God’s Abundant Faithfulness

Good morning, Christ Beauty Church.

Welcome, go ahead and stay in with us.

In the back, come on in, let's go ahead and get started.

Who breaks the cloud?

It is darkness.

Whose dark is night?

It's so much stronger.

The queen of coin, the king of me.

Which takes the holder with holy thunder.

Who gets the spread best in our wonder?

The king of coin.

The king of this is amazing, that does not do it, that's that's more.

All that you done for me.

Back into order, who leads a spread, the stunning daughter, the king of glory, the king of glory, who's a nature, with truth and justice, all of his brilliance, the king of glory, the king of all eight, it's a bit step.

Whoa, Jesus, it's not singing for her.

All that she's done for me Well good morning, Christ Screeny Church.

I need your help singing this morning.

Worthy is the lamb who is slaying.

Ready?

Let's sing it.

Worthy is the lamb who was staying.

Worthy is the king who conquered the grave.

Worthy is the lamb who will stay.

Conquer the grave.

Worthy is the lamb who will stay.

Conquer the grave.

Worthy, worthy, worthy.

Oh, this is amazing, grave.

This is a failing love.

Well, good morning.

Is everybody awake?

Everybody ready to worship together?

Good, good, good.

Take it away, August.

I mean, it's so good to be here with y'all.

I know in the summertime everybody's busy and going on vacation and doing all that fun stuff.

And we actually went out of town last weekend.

And um I really missed being here.

You know?

Like five years ago that would have not been the case.

We didn't have a church home, but this really feels like home.

And I even talked to Brandon last night.

I was like, the kids were having a sleepover.

And I was like, oh, maybe you should stay home and I'll just go to church.

And he was like, no.

And that was not the case.

Like I said five years ago.

So it's so good to be here.

And this morning we're gonna finish our study on the five attributes of God that we've been going through.

And um I think uh he may have saved the best for last coverage and faithfulness.

And um reminding me uh one of the first Bible verses I learned as a little kid.

Which I feel like it's like the true nature of God.

Faithfulness and self-control.

So that's not God and what we're learning about.

I don't know what it is.

Let me read um a little heart out of 1889, which we were asked to read, but it was kind of lengthy.

So if you didn't get to it.

Um versus I will sing of the Lord's unfailing love forever.

Young and old will hear of your faithfulness.

Your unfailing love will last forever.

Your faithfulness is a dream as a heaven.

With so I see bills for my love, thou hast taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul, with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul, with my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul haste the day when my face shall be sighed the clouds build back as a school, the trum shall resund, and the Lord shall de sail in them so it is well, my soul master, it is the master my soul, he is well with my soul.

His mercy is more stronger than darkness, knew every more.

Our sins they are many, his mercy is more and what a love could remember, no wrongs we had done, omniscent, all knowing he counts now.

There's some into the sea without bottom board in our sense in how many his mercy is more Praise the Lord, his mercy is more stronger than darkness through evermore, my sins there are many, his mercy is more What patient would wait is we constantly wrong.

What father so tender is calling us home, he welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor, and our sense they harmony, his mercy is more Praise the Lord, his mercy is more stronger than thyness, whoever more sins they are many, his mercy What a rich is a kindness he lavished on us.

We stood neath a death we could never afford And our sins they are many, his mercy is more Praise the Lord, his mercy is more stronger than that death, do evermore, since they are many, his mercy the Lord, his mercy is more stronger than that, more since they are many, his mercy is more, as himself the amenity, his mercy is more, since they are many, his mercy is more sing that chorus together.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, his mercy is more stronger than darkness, knew every more I sends a many, his mercy is more, our sins they are many, his mercy is more, our sins they are many, his mercy is more seated.

Thank you, Christopher and Zachary and Justin and Derek.

Bless y'all.

Hello.

I'm so happy you're here.

I'm happy to be back.

I'm happier than anybody here to be back.

I promise you that.

Welcome.

Welcome to Christ Community Church.

If you're a student, you're dismissed.

Um we have an honored guest here today, my sister.

Um if all else fails, Susan can come up here and preach.

Yes, uh I grew up in a home where um the children became more favored as they became younger as they got younger.

And um, so it was just nice to be in the same house with a child that was loved as much as you were.

So anyway, no, it's very wonderful to have you here, Ellie, William.

So happy that y'all are here.

Bless y'all.

Um yes, we're back in town.

We are hooray.

Yeah, we were in Montana, never been there before, and uh it is a pretty place.

Uh we've never been out west, and um we hiked every day, and uh that was glorious, and uh I love the hiking, and you love the fact that it wasn't hot.

It was not hot, and it snowed some days, and then that was she loved it.

I did, and uh so we both got what we wanted, yeah.

So that was great.

And came back here, and it's nice and cool here too.

Yes.

I walked early this morning praying for y'all, and it was a it was different than my hike on uh Friday morning, I can assure you that.

Um we're in the middle of a well, actually, as August reminded me, um, for me, sadly, sometimes I do a series, and by the end of it, I'm ready.

I am ready to move on to something bigger and better.

But uh to be honest with you, this has been the most uh in 42 years of teaching God's word, I've never experienced anything quite like this study on Exodus 34 verse 6.

Exodus 34:6

It's been a real life-changing experience for me.

And uh this will be our last week on that, but uh I'm not ready for it to be over, but anyway, that's what we're gonna do.

And um we've looked at uh some of the attributes or qualities that God revealed to his people right after they had failed miserably in their relationship with him and really hurt him deeply.

God declares to his people.

I reviewed that are very unique to God.

One of the things that you notice if you read through the Bible with me like hope and raise you will the Bible heroes from beginning to end something pretty amazing, and that is that there is no one like Yahweh.

He is he is uncomparable, incomparable, incomparable, incomparable, thank you.

Yes, he's incomparable.

There is no one, humanly speaking, or in the world of the gods, the world of the of the invisible, uh there is no one like Yahweh.

And one of the ways that Yahweh is unique is that he possesses these five qualities.

Um, and he challenges us to possess them, and he puts his Holy Spirit in us so that we can embrace them and emulate them.

That's his desire and delight when he sees us emulating him, but nobody possesses these five qualities like Yahweh.

There are five qualities that set him apart from all other gods and from all other peoples.

And he says, uh Yahweh, Yahweh, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in covenant love and faithfulness.

And we have looked at what the Bible means when it says that Yahweh is compassionate.

Big idea.

But the summary is that when Yahweh looks at me and you, he sees someone like a young mama sees their baby.

That's what it means when it says that God is compassionate, when he sees us, he sees us like a mama sees a little baby.

Yahweh is gracious.

And that we talked about that in that.

Is the idea that God not only sees us with this amazement and devotion and protection, He sees us as well with value.

He sees us as this immeasurable treasure because we're image bearers of his.

We're made in his image, and because we are, God sees us as this immeasurable treasure, and he responds to us in that way.

He handles us, he treats us as if we are incredibly valuable, a treasure.

He's not rough, he's not, well, you see, I'm going to use up on my time.

I don't need to do that.

He's slow to anger.

Third quality.

That means that God, like any other real life person, he's not a force, he's not an idea, he's a person.

And as any other healthy person, if I see someone that I love harming themselves or being harmed by someone else, it makes me mad.

And it makes God mad when he sees us doing things that harm ourselves or when he sees others harming us or us harming others.

But he's slow.

That means that he uh he's not rash or abrupt or roars in with he gives us unlimited warnings and chances before he steps in because he cannot stand it anymore.

His anger is appropriate, it's reasonable based upon the problem that he's addressing.

Then the last time we were together, or that I was with you, we talked about God being one that abounds in covenant and love, in covenant love.

These ideas get actually bigger and bigger as we move from number one to number five.

You'll see that in a minute.

But the idea of abounding in covenant love just means that God only is doing good to us.

He does good to us because he's promised to do good to us.

He has made a he's he has given us his word, he has laid his reputation on the line, his name is on the line.

I'm gonna do you good because I've promised to do you good.

But I'm not just doing it because it's dutiful.

Because of my name, if I put my name on something, I do it.

So that is involved.

But there's a delight.

There's a delight.

I love doing you good.

I do it because I promised you, but it's a delight as well.

And that's what sort of touches on those four.

Well, today we're going to talk about God's faithfulness.

Woo! You better, if you have some seat belts, you might put them on because here we go.

The Hebrew word that is used for this idea, this fifth quality, is the word emit or emit.

It's a little word that is has huge meaning, and it is used throughout the Bible on a massive scale.

Uh it's the word that means faithful or faithfulness, imit.

And it can be, and in your Bibles, you will see it translated: trust, faith, belief, truth, stability, dependability, and steadfastness.

They all come from the root word imit.

And that's the root word, so then there's going to be verb forms, adjective forms, adverb forms, noun forms, and on and on.

It's used over 329 times, and it's the idea that you would trust or believe someone or something to be trustworthy, faithful, truthful, true, dependable, or steadfast.

You'll see the connection here.

It's emit is the word that became the word amen.

When we say amen, we're that's the the root, the root word of the word amen is the word emit.

And what you're saying is, when you say amen, if I said Jesus saves, and you and you said amen, what you're saying is that's true.

I grew up, I pretty much grew up in church, if you can say that.

And I always thought that it was sort of like to say uh let it be so.

Sort of a sanctified hope or a wish or a request.

But that's not what it means.

What it means is when you say amen to something, what you're saying is that is true.

It's not a hope, it's not a wish, it's a declaration of what you believe to be true.

Emmet describes God, it can describe God, it can describe a person, it can describe a thing that is true, straight, correct, dependable, reliable, trustworthy, faithful, or unshakable.

Emmet can describe, by example, um a board.

If you're a carpenter and you're building something, you want boards or lumber that are emit, that don't have curves in them.

You want straight boards, right?

When Moses was praying over the people of God while they were fighting in a battle, his hands became, I forgot the way you say it in Hebrew, but unimit.

They became unsteady.

They started shaking.

Remember that?

And then Aaron and Ur had to run beside him and lift him up.

And what they were doing is they were making Moses' hands imit, steady, straight, rather than drooping or shaking.

Um so you you see this idea.

Uh it's it describes anything that is true, straight, correct, dependable, reliable, trustworthy, faithful, or unshakable.

Uh let's see here.

It's very significant from a theological perspective that imit or faithfulness is the last of the five qualities.

Because it's not just revealing one of God's qualities, it's also declaring that the first four, God is immitt in his manifestation of the first four.

He is faithful and trustworthy to be compassionate and gracious and slow to anger and abounding in covenant love.

Um, God is immitt.

In Psalm 143, it says, Hear my prayers, O Lord, for you are emot and righteous.

And those of you that read the Bible with me, especially the Old Testament, one of the things that you'll discover is when you see God described as a rock, oh Yahweh is a rock, you almost always, not always, but almost always, you'll see the word emit right before it or right after it.

And you understand the the image.

If God is a rock, then he's stable, he's steady, he doesn't waver anymore.

We saw these huge thinking of that.

Oh, no, please, please, no, go ahead.

No, I was just we were in Glacier National Park for our vacation.

And I don't know if you've been there, but if you have, you know, you know what I'm talking about.

If you haven't, you should go.

It's great.

Uh but it's the tallest mountains I've ever seen.

Oh, yeah, well other than the mounts.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Anyway, and they're they're you know above the tree line, and so there's just these rock these huge rock formations, and they have built, of course, a a a pass from the east side to the west side, so you cars can drive.

But you're driving in the midst of these and under where they have blasted holes through the rocks, so you know, so this heavy rock, so that the cars can have a path and a tunnel and all those things.

And here they have blasted holes.

These rocks have stood the test of time.

They are so tall, they are so massive that they don't look real.

First time we got out of the car, it didn't.

It looked like something Hollywood had created, yeah.

But they're so stable that they can withstand all the blasts of man putting roads through and digging uh paths and that sort of thing.

They're immovable.

They're steady, they're unshakable.

And so when you see Yahweh described as a rock, especially in the Psalms, not always, but especially the Psalms, look for the word faithful or imit uh to be right before it or right after it.

It's a very comforting thought.

Yes, it is.

Is that just can't move that.

That's exactly right.

And that the changeable the changing ways of our universe do not affect the unchangeableness of Yahweh.

Deuteronomy 32 says, Yahweh is the rock.

His works are perfect, his ways are just and im it, without deceit and upright.

Psalm 31 says, Turn your ear and listen to me and rescue me, Yahweh.

Be my rock of protection, a fortress where I'll be safe, for you are my rock and my fortress.

For your name's sake, lead me out of danger, for I'll and let me find protection in you alone.

I imit my spirit into your hands.

I entrust, they wouldn't say intrust, we say introst.

A Hebrew person would say, I trust my spirit into your hands.

We would say, I entrust my spirit, I imit my spirit into your hands, for you alone are imit.

For you alone are trustworthy.

Um I don't know about you.

My wife would say that I have a just a little uh touch of um conspiry conspiracy theory type.

Yeah, no comment.

Yeah.

Um I I I'm always thinking there's something else going on.

We don't have the whole story.

They're just giving us enough information so that we don't revolt or fire them or kill them or whatever it is.

I've always got a little suspicion going on uh with with things and with people.

That that that's true, and she has mocked me for 48 years over it.

Yeah.

Um uh trusting people, at least for most of us, is hard.

Life has taught us painfully and tragically to be very careful about who we would trust.

But people change all the time.

You know, people change, people come, people go, people at one moment create this appearance, and in another moment, in another situation.

It's a different appearance.

It's a different, it's just it's just trusting people uh can be difficult.

And uh it can it's something that can take time, and the Bible would suggest that it should take time.

It's hard, it's a difficult process.

Uh, one of the key ideas, and this is what I want you to really hear me on today, hear us on today, one of the key ideas if you want to do a study on trust or faith or belief, which is all the same word in Hebrew, emit.

Okay, when you study that, um one of the things that you walk away with that I want us to walk away with today is this idea that people and things that are emit create in it in others.

Let me say it again.

People or things that are trustworthy, that are stable, that are dependable, create imit in others.

Let me say it differently.

Emit creates imit.

Let me explain that.

Truth creates belief.

We live in a world where we've got that bass acords.

We believe things hoping they'll become true.

The Bible never suggests that.

The Bible would tell us Emit creates imit.

Truth creates belief.

Faithfulness creates faith.

Trustworthiness creates trust.

I want you to hear me.

The Bible never suggests that trust, belief, and faith should ever be blind.

This idea of a leap of faith, that's not in the Bible.

There's no leaping.

You know that old saying, you know, the movie where there's no crying in baseball.

There's no leaping in the Bible.

I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, there might have been some dudes that were leaping around, but there's no leaping of faith.

That is not in the Bible.

There's no blind trust.

This idea that we should believe something in spite of a lack of evidence.

That is not in the Bible.

That is not Emmett.

In fact, Emmet would be the exact opposite.

Emmet would declare that trustworthiness creates trust.

Fact or truth should create belief, not the other way around.

The Bible never asks us to imit or trust that which lacks imit.

I talk to couples every day, and one of the things that comes up all the time is, if you love me, you should trust me.

That is the stupidest, asinine, infidel, moronic, foolish statement that is, if you love me, you should trust me.

No.

If you display trustworthiness, I should trust you.

I don't trust you, Esther.

Could you show me in my life where I'm not trustworthy?

No, I really can't find an untrustworthy quality.

Well, then you're responsible, then you should trust me.

Trustworthiness should produce trust.

I can love somebody and not trust you as far as I can throw you.

God loves everybody.

I wonder how many people God trust.

That's a big question.

Yeah, it is.

God never asks us to imit what lacks imit.

Imit what is imit, not what lacks imit.

Sit in a chair that you have sat in before and proved trustworthy.

Sit in a chair that I will sit in Chuck's chair.

If he got up, I would go over and sit in his chair.

You know why?

Because it's been proven trustworthy before.

Same within an airplane.

You know why most of us fly in an airplane?

Because we've been to the airport and watched airplanes take off and land.

We have seen that they are trustworthy.

Hence we trust them.

Same with a doctor.

Just because I put a sign on my door that says Dr.

Ray.

Brain surgery, heart surgery, any kind of surgery you want, just come on in.

No, no, no.

I'd like to know who you've, I'd like to see some satisfied customers.

It's very important we we use this word trust and faith and belief in the most unbiblical of ways.

And what I want you to hear today is God never asks us to trust that which lacks trustworthiness.

God asks us to trust that which is trustworthy.

The Bible encourages us to put our trust, our image, in what is faithful and trustworthy and straight.

Not in what is not.

We don't declare our faith to make things true.

We don't put our trust in things to make things trustworthy.

Do you understand that?

We don't depend on things to make them dependable.

That's not the way the Bible describes faith or belief or trust.

We are to put our faith, our trust, our belief in that which is faithful and trustworthy and true, not to create those qualities.

Very important to see that.

How much time we got?

Okay.

Let me let me um well let me let me do this real quick.

The Bible talks about faith, trust, and belief or emit all the time.

Major subject, major topic that runs through the Bible.

But there are three big times where this idea of emmet or trust are highlighted.

You know the very first time that that emet or trust is used in the Bible?

Would it be in the garden where good guess?

No.

Then then clearly, no, I don't know.

Genesis 15.

In Genesis 15, God comes to Abraham and he says, Abraham, I want you.

To imit me.

I want you to trust me.

And the Bible says that Abraham imited God.

He trusted God.

He believed in God.

He put his faith in God.

It's the very first time.

The second time we see it, major time, is God tells the Israelites, I want you to trust me.

I want you to imit me.

I have chap verses and chapters, but you could really say the whole book of Exodus.

My people, I want you to trust me.

Why?

Because you have seen my trustworthiness in your life.

When I sent Moses and he had this staff that he could turn into a snake and he could stick his hand in his robe and it would become leprous.

You saw the Red Sea split.

You saw water gush out of rocks and manna and quail.

You saw my provision.

You saw my protection.

You saw the cloud and the pillar of fire.

You saw me up on the mountain on Mount Sinai with Moses.

You have seen my trustworthiness, my faithfulness, my constancy with you.

Hence, I expect you, I ask you to trust me.

Third time that God uses this word imit is with David.

God comes to David in Genesis 17, but numerous times, and you see it throughout the Psalms.

God comes to David and says, David, I want you to imit me.

I want you to trust me.

And David says, the Bible says, that David put his trust in the Lord.

He put his faith in the Lord.

In all three of those situations, with Abraham, with the people of the Israelites in Exodus, and with David, God basically says this, and you'll find this interesting.

I want you to trust me for three reasons.

I want you to trust me.

I expect you to trust me for three reasons.

One is because of the way I have been trustworthy with all of your ancestors.

Think back on how I related to all of the people in your past.

Your great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents and all of your ancestors, because of the way I treated them and related, did I, was I imit with them?

Was I trustworthy with them?

Was I dependable with them?

Second reason he told Abraham, Israel, and David to imit him, to trust him, was he said, trust me because of the way I've dealt with you in the past?

Abraham, Israel, David, give me a time when I wasn't imit with you.

Tell me one time.

When have I not been faithful?

When have I not been dependable?

When have I not been trustworthy?

When have I related to you in a way that is less than that?

And you know the third reason God gives that they should imit him and we should too?

I want you to look at nature.

I want you to look at the world that I created, the universe that I created, and I want you to see, notice how it works.

Notice how it operates.

Notice the way it I made it.

And there's something about the world, there's something about the universe that if we will take the time to slow down and notice the world around us, one of the things we'll discover, wow, God is faithful.

Isn't it what he said to Job at the end of Jesus?

Exactly.

When Job was so upset, and everything had fallen apart now, no doubt.

And God said, Have you have you looked around?

Have you considered the stars?

Have you looked up?

You considered my creation?

Of course, we just came out of this incredible beauty of creation.

But, and I won't spend time here because we don't have the time, but if you've been around me very long, you know that looking at the stars and studying the stars, and especially that time we went to the saw the eclipse.

Um if you study that, the stars, and I'm not talking about like to see your future and stuff, I'm talking about the the orbits of the earth's earth and the stars and the planets, and the precision of that, the precision that we now know exactly up to 6,000 years in the future, really, I think into infinity, but I only looked 6,000 years ahead.

Um we can tell, they can tell when the next eclipse is gonna be and where you need to be to see it, and where you need to stand on latitude and longitude.

And they don't say this is our best guess.

They tell you within one second when the next eclipse is gonna start, how long it's gonna last, and when it's gonna end.

It's flower gas, and it really studying that has incre increased my faith because um the just the sheer the sheer mathematical accuracy of the universe, the the the solar systems in the universe.

If you doubt God is creator, study that just a little bit.

Yes.

It won't take us, it didn't take me very long to realize oh if I'm here 6,000 years from now with an iPhone, I will know where to stand exactly and at what precise moment to see the next eclipse.

The heavens declare the heavens declare in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory, the worth, the the amazement of God.

I think it's very significant.

Who was Genesis chapter one and two?

Who is it written to?

Who was Genesis 1 and 2 written to?

Who wrote it?

Number one.

Anybody know who wrote Genesis 1 and 2?

Moses.

So he probably wrote it for the people that he was leading.

And he probably wrote it to the people he was leading so that it would increase and strengthen their faith.

The very first thing that Moses or that God gave Moses to write to increase the faith of his people, he said, I want you to think about how I created the universe.

There's something there.

There's something there, there's a connection between our Emmet or our growth in Emmett, our ability to be stronger in Emmett, and our willingness to slow down and notice the creation of God.

All right.

We've got no time, but I want to I want to give you a couple of thoughts, just takeaways, that I want you to go home and ponder.

Okay?

First one is this.

The Bible declares without hesitation that God is in it.

That God is faithful.

That God is trustworthy.

It is also very important for us to realize that God notices our image.

It is a big deal to God that we are in it.

In fact, if you look at Genesis 15 with Abraham and you look at 1 Samuel 17 with David, why did God choose Abraham?

Why did God choose David?

I would suggest to you, and I wish we had more time to discuss this, but if you'll go back and look at those chapters, what you discover is that God noticed imit, faithfulness, trustworthiness, belief in the life of Abraham and in the life of David.

He noticed their imitation and said, You're somebody I can work with.

Have I got plans for you?

Now, yes, he chose them before the foundation of the world.

I'm not denying that, but it is very significant to smart people, to the people that I read, that God didn't just choose anyone to be the father of his kingdom, of his people.

He chose somebody who had been willing to leave his homeland and his family and to follow God to a new home and who was willing to trust God.

And God said, I've noticed you're in it.

I want to work with you.

I've got big plans for you.

And the exact same thing with David.

It was after David killed Goliath that God comes to him and says, David, I want you to be my next king.

I want you to be the true king of my people.

God notices our imit, our faith, our trustworthiness, our consistency, our steadfastness.

And when he sees that in our lives, does it have to be a mountain?

No.

I think it can just be a mustard seed.

But when he sees some in it, that's a big deal to God, and he notices it.

Very significant that when the New Testament, when you open the New Testament, very first verse, Matthew 1.1, what does it say?

God is beginning something incredibly big and new.

And it's happening from the line of Abraham and David.

What is Matthew saying in Matthew 1.1?

He's saying, these are your examples.

These are the two dudes that everything that's going to happen in the New Testament is flowing out of the work of God in the life of Abraham and David.

These are your examples.

Follow their examples.

Be like Abraham.

Be like David.

Have image in God.

And if you do, you're going to witness something and experience something that'll blow your mind and will actually change the world.

Something else that I think is very significant.

Go back to that story that I told you about where Moses, his hands became, they lacked imit and they began to shake and drop.

His imit began to decrease.

How was his imit corrected or renewed or restored?

Anybody?

Anybody?

The others.

Wait, no, no, no, no, no.

God sent a magical angel to raise Moses' hands.

No?

No, not silly.

God zapped Moses with a lightning bolt of power and it raised Moses' hands.

God sent two of Moses' brothers and they restored Moses' Emmet.

Emmet flourishes in Emmet.

Emmet flourishes in relationships.

If I want to strengthen my Emmet, I need to be around people who have Emmet.

Faith flourishes in an environment of loving relationships.

Moses' arms were strengthened and restored through his relationships with others.

You know what we do the exact opposite?

We have some kind of a crisis of faith.

We start doubting.

We're going through a hard time.

We don't see God at work.

And you know what we do?

We stay home.

I know how to strengthen my faith.

I know how to restore my image.

I know how to increase my belief.

I hide at home.

That's not a good plan.

The Bible would suggest that when I lack faith the most is when I ought to go and be around the people of God the most.

When I need imminent restoration, my ability to trust God isn't really going well right now.

I'm in a bad place.

I'm in a dark place.

What should I do?

I need to be around other people who are in a good place, who won't affirm God's unfaithfulness, but they will remind me of God's faithfulness.

Does that make sense?

Do you see what I'm saying there?

When we need faith, God says, get around people who have faith.

Emmet flourishes in relationships.

As we hear, that's one of the reasons it's so important for us when Christ leads us in songs.

And we stand and we begin to declare not only to God but to one another that God's mercy is greater than our sin.

When I've had a bad week and I've blown it, when I've been mean to Cher Lee, I've been a crummy husband and a crummy dad and a crummy pastor.

I need somebody to remind me that God's mercy and God's grace and God's forgiveness is greater than my sin.

When I'm terrified at this world that I'm living in because everything is going to hell in a handbasket, I need somebody to remind me God is in control.

And he's not upset, he's not rattled, he's not afraid.

And you are safe in him.

And you know who I'm?

I'm supposed to get that, not just from God's word.

Yes, of course.

But I'm supposed to get that from being around y'all.

The last thing I'll say, and we'll end.

I've got much, but we'll we've got to end.

Faith is not.

Y'all with me?

Hear me?

Faith doesn't equal salvation.

Salvation is a gift that God gives us.

Faith is something that is very fluid.

Faith is something that increases and decreases.

It's always incomplete.

Nobody can say, I can raise my hand and say, I am a saved person.

I have experienced the new birth.

I am adopted into God's family.

I am a child of God.

I can tell you that.

That is settled for me.

I cannot tell you that I have faith.

There are days when my faith is stronger.

But only Cheryl knows that there are days when my faith is not strong.

And I doubt and I question and I wonder.

And you do too.

That's because we never arrive.

We never arrive at complete faith until Jesus returns.

And then our faith will turn into sight.

And we won't.

That's why, what does it say that the greatest of these are faith, hope, and love?

Isn't that right in Genesis?

No.

1 Corinthians 13.

It says that the three things that remain are faith, hope, and love.

And the greatest of these is love.

Do you know why?

Because love is the only one of the three that never ends.

There'll be a day when we don't have to hope ever again.

We'll throw hope aside like it's a piece of toilet paper.

Just and we'll throw faith away.

Faith will no longer be needed.

But we'll always need love.

We'll always need love.

But faith, em it right now, is incomplete.

It's partial.

And one of the great things about it that I walked away from this study was just being reminded that God wants me and God wants you to have Emmett.

He wants us to trust him.

But he's very tender with us when we don't.

He's very tender with us.

Remember that dad?

What was it?

Oh, in Mark chapter 9, where he's got this demon-possessed son, and he says, Jesus, your disciples couldn't help me, and my son's in terrible situation.

Mark 9 · chapter mention

I need your help.

And Jesus says, I'll help you if you'll believe, if you'll have him it.

And the man says, Jesus, I do believe.

But then he caught himself and he goes, Please help my unbelief.

What was he saying?

He was saying, I have some faith, Jesus.

But man, there's a part of me that doesn't believe.

I'm struggling.

And you know what Jesus did?

He pointed his finger at that guy and said, Dead gum, you will.

When you get all your faith together, you come back and see me.

And he turned around and walked off.

Is that how that story went?

No.

The very Jesus, I do believe.

Help my unbelief.

And the very next verse says, Jesus healed that man's son.

It's okay.

It's okay that we have days when we are full of image, when we are full of faith, full of trust, because we are we are looking to the one that is trustworthy and dependable and steadfast like a rock in Glacier National Park.

And we walk out of our house and we defy.

I'm looking for you, devil.

Come on.

Where are you?

Come on.

And then there's days that we don't want to get out of bed.

We want to keep the covers over our head.

Because we're sure as the world we're going to fail and get beat up spiritually.

And we don't want to leave the house.

That's the journey that we're on.

Some good days and some days not so good.

But God's okay with that.

He's not mad at us.

He understands that.

And his faithfulness wins.

Do you understand that?

He asks us to be imit.

He asks us to trust him.

He asks us to be around people that will help our Emmett.

He asks us to stay in the Word of God where Emmett can grow and flourish as well.

He asks us to remember what He's done for us in the past.

He asks us to listen to the testimony of other people who have trusted God and found God to be imit.

He asks us to do those things.

And he's looking for Emmett in our lives.

But at the end of the day, what it says is where's that last verse that I had?

Yeah.

But at the end Of the day, this is what God's word says.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

Even when I'm not in it, even when I'm not faithful, even when I'm not full of faith, God is.

And his trustworthiness and his faithfulness will win out over the times in my life when I am not.

And that's true for you as well as me.

Anything you want to add, buddy Bear?

No, just that last story you told about the guy whose whose prayer was or whose request was with his demon possessed son.

I have I have belief, but help my unbelief.

What might happen in our lives as individuals and as a community of believers here, just this group.

Um if we prayed that prayer all day, every day.

Help my unbelief.

Help my unbelief.

You know, something happens or something bad happens on television or whatever.

And you're and and our our my first idea is often to get scared and throw up my hands.

Well, look at here, all is lost.

And if we could train ourselves through constant conversation with God to pray first, help my unbelief, what might that do?

Yes.

And to just be willing to own it and confess it to God, or confess it not like confess it like I'm ashamed, just God, today my faith is not strong.

I need your help.

And I need your help too.

I need your faithfulness because my faithfulness isn't really great today.

I need your trustworthiness because mine's not that great.

Would you help my unbelief?

And God says, that's all I'm waiting for is an invitation.

I'm just waiting for an invitation.

I'm here for you.

I will be faithful for you, and my faithfulness is going to win.

No matter what.

My faithfulness towards you will win.

No matter what.

I found that to be encouraging.

Okay.

Thank you.

Oh, Lord help us.

God is in it.

If you poke him, he bleeds in it.

God is trustworthy.

God is steadfast.

God is faithful.

Every day, every day.

When we're good and when we're bad, God is in it.

We're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper.

Begingale, would you come help me, please?

And John and Jennifer, would y'all come help me?

Please.

Y'all pray for John.

I'm hoping he can hold this tray better than he made coffee today.

Oh.

Every week we take bread and we take wine.

And we eat and we drink, and it is a tradition.

It's a sacrament.

It's something that we do when we gather together and we do it because the Lord asks us to.

But you know, it's something very significant related to our faith.

That when we gather together and we stand up and we walk up in front of our spiritual family, and we take bread and we take wine and we eat and we drink.

We're declaring our image.

We're declaring today I have faith in the body and the blood of Jesus.

Maybe my faith is small, maybe my faith is strong today.

That's not prideful to say that.

That's the goal.

That's what God wants for all of us is to have great faith, right?

I mean, that's what he makes that's what makes him smile.

But whether it's just barely there, or it's a mountain, when we eat and we drink, we're declaring, I have faith in God.

I have faith in God's trustworthiness.

I trust his trustworthiness.

I believe in his truthfulness.

That has impact on us and on each other.

I need to see that you believe.

Some days I need that less, but some days I need that more.

I need to see that somebody else believes.

I need to see displays of your faith.

And some days you might need to see the display of mine.

So that's one of the reasons that we eat and we drink and we celebrate the sacrifice of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if you have Emmett today, you have faith.

You have belief.

I didn't ask you how much, but if you believe that Jesus Christ came and lived and died and rose again, and is coming again to take you as his bride, that's your belief, and that is your hope.

I invite you to come and eat and drink.

We have covered uh deals over here if you'd like that.

And we also have open cups, and you can take some of this bread.

But you come and uh just declare your imit, your faith and belief, and your trust in in Yahweh.

Come.

I just wanna sit here at your feet.

I'm caught up in this holy moment, but never wanna leave I'm not here for blessings.

Jesus, you don't owe me anything more than anything that you can do.

I just want you I'm sorry when I just gone through the motions, I'm sorry when I just sing another song.

Take me back to where we started, I open up my heart to you And I'm sorry when I've come with my agenda, I'm sorry now forgot to come enough to take me back to where we started.

I open up my heart Cut up in I just wanna sit here, cut up in this only Never No, I'm not here for this, you don't know me anything more than anything that you can do.

I just want you nothing else nothing else nothing else nothing else will do I just want you nothing else nothing else nothing else will do I just want you nothing else Nothing else Nothing else will do I just want to do it.

Nothing else Nothing else Nothing else we'll do I just want you Nothing else Nothing else Nothing else we'll do Peter reminds us in his first chapter of his first epistle he says although you have not seen him you love him and even though you don't see him now you believe in him and you rejoice with indescribable and glorious joy for you are receiving the outcome of your faith and the salvation of your souls hear that you are receiving whether you feel like that today or not you are you are you are receiving the outcome of your faith the salvation of yourself How could Peter say that?

Not me somebody else's responsibility we are receiving no one is like you thank you for letting us be a part of your family.

We bless you.

Amen.

You're dismissed.

Well a man walked down like Galilee, so the holy book does say, and a great multitude was gathered there without a thing to eat or leave.

Up stepped a little boy with a bag.