn't do it.
But God can change people's hearts.
God is still with us.
If you're struggling with depression, and depression can be caused from a litany of
every single issue you could think of, maybe you're just discouraged.
God is still with you.
God can change that depression.
I've seen all kinds of people in horrible situations, bad life circumstances, hopeless
situations, and just through time and prayer and seeking the Lord, God delivered them out
of that.
Just like you're in this great darkness and then all of a sudden a child is born.
This great light comes in to the life.
God is with us.
Hey, you're in prison, Joseph, but then the door opens and you're free.
You're stuck up against the Red Sea.
It just parts.
There are times when God does things that we could not recognize.
God is with us.
Maybe you have a marriage issue.
I've seen ups and downs in marriages.
I've seen people in my personal life, you know, way before I became a pastor where the
marriage situation seemed doomed.
And now it's great again.
There's always hope.
I've seen sin issues, people that can't give up certain sins, people that struggle with
certain areas.
Hey, sanctify the Lord God in your heart, seek unto the Lord.
He can still help you.
God is still with you.
Even when you do screw up, don't give up.
Keep going.
Even if you go back a little bit, hey, move forward again.
Let the Lord enlarge your steps.
Just don't quit.
Just don't give up on him.
Realize that there's still hope that God is still with us, that God is still fighting
for us.
You know, don't allow other people to condemn you.
Keep fighting for the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you have economic problems, maybe your job or your career is not in the place that
you want it to be.
It's okay.
Circumstances can change overnight.
You can be in famine and then the next day you discover all the riches of the enemy outside
the camp and things are being sold for nothing.
You know?
You never know.
Lepers could come give you money, right?
Maybe you're distressed by enemies, personal enemies, family member, friend, co-worker,
enemies without.
Don't let them discourage you.
God is with us.
Ultimately, we have to realize that Jesus Christ wants us to be successful for His glory.
He wants us to not give up for His glory.
If you love Jesus, if you love the light of the gospel, if you love the Christmas season,
then you won't give up so that He can be glorified.
Why?
We need to go out and preach the gospel to a lost and dying world that's not going to
get it.
We need to comfort the feeble.
And we need to come alongside and condescend the men of low estate.
We need to help those that cannot help themselves, that oppose themselves, as the Bible says.
And he'll never forsake us.
Look at Matthew 28 verse 18, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth."
You know what?
We like the idea of Jesus ruling and reigning in Jerusalem.
But he's already ruling and reigning, folks.
Jesus is in charge of the earth right now.
He is the King of kings.
He is the Lord of lords.
He is the God of gods.
All authority, all power, all glory has already been given to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he is ruling right now.
Praise God I don't answer to man, I answer to the king of kings, to the Lord Jesus Christ
who has all power and all authority.
When I go to an apartment complex, the manager Karen is not in charge, Jesus Christ is in
charge.
Praise God.
You know what?
Some king in some country is not in charge, Jesus is in charge.
There is not a hidden group of elites in charge, God in heaven is in charge.
Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of God the Father is in charge and he's given me
all authority and power to do the works that he's given me to do.
He's empowered me as a Christian to preach the gospel to every creature and not me only
but all them that are saved.
If you're saved, Jesus Christ has empowered you and given you that same power and authority
to tread on serpents and to preach the gospel to a lost and dying world.
Why?
Because God is with us.
Know you therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded
you and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Amen.
Jesus is always with us.
If you find yourself on the mission field, Jesus is with you.
You go to South Dallas, Jesus is with you.
You get thrown in prison, Jesus is with you.
You're in Steadfast Baptist Church.
Jesus is with us.
God with us.
When we celebrate Christmas,
what is the message?
God with us.
What is the message?
Hope.
What is the message?
If God be for us, who can be against us?
Let us not be discouraged by the world,
by the depression of this world,
by the darkness of this world,
by the evil of this world,
by the problems of this world,
by the tribulations and the afflictions
and the perils and all the famines,
by the sword.
Let us only fear him.
And let us just praise the Lord
because God is with us.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you heavenly father so much for giving us your son.
What a great gift, an unspeakable gift
that you've given us.
Lightness, light in the darkness.
And I pray that we would realize
that not only has your son given us
that opportunity to be saved and receive a free gift,
but also that he constantly is making intercession for us.
And that we need to go out there
and preach the gospel to the lost and dying world.
When we make mistakes, when we have problems,
when we have persecutions, when we have afflictions,
that we should realize that God is still with us,
that you're still for us,
and that nothing can separate us from your love.
I pray that we would embrace your love,
we would embrace the mercy, long-suffering,
grace extended to us, and that we would make sure
that while we still have breath in our lungs,
that we don't give up on you,
but we always seek for your help and for your grace.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
- Amen.
All right, for our last song,
we're gonna do song number 423,
"Joy to the World."
Song four, two, three.
"Joy to the World."
On the first.
♪ Joy to the world ♪
All dismissed.