Precious In His Sight

The Old Testament reading this morning is in Isaiah, chapter 43, verses one through seven.

But now, thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you,

O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flames shall not consume you, for I am the

Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom,

Cush and Seba, in exchange for you, because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you.

I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you.

I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west, I will gather you. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold.

Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom

I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. The New Testament reading can be found in Ephesians chapter one.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our

Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing, in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love he predestined us, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he has lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him, who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

You may be seated. It's a delight to introduce to you this morning,

Pastor Daryl Schrock. I don't know if Daryl's ever preached here. I don't think he has. Daryl pastors

Grace Hill Church in Merton, Wisconsin, which is the church where I grew up and the church where my father pastored for 13 years.

I'll tell you the story sometime how that all happened, but Daryl's been there since 2001.

So Daryl has served at Grace Hill now for 20 years. Beck and I go a long way back with Daryl and Shelly.

I first met them at a counseling symposium years ago, back in the 90s, when

I was teaching the counseling course at Clear Creek Chapel Counseling Ministries.

And Daryl and Shelly were looking for a place to get their counseling training, and I convinced them to come to Clear Creek.

And I told them this is the place to go. And so they were students in that 12 -week course, in which

I got to know them even better. Now, Daryl and Shelly both attended

Bluffton College, right, just up the road here, where they met. And after graduation and marriage,

Daryl worked for Honda for a number of years, and they went to Grace Chapel in West Liberty, where Dave Derlin was pastor.

So Daryl is one of Dave's, we call him Dave's boys. There's a few of them that we call

Dave's boys, and Daryl's one of the boys. And what's interesting, I mentioned this last week, but Dave, today and next week, is ministering in Daryl's church, and Daryl's here.

So it's a good deal. Now, we served several years together with Tri -M, with Dave, Daryl and I traveled, and we taught together the very first class in Romania, in 2003,

I think it was. Daryl and I and Dave were the first team to go there and teach.

And I think that 12 or 13 of the years, of the 16 years that we served with Tri -M,

I think 12 or 13 of those years, he and I taught together. So we got to be pretty good friends.

He was my roommate, of course, and if I had a better memory, I bet I could tell some stories.

I remember the very first module that we taught in the South, Daryl was teaching the book of Isaiah.

And I'll never forget what the Romanian brothers said as we were leaving, they got up and they were presenting us with things, and they called

Daryl up and they said, your lectures in Isaiah taught us that there aren't just four gospels in the

Bible, there are five. I thought, man, that is phenomenal, that is good. So Daryl's a dear friend, and I anticipate

God's blessings as he ministers God's words, Daryl. Thank you,

Tim. It is a great joy to be with you here today.

We love Pastor Tim and Becca greatly. They have encouraged

Shelly and I in so many ways over the years, and we've had opportunities to express that to them, but I want to just express to you how much we appreciate you being willing over the years to share

Tim and Becca with us. Tim has come up and ministered to our church family at a number of significant periods of their history over the years, and our church love the

Pasma family, and it's always a delight to have them up there.

Tim mentioned our first trip to Romania in 2003, and he didn't mention that we were referred to as the grande men.

So that was from the taxi driver who saw

Tim and I getting in the backseat of his little Dacia. So we have always been the grande men.

So I want to invite you to open God's word with me to Isaiah chapter 43.

Our sermon text for today will be verses one through three. But I'm wondering if you have ever received a note of encouragement from a friend at just the right time.

I think an often overlooked ministry in the church is this ministry of encouragement given through the simple but timely word or making a call or writing and sending a letter or sending a text, a card.

I have a hunch that some of you here can still remember a word of encouragement given to you in a timely moment, maybe even many years ago.

Shelley and I had worked with the youth ministry at Grace Chapel prior to leaving

Honda and going to seminary. And after one particular period of time, a challenging time,

I remember Pastor Dernal sitting down and just giving a word of encouragement to both of us.

And that's been over 35 years ago and I still remember his word of encouragement.

Recently, at our church, one of our deacons of mercy was appointed as elder.

And as a deacon of mercy, he sent out a lot of notes of encouragement.

And on the Sunday he was appointed as an elder, one man came up to me and said,

I hope that Tim doesn't stop sending out notes of encouragement. God's used those words of encouragement in my life in rich ways.

Many times, things that he said was just what I needed to hear. Pastor Tim has been used of God in my life in many ways over the years by offering notes of encouragement, careful, thoughtful notes of encouragement that really help you persevere in the faith.

So our sermon text today, Isaiah 43, one through seven, in this text, the Lord, through Isaiah, writes a note of rich encouragement to his people who would be in exile in Babylon.

The Lord wrote to reaffirm his love for them. He wrote to let them know that he would not abandon them.

The Lord would say many things to them like I have called you by name, you are mine.

I love you, you are precious in my eyes. Fear not, I am with you.

But to really understand the significance of this word of encouragement, we must understand the context.

Though Israel or Judah here was exiled in Babylon because of their stubborn sin, the

Lord in a most comforting and beautiful way reaffirmed his steadfast love for Israel.

God was and is faithful, and even when Israel or Judah was not,

God was patient and persistent, giving Israel every opportunity to repent of their sin.

But in fact, they were deaf and blind to the hand of God. And God, in fact, was faithful to the old covenant stipulations by sending them into exile.

But he also, even while they were in exile, reaffirmed his steadfast love for them.

He would not abandon his chosen people. If Israel's relationship with God was based on their own merit, they would have no hope, they'd have no future, because they were not faithful.

But in fact, God chose to love them and redeem them and be faithful to them, even when they weren't faithful themselves.

And it is this grace -based relationship that magnifies God's glory the most.

God gets all of the credit. God did it all for his glory is what verse seven says.

So this is the immediate context of Isaiah 43.

God reaffirms his steadfast love for Israel or Judah while they were in exile in Babylon.

But let's think about this immediate text in a larger context. If you remember,

God created Adam and Eve and said that they were very good.

They were made in the image and likeness of God. They were distinct from the rest of creation.

They were created to live in a special relationship with God. Adam and Eve find their purpose and joy living in this relationship with God.

We're told that God would even walk with them in the garden and have conversation with them.

But you also remember that the ancient serpent, the devil, came along and tempted

Adam and Eve to doubt God's goodness. Eve was deceived and Adam rebelled against God.

Adam disobeyed the clear and good commandment of God. And immediately they felt shame and nakedness.

And when they heard God approaching, they hid from God. The sin of Adam brought sin, guilt, and death to the entire human race.

The consequences were devastating. This is the reason why we have much brokenness in our lives and in the world today.

For Adam and Eve, they were driven from the garden where they communed with God and they were prevented from returning.

For Eve, she would struggle with her husband wanting to rule over him. Eve would have great pains in childbearing.

For Adam, his tendency would be to lead his wife with an iron fist and the work that he must now do to provide for his family would become difficult and toilsome.

But it's at this very point in human history that God promised to send a deliverer.

In Genesis 3 .15, we're told that the Lord would curse the serpent and the

Lord would put enmity between the serpent and the woman, between the serpent's offspring and the woman's offspring.

The serpent's offspring would strike the heel of the woman's offspring, but the woman's offspring would strike the head of the serpent's offspring.

In other words, the seed of the woman would give a death blow to Satan.

The seed of the woman would in fact be the deliverer or redeemer of God's people.

So this first gospel promise, this proto -evangelium was given early in the

Bible in Genesis 3 .15. And from that point forward, God would begin to unveil his plan to send the promised deliverer and to restore what was lost.

This is why God chose Abram and promised to bless him and to make him into a great nation and to give him a land and promised that through him, he would bless all nations.

This is also why God promised to put a king on the throne of David, a righteous king who would reign forever.

So here is my point. God remained steadfast in his love for Israel so that he would be faithful to his promise to send a deliverer for his people.

From Israel would come this deliverer. Satan would be dealt a death blow through God's promised anointed king who we now know is in fact

Jesus. So in the death and the resurrection of Jesus, Colossians 2 .15

tells us that Jesus triumphed over the evil one and all of his evil forces and dominions.

And so today it is through Jesus Christ that believers can be comforted by the steadfast love of God.

Today, the new covenant is established through the blood of Jesus so that believing

Jew and believing Gentile can have the hope of eternal life.

But why do I take the time, so much time to walk through all of this?

Let me ask, do you ever read an Old Testament passage like this passage here in Isaiah 43, a passage that addresses

Israel and wonder how does it apply to you? Now in our church there in Wisconsin, there's only one person in our membership that I know of that is an ethnic

Jew, but even then that person isn't living in the sixth century BC.

So how do we get from Isaiah 43 to you living here in LaRue, Ohio in 2021?

Most likely, I don't know all of you, but most likely as a Gentile. How do we get from there to here?

It's through Jesus. Remember that all of the Old Testament pointed to Jesus and all

Old Testament promises find their fulfillment in Jesus. In the sixth century

BC, God manifested his steadfast love to Israel from whom the

Messiah would come and some 2000 years ago, Jesus was born of a woman and his coming and his presence and his ministry, his death and resurrection, his ascension and even his session now changed everything.

So today in the new covenant established by the shed blood of Jesus, there is no longer

Jew or Gentile. Today there's one people of God made up of believing

Jew and believing Gentile. Today, the church of Jesus Christ is the people of God.

So as we come to Isaiah chapter 43 verses one through seven, there are some amazing truths revealed about how

God cares for his people. And all of what we learn here in this

Old Testament text, first spoken by the Lord to Judah while they were in exile in Babylon in the sixth century

BC is also spoken to the church in the New Testament. Here in today's sermon, we have a beautiful picture of how

God cares for his people. And the first thing that we learn is that you are created by the

Lord. Verse one says, but now thus says the Lord, he who created you,

O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel. Now this is true today as well.

You are not here by accident. God created you as an individual.

Some of you may remember last fall, Tony Dungy challenged Raphael Warnick, a

Democrat in Georgia who was in a runoff election with Senator Kelly Loeffler.

Warnick is a pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church and he tweeted that he was a pro -choice pastor.

And Dungy responded, and I quote, "'Rev. Warner may be a pastor. "'My question would be, is he a

Christian? "'That is, does he follow the teachings of Jesus "'and does he believe that the

Bible "'is the absolute word of God?' Now Dungy goes on in his Twitter feed and he says this, "'I would think it would be difficult "'for someone who believes that God sees us "'when we are in the womb,

Psalm 139, 13 through 16, "'to think that it is okay to choose "'not to bring that life to fruition.'"

Dungy understands that God is the creator of human life.

That's a fundamental truth. And that life begins in the womb.

Now Dungy quoted from Psalm 139, verse 13 through 16 and it is a beautiful passage, just like none other, that communicates the personal care that our creator

God exercised in creating you. Listen as I read that passage, verse 13.

"'For you form my inward parts. "'You knitted me together in my mother's womb.

"'I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. "'Wonderful are your works. "'My soul knows it very well.

"'My frame was not hidden from you "'when I was being made in secret, "'intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

"'Your eyes saw my unformed substance. "'In your book were written every one of them, "'the days that were formed for you, "'when as yet there was none of them.'"

So God is the creator. He is your creator. And just as the

Lord formed Israel, so too God is the one who formed the church.

In Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1 .3 says, "'Blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "'who has blessed us in Christ "'with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.'"

Ephesians 2 .22 says, as Pastor Andrew taught a couple of weeks ago, "'In him you also are being built together "'into a dwelling place for God by the

Spirit.'" So there are, in fact, many passages we could turn to to make it very clear that God is your creator.

God has formed you, the church, in Jesus Christ. And so in Isaiah 43 .1,

we learn that you're created by the Lord, but two, you are redeemed by the Lord.

The second half of verse one says, "'Fear not, I have redeemed you.'"

Now this idea of redemption is quite interesting. In Israel, according to Leviticus 25, if a person became poor or destitute or suffered from an unfaithful life and sold himself to another person, he could be redeemed by a relative.

Now in order to be redeemed, a price was agreed upon. And upon paying that price, that enslaved man could be set free.

And we're told in the New Testament that we are set free from our bondage to sin and death by the blood of Jesus.

The blood of Jesus was the ransom price that set us free.

Praise God for that wonderful truth. That's why we need not fear.

We have been set free from the power of sin and death. Judgment and death came into the world because of man's sin, but Jesus defeated sin and death and gave us life and peace.

Therefore, we need not fear. Our worst enemy, our most feared enemy has been defeated.

We were helpless against the power of sin. Satan had dominion over us.

Living under the condemnation of God was our reality. There was nothing, absolutely nothing that we could do to save ourselves.

Totally powerless against our enemy, but when Jesus redeemed us, we were freed indeed.

Sin is powerful and it powerfully destroys, but in Christ, we have been set free from sin.

Guilt rots away the soul, but through Christ, we're cleansed and our guilt is gone.

We were separated from God and doomed for an eternal lake of fire, but in Christ, we are reconciled to God and we have the promise of eternal life.

2020 and the first part of this year have been a bit crazy, haven't they?

A worldwide pandemic brought the world to a screeching halt.

And lots and lots of people have been captivated and enslaved by the fear of getting

COVID. People have feared sickness and death.

COVID has hurt people economically too. Still today, businesses and small businesses in particular have been adversely affected.

In our area, many restaurants have closed because of COVID. And not just that, how many people have suffered from being isolated?

People in nursing homes and hospitals have died alone because of COVID. Suicides are up and have been up around the world because of the hopelessness people have in light of COVID.

There was an article in the Jerusalem Post last fall that said in Japan during October of 2020, just that one month, there were more suicides than the number of COVID deaths in the first 10 months of 2020.

Fear and worry and hopelessness have held countless people hostage during the pandemic.

And it's not just the pandemic. You could argue convincingly,

I think, that some important pillars of our country are not crumbling, but have crumbled.

It's very likely, and I think the church needs to prepare for the fact that the price of following Jesus will be far greater for believers in the very near future.

Humanly speaking, there are lots of things to be concerned about, to worry about, to be fearful over, but for those who are in Christ, we need not fear.

We need not lose hope, not because we don't have problems, but because we have been redeemed by the

Lord and because we belong to King Jesus. I'm not saying that if you are a

Christian, you won't struggle with fear or worry or anxiety. I'm saying that as a

Christian, when you struggle with these things, you have a savior, a rock, a defender to run to.

He can, and he delights to help his own. So why can you run for help to your redeemer, a compassionate, all -powerful redeemer?

Verse one of Isaiah 43 says, you're called by the Lord. And actually, the text says it much better.

It says, I have called you by name, you are mine. We need not fear because we have been redeemed.

And now, because we have been called, we belong to the Lord. That makes all of the difference.

We've seen plenty of individuals in the Bible who are called by God. Abraham was called by God.

In fact, he was a pagan when God called him. And then God changed his name from Abram to Abraham because he would become the father of many nations.

But in Genesis 15, after Abram and 318 of his servants rescued his nephew

Lot, Abram became afraid. Lot had been captured by an alliance of kings far greater than Abram and his servants.

But God gave him victory. And then after he returned home, when he feared that maybe he stirred up a hornet's nest that he could not handle, the

Lord came to Abram and said, fear not, Abram, I am your shield.

But all of that started when the Lord called Abram. Isaac and Jacob were called by God.

Samuel was called by the Lord. You remember the story about Samuel as a small boy was serving in the temple and at night he heard his name.

And he went to Eli thinking that Eli was calling him. And after the third time, it finally occurred to Eli, the high priest, that it was the

Lord who was calling Samuel. And then there was Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 1 tells us of the Lord's call of Jeremiah. And I quote, before I formed you in the womb,

I knew you. And before you were born, I consecrated you. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

Jeremiah 1 5. Also, the 12 disciples were called by name to follow

Jesus. Saul, the persecutor of the early church, was called by Jesus.

You'll remember how in Acts 9, we learn that Jesus said, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?

And in fact, all believers are called by the Lord. Ephesians 4, 1 says,

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, a calling to belong to Jesus.

Paul says in Romans 8, 28 through 30, and I quote, and we know that for those who love

God, all things work together for those who are called according to his purpose.

For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified. So the bottom line is this, from start to finish, our salvation is the work of God that he has done in Christ by his spirit.

This is why Jesus said in John 15, 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will abide.

But what is this calling? What does this mean? It means that from eternity past, before the world was created,

God purposed to make you one of his redeemed children. God sent Jesus to the cross, not just to make salvation a possibility, but to actually pay the price for your redemption.

Your name was written on Jesus' heart when he went to the cross.

And while you were spiritually dead in your sin and unresponsive to God, God breathed new life into you by his spirit.

You were born again. And in this way, the spirit enabled you to repent and to believe the gospel.

And when God called your name, you came. God's call is powerful and life -changing and effective.

Because God called you, you now belong to him.

Psalm 23 begins by saying, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

And then in verse four, the psalmist says, even though I walk through the valley of death, I fear no evil for you are with me.

Because God called you, God is for you, not against you. And this will never change for the believer.

Because we belong to the Lord, we have such comfort and courage and confidence when facing any kind of difficulty in this life.

Listen to how Paul says it in Romans 8 verses 31 through 39. What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

As it is written, for your sake, we're being killed all the day long. We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of the creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our

Lord. Amen. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our

Lord. That is an amazing truth. And because you are loved by the

Lord, listen to what you can expect from the Lord according to verses two through four.

Verse two, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.

And when you walk through fire, you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you.

Now, keep in mind that at the end of chapter 42 of Isaiah, Isaiah tells

Israel that they would experience God's fire of discipline against them because of their stubborn sin.

And yet, God would not abandon them, but in fact, be with them.

Even today, we will experience trials of many kinds as James tells us.

But in James one, what do we learn? We learn that we can count even trials all joy because God is with us and because God is up to something good in us.

He's at work in us. God does not promise that we will not have problems.

In fact, he promises that we will have problems, but he also promises to be with us in the trouble.

And my dad grew up on a farm in Western Maryland and he had four older brothers.

He was quite a bit younger than them. And my dad's older brothers would love to tell stories to their little brother to try to scare him.

I don't know, maybe some of you have done that before too. And during the spring, the family would collect sugar water from maple trees and then they had a camp, a sugar camp back by the edge of the big woods where they would boil down that sugar water to make maple syrup.

And as a little boy, my dad's older brothers would tell him that there is a mountain line back there by the sugar camp.

And they wanted to just see how my dad would respond. But I can remember what my dad said.

He said, if I was with my dad, I wasn't afraid. The Lord says, when you pass through the waters,

I will be with you. It's enough to comfort us, isn't it? And to give us courage.

Verse three continues, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your

Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom. This is most likely a reference to all of what

God did for his people when he delivered them from slavery in Egypt.

The text goes on, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Maybe this is a reference to what the

Lord would do through Cyrus in chapter 45. But also notice what verse four says, because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you,

I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.

Wow, this is beautiful. You are precious in God's eyes. You are loved by God.

He gives men in return for you. Now, maybe the events of Egypt are referenced here.

Maybe Cyrus. But I think it's also helpful to think about how God's love shown for us today through Christ who was given to us.

That love, the cross of Christ shows God's love for us today more than anything else.

Christ given for us. But don't miss, you are precious in his eyes.

You are honored by the Lord. He treats you in a weighty manner.

He makes you important to him. In fact, he gave

Jesus to redeem you. That's how much he loves you and values you.

And it's not because we deserve his love. We're not worthy of his love.

Our sin makes it clear that we deserve God's wrath, but instead

God has chosen to love us and to redeem us and to make us precious in his eyes.

This really is a breathtaking display of the beauty of his character and his glory.

Verses five through seven end by reiterating what has already been said. Fear not, for I am with you.

And then the Lord says, I will bring your offspring from the east and from the west,

I will gather you. I will say to the north, give up and to the south, do not withhold.

So this could be a reference to Israel going back to Jerusalem after their exile in Babylon was ended.

But the text continues. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth.

Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom

I formed and made. It also seems,

I think, that the Lord has done something even bigger, had something else in mind, something bigger than just taking

Judah back to Jerusalem after their exile in Babylon. I think it's most likely that he had in mind here the work that he would do through the gospel of Jesus Christ to save a people from every nation and tribe on the face of the earth.

And he would do this to magnify his glory.

Ephesians 1 .12 and 1 .14 say, we are in fact saved.

God worked out his plan of redemption. He saved us for the purpose of us living and being for the praise of his glory.

My prayer for you today is that you won't see just the crazy problems in the world today.

There are certainly many. And there most likely will be more.

But my prayer is that you will live each and every day, not just seeing the problems, but my prayer is that you will know and believe that you are created by the

Lord. You are redeemed by the Lord. You are called by the Lord.

You are loved by the Lord that in fact you are precious in his eyes.

And that for all of these reasons, you need not fear.

You certainly benefit from these rich blessings.

For us to be able to live life with a savior to run to when troubles come, we certainly benefit from that.

But ultimately, and in fact, what brings us the greatest joy is that God is glorified.

We're created and we're redeemed and we're loved by God in Christ Jesus so that we would live our lives for the praise of his glory.

Our desire, what delights our heart is to see the spirit of God produce the character of Christ so that we can live in a way that will draw attention to the greatness of God.

That we can live for the glory of his name. So my question is, are you today living in light of these truths?

That you're created by the Lord, you're redeemed by the Lord, you're called by the Lord, you're loved by the

Lord, and because of that you need not fear when troubles come. And he did all of that for the praise of his own glory.

Are you living in light of those truths? I've had the privilege to meet some of you.

I'm looking forward to hopefully getting introduced to all of you later today.

But I don't know your hearts, I don't know where you're at. It's possible that maybe you're here this morning, you've not yet come to that place where you've called upon the

Lord Jesus to save you. We have three grandchildren.

I had the privilege of reading a book to our granddaughter. She's two and a half years old.

And it was near Easter. I was reading a book that was about Peter's denial of Jesus in big, dramatic ways three times.

Peter says, I do not know Jesus. I do not know the man. I do not know Jesus. And I read it once and put it down and a little

Joe said, Pops, read it again. And I read it again and after the third time where Peter declared,

I do not know Jesus, she just quietly looked at me and said, Pops, I don't know

Jesus. She's two and a half. And I pray that the

Spirit of God is at work in her heart, even at a young age, preparing her, helping her to see that she needs a

Savior. And that Savior is Jesus. So if you're here today and you've not yet come to that place where you have seen your need for a

Savior, the Spirit of God is at work in your heart calling you to repent and believe on Jesus.

I urge you to do that today. Maybe today you need to confess to the

Lord that you have let all of the brokenness in your life, the brokenness in this world cloud your vision of God's great redeeming love for you and his presence with you.

Maybe you need to repent because you've been overwhelmed by the problems and have lost sight of the

Redeemer, your King, your righteous King who is reigning and who's protecting you and leading you and caring for you and feeding you in faithful ways.

Maybe you need to repent and turn and run to your King, your

Redeemer, and to be comforted by him. I want you to know that God's glory is magnified through you when the peace of Christ rules in your heart, even in the midst of problems, trials, difficulties, chaos in the world.

Today I encourage you to remember that if God is for you, who can be against you?

God's steadfast love gives you comfort and courage to obey

Christ and to live for his glory today.

Hebrews 13, six says, we can confidently say, the

Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?

I pray that that will be the testimony of your heart today. Let's pray together. Father, it is indeed humbling to listen carefully to your word and to hear how you speak to us about your calling and your redemption and your love and your care.

Father, what an amazing thing that you, the true and living

God, the creator and sustainer of this vast universe, our creator and sustainer, you have worked through your

Son, by your Spirit, to make us your people through faith in Jesus Christ.

And we just thank you for that, we praise you for that, and Father, we ask that you would forgive us for those times when we let the problems of life overwhelm us and overshadow your presence and your love for us.

And I pray, Father, that you, by your Spirit, would remind us of these truths, even here from Isaiah 43, that would enable us to live courageously and obediently for the glory of your great name.

Father, we are weak, but you are strong, and we call upon you and we trust you for this day and for the days ahead.

And we'll thank you for the way that you work in us and through us for our good and your glory, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.