Comforting God’s People

Should preparation be a last minute thing or an ongoing thing? Our preparation should be on-going and not like a hail Mary pass in the last seconds a ball game.

1) Flat tire: Someone says, One morning [he] went out to start [his] car to go to church. Flat tire. Lucky I had a spare. Changed tire quickly and on [my] way. Didn’t think to drop spare off to be fixed. “I’ll get around to it.” Within five days [I] went out to car to go to school. Another flat. Only this time no spare! Had to roll it to nearest station and wait while it was fixed. When something breaks, fix it now. Don’t wait until you need it and then don’t have it! Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. J.U., August, 1982 This story is like a parable in that it reminds us of what not to do. Who would want to be stranded?

2) Hearts: C. S. Lewis once said, “We have a strange illusion that mere time cancels sin. But mere time does nothing either to the fact or to the guilt of a sin”. (Morgan, R. J. (2007). Nelson’s Annual Preacher’s Sourcebook (2007 Edition, p. 214). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers). Joel 2:13 tells us to rend our hearts and not our garments. Broken and contrite hearts are open to God’s guidance. God wants us to be right in our hearts. Remorse is good but we need God’s grace to heal. Mary gave God’s Son the name of Jesus because he can save people from ( Matthew 1:21).

PROVIDENCE

Do you believe God knows what you need and when you need it?

1) God’s Omniscience: God knows our name, our frame, the number of hairs on our heads, what we need, when we need it. God knows when we are hurting, scared, sad, happy, mad, glad. God is never late, never short, never unable to help up us, never unable to comfort us, never unable to heal us, never unable to forgive us!

“ Keeping a record of sins (or holding a grudge) is like building a wall between you and another person, and it is nearly impossible to talk openly while the wall is there. God doesn't keep a record of our sins; when he forgives, he forgives completely, tearing down any wall between us and him. Therefore, we fear (revere) God, yet we can talk to him about anything. When you pray, realize that God is holding nothing against you. His lines of communication are completely open”. (Life Application Bible Study Notes. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. 2004). Is that not comforting?

2) A Savior: God is our creator, sustainer and He sent His only begotten Son to be our Savior!

Do you believe that God is bigger than your troubling circumstances? There are four voices in the prophecy today.

1) First voice: God speaks first speaking about comfort that is based on His grace in the first two verses. McKenna, D., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1994). Isaiah 40–66 (Vol. 18, p. 26). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.

When I was in college, we learned about the effect of Jonathon Edwards’s sermon “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God.” People were so scared that they almost believed that the floor would open up and swallow them taking them to hell. Isaiah is telling us that God wants to comfort us!