Be Encouraged Part 2
Scripture: John 14:1-3; Isaiah 41:2-13; 2 Thess. 2:16-17; Matt. 10:28
Introduction:
I began this series a couple of weeks ago with Jesus teaching His final lesson to His disciples during the last supper. John 14:1-3 will serve as the foundational Scriptural reference for this series. In these verses Jesus told His disciples “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. In these words Jesus encouraged His disciples knowing that their faith would be tested greatly for the next few days.
As I shared last week, when Jesus rose from the dead He forever changed the course of history and the lives of all of those who serve Him. It is through our knowledge of the truth of His resurrection that we are encouraged during the most difficult times that we will experience. Jesus made this point to the disciples when He taught them on that last night and after He visited with them after his resurrection. He wanted them (and each of us) to know that the sum of the circumstances we experience in this life does not compare to what we will experience after we leave here. But that was not enough; He wanted them to have what they needed to walk in faith while they evangelized the world. This morning we will examine the following two reasons why we should be encouraged even during our worst circumstances: 1) God will protect us; and 2) he will strengthen us. Let’s begin with Isaiah 41:2-13. As I read verses ten through thirteen I want you to imagine that God is speaking directly to you and to your circumstances. Hear the word of God.
I. God’s Word to Isaiah
“Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish. You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them; those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent. For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says to you, do not fear, I will help you.” (Isaiah 41:10-13)
What we just read is what God told the Children of Israel in a prophecy. I want you to know that the God of Israel, who does not change, will do the same for us if we allow Him. If you read these words as if the prophecy was for you, would that understanding change how you feel when you read them? Now that you heard what God said to the Children of Israel through the prophet Isaiah, let me tell you the circumstances. This was a prophecy that was given to Isaiah more than 150 years before it happened. Isaiah did not live to see it, but the prophecy remained before the people until it came to pass. God, in His fulfillment of His promise to take care of the people, showed Isaiah what was going to happen when Cyrus (the one from the east) began his conquest of the world (vs. 2). God promised the Children of Israel protection and even challenged the gods of the other nations to predict the future (Vss. 21-24). From this example I want you to know that God does not just protect us from the things we are currently dealing with, but in His divine decision rights, He is protecting us from things we will face years from now. Today God is trying to influence some of our decisions so that He can protect us down the road as He already knows what we will face and what will lead to those circumstances. He goes back to the root cause and if He can get us to change that, we will never experience those things. The beautiful part of this is that because we make decisions based on what He tells us to do we never even realize that those “other possibilities” were ever in our future.
This is what played out in the movie series “Back To The Future”. In the first movie, Marty McFly’s parents were not in the best situation. His father was what we would call a wimp who hated any type of confrontation. His mother on the other hand was an alcoholic. His brother and sister were not much better. Marty goes back in time and changes one incident that totally changes the course of his parents’ (and ultimately his) life. After changing this one event, when he returns to the future his father is now an author and his mother is not an alcoholic. His brother who was working at a hamburger place now had an office job where he was required to wear a suit. When Marty saw all of this he was amazed as he knew what their life was like before. Now here is the point I want you to see, Marty was the only one who knew the changes that had taken place and why those changes had happened. His family was living what they believed was their only life with no clue that their lives had been on a totally different path prior to Marty changing something in the past. This is the God that is protecting us if we are willing to listen. He knows many years down the road what we will face based on the decisions we are making now and He is trying to get us to make decisions that will allow us to be in the best position later.
Let me share a personal example with you. Back in 2004 I was contacted by a company who wanted to hire me as a manager and was making what sounded like a very attractive job offer. At the time I was not happy where I was and that opportunity seems like a perfect “fit” based on what I could see. Notice I said what “I” could see! As I was praying about it I felt God telling me to stay where I was and not to entertain the offer. I sensed that He was protecting me from something. Again, I was not in the best of places with my company and I could have easily left. If I interviewed and taken the job that was presented to me when I was at a weak point with my company, I would not be where I am today as two years later that company went through some major changes. All I could see was what I was dealing with in my present but God saw what I would be dealing with it I went to the new company. By the way, because “I” thought this company was really going to do some things, even after God told me to not to entertain any offer from them because it would not work out well for me, I chose to buy some stock in the company. Guess what, I lost money and I thank God I had not invested that much in them. If I was truly listening, I would not have bothered investing in a company that God told me He did not want me to entertain an offer from. Does this make sense? This is what God did with the Children of Israel, except He warned them a 150 years before it came to pass. Let’s look at Isaiah 54:17. This is one of my favorite Scriptures.
Isaiah 54:17 says “No weapon that is formed against you will prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from Me, declares the Lord.”
The safety of those who walk with the Lord is solemnly laid down as the heritage of the servants of the Lord and we can depend upon it and be confident in it. God will surely protect us from our enemies both in the camps and in the courts. The word “weapon” hints of those enemies that will attack us by force and violence – “No weapon formed against you will prosper….” It does not matter how skillfully the attack is planned or how forcefully it is carried out, it will not prosper (lead to your demise). It does not mean that we will not have “injuries” but a total demise is not an option because we are on the side of God. But let me make this clear, man can take everything we own, our families and our lives, but they cannot take away our eternity. This is the protection that we have, not that we will not experience hard times and even death, but that our eternity with God is secure. This is what Jesus pointed out when He said “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) Jesus’ recommendation was that we fear God and God only and in that fear we walk with Him regardless of what man will do to us because of that relationship. We have a promise of a glorious future but to get there we have to walk through things in this world. The weapons of our enemy will not prove strong enough to destroy the people of God – literally and figuratively. (Until Christ return, God will always have a remnant of people doing His will here on earth.) When this verse speaks of the “tongues that accuses you in judgment” it is speaking of law-adversaries – as when we are in a courtroom battle. This is another picture of how the enemy will attack us. Those attacks will not always be with physical weapons, but often it will be with an accusing tongue. Remember the story of Daniel and the three Hebrew boys? They walked before God righteously, never wavering and it was the men of the city who brought accusations against them. In the midst of the accusations and the judgment pronounced against them, they did not waver and God protected them. This is the protection that we walk in if we refuse to waver on our faith in God, but for us it is more of a spiritual battle here in the US versus a physical one! I want to review one additional Scripture before I close this message. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17.
II. Strengthen Heart
When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he made this proclamation to them: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.” Paul gives a description of a God who loves us and gives us eternal comfort. It is the love that God has for each of us that allows us to be strengthened when we are weak.
In these two verses Paul is actually speaking a request that God would perform the task of strengthening our hearts in every good work and word based on the fact that He has already proven His love for us and have given us eternal comfort and hope by His grace. So the request that Paul makes is really one based on an understanding that it has already been done because of Who God is. Because God loves us and the call that He has on our lives, He knows that the road that we must travel down is not an easy one. He knows that we will experience times when we will get weak. He knows that we will have moments when the hills are so hard to climb that we question whether or not we can continue. All of these things God already know and thus is continually strengthening us by His word and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Being in the pharmaceutical industry allows me to gain a better understanding of how pharmaceuticals work. Years ago I launched a product for pain relief that worked on the same neuroreceptors as an anti-depressant. This particular product, as do most pain drugs, did not “stop” the pain, but blocked the brain’s sensitivity to the pain. You see, your central and peripheral nervous system monitors what we sense as “pain” which could be because of an injury. Most pain drugs do not stop the pain or heal the injury, they work in the central/peripheral nervous system to block the body’s awareness of the pain. The injury can still be there but the mind blocks the awareness of it. This is one of the dangers for people with diabetes. Because blood flow to the extremities of the body can become compromised, the nerves can become desensitized to the point where if they injure their feet they would not know it. I know a physician who has diabetes who lost the feeling in his feet. One hot summer day he walked out on his deck with no shoes on and burned the bottom of his feet. The nerve endings in his feet were so destroyed that he did not know that his feet were burning. He went through a long treatment regimen to recover from those burns. This is why diabetics are asked at every doctor’s visit to take off their shoes because they could have an injury to their feet that they are unaware of which could lead to their leg(s) having to be amputated.
Now this is a something that we understand exists in our physical world. Pain is real and exists when there is an injury. But, if you give a patient a drug that blocks their awareness of the pain or if they have sufficient nerve ending damage that they cannot sense pain, they will act as if the pain does not exist and there is no injury. This is how many people get hooked on narcotics because it blocks both the physical and mental pains that we experience in life. There is a dullness and a sense of well being that can come through the use of the drugs. The damage is still there but the awareness of it is blocked.
Now go back to what Paul asked for the people he wrote to. He asked that God would comfort and strengthen their hearts for every good work and word. When someone is in a lot of pain and they are in the hospital, what does the doctor’s say their goals are for the patient’s treatment? They often say they are working to keep the patient comfortable. What is the connection between pain and comfort? It is impossible, in the natural world, to be comfortable when you are in pain, unless you have a very high pain threshold. But with God, all things are possible. When my father was dying from lung cancer, our family prayed that he would not be in pain and that his last days would be peaceful. My father died at home without the benefit of hospice care and he was not receiving any pain medication. On the last Sunday that I saw him I kissed him goodbye and later that day he went to sleep and transitioned from this life to his eternal life with Christ. God answered our prayer. I believe that god blocked his awareness of the pain that his body was in because of our prayer.
Paul asked that God would comfort and strengthen them for every good work. We need comfort when we are in pain and we need strength when we are weak. So his request was not based on what we often hear today about walking in the blessings of the Lord with no pain or trials. His request was based on his understanding that because they were walking with Christ they would have times of pain and sorrow; times of weakness and stress; and that God in His love for them would comfort them and He would strengthen them. This is the same God who comforts and strengthens each of us. We may not always understand how God will do it, but we know that He will.
This morning, be encouraged that no matter what you will face this week, God will protect you and He will comfort and strengthen you when you need it. We might not be aware of when God is protecting us; but we will know when he is comforting and strengthening us. Walk in this knowledge this week. You are not alone and you serve a God who loves you and has His ever protecting arms around you.
I will continue this series next week. May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
