D - What Gives you Hope Pt. 3
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Today is a brand new memory verse for all of us! I hope you had a good time trying to learn last months memory verse I’m sure you guys probably know it:
18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
This month we have a new one I want to introduce to everyone:
24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
I chose this memory verse because we have been talking about hope and what our hope is in. I want to ask you guys a question:
Have you ever gotten good news before?
What kind of news was it? I remember when Steph and I had just gotten married we had to pay our taxes. And the place I was working at had not taken any of my social security or any income taxes out of my paycheck. I was also not aware of a lot of those things and how they worked.
So being broke, we were worried about how much we were going to have to pay. And it was quite a bit of money. I didn’t know how we were going to pay for it.
Well, I don’t know if any of the adults remember back in 2020 a lot of people recieved some money from the government to help out with expenses because Covid had caused a lot of people to leave work for a period of time. That check was called a stimulus check.
well, I never recieved one. So in the midst of not receiving any help, I also had to pay a lot back in taxes and it was awful. Well, the good news is that we got a message from the IRS saying that since I had never recieved my stimulus check, that all of that money from the stimulus check was going to go towards the taxes that I owed.
That was some solid news. And truth be told, if I had gotten the stimulus check, I probably would have used it on something OTHER than paying my taxes. Thank God for how He takes care of His children.
What kind of good news have you recieved?
Well, in the old testament the city of Jerusalem had just been destroyed by the Babylonians. And it was awful, they felt alone and afraid because they thought God had abandoned them.
Isaiah in the old testament, He was a prophet, told the people of Israel that all of these things were happening because of the sin that had caused them to stop following God.
But, Isaiah follows his words with this poem:
3 For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”
7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
In this short poem God says: You were sold and mistreated for nothing. Now, this does not mean that the people of Israel did not sin against God, but instead it means:
The people of Israel had a lot when they were following God, but when they turned away they lost everything and because they lost everything they had no way to purchase their freedom back.
Kind of like when I had no money to pay the IRS back what I owed them.
But verse 3 continues to say:
Without money you will be redeemed.
God says, you may have nothing, you may be walking around enslaved to sin without a way out, but I have the means to break you free from that.
7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Isaiah plants this image in your head. Isaiah says:
Imagine a man running towards the town with good news. His feet are destroyed from having to travel far, and he has cuts, scars and bruises from the travel. But, since that man brings good news, His feet are beautiful.
What is that message? :
Verse 7 says: your God reigns.
Even though you feel defeated in this moment, even though you may have lost the battle against sin today, even though you may not feel worthy or loved, your God still reigns.
But I want us to peek at verse 3 one more time:
3 For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”
God promises His people that without money they will be redeemed one day. And in verse 6 God comes out and says that it’s going to be Him who redeems everyone:
6 Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.”
And when do we see that?
Well, when we take a look at the new testament let’s be honest. The people of Israel are still a mess. Instead of being ruled by Babylon, they are being ruled by the Romans. And the Romans are abusing God’s people and taking away all of their money and it is an awful scene.
Well, this small image of how Israel is being enslaved by Rome is truthfully how the rest of the world is.
The rest of the world is enslaved by sin and everyone who follows their sin can only do what their sin wants them to do. There is no real freedom. So, everyone on earth who is a sinner looks like this:
3 For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”
We have nothing. BUT, the good news, our hope is that one day, without money you and I will be redeemed.
What does that looks like? It looks like Jesus coming to earth and spending time with His people. It looks like Jesus, who is the messenger on behalf of God sharing the good news that we call the Gospel.
Which is: that if you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus, you too can be freed from sin. But remember what verse 3 said:
Without money you will be redeemed?
Well, if money is no going to save us. what will?
It will be blood. See, I know this may be hard to hear but the Bible tells us in
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
our sin demand a payment which is our life. I have sinned, so sin will come back to payment later. trust me, you do not want to pay that price. Because the ONLY WAY for you to pay that price is with your life.
But God does not want you to pay that price. So instead, He sends Jesus, the man with good news to tell the world that you don’t have to pay that price, instead Jesus will. But it won’t be with money, it will be with His life.
Thankfully, three days after Jesus dies, in order to prove He Himself is God, He comes back to life to also show us that He is capable of defeating death.
Jesus defeating death means that you and I can now be redeemed. It means that the price for sin has been payed. Here’s the catch though. It’s a gift. And a gift only becomes a gift if you receive it.
Have any of you guys ever heard of Mr. Beast? I’m sure you have. Well Mr. Beast is from Greenville NC. Which is about 2.5 hours from here. Sometimes he goes to Walmart and he finds people there and he pays for all of their stuff.
Sometimes, I wish that I would run into Mr. Beast because then he could pay for all of my stuff. Unfortunately I haven’t so I’ve never gotten anything from him.
Mr. Beast has given other people that gift, but he hasn’t given it to me because when he goes to Walmart I am nowhere near him.
God is different though. God has come to people first, and He has made Himself known to us through the Bible, and through eyewitness testimony and through history.
God wants to to give you this gift. But He can’t unless you take it. So, if anyone here wants to know what it means to follow Jesus, come talk to me today.
Discussion Questions:
When was the last time you recieved good news?
How do you feel when you receive good news?
How hard do you think it was for the Israel to loose everything they had ever known?
Do you think Israel expected a person like Jesus to save them?
24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.
