Message - Trusting the Promise

We are wrapping up a series that we started three weeks ago called It Depends.

It depends.

We're looking at this interesting verse, Romans chapter 4, verse 16, simply says that is why it depends on faith.

Romans 4:16

It depends on faith.

And you might ask yourself the question, what is it?

What is it that depends on faith?

The answer is everything.

Everything really does depend on faith.

And the reality is all of us are people of faith.

Even if you're here or you're watching and you've never truly given your faith to God, you've never put your trust in him, you're not even sure if he exists.

There is something in this world that you put your faith in.

You're counting on it.

You're saying, I'm counting on this to get me through.

It might be a relationship that you have.

Might be your marriage.

Might be a relationship that you have with a parent, with a child.

You've got faith that that relationship is gonna get you through the hardest parts of life.

Maybe it's not a relationship, maybe it's maybe it's money.

You've got faith that as long as you have a certain amount in your bank account, you're gonna be fine, you're gonna be good, you're gonna make it through.

But you're trusting that.

You're banking on that.

It might be your career, it might be your talents, it might be, it might be the government or a specific party in the government, or a specific person in a party in the government.

But at the end of the day, everyone is living by faith.

All of us live by faith every single day.

It's just a question of what we put our faith in.

Your faith is what gets you through, but but it's only as powerful as what you put your faith in.

Better to have a small amount of faith in something powerful than to have a large amount of faith in something small.

That's by the way, why Jesus said that if you just had a mustard seed's worth of faith, which is a very small seed, a mustard seed's worth of faith in God, you could do anything.

Because God is so powerful, he's so amazing, you don't have to have a ton of faith to see things happen when you put your faith in God, because he's a big God.

So a little bit of faith in a big God can go a long way.

It depends on faith.

And if you need something to change in your life this morning, like something major, might I suggest that it's a faith thing?

That it really is a matter of faith.

If you're struggling with joy, you just can't find it.

You can't find joy.

You wake up in the morning and for some reason, no matter what's going on in your life, good or bad, you have no true joy.

That's probably connected to faith.

Maybe your faith is misplaced.

Or maybe your faith needs to grow, your faith in God.

Because your joy in life is directly connected to your faith.

When your faith is in God, and you're daily living, reminded of what he can do, what he can accomplish, what he can overcome, you have a joy that doesn't make sense.

Maybe it's hope.

Maybe you're struggling with cynicism this morning.

2020's been a year that'll make you cynical if you're not careful.

And you're looking at the world, and all you see is the negative.

All you see are the downfalls and the pitfalls, and it just feels like things are falling apart.

You don't have a lot of hope.

Hope is a faith thing.

Your hope in life is directly connected to your faith and what you put your faith in.

And so faith is the answer if you need more hope.

It's the answer if you need more joy, if you need more endurance, if you're struggling with just going on, there's some aspect of your life, and at the end of the day, you're like, I just don't think I can do this anymore.

I'm so close to quitting.

That's a faith thing.

Faith, it will develop endurance in your life, the ability to keep going when you don't think you can.

It's a faith thing.

It really does depend on faith.

And if so much in our lives depends on faith, we have to have a faith we can depend on.

We've got to have a faith that's strong enough that we can depend on it.

Our faith needs to grow.

And so for the last few weeks, we've been exploring what faith looks like and how it can grow in our lives.

We're going through this section of the New Testament.

It's called the book of Romans.

And uh the man who wrote it, Paul, wrote most of the New Testament, a large portion of the New Testament.

And the specific part of Romans we're in is talking all about faith.

And so, with that said, I want to jump into Romans chapter 4, verses 13 through 25.

Romans 4:13–25

This is what it says.

Clearly, God's promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God's law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith.

Now, if you haven't been here for the last few weeks, Abraham is kind of the central character that we've been looking at.

And he's a character that we find really, really far back in the story of the Bible.

Really one of the first people to truly live by faith.

And I encourage you to listen to the previous messages if you want on our mobile app, on Spotify, on any podcast app.

You can catch up on Abraham.

But he says that it was not, it was not Abraham's obedience to God that really made him special.

It was his faith.

His faith is what allowed him to receive God's promise.

He says, if God's promise is only for those who obey the law, well then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless.

For the law, and and the law is a phrase that Paul's using to really refer to all the rules in the Old Testament.

And so often we still see God in kind of a rules dynamic, but God's all about what you can and can't do.

It's so much more than that.

It's so much more than that.

But but that's how many people in Paul's day thought of God.

God says, do this, I should do it.

He says, Don't, I don't.

And it really is this tightrope of how well you can walk that line.

And he's saying, no, it's different.

If God's promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary, the promise is pointless, for the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it.

The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break.

So the promise is received by faith.

It is given as a free gift, and we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham's.

For Abraham is the father of all who believe, and that is what the scriptures mean when God told him, I have made you the father of many nations.

This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.

That's a beautiful idea.

If you feel like you've got nothing in the tank this morning, if you feel like you're running on fumes and you're out, guess what?

Our God creates new things out of nothing.

So you're good if your faith is in him.

That's powerful.

Even when there was no reason for hope.

Oh yeah, we can do it.

Go ahead.

We can finish that.

It's that awkward part of the morning where one person claps and then they're like, oh no, I maybe did something wrong.

No, it's all good.

Golf claps work too.

Oh man, even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping, believing that he would become the father of many nations, for God had said to him, That's how many descendants you will have.

And Abraham's faith did not weaken, even though at about a hundred years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead, and so was Sarah's womb.

Abraham never wavered in believing God's promise.

In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God.

He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.

I asked you the question this morning: Are you fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises?

And if the answer, by the way, is like no, if you're not one of the amen people, if you're like, I some maybe, that's okay.

Because God can get you there.

He was fully convinced that God was able to do whatever he promises.

And because of Abraham's faith, God counted him as righteous.

And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn't just for his benefit.

It was recorded for our benefit too, assuring us that God will also count us righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.

Now, that's a lot.

That's a lot, I know that.

But there's this one word that shows up six different times in that section.

It's not the word faith, and it's sort of the theme of what we're talking about today.

Anyone just want to want to throw out what that is if you noticed it?

Promises, thank you.

Promises.

And it's really cool because in the Greek language that this was originally written in, uh, the word that gets translated promise here, it's a Greek word that actually means promise.

That's what it means.

It's the same, the same thing.

That was supposed, gosh, that was supposed to be funny.

I'm like, I think as I'm getting older, this natural dad joke thing is beginning to happen to me.

Because, like five years ago, I would have said, I think I'm pretty funny.

Like I actually think, and let's be honest, church funny is not exactly like real-world funny.

There's a low bar in church of what funny is.

But as I get older, I'm just like drawn to dad jokes.

And I do this at home too, and I say it, and I'm like, huh?

And my kids look at me and just go, no, just stop.

Dad, just like, just stop.

So that's what happens, I guess.

Okay.

So this this Greek word means promise.

We see it six times here.

It's all about the promises of God.

If we're gonna be people that who have a faith that we can depend on, if we're gonna be people who really live by by faith and have a dependable faith, we have to become people who trust wholeheartedly in the promises of God.

We have to be people who trust wholeheartedly in the promises of God.

Now, here's where this gets tricky.

We have a hard time with promises as human beings.

We're really good at making promises, we're not not so great at keeping them.

That's sort of our nature.

It's kind of like me with books.

If you walked into my house and you saw my bookshelf, you would think that I'm like one of the most learned people you know.

You're like, wow, Justin, you've read a lot of books.

And I have.

I have read the first two to three chapters of more books than you could keep track of.

Like, I've started so many books, you guys.

Now, I will say a lot of books, pretty much everything you need in the first three chapters, but still, I haven't read all those.

I've just read a little bit of all of those.

I'm better at starting books than I am finishing books.

We're a lot better at making promises as people than we are at keeping them.

And so we have this sort of funny relationship with promises, and it actually affects our ability to trust in the promises of God.

We all know what it's like to experience a broken promise.

To commit to something and then and then have it fall apart.

Sometimes we don't even intend to keep our promises.

Sometimes we say things, we commit to doing things, we don't really think we're gonna do them.

We're just trying to placate someone and like push something back so we don't have to deal with it right now.

I have four young kids, and I'm gonna be honest, I do that sometimes.

There are times when I just, and it's just my human nature kicks in and I'm like, yeah, you know, we'll we'll we'll do that later.

And I'm just trying to get you to stop screaming right now.

But in my heart of hearts, am I actually fully 100% committed to doing what I said?

Maybe not.

And if you have young kids or you ever have, you know how that goes because they believe you're gonna do what you're gonna do.

Because you said.

I mean, those of you who have raised children, how many times have your kids said to you, you said?

You said, in fact, just last night, my oldest, we were on our way back from a basketball game, and we had some plans, and he said, What time are we going over to that other person's house?

And I said, I think we're leaving about six o'clock.

And so in his mind, he's like, Great, that gives me time to get home, and then I'm gonna hang out and do some stuff.

Well, I didn't know this, but in the time between uh the game and us getting home, Megan had changed those plans without my knowledge, and what was six was now five.

So we basically got into the house and she's like, We're leaving in five minutes.

And Liam looked at me and said, Liar.

And now he's grounded.

No, I'm just joking, he's not grounded.

Um almost.

But but like, but seriously, he was he was bothered because he looked at me, he was like, You said six.

And I was like, I know, but I I didn't know that your mom I it's not my fault, it's her fault.

I didn't do that, I didn't say that.

But you know, kids have this ability to hold you to what you say, and that's inconvenient as a parent.

Those of you who've raised kids, raise your hand.

Like, that's inconvenient that children hold you to what you say because sometimes you just say stuff.

That's how we are as people.

We have a funny relationship with promises.

We live in a world where we're saturated with promises.

Half the commercials on TV promise us something that maybe it's true, maybe not.

We've just gotten through a really interesting political season.

I guess we're still in the middle of a really interesting political season.

I think America's always just going to be a really interesting political season.

That's our future from now on.

And it's just promises.

And what's so funny about politics is when a politician makes a grand promise, do you even expect it to come true?

Like, how many of it, like we watch it and we don't we don't even expect it?

We're like, yeah, that's not gonna happen.

We don't even we don't even have that expectation because we've had those promises broken so many different times.

And sometimes we make promises that we fully intend to keep, but we just don't have the power to actually follow through.

When we made the promise, we meant to.

We wanted to, we planned to.

If you would have asked us the moment we made that promise, are you gonna fulfill this promise?

For sure, we would have been like, yes, 100%.

I'm gonna follow through on this, no doubt.

But then something happens in life and we realize we're not really in control and we don't actually have the power to follow through on the promise that we made.

Growing up, I uh I moved a lot, like a lot.

Kids would ask me if I was in the military, and I was not.

Well, they wouldn't ask me if I was in the military.

That'd have been weird if my dad was in the military.

And uh, and anytime they would say, Is your dad in the military?

I'd say, No, my mom is.

Why are you so sexist?

Why is it my dad that has to be in the military?

Can't no, that's not true.

Um, but they would ask me, Is your dad in the military?

I'd say, no, my dad just changed his jobs a lot.

He was really good at what he did, so he would get recruited in the business world, and that meant we moved a lot.

So I went to two elementary schools, not so bad, four middle schools in three years.

That was quite a bit, and then three high schools.

So I was the new kid a lot, and that that stunk in the in the time period that I grew up, because I was born in 1983, and there was this rule in the early to mid eighties that every five moms had to name their son Justin.

That was like a law in the 80s and early 90s.

So I moved so much that I never got to be Justin.

I was always Justin M, because my last name starts with an M.

Because there were already like two or three Justins in my class.

I'd be the new kid, hey, I'm Justin.

They're like, you're Justin M.

And that just sort of stung.

Like, you know what?

No, I'm not Justin M.

I'm Justin.

I'm older than that, Justin.

I got here first, so I should be Justin.

He should have his first letter of his last name be added.

I hated that.

We moved around a ton.

When I was in ninth grade, my dad promised me that we were done moving.

He's like, son, we're not gonna move again.

We lived in Memphis, Tennessee at the time.

And uh and I had sort of a niche where I lived, and I had some good friends, and I felt like I really belonged there, and I think he could tell that I enjoyed it, and obviously, knowing what middle school had been like, four middle schools and three years, he told me, son, we're done moving.

And my sophomore year, we moved to Georgia.

Um, and here's the thing I'm not I'm not complaining about that.

It worked out tremendously.

I would never have met Megan, I would never have really grown up my relationship with God to the point where I could do what I'm doing now, especially because many of the relationships that God gave me here in Georgia are what actually connected me to his hands in the first place.

So, you know, mom, dad, if you listen to this, watch this later.

I'm not mad.

You did a good thing.

I wasn't even really mad at my father when he told me we're done moving.

Because when it was time for us to move, it really wasn't in his control.

Sometimes we make promises that we cannot keep, no matter how much we want to.

A show of hands, real quick.

How many of us have made a promise that looking back we did not have the power to keep?

We've done that.

Those of you watching online, just hit the little thumbs up like button.

All right.

No wonder we have a hard time trusting promises.

We can't even keep half the promises we make.

So when it comes to people promises, we don't have a lot of faith.

And sometimes we take our experience with people promises and we think about God's promises in the same light, but they're different.

Because I need you to hear this.

There is no such thing as a promise that God cannot keep.

There is no such thing as a promise that God makes that he does not have the ability to keep.

Because he is in control.

There's no such thing as a promise that God makes just to placate someone, just to calm them down for the time being.

Because God doesn't need to placate anybody.

He's all powerful, he's God.

He never needs to look at us and be like, just stop.

Just just I need you to just calm down for a second.

You're stressing me out, so I'm just gonna promise you we're gonna do something or promise you that something's gonna happen just so you'll stop.

He doesn't do that.

When God makes us a promise, he intends to keep it.

And when God makes a promise, he has the power to keep it.

What we have to learn to do as people is recognize the promises that he's made to us and wholeheartedly trust them.

Now, I want to be honest, this gets a little dicey.

It gets a little bit dicey because when we open up the Bible, we start thumbing through its pages, we read a lot of promises.

God makes a ton of promises in the Bible.

A lot of those promises apply to all of us, but not all of those promises.

And we have a tendency sometimes to take certain promises out of context, and if we do that and we apply it to ourselves, but God never actually promised us that, we might we might get disillusioned in our faith.

And I actually think that, by the way, that's a huge problem in like American culture with Christianity, with our faith, is people who just become disillusioned because they were told something, and then they put their faith in God and it doesn't happen the way that someone said that it would, and we're like, okay, is this even real?

And the truth is, yes, it is real, but sometimes we we take things out of context or we expect things from God that he never said he would do.

Here's a great example.

If you read the story of Abraham, Abraham promised, or God rather promised Abraham a son.

He said, I'm gonna give you a son.

My uh my wife's grandfather had six daughters, no sons.

Six daughters and no sons.

And you know what?

I uh I have one daughter, and I love talking about my daughter Lily.

She's incredible, she's amazing.

It's funny, as a guy, I don't really cry that much.

Any other guys like that where you have a really hard time tearing up and crying like your tear ducks died at some point when you were like 18?

Just me, cool.

I'm emotionally broken, you're all emotionally healthy, awesome.

I feel great about myself.

I'm not gonna cry about it because I don't know how.

So it's fine, okay?

It's fine.

I really, I really do struggle to cry.

Like, even in moments where I should, it would be appropriate right now for me to cry so that people feel like you're an empathetic human being who relates to me, and I'm like, I'm sorry.

Um there are two things that make me cry.

That's it.

And by cry, by the way, I do mean in a very masculine way, okay?

Like a contained, in control, I allow one tear to drop.

I catch it before it hits my lip.

That kind of cry.

Um movies, like, movies that don't even always make sense.

We watched Muppet Christmas Carol with my children two nights ago.

And when little frog tiny Tim bites it, I'm like, I'm tearing up.

I'm like holding one of my kids, being like, I got a little tiny Tim here.

You know what I mean?

Like, I I tear up.

Give me like a cartoon movie.

And just anything related to my daughter.

And so my daughter had uh a dance recital last week, and it was the cutest thing.

And guys, the self-control that I'm practicing not to show you videos of it right now, it's incredible.

You should be so impressed.

You will one day, I promise you.

But I'm gonna make like a compilation video, and that's when it's gonna be awesome.

It'll happen.

But like, and her dance recital, one of the songs was really like lovely and lyrical and soft, and I'm like, I'm like a wreck, you know, I got tears coming down.

But then the next song was this hip-hop dance that was just the funniest thing in the world.

The music is upbeat, it's like they're just jumping around, and you look at me, and I'm like, it's so beautiful.

Like it's just, you know, I'm sitting there like tearing up because it's my daughter.

And I can't imagine, I can't imagine.

That's one girl what that does to me.

I can't imagine what my my wife's grandfather experienced having six daughters.

Now he could have opened up the story of Abraham and said, God, a son.

I'm gonna, we're gonna keep trying.

We're gonna go for one more.

But then he would have had seven daughters.

Okay?

And that's a lot of weddings to plan.

That's a lot.

And the truth is, God never promised him a son.

He promised Abraham a son.

Never promised him one.

And in sometimes when we when we study scripture and we're we're irresponsible with it, and I really mean that.

I believe all of Scripture is powerful and profound and practical and true.

All of it is.

But we have to interpret it responsibly, otherwise we become disillusioned.

And unfortunately, we live in a world right now where there's a lot of people who teach on scripture that are very, very comfortable with being really irresponsible in what they tell you that it says.

And what they often do is they'll pull out promises that God never actually makes to all of us.

Maybe he made it to that specific person at that time, and they'll say, Yeah, that's your promise.

And it it we become disillusioned.

We take things out of context.

Here's a great example of that.

Jeremiah 29, 11.

Awesome verse, by the way.

If you love this verse, you should.

It's amazing, it's powerful.

Here's what it says it says, For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

The plans are for good and not for disaster to give you a future and a hope.

You're probably familiar with that scripture if you've been in church for the last 10 years.

The context of that, though, is really interesting.

The people of Israel, who were God's people at that time, they've been conquered.

And many of them have actually been exiled out of their homeland.

And here's what God is actually saying if you read it in context.

He's saying, You're gonna be exiled for 70 years.

But don't worry.

For I know the plans I have for you.

They're plans for good, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

He's literally saying 70 years from now, it's gonna be great.

Now that's a little bit different than the way that verse is typically interpreted.

Like we typically pull that out and be like, God's gonna do something for me today, and he very well might.

But that specific scripture, that's not promising that.

It's important that we understand that.

Now, when it comes to that sort of, some of you might be like, This is kind of a wet blanket on my faith.

Like you're telling me that the promises of God don't apply to me.

No, no, no, no.

I'm just saying we have to be careful.

And what we have to understand when we read scripture and we see promises is to understand the principle behind the promise.

There's a principle behind every promise in Scripture.

So you know what?

The Jeremiah 29, 11 may not mean that today is gonna go great for me, but it tells me that God is for me, that he sees me, that he recognizes my struggle, that he recognizes my pain when I'm in pain, and that he's always planning something, even way down the road for my benefit and for the benefit of the people who love him.

There's principles behind the promise.

So even when we read a promise that doesn't specifically apply to us, we can know that there's a principle behind that that does, because our God is the same God.

The God who promised Abraham a son is the same God who makes promises to us.

And the better we know him and his character, we understand some of those principles about who he is, the more faith we can have.

So we've got to challenge ourselves to know the principles behind the promises.

But that doesn't mean that there aren't specific promises that do apply to us.

In fact, I want to focus on one of them as we as we wrap up this morning.

One specific promise that you can trust, you can take it to the bank, you can put all the faith you have in this promise.

It will not let you down.

We actually find it in Matthew chapter 1, verse 23.

Matthew 1:23

Look, the virgin will conceive a child, she'll give birth to a son, and we'll call him Emmanuel, which means God is with us.

Emmanuel is one of the many different names and titles that we call Jesus.

Emmanuel, the Prince of Peace, the Lamb, King of Kings, there's a lot of them.

But that word Emmanuel means God is with us.

Ocama come manual is probably my favorite Christmas song.

And if you come to the light show that's going on right now, uh there's like an instrumental version of Ocama come emanal at the very end that's awesome.

And shout out real quick to Matt Simmons, who completely and totally wrote that, arranged that, recorded all the instruments for that, played guitar for that.

Really well done, Matt.

He's super talented.

And then on the Christmas light show that starts this Friday, a whole new show.

And uh, by the way, we learned last night that if it rains a lot, lights are a little finicky, so you know, pick a dry day.

But uh, but that new light show that starts on Friday, that's kind of like the official Christmas light show.

We've got another version of Oh Come A Come Emmanuel in it.

I love that song.

That's not why it's there.

It's not like I picked the songs, but but that's a it's a beautiful song because that name Emmanuel means God is with us.

And please hear me when I say this.

That is a promise that God has made to you.

That no matter what is happening in your life, no matter what's going on around you, in your personal life, in our culture, you name it, God is there.

God is with you.

He's with you.

It's amazing how much life is about the people you're with, isn't it?

It's amazing, it's amazing how how much joy you have in life is directly related to who you're with.

Like all of us have probably had moments where we had to spend some time with someone that drove us crazy.

And you you might be in the most incredible place, you could be vacationing in the most beautiful place in the world, eating the best food in the world, having the time of your life you should be anyway.

But if you're with someone that drives you insane, it's like it's really hard to enjoy the rest.

But on the flip side, you might be going through something really hard, but if you're with the right person, it's good.

Life really is so much about who you're with, and God makes us a promise.

He says, I'll be with you.

This is a promise that we find all throughout scripture.

All throughout scripture.

In fact, I want to read some scriptures to you just so that you see this is a thread that goes through everything.

If you ask the question, is this really for me?

The answer is yes.

Deuteronomy 31, 6.

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid or terrified because of them.

And this is talking about the enemies that these people had.

For the Lord your God goes with you.

He will never leave you nor forsake you.

I need us to hear this.

Some of us in life have experienced what it's like when people leave us and forsake us.

We've experienced what it's like, maybe even in childhood, we've experienced what happens when someone who should be there isn't there.

It's really hard.

And I don't care how strong you are, how intelligent you are, if you experience abandonment, whether you're 10, 30, 50, it's a tough one to shake.

God will never abandon you.

God will never leave you.

He will never forsake you.

There's never gonna be a day where he looks at you and says, you know what?

I just can't anymore.

It's a promise that he makes.

He will never leave you, he will never forsake you.

That's powerful.

All right, let's keep going.

You might say to yourself, well, hey, that was for the people of Israel.

Does this apply to me?

Let's look at another thing.

Joshua chapter 1, verse 9.

Joshua 1:9

This is my command: be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Now, this is a promise not just made to a nation called Israel, it's a promise made to a man named Joshua.

And God says, I will be with you wherever you go.

And so we did a baby dedication this morning for a little Joshua who's sitting right here.

Hey Joshua, I know you don't understand a word that I'm saying, but God is gonna be with you wherever you go.

And all of you in the room named Joshua, great news.

God's gonna be with you wherever you go.

And all of you in the room who are not named Joshua, good news.

God is gonna be with you wherever you go, because this is a promise he makes all throughout scripture.

This is for all of us.

God is with you.

Let's keep going.

Matthew chapter 8, verse 20.

Matthew 8:20

This is Jesus right before he ascends to heaven, right after he's been risen.

Uh, this is when he gives what's called the Great Commission.

He says, Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I've given you.

And be sure of this.

I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

So God is with us always, not some of the time, not on Sundays, not when we're in church.

And he's not with us for a little while.

He's not with us to get us through a season of life, he's with us always, even till the end of the age, even until our time is done on this earth.

He's with you.

That's a promise that he's made.

We can keep reading.

Psalm 23:4.

Psalms 23:4

Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid.

Why?

Because God is close beside me, because God is with me.

He's with you.

If you're going through something really hard right now, I know it's hard, I know it's difficult, but God is there.

He is with you.

It's a promise that he makes.

We can keep going.

Isaiah 41, 10.

Don't be afraid, for I'm with you.

If you're afraid right now, if you're scared, if you're worried about anything, if you have anxiety about anything, God is with you.

He's with you, whether you feel it or not.

He's made a promise, he keeps it, he is with you.

Hebrews 13, 5 says, Don't love money.

Be satisfied with what you have, for God has said, I will never fail you, I'll never abandon you.

Even if the stuff in this world doesn't make the, it doesn't fulfill the promises that it has.

If your career isn't going the way you want it to be, you don't have as much money as you need to have to do whatever you feel like you need to do in life.

Guess what?

Good news.

God is with you.

He's with you for better, for worse, for richer or for poorer.

1 Corinthians 3 16.

Don't you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?

Now, this is when it gets really cool.

How do you know that God is with you everywhere you go?

Because He's in you.

When you put your faith in Jesus, God's Spirit becomes part of you.

And I know for some of us that's like, really?

That's kind of a weird thing to believe.

How do I know that's true?

I don't feel his spirit inside of me.

We have to be really careful as Jesus followers not to boil down God's presence into a feeling, into an emotion.

Sometimes it feels amazing, sometimes it feels like this, just normal.

Sometimes when I give a message, I literally feel God's presence in a way that I can, I can like, it's like it's there.

I I know it.

And it's like, yes, he's with me and he's speaking, and this is great.

And I'm hearing from him, and other times I'm giving a message, and I'm like, this just feels like every day of my life.

Because it's not a feeling.

God is not an emotion.

He's real, he's with you.

He promises that if you put your faith in him, his spirit becomes part of you.

And that spirit is alive, and that spirit is active, and it begins to make you into the person that you're meant to be.

God lives in you, you're his temple.

John 14, 16 through 17, this is Jesus, and we'll wrap up with this so worship team, you guys can make your way out.

He says, I'll ask the Father, and He'll give you another advocate.

We'll never leave you.

He's the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth.

The world cannot receive him because it isn't looking for him and it doesn't recognize him.

But you know him because he lives with you now and later will be in you.

Jesus, right here, is talking to his disciples.

And he's basically telling them, I'm gonna leave.

But don't worry.

Because I'm gonna ask God the Father and He's gonna send you someone else, an advocate.

How cool is it, by the way, that you have an advocate.

That the Holy Spirit is not your accuser, but your advocate.

Constantly affirming who you are.

He says, I'm gonna give you an advocate.

And he's never gonna leave you.

And he tells his disciples, look, you know, the world doesn't recognize him because it's not looking for him, but you've experienced what the spirit can do because it's been around you, meaning that like Jesus was there filled with the Spirit.

They were they were watching that happen in their presence.

He said, But later the Spirit will be in you.

And that happened for the believers shortly after Jesus went back to heaven, and that happens for all of us.

When we put our faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit becomes part of us.

That's something that I have to remember and believe.

That's something I have to ask God to give me faith to believe, that God's Spirit is still working.

Because sometimes I believe, and I want you to hear this, I believe that I'm greater than God.

What I mean is that I believe that my mistakes can overpower God's goodness.

And if that's true, that means I'm greater than God.

Sometimes I believe that my failures are somehow gonna triumph over God's success.

And if that's true, that means I'm greater than God.

Sometimes I believe that my shortcomings are gonna short circuit what God is doing in my life.

Like, oh God, you have big things planned for me, but you know, it's it's probably not gonna happen because of all my stuff.

No, no, no, I'm not greater than God, and I'm not greater than his spirit, and his spirit is alive and at work within me, and his spirit is alive and at work within you.

You have to have faith in that, you have to believe that, that God is working in you right now and he's never gonna stop.

Because he doesn't quit, he fulfills his promises.

That's who our God is.

He's the God who makes his promises and keeps them.

And so we're gonna we're gonna wrap up and pray, but I I want to encourage you this morning.

I was praying a lot this morning really early, and uh I just realized I said really early, probably out of insecurity, to make you feel impressed by how early I got up this morning.

Because of how spiritual I am as your pastor.

Um I do get up early on Sundays.

I struggle most days, but Sundays I get up early.

And I was praying, and I was really thinking about who's gonna be here today.

And it's kind of a weird time to be a pastor because I know a lot of you, but I'm way better at recognizing you without masks on, and I'm so excited when the masks are gonna be able to go away.

I think that's soon, but but I'm excited to see all of your faces, not just half of your faces.

But I'm praying about who's here.

Like, God, what do we need?

And and the one thing that he kept reminding me is that faith is what we're we're building our lives on.

It really does depend on faith.

That's why this series is called It Depends, that there will be people here this morning who, like I said earlier, don't have joy.

It's like you're out of joy, it's gone.

And God wants you to know that that when you live with him, you have joy.

So remember this morning that he's with you, that he's with you.

So you can be excited because he's with you.

I remember what it was like in some of the earliest days of my relationship with Megan when we were apart.

We had a long-distance relationship for a year, and and she was here in Georgia.

I was in Kansas City at college, and when she would fly up to visit me, or I would fly to visit her, and we would see each other in the airport, it was like instant joy.

Because I was with her.

God is with you.

You gotta you gotta believe that he's with you and he's glad to be with you.

So if you're struggling with joy, you need to remember that God has promised to be with you.

You need to spend time with him.

Remember that he's with you.

The good times and the bad, he's there because he's in you.

This morning, God was reminding me that there's people in the room today that are close to quitting.

And I want you guys to hear this.

Don't quit.

If you're running out of steam, maybe it's in your marriage, and you're like, I just I can't anymore.

I just can't.

I'm out.

Don't quit.

Especially if there's not some line that's been crossed that can't be uncrossed.

But if you're just out, you're just you're out of patience, you don't feel like you're in love anymore, whatever that is, don't quit.

Endure.

Because God's with you, He's there, He'll give you the strength that you need.

It's amazing how many how many people quit right before they experience victory.

It's amazing how many people give up right before they're on the precipice of some major breakthrough.

Don't quit.

Don't give up.

You're not alone, God's with you.

Whatever you're going through.

You know, some of you guys, students, your college age, and this has been a weird year to be in college, and you're like, I don't think this is for me, I'm just gonna quit.

You know, God's telling you to move on and do something else, that's fine.

Obey him, but don't quit because it's hard.

Don't quit.

Have faith, God's with you.

Keep going.

Whatever you're going through this morning, God God's here.

He's there.

Like he's here right now, and I hope you feel his presence.

It's been sort of weird this whole this whole year.

Like church has felt different because it's so different.

We're sitting far apart.

But the Holy Spirit doesn't social distance, he doesn't.

There's no is there, he's in you.

When you leave this place, the Holy Spirit's with you, goes wherever you go.

Because you're the temple that he's decided to live in.

So be encouraged, have faith, because he is with you, always, always with you.

If you don't know him, if you've never given your life to Jesus, he's awesome.

Anyone else agree?

Anyone had that experience?

Like, give your life to him, he's the best, he's great, he's awesome, he's so good.

I mess up every single day, often in the areas that I swear I'm not gonna mess up.

And every day I say to myself, I make promises to myself, today I'm going to this.

And then half the time, especially like with my diet.

Like today I'm gonna eat right, 10:30 a.m.

Tomorrow I will do that.

I will start.

You know, today I'm not gonna lose my cool.

And then, like, four kids in a house, eight hours, like, ah, I break my own promises.

God never breaks his.

Promises to be with me.

He promises to be with you.

Believe it and trust it.

It depends on faith.

You have to have a faith you can depend on.

And living by faith means trusting wholeheartedly in the promises of God.

He's not like us.

He doesn't make promises he can't keep, he doesn't make promises that he doesn't have the power to keep.

He keeps every promise.

Believe it.

Open up his word, read it, and look for the promises that he makes you.

Ask him this morning.

If you don't know what he's promised you, I encourage you to have a conversation with him today.

Say, God, what have you promised me?

What do you have for me?

And then listen, see what he says.

But no matter what, he promises to be with you.

And if you've never given him your life, that can happen right now in an instant.

You just pray a prayer in your heart.

Say, God, I believe.

I'm putting my faith in you, I need you, and he's there.

And when that happens, by the way, sign up to get baptized.

That's the first step that you take.

That's the first step of obedience.

Do that.

And we'd love to share that moment with you.

You can do that in the main lobby, you can do it online wherever you want to find it, but take that step because he's with you.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you so much for this morning.

Lord, thank you so much for everybody who's here.

Thank you for the love that you have for us.

Thank you for the goodness that you have, Lord.

Thank you that we can trust your promises, because sometimes we can't trust our own promises, let alone the promises of other people, Lord.

But I pray this morning that you would help us trust your promises.

That you would help us recognize what you have said is true.

Believe it and hold on to it.

Lord, that we would hold on to it more tightly than we hold on to anything.

I pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.