March 12, 2023 / Finding God in Chaos / Some Things Never Change

Welcome to Walk in the Truth podcast. How do we know where to find answers to the toughest

questions in life? While the simplest answer is the Bible, where do we start this search

and how do we discover this truth? Today, in this teaching podcast, John Meador, lead

pastor of Cross City Church, takes a specific text of the Bible and helps us find truth

for the life we're searching for. We're so glad you're here with us this morning.

You know, I've noticed a statement that we make from time to time and the statement is

some things never change. Have you ever said something like that? Some things never change.

That's the subject of what we're talking about today. Please take your Bibles and turn to

Genesis chapter 9 today. Today we'll finish this series called Finding God in Chaos.

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

And we've been walking through the book of Genesis. We spent time in the fall looking

at the origin series, which was the first three chapters of the book of Genesis. And

if you want to go back and review some of those, you'll be able to see those online.

And then we moved into finding God in the chaos that mankind created on the other side

of the Garden of Eden when man sent. So we've been in this series for about four or five

weeks. We'll complete it today with a look at the fact that some things never change.

So Genesis chapter 9 today, beginning in verse 1. About a year ago, my wife and I took a

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

trip to Colorado and we enjoy driving. So we drove to Colorado and one day we decided

to get on a road called the Trail Ridge Road. Don't know if you've ever heard that, but

the Trail Ridge Road is a road that rides across most of the major peaks in Rocky Mountain

National Park. In fact, as you drive on Trail Ridge Road, you're normally at 12,000 feet

above sea level. Getting near mountain peaks that are almost 14,000 feet above sea level.

There are four major peaks that are on that Trail Ridge Drive that are around 14,000 feet.

From the upper perspective, 14,000 feet is about halfway of the height that you fly when

you're flying in a jet airplane from one place to another. We're talking about way up on

the mountaintops that we are driving. And those four major peaks are incredibly beautiful

and unforgettable. And as we drove through that mountain range, we realized that what

we were at is an epic spot in all of North America and we just couldn't forget those

four mountain peaks. There's a whole lot of terrain that we did forget about, but not

those four mountain peaks. I want to talk to you about four mountain peaks of truth,

four things that never change, four truths in the scripture today that will stand out

as mountain peaks in your life. And when you're old, you'll look back and you'll say, some

things never change. And those four things that I'm going to mention today are among

those things that never change. Genesis chapter 9 beginning in verse 1, let's stand together

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

as we read God's word. Genesis chapter 9 beginning in verse 1. Now this is the setting

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

of Noah coming out of the ark. And as Noah comes out of the ark to the land that now

is dry and the seas and the waters have abated, God is speaking to Noah. Here it is in verse

1. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill

the earth. That's the first command. The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every

beast of the earth, on every bird of the sky, with everything that creeps on the ground

and all the fish of the sea into your hands they are given. Every moving thing that is

alive shall be the food for you. I give all to you as I gave the green plant. Only you

shall not eat flesh with its life, that is its blood. Surely I will require your life

blood from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man's brother

I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed

for in the image of God he made man. As for you be fruitful and multiply, populate the

earth abundantly and multiply in it. Let's pray today. Father thank you so much for this

text and the many others we'll look at today. Thank you for your word. Thank you for clarifying,

revealing to us that there are some things in life that will not change. And we need

to know about these things in order to navigate them and in order to know what the rescue

from them is like. Father today speak to each of us in Jesus name. All God's people said.

Amen. Please be seated. Now the four points I give you today are four points that are

what I call mountain peaks as I've said. And four chapters of history in this era we'll

cover many years today as we finalize this series and work through the life of Noah and

those that followed him. And it comes in four major points and after I make those points

I'm going to share with you what the mountain peak of that truth is. What the thing is that

never changes. So first of all let's look at the command. The command is what we start

with in verse one and two. God says to Noah be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every

bird of the sky. Now there are two things happening here in this text. One is to multiply

and the other is to fill the earth. Now you would think that would be obvious right? Do

you know how many people come off of that ark? Do you remember anybody remember how

many there are? There are eight people on the planet earth at that moment. Noah and

his wife, his three sons and their wife. That's all. The animals that came off came off with

these eight people and now this whole globe as we know it now and the condition it's in

now with all the land mass and all the seas and the mountains and the valleys as we know

it now only eight people on the planet. So it seems to me that that's an obvious command

to start with. You need to multiply. You need to have more people. You need to grow and

replenish and dissipate across the earth. Be everywhere on the earth. So that's an obvious

command but that's what he gives Noah. And so as they began to do that, realized that

the environment is not the same as it was in the Garden of Eden. There was harmony in

the Garden of Eden. Remember the harmony that was there? The harmony between Adam and Eve

and all of the animals. But as we pick up Noah's life and what happens afterwards, there's

no harmony there. In fact, the word terror is used. There is all kinds of opposition in

the animals, among the animals and man. And so we have this statement that's made that

there's potential conflict all the way through creation. Remember what happens now. Adam

and Eve in the Garden lived in perfect harmony, took matters into their own hands, felt the

temptation and sin. The result was sinful mankind. Their son Cain and Abel, the other

son, had conflict. Cain killed Abel. Seth was born. Then mankind began to multiply to

the point where God says the evil and the wickedness in every heart is so much that

I'm going to wipe them off the face of the earth. That's how we got to the ark. And that's

why God judged the earth. So now when we look at Noah and his life on the other side of

the ark, we're looking at the fact that the world is not living in perfect harmony. After

the floods, God reminds Noah his primary work and his purpose is not through the animals,

but God will work through the man. For instance, if you look at verse six, and this is a key

point that I want to make out for you today, the Bible says, whoever sheds man's blood

by man his blood shall be shed for in the image of God, he made him. Now I want you

to stop and pause for just a moment and look at the fact, the truth of this statement.

Man is unique among all of the creatures that God created and his life is to be protected.

That's what this says. From conception onward, God values the life of mankind. As a matter

of fact, this verse is the verse that is the basis for the death penalty for those that

are familiar with it today. Even though even more so, animals that take the life of a human

being are also to be put to death in nearly every culture. And all that points to one

undeniable truth, and this is Mountain Peak number one. Mountain Peak number one is that

God values the life of every human being above all else in creation. Now I'm an animal lover.

I have pets at home. I've always loved animals. I think animals are so beautiful. I think

some of these animals, some of these creatures, we don't deserve them. They love us so much

and they're so faithful to us. But God does not value animals as much as he values human

beings. You are of infinite more worth to God than any animal on the planet. And it

doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are. It doesn't matter if you are a child

that's been conceived and not yet born, God values you. It doesn't matter if you're 90

years old and don't feel that you can contribute to life anymore, God values you. It doesn't

matter what color you are or what ethnicity you're a part of. It doesn't matter what group

you are with or what family you're from. God values you, male or female. God values you.

And the Mountain Peak of truth here is that you are made and created in the image of God.

Now why would God need to reinforce that? Why would he need to stress that again? Well

he needs to stress that because the flood was a moment where God said, my spirit will

not strive with mankind anymore. He is so wicked, so evil that I'm going to wipe them

off the face of the earth except for Noah and his family. And now God on the other side

of the flood says, man still has the image of God in him. As wicked as we're capable

of being, we still also have the capability of knowing God. Let me tell you something

today. You're of great value to God and God records death in the words of scripture so

that you might know and so that you might remember. So Mountain Peak number one, God

values the life of every human being. Now as we walk through this text, you'll notice

some other things that are happening. So you're going to see that the, for the first time

mankind is told that he can eat anything on the planet. For example, in Genesis chapter

nine verse three it says every living thing that is alive shall be food for you, which

makes many, many people in the room happy because we like to eat meat or we're hunters

and we like to hunt. Now I said this in the earlier service and nobody laughed, nobody

thought this was funny, but I know people who can quote Genesis chapter nine verse three

better than they can John 3 16 because they want God's approval upon their hunting prowess.

But the reality is God values us so highly that everything else is expendable in the

eyes of God. It's also important to note that heaven is for humans, for mankind. Will there

be animals in heaven? Maybe, but not much is mentioned about that in heaven. But what

you need to remember is God does mention that people will be in heaven and that we are valued

by God above all else on the planet. Keep that in mind. You are valuable, far above

any other creature that God has created. Somebody say amen. I mean, we're talking about you

from up here. You are valuable. You are loved by God. And as we walk into this mountain

peak truth, you need to remember that in spite of sin, in spite of the flood, in spite of

all the evil, wicked things that mankind did, God still has a plan for man and this will

never change. God will always love people. You know, when I read the Bible, I find these

verses popping up and reminding me of just how much God loves me and how much God loves

you. Let me share a few of those verses with you. Jeremiah chapter 31 3. I have loved you

Jeremiah 31 · chapter mention

with an everlasting love. Therefore I've drawn you with loving kindness. That was God speaking

to Israel. John 3.16. Jesus says about the whole world, for God so loved the world that

he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have

everlasting life or eternal life. That's the love of God. That's the compassion of God

that's very apparent from the beginning and that will never change no matter what you

do, no matter what mankind does, God still loves mankind. Mountain peak number one, some

things never change. You are loved and valued by God and always will be. You need to keep

that in your mind. Keep it in your mind when you're feeling low because you've blown it.

Keep that in mind when you've done something that seems like it's so despicable that God

couldn't possibly love you. Keep that in your mind when your own self-image is so tattered,

so torn, so beat up that you wonder how could God love me. When you see your imperfections,

when you see all the ways that you fail, when you and I see those kinds of things in our

lives we need to be reminded that as imperfect as we are, God still loves us, God still values

us, God still has a plan for us. This is not the preacher telling you this, this is the

word of God that tells you this. This is what God records in the Bible. Mountain peak number

one, it'll never change. God will always love people. As we move through the text we also

see a second key point in a key mountain top. I call this point the covenant, the covenant

because in verse 16, actually verses eight through 17 but specifically verse 16 we see

God refer to a covenant. Notice what it says in verse 16. When the bow is in the cloud,

that would be the rainbow, then I will look upon it to remember the everlasting covenant.

See that phrase? The everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh

that is on the earth. By the way, this is the first time the word covenant is used in

the Bible. It's actually used seven times from verse eight to verse 17. So God is saying

over and over, this is my covenant, this is the covenant that I have with you. You say,

well what's a covenant? A covenant is an eternal promise. The eternal promise is that in spite

of the judgment of the earth through the flood, God will never again flood the earth and he

puts this natural phenomena in the sky to remind us of his eternal covenant with us.

Think about the rainbow. We've got a few pictures up here and you look at that rainbow, whatever

context you were in, maybe you were in either sea when you saw this, maybe we were in the

mountains and you saw a rainbow. Whatever form that took, you saw a rainbow that you

may or may not have known the meaning of, but you saw it very clearly in the sky. Something

you couldn't even explain how it was there. You couldn't really scientifically explain

how all that worked even though there are explanations out there, but sometimes it appears

and sometimes it doesn't and yet all of us have seen it. I'm going to take a quick poll

in the room. Are you ready? How many of you have seen, how many in this room have seen

a rainbow with their own eyes? Would you raise your hand if you've seen a rainbow with your

own eyes? All right, some of you have not seen a rainbow with your own eyes? Are you

blind or have you just not seen it? I mean, are you not looking up? Most of us have seen

a rainbow with our own eyes. Now let me say this. The reason God allows people to see

rainbows is to remember his promise so that you would remember his everlasting covenant

with mankind and in spite of sin, God's graciousness is still there. In fact, this is the mountaintop

of this particular point. The rainbow was a reminder of a gracious God who is all loving,

all powerful and forgiving. Every time you see that rainbow, it's a personal reminder

to you that God is all powerful, that God is loving, that God is forgiving. Some things

never change and this never changes. No matter how far you feel from God, that rainbow is

there to remind you. Now imagine how the early people of the earth saw that rainbow. And

remember how reassuring that must have been to them. The last time it rained in most of

their lives, the flood occurred, right? Or the stories they heard from Noah onward were,

when it rains, when it rains big, then the flood will happen and everybody will die.

And God says, no, that's not going to happen. Not going to happen again. I've already judged

the earth and now I'm putting this eternal covenant in the sky so that you'll know it'll

never happen again. My response to mankind, no matter how wicked he may be, is with graciousness

and love and forgiveness when they turn to me. So it's important when you see that rainbow

to know that it will never again flood, that God will not again wipe all of mankind off

the earth through flood. And this is an eternal image for us. It's constantly in the sky,

it's constantly reminding you that God is speaking to you. Sometimes people say, you

know, I've never heard God speak. Open your eyes and look at a rainbow and God's speaking

to you. But not only then, God speaks through all kinds of things that he has created to

be reminders to us. When I watch the sun rise and when I watch the sun fall, just as the

scripture refers to this, we're reminded of the faithfulness of God. No matter how long

the night or how difficult it is, the morning's gonna come and the sun's coming up. And at

the end of the day, it will go down. The faithfulness of God is what that should remind us of. Have

you ever seen an eclipse? And when you see the eclipse and the sun darken for just a

moment, it's a reminder to anticipate the last times when the sun will grow dark, when

Christ comes back. It reminds us that God is in control and he speaks to us from the

signs that he's placed in the universe. Or what about the stars and the constellations?

They're a reminder that God is a creative God. He knows the name of every star, the Bible

says, and he's arranged them in such a way to remind us of his design. Or what about

the seas? Where the seashore comes up to a certain place and stops right there. Instead

of overrunning everything, it almost always stops right there. The book of Job says, where

were you when I created the seas? When I said to the proud waves, this far you shall come

and no more. I, the Lord, did that. Man, you just look around you, you see God speaking

to you. You can see God reminding you of his love and his passion and his power. So mountaintop

number two has to do with the fact that God is all powerful and he's gracious and he's

loving and he's forgiving and this will never change. This will never change. Psalm 103 is

one of those great passages in the Bible that reminds us so much of all that God does for

us. I'm going to read part of this passage. It says, the Lord is compassionate and gracious,

slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness. He will not always strive with us. That's

a word that was used when God judged mankind. My spirit will not always strive with man,

he says. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has

not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For

as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his loving kindness towards those

who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions

from us. What an incredible passage that describes the amazing love of God and the amazing grace

of God for those of us who fear him. Isn't that powerful? Isn't it amazing to go to

Psalm 103 and realize that there are so many benefits in knowing God. In fact, Psalm 103

begins by saying, forget not the benefits of God. That we have this mountain peak of

a reminder in the rainbow and the character of God spelled out in the Bible. When you

see the rainbow, think of grace. Think of his mercy. Think of his loving kindness. The

rainbow will perpetually be in the sky to remind us of how God, how kind God is and

every generation is going to see it. Now you just imagine how many times the rainbow has

been seen since Noah's day. I've seen it, my children have seen it, my parents have

seen it, my grandparents have seen it, my great grandparents have seen it and on and

on and on. God is perpetually reminding us of his goodness and his grace. But you know,

when we die, when you and I die, when we spend our eternity with God, we'll also see a rainbow

in heaven. Did you know that? In the book of Revelation chapter 4 verse 2 and 3, as

Revelation 4:2

the Bible says, a throne was standing in heaven and one sitting on the throne and there was

a rainbow around the throne. What a powerful reminder of God's grace, God's love in the

heavens. So here's the mountain peak. God is loving and God is gracious for those who

fear him. It's such an important mountain top for our lives. Some things never change.

That never changes and aren't you glad? Then the third key to the scripture is the curse,

the curse. If you'll go to verse 20 to 22, you'll find one of the most embarrassing stories

in the Bible. And one of the things I love about scripture is that even though sometimes

the characters of the Bible embarrass themselves by their sin and all the things that they

did, God still records that so that we can learn from their lessons. I'm grateful for

that. But here we have Noah. Noah, the man who found grace in the eyes of God, the man

whom God used to build this monstrous ark by which he saved mankind. Noah makes a tremendous

mistake. Look at what it says in verse 20. Then Noah began farming and planting and vineyard.

He drank of the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself in his tent. Ham, the father

of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his brothers outside. What an embarrassing

story. Even great people like Noah embarrass themselves by sin. And even after the flood

when he knew how God dealt with sin and the wickedness, when the wickedness of sin had

been removed in the fact that all mankind's been blotted out, then these eight people

unfortunately, still have the nature of sin residing inside of every one of them. You

know, that is the thing that never changes about humanity. We'll always be sinners until

we're rescued by Christ. You remember what it says in Genesis chapter 8 verse 21, the

Genesis 8:21

intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. Now I'd like to think that man gets better

year after year. I'd like to think that we evolve into better creatures after time. But

I look around me today and I don't think we've evolved very far in terms of being better

creatures on the planet. Do you? I mean, do you have any evidence that we're getting better?

The reality is that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us have.

One thing never changes and that is that we'll all deal with sin at some point in our lives

and sin will always bring destruction, just like it did in Noah's life. So this man, Noah,

was used by God to rescue mankind and he demonstrates that anyone at any time, no matter who we

are, can sin. And in this case, Noah's drunkenness leads to shame and that shame leads to Ham's

mockery, his son's mockery. And when the others heard that they covered Noah up, but Noah

knew that Ham and his son Canaan had mocked him and ultimately Noah cursed them. The outcome

of all that was that it prophesied the future of what we know as the Canaanites today. He

were enslaved to false gods and atrocious sin. Now sin always creates a human mess,

no matter who does it. So here's the mountain peak that we need to realize. The mountain

peak is sin will always destroy. Though we need to be reminded of the domino effect of

the first sin, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, walking in perfect innocence and

harmony with God. And yet when the temptation comes, they give in to temptation. They find

themselves separated from God by their sin and the domino effect of that was incredible.

God says, curses the ground. God tells them that they will find cursing in their future

as well. They had their first children, Cain and Abel. Cain rose up and killed Abel. I

mean it just keeps on going. The domino effect just keeps on going. Eventually they're cast

out of the Garden of Eden and the result is what proceeds to flood. Sin always begets

sin. Sin always impacts other people. It will ultimately destroy. That's a mountain peak

that you and I need to remember and that never changes. That never changes. When I was in

high school, our principal set up or arranged for a vehicle, a car, that had been in a horrific

accident to be placed near the front door of the school. For about a week we would go

out from the high school and see that car. It was a car that was in a wreck that we were

very aware of, took the lives of human beings. We knew the story. So every time you looked

at the car you were reminded of the whole story of what happened. Because what happened

was someone drank that led to drunkenness which led to a catastrophic car wreck, which

led to the death of the driver and the grief of his family, which also led to the death

of the two in the other car who were parents and left their children parentless. You couldn't

help but look at that car and say, wow, what a domino effect of sin. We walked away being

impressed by how costly sin is. But that's the point of this text with Noah. Sin is a

curse that affects many people and requires the grace of God to rescue us from it. Some

things never change. And that thing that never changes is that sin is always destructive

and always leads to the need to be rescued. When you're old and gray, when you're at

the end of your life, you'll say, some things never change. Sin always destroys. Then we

get to point number four, point number four, the conflict, the conflict. In Genesis chapter

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

10 verse five, we find the after effects of the tower of Babel and God's judgment on

that tower of Babel. And here's what it says in Genesis 10 five, from these the coastlands

of the nations were separated into their lands. Everyone according to his language, according

to their families into their nations. Now stay with me for just a moment. When you read

Genesis 10 and 11, you'll realize that by chapter 11, you're looking at the story of

the tower of Babel, which the Bible goes into great detail for. But it's going back to comment

on chapter 10 verse five, which tells the result of the tower of Babel. Now the Bible

does this from time to time. For example, we walk through Genesis chapter one and we

saw the overview of creation. We looked at chapter two and we dove into the creation

of mankind in particular and specifically. So Genesis two commented on the result of

Genesis one. That's what's happening here. But if you summarize Genesis 10 and 11, the

verse I read says that right there, that the overview is a divided group of languages and

the details of the tower of Babel are to follow. Now that's the story of a massive conflict.

Let me tell the story for you. There was someone named Nimrod in the Bible who's quite a figure

and you find him in chapter nine, 10 and 11 of the book of Genesis. Nimrod was a warrior

of men. He's a hunter of men. You'll read it in your Bible that he's a great hunter,

but he was greatly respected, but he was a hunter of men. Not many people were on the

planet, but this man was one who hunted men down and who somehow caused them to serve

him in a variety of ways. That's the story of a massive conflict here. He's a city builder

and he actually builds the city of Babel, which we now know as the city of Babylon.

You find that in Genesis chapter nine. So here's the story unfolding. Nimrod, this man,

rallies the people to settle in one place, which is an ambition that God did not give

him. God did not say to do that. Nimrod represents man's plans without God. Man's plans without

God. Whenever I see Nimrod in his story, I think of all of us that have ambition to want

to do what we want to do and they are plans that God did not make and you see it perpetually

in life. You see it all around us, but I want you to see exactly what happened and how he

built this tower and what God did. So now we turn to Genesis chapter 11 for that detailed

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

look. By the way, at this point, mankind is 100 years past Noah and there are approximately

a thousand people on the planet. We're still not talking about a lot of people on a big

planet called earth. If you read Genesis 11, one, it says this, now the whole earth used

the same language and the same words. It came about that as they journeyed the east, that

they found a plane in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, come

let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they use brick for stone. They use tar

for mortar. They said, come let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will

reach into heaven and let us make for ourselves a name. Otherwise we will be scattered abroad

over the face of the earth, which by the way is what God said to do. All right. Now you

see the specifics of what happened, the results of Genesis chapter 10, but let's take a

Genesis 10 · chapter mention

look for a moment. Just imagine if we had a thousand people in the room today and we're

not far from that. Would you imagine that we could build a city that reached into heaven?

I mean, just look around you. Do you look like you're sitting next to someone that can

build a city that reaches into heaven? I mean, I think about this and I think a thousand

people and we build a city that reaches into heaven. Can we really do that? There must

have been some incredible motivation behind these people because they begin to build this

tower that we know as the tower of Babel. Now what's going on here? What makes this

man strike out and do his own thing apart from God? Well, I think he's motivated by

fear. It may be that they're building this tower because they're afraid that God will

flood the earth again and that they'll all die. In which case they're not believing

the rainbow, not believing the promise and everlasting covenant of God. Or it may be

as the text says, they simply have this desire, this ambition to make a name for ourselves,

to build a city that reaches into heaven because we want to do it right here and right now.

And part of this is God said, be scattered and go to all the ends of the earth. And then

the emirate says, along with the people, we're going to stay right here on the plans of Shinar.

The pastor, why are you building this story up in this way? Because I want you to see

what happens when man has his own plans in contrast to God's plans. The Bible says in

Genesis chapter 11, God sees what they're building and says, come, let us go down and

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

let us destroy this city, confound their language and scatter them across the face of the earth,

which was God's plan for them in the first place. I read the story of the tower of Babel

and I am reminded that my plans are nothing if they're not in alignment with God's plans.

When I read the story of Memron, I think I shouldn't be too ambitious and you shouldn't

be too ambitious. We should know what God wants us to do and come into alignment with

that and that above all else. So here's the mountain peak. The mountain peak that you're

going to remember is that when we plan our life without God, we regret it to the end.

Some things never change though. And those some things that never change is we're always

going to have our own ambition. We always want to build our own way. We always want

to go our own direction. Sometimes in contrast to God. And the thing that never changes is

God at some point will bring it all back to the starting place. I know this in my life.

I've been back to the starting place a number of times. I may even be well intentioned and

sincere in what I want to do in life. But the bottom line is God has a plan for my life

and he wants me to be in alignment with him and hear him and follow him in every way I

possibly can. And when I do that, I find my life to be filled with harmony, harmonious

and I have the blessing of God in my life. But when I go my own way, the way Memron and

these people were, I always find my plans frustrated in some way. And I've learned that

some things never change. Build life on your own, you're going to be frustrated. It's going

to come down. When you build your life without God, then we regret it in the end. I just

wonder what are you planning to build? What are you planning to do? Are you including

God in that or are you not? Because some things never change. So four mountaintops that we've

looked at today that are accompanied by that statement, some things never change. Here

they are again. God will always value mankind. That's number one. Number two, God will continually

remind us of his love and his grace. Number three, his sin will always hurt us and those

around us. And number four, our plans will always fail if we progress without God. God

has so much more for us than we could possibly imagine for ourselves. So four peaks of history.

Four mountaintops that never change. But look beyond those things and you see something

else. It's another mountain. It's not as high as each other's mountains. In fact, we call

it a hill. It's called a hill of Calvary where Jesus Christ died on a cross. And the reason

I want you to see that is because in the same way some things never change, the answer never

changes either. And the answer is always going to be Jesus Christ. It's always going to be

Jesus Christ that expresses God's love and God's value to you. Always going to be Jesus

Christ that shows you the eternal everlasting covenant of love and forgiveness. Always going

to be Jesus Christ that's the answer to the sin that destroys us. Always Jesus Christ

is the answer to those plans we have that go awry because they're not God's plans. We

run to Jesus, he brings us back to where we need to be. That hill is bigger than all those

other mountain peaks because it's the hill upon which Jesus Christ died and then was

buried then rose again the third day. What an incredible God we have. But he takes those

things that never change and he becomes the answer for us when we find ourselves in those

places doing those things. There's a verse in the New Testament that I love to share.

It's in Romans chapter five, verse eight and nine. Listen to this. That God demonstrates

his own love, his own love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for

us. Much more than have him been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath

of God through him. Jesus is the answer. You know, you look at these mountain tops of truth

and you wonder sometimes about how it is and what it's like to be in the target of God's

wrath. But the answer to that question is Jesus Christ. He became the target of God's wrath.

He paid the price for us so that we could have the forgiveness and the grace that God

promises. And there's one thing that never changes is Jesus will always invite you to

come to him, that it be your Lord, your savior, your master, your guide, the one who can do

everything in your life. I want you to consider today the decision that you need to make.

You see these four mountain tops of truth we've talked about today. You see these things

that never change and you probably recognize different anchor points in your life that

align with them. Maybe you find yourself building something you shouldn't be building. Maybe

you find yourself moving in a direction you shouldn't move. Maybe you're considering

sin and you think that sin has no other consequences and you forget the domino effect of sin. Or

maybe you think you've done something and God cannot forgive you. Look up in the sky.

Look at the rainbow and the testimony of the rainbow will contradict what you feel because

it will say, no, God is cutting an everlasting covenant with mankind and that means grace

for you. You see it's really important that you know that God is for you and God wants

to take your life and do things you never imagined he could do. But it takes the willingness

to let him do it. It takes surrender. And I want to encourage you today to make that

decision to surrender to him. It might be you need to surrender for salvation. You may

need just to simply say, I'm going to give my life to Jesus because he gave his life

to me. And we want to talk to you about that if you're ready to make that decision. We

have what we call decision stations. And the number one thing I'm asking you to do today

is to go by that decision station and talk to someone about what it means to have a relationship

with Jesus Christ, to have him be the answer for your life. A second invite I'll give

you is to come to guest reception room right outside the center exit door if you're a

guest and you want to know more about our church, I would love to talk to you further,

meet you personally. It's right outside the center doors and across the hallway. A last

thing I ask of you is go and invite someone to come back with you. We want to have an

invite cluster where people know you can come here and hear the Word of God. You can also

come here, bring friends and they can hear the good news of Jesus Christ. We have so

much good news that we share every single week. I invite you to invite others. Would

you stand with me as I close in prayer today? Father, I am so very thankful for all that

you do for us through Jesus. I thank you that you're the answer, Lord, that these things

that never change really are all answered by Jesus Christ on the cross. Father, for

those in the room today, many of us are at the point of needing to make decisions, decisions

about how we'll live, who we'll trust, decisions about the power of sin in our lives and whether

we're willing to ignore the damage that may be taking place. Lord, today I just pray that

you move people. Move them and lead them by your Holy Spirit to talk to someone at the

decision station, to have further conversations later on today. Lord, we just come to you

as people who need you. Thank you so much for being there for us. We ask this in Jesus'

name. Amen. God bless.