The Disciples That Qavah | Elder Rosalind Ang

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We hope this message will light up your day.

Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength?

You know this verse? Yeah? Is it familiar? Those who

wait under Lord? Shall you renew their strength? They will

run and not be weary, they will walk and not faint. Correct. So,

how many of you have actually used this or have

received this verse as an encouragement to you? Yeah? Okay,

I've received this many times, and I like this verse

because it just brings you comfort. Right. It says those

who wait in the Lord, you know, you shall mount

up with wings like eagles. Wow? Okay, So this is

a maybe second question for you. What do you think of,

you know, when you imagine an ego like this word says,

they shall mount up with wings like eagles. What does

the image of an egle you know, speak to you about?

What is it? Pain? Tell me the image of an ego?

What does it tell you? You know? Strength? Yeah? Strength?

Do we agree? Strength? Strength? Image of an egle? Strength?

What else? What else? Steadiness? What else? Bravery? Yeah? Very

shop very shop in their mind and thinking right? And

how many of us want to be eagles? How many?

Oh?

I only see one hand. Two. The rest of us,

oh three, great, great, we have three eagles and the

rest of you. You want to be? This is it?

If you're not an ego, right, you're this. This is

a chicken. Hen, So both are birds.

Right.

You get to decide what kind of bird you want

to be. You want to be a chicken or or

an ego egolah, because God did not say day will

saw on wings like a chicken. They will saw on

wings like eagles. Right. And you know, even in English

term right, we say, don't be so chicken a you know, right,

chicken means what coward scared, you know, quivering and then

reathing to be slaughtered. That that's the image of a chicken. Right,

don't think don't eat KFC after day yeah after that's

about your chicken. And all of you like, hey, well

let's eat chicken. Chickens are to be devoured. Right. But

but God says I want so this is God's promise, right,

God's word through Isaiah. He says, I will make you

saw on wings like eagle. You see, he didn't say

he was the eagle. He says you amen, don't your

neighbor and say God says you you are the eagle right.

And God wants us to sow as believers in him right.

And this is a great promise. And he says, let's

go back to the verse. Those who wait upon the

Lord shall renew their strength. How many of us one

our strength to be renewed? We do a right? We

want every day? You know, we get tired every day,

We get every tired. And when I think about it,

there is this sense of not just a physical tiredness.

Physical tiredness, you can sleep and you'll be okay next day, right,

But do you know there's another kind of exhaustion that

you sleep also, you wake up feeling tired, You eat

nutritious food, you go for exercise, you still feel exhausted.

And this kind of exhaustion speaks of an internal exhaustion,

not a physical one. And why do we say this?

If you read just a few verses above it, right

in verse twenty nine, he says He gives power to

the weak and those who have no mic. He increases

strength even the you shall fain and be weary. I

see some young people here. You shall faint and be weary,

and the young man shall utterly fall. So God Isaiah

is telling us that this is not talking about your

physical bigger your vitality that your young men, you know,

twenty years all means you can run for twenty kilometers

non stop? Can I can? I young me? Well, can

I know anyone can run thirty kilometers? No? Okay, I

guess not yet? La one? Not two can? Why not two? Can? Okay?

All this marathon runners? But do you know that it's

not about that kind of physical strength that Isaiah's talking about? Right?

And so we want to learn what is a secret

of those who wait on the Lord? Now? I want

to just give a little bit of introduction to Isaiah. Now,

very interestingly Isaiah. How many of you have read through Isaiah?

I love Isaiah. He's one of the major profits in

the Bible. Right is he an Old Testament or New Testament?

Not sure? Old Testament. He is one of the first

prophets after the Book of Song of Solomon Solomon or

the poetry. Then comes Isaiah. Now very interestingly, do you

know that Isaiah has sixty six chapters? What does the

number sixty six sixty six remind you of the number

of books in the Bible? Right? Okay? Now, what's even

more interesting the person who actually did the chapter division

and the first division. Now, do you know that there

is two major themes in Isaiah? The first thirty nine

chapters has one team, The next twenty seven chapters has

a next team. What does the number thirty nine and

twenty seven tell you? Does it remind you of anything? What? Oil?

And New Testament? Do you know that our Old Testament

has thirty nine books and the New Testament has twenty

seven books? Eh? How comes on Armona? Quite interesting? Right?

How this one is so coincidental or not? Now? The

major theme of the Old Testament can be summarized as

God created the earth and then men ness stop coror not?

Genesis itself, right, and then you read through the whole

Old Testament, it was about how these people continued to

rebel against the Lord. Right. You read through the whole

Old Testaments from Genesis all the way to Malachi, the

final prophet in our modern Bible, and it's just talking

about these people keep on sinning. God showed the miracles,

and they kept on going back to idols. They betrayed

the Lord, so again and again God gave them how

many chances? Too many, many, many many chances? Okay, and

then they still and you know that how the book

ends is that the people of Israel were then in exile.

Do you know what exile means? You've been kicked out

of your country. Remember that God told it. I'm gonna

give you this lend right to your descendants. I will

give you this inheritance. The stars in the skies, you know,

if you can count them as numbers, I will give

you this inheritance, and I'll give you this lend. But

they got kicked out. Hey, how come the promise? The

story like doesn't jive right. So that is a summary

of the Old Testament. And then the New Testament comes Matthew.

And what is the first thing that you see came

on the scene in Matthew not yet before Jesus. Before Jesus,

there was a messenger. What's his name, John the Baptist. Okay,

cannot can try a lower me. Please know your Bible, Okay.

I want to teach the Bible as much as I can.

Every time I preach to that you get a little

bit glimpse of more of the world of God. Okay.

So John the Baptist came and what he says, prepare

the way of the land. Correct, he was a messenger.

So he says, prepare the way of the Lord, because

he who is coming after me is greater than me, right,

and so he's predicting that there's someone greater coming to him.

All right, Okay? Not so. The whole of New Testament

is about the good news of Jesus. Now, if you

read Isaiah, and this is in the Old Testament, what

you recognize is first thirty nine chapters doom and gloom.

Then when you enter chapter forty, it becomes do you

know this Isaiah chapter forty that I just read to

you is the beginning of the hope that we're talking about.

And that's why the prophet Isaiah says, those who renew,

those who hope in the Lord, those who trust in

the Lord, those who wait on the Lord, shall renew

their strength. You know why he had to say that,

because all this time, for the thirty nine chapters, they

are so depressed, they've been dejected the land that they

have lived in, there have been kicked out of it.

Can you imagine if you're kicked off your house, evicted tomorrow,

you cannot enter your house, you have no more access

to your bank account, all your essets are frozen. How

you feel, you would feel dejected, right, you would feel

in despair. And that is exactly when you need hope.

And so Isaiah comes in in chapter forty and he

begins to give this hope. Okay, so that is the

context of this. Now we need hope because when life

feels like it's hopeless, that's when we turn to God.

Someone texted me this yesterday. She's like, you know, I

heard that you're coming to church, and I bring my

mom because something just happened in our family and I

think she really needs ministry and all this while the

mom has never been to church before. She comes from

a very very, very well to do family. And sometimes

I think that when you're driven to despair, when you're

down in the pits, when there's no one else, that's

when we turn to God, Right, that's when we turn

to God. And so so now we have this message

of hope. And do you know in Hebrews eleven, one

says his faith is a substance of things hope for

the evidence of things not seen. Is that okay? You

know this verse? Right, Hope is not something that we

can see yet, but we hope because we know that

Jesus is a hope that there is going Do you

believe that there's going to be a better tomorrow? Honestly?

Can you? Can you answer me and say I believe

there's going to be a better tomorrow? How many of

you dare to say that? We have to constantly ask ourselves.

Do I really believe that tomorrow is going to be better?

When I say tomorrow, I don't mean next week. I

don't mean next year. I mean tomorrow in eternity? Do

you lead that is going to get better? Because I'm

gonna tell you that it's gonna get worse before it

gets better. True or not, it won't get worse, Okay, Church,

I'm not gonna lie to you that tomorrow everything's gonna

be fine. Whatever you hear that's happening. Do you know

that recently there was a tornado in Klang, a tornado

never heard of before you. I only saw him Twister?

Have you seen Twist? The movie? Old folks like me

you will know, but young young folks, yoh don't know?

Right right? Right? Twistir? Yeah? I know all that. I

always remember the cows going into the tornado. And then

I saw some instagram that showed the rooftops, you know,

metal pieces were floating around in Klang. And then there

was someone who was actually videoing that while driving in

the woo. Scary, you know, happening in Klang. Things that

you've never expected to happen is happening. Okay, yeah, Capon

was really Okay, I didn't another tornado? Okay. So all

this seems to point to something that's happening LA. And

you know, next week the roads in Kre are closed.

All the world powers are gonna be here. Hmm yeah,

are you are you worried? Are you worried they're gonna

fight and throw chairs at each other? I don't know

a lah, the world powers meeting in Malaysia, that would

be significant, right, first time and in a long time,

and so so so there's this thing about waiting, LA,

and so whatever it is, like, Okay, I don't it

doesn't matter what kind of news that you're anticipating. I

want us to really learn what it means to wait

upon the Lord, because you know, right, no matter what happens,

we need an anchor. What is your anchor in your life?

If you don't have an anchor, you get floated, you

get sweet do you know you get sweet by everything?

Do you know that if the tornado comes right and

you're not anchor to something, you'll be swept away with

the tornado. You'll be swept away with economic news, You'll

be swept away with the news about our schools and

our students. You'll be swept away. And then you get

lost and you're like, oh my gosh, what's happening to

our country, what's happening to our world? Right, so we

want to talk about this anchor that we want to

have today, all right? And and so the anchor, the

anchor is hope, all right? And so it says, you know,

it says those who wait upon the lot? Now, can

you tell me how you wait upon the Lord? Oh

people of God? How do you wait upon the Lord?

Can give me some ideas about this? Is waiting on

the lot? MATCHA, I'm very abstract, right, It isn't abstract concept.

How do you wait? You just sit down and like, okay, wait,

I wait upon your lord. Pray. Pray is one form

of waiting. You know, when you're waiting, you don't just

sit down and do nothing. Sometimes we say I'm so

sick of waiting. Have you heard of that. Have you

ever said that, I'm so tired of waiting? Now until

how long? Lord? How long? How long before you come back? Now?

More and more? Right? When I talk to different ones,

especially ministers, they're like, Jesus, come back faster because it's

not easy. It's not getting any easier to minister. And

you know, people come with broken lives, broken hearts, and

every time we are faced with it, we're like, oh man,

this tough. Sometimes there's no words to say, you know,

to comfort you just be with that person. Right, So,

waiting is an active thing that you do. You don't

sit down and do nothing. Right, because it says that

those who wait on the lot shall renew their strength.

You mean what you mean after I wait, then I

have to walk and run? Yeah, sounds like it right.

That's why it says those who wait upon the lot

shall renew their strength and they sure walk and not

be run. And you know they will run and not

be very walk and not fait. So God is encouraging

us to say, as you wait, there is active steps

that you do. It's it's not a passive like light

my bait liked, okay, like wait for you whena no,

there is an active waiting in which means you take

active steps. All right, So how else can we wait

upon the Lord? Tell me? How else do you wait

upon the Lord? So prayer is one of it? Reflect

on the word of God. Yeah, reflect you petition, So

that's part of prayer. You're petitioning to the Lord. So

it sounds like there is some active waiting that we

need to do. Okay, now I want to illustrate to you.

You know the word the word waits in Hebrew. The

word that they use is cover, cover all right, cover,

and to wait is to cover and how they frustrated? Right?

Is this? Do you know that sometimes life is full

of tension? And I'm gonna use this rope to elast

straight right? And you know, things will Things in your

life stretches. You mom, that family finances were boss crazy, boss,

even crazier boss, deadlines, assignments, health, pain, all these things

stretch us. What happens when that stretching keeps on going?

What happens? You will snap? Do you know? Do you

know that you will snap? And what happens when you

snap that sitler? You either give up or you fall

into I don't know, helplessness, despair, all right, So this

is what and the word cover it means that you

are waiting for this tension to be released. You know.

That's why all the when I say ministers, are all

the buses in office line? Or where is Jesus WANs

to come back? Like? Why? Because we are waiting for

this tension to be released. It's so tense, you know,

like everyone's just pulling at us in all directions and

then we're just waiting to wait is to wait for

that release of this tension. Now, with this release of

this tension, it also means that we don't wait for

our circumstances to change. We are not waiting for that

person to change. We are not waiting for one million

dollars to drop into your bank account. Not that kind

of waiting. This waiting is just waiting upon the Lord. Yeah,

it's not waiting for things to change or things to happen,

but you are waiting upon the Lord. Now, the word

cover comes from another route. We're called cough, okay, QAV

and q a V means a rope or a cord.

All right, So I'm gonna ask Sharon's help. Now, Okay, Sharon,

you're gonna stand behind me and You're gonna hold onto

the back of the rope. Okay, So now can you

imagine me in okay, just release a little bit tensis

so hard I cannot even pull it pull it to attention. Yeah,

So can you imagine me right now in a pit,

in a deep that hole? Can I notot? Did that hole?

I'm in despair. I have everything pressing against me. My

tension is really tight, really really tight right now, right,

And so we are waiting upon the Lord. Okay, I'm

waiting upon the Lord. And so I'm holding on with

my left And can you imagine if I'm down there

and God is always there? He gives me this lifeline,

a lifeline, and I'm trying to pull myself up? How

long can I hold onto this? I'm down in the pit,

let's say, twenty feet down and I'm holding on to this,

this is always there. How long can you last as

you hold on to this? Two minutes, three minutes, ten minutes?

Well and very strong? Ha ha, all of you lose to her. Okay,

please go and do some upper body training, strain training.

Now you see for us right to hold onto this

on our own strength, is it possible for a shower

and that's why many Christians after a while we slip

right because we get tired. Do you know you get

tired of holding on, You get tired of holding on,

and then you're like, then you let go, and then

sometimes we are lost, right, And then when I'm lost,

I'm down in the pit. And then we're going to

try and search for all other ways to try and

get out of the pit. But do you know that

the lifeline is always there? God is always there, He's

always present. And so now we we search for it

and we find it again. Now you see again, just

on one arm, two arms. Baby, It's gonna be difficult

right to hold on for the moment of release. It's

gonna be hard, but God closest to hold on, right,

hold on to our faith now. Very interestingly, the wood

cover right, it also paints this analogy of being bound together.

And so what's gonna happen is if I now instead

of just holding on with my hand, I'm gonna bind myself. Okay,

slowly you just stand there and slowly release, I'm gonna

bind myself. Now do you think this is stronger? I

can last longer, now you can write, I can definitely

last longer than just my one arm. And so as

we continue to cover and to bind ourselves with the

Word of God, with prayer, with meditation, what's gonna get

what's gonna get stronger is my binding with the Lord.

Do you see this now? I'm now being more and

more bound with the Lord. And this is the one

that gives me security and hope because do you know

that if my own hand, I'm gonna let go so soon? Right?

But as I bind myself more and more is and

can I tell you this is not an overnight process.

It takes time. Every time you come to Sunday worship,

you're binding yourself with the Lord because you receive the

Word of God. Every time you pray at night with

your kids before they sleep, you are binding yourself and

your children to the Word of God. And do you

know what you know? What the Lord told me? Right?

Is that? Do you know if I bind myself every time,

every moment like this, what's gonna happen is what do

you see more now on me? Do you see more

of God and less of me? Do you see that?

And if I continue this process over and over again,

months and years, what you're gonna see at the end

of it is just a rope. That's what it means.

To be less of me, Lord, more of you. And

the difference between one believer who binds themselves with the

Word of God with the Lord every day is that

they are now secure, secure that no matter what kind

of tornado, volcano, eruption, earthquake, flooding, no matter what seems

to rock our life and our world, this becomes our anchor. Amen. Amen,

all right, all right, thank you, thank you for that.

Let's give Sharon a warm uplause for being my anchor,

being my anchor, so we need to we need that.

Do you want that for your lives? Do you want

to be so bound that your entire life right is

just bound, every area of your life is just continuing

to be bounded, binded by the Word of God, that

it becomes so strong and that you become one. Do

you want to become one with the Lord? That is

my prayer for myself and for us disciples of Jesus Christ.

Not lose, you know, not wait one step. You know

you know, when you're bound like that, right, it's very hard.

You don't have to cut through so many layers to

free to to free yourself from the Lord in that sense.

But I don't want to be free from the Lord.

I want to be continuously bound by the Lord until

all that people see of my life is Him. It's him,

you know. And and then I can just do you know?

When I'm bound like that, I can just rest. Huh.

I can just rest while the Lord being is continuing

to hoist me up out of my pit. When I

just focus, I don't have to focus on holding on

to him. I just focus on trying to solve. If

I'm trying just to solve my problems and my solutions,

I will come to a date's end. But if I

just focus on just continuing to bind myself to cover

with the Lord, I can rest. And that's what it means, right,

come to me, all of you who are weary, come

to me. You have to come to the Lord, and

you have to bind yourself with him, and then he

gives you that rest. Amen. And that's something that you

continue to do. You continue to bind yourself with the Lord.

And so I want to say that the reason the

other part of us, right, the antidote to tiredness exhaustion,

is the active act of remembering. Do you know that

we are very forgetful creatures. Ask you, what did a

lot do for you this week? Dunolah? And if that's

the many, I don't have right because we have forgotten.

And so I want to read the other parts of

Isaiah to help us remember you. Okay, are you ready

to have another image of God? I don't know what

was your image of God? Just now? The first question

I asked you, you put down the image right now.

I want you to actively activate your imagination as I

read through the Word of God and give you a

new image of God. Okay, So I'm gonna read from

verses ten to twenty seven. Are you okay? This is

the nalty version. Let's remember, let's actively cover now. Verse

ten says this. Yes, it starts with a yes. Oh Nia, Yes,

it starts with a yes. The sovereign Lot is coming

in power. He will rule with a powerful arm. See,

he brings his reward with him as he comes. When

I meditate just on this verse right, I'm like, Wow, God,

you mean you're coming with a gift. You're coming with

a reward for all of us. What did we do

to deserve it? You a see your test? Yet? Do

you aisee your life tests. None of us was there

to say, we ace it right, barely passing. Someone would

say hanging on hard, barely hanging on. But God, as

a good father, says, I'm bringing you a reward.

Wow.

Verse eleven. He will feed his sheep, his flock like

a shepherd. Wow. Are you hungry? He will carry the

lambs in his arms. Do you feel like you need

a hug? Holding them close to his heart. He will

gently lead the mother sheep with their young. Those of

us who are moms here this is an encouragement to you,

no matter how tired you are, God is going to

lead you gently with your children. Do you see this promise?

He will gently lead the mothership with their young Verse twelve.

Who has held the oceans in his hand? Anyone went

to the beach recently? Do you try to encapsule it

and capture the oceans in your arms? Okay, don't try, Okay,

never mind? Oh God has done it. Who else has

held the oceans in his hand? Who has measured off

the heavens with his fingers? Who else knows the weight

of the earth, or has weighed the mountains and heels

on a scale? Have you tried weighing the earth. I

know your way yourself, You know your own way right,

But have you tried weighing the earth? Who is able

to advise the spirit of the Lord, Who knows enough

to give him advice or teach him? Sometimes we you

know prayer? Right? We say, God, I think I know better?

He says, who are you to teach the Lord? Has

the Lord ever needed anyone's advice? There's sny instruction about

what is good? Did someone teach him what is right

and show him the path of justice? No, for all

the nations of the world are but a drop in

the bucket. They are nothing more than thus on the scales.

He picks up the whole earth as though it were

a grain of sand. You know, I don't know what

are the world powers that you seem to be afraid of.

You may be afraid of what Malaysia is afraid of,

u As power, Russia power, China power, all these big

powers in the world. God says they are like a

drop in the bucket. To him, they are nothing more

than thus and skills. Tomorrow God wants to wipe them out.

He can. Have you ever stopped to think about it?

If God wanted to wipe any nation. Now, he could

have just done it if he wants to, Not that

he cannot. He just won't not yet. Verse sixteen. All

the wood in Lebanon's forests and all Lebanon's animals would

not be enough to make a burn offering worthy of

our God. What kind of offerings we bring to the Lord?

It's nothing, it's nothing. He doesn't need it. Verse seventeen.

The nations of the world are worth nothing to him.

In his eyes, they count for less than nothing, near

emptiness and froth Verse eighteen. To whom can you compare God?

What image can you find to resemble Him? What is

the image that you painted just now? The first question?

Is it close to what we are reading right now?

Can he be compared to an idle form in a

mole overlaid with gold and decorated with silver chains? Or

if people are too poor for that, they might at

least choose wood that won't decay and a skilled craftsman

to carve an image that won't fall down. What kind

of images and idols do we have of God? What

kind of images do you have of God? Is he

that small? Verse twenty one. Heaven you heard, don't you understand? People?

Of go. Are you deaf to the words of God,

the words he gave before the world began? Are you

so ignorant? God sits above the circle of the earth.

The people below seem like grasshoppers to him. He spreads

out the heavens like a curtain and makes ten from them.

He judges the great people of the world and brings

them all to nothing. They hardly get started, barely taking

root when he blows on them, and they wither. The

wind carries them off like. I don't know how this

makes you feel, but it makes me feel very small.

To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?

Asked the Holy One? Look up into the heavens, who

created all the stars? Who created all the stars? He

brings them up like an army, one of them that

they're calling each by his name? Have you tried naming

a star? I know some some young men will try

and say, ooh, you know, try and propose to the girl.

I catch the star for you and name it after

you are okay, God says I have name all the

stars because of his great power and incomparable strength. Not

a single one is missing, Not a single one is missing.

Oh Jacob, how can you say the Lord does not

see your troubles? This is how sometimes we accuse the Lord,

Oh Israel, How can you say God ignores your rights?

Do you know that what astounds me is that despite

all that, God is how big and magnificent and how

marvelous He is the creator of the whole universe. He says,

I remember you. I remember you, Karina, I remember you,

I remember you. Eight million billion people on the earth,

I remember you. Does he need to? I mean, he

already said just now, you're like nothing right all the

great powers, and yet at an individual level, God says,

I remember you, Sharon. I know exactly. I see exactly

what you are going through. And so you have nothing

to hide before the Lord. And he says that because

of who I am, my greatness, my loving kindness, my

mercies that are new every morning, I remember you, and

I have said, do you know that out of all

this greatness of God, what astounds me more is the

greatness of his love. He doesn't need to, you know,

but he says, I have thoughts towards you every day.

You mean, like, sometimes we think God has forgotten this

right in the midst of our despair and challenges, are like,

oh where are you? And He's like saying, I'm thinking

about you a thousand thoughts towards you. Every day you

got three thousand thoughts about yourself. I don't know, maybe

we do because all we think about is ourselves. But

God says, I'm thinking about you as well, and I

have not forgotten, and I want to give you the strength.

You see, the strength right does not come from us.

The strength comes from the Lord. But what we need

to do to tap into that strength is to remember.

So have you remembered? This is how we actively wait

upon the Lord to actively remember who God is and

what he is done, he has done for us, and

what He is going to do for us in man. Now,

once you have received this strength, then what happens? You

just go about your own business again. Sometimes we do

that right like God, I mean the depth of my despair.

Once you lift me out, I'm just gonna go running.

And many times you run away from the Lord. No, no, no, friends,

we have a job to do. There is a purpose

that God is giving us strength and I can find

this here, you know, and this is from Versus six onwards. Okay, okay, Versus.

You know, God wants us to do. This is our

response to whatever God has done for us. Right, Remember,

Isaiah say, okay, remember all these things. Remember how great

our God is. And He's gonna renew our strength. But

what is that purpose? And our response to that is

from verse six. Avoids say shout, and I say what

should I shout? Okay, so God's wild say shout, ah,

shout shout that the people are like grass. Oh my gosh,

hey hello everyone, you're like grass. No, I say one,

God says, I'm just obeying. He says. Their beauty fades

away as quickly as flowers in a field. This is

verse six. The grass withers and the flower's faith beneath

the breath of the Lord. And so it is with

his people. The grass withers and the flowers faith. But

the word of our God stands forever. Amen. We are

like a breath and you're gone. We are gone. But

what is comforting is that word of the Lord stands forever. Amen.

Isn't that comforting to know that no matter what comes

our way, this too shall pass, But the word of

the Lord and his promises stand forever. Amen, He stands forever.

I'm reading on verse nine, So this is our purpose,

he says, Oh zion o xbu, bessenger of good news.

Can you tell me your neighbor and say you are

the messenger of good news? Someone us don't believe it?

Like I am a prophet of doob My life is

a mess How am I going to tell you the

good news? No, we are called the messenger of the

good news, he says, Messenger of the good news. Shout

from the mountaintops. Shout it louder, oh Xbu, shout and

do not be afraid. Tell the towns of Bu your

God is coming. Hello. We are planted in Bu because

we have a job to do here. It's just not

for us to come to church here a great message

be encouraged. This is an equipping time so that when

you are strengthened, now you go out and you'll be

that messenger. Amen. Do you believe and do you receive

this assignment? You come, you receive encouragement, You receive the

word of God, so that you are strengthened to do

the work of a messenger. Your God is coming Verse ten. Yes,

the Lord is coming in power. He will rule with

a powerful arm. Amen. We have a job to do,

all right. We have a rule to do so. The

Word of God sends forever, our God is coming back,

and I want us to remember again that finally, finally,

what God wants us to be reminded of right is

that He is with us, and that God wants to

bring us comfort. And how do I know it. Let's

go all the way to the very first verse in

this chapter, chapter forty. You remember thirty nine chapters of Doom, Gloom, Destruction, exile, depression,

Verse forty Chapter forty, Verse one, Comfort, Comfort my people, says,

Your God speak tenderly to Xbu, tell her that her

set days are gone and her scenes are pardon. Yes,

the Lord has punished her twice over for all her sins.

And you know who took our punishment for our sins.

It's Jesus. We didn't get punished, you know. Hello. I

don't know if you're not rejoicing, but we are not

being punished because Jesus has been punished. Listen, it is

the voice of someone shouting, clear the way through the

wilderness for the Lord. Sounds familiar like John the Baptist.

This is what God is telling us to do. Clear

the way through the wilderness for the Lord. Make us

straight highway through the wasteland for our God. Oh, it

means we've got some construction work to do. Friends. We

need to clear some rubble, clear some pathways, fill in

the valleys, and level the mountains and hills, straighten the curves,

and smooth out the rough places. Then the glory of

the Lord will be revealed and all people will see

together the Lord has spoken. Amen, do you know everything

that the Lord has spoken will come to pass. It

doesn't matter whether you believe in Jesus or not. He

is coming back. He is coming back. And therefore if

we believe in that, then there is something for us

to prepare. As we meditate on the goodness of God.

God starts off by saying, comfort your people. When God

gives us that comfort, he says, then you remember right,

I'm going backwards now. Isaiah from one to six says,

be comforted. And he says, because you are the messenger

of the good news. And he says, what do you

tell the people? Tell them they are like grass, but

that the Lord is coming and that his word endals forever.

And tell people about his greatness, how he created the stars,

the moon, the earth, the powers of the world. He

is sovereign over that. And then that's how he lends

all the way to Isaiah forty thirty one, that says,

wait upon the Lord, those who weigh upon because guess what,

we still need to keep running. Guess what, we still

need to keep walking. The days are not ended yet

for us at least, and I pray that we will

run the good we will fight the good fight. We

will run our race until the end. And that therefore

God wants to bring us encouragement today and say, wait

upon the Lord, Trust in him, Cover in the Lord,

wrap yourself around him so that he can renew your

strength so that you can continue running. Amen.

We hope you've been blessed by this message. For more

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for you.

God bless