What Difference Does Jesus Make Today? Series

Would you take a moment and lend me an assist. On Sunday, April 23 and 30, you choose the sermon topics. Go to our websites and vote – I would love to hear from you.

I have had one of the more challenging weeks in recent memory. One of our children had allergic reaction, another needed 25 stitches, and not to be left out, still another broke his arm. It’s been a challenging week in other arenas, as a few opportunities seem to slip right through my fingers that I had hoped would come through. Yet, as I pause to consider the collective lives of those in our church, I wonder if I should even mention my struggles. Since the last time we gathered in this room, a few of us have lost love ones. One family lost their adult child just yesterday. Still another isn’t able make to their house payment. There are a few of you hurting from painful marriages and runaway children. A number of you are praying for a job to come through. While handful of you expressed are wondering, “Does God really loves me.” Fear causes us to quietly ask our hearts hard questions: How will I get through this? What happens if I do score well in this class, on this test? What will happen to us if we lose our home? Will my marriage survive? Will I lose my job if I don’t perform?

This morning is designed for those who need to know that even when life is hard, God’s promises are true. Our faith is in God who has never failed to do what He says. He knows what He has promised, He can’t lie, and He can’t forget. He will deliver on time, every time, and all the time. God is a promise-making, promise-keeping God.

“Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. 1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 52:13–53:12)

1. The Momentum of Kept Promises

I recent weeks, we’ve been studying how God has made promises and kept promises. Our focus has been Isaiah 53 where God’s Word makes these predictions about Jesus seven centuries before His arrival. But how does that impact you and me? In other words, “So what?”