YHWH (Exodus 3) 6- God Is Immutable

And all the time.

We're gonna have some fun today.

It's always good to have a good time in the presence of God.

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Welcome.

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And we also want to invite you to the craziest party you'll be part of all month called RLC Connect.

It's an opportunity for us to get to know you and you get to know us as we want to do life together.

And you are joining us in toward the end of a series that we have been doing on the attributes of God.

And this series is a reminder series.

It's something that we all know, things we know about God.

But I think what happens is for many of us in here, we have a pretty high idea of who God is.

Like God's awesome, God, God's really cool.

The problem is that if we're not careful, our view of God will stay fixed, but our problems keep getting bigger and bigger.

And if we're not careful, it gets to the place to where we're not so sure what's bigger, our problems or God.

And it's not because we ever stopped thinking greatly about God, it's because we just stopped thinking about Him at all.

We just let that be fixed in its place.

And so the goal of this series is just to remember how truly big God is and just have moments when we just say, man, God is awesome.

And I've been giving you kind of different stories in my life over the past several weeks that kind of is the picture I have in my head of my hope for us in this series, just moments when we are just surprised at the goodness of God.

But uh a few weeks ago I told you a story about how when I took my family to Disney World.

Well, on that same trip, I had something else happen that kind of gave me this moment that I hope that we all catch at some point in the series, and that is that we went to Disney World, and truly it is the happiest and most expensive place on earth.

Of course it is.

It's wonderful.

And we were doing all the things, and there was all these wonderful rides, and we were just, you know, looping here and doing this over here.

And people had told us that we needed to go to a ride called Sorin.

Well, here's the thing: it was a ride in quotation marks because everything else you could see, you know, the roller coasters that went, it seemed like they went for miles and all this stuff.

This was a building, all right?

And and this is a very flattering picture, okay?

It wasn't that big of a building.

And we were gonna go into this building when there were all these other roller coasters.

And I remember thinking, well, bless it.

This one's for the kids.

You know, this was it's gonna be fine, it's gonna be good, because we were going to be staring at a screen.

Okay, this must be for the little kids, right?

And so we go in there, and it was actually kind of interesting.

They put us in these things that look like airplane seats.

And we actually even had to buckle our safety belt.

And I thought, well, precious, isn't this just sweet?

I mean, there, we're gonna buckle our safety belts.

Ooh, kids, you know, and they even my girls were like, Dad, is this gonna be okay?

And I was like, baby, listen, we're not leaving this room.

They're gonna they're gonna pick us up like six feet.

We're gonna, you know, move, we're gonna come back down.

It's fine, I promise.

And so the ride got started, and they did pick us up six feet, and then the ride began.

The the screen that we were looking at wasn't like this, it was the whole wall.

And we started literally soaring all over the place, and these seats did not stay still, they moved up and they moved back, and water would hit you in the face, and all this kind of stuff.

And I don't, I'm not saying that I might have screamed, I'm just saying my girls screamed and the voices sounded a lot like my own, okay?

And they they got really nervous.

I was fine, they got really nervous, and at one point, I'm I'm kind of afraid of heights, but as we started going over the ocean, I found myself trying to tuck my feet under so that I didn't get my feet wet.

That's how real it seemed.

And at one point we were going over the Great Wall of China, and I realized this is awesome.

And we got off of that ride, and my girls were the ones that were like, eh.

I was like, what do you mean?

That was awesome.

And it became my favorite ride.

We didn't even leave the room, but it blew my mind at how awesome that ride was.

And so I became a satisfied customer.

You would have thought I had stock in Disney World.

I went to people and I said, hey, listen, don't care about anything else.

You got to go try this ride because it was absolutely awesome.

That's my hope for us in this series.

My hope is that right now I am I am kind of mentally passing out to everybody a coupon for that's awesome.

And that if you hear something about God that you didn't know, or you hear something about a God that's some about God that's amazing, I want you to yell out, that's awesome.

We're gonna practice.

You ready?

One, two, three.

Exactly.

Because my hope is that we learn something new about God that makes him bigger than we realized before.

And we go from, I mean, I already knew he was pretty cool to wow, that's awesome.

And then if you cash in your that's awesome, don't worry.

We're gonna pass you out another one because God is awesome.

And I it's it's time when when is the last time that you learned something new about God that took your breath away?

When is the last time that you thought something about God that caused you to stop and go, wait a minute, I gotta think about that for a moment.

God is so big that we've not even come close to understanding the depth of who he is.

And I think that's important that we take time to think about this because I think the two most important truths we believe are what we believe about God and who he says that we are.

But it doesn't matter who he says we are if we don't know who he is.

And so that's what this series is all about is taking a moment to remember that however big we think God is, he is bigger and he is greater than we can imagine.

Because the reality is that when we don't see God clearly, and when difficulties come, we feel uncertain, afraid, stressed, angry, worried, and agitated.

But when we get a bigger idea of who God is and a clearer view, the Bible says the Holy Spirit starts working in our life and we start to produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And here's the thing: you're probably doing just fine.

But your neighbor, they need this really bad.

They could use some love because they got the mean on them sometimes.

Look at them and say, Are you taking notes?

You know why?

Because everybody you know has got a private battle that you don't know anything about.

Have you ever heard that before?

Look at your neighbor again and say, He's talking about you.

Make sure you're taking really good notes.

So, therefore, we want God to move in our life.

And so we got to understand this.

And here's the big idea, and that is that the more we see God clearly, the more we can see everything else.

The more we see God clearly, the more we can see our problems in a different way, the more we can see our opportunities in a different way, the more we can see our job in a different way when we see God more clearly.

And so that's the focus of this series is to get a bigger idea of who God is.

And so when we think of God, we say, wow, he's awesome.

And the idea behind this is we were we've been talking about the story of when God appeared to Moses in a burning bush.

What happened was that the nation of Israel had been in slavery for 400 years in the nation of Egypt.

And it was time for God to set them free.

And he wanted to use Moses to be his voice to say, it is time for you to be free.

But over 400 years, they've been living in a polytheistic culture, which means there were the Egyptians believed that there was a God for everything.

There was a God that had the face of a gnat, there was a God who had had the face of a cow.

I mean, they had all kinds of weird-looking gods.

And over 400 years, that it's it's possible that the nation of Israel believed in Yahweh, but yet he had become in amongst all the others.

And so God said, I want to reintroduce myself to you so you can realize and remember who I am.

And he starts off with Moses.

The Bible said that when the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, to which he said, Here I am.

And then God said, Do not come any closer.

Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground.

I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

And he began to explain to him that it is time for the nation of Israel to be free and that God was going to use him to be the mouthpiece to declare God's goodness, to which Moses said, No, thanks.

Pick somebody else.

And God was like, It's okay, I'm gonna be with you.

And he's like, I don't care, I'm not gonna go.

And then he says this, he says, but wait a minute, if I go to the people of Israel and they ask me, What is his name?

Then what should I tell them?

In other words, there's all these gods around here.

Which one should I tell them you are?

And God replied to Moses and he said, I am who I am.

Say to this people of Israel, I am, has sent me to you.

Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, has sent me to you.

This is my eternal name to be remembered for all generations.

Oh, and tell them, I see how the Egyptians are treating you.

So, in other words, he said, The reason why you don't see me is because you're looking here among all the other gods.

Look up.

I'm not down here, I'm up here.

I'm greater than you can imagine.

And he used the name, I am that I am to describe the beginning of who he is.

He said it like this: he called himself, I am who I am, which is Yahweh, which is actually a verb.

He used the verb as a noun.

That would be like calling your son or daughter walk or run or come here, action.

It'd be like weird, but he was saying the best way I can describe myself to you is to call me Yahweh, which means the eternally present, the unique one, the sustainer of all things.

Other words, he is saying, I am not in amongst here, I hold it all together.

I am the one, I am the greatest above all other things.

There is none that is higher than me.

And as a matter of fact, the name Yahweh was so sacred, they didn't use it.

They actually called God Adonai or Hashem, which means the name, because they revered the name of God so very much.

And then he began to show all the things that he was going to do, but what he did through Israel and in their lives.

And what we've been doing is talking about these attributes of who Yahweh is.

And so if you're taking notes, I've got a new one for you today.

This is a word you may not have ever had to use before, and this may be the last.

So we're gonna do it together.

Here we go.

And that is that our God is holy, powerful, present, in control, good, and immutable.

Very good.

Immutable.

And extra credit if you want to draw a um an anchor there beside it.

So mute immutable.

When is the last time you use that word, right?

I mean, even the idea that so so the the primary word mutable is like what you think of with the remote, right?

You're gonna mute something that's kind of close.

To mute something means to to change the volume, to change it abruptly from on to off.

That's what mutable means is to move something.

And so there's there's a lot of ways to say this, but the most straightforward way, and to me, one of the most obvious things about God is this an immutable means that our God does not change.

Somebody say amen.

That literally his character, his nature, his divine nature is our God does not change.

He is immutable.

And the great news about that is that is one of the key characteristics of who God is.

And I do realize that because of that, that kind of can can can toggle out into various different nuances and questions.

And so there's a couple of QR codes that you can scan.

Later today, I'm gonna send out a blog with more information.

And actually, coming up on August 22nd, we have our annual RLC conference coming up.

And one of those sessions is gonna talk about how to find God's characteristics as you study his word.

And so, if you'd like to become part of this, you can scan this QR code, stop by the Welcome Center, put a put a note on a bird and flat on our way.

We'll find it, all right?

But you need to make sure that you do that because we only have so much room for people, but it's a way to dig deeper into knowing God and knowing who he is.

And God is holy, which means he is altogether different than us, he is all powerful, he is present in our lives, but he is also absolutely immutable.

In other words, he does not change.

And if you want this in one verse, here it is.

Hebrews 13, 8 says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Somebody say praise the Lord.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

God is good all the time.

And all the time.

God is good.

The greatest thing about the goodness of God is that he is good all the time.

Here's the amazing thing about this particular characteristic that God being unchangeable, and that is this that God being unchangeable is one of the most overlooked attributes, but one of the most important.

Like, honestly, when putting this message together, there was so much in God's word that talked about this.

It was actually really hard because it is one of the key characteristics.

It would be like saying water is wet.

We're done.

I mean, that's all you need to know.

God is good, and God is good all the time.

What do you need to know?

But it's amazing when you think about it because it is the foundation of everything else we believe about God.

For instance, remember, I love that God is holy and powerful and in control and present.

That's great.

But what if he wasn't like that consistently?

That would be terrifying.

If you woke up and you didn't know which one of these God was gonna leave at home that day.

It's like if he left his keys, which one of these is he gonna leave?

That God is holy, but he's not good.

Or he is powerful, but he is not in control.

He is present and that's it.

But the great thing is because God is unchangeable, then you can depend on all of these showing up with him.

So because he doesn't change, he brings all of himself every single time into every single environment, then you and I are in.

One of the greatest things about God is that he does not change.

And so the one of the ways to get our minds around this is to think about what it would look like if he did.

And so I want to show you three different reasons why it is so good that God doesn't change.

Because here's the first one, and that is because if God were changeable, he would be unpredictable.

I don't want to serve a God that's not predictable.

But if he were, we would have to add to the Bible.

We would have to add what we would call first silliness, chapter 15, 29, because it would have to say, He who is the glory of Israel might not lie.

He might not change his mind.

You never really know.

He, for he is human, so he gets confused a lot.

That's what we would have to think if God were changeable, if he would change often, we would have to say, I don't know.

It depends on what shows up.

He might be holy or he might be sovereign or he might be powerful.

I don't know.

But the good news is the Bible says that he is absolutely predictable.

And he says this he who is the glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he change his mind.

For he is not a human that he should change his mind.

The great thing about God is he is predictable, he was the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Here's another thing that's so good that if God were changeable, he wouldn't just be unpredictable, but this is one, he'd be unstable.

Would you like to serve a God that you had to make sure took his meds that morning?

I mean, think about it.

Like, like, listen, I I had a bad night last night, so I don't know if God's gonna be nice to me today.

And we would have to add to scripture, like just kidding, chapter 1, verse 17.

Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down from God our Father who created it all.

But be careful, he often changes and gets mad.

He's petty like that.

Can you imagine having a petty God?

You didn't go to church, so he's like, cut your arm off.

Help us, Jesus.

And I'm so glad that God is stable, that he is predictable, that he is stable.

Here's another one, and I'm well me going to give you the scripture that is that he never changes and he created it all, and he never cast a sifting shadow.

Here's another one, and that is he would be untrustworthy.

We would have to add second exaggerations, chapter one, verse 20.

Some of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a shrug and a maybe.

He does his best.

It would be, we'll bless him.

Bless God's heart.

He does the best he can.

Don't expect too much out of God.

He's got a lot on his plate, and he he just he just can't help it.

So just just be content with whatever it was.

Can you imagine getting up on one day?

And we we have a scripture that for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.

And one day you get up and go, for God isn't in the mood to love the world.

So he decided not to give himself for all of us.

And it don't matter what if you do, if you sin, if you sin, you go into hell, it's over.

Well, that's not God.

Actually, it says all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding yes for his glory.

God does not change.

Somebody say amen.

One of the things I think that just blows my mind about this when it comes to God is because God doesn't change, everything else around him does, but we don't.

Like, for instance, according to the Bible, there was a beginning of time.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And so time had a beginning.

And then we have all these different things that happen.

We had Exodus three, we just read, then we have the cross, we have the early church, we have us, we have the book of Revelation to where there's a new heaven and a new earth, and time will end, and we go into eternity.

And see, but God, because he is unchangeable, he stands outside of time and space, and he never changes.

He doesn't change over time.

God doesn't get smarter with age.

God doesn't get better with age, he doesn't get older with age.

You don't have to wonder if his back's gonna throw out at some point.

He doesn't, he doesn't do any of that.

And what's amazing is because he stands outside of time and doesn't change, that means he's been the same all throughout history, which means the God who said, Let there be light and boom, an explosion of creation is the same God who speaks to you every day when you read his word.

The same God who was on a cross, dying for all of us.

The love that it would take to be on that cross is the same God that loves you right now.

The same God that was with the early church when the Holy Spirit came down in Acts 2 is here right now.

And what a amen, God, that here's another one.

That is awesome.

Here's one that blows my mind, and that is it's because God stands outside of time, he's already in the future.

And one day when we're standing around his throne singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

He's the same then as he is right now.

That's ridiculous.

My mind just exploded.

Okay, that's how amazing God is.

So, what is our response?

Because God does not change, we can have a settled confidence in an unsettled world because he doesn't change.

Because he doesn't get old, he doesn't get tired, he doesn't get weary, he doesn't learn from his mistakes because he didn't have any.

He does not change.

And throughout different generations, we all say it differently.

Different generations as we learn through this on how it goes, and we always have to grapple with this question, and that is how does God's unchangeable nature give us confidence in our changing world?

And different generations have said it differently, like we've had you know the current generation, the great philosopher Forrest Frank says, God is good all the time, and if he ain't, use a lion.

Okay, that's amazing.

Old school, when I used to grow up, different generations would do it like this they would say, Hold to God's unchanging hand, hold to God's unchanging hand.

Sang that a little bit too high.

Hold to God's unchanging hand.

Same thing, same thing.

We're gonna sing that again in just a moment because I want to get stuck in your brain, like it's been in mine for the past two weeks, all right?

I am going to infect you as well because we need to realize that we can hold on to God's unchanging hand, that when the tornadoes of life are constantly spinning, he doesn't go anywhere.

That we can hold on to him because he does not change.

And we can see this throughout the Bible.

That's why this is one of the most important ones to realize that he is faithful.

And you can see how his faithfulness transcends all these different things.

And you can see it in his word.

But one of my favorites is in Numbers chapter 23.

Numbers 23 · chapter mention

The nation of Israel had been in the wilderness for 40 years, and the previous generation outside of two people had passed away.

And now there was a bunch of young people that were getting ready to take possession of the promised land that God had promised at that point over 450 years ago.

It was a time of uncertainty, it was a time of unsettledness.

They're getting ready.

They are not trained warriors, but they're having to get ready to go in and have to take over.

There's just all of this going on.

And one of the evil kings that was in their crosshairs was a guy named Balak.

And Balak wanted to see if God would change his mind.

And so he actually hired a false prophet named Balaam.

And he told Balaam, he said, I will pay you a good portion.

Of money if you will sacrifice and try to get God to change his mind.

And because back then they thought of the gods as being petty, which meant that if you gave a bigger sacrifice or if you were more important of a person, that God would change his mind and then follow you.

They didn't realize those are false gods.

Our God is the one true God.

And so Balak took Balaam up on a mountain and he saw the people of Israel and he realized who the people of God were worshiping.

And he said this: He said, The message that Balaam delivered was this God is not a man, so he does not lie.

He is not human, so he does not change his mind.

He has, has he ever spoken and failed to act?

Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

Listen, I received a command to bless.

God has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

No misfortune is in the plan for Jacob.

No trouble is in store for Israel.

For the Lord their God is with them, and he has been proclaimed their king, and God brought them out of Egypt.

For them he is as strong as a wild ox.

No curse can touch Jacob.

No magic has any power against Israel.

From now it will be said of Jacob, what wonders God has done for Israel.

So, in other words, I can't.

Their God is for them and not against them.

He has been for them and not against them.

And even though they don't know what they're doing, even though they're about to go into the promised land and go into a new area they've never been in, if there's one thing that's for certain, their God has decided to go with them, and there is nothing that could be done about it.

Can I tell you?

Everybody in this room has a private battle that nobody else knows about.

And it's many times full of uncertainty, full of difficulty, full of trouble, and full of shaking and change.

But the good thing is, is that God is faithful, that God doesn't change.

And a long time ago, he decided he was going to love you, and there's nothing you can do about it.

And so the reality of it is, is that because God is for you, nothing can stand against you.

And so what we have to do is we have to found our lives on the promise of who God is and realize that we can hold to God's unchanging hand.

So here's how it goes: it goes like this Hold to God's unchanging hand.

Two, three, four.

Hold to God's unchanging hand, build your hope.

Here we go.

Build your hope on things eternal.

I don't see anybody singing.

Hold to God's unchanging hand.

It's gonna get stuck in your head, okay?

Even if you don't sing it, it's gonna get stuck in your head because that's what we got to do.

We gotta hold to what doesn't change when everything else changes.

This is what Balaam told him, and it's the same thing for us today.

And that is number one to realize because God is unchangeable, we can have confidence because he does not lie.

It's important for us to realize, and I know it's like describing water is wet, right?

God is unchangeable, but we got to remember what that means.

Because when we see him more clearly, we can see everything else.

And we realize that because God is unchangeable, we realize he doesn't lie, he doesn't get confused, he doesn't say things he doesn't mean.

This is the first thing that Balaam told him.

He said this he said, God is not a man, so he does not lie.

That is slightly offensive because he is saying, if he were a man, if he were a person, he would lie.

Thanks, Balaam.

But at the same time, isn't that true?

Not you.

But there's a word on the street that says that your neighbor might have told a lie at some point in their life.

And he's saying, God's not like us, he doesn't lie.

And but here's the problem is because people have lied to us, if we're not careful, we think that God is the same way.

But remember, he's not.

Here's the good news, and that is God does not tell little white lies, he doesn't get confused, and he doesn't say, Oh, I was just joking.

His words are trustworthy.

God does not lie and he doesn't cheat.

It reminds me of when I was a teenager, which was only a couple of years ago.

I don't know why you're laughing in Jesus' name.

All right, listen.

But when I was a teenager, I was dating my now wife, and they love to play card games.

And I cheated.

Okay, so let's listen.

I know, I know.

It was a it was okay, now, now I am 44.

It was a long time ago.

Okay, listen.

But it what it was is the game was taking too long.

We were playing phase 10 with like 50 people, it seemed like it was taking forever, and I knew how to stack the deck, and so I stacked the deck so that somebody else would get the good cards because I just wanted it to be over in Jesus' name.

And what was happening is that somebody found out.

And I just said, I was just joking.

I just wanted the game to be over with.

And you know what?

20 years later, when we go to play a card game, the first thing they say is, Brandon, don't cheat this time.

It's been 20 years, let it go in Jesus' name.

I hadn't cheated today since then, but they won't let it go.

You know why?

Because I did it once, I might do it again.

Many times because people hurt us.

We think that God will.

And we think that if we can't trust him now, will we ever be able to trust him in the future?

Here's the thing God does not lie.

And the amazing thing is that God has actually proven himself over and over again.

That is one of the main things that in the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews keeps telling when he's talking about the goodness of Jesus.

He talks about how God was faithful to Abraham in the Old Testament, God was faithful to so many other people in the Old Testament.

And then he says, if God was faithful to them, he will be faithful to us.

He said it like this.

He said, God also bound himself with an oath so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind.

So God has given both his promise and his oath.

Other words, he told you what he was going to do, and then he promised you that he would do it.

These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie.

Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge have a great confidence.

Why?

Because we hold on to the hope that lies before us.

Other words, we can trust God when we can't trust anything else because it is impossible for him to lie.

Here's the good news that is that because God does not change, we can place our confidence in his word.

God does not make mistakes.

You know what's amazing is there's never gonna be a time when you're gonna wake up and God's gonna say, oops.

He's not gonna say, Hey, listen, I had a plan and I didn't want to hurt your feelings.

So I told you I was gonna do this, but it was a lie.

I'm actually gonna do this.

God's never gonna do that.

God's honest with you.

You read the Bible, you can tell God is honest with us, He tells us to do things and stay away from things.

Why?

Because it provides broken places in our life.

And God loves us enough to hurt our feelings because he wants what's best for us and he will not lie to us.

And so when the world changes, we can find that foundation that God doesn't change.

And when you can't believe anybody else, you can believe the Lord.

And when everything else is changing and you don't know what else to believe, and you fall for all this other kind of stuff, you go, I'm so thankful that God doesn't change.

I'm gonna try it one more time.

Say it with me like this.

Say, hold to God's unchanging hand.

Let's say it again.

Here we go.

Hold to God's unchanging hand.

Build your hope.

Beauty of hopes on things eternal.

Hold on, here we go.

Hold to God's unchanging hand.

You gotta fall off the cliff a little bit there for that, there at the end.

You gotta hold on to God's unchanging hand.

You know why?

Because every other hand you grab will do their best to be trustworthy, but they can't help sometimes things that happen.

God will never lie to you, and that's an amazing thing.

Here's the second thing is he told them, he said, Not only will God not lie, but he will not change his mind.

God doesn't lie and God does not change his mind.

God doesn't have a better thought later.

God doesn't decide to go left when he could have gone right.

That before we were ever bored, God was fully awesome.

And he already had a plan.

The first thing is he said was that God doesn't lie, and then he said he is not human, so he does not change his mind, which once again is slightly offensive because he's saying, because if he was human, he would change his mind.

And can I tell you, when I change my mind, I feel well justified.

When somebody else changes their mind, it's annoying.

Like here, here's here's a story that happens to me.

I'm not gonna name any names, the Lord knows, okay?

But have you ever been to a restaurant with someone that you love dearly and you have been to that restaurant at least a hundred times?

You've been to that restaurant so many times that you don't even have to get a menu.

That they just walk up and say, Is it the usual?

That's how many times you've been to this restaurant.

But have you ever had someone in your life that you love so much and that they will every time still say, I'm sorry, can you hand me a menu?

I might try something new today, because they are thinking they're gonna change their mind.

And you know what happens 30 minutes later?

Exactly.

They order the exact same thing every single time, but they might change their mind.

Can I tell you, God doesn't change his mind.

He doesn't look on his menu of promises and figure out if he's gonna do something different for you that day.

But instead, he doesn't change his mind about you, and he already knows what he's going to do.

Here's the good news, and that is no matter what else changes in life, God does not change his mind.

And the reason why that's good is because everything changes.

Everything changes.

Let me give you just a couple of things that are changing, like right now.

Here's one number one thing is that right now there's a war in Iran.

I thought we were done, but apparently we're not.

You know what doesn't change?

God.

Gas prices.

Unless you go to Wawas, it's gonna be more expensive than what you thought.

They got it on sale in Jesus' name.

You're welcome.

All right.

But you know what doesn't go up and down?

God.

People, people are so people-y, and they change all the time.

You ever met somebody and then 20 years later you see them again and they change?

The answer is yeah, all of us have done that.

And then you're just like, you changed.

Well, yeah, it's been 20 years since I've saw you.

I kind of hope I've changed.

You know what doesn't change?

God, jobs, jobs change all the time, for better or for worse.

Culture.

Do you know how hard some of us try to learn how to even understand what our teenagers are saying right now?

And as soon as we figure it out, they change it on us, okay?

I just now got comfortable with 6'7 and I was told not to do it anymore.

I'm old, all right?

Culture changes all the time.

I don't even know if they're speaking English anymore.

And then I talk to older people, I'm certain they're not speaking English because I don't know what that means either.

And I'm just kind of lost most of the time.

You know what doesn't change?

God, God doesn't change, though everything else does.

That's why I love so much that the first thing that the apostle Paul said to the church of Philippius, he says, I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

In other words, he said three things.

He said, God is working in your life.

God is working out something good.

And then I love this.

God will finish what he started.

Do you know what God doesn't do?

He doesn't have ADHD.

He doesn't get 10 projects started and then move on to the 11th one.

But he will stay there and he will mold it and he will sculpt that pottery, he will do what needs to be done, and he's there over the long haul.

The people, the nation of Israel, have been told 450 years before uh Numbers chapter 23 that God was gonna bring them back to that land.

Numbers 23 · chapter mention

453, 450 years later, God had not changed his mind.

Which means when you and I go through difficult things, God's not gonna change his mind over a weekend.

God's not gonna change his mind over a lifetime.

If he didn't change his mind over 450 years, God's not gonna change his mind about me and about you.

So the good news is that because God does not change, we can have confidence that he will finish what he starts.

And in a world that changes, in a world where relationships change, where people are all in until they're not, when people are for you until they're not, when your body is working wonderfully until it's not, and things change all the time, we can trust that God is faithful, and that we can hold to God's unchanging hand.

We can build our hope on things eternal and hold on to God's unchanging hand.

I'm not gonna get to ask you to sing it again because you didn't do a good job the last time.

So no, I'm just playing.

But it's it's one of those things where we're gonna hold to God's unchanging hand.

Here's the reason why it's because if God is not faithful, if God is changeable, that means he's unpredictable.

That means he's unstable, that means he's untrustworthy.

But thank goodness God is predictable.

He is stable and he is trustworthy when everything else is falling, everything else is shifting, we don't understand what to do and who to believe.

We can trust that God is firm and a firm foundation.

He doesn't lie, he does not change his mind, and here's one more, and that is he always keeps his promises.

God always keeps his promises.

The great thing about God is that once he says something, you can take it to the bank.

Once he promises you something, you can believe it.

The amazing thing about God is that when he makes you a promise, it is more certain than the ground you're standing on because he's God.

And that's what Balaam was telling this evil king.

He was like, Hey, listen, I got bad news for you.

They're worshiping Yahweh.

And because they're worshiping Yahweh, you got to understand he doesn't lie.

And because they're worshiping Yahweh, you got to understand he's not gonna change his mind.

This plan's been going on for a long time.

And then he's made them some promises, and those promises, you can take them to the bank, they're gonna happen.

He said it like this.

He actually gets a little bit of an attitude.

Up until then, he's saying, God doesn't lie, God didn't change his mind.

And then it's almost like he raises his voice.

He's getting rhetorical.

And he's like, Has he ever spoken and failed to act?

Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

This guy doesn't worship Yahweh.

He is a pagan prophet, but he's looking at God's goodness.

He was like, everything he says he's gonna do, he's gonna do.

Sorry, pagan king.

He's awesome, he's amazing.

He's like, whatever God has told them that he's going to do, he's gonna carry it out.

You better hope it wasn't in your direction.

Because if he says it, he's going to do it.

Here's the amazing thing is that nothing can stop God from doing what he says he will do.

Every single one of his promises are trustworthy.

Every single one of them.

Every time when God said that he loves you, he meant it.

And he's not gonna change his mind about you.

One of the things I love about God is that there's no expiration date on God's promises, that he doesn't love you until the date on the carton goes out.

And then you gotta re-up.

It's not like that.

As a matter of fact, one of my favorite stories of this is the story of a guy named Joshua.

Joshua actually was the guy who took over from Moses.

And we don't really talk about Joshua that much, and it's sad because Joshua had an amazing life.

Think about this.

Joshua was born into slavery.

And one day, while he's a slave, a guy named Moses comes and he says, God's got a big idea for you.

God is going to free all of you, and he's gonna bring you back to the promised land.

This is why he was a he was a slave.

And then he got to watch the ten plagues of Egypt.

He got to leave out on his own two feet as they were liberated from Egyptian bondage.

Then he got to watch as God parted the Red Sea and they walked over on dry ground.

And then he got to see as the presence of God descended on Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 19.

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

And then he got to watch as the people of God began to learn how to do life with God.

And then for 40 years, he walked in the del in the desert with the nation of Israel because they refused to go into the promised land when God told them to.

He he had gone and scouted out the land.

And him and one other guy said, We can take it, let's go.

And the rest of the of the people said, Let's not do it.

And so he had to wait for 40 years.

And then finally, he got to cross over.

He was one of only two people that got to cross over from the previous generation.

And then he got to watch as God gave them victory.

And the man who was born a slave was about to die as a free man with his own land in the land of his ancestors.

That's amazing.

All the different promises that God had to do.

And one of the last things he says is he says, So the Lord gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there.

The Lord gave them rest on every side, just as he had solemnly promised to their ancestors.

None of the enemies could stand against them.

For the Lord helped them conquer all their enemies.

Not a single one of God's good promises that the Lord had given to the family of Israel was left unfulfilled.

Everything.

Somebody say everything.

Somebody else say everything.

Everything he had spoken came true.

In other words, he's saying, You have no idea.

If you only knew how impossible it is to imagine a man who is born a slave to die as the leader of a freed nation with my own land and with all this, to see all the things.

You know what I've learned?

I've learned that God is faithful.

I've learned that God's promises don't change.

That when He makes a promise, no matter what we have to go through, no matter how many times it seems like it's going the wrong direction, God always comes through.

Everything that God has spoken comes true.

And that's my hope for us today.

That no matter what happens, no matter what change is happening in our life right now, we would realize that God is faithful and that he does not change.

Which you'll get to see that this week if you're reading God's word with us.

We're reading one chapter at a time through the book of Psalms right now, and you can join us by scanning that QR code or texting RLC Bible to 94,000.

And this week we're going to read my favorite Psalm in the entire Bible, one of my favorite scriptures in the whole Bible, and it's Psalm 23.

And many scholars believe that David wrote this toward the end of his life as he's looking back over his life.

And just like just like Joshua, he had so many things happen.

He he was born as the least in his father's family.

He ends up fighting and killing a giant.

He runs and hides from a king until he becomes a king.

He loses his throne from his son and becomes king again.

He had so many things that happened.

But as he's looking back over his life, his testimony of God's faithfulness was like this: He says, The Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need.

He lets me rest in green meadows, and he leads me beside peaceful streams.

He renews my strength.

He guides me along right paths, bringing honor to his name.

Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me.

Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.

You honor me by anointing my head with oil, my cup overflows with blessing.

Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

In other words, he said, Amen.

That's awesome.

Here's you another one.

Right there you go.

God is awesome.

The amazing thing is, is he saying, I look back over my life.

There's been so many things that have changed.

But God never did.

God was with me.

He was with me in that valley of the shadow of death.

He was with me when I had enemies.

He was with me when I needed someone to help me to find those peaceful streams.

He was with me all the way.

And the amazing thing is, is the same God who is with David is the same God who is here right now with you.

So one more time, Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8 says this Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And I want to tell you, as I was preparing this message, on one end, it is so, it was so difficult because, as I was telling you earlier, it's almost like it's almost like saying water is wet.

Well, of course he is.

But that's not so simple.

Because if God were not unchangeable, then he would be unpredictable, then he would be terrifyingly unstable, and he would be untrustworthy.

But the amazing thing is, is that God is faithful.

And the more we see God clearly, the more we can see everything else.

And that is that we realize that He is faithful.

And here's the problem with this message.

Here's the problem.

And that is this that it's one thing to read about it in God's Word.

You know, one of the many, many reasons why there's so many stories in God's Word, one of the reasons is because when we see what God did in somebody else's life and and through the books of the New and the Old Testament, we see how God will continue to be faithful in our lives.

We can see how because He didn't change for them, He's not gonna change for us.

But here's the problem with this, and that is no one can teach us about God's faithfulness quite like time doing life for just a little while.

One of my favorite things to do is I love to go talk to someone who's been a Christian for a long time, and if if if you wait long enough and you talk to them about the Lord, you know what they'll say over and over again?

Man, God's faithful, God's good, and He's good all the time, He's faithful.

I've talked to people.

Who've experienced tragedies in their life?

And I say, God's faithful, God's faithful.

I've seen people who've had tremendous success only to lose it.

God's faithful.

God's faithful.

And what they mean is, is it's not that bad times didn't come.

It was that all along the way, God never changed.

And here's my question for you Is there something going on in your life right now that makes your life feel so uncertain and shaken?

And you need to be reminded that God does not change.

Here's what I absolutely believe about everybody in this place, and that is this everybody in here is in one of three places.

Either you're just coming out of a storm in life, you're in the middle of a storm in life, or you're getting ready to head into one.

Well, Pastor, I wish to be more positive.

Okay, I am positive.

Everybody in this room is in one of those three places.

You know why?

Because that's just the cycle that life moves into.

And if you're not careful, you can forget that that's the cycle of life, but it's not the cycle of God.

The God who is with you when everything is going great is the same God who carries you when everything is going wrong.

And so is there something going on in your life right now that makes you feel like everything is so uncertain?

Maybe it's a job situation, a relationship situation, maybe it's finances, maybe it's physical.

I don't know.

Only the Lord knows.

But can I tell you, none of it is bigger than God?

None of it is gonna take away the fact that God does not lie, that God does not change his mind, that God always keeps his promises.

The enemy would like to tell you that God changes.

That when you're good, he's good, and when you make mistakes, he doesn't want you.

That's such a lie of the enemy.

The Bible says that when we are faithful, he is faithful.

When we are unfaithful, he remains faithful.

Because he cannot change who he is.

God has decided to love you.

There's nothing you can do about it.

You can run as far as you want to run, and he's still gonna say, Come on home, come on home, come on home.

You have no idea what I did.

You're right.

I don't want to know.

He knows, and he still says, Come on home, come on home.

You know why?

Because he's decided to love you, and nothing's gonna change his mind about you.

And so, in just a moment, the band's gonna lead us in a song of worship.

And I don't know exactly what may be going on in your life.

What I do know is that God is bigger, God is greater, and that God doesn't change.

In just a moment, as they lead us in that song of worship, maybe you just need to take a moment and just worship the Lord and remember that he is faithful.

Remember that he doesn't change.

I don't, I don't know, but you just need to remember that God does not lie, and he's gonna be faithful through whatever storm you're going through.

Maybe you're in here and you don't have a relationship with Jesus.

Can I tell you today's the day?

It's time to stop running, it's time to stop putting God on the back burner and saying one day he is faithful and he is for you, and he's never gonna stop.

So you might as well go ahead and turn your life over to him.

On the back of your connect card is the plan of salvation, it's the plan that reminds us of what salvation is, and that is that we are sinners, but Jesus came to save us.

We could not wash away our own sins.

So Jesus came and he died that death on the cross for us and rose again so that what he did would be enough for our salvation.

And so when we turn ourselves over to him and say, Jesus, I need you to wash away my sins.

I repent of my sin and I turn to you.

That's what salvation is.

If that's you, in just a moment, when we begin to worship, your next best act of worship is to join us at the prayer table and say, I want to know this unchanging God.

I want to know Jesus.

Whatever next step you need to take, God is here.

The same God who created the heavens and the earth, the same God who died and rose again.

He is here in this moment.

And there's nothing too difficult for him.

Let's pray together right now.

God, thank you so much for today.