NEVER ABANDONED
Neh. 9:19,31
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: ALONE
1. In the operating room of a large hospital, a young nurse was completing her first full day of responsibilities.
2. "You've only removed 11 sponges, doctor," she said to the surgeon. "We used 12." "I removed them all," the doctor declared. "We'll close the incision now."
3. "No," the nurse objected. "We used 12 sponges."
"I'll take full responsibility," the surgeon said grimly. "Suture!"
4. "You can't do that!" blazed the nurse. "Think of the patient." The surgeon smiled, lifted his foot, and showed the nurse the 12th sponge. "You're the nurse I want!” he said.
[Today in the Word, April 7, 1992.]
5. We all prize faithfulness and think badly of those who abandon their duties or those they’re in charge of.
6 That’s why it’s especially difficult for us when we feel like God has let us down, has failed us in some way.
B. THESIS
1. Many people, within & without the church, have feelings of abandonment.
2. Perhaps this feeling comes from a childhood event or a traumatic event in our adult years.
3. Possibly it’s derived from our modern isolationism – we don’t even know our neighbors, usually.
4. Maybe it’s from the hardships of life or modern overload. But the Bible reminds us that God will never abandon us, though everyone else might.
5. Tonight I want us to look at 4 reasons we can be assured we are not, and never will be, abandoned by God.
I. GOD DIDN’T ABANDON UNFAITHFUL ISRAEL
A. ISRAEL’S FEELINGS (IN JUDGMENT)
Isa. 49:14-16; “But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…”
C. HE LOVES US & IS MERCIFUL
1. If you think about how disobedient the Israelites were during the 40 years in the wilderness, that would have been an ideal time for God to say, “They’ll never measure up! I need to start over with someone else.”
2. But Nehemiah recounts how patient and loving God was with them (and with us!):
3. “Because of Your great compassion You did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take…But in Your great mercy You did not put an end to them or abandon them, for You are a gracious and merciful God.” Neh. 9:19, 31 (NIV).
4. God continues to perform His promises, despite our unworthiness to merit them.
II. JESUS (AS SIN) WAS ABANDONED
1. Now understand, the Israelites DESERVED TO BE ABANDONED. But it was God’s GRACE that that covered over the multitude of their sins and kept them in fellowship with God.
2. But SIN MUST BE PUT AWAY, AND THE SINNER TOO MUST BE JUDGED! That’s why Jesus was abandoned -- so you and I would never be abandoned.
A. JESUS CITED HIS ABANDONMENT
1. “Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will abandon Me. Scripture says, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’” Mark 14:27 (God’s Word Trans).
2. “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Mark 15:34.
3. Jesus was abandoned by all His followers. Judas betrayed Jesus. Peter denied that he knew his close friend, Jesus. God the Father abandoned Jesus’ sin-infested body on the Cross, turning His back on the sins of the world placed upon His Son.
4. Jesus was abandoned so you and I would never be abandoned in this life or the life to come.
B. BUT THE FATHER NEVER ABANDONED HIS SON
1. EVEN THOUGH IT LOOKED LIKE GOD ABANDONED JESUS, THE TRUTH IS, HE NEVER DID. Listen to the words of Jesus:
2. “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will You let your Holy One see decay” Ps 16:9-10 (NIV).
3. No matter what our feelings or fears tell us, THE LORD OUR GOD WILL NOT ABANDON US.
4. Sometimes, God does invoke “radio silence.” That’s when we must continue to believe – without evidence!
III. WHY WE’LL NEVER BE ABANDONED
A. GOD IS WITH US AT ALL TIMES
1. Immanuel, “God with us,” came so that He could always be among us. Jesus came to earth so we would never be abandoned.
2. Acts 17:28 says “‘In Him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed His offspring.’ (ESV)
3. He is always WITH you and me… IN you and me; AROUND you and me and OVER you and me. ‘Lord, We need You to be in us, around us and over us today.’
B. JESUS PROMISED HE WOULDN’T
1. John 14:16-18 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another [Paraclete] to…be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth….You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
2. John 14:20 (Jesus says) “On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.” (NIV)
3. Matthew 28:20 (Jesus says) … “And remember that I am always with you until the end of time.” (GWT)
C. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS OUR GUARANTEE
1. Eph. 1:13-14; “When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
2. 2 Cor. 5:5, “Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” (1 Cor. 1:22; 2 Tim. 1:14).
3. An “earnest money” contract is one in which a sum of money is applied/ a down payment, to guarantee that the purchaser is serious and will follow that payment with many more.
4. The Greek word is arrabon. In modern Greek arrabona is the word for the engagement ring! The Holy Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will raise you up from the dead and seat you on the throne with Christ, no matter what happens in this world!
IV. GOD IS FAITHFUL
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A man named Russell Edward Herman left trillions of dollars to thousands of people he’d never met. What was the catch? Russell Edward Herman didn’t have trillions of dollars. He was just a simple, poor carpenter.
2. While the wild, wild will of the late Russell Herman never paid off for his “beneficiaries,” it certainly enlivened conversations.
3. Take the tiny Ohio River town of Cave-In-Rock, for example. Herman bequeathed $2.41 billion to them. Cave-In-Rock’s mayor, Albert Kaegi had this to say, “It’s an odd thing to happen, isn’t it?” He had no trouble imagining uses for the willed imaginary monies.
4. Russell Edward Herman had great intentions, but he lacked the resources needed to make them a reality.
5. The greatness of God, however, stands in sharp contrast.
God not only has made great and precious promises, He has the ability to follow through on every single one of them. [David Owens]
B. FAITHFUL TO HIS PROMISES
1. Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”
2. 1 Kings 8:56, “Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.
3. Joshua 21:45, “Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.”
4. Joshua 23:14, “You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the LORD your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.”
5. Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.”
C. ACQUIRING THE ASSURANCE
1. No matter what our feelings may say or what fears we have, the Lord always lives up to His Word… He is with you… He is with me… He will never abandon us.
2. A feeling of abandonment stimulates fear, worry and anxiety. The Presence of the Lord eliminates the false perception of abandonment. The only way to cure our feeling of abandonment is to daily sit in prayer in His Presence.
3. So the threefold strategy of 1). memorizing what God tells us in His Word of His faithfulness and 2). Getting into His Presence and 3). Hanging out with people of like precious faith/ church – are the three best deterrents to feelings of abandonment.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. A little boy was eagerly looking forward to the birthday party of a friend who lived only a few blocks away.
2. When the day finally arrived, a blizzard made the sidewalks and roads nearly impassable. The lad's father, sensing the danger, hesitated to let his son go.
3. The youngster reacted tearfully. "But Dad," he pleaded, "all the other kids will be there. Their parents are letting them go." The father thought for a moment, then replied softly, "All right, you may go."
4. Surprised but overjoyed, the boy bundled up and plunged into the raging storm. The driving snow made visibility almost impossible, and it took him more than half an hour to trudge the short distance to the party.
5. As he rang the doorbell, he turned briefly to look out into the storm. His eye caught the shadow of a retreating figure. It was his father. He had followed his son's every step to make sure he arrived safely. Unknown.
B. THE CALL
1. It’s the same with God. Sometimes it seems like He’s not around – that we’re alone. But He’s always near us, watching after us for our good.
2. “For the LORD your God is a merciful God; HE WILL NOT ABANDON…YOU or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which He confirmed to them by oath” Deut. 4:31 (NIV).
3. “For THE LORD WILL NOT ABANDON HIS PEOPLE on account of His great Name, because the LORD has been pleased to make YOU a people for Himself.” 1 Samuel 12:22 (NAS).
4. These verses mention God’s COVENANT and His GREAT NAME as additional assurances that He will ever abandon us.
5. Let’s pray for healing for those who have felt disappointed; then, let’s pray for renewed faith in God. God who promised it is faithful!
[This message had input from a message by Gary Landon]
