God's Heart For Us (Jan 23) Mike Armstrong

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

Well, good morning, church.

It is uh it's truly great uh to be back with you here this morning after uh two kinds.

Two kinds.

I really do appreciate it though.

The warm welcome has been uh has been amazing, and uh I want to start off by uh thanking everybody for allowing me the time off.

And I just think our church uh did a really marvelous job overall of of kind of giving me the space that I needed to just let my mind decompress a little bit and pray and and at the same time not forgetting about us entirely and you know reaching out and and texting and calling and a couple of coffees here and there as well.

I think it was really well well done uh from your vantage point and appreciate all the prayer uh for myself and Ange and Wyatt and Karis uh through this season.

It's uh it was it was crazy, right?

It was uh it was a really weird and wild um really couple of years, I think, leading up to all of this, just experiencing uh burnout and uh learning what that is.

Uh, I wish I didn't learn what that was about.

I uh would never wish that upon uh anybody, but um but the three months off was again great for us to uh spend some time with the Lord and just kind of get away.

I went on a lot of hikes and walks with a dog and and uh got away to a cottage.

Angie and I had a really phenomenal uh weekend away doing a counseling intensive, just kind of tuning some things up for ourselves, and I think that was that was awesome.

That was probably the highlight uh for us to be able to get away, and uh and so I'm so appreciative uh of all of that.

Um again, just kind of hung around, did a little bit of reading here and there.

Um it's amazing how quick and how fast the time uh went by.

But again, I want to especially thank the the elders and uh and the staff uh big time for the way that they carried the ball uh forward, uh having guys like Joel here.

It's uh it's really funny.

I was so detached from everything, I didn't even know that Joel was officially with us until like two weeks ago.

And he's been here for like three months uh pretty much.

And so that I think is a good sign to know that I was able to get away and not check emails and uh and do all of that kind of thing.

And so I am uh really grateful for uh to that and uh to my family, uh to Ange and Wyatt and Karis uh for them bearing with me through uh the crazy exhaustion that uh that dad went through.

And um and I mean sleep, like I said, was was really a major thing for me in all of this.

Just not sleeping, waking up at two or three in the morning and not being able to shut my brain off.

And many of you have asked, like, how's that going?

I would say it's it's it's pretty hit and miss, to be perfectly honest with you.

Overall, I would say it's uh it's going well being able to be off, uh, got me some rest and all of that, but it's still a moving target, uh the sleep thing.

And so I'd appreciate your prayers uh continue uh in all of that.

But again, grateful to the Lord and what he taught me.

I think he was so merciful and kind to me.

And uh some of that is going to what I learned is gonna come out in the uh the message here today, and I'm sure uh many messages beyond uh all of this.

But before we get into the scriptures today, I want to give a couple of uh announcements.

And uh, first of all, it is uh it's our connecting and and giving and all of that type of thing, our prayer.

So uh we uh want you to know that you can connect with us.

If you're new, um I should just say my name is Mike.

Um I'm the lead pastor here.

Some of you I I don't even recognize, I haven't even met yet, and so I'm looking forward to all of that.

But if you are new to us and you're here in the room or you're watching from home, special welcome to you as well.

Uh you can get all hooked up with our our connection form.

It's all online.

You can go to our website, you can uh if you're in the building, you can just scan the QR code there in front of you.

And uh we want to we want to know who you are, we want to be able to connect with you, help you out through the next steps of what it means to be part of Redemption Church and get plugged into the life here.

And so if you would be gracious enough to fill that out even now, uh you don't have to wait till later, because if we wait till later, we forget.

Uh so please fill that out.

Giving, of course, you can be done uh here in person.

There's a box at the back that you can uh give into physically, or you can do that online.

You can e-transfer, you can do that type of thing.

It's all available on our website.

You have questions, just ask us about all of that.

Grateful for your giving and supporting the work uh here.

And then, of course, uh we appreciate your prayers as well for the life of our church.

And so continue to pray uh for us and uh and we'll continue to pray uh for you.

Last thing here is uh Free Indeed.

So, Free Indeed is a men's conference that we've been doing with our Canadian GCC churches for the last number of years now.

And the next one coming up is just in a couple of weeks, actually, less than that, February 4th and 5th.

It's a Friday evening and all day Saturday thing.

We're gonna be doing it over at the church office, gathering and doing like a simulcast thing.

It's uh it's only it's about$30 a person for the guys, and we're gonna be uh poured into uh by guys like Robbie Simons and Norm Miller, Ian Hales.

Uh, these are guys that some of you would be familiar with, godly men uh who want to pour into men, fire us up.

It is totally the time of year where we get very much bogged down.

It's the doldrums of winter, um, it's you know Christmas and all that good stuff has passed us, and we need to be fired up.

And so it's about getting our men fired up and pouring into them, encouraging them and experiencing the freedom that we have in Jesus Christ.

So if that sounds like something that your soul uh could use, I encourage you to sign up.

You can do that uh in church center, go to our website and uh get all geared up for that.

All right, let's get into God's word together today.

If you would turn in your Bibles to Hosea chapter 11.

Hosea 11 · chapter mention

Okay, Hosea chapter 11 in the Old Testament, one of the uh minor prophets.

Hosea 11 · chapter mention

Okay, now as you're getting yourself there, you're finding that.

It's so important that we have a copy of God's word in front of us.

Let me just make that know.

We are a Bible church and we appreciate having the scriptures open, learning it, reading it, studying.

It's not just about listening to me, it's about having it in front of you so that you're learning how to go through it, and it's impacting your heart and your soul.

So whether that's on your phone or a tablet or a you know, old-fashioned paper Bible, or you want to bring in like your desktop computer.

I don't know, I'm kind of joking about that, but that would be kind of funny if you did.

Bring a Bible.

That's all we're saying.

And so Hosea chapter 11.

Hosea 11 · chapter mention

Now, we have all found ourselves in positions, certainly throughout life, various situations where we've wondered where we stand with a certain person.

You ever wondered that?

It's it's it's the boy who obsesses over whether or not the girl is as infatuated with him as he is with her.

It's it could be the the employee who's messed up and and now he wonders, you know, what does the boss think of me?

Okay, or it's it's what races through your mind in the moments immediately following a fender bender.

You know, and you kind of unbuckle the seatbelt and you get out and you have to face that person that you bumped into and you wonder, how's this gonna go?

Are they gonna flip out?

Are they gonna be in tears?

Are they gonna be in shock?

Like, what is what's gonna happen?

Right again, we've all had moments like this, there's many of them, where we've wondered and obsessed even over the question how does this person feel about me?

How do they feel about me?

Now I believe that this is the same exact question that we, even as Christ followers, wonder about the Lord.

We do.

If not, if not consciously, where we we think it directly or ask the question out loud in some way, certainly on a subconscious level.

You know, deep down within our souls, we we have that voice that that wonders how does God really feel about me.

You know, we we've read lots of verses about it.

We know generally speaking, he loves me.

But isn't it amazing how we we really do question that, we wonder, how does he really feel?

Yeah, I've been reading this book uh during my time off.

I'm a slow reader, I'm only about halfway through it, but it's uh by Dane Ortland.

Maybe you've heard of it or read it, we've got a picture of it for you, but it's called Gentle and Lowly.

Has anyone heard of this book yet or happened to read it?

I see a couple of hands.

Um it is, I I don't want to, there's no hyperbole when I say this, okay?

But it is my favorite book of all time.

Okay?

And and I and I'm only halfway through it, like I said.

Like I was reading through the intro, I'm like, this is for me now.

And I and I've talked to pastors, I've talked to friends of mine who feel the exact same way.

It's it's an instant modern classic.

I believe it is that good.

And in it, he addresses that core question that I think we all grapple with, where we wonder like what comes to the Lord's mind when he considers me?

Like when he considers you, what what thoughts or attitudes or or emotions even or or actions come most naturally or automatically to God when he thinks about us, when he considers us?

Like what do you think God's gut reaction instinct is towards you right now in this moment?

You ever stop to consider that?

How does he feel about us?

How does he feel about you on you on your best day or on your worst day?

Understanding this, understanding the answer to those questions is utterly crucial to us.

It really is.

And it's something that that Orland aims to recover for the church in this book.

It is something that I think we've somewhat lost in a sense.

We talk about how God loves us, we know what He does, He did on the cross through the resurrection, but but do we really understand the depths of this?

One of the very many passages that he talks about in the book to help us lock all this stuff down a little bit better in our souls is Hosea 11, verses 7 and 9.

Hosea 11:7

And as I was reading that over and just kind of studying it for myself through reading the book and on my own, it quick quickly became obvious for me.

Like that's that's the passage.

That's gonna be the one that I preach on my first Sunday back with redemption.

And so I've been looking forward to this uh for quite some time.

And I want to read it for us now.

We're gonna be focusing today on verses seven to nine here, but I want to read uh the entire thing, okay, to give us the context because that's gonna be important for us in understanding these verses we're looking at.

So follow along with me in verse one.

It says, When Israel was a child, this is God now speaking.

When Israel was a child, I loved him.

And out of Egypt I called my son.

The more they were called, the more they went away.

They kept sacrificing to the balls, they and burning offerings to idols.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk.

I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them.

I led them with cords of kindness, with bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.

They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king.

Because they've rev they have refused to return to me.

The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels.

And then here's our section My people are bent on turning away from me.

And though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.

But how can I give you up, O Ephraim?

How can I hand you over, O Israel?

How can I make you like Adma?

How can I treat you like Zeboyim?

My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender, I will not execute my burning anger, I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a man, the holy one in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.

They shall go after the Lord, he will roar like a lion.

When he roars, his children shall come with trembling from the west.

They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, declare the Lord.

Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit.

But Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.

Lord, we come before you now and pray, Lord, that we would come to understand more deeply, just catch a maybe a new angle on this or or just a clearer picture of your great love for us.

Lord, if we're honest here, we'll we will admit that deep down we struggle with this very thing that you have made so clear to us, Lord.

Our souls are slow to grasp the immense love that you have, despite how undeserving we are for it.

And so, God, as we go through these verses here today, I pray that you would teach us, I pray that you would instruct us, I pray that you would soften our hearts, God.

Give us a greater heart for you and for others.

Lord, thank you for Christ and how that is the ultimate picture of your love.

Or we appreciate your kindness to us in these things, Lord.

We give this time to you and ask that you would be glorified in it.

We pray all of this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

Alright, so we're asking the question here this morning.

Uh, how does God feel about me?

How does he feel about me?

And we've got two things, two answers to that question.

Here's the first one.

It's despite my bent towards rebellion, he's compassionate.

He's compassionate.

Now, I want to give you a little bit of background on Hosea, uh, just so we have a sense as to where we're at here.

Now, um, Hosea is one of the minor prophets.

I mentioned that earlier.

Minor doesn't mean less important, it just means a smaller book.

Okay, so you've got minor prophets, major prophets.

Hosea would be a uh a smaller or a minor prophet, and uh it's written at a very interesting and difficult time in the life of the nation of Israel.

They were divided into two kingdoms.

Okay, you've got you've got Israel, they're called Israel, to the north, you've got Judah to the south.

And this is directed mostly towards the northern kingdom of Israel, also called Ephraim, as we'll get to uh here in just a moment.

But they had gone through uh many seasons of turmoil and rebellion.

God had sent prophets to them to warn them of what their rebellion and wickedness uh will bring about.

And they had gotten to the point now where consequences were going to be coming.

And in chapter 11, it tells us that Assyria is going to invade.

They're gonna come in and they're gonna capture Israel and they're gonna lead people off to captivity.

That is the consequences for uh Israel's sin.

Okay, but in this we see the amazing heart of God for his people, not giving up on them, not discarding them, or tossing them aside, and we're gonna look uh more at that.

You know, Hosea obviously was the author of this, he's the he's a prophet.

He had a very interesting relationship with his wife Gomer.

The first three chapters talk about that and show that she is an unfaithful woman to him.

And that relationship, that dynamic, becomes uh a metaphor for Israel's covenant faithlessness to God.

And yet again, like I said, we we see this powerful love and grace from God towards people who just simply don't deserve it.

Okay, and so with that, let's let's look at verse 7 here, 7 to 9, again, is our main section here that we're gonna be focusing on.

But look at what it says.

It says, my people are bent on turning away from me.

Okay, that that that phrase bent on, it literally means uh hung up on.

You know, you know the phrase like he's hung up on that.

Like he can't seem to get past this, or he he's stuck on doing something a certain way.

And so here, bent on turning away from the Lord means that that the direction of Israel's hearts, their will, their volition, their their actions, even, are instinctively and naturally inclined towards rebellion, towards pride and self-centeredness and their own glory.

Okay, and this is exactly how all of humanity is.

Okay, this is not just an Israel thing at this point in human history.

This is everybody.

This is this is you and I too, apart from Christ.

This is our flesh.

Okay, so as we're reading through this here, understand that in many ways we are Israel.

Okay, this is this is really, this serves as a window into our own souls, our own hearts here.

Okay, so keep going.

My people are bent on turning away from me.

And though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.

Now, maybe you read that and it strikes you kind of funny in a message that's supposed to be about God's love, right, and all of that, and you're thinking, hang on a second.

Like I thought this was supposed to be about God's mercy and his heart towards sinners here, but but doesn't this kind of say that when God's people cry out to him, you know, after a season of rebellion, all of that, in trouble, he's not gonna help them?

He's not gonna rescue them.

Okay, well, to make sense of this, again, we have to we have to understand the context of the passage a little bit.

That's why we read the whole thing earlier.

Okay, it's very dangerous for us whenever we highlight one verse and don't allow what comes before it and after it to inform the meaning of that verse, right?

Context is so, so crucial in understanding the Bible.

Okay, and and so when he says here that that they that they uh cry out to the Most High God, he shall not raise them up at all, what he's referring to there are the consequences of their sin.

Okay, the consequences are coming.

That that's set in stone.

That's that's going to happen.

It's like if you um get a get a speeding ticket, you know, a police officer pulls you over and says you were speeding and you apologize and he accepts your apology, you're you're likely still to get the ticket.

Right?

The consequence is there, you you in some ways broke the law.

Right?

And so that is happening.

You can be you can be right between you and the police officer, but you're still gonna have to uh pay some money.

Okay, and so that's exactly what's kind of happening here.

Okay, you've had you've had Israel sin over and over again, ignoring the prophets, committing shameful and wicked acts, worshiping the Baals and idol worship.

And God had said over and over again, He'd warned them, if you do this, things are gonna go bad for you.

Choose to sin, choose to suffer.

Right?

And we know that Assyria would come in, that's what God said.

Assyria is gonna come in and plunder you and lead you into captivity.

That is the part that God is referring to when he says that he will not raise them up.

He's not gonna make those consequences just go away.

They're gonna have to live with all of those.

Okay, but neither, okay, okay, and neither will they be able to escape the immense heart of love and grace and compassion that God has and feels towards them.

Okay, and we see that really come out in what he says next in verse 8.

Take a look.

He says there, how can I give you up, O Ephraim?

In verse 3, he referred to them as Ephraim as well.

It's another name for Israel.

Again, specifically the northern kingdom.

But originally Ephraim was one of Joseph's sons.

You might remember that, along with Manasseh.

They were adopted by Jacob.

And so here God uses this term, uh Ephraim, to reveal the heart that he has for his adopted people.

He views them as sons.

He's speaking to them as a heartbroken father.

As a heartbroken father speaks to a son who's messed up royally.

He's upset, he's disappointed, but his love remains.

His love is actually very strong in this.

And so you can just see here in the language that God is using how deeply personal this is for him.

God, we have to we have to always fight against this idea in our minds that God is just up there somewhere and I'm down here doing my thing.

No, God is engaged with us.

And we see that here uh in this passage.

Okay?

He says, if you keep going, he says, how how can I hand you over, O Israel?

Right?

So how how can I hand you over to the Assyrians?

How can I make you like Adma?

How can I treat you like Zeboyim?

Okay, well, what's Adma?

What's Zeboyim?

What's that?

Are they people?

No, they're actually, they're actually cities.

They were they were two very wicked cities that along with Sodom and Gomorrah, which I think we're a little bit more familiar with, uh, they experienced judgment by God by way of uh of utter annihilation.

They were absolutely erased off of the map because of their wickedness.

In Deuteronomy 29, verse 23, all four of those cities are.

Deuteronomy 29:23

Are actually mentioned.

Okay, so notice what he's doing here.

What is God doing?

Well, he's communicating something incredibly important to his people.

He's letting them in on the heart that he has for them and for us as well.

He's just said, How can I give you up?

How can I give you up completely?

How can I hand you over?

How can I make you like Adma or treat you like Zeboyam?

The repercussions for your wickedness, your evil, it's gonna be costly.

It's gonna be painful, but I'm not letting you go.

I'm not giving you up.

In other words, the Lord's saying, I don't want to do this.

I don't want to give you up.

I don't want to reject you.

I don't want to destroy you when you rebel.

Okay, but isn't it interesting?

I don't know if you're anything like me on this, but isn't it interesting how deep down our natural tendency is to believe that God absolutely wants to reject us.

That God absolutely wants to destroy us in our rebellious moments.

You ever have that fear that you're scared after you commit a sin or you do something like that?

We instinctively or naturally assume that God is getting all geared up and ready to respond to us with sheer disgust, or with disdain towards us because of what we've done, you know, instinctively wants to just give us nothing but punishment and destruction.

It's ready, he's ready to unload it, to back up the truck and dump it onto us.

Because I think deep down, if we're again, if we're honest, we kind of know that's what we should get.

We realize that that's what I've got coming to me.

That's what I've earned.

Okay, it's what Israel's learned.

We we can see that.

But what these verses reveal to us here is how God actually feels about us.

And not just how he feels about us when we obey and when we're good little Christian boys and girls and all of that, when we're doing that, but he's showing us how he feels about us when we're at our absolute worst.

When we're wicked, when we're evil, when we commit the same sin that we apologized to him for yesterday, or disobedient, or faithless, or selfish, or angry, or lustful, or cruel, or don't give a rip about him in any of his guidelines.

Right?

When we're like that, it says in this next part here, last part of verse 8, and I think this is astonishing.

Look what it says.

It says, My heart recoils within me.

My compassion grows warm and tender.

Now consider here, church, what he's what he's saying.

Because I think that, I think this is what we we so often fail to grasp about about God's heart.

When you and I rebel like Israel did, when we're like verse 7, it says, when we're bent on turning away from him.

Again, we immediately, I think, picture this vengeful God.

Maybe it just flashes through your mind and your heart for just a second.

But that's what we picture.

We feel sick inside about all the bad that we imagine coming our way, but but here he's actually telling us something different than we tell ourselves.

Something beyond, I think, comprehension in some ways.

He's letting us know that our rebellion actually evokes his warm and tender compassion.

Think about that.

He says that his heart recoils within him.

What a word that is.

You can tell as this is happening, and the consequences are coming.

You can you can see here, though, that there's this like paradoxical tension within the heart of God between his holy compassion and his righteous anger.

But as we see here, it's his compassion that wins the day.

And shockingly, it's actually our sin that stirs up this compassion and brings it to the surface.

Does that not blow your mind?

It does mine.

I want to share with you a couple of quotes here from this book that I've been reading from Dane Ortland.

This one, it says here, the key observation is this.

He's referring to this, he's making a comment on this passage.

He says, it is in consideration of his people's sins that God's heart goes out to them in compassion.

How about this?

Just as easily as we live with a diminished view of the punitive judgment of God that will sweep over those out of Christ, so we easily live with a diminished view of the compassionate heart of God sweeping over those in Christ.

The sins of those who belong to God open the floodgates of his heart of compassion for us.

The damn breaks.

It is not our loveliness that wins his love, it is actually our unloveliness.

One more.

We're given a rare glimpse into the very center of who God is.

And we see and feel the deeply affectional convulsing within the very being of God.

His heart is inflamed with pity and compassion for his people.

He simply cannot give them up.

Nothing could cause him to abandon them.

They are his.

This is the heart of God for us.

This is it.

You know, and and I and I pray that the Lord allows this very thing to be a paradigm shifting for us today.

That this would begin, even if it hasn't already, begin to be drilled down and lodged very deeply into our souls.

That we would be floored by the truth of how he feels when he considers us.

That the knowledge of his warm and tender compassion in the face of our rebellion would soften us towards him more and more.

Let's keep going here.

How does God feel about me?

Important question.

Here's the second thing.

Despite the wrath I deserve, his natural instinct is love.

Let me bring us back to this question that I kind of posed to us earlier.

When you sinned at some point this week, so so picture something.

If you can't, you are truly holy.

Okay, but when you sinned in some way this week, you know, you gave into your flesh, you you turned away from God, as it tells us in verse 7, you know, by stepping over his boundaries in some way, as some act of defiance, how did you envision God's feelings towards you in that moment?

You know, and again, that's that's kind of assuming that you eventually did think about that and realize what you did was wrong.

How did you picture God feeling towards you?

Again, I think for most of us, what immediately comes to mind is that God's natural instinct is to lash out in anger.

Right?

That's gotta be it.

That's how I picture him.

Or we think of God as impatiently rolling his eyes and throwing up his hands.

Like, seriously?

Again, we're going through this?

Because we never seem to get it right.

Or maybe we imagine him just giving up on us.

Sheer disappointment.

Right?

Or turning up his nose in disgust and rejecting us, abandoning us outright.

I think we we carry these assumptions, I think we carry these voices, these feelings, which again is so why it's so dangerous to allow feelings to lead us, right?

But we carry this sense deep in our souls sometimes.

Even those of us who've been in the church for decades, we've heard the gospel over and over and over again.

But we're learning here today that our passage tells us a very different story, doesn't it?

Take a look at verse 9 and what God says here.

He says, I will not execute my burning anger.

I will not execute my burning anger.

Okay, so it does say, let's be honest, it does say that God can experience anger when we sin.

We're not hiding that, we're not trying to say like God never feels that or experiences that.

No, he he does feel it.

It just says that his natural instinct is not to execute it.

He's not sitting there waiting for you to fail so he can smack you.

That's not it.

That's not how he wants to move.

He's not looking to unleash it.

We got to remember as we're reading something like this, maybe you've already thought about it, God's incredible patience.

And it's Psalm 86, verse 15.

Psalms 86:15

But but you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, right?

Slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Okay, so we we certainly evoke his anger when we sin, but it's just that he has a mercifully long wick, way longer than any of us.

He doesn't quickly or easily unleash his anger towards us.

Now, keep going here.

Look what he says.

He says, I will not again destroy Ephraim or Israel.

Meaning that once judgment is carried out by way of the Assyrian invasion and captivity, God's not gonna push the matter further.

Because he's entered into, remember, he's entered into covenant relationship with Israel, with his people, and he's gonna continue to move towards them in relationship, ensuring that they will be restored and healed.

And and listen, as you as you hear that, that's exactly what he offers to you and I, to all humanity, through a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Now, why does the Lord respond this way when his people rebel?

Well, it says, he actually answers that question.

It says, For I am God and not a man, the holy one in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.

That first part there, it says that it says that, for I am God and not a man.

Okay, it's a reminder that how God operates and and functions within his being is just different.

It's unique compared to how you and I operate, or any person operates.

In the messiness of human relationships, right?

We've all experienced the messiness of human relationships.

In that mess, we've all gone through and experienced people's sinful emotions towards us, their hatred, their actions towards us.

Okay, perhaps undeservingly so.

You're like, where's this coming from?

It's out of left field here.

Or maybe it's in response to something sinful we've done to them.

Right again, we've all received these expressions of cruelty, and maybe you've been rejected by people before at some point in your life.

Okay, to the point, though, we've experienced that and we see that in this world with our eyes, and we turn on the news and we see it all the time, to the point where I think that that's where deep down we just kind of naturally assume that's how God's gonna interact with us as well.

We understand man somewhat.

We don't understand God as much.

Okay, but he's telling us here, I am God and not a man.

Meaning he's different than us.

He says he's the holy one in your midst.

I will not come in wrath.

Indicating that God feels something different towards you and I in our unrighteousness.

Different than what we experience from people.

Now, I think this is important to say.

We've been talking a lot about how God feels, right?

How God experiences emotion and all of that.

But it's it's key that we're careful to recognize that his experience of those things, feeling and emotion, again, it's different than how you and I might experience and express and receive those types of things.

And that his are perfectly righteous, right?

His are perfectly holy at all times.

He's the holy one in our midst.

And that's exactly what this verse is fleshing out for us.

The fancy theological word for that is anthropopathism.

You want to impress people over lunch, you can drop that word and just look super cool.

Okay?

Anthropopathism.

Okay, it's a way to refer to God's emotional life while simultaneously holding fast to the fact that he doesn't experience emotional ficleness like humanity does, like you and I do.

He doesn't sin in his emotions.

Okay, and then the flip side of that coin is neither neither does he love in a fickle way.

Okay, think about that.

We all experience have experienced love in a way that is imperfect.

We all love imperfectly.

The phrase, I've fallen out of love with you, is something that we understand to some degree.

Our love, any husband and wife, their love towards one another.

We know it's imperfect.

Our love towards our kids, it's imperfect.

God is not like that at all in any way whatsoever.

His love is perfect, it's full, it's complete, it's it's powerful.

Now, the second part there that we read is where God says that he's the holy one.

Okay, got that.

In your midst.

I think that's another awesome line that's so easy to just glaze over.

But it shows us how, again, personal and intimate God is with his creation and how he relates to you and I.

He's right there.

He engages with us, he's never far away, even if it feels like that.

He's not aloof.

He's not disinterested, he doesn't turn his back on us.

And he means maybe most relieving and comforting and encouraging to us this morning is that he will not come in wrath.

He will not do it.

He's saying this to Israel, who he's in, again, in covenant relationship with, right?

And it's true now for those of us who are in covenant relationship with him through Jesus Christ.

You never forget that if you're saved today.

As Christians, you and I, we don't have wrath pointed at us.

We don't have wrath waiting for us when we die like we did before we got saved.

Jesus tasted the full cup of God's wrath for us during the crucifixion.

Meaning that God's wrath towards humanity for sin was satisfied through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross in my place, in your place.

Jesus suffered God's wrath so you and I wouldn't have to.

Again, the fancy theological word for that is propitiation.

He suffered all of that for us so that we never, ever, ever would.

It is awesome to know with confidence that you don't have to wonder if God really loves you.

Yes, I read it in the Bible.

Yes, we sing about it, but surely he means that for Christians who behave better than me.

No, he doesn't.

In fact, even the ugliness inside of you actually spurs him towards loving you more.

His love for you, his joy, his glory, it's all enriched and inflamed when he moves towards sinners.

That's an awesome reality that frankly I need to go so much deeper into myself.

Now, again, I think this just shows us, again, his natural instinct is love.

He's not going to destroy us.

Even when we're at our absolute worst.

Our salvation is secured.

It's secure now, it's secured tomorrow when you're brutal, when you behave terribly.

It's secured for all eternity.

When you bow to Christ Jesus as Lord, when you receive him as Savior, when you confess your pride and your sin before him and invite him to be your Lord.

I don't know, maybe for some of us here, this just seems like a pretty straight enough forward, straightforward passage enough for you.

And but I think it's for me, it's it's really kind of hammered me in a in a profound way over the last few months.

And I've been really encouraged by this and just reminded again as somebody who, again, I don't, again, maybe you're like me, maybe you're not, but I'm I'm someone who tends towards negative self-talk.

Do you ever do that?

Do you ever you ever beat yourself up?

Right?

I tend to have a kind of an unhealthy focus on my brokenness, on my sin, on my weaknesses, and I can do the, you know, grab the the whip, so to speak, and flog myself, berate myself over and over again.

For my failures, over how I missed the mark, my again, where I'm frail, and trust me, I've felt all of that in the last year, especially.

Again, if you're anything like me in that, those subtle and deceptive thoughts that we tend to have about it, those beliefs, that focus can really erode joy.

It really can.

It can really make you lose sight of what God is really like.

And if that's you at all, and and you're struggling to imagine that God could possibly like a messed up person like you, find encouragement in this passage today.

Go over this passage on your own time.

Re-listen to the sermon if you need to, buy the Dane Ortland book and start to press into it a little bit more because this, this, this is God's heart for you.

This is it.

This is how he feels.

He loves you, he's passionate about you.

What I want to do now is I just want to pray and and close our time off with this and ask the Lord again to continue to help our hearts and allow our hearts and our minds to grip and hold on to these things a little bit more deeply.

Join me as I pray.

God, again, we thank you that your word is clear, God.

I thank you that it stands in the face of sometimes our own faulty think, uh thoughts and beliefs, our feelings, our emotions that tend to run the show for us.

Lord, our human experiences that we imagine, oh well, he must, God must be just like that person.

He'll let me down, he'll fail me, he'll give up on me.

He doesn't really love me.

Lord, forgive us for thinking that.

But Lord, instruct us and show us the heart that you have for us, Lord.

Reveal it to us.

Help us to hold fast to you, to abide in you, Lord, that we would not forget.

Lord, I pray that you would transform us in this truth, Lord.

I was reminded again this week of the Apostle Paul and how he prays to the Ephesians, or he's praying with the Ephesians for them, that they would have strength to comprehend, along with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

We know, Lord, that it's important that we love you, but how interesting is it that in Ephesians 3, he prays that we would know how much you love us.

God, I pray that we would.

I pray that you would be merciful to us in this, you would strengthen us in your love.

God, we thank you for the cross.

We thank you that a relationship with you is available through Christ.

Lord, I pray that if there is anybody watching this, listening to this here today who does not know you as Savior, Lord, that they would bow their heart, that they would recognize that you love them enough to send your own son to suffer the punishment that they deserve.

Or that they would believe that.

They would admit their sin, confess their sin to you, and receive Christ as Lord.

God, would you do it?

May our church continue to be about that, to be about the gospel, Lord.

Help us in these things, glorify your Son.

Thank you for a great day of worship together.

We pray all of this in Jesus' matchless name.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, we don't have a closing song for you today, so I'm just gonna dismiss you and allow you uh to head out from here.

Hopefully, with these things ringing in your hearts, in your minds.

Have a great week.

We'll see you back here next Sunday.

You're loved.