-Transcript-
00:34 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:39 Welcome to the cafe today. Hey, today we are talking about one of God’s many wonderful traits, God’s faithfulness. Hear this series of messages.
00:50 We’ve been speaking on Jeremiah the weeping prophet and how he was lamenting for the Israelites turning their backs to the ways of God and the judgment that was coming for that. The great and fearful judgment that was coming and arriving during his time. And we’re in Lamentations 3:22-24.
01:10 What does it mean to lament? It’s to show great grief and frustration over a situation. Oftentimes we’re lamenting a big failure or a death or something like this. And here Jeremiah is looking at the failure of the Israelites and the death of them as a people as as he had known it.
01:29 Amen. And we see here in verse 22, it’s of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning.
01:39 Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore I will hope in him.
01:46 And today specifically we’re going to focus on God’s faithfulness. You know, God’s faithfulness is incredible. His fidelity to us is amazing.
01:57 He makes promises of that in the Scripture.2 Timothy 2: 13. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.
02:11 We see that God cannot deny himself. God is not a liar. God cannot change.
02:18 Amen. We change all the time, do we not? I spent some time yesterday evening with our congregation talking about God’s faithfulness, and we looked at the idea that we could say something. You know, I could say I am always a faithful friend.
02:36 You know, if someone asked me to describe the traits of who I am, somewhere in there I’d be like, oh, I’m loyal, right? And I believe that I try to be loyal, sometimes maybe to a fault. But, capital B but, somebody’s going to be real mean to me. I don’t want to be around them.
02:56 Amen. I don’t think you want to be around them. You imagine working with somebody and they always physically would walk and step on your toes.
03:04 You’d try to stay away from that person. Verbally, often it’s the same way. People that are mean or nasty, do we want to be around them? No, we don’t want to be around them.
03:12 We want to be apart from them. Or, someone that we love, we care about, we trust, and then they breach that trust. And you know, the Bible tells us to forgive them, and we go ahead and we forgive them.
03:22 We’re not going to hold a grudge. But, are we going to go surround ourselves with them? Again, now biblically, if they don’t repent, as I understand it, we need to keep our distance. Because if they don’t repent, then they have not learned.
03:34 Amen. And so, there’s a difference between, you know, forgiveness and putting ourselves in toxic situations if that individual has not repented and gotten right with God. And again, God helped me to say that correctly.
03:47 But there are people I know today that I am not around because, as far as I know, they would never repent. They tell you they never repented. They tell you that they’re perfectly in the right, etc, etc.
03:59 We all deal with these things. I remember watching a documentary about a notable Christian who had a tremendous testimony. And he was kind of very old, up in his 80s and 90s, I think it was, I guess probably his 90s.
04:14 He was talking about how he still had enemies. And I kind of laughed because it’s a true portrait of actual life where, you know what? I mean, we’re all human. And I say all this because when we get into a situation where our heart’s broken by someone we love, there’s a breach of trust, or it’s someone we work with, or a peer, a student, as in we’re in school and there’s a fellow student, whatever it is, whatever the case may be, maybe it’s someone at church.
04:39 You know, if you’ve been hurt by somebody, if you’ve been wronged by somebody, then you’re, in your mind, you’re going to get away from that person, right? You’re going to want nothing to do with them. And again, you may actually forgive them. But if they have not repented, if they’ve not gotten right with God, you know, you kind of almost be crazy to go back around them so you can get hurt again.
04:57 Amen. And God teaches us to, you know, turn the other cheek, to pray for our enemies, all of these things. But we also learn about repentance in the Bible, and we’ll understand that people really need to seek the Lord as well.
05:15 Amen. We can’t force them to do that. But what does God do in the context of faithfulness? He forgives even his worst enemies.
05:25 And He loves them, and He’s faithful and steadfast to forgive them. I mean, think about that. How mind-blowing is that? You know, again, you think of the verse in Romans, that God commended His love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
05:43 While we were yet sinners. Now think of somebody that breached your trust, that hurt your feelings, that was nasty to you. Do you want to buy him dinner? Do you want to spend a day with him? Do you want to bless them? Well, probably not naturally, you don’t.
05:55 Not in the flesh. Okay, well, how about this? Take your most beloved son, and you want that son to give their life for them. Now, you wouldn’t.
06:05 You mean to be crazy, right? The Bible talks about the idea that it’s extraordinary to die for somebody that you love, and nonetheless, someone that was your enemy. But that’s what God did. And so we see the scope of God’s love in sending Christ to die for us in while we were yet sinners, Amen? And the scope of God’s love that we walk around this earth with a, literally like a thumb in the eye at God, rebelling, being puffed up, acting nasty towards God, acting nasty towards the ways of God.
06:37 You can see this every day in the culture. People are furious and rebellious. And what does God do? He says, well, look, you know, if you’re, if you’re ready to get right with me, I’m ready to accept you.
06:48 I’m knocking on the door. You know, if you answer, I’m going to come in. Amen.
06:53 I’m here. And I, you know, I, in my word, it says, I desire all to be saved, all to come to repentance. It’s amazing what God does in his steadfast love for his people.
07:06 Even in today, we pray the Lord will return soon. I pray this almost daily, a measured prayer that we can save as many as we can. But oh, Lord, please come soon because it’s difficult serving the Lord.
07:23 Anyone that lives in the service of the Lord knows it. I saw a brother recently online and was trying to do a church. And I just was praying for him because I know how hard that can be planting a little church nearby.
07:35 And I know the struggles we’ve been through as a little church. And I know just how challenging it can be. And I’m praying the Lord shows up for that, that man, like God’s shown up for me.
07:44 And I know that he will because God is faithful. And we ask God to return. But God’s mercy has kept him from returning because he’s giving people time to come to him to say, Lord, I need a Savior, Lord, I’m a sinner, and I need a Savior.
08:00 Lord, please save me. I believe Jesus Christ died for me on the cross at Calvary, shed His blood for me. And when he was risen again, that’s me being again with Him now because I believe on Him.
08:13 I’m praying, Lord, that you save me today. In Jesus Christ, Holy Name, Amen. God is waiting patiently for that.
08:21 That’s God’s faithfulness. People want to know where the judgment is. If God is real, why hasn’t he judged this wicked earth that goes against his word so often? Faithfulness, love, long suffering, the fruits of the Spirit, Amen.
08:38 It’s God. He’s got virtue. He’s got praise.
08:42 He’s lovely, pure. He’s of a good report. He’s just.
08:44 He’s honest. He’s true. And He is a level of love.
08:48 And this is what I’ve tried to do here today. I don’t know how successful I’ve been, but He’s a level of love so much higher than ours that we can even comprehend. Because we can all talk a good game and say, well, we’re forgiving.
08:58 And if we have the chance, we’re going to openly forgive anybody that’s ever done anything wrong to us. And we’re not going to hold a grudge. And we’re so godly.
09:06 But at the end of the day, there’s always going to be those things that just is so hard to do, no matter where you are in life or who you are. Cora Ten Boom, I saw an interview with her. She was tortured and met her torturer.
09:26 And she’s a big, big name, Saint of God. It was just incredible testimony and great faith. And she met her torturer at a book signing, I think it was.
09:34 And he asked for her forgiveness. And it was the hardest thing that she ever had to do to forgive him. And every instinct in her didn’t want to forgive him.
09:43 Well, she is being honest, Amen. And that really convicted me and kind of put me in my place. Because I realized, wow, you know, if this woman struggled with it, her great testimony, how much more so does an everyday Joe like me struggle with these things.
09:56 And I do, you know, I do. I wear Christian t shirts. But I don’t wear one that says I’m the pastor, because I’d be afraid to wear that because I’m not always perfect.
10:05 Amen. I’m human, like, like, like anybody else. And we struggle from time to time with this.
10:14 And what I think part of that struggle puts into context is just how weak we are and just how mighty He is. And just how measured our love can be and just how incredible his love is. And we see the depths of his love and the depths of his faithfulness in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us is so beautiful.
10:31 And you know, we understand that God’s faithfulness. We see it here in John 16. Towards the end here is Jesus speaking, behold, the hour cometh Yang is now come that you shall be scattered every man to his own and shall leave me alone.
10:53 And yet I am not alone becausethe Father is with me. These things I’ve spoken unto you that in me you might have peace in the world, you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I haveovercome the world. And we see here, as Jesus was preparing for his passion for the crucifixion, as we see here, God being with Jesus when no one else was.
11:14 Now Jesus is telling us here through the scriptures, that he is with us when no one else is with us, Amen, and that He has overcome the world. And so we fear so much in the world, and we struggle so much with the world, we wrestle against these principalities in high places, and these snares and problems that we have day in and day out. But we have Jesus with us, and He’s already overcome the world.
11:38 So this faithful love that we have is not from some well meaning person or spirit, but from the living God and this faithful love that we have has the power that has overcome the world and this faithful love that we have will never leave us nor forsake us. So therefore start connecting the dots, Amen. If God loves us so much that he’s faithful, even when we are sinners, we’re worms, Amen, and He saves us, Amen, and now we are His.
12:09 And as the world is just descending into chaos, as that time was with Christ when the disciples were to be scattered, and he was going to be falsely accused and eventually crucified, as that happens, Amen, God is with Him. As we go through these turmoils, these tribulations, all these problems, Jesus is with us. And so His faithfulness is shown throughout the Bible, but is also very present in our lives here today.
12:35 And so where does that leave you? That should leave you in a state of thanksgiving. We want to thank God for His mercy and for his love and for His grace. We want to thank God that His love is not like our love.
12:48 We want to thank God that his ways are so much higher than our ways. We want to thank God that despite the sin in our lives, despite the afflictions, that He’s given us a path to salvation. And if you’ve been saved, you want to thank God for saving you.
13:03 Because now your name’s written down in the Lamb’s book of life, never to be blotted out or erased. You’re going to spend eternity with Him and it is the best place to be. Paul mentioned He’d much rather, I believe, be up there with God than down here, but He knew that He had a job to do.
13:16 And so Paul had seen heaven some years prior. And so we understand that heaven is a real place, that heaven is an incredible place, and that heaven is the home of the saved person, the person that believes on Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And so we have this beautiful picture of a God that will not leave us nor forsake us, and that will stay so close to us.
13:38 And when we see this trait, we should thank God for His faithfulness in our lives. We should thank Him, and we should seek His way in our lives, saying, okay, God, you are faithful, and you’re just, and you’re loving. Now what would you have me to do? Right? What would you have me to do? Pray to God, seek His will, because now that you have this information, oh, what the Lord can do with you and through you if you will just yield yourself to Him and seek His will for your life.
14:03 I thank you so much for listening. Take care. God bless and Amen.