Untitled Sermon (35)

The God for the Journey of Life

Isaiah 46:4

“I will be the same until your old age, and I will bear you up when you turn grey. I have made you and I will carry you. I will rescue you and I will deliver you.

The Bible is filled with thousands of promises that offer assurance, comfort, and strength for every situation. God’s promises cover everything from finding peace and rest to Salvation and Eternal Life.

Throughout life—God promises never to leave us or forsake us and God promise purpose and provision.

You remember in the Book of Jeremiah God said I know the plans I have for you—plans for your well being, not for disaster—to give you a future and a hope.

There’s a promise of provision where Paul says and My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory. 

In the wilderness wanderings God rained down manna—there He gives a glimpse of His provision—When Jesus fed the multitude that was a glimpse of how the Lord is able to take the little we have to feed a lot—He shows us that if we put it in His hands He can make a way.

Yeah, the Bible is full of promises—flip back to chapter 40—God promises to renew our strength. And I love that because when you read verse four in context it speaks to people in danger of turning toward idols—little g-o-d-s that have to be carried around to be worshiped, but the living God—the God of the Bible—He carries us!

Read it when you get home, but nestled among these 13 verses is a promise where God makes some declarations and these promises meet us at the very point of our weariness—cause life does get hard—every now and then life will knock the life out of you, but I hear Jesus making a promise in Matthew 11—Come unto Me and I will give you rest…

Let me hurry cause there’s fish downstairs, but God offers a four-fold promise.

Four declarations—Four “I will” statements and if you think about it—whenever it is said, I Will do something—that is a present declaration with future implications. Now when we I will do something we may or may not actually follow through with what we said I was gon’ do, but when God says I will—that declaration is unchanging—I told us it has future implications which means by the time you get to you next situation God done already did what He said He was gon’ do.

That’s good news and before I get to my little points let me slide this in—cause God makes four declarations when He said I will…and I have been telling us that the number four is representative of the whole.

There are 4 Directions—4 seasons—4 rivers of Eden—there are four people groups mentioned—Every nation, kindred, people and tongues. In the Parable of the Great Banquet—the Master told the servant to bring in 4 types of people—poor, maimed, blind and lame.

The Message of Salvation for the whole world is told through 4 Gospels—Four is representative of the whole and the point is these four declarations God makes covers the whole of our lives.

Look what He says—I will be the same until your old age and I will bear you up when you turn gray.

Don’t miss this cause He declares I will be the same and Scripture backs up this Promise when He said I am the same yesterday, today and forevermore. God can be depended on cause He never changes.

I like this cause it almost sounds like God is daring us to check His record—Umm, I double dog dare you to look through this book and see don’t I keep My word.

Look back over your own life and see if God didn’t keep His word—Every time it looked like it was over God had another move. Some of us can look back to a time when we didn’t have it like we do now—we didn’t always have big houses—two and there cars—some of us can remember when there wasn’t an abundance of food choices, and a few of us can remember had me downs—and mama sewing patches on clothes cause we can’t afford more, but when I look back I say like David—I never seen the righteous forsaken nor His seed begging bread.

There are too many examples of I’ve seen Him do it and if I already seen Him do it in the past He is the same God in my present circumstance.

Look with me—right after declaring He will be the same God—He also declares I will bear you up when you turn grey.

Umm, God expresses a commitment to sustain and support us through every season of life.

I told us there are four directions—and there are four seasons—winter, spring, summer, fall—and we need this promise—Umm, this is a Personal Promise from God to let us know our whole lives are covered and that is important cause every now and then—in any given season of life you can find that everything is going as planned—life is good, but then all of a sudden storm winds blow—the winds of change blow your life in another direction—you know the stuff you didn’t have in your bingo card, but I already told us “I will” has future implications—God said I will bear you up when you turn grey.

So, even if you in a season of storms and even if your life done took a different direction—He has already declared when you get there I have already did what I was gon’ do.

When you get to your next problem—your next storm and when you can’t move as fast as you used to—when you need help getting around—when your hair turns grey—just remember what He already declared—when you get there I will bear you up.

Umm, there’s two more—Give me six minutes Doug E Fresh it’s on.

God also says I have made you and I will carry you. It’s a declaration of care—Umm, you remember the great care He took fashioning and forming Adam and then breathing into him the breath of life. My Bible says we are fearfully and wonderfully made and in verse 4 God declares how He cares for who He made.

He says I will carry you. I thought it was good enough that He will bear us up—we can lean on and depend on God, but God takes it further and declares I will carry you.

Over in Exodus 19—God said to the children of Israel—remember what I did to the Egyptians how I carried you on eagles’ wings.

God has carried us over stuff that could have killed us—He has carried us over people that tried to keep us down—It is a reminder of Who’s hands we are in cause when you can’t see your way through He will take you over. I love this cause when I carry something too long I look for somewhere to put it down.

I get weary of carrying too much weight—too much pain. Every now and then we carry around guilt and shame—grief and sorrow. Sometimes life gets to lifing—feels like trouble on every side, but thank God He declared when life gets to being too much—when the valleys are too low and the hills are too hard to climb—God declares when you get there—I will carry you. (You remember the footsteps in the sand)

I’m done, but there’s one more—and I really love this last declaration. Depending on your translation God says I will rescue you or the text reads I will deliver you.

This last one is really good cause rescue comes from outside ourselves.  When we are powerless to save ourselves God stepped in and let me pause right here cause I’m getting happy—When I think about all the times when life is flipped—turned upside down—all those times I didn’t have it, but God stepped in time and on time and His declarations prove He is not limited by time.

That is why He is able to say I will do something before we even get to the place we need it done.

I’m done now, but you remember over in Genesis 15—God told Abraham his offspring will strangers in a land that’s not theirs where they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 hundred years, but I will judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions—and over in Exodus—on the back side of Midian God spoke to Moses from a burning bush saying I have seen the affliction and I have heard their cries and I have come down to deliver them and I love this cause God sent His Son to deliver us—to get us out of our mess—God took our condition serious and sent His only begotten Son…Y’all know Him don’tcha—Born in Bethlehem, reared in Nazareth—Baptized in the Jordan.

Healed the sick—opened blind eyes—a woman with an issue of blood touched the hem of His garment and she was made whole. Jesus stopped a funeral processional in the city of Nain. Raised up Jairus’ daughter from the dead—Stopped by Bethany and raised Lazarus from the grave after he had been dead four days…And He went to Calvary and there He died—didn’t He die, but  bright early Sunday morning He arose…