Forged - Introduction

Amen.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Well, good morning, Multiply.

How we doing?

All right.

I love that spunk right there.

Y'all have had breakfast and coffee.

Love, love, love.

As they share, my name is Terrence Terman.

I'm a dear friend of Multiply.

My family and I.

We yeah, we've been here multiple times to share.

And um, yeah, this is an extension of our family.

I serve in Louisville at Northeast Christian Church.

And so if you're ever in town for a weekend and trying to figure out a place to go to church, you can just swing by Northeast and we would love to have you join us.

But they gave me the weekend off so I could be here with y'all.

And so I'm so excited.

So excited to be here.

So thank you to Forrest and the team for inviting me.

And today I have the privilege of kicking off a series entitled Forged.

Now, this series is all about spiritual formation and how uh the things that we experience in life, God intentionally uses to shape, mold, and refine us as believers.

The concept of forged is borrowed from the work of a blacksmith.

If you've ever seen a movie, because I'm sure maybe some of you might actually know a blacksmith, but I've never actually met a blacksmith, but I've seen them in movies.

And so blacksmiths, they they get the metal and then they they heat them up and they beat them with a hammer and they do all these things, and it always turns out to be like the most beautiful sword you've ever seen, and you you can never understand how they got there.

And and a lot of times life and the journey with Jesus can be that way.

So we want to use that imagery throughout this series uh to help us know and see what God is doing in our lives.

And today I get to talk about that part of the journey of being forged by and through the fire.

Um, I don't know if I have to tell y'all this, but life is hard.

And uh there are a lot of things that come about in this journey of following Jesus that can have us question a little bit about what's happening in our lives.

Jesus knew all about this.

He he talked about this in Matthew 13.

If you've ever read the parable of the soar, then you know that one of the soils that Jesus talked about was the heart of somebody who received the word of God and they started to show fruit, but then along the way, the hardships of life choked out what was planted, and that plant eventually died, and then that's a picture of people losing uh their faith in the journey.

They didn't necessarily, the faith didn't take root deep enough in their hearts.

And what we want to talk about is how do we make sure we're not those type of people.

Jesus gives us that parable not only to help us discern and cope with when we look around and people who were journeying with us are no longer with us on this journey of Jesus, but it's also a mirror for us to really excavate our own hearts to see what type of soil we are.

And so this four series is all about helping you have the right perspective as you go through what it looks like to be made more and more like Jesus every day.

Um, to help me talk about my portion, we're gonna be reading from the book of 1 Peter today.

We're gonna be in 1 Peter chapter 1, and we're gonna be reading through verses 1 through 9.

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

Now, a little bit about uh this letter of 1 Peter.

It was written to a variety of churches.

As we read, you'll see that Peter is addressing churches in multiple cities.

So this letter was intended to be passed on to a variety of churches, and what he's speaking into uh is the difficulty of what it means to be a Christian in that day and age.

So these particular Christians had begun to hear the stories of the persecution that was happening around Jerusalem and other places, and they were beginning to be fearful, and that hardship was finding its way to their areas.

And so some of the freedoms that they were having in life were beginning to be lost, and the difficulty of claiming Jesus was weighing heavy on them.

And when that happens, uh, a lot of times you can begin to lose people in the journey because they decide that following Jesus is not worth all the pressure that it's causing me.

So a lot of these people who were maybe Jewish and identified Jesus as their Messiah began to say, you know what, maybe he wasn't a Messiah.

And they were able to just go right back into their Jewish communities and be accepted, and they were free.

And to the Greeks and the people who had left their diversity of religions, they were able to go back.

And Peter said, Hey, don't go back.

Peter is writing a letter to encourage these people to stand firm in their confession of faith.

And a big part of standing firm in your profession of faith is knowing how your faith works itself out.

And so Peter does a good job of helping us, and we see a lot of that in the first nine verses.

So I'm gonna read verses one through nine.

Here's what it says Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those chosen, living as exiles, dispersed abroad in the Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctifying work of the Spirit to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept for you in heaven.

You are being guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials, so that the proven character of your faith, more valuable than gold, which, though perishable, is refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though not seeing him now, you believe in him, and you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Blessed reading of God's word today.

Now, looking at our passage, the first thing I want to do is to use our greeting to ground us in a foundational truth that I believe will help you throughout this series, but also your entire life.

Here's that truth.

You have been chosen for sanctifying work.

I want you to plant that in your heart.

Just basic theology, as a child of God, you have been chosen for sanctifying work.

That means that you will never be the same once you say yes to Jesus.

He accepts you as you are, but then he moves to change you into who he wants you to be.

You have been chosen for sanctifying work.

So let's go back and read that greeting again, verses one and two.

Here's what it says.

I want us to slow down and see it.

To those chosen living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethenia, again, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit for what?

To be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus.

Now, though though Peter was speaking directly to a group of people in these listed cities, uh, we understand that because of our unity with Christ and our unity as a body of believers across generations, what was theologically true to them is theologically true to us.

Now, and to understand what Peter is saying, a basic application for you to lock in is this just as much as being chosen means that your future with Christ is secure, it also means that your future and continued shaping and molding through the good, bad, and ugly of life is guaranteed.

And the reason is because God has an aim for your life.

His aim is not just in eternity, but he also has an aim for your life in the here and now.

Now, with that said, that leads us to an important question.

Um, how does knowing I am chosen impact my perspective in the trials and the refining process?

Like, how does me knowing that God has an ultimate purpose over my life that supersedes anything that I choose to do or anything that happens to me, how does me knowing that impact my perspective as I go through the fire and the trials of life?

Ask that question because the most beneficial commitment that you could make coming out of this sermon today is to learn how to think while you're in the fire.

To that end, I believe Jesus uh gives us a picture that I think partners well with this idea.

If you were to turn over to Hebrews 12, look at verses 1 and 2.

The apostle Paul, I'm sorry, the writer of Hebrews wrote this, and here's what they said says, let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.

Here's what you need to pick up on.

For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Now, off the rip, you get some really good advice.

When you're going through this life, keep your eyes on Jesus.

Listen, at a basic level, if you keep your eyes on Jesus, you're gonna get through.

But what I want us to focus on is what Jesus modeled for us.

Hopefully you didn't miss it.

It says this for the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross.

In other words, Jesus allowed future hope, glory, and the expectations from the Father shape his posture in the present.

He allowed the future promise from the Father and the eternal reality to make his momentary situation a momentary burden and not a life-defining moment.

See, so many of us have gone through things, whether by choice or whether against our will, that have tried to define our lives.

Sometimes the hard things come into our life, and if we're not careful, they begin to shape us more than our devotion to Jesus does.

So many people go through hard things, and those hard things become their new name.

But Jesus shows us that when you're going through the hardest thing that you will ever experience in life, keep your joy and the promise in front of you.

And this is a cool thing because what we found is this example from Jesus actually lines up well with science.

Science tends to start to catch up with the Bible a little bit by a little bit as we just continue to dig deep.

And here's what we found in science.

In her book, uh Switch on Your Brain, Dr.

Caroline Leaf shares that just five to sixteen minutes a day of focused meditative thinking over a period of 21 days can change the brain and even influence genetic expression in a positive direction.

Here's what she's saying: if you just took five minutes a day and just and just dreamed about the hope of heaven, it will change your brain.

If you gave yourself five minutes a day to just think about your joy in the Lord, it will build your capacity to persevere.

So we think about Jesus, our perfect model, who for the joy set before him endured the cross and despised the shame because he knew that he would sit down at the right hand of the Father.

That gave him the perseverance when he was in that garden and he began to pray and he began to sweat blood and he was wrestling with what it meant to go to the cross, and he was able to utter the words, not my will, but your will be done.

The power to say those words in that moment began because his whole life was about the future glory.

So, can I challenge you, just on a basic level, can you just start giving yourself five minutes of dreaming about the future glory and watch what that does to your life?

In the same vein, Dr.

Kirk Thompson says that every experience of being seen, soothed, safe, and secure creates neuropathways that increase our brain's capacity for resilience and joy.

This is important because so many of us never received enough security and care and soothing as children.

Most of us in this room are infants when it comes to caring for our souls because our whole life people told us to shut up, get up, be quiet.

It don't hurt that bad.

Dust yourself off, move on.

And we never developed the right type of attachment with our parents, but also never really learned the skill and allowed our brain to experience what it needs.

And what he's saying is this every experience of being seen, sooth, safe, and secure creates newer pathways.

As chosen children of God, every time you allow yourself to remember that you are chosen and secure in the hands of God, it is creating a neural pathway in your brain that builds resilience in your life.

Every time you make a commitment to come to church on Sunday and sing the songs and receive a message and be encouraged in your spirit, you are increasing your brain's capacity to be resilient and to have joy.

What Jesus models and what science tells us is that what we focus on during trials and where we anchor our joy has as much power to shape us as the pain we face?

As a chosen person, somebody dearly loved by God, is your anchor there?

Do you have a right and a secure attachment to God?

Is your attachment to God based on your behavior or based on his covenant love for you?

Do you only feel close to Jesus when you do the right things, or do you feel close to him when you know you're in the wrong and you realize he's there with you?

You've been chosen for sanctifying work, not the hard things you go through.

Don't let the world tell you that.

You've been chosen for transformation, not just difficult circumstances.

Your circumstances don't define you.

God is working something in and through you.

When we think better, guess what, church?

We endure better.

With that in mind, I want us to use the rest of our passage and talk through four principles that will help us think better.

These principles are our principles I'm gonna give you to hold dear to as God is reshaping you through the fires of life.

Because here's the reality, church, like I can't determine which fires you're gonna go through, but I can say you will go through fires.

And so we might as well prepare ourselves to go through those versus hoping they never come.

Because that will be what we would call insanity.

We've lived enough life to know hard days will come.

So the first thing I want to give you is this the backdrop of every trial is our eternal hope.

The backdrop of every trial in your life is your eternal hope.

And this is gonna deal with the lie of abandonment.

See, sometimes when we go through hard things, we begin to feel like God has abandoned us.

And I just want you to know that's a little whisper and a little lie from the enemy of your soul that actually wants you to abandon God.

But here's what Peter wrote.

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

Because of his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Here's a proverb to tuck away.

Storms don't mean God has abandoned you.

Like Hawaii is still Hawaii even in a thunderstorm.

Chosen is still chosen even when life is hard.

The backdrop of everything you go through is the reality that God faithfully keeps his promises.

And if his word says that he has given you through his mercy a new birth into a living hope, no matter how much death is in front of you, your hope is alive.

You have an inheritance that is yours because you were chosen for it.

And here's what here's the beautiful thing: it is undefiled and unfaded and imperishable.

That means even your lack of faith on the side doesn't change it.

So, can I challenge you?

As a chosen child of God, don't allow the thunder to steal your paradise.

Storms pass, and then the sun comes back out.

This city was underwater not too long ago.

It was hard, and some people are still getting through that.

But guess what?

The sun came back out, and those are pictures for us to be reminded that the goodness of God doesn't run out.

And so, as a chosen child of God, the goodness of God for you is on demand supply.

This is the second thing I want to give you.

The goodness of God guards you in every affliction.

The goodness of God guards you in every affliction.

And this deals with the temptation of giving up.

Listen, we as humans, we're experts at giving up.

I mean, let's just count all the dyes we don't gave up on in this room.

A gazillion of.

And here's the thing: we gave up, but we all know the details of how to lose weight.

We just don't do it.

Like right now, we could go over here, y'all could tell me everything about keto, y'all could tell me everything about Atkins, y'all could tell me everything about paleo, and y'all can tell me why all that's crazy.

We could write a book and get everybody in here in shape.

But as humans, our capacity is to lean more towards giving up than perseverance.

Here's what he says in verse 5.

You are being guarded by God's power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

The first thing you need to see in that is you are being guarded by God's power through faith.

What that means is what you're going through could be worse, but God is guarding you from it.

Your circumstance may feel like the worst thing ever, but because of God's grace, you're not experiencing the worst thing ever.

That's a blessing, that's a beautiful thing.

The grace and mercy of God is restraining all that you deserve, even though you still go through storms sometimes.

The second thing that you need to see is that you're being guarded for a salvation that is to be revealed at the last time.

What that means is the salvation that you're experiencing now is only a piece of what's to come.

What you have now is just a foretaste of what will be eternally yours in the future.

What you have is the ticket that guarantees that you won the lottery.

But you ain't got to cash it in yet.

Like, it's one thing to know you're gonna be a millionaire, it's another thing when you actually get the check.

Right?

We are kingdom citizens, but wait until we live eternally in that kingdom.

What a hope we have.

We gotta have a hopeful imagination, we gotta, we gotta know that something is coming and that something will help us persevere.

But in order to do that, we have to assume a level of goodness in God.

And here's the thing: like a big part of our life is walking in assumed goodness.

Let me give you an example.

If you drove a car today, you assumed goodness.

You assumed that the automaker made your car well and that it wasn't gonna blow up like the movies as soon as you turned it on.

You assume that everybody who was driving on the road was gonna follow the signs, you assume goodness.

Every time you find an airplane, you assume goodness that the pilot actually went to pilot school.

You assume that ain't no snakes on the plane.

Right?

You just get on the plane and you fly.

Like when you go out to eat to Popeye's or Bojangles, you assume that your chicken did not get breathed on as they took it out to Greece.

You assume ain't nobody just lick your chicken breast and say, ah, there you go.

Like we assume a level of goodness unto humanity, and we all know that humanity is sick to our souls.

So if we can assume a level of goodness to humanity, then why is it so easy for us to assume evil towards God when we go through something hard?

He's the eternally good and perfect God.

The least that we can do is extend the same courtesy we give to our neighbor, to our God.

Like some of the most beneficial experiences of goodness that you've experienced in your life has been when people show up for you.

Like we always remember when somebody passes away, when we go through a hard time, the people who actually showed up to the hospital, who showed up to the funeral, or the people who encouraged us in difficult times.

We re-remember that.

We re-remember the moments that the unexpected love comes our way.

Like there's the videos all the time of people who are running their first marathon.

And as they get to like mile 17, they bend the corner, and there's their family or their coworkers or somebody who knew they were doing the race, and they start crying in the middle of the race.

Oh my goodness, I can't believe you came.

You told everybody for nine months on social media that you was running the race.

But then they start crying, and I'm like, you got six more miles.

You better, you better keep rolling.

But there's something strategic about being there and showing up for a person that deep in the race because the people have wisdom to know that somewhere around mile 12 or 13, their loved ones was like, This is stupid.

Why did I pay to do this?

I signed up to run for hours.

This is dumb.

And they start doubting themselves, they start forgetting why they did what they did, and all of a sudden, there goes family, there goes friend that says, Keep going, you can do it.

And all of a sudden there's a spark of energy in their heart and they they press on.

Can we just get into the habit of allowing our brain to go back to mile three when God showed up, and then mile six when God showed up, and mile nine when God showed up, so that we know at mile 15 he's gonna be there faithfully.

That's what it looks like to know that the goodness of God is guarding you through all that you go through.

Number three, here's what you need to know: trials refine us and produce faithfulness.

Trials refine us and produce faithfulness.

This is common knowledge in the world.

Like people know that hard things make you better.

This is why football coaches are mean.

Right?

They yell at you, they make you run heels and do up-downs and push a sled, they make you do all these things because they know it will produce something in you later for your good.

This is just a basic principle, and this holds true to scripture.

But this deals with the question of why.

Now that's that's the question, right, that we all the time deal with.

Why?

Here's what Peter says you rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials, so that the proven character of your faith, more valuable than gold, which, though perishable, is refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus.

The biggest question that has plagued the church in generations that we still wrestle with is that question, why?

Why does evil exist?

Why do bad things happen to good people?

Why?

Why?

But what I found is that in our generation, that question is less about philosophical things and has a lot more to do with our loss of comfort.

God, why are you making my life so hard?

I go to church, I give to the church, I serve people, I'm on your team.

Why is my life so hard?

And the reply that God could give you is three nails, one cross.

I've done more than enough for you already.

Yet I still do more.

See, what we have to understand is we have to walk before God in humility and start asking the right why questions.

We don't have a right to question God about the difficulty of our life.

Take a moment, three seconds, think about how bad of a person you are.

Think about all the times you lied, all the times that you've schemed, all the people that you've gossiped about, all the hearts you've broken.

None of us deserve the lives that we have.

So we get to take a step back from questioning God about the why this is so hard, and we begin to be able to say, Hey God, why are you doing this?

What is coming next that I need to experience what I'm going through now?

God, why did you choose me for this journey?

What is it that you have assigned for me to do in this life for your glory?

Like for the believer, we truly don't have to live in the land of why.

Everything about our lives has purpose in the hands of God.

It's either producing something or proving something, or both.

Sometimes we we need to go through hard things to show us that we really do love God.

Like some of us need to go through stuff to get to the other side of it and say, you know what?

Like that stuff really is working.

I used to cuss people out when they did that.

Now I pray for them.

Man, God has really changed me.

I really am a Christian.

Like sometimes you go through stuff to be like, dang.

Like I really am a new creation.

And we need that sometimes because we sometimes measure by the wrong statistics.

So sometimes you're gonna go through stuff, and God intends to use it for later in life.

God is building your capacity for his ministry.

See, some of you have gone through things, and God has said that is the ministry I have for you in this city.

Because there are thousands of other people with your same story that need to hear you preach about perseverance on the other side with Jesus.

So sometimes we we are taken through the storm so that we can proclaim the goodness of God for his glory.

But in order for us to embrace that, we gotta take the focus of our faith off ourselves and put it back on Jesus.

So sometimes God has just simply called you to be a spectacle before other people.

He oftentimes did this for the prophets.

Sometimes you're called to go through something publicly, and you don't even know who's watching you, but you're but you're building their faith because they see you persevering and holding on to the Lord.

See, sometimes you're going through what you're going through, you're getting the diagnosis, and you're in the hospital, and when you get the diagnosis, you say, Well, praise be to God.

I know he's with me.

And that doctor's gonna leave the room and say, I don't know, I just gave some of the worst news in the world.

This person praised God.

There's countless stories of nurses who have who have thought the prognosis in a room was death and dread, but from the room they hear all is well with my soul echoing through the hallways.

And that plants a seed that there's something different about the circumstances happening in room 17B that's different than room 16A.

I gotta figure out what 17B has that 16A doesn't have, and when they come in there, they meet the living God because of your faith.

See, sometimes you're put on display and you didn't choose it because God has chosen somebody else and you're just the tool in his hand.

The fire is not pointless, it's doing something.

Here's the fourth thing.

The purpose of faith is salvation, not safety.

This deals with the what that really matters.

It breaks my heart, man, because so many people, especially in our American Western context, have not received the full preaching of the gospel.

I want to read this verse and I want you to hear what Peter is saying.

He says this though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though not seeing him now, you believe in him.

And you rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy because you are receiving the goal of your faith.

What is it?

The salvation of your souls.

See, so so many people have been brought into the church because of our different strategies.

We show up on the block and we say, Man, come hang out at our church.

You're gonna meet friends.

Your life is gonna be good.

We have fun.

Come over here.

We got convenient start times.

We'll give you some coffee.

Man, this will be this will make your life so much.

You're gonna experience the blessing of God as you come to church.

Man, it's gonna improve you as a mother, it's gonna improve you as a father, it's gonna make you a better son, it's gonna help you get through college, it's gonna help you, it's gonna help you through all the things that you go through.

And listen, can I tell you something?

None of those things are wrong.

They're just not the primary message of the gospel.

They are the benefits of receiving the true gospel.

The true gospel is receiving the message that you deserve death, hell, and the grave.

But there was a God that was patient and kind with you, that put on flesh, walked this earth perfectly, went to the cross, died, rose again, and gave you a free pardon.

And you need to understand why that's so important because if he had to do all that to give you a free pardon, then that means that his righteousness is also bringing wrath for those who have rejected that free pardon.

And so the the other side of how beautiful God's love is is how scary his wrath is.

And the reality of a Christian faith is this being chosen means that you will never face what your sin deserves.

But you are covered by the blood of Jesus and secure for a salvation that is yet to come.

So when you go through hard things and the enemy comes along and tells you that your faith is not worth it, speak back to the enemy and say, This ain't the point of my faith.

The point of my faith is so that I don't join you in the lake of fire one day.

I'm gonna hold on to what God has given me.

I'm gonna remember my hope.

Salvation is the purpose of your faith, not safety.

We gotta internalize that because we know that life is just volatile.

We can't determine what tomorrow holds.

Everybody in here can go home and be laid off tonight.

We can all wake up and there's a war that has begun in the morning.

We can all look to next Friday and the economy has tanked.

We can all go to the grocery store and realize all the chicken is gone because there's some type of flu going out.

Now we can't eat chicken wings.

Wing stoppers now burger stop.

What are we gonna do?

For real, man, sweet tie chilli.

Come on.

What are we gonna do?

I can't eat no sweet tie chili burger.

But but seriously, life, life is so unpredictable.

And so we don't need to live in the in the the the uncertainty of what's to come.

We need to ground ourselves in what we know is a guarantee.

And from living in that place of guarantee, we realize what really matters.

And when the fires come and when the storms come, we're not tempted to be that plant that sprouted up and looked beautiful for a little while, but then gave in because life was too hard.

We begin to eternalize that the hardness of life is preparing me for an eternal glory, and I can't wait to see it.

That's the posture of the Christian being forged to the fire.

To close our time, I want to do something that was a real blessing to me this week.

In my devotion time, I came across a devotion.

Um I came across a devotion that talked about the practice of quieting your soul.

And what they talked about is how what I shared a little bit earlier, so many of us never actually learn how to regulate our emotions.

We never learn how to quiet ourselves.

And so instead of quieting ourselves as mature believers, we run to sin, we run to anxiety, we run to sugar, we run to smoking, we run to all these other things to do something in us physiologically that God has actually given us the ability to do spiritually.

And so, what I want to do today is I want to usher us into a time of quieting your soul.

So if you can, could you just hold your hands out?

I don't know what everybody's going through in the room, but I can guarantee that there's something in your life that feels like a storm, and I just want you to get in a posture to receive.

This is all this is.

This is just a posture to receive, just little participation.

And what I want you to do is I just want you to sit right now in your body, and I just want you to feel what it means to be you right now.

I want you to feel the weight and the expectations, the things that bring fear to your life, the things that bring joy to your life.

I just want you to feel exactly what it feels like to be you right now.

We're gonna sit here for a second.

This may be awkward, but church is usually filled with a lot of noises, a lot of sound, but we're just gonna sit for a second.

I want you to sit in that expectation.

First thing I want you to notice is for some of you is how uncomfortable this is.

And maybe this is an invitation for you to learn to sit quietly before the Lord a little bit more in your life.

No podcasts, no sounds, no book, just you and God.

But I also want you to notice what your body feels like, what things are coming to your mind right now, and I want you to hear these words about those things.

Isaiah 30, 15 says, For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, in returning and rest, you shall be saved.

In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.

But you were unwilling.

Here's the question: what do you need to return today?

Allow the Holy Spirit to excavate your heart.

Where are you unwilling right now to receive rest from God?

Invite him in.

Zephaniah 3:17.

Zephaniah 3:17

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save, he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will quiet you by his love, he will exult over you with loud singing.

That's the question.

What would it mean for you to believe that about yourself?

Like, what would it look like for you in the midst of whatever your life is right now to imagine God having the capacity to love and sing over you right now?

What does it mean for you to allow God to father you in this moment, to take you in his arms and to rock you like the chosen child that you are?

And to sing his favorite hymn over your life.

Do you know a God like that?

Is that the father that you're attached to?

Allow God to hold you close and quiet your soul.

He's singing over all of us right now.

And here's the thing that you can hold on to.

If the scriptures I read are true for this moment in this Sunday service, they are true for you when the worst thing comes tomorrow.

The Father is always present and always there singing over you because you mean that much to him.

The fire does not mean God doesn't love you, it means that he loves you more than you could ever imagine.

Trust him as he takes you through.

God, we thank you.

We thank you that your word says that your mercy endures forever.

And God, as your chosen people, we know that that is true for us.

So, God, we know that there are a lot of people in this room who are just tired or hurting or wrestling with a bunch of questions.

God, would today just be a touch of your goodness?

We thank you that you're faithful, that your love is covenant love.

You keep your end of the bargain when we fall short, God.

Thank you.

Father us in only the way that you can.

In the mighty name of Jesus.

Amen.