Isaiah 49:14 - 50:3 : God Answers Our Anguish

Good morning family.

I consider it a privilege, a tremendous privilege, to be able to stand before you to handle the Word of God.

And I stand here with much apprehension this morning, as it is always the case.

Because case because it's such a fearsome thing to be able to look at God's word and be able to bring the good things that is out of it.

Also, you know, each time I get notes from Pastor Doug.

This time also it was the same Pastor Doug sent me notes with a note saying if I study this passage anymore, I'm getting tempted to preach.

So I didn't ask him any more questions.

But as time went on, as fear started gripping me, there is always that temptation to give him a call at the 11th hour saying would you take it back?

But I didn't do that because, you know, for some reason I didn't think he was here in town, so he did not get my call.

So wonderful, it's so wonderful to be here to praise God and worship God.

Worship the Lord in his household.

And our scripture portion here comes from the book of Isaiah, chapter 49, verse 14, through chapter 50, verse 3.

Isaiah 49:14

That is in your Bible, pew Bibles.

It is on page 646 to 647.

Aduniram Judson was an American missionary to Burma, which is the current day Myanmar.

He was born in Massachusetts in 1788, and in 1812 he got married to Anne Hazeltine.

Just two weeks after his marriage they set sail to Calcutta, india, to be a missionary.

They arrived in Calcutta in June of 1812.

After reaching India he was ordered to leave by the British East India Company.

They did not take kindly to the missionaries during those days and they did not take kindly to British missionaries, let alone American missionaries.

And he moved to Burma a year later, in July of 1813.

And he was warned by William Carey to not to go into Burma because Burma is known as the graveyard of missionaries, see Adiniram.

Judson faced extreme challenges in Burma, including cultural resistance to Christianity, constant sickness and death, the imprisonment and torture of himself and his wife and death.

The imprisonment and torture of himself and his wife, the loss of three children and two wives to illness, and periods of deep personal grief and despair.

Despite these immense hardships, he persevered for decades, translating the entire Bible into Burmese and laying the groundwork for the first indigenous churches in the country.

It took three years of hard work of learning the language, translating portions of the scripture into their native language.

And then after that, he spent four years proclaiming the gospel on the roadside, inviting people into his Zayat, small shelter by the side of the road.

So he labored for four years like that in a country to whom he is a stranger, and it took four more years for him to see his first convert in 1819.

Over 200 years later, the Christian population in Burma is estimated to be around 3.5 to 4 million.

In fact, we have one of those believers from Burma in our midst.

His name is Brian, not Brian McLaughlin.

Brian McLaughlin is from Garden City.

Whether Garden City or Burma, it is in Christ Jesus we have hope.

The reason this story is relevant to our message today is the Father's proclamation.

We see in Isaiah 49, 5-7 verses that His servant will also be a light to the nations by virtue of this proclamation.

This chapter is a call to global missions and this chapter starts with coasts and islands.

Listen to me, distant peoples pay attention.

And it goes on, and we have heard Dr Grisanti teach and preach from it in such a wonderful manner.

I think we need to listen to that sermon again and again.

And then, in verse 8, it says I will answer you in the time of favor.

I will help you in the day of salvation.

From this Apostle Paul quotes this this is the time of favor and this is the day of salvation, in reference to proclamation of the gospel.

So later, our portion starts in 14.

It says Zion says the Lord has abandoned me.

See, we have seen this grand vision that unfolded in the first 13 verses.

We see the servant of the Lord and through whom God is unveiling his promise and his vision to bring his light into the entire world, to four corners of the world.

And first 13 verses it is.

And the 13th verse ends in shout for joy, you heavens, universal joy at what the Lord is doing in the world.

And then 14th verse starts with Zion says the Lord has abandoned me and God and the Lord has forgotten me.

And it ends with in chapter 50, the Lord is recounting.

You know, I did not abandon you.

And here's the Lord is laying out the reason for their exile.

It is such a wonderful, wonderful portion of Scripture.

Before we look at it, let's go to the Lord in prayer.

Our loving Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you this morning.

Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you this morning that you would consider us, that your light would shine upon us and bring us your salvation.

Oh, father, as we are studying about your servant and his ministry and your reassurance to your people, father, we pray that you would encourage each one of our hearts, father, in our anguish.

You provide us an answer.

Help us to receive that answer this morning and, father, fully grasp the magnitude of the consequences, magnitude of all the implications of that answer.

Father, be with your people as they hear.

Father, we pray that you be with me as I speak.

In Jesus' name, we pray and we look at the key historical events that led to this prophecy.

Dr Grisanti covered the first portion of this chapter last Sunday and has taken us through the ministry of the servant and how his ministry will not only deliver Israelites from the bondage, but he will be the light to the nations, the islands and the distant lands.

The nation of Israel was brought to the nations, the islands and the distant lands.

The nation of Israel was brought to the promised land by the divine hand from bondage in Egypt, israel living in the promised land, and they committed covenant treachery against God and suffered the covenant curse, in words of Dr Grisanti, and, as a result, god evicted from the land of promise, for which God used Babylon as a tool to achieve that purpose.

And that brings us to the Babylonian exile.

And we see the chronological list of key events.

In 605 BC, we see the first deportation from Jerusalem to Babylon and King Nebuchadnezzar takes the first of captives, including young nobles such as Daniel.

And 597 BC, the second deportation King Jehoiakim and Ezekiel and many others are exiled when Nebuchadnezzar besieges Jerusalem for the second time.

And 586 BC, the third and the largest deportation.

Jerusalem is destroyed, including Solomon's temple.

The city is left desolate and the majority of the population is exiled to Babylon.

Exiled to Babylon.

And as this was going on, the Lord raised a deliverer from the pagan origin and calls him his anointed.

And we saw Pastor Doug preach from Isaiah 45, the first portion about Cyrus the Great, and we see that Isaiah prophesies about this king in chapter 45, some 150 years before his birth.

Babylon falls to Cyrus, the Great of Persia, ending the Babylonian Empire's direct rule over the exiles.

In 539 BC, as soon as he came into power, god kept his promise.

538 and 537 BC, cyrus issues an edict allowing the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple.

And 516 BC completion and dedication of the second temple in Jerusalem, marking roughly 70 years since the temple's destruction.

Marking roughly 70 years since the temple's destruction.

For the people in exile, irrespective of how hard it looks, and God is going to deliver them from Babylonian exile, despite all indications that it was not going to happen, god raises up his instrument, cyrus the Great, to defeat the Babylonians and delivers them out of Babylonian captivity.

And in verses 5 through 7, we see, you know God address the glory of Christ in bringing salvation of God to the ends of the earth.

He says it is not just enough for the house of Jacob to come to the ends of the earth.

He says it is not just enough for the house of Jacob to come to the salvation it is.

I think that does not bring Christ enough glory.

And his servant will also be a light to the nations.

This is the expansion of this vision to the ends of the earth.

And the glory God gets, the Lord His servant gets, is not enough by saving only the Jewish nation.

And that's exactly what the Lord says.

The Father says to the Son by doing so, christ will get far greater glory.

That is the Father says to the Son by doing so, christ will get far greater glory.

That is what the Father declared once for all in these verses Restoration of Israel points to a greater restoration and hope for, not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles as well.

Well, on the heels of this grand vision that unfolded in these 13 verses, we enter this section.

49, 14 to 23 present us with Israel's complaint in one verse and God's gracious and glorious response in the next nine verses.

We all know what anguish feels like, don't we?

Whether from personal loss, regret, injustice or uncertainty about the future, those are the days when even God seems silent.

Israel felt this deeply during the exile.

The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.

But the brilliant message of this text is that God not only hears the cry of the anguish, he answers in surprising and compassionate and redemptive ways.

This lament is a raw lament, echoing the pain of exile and the sense of silence from heaven.

But beneath that sorrow lies a deeper truth.

The anguish that they endure is not random.

It is the fruit of their rebellion.

The covenant treachery has consequences, and yet they cry out as though God has failed them.

Israel's complaint is not the cry of innocence, but it is rooted in their iniquity, and we see in Lamentations 3.39,.

Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?

Hosea 13, 6.

When they had pasture, they became satisfied.

They were satisfied and their hearts became proud, and they forgot me.

In Hosea, this portion, god is leveling a complaint against Israelites how their prosperity and satisfaction led to spiritual pride, causing people to forget God who provided for them.

This verse uses the metaphor of a flock of sheep fed in rich pastures until they become satisfied and complacent, then forgetting their shepherd.

To show how Israel's material abundance led them to believe they were self-sufficient and forget their reliance on God.

This pride and forgetting God as seen as a rejection of His goodness and a precursor to His judgment, as they attribute their well-being to themselves rather than to God's grace.

Prosperity led to pride and pride led to forgetfulness.

Throughout Israel's history we see this pattern.

When prosperity abounds, god is forgotten.

When hardship strikes, god is forgotten.

When hardship strikes, god is blamed.

Isn't that the basic, fundamental human experience?

Deuteronomy 8, 11 through 14,.

Be careful that you don't forget the Lord, your God.

When you eat and are full and your heart becomes proud, then you will forget the Lord, your God, and your heart becomes proud.

Then you will forget the Lord, your God.

The spiritual amnesia is not unique to Israel.

It is endemic to the human heart.

We want God's blessings, but not His Lordship.

We cry out in pain, yet rarely in repentance.

God warned them but, like many in our day, they remembered Him only when things went wrong.

The pridefulness led to covenant treachery against God and consequently, their eviction from the land.

In exile they're complaining God has forgotten me, dear ones.

This carries a resemblance to the words of Jesus on the cross, matthew 27, 46 says my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?

Jesus, hanging on the cross, utters the same lament, but the difference is staggering.

Here the Israel laments because of the consequences of their own sin.

Jesus laments because he is bearing the consequences of our sin.

Isaiah 53, 5-6,.

He was pierced because of our rebellion and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all.

Jesus suffers not for his owniquity of us all.

Jesus suffers not for his own sin, but for ours.

His abandonment is substitutionary, not punitive, not disciplinary.

2 Corinthians 5.21 says this he made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

Christ bore the silence of heaven so we could hear the voice of grace.

Hebrews 13.5,.

I will never leave you nor abandon you, because Jesus was forsaken.

We never truly are.

Zion complains.

God has forgotten me.

Now.

To that, god has forgotten me Now.

To that God responds this way In verses 15 and 16, god's unfailing compassion is expressed like this.

God responds, not with rebuke, but with stunning reassurance.

God uses parental care imagery here.

Isaiah 49, 15.

Can a woman forget her nursing child or lack compassion for the child of her womb?

Even if they forget, yet, I will not forget you, amen.

He was not saying it is because of your rebellion you were cast out of the land, but he is responding with wonderful reassurance.

This verse begins by comparing God's faithfulness to a mother's bond with her nursing child, a relationship that is so intimate it is considered unforgettable.

God then declares his commitment.

That is considered unforgettable.

God then declares His commitment that is even stronger he will never forget His people.

Deuteronomy 32, 18.

You ignored the rock who gave you birth.

You forgot the God who gave birth to you.

Hosea 11, 3-4.

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk.

Taking them by the hand, I led them with cords of kindness.

Isaiah 49, 16,.

Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.

Your walls are continually before me.

You know, in the ancient world, including the Old Testament period, branding was a practice used on slaves to signify their ownership, A sign of property.

A slave was the property of their master.

Their brand marked them as belonging to their owner, often with the master's name or a symbol, and it represented humiliation, though it is temporary while brutal.

You know, slavery in the Old Testament was not a permanent condition for Israelites and offered certain protections.

In other cultures, however, the branding was permanent sign of property.

And here the Lord is using this language, engraving the covenant and remembrance.

In contrast, god's promise to his people is an act of loving, commitment and constant remembrance.

In contrast, god's promise to his people is an act of loving, commitment and constant remembrance.

This passage features wonderful elements that stand in direct opposition to the concept of branding.

It is a permanent reminder for God, not us.

Unlike a brand meant to remind the slave of their master, god's engraving is a reminder for himself.

He intentionally makes his people part of his being, so they are always before him.

He does not need a reminder, but the image powerfully demonstrates his devotion.

And second aspect is master as servant.

This imagery creates a beautiful role reversal where master bears the mark of his servants.

Think about it the master is branded for the servants, for Christians.

This foreshadows the nail marks on Jesus' hands which become the ultimate and eternal testament to his sacrificial love for humanity.

And through that, he, not us.

He became our everlasting position, not as he became our everlasting position.

And Exodus 2, 8, 9 through 12, engrave the names of the sons of Israel on the two stones and Malachi 3, 16,.

At the time, those who feared the Lord spoke to one another.

The Lord took notice and listened, so a book of remembrance was written before him for those who feared the Lord and had high regard for his name.

For the Christian, these words take on new depth.

Christ's hands, the servant's hands wounded at Calvary, forever declare his love.

The marks are proof.

God has not forgotten or forsaken anyone who is his.

And in verses 17 to 23, we see Zion's restoration and enlargement.

God will reverse Zion's barrenness.

The exile will not be permanent.

The images of large families are given as signs and symbols of spiritual blessing and fruitfulness.

Here God's mission extends to the nations.

Gentile kings are seen as people laboring and bringing Jewish people back towards the nations.

Gentile kings are seen as people laboring and bringing Jewish people back towards the Lord.

This signals their inclusion in the promises and plan of God and carries echoes of revelations, kings bringing Him glory.

God's compassion is not a mere sentiment.

It propels action.

He promises restoration so vast that Zion, once barren and broken, will overflow with returning children from every corner of the earth.

God's grace will surprise those who had given up hope.

This vision reaches beyond Israel to include children from afar and nations serving in this blessing.

This sets the stage for the church's mission.

God's family will one day include Jew and Gentile, near and far.

That is fulfilled in Christ Jesus 49.18.

Look up and look around.

They all gather together, they come to you.

As I live.

This is the Lord's declaration.

You will wear all your children as jewelry and put them on as a bride does.

Look up and look around.

They all gather together, they come to you, it says.

Look up.

This is a command to change the perspective from one of despair and self-pity to one of hope.

God calls Zion to lift her gaze from her past, ruin and laws to behold the glorious future he is bringing about.

Look around.

This is an instruction to actively observe the fulfillment of God's promise.

Focus is no longer on her desolation but on the gathering of a multitude of her children.

Dispersed exiles returning home.

They all gather together, they come to you.

This describes the immense scope of the promised return.

It refers to the physical return of the Jewish people from Babylonian captivity, but points ultimately to a greater, final, universal spiritual restoration.

That is the mission of the servant.

This gathering includes believers from all nations who come to acknowledge and worship the Lord.

He says, as I live, this is the Lord's declaration you will wear your children as jewelry and put them on as a bride does, as I live.

This is a powerful, solemn oath from God himself, signifying the absolute certainty of this promise.

It emphasizes that this divine assurance is as real as God's own existence.

He is swearing by His own name.

You will wear all your children as jewelry.

This imagery of children as precious ornaments is a powerful reversal of Zion's previous state of barrenness and bereavement.

One day, you see, all the streets are desolate, the temple is desolate and out of that, god is promising this fruitfulness.

In ancient cultures, jewelry symbolized honor, status and wealth.

For Zion, her true splendor is not in material riches but in the vast number of people, both returning exiles and new converts, who became part of her restored community.

This metaphor echoes a similar image in Jeremiah 2.32, where Israel is rebuked for forgetting God.

Like a bride forgets her ornaments, isaiah's use of the same imagery here transforms it into a symbol of forgiveness and glorious restoration.

And put them on as a bride does.

This metaphor adds to a joyous celebration and relational intimacy to the image of restoration.

A bride's ornaments represents purity, new beginnings and the festive nature of a covenant relationship.

This foreshadows the ultimate fulfillment of God's covenant with His people, often depicted in Scripture through bridal imagery, culminating in New Testament with the church as the bride of Christ, revelation 21.2.

And this restoration, romans 9.25-26, describes like this I will call quotes, not my people, my people and she who is unloved, beloved you are not my people.

They there, they will be called the sons of the living God.

They there, they will be called the sons of the living God.

And if we look at this God's restoration and we see it gloriously manifest in its conclusion in Isaiah 60 and Revelation, 21 and 22,.

We see this, you know.

Let me read this, these verses Isaiah 60, 11 through 22.

Your city gates will always be open.

They will never be shut, day or night, so that the wealth of the nations may be brought into you, with their kings being led in procession For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve.

You will perish.

These nations will be annihilated.

The glory of Lebanon will come to you, its pine, elm, cypress together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will glorify my dwelling place.

The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you.

All who reviled you will fall face down at your feet.

They will call you the city of the Lord, a Zion of the Holy, one of Israel.

Instead, you're being deserted and hated, with no one passing through.

I will make you an object of eternal pride, a joy from age to age.

You will nurse on the milk of nations and nurse at the breasts of kings.

You will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob.

I will bring gold instead of bronze.

I will bring silver instead of iron, bronze instead of wood, iron instead of stones.

I will appoint peace as your government and righteousness as your overseers.

Violence will never again be heard of in your land.

Devastation and destruction will be gone from your borders.

You will call your walls salvation and your city gates praise.

The sun will no longer be your light by day and brightness of the moon will not shine on you.

The Lord will be your everlasting light and your God will be your splendor.

The sun will no longer set, the moon will not fade, for the Lord will be your everlasting light and the days of your sorrow will be over.

And your people, all your people, will be righteous and they will possess the land forever.

They are the branch I planted, the work of my hands so that I may be glorified.

The least will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation.

I am the Lord.

I will accomplish it quickly, in its time.

What a promise.

And in Revelation, similar things are expressed.

See, showing that this is.

You know, this goes beyond the house of Jacob.

This is to the ends of the earth, the Lord's salvation being revealed to the ends of the earth Revelation 21, 22 to 27.

I did not see a temple in it because the Lord, god Almighty and the Lamb of the earth Revelation 21, 22 to 27.

I did not see a temple in it because the Lord, god Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, as its lamp is the Lamb.

The nations will walk by its light and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it.

Its gates will never close by day, because it will never be night there.

They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.

Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb's Book of Life, revelation 22, 1-5.

Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city's main street.

The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month.

The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations and there will no longer be any curse.

The throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city and His servants will worship Him.

They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads.

Night will be no more.

People will not need light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever.

Such is the restoration that God is planning Now.

Verses Isaiah 49, 6 and verses 22 to 23 says this Christ's salvation for all nations.

It is the servant.

Isaiah's servant is appointed not only for Israel but as a light of the nations.

Through the gospel, god's comfort and rescue go out to the ends of the earth.

Christ's work on the cross breaks the ultimate bonds and welcomes home spiritual exiles from every culture, every nation, every tongue and tribe.

And towards the chapter ends with both a promise and a warning to the nations on the earth.

God will lift up his hand to the nations and raise his banner commanding the Gentiles to assist him in gathering his scattered people and returning them to Zion.

The ones who are journeying with them to Zion will carry the sons and daughters.

The Persian sub-rulers are the people called on to help with the restoration and resettlement of Jerusalem.

In the same way, gentiles who benefited from the ministry of servant Jesus Christ are called to evangelize the unreached people.

Groups giving special attention to the lost among the house of Jacob and believing kings will aid in the proclamation of the gospel.

And in verses 24-26, we see the plight of the tyrants who hold the exiles captive.

The Lord proclaims that they will be crushed in order to let the children of God go free.

Either they will aid in bringing back the exiles and be blessed, or will resist and be destroyed.

And what a response of God to their complaint.

The Lord has forgotten me.

And here, in the first three verses of Isaiah 50, the Lord addresses Judah.

Here he was preparing his people for the consequences of their covenant, treachery and idolatry through the prophecy.

This prophecy ahead of time that he has given is to strengthen them and their faith when they needed it the most, when they are in exile, lest they think that their God has completely abandoned them and cast them off completely or divorced them.

In these verses, the Lord answers them and gives them the reason for their exile, which is the exile is temporary.

The Israel was sent away because of their iniquity.

Even then, as soon as they complained about the Lord abandoning them iniquity Even then, as soon as they complained about the Lord abandoning them, he reassured them and promised them that, despite all appearances, the exiles will return and that His plan of redeeming them encompasses the ends of the earth.

The anguish is the consequence of disobedience and God's answer to His people's.

Anguish is the consequence of disobedience, and God's answer to his people's anguish is salvation, not only to the house of Jacob, but to the ends of the earth.

The Lord is true to his promise.

He delivered Israel out of their anguish Through their anguish, though their anguish is due to their own covenant rebellion.

God in his mercy and the covenant he made to Abraham.

He delivered them when His people were helpless and despondent.

He raised His anointed Cyrus the Great to achieve that purpose.

This portion talks about a greater servant, jesus Christ, who not only restores Israel but would extend the Lord's salvation to the ends of the earth.

This God, who is gracious, is ready to comfort those who are afflicted and oppressed by the bondage of sin.

Dear ones, whether it is your children that you are recognizing over or your relatives that you are recognizing over the salvation when you think, there may be times when you think the heaven is silent and the Lord is silent, to your plight, remember, can a woman forget her nursing child or lack compassion for the child of her womb?

Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you.

Look, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.

Your walls are continually before me.

What a wonderful promise, what a wonderful assurance In God's redemptive history.

God has, in His graciousness, in His mercy, he expanded that vision to the Gentiles so that we all can come and experience His wonderful restoration.

We are the beneficiaries of that grace.

What should our response be?

This chapter is the greatest missionary call to bring his salvation to the ends of the earth.

In 2 Corinthians 6-2, apostle Paul says Now is the season of God's grace.

Today is the day of the earth.

In 2 Corinthians 6 2, apostle Paul says Now is the season of God's grace, today is the day of salvation, drawing from verse 8 of this chapter the day of salvation, the servant's mission to liberate captives and bring light to the world.

Apostle Paul will later highlight this.

Behold.

So in 6 2 we already said this God's answer to anguish is both immediate and global, and His favor is available now to all.

If we are despondent with the things that are going on in our society, in your life, in your children, in your family, in your children in your family.

Look at this grand vision of restoration and what God is planning, which is foretold in Isaiah 60 and in Revelation.

Tell your soul arise, my soul arise, shake off thy guilty fears.

The bleeding sacrifice in your behalf appears Before the throne.

My surety stands Before the throne.

My surety stands.

My name is written on his hands and the word says he lives to intercede for us.

He ever lives above for me to intercede.

His all-redeeming love, his precious blood to plead.

His blood atone for all our race and sprinkles now the throne of grace.

I just cannot get over this hymn.

Each time it is sung.

Five bleeding wounds he bears received on Calvary.

They pour effectual prayers.

They strongly plead for me and forgive him or forgive, they cry.

Nor let that ransomed sinner die.

This is the mission and ministry of the servant through which God's vision is unfolded to the ends of the earth, not only to the house of Jacob, to people who are in anguish, thinking that the Lord has forgotten me.

No such thing.

The father hears him pray his dear anointed one.

He cannot turn away the presence of his son.

His spirit answers to the blood and tells me that I am born of God and the final verse says we are reconciled to a holy God through the ministry of his servant, jesus Christ.

Adoniram, judson or any number of missionaries might have thought the Lord has forgotten them in a foreign country because when he is burying his children and he's burying his wives.

He must have thought the Lord has forgotten me.

And when he is going on the streets and calling people to listen to the gospel for four years the streets and calling people to listen to the gospel For four years, no response the Lord has forgotten me.

He might have thought.

And eventually he himself was buried at the sea.

The Lord never forgets his promise.

As we sing, christ will have the prize for which he died an inheritance of nations.

Four million plus believers in Burma is a testament to the effectiveness of the gospel that adds to the servant's glory.

God's answer to our anguish is ultimately the glory of His Son, jesus Christ, who will be the light of the nations.

What a wonderful promise.

What a wonderful answer to our anguish.

May God be glorified.

See, the thing is, when we think about this grand vision of the servant, we must not forget the global missions, dear ones.

No, we need to.

Each time we think about our missionaries, kevin Cooney and Kevin and Sarah and Driscoll's, we need to pray.

Please make it a point every day to lift them up so that they will not feel that the heaven is silent and they will be confirmed in the vision, this grand vision, of bringing the gospel to the ends of the earth.

Amen.

I'd like to just say a few words Before closing.

I want to address the last week's tragic events in our country.

The loss of young lives, including Charlie Kirk, deeply affected us all.

We in the US and around the world felt as though we lost our own family members, one of our own family members.

Though we need not agree with him on everything, it is inspiring to see a young man testify to the power of the gospel in venues that are hostile to the gospel and he practiced 1 Peter 3.15,.

But in your hearts, regard Christ, the Lord, as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for the reason, for the hope that is in you.

Through his ministry, the Lord brought countless young people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

As we remember him, let's pray for his wife, his children and mostly for our nation, that the gospel will be proclaimed in much power and that our nation, even though this anguish, through this anguish, would see in Jesus Christ who is the light of the nations.