[0:00] Good morning. Very warm welcome to those of you who are visiting us. And if I haven't had opportunity to wish you a very happy new year, let me do so now.
[0:10] It's lovely to have Elizabeth Marcy with us. Welcome, it's great. When do you go back to Cardiff? I give up on Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning, okay, good.
[0:22] Elizabeth is one of two relay workers with UCCF that, as a church, we have the joy of supporting and praying for. And you've been prayed for this week, Elizabeth, in our week of prayer.
[0:35] And it's been a very encouraging week. Those of you who have been able to come along to the prayer meetings this week, been very good numbers. I've been personally very encouraged by that. Please, let's continue to pray, particularly in the light of the mission that we're planning for in May.
[0:49] And if, when I say the mission in May, you're going, what is he talking about? I don't know anything about this. Then find out. You should know by now what Roger Carswell is coming for a week of mission with us and of evangelism.
[1:02] So let's continue to pray for that and for many of the other opportunities we have in the year ahead. Well, the verse I've chosen for this Sunday, though last Sunday was technically the first Sunday of the year, because it was New Year's Day.
[1:17] Many of us were away then. So in one sense, this Sunday is the first and second Sunday of the year rolled into one. So we've got, we're going to be sharing in the Lord's table together, communion, for all those who know and love the Lord Jesus, sharing in what Christ has done for us.
[1:34] But also it's the second Sunday because we're having lunch afterwards. So it's a mixture of the two. So I've chosen that verse, that wonderful verse from Hebrews 13, concerning the Lord Jesus.
[1:46] Verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. And for those of us who know and love Christ, that's a wonderful assurance, meaning that his love for us does not change.
[2:02] His faithfulness to us does not change. His forgiveness to us does not change. And though the date has changed and though much changes around about us and in our own lives, we have a Saviour and a God who is faithfully, unchangeably trustworthy.
[2:19] So we're going to sing our first hymn. It's 647. A wonderful hymn that reminds us of Jesus and all that he is and all that he's done for us and all that he's promised.
[2:29] In Christ alone, my hope is found. 647. I hope that is true of each one of us this morning, that we can say in Christ alone, my hope is found.
[2:40] Let's stand as we sing. In Christ alone, my hope is found.
[2:59] He is my life, my strength, my soul. His fallen stone with solid ground, Where can the fiercest drought and storm?
[3:15] For the nights of love, for the depths of peace, And there's no still what's riding seas. I love the dirt, I only know.
[3:30] Here in the love of Christ I stand. In Christ alone, my hope is found.
[3:48] In the love of God, my hope is found. Fullness of God in helpless way, His gift of love and righteousness, Storn by the ones he came to save, Till on that cross that Jesus died, The wrath of God was satisfied.
[4:14] For every sin I'm here for's sake, Here in the death of Christ I live.
[4:25] There in the ground his body lay, Light of the world by darkness sway, And blessed in warm, in glorious name, Up from the grave he rose again, And as he stands in victory, Since curse has lost its grip on thee, For I am his, and he is mine, Brought to the precious blood of Christ.
[5:14] No guilt in light, no fear in death, This is the power of Christ in me, From lifeless cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.
[5:41] The power of Christ must be born, And ever pluck him from his hand, Till he resorts, for cause we know, Here in the power of Christ I stand.
[6:01] Let us come to God in prayer together, Through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour.
[6:18] Our gracious and loving Father in heaven, We cannot help but be moved by the words that we've sung concerning your Son, Because the words that we've sung concerning him are so very personal to us, Pertaining to our lives, touching our lives.
[6:42] Lord, they are the things that we know, The things that we delight in, The things that we rejoice in. We thank you for Christ, We thank you for your Son, Whose birth we celebrated just two weeks ago.
[6:54] We thank you for his coming into this world, Taking on to himself the weakness of a baby, Taking on to himself the frailty of human nature. But we thank you for him, Who came into us when we could never come to you.
[7:08] We thank you for him, the Son of God, Who stooped down low, Into this sinful and polluted world. That he might rescue and save, And deliver, And bring to life.
[7:23] And oh Lord, Grant forgiveness To sinners like us. And oh Lord, We thank you for the resurrection. We thank you for his conquering over death and sin and hell.
[7:34] We thank you that he lives. And as we read from your word just before, That we know that he is the same yesterday, today and forever. In the sense that he is immortal, eternal, unchanging.
[7:45] Lord, we are those who, As we have already found just in the first week of this new year, Face changes and face transformations and face challenges. And oh Lord, we don't know what the year ahead will hold.
[7:59] But we thank you that we have in you a hope. We have in you a certain rock. We have in you a foundation stone. We have in you one who is absolutely, Unchangeably, Faithfully the same.
[8:13] And Lord, we ask that even at the outset of this new year, Our hope and faith may be in Christ alone. May be in who he is. And what he's done. And what he's promised. And what he's doing.
[8:25] And what he's yet to do. Lord, we do not know what will happen. But we know that you are the one that we can trust in everything. We ask that even this morning as we come to worship, To sing, To pray, To hear your word.
[8:41] We ask that in all these things you would build up our faith. And build up our hope. And build up, oh Lord, Our trust in you. That we may be sure and certain That this Jesus is my Jesus.
[8:54] This God is my God. This salvation is my salvation. And as we gather around the Lord's table, As we eat of that bread and drink of that cup, Lord, again we pray that this may be a means of blessing to us, Encouragement to us.
[9:09] When we see and realize and remember the very cost that you paid, That we might have such a hope. We pray, oh Lord, That even this morning, That you would speak to us and meet with us where we are, According to our needs.
[9:24] And that, oh Lord, You would do us good. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. As you can see, The table is laid here for us to share in the Lord's Supper.
[9:37] And as I said earlier on, We do welcome all those who know and trust the Lord Jesus as their Savior To come and share with us as part of our service this morning. If you know in your own heart that you haven't fully trusted in Jesus, You're not really sure that you're a Christian or not, Then please don't feel that you have to leave.
[9:56] Please feel free to stay. But the Bible tells us that really only if we have faith should we take the bread and the cup. Because there's only blessing to be had through faith. There's nothing that happens magically to the bread or the cup.
[10:08] It's only as we put our faith in Jesus and remember what he did for us, That we are blessed and enjoy him. Now I'm going to ask Richard to come and bring the notices at this particular point in our service.
[10:19] Thank you Richard. Thank you Peter. Welcome to all here this morning. We have our church lunch, as Peter mentioned, after the service.
[10:30] And so do stay and join with us in a lovely lunch and fellowship together. Hawkscast service is this afternoon 2.30 for those who are involved there.
[10:41] Then this evening is 6 o'clock is our testimony time. It's become a bit of a tradition in the recent years that, well the first Sunday is now the second Sunday. Just a very open time.
[10:52] It's always been a lovely time when we bring whatever we want to. A hymn or a reading or a testimony is something the Lord has done for us. So 6 o'clock this evening in the lounge.
[11:02] Is it down in the, oh here in the main hall. In the main hall. This week it's the care home services. So Tuesday 1 o'clock at La Poole and Wednesday 2 o'clock at Peregrine.
[11:14] And Wednesday is our midweek meeting. It's a special meeting because it's Gideon's Update. We shall be bringing you an update of the Scarborough branch and nationally and worldwide. So do come along to the midweek meeting.
[11:29] Saturday is one of the occasional times of prayer for revival. And it's in the Westcliffe Congregational Church this coming Saturday, 10 till 12. So do join us for all or part of that time next Saturday.
[11:44] And then Sunday is morning service 10.45. Evening service 6 o'clock. Then finally it has been mentioned that the members meeting which was due for this Thursday is Thursday week the 19th.
[11:58] So we'll all be getting details of that members meeting beforehand. I don't know whether it's offertory now. Is this offertory? Please. So we continue with the offertory and sing something on the overhead.
[12:15] Hopefully many of you will come along this evening to the testimony sharing time. If you are planning or would like to have us sing a song. One of the reasons that we're meeting here rather than the lounge is that if we wanted to sing a song on the overhead on the projector.
[12:30] Then we've only got the words here. So if there's a song that you'd like to sing as part of your testimony or part of what you're sharing. Then please. And it's going to be on the projector. Not in the book.
[12:40] Please can let me or Martin know before the service to give Martin a bit of time to get it ready. If that's okay. Thank you. We're going to read together from God's Word. That's my mistake.
[12:50] It's not Colossians. It's actually Isaiah. My mistake that it's got Colossians written up there. Not anybody else's. But actually Isaiah 43.
[13:05] Isaiah 43. In one sense this is going to be a two-part sermon.
[13:17] The first part this Sunday morning and the next part next Sunday morning. So we're going to be particularly in this chapter for those two Sundays. Though they're one sermon I felt that there was too much material to try and squeeze it all in.
[13:33] Because that would be unhelpful. But we're going to read Isaiah 43 from verse 1. And we're going to read through to verse 13. Okay.
[13:43] So Isaiah 43. If you've got the church Bible. Page 729. Page 729 if you're still looking in the church Bible. Let's hear God's Word. But now this is what the Lord says.
[13:57] He who created you, Jacob. He who formed you, Israel. Do not fear. For I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name.
[14:09] You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.
[14:22] The flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in your stead.
[14:37] Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you. Nations in exchange for your life.
[14:49] Do not be afraid. For I am with you. I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, give them up.
[15:02] And to the south, do not hold them back. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, who I formed and made.
[15:18] Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf. All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Which of their gods foretold this and proclaimed to us the former things?
[15:33] Let them bring in their witnesses to prove what they were right, so that others may hear and say it is true. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he.
[15:53] Before me no God was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from me there is no Savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed, I am not some foreign God among you.
[16:11] You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am he. No one can deliver out of my hand.
[16:22] When I act, who can reverse it? If the young people would like to go out, the children and Sunday school and crash now, please. We're going to stand and sing together as we come to consider this passage in Isaiah 43.
[16:48] Sing from our hymn book 612. How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word. 612. What more can he say?
[17:19] What more can he say?
[17:31] And to you he has said? You who run to Jesus for refuge have fled.
[17:42] I will not, I will not, I will not, this earth to his rose.
[18:00] That soul who all hell should endeavor to shame. I'll never, no, never, no, never for sale.
[18:16] Well, if you'd like to have your Bibles open to Isaiah 43, that will be a particular help.
[18:33] There's one verse that we're going to be concentrating on both this Sunday morning and next Sunday morning, and it's verse 2. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.
[18:48] When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze.
[18:58] Just a few months before the outbreak of the First World War, the British explorer, Ernest Shackleton, placed an advert in the Times newspaper to recruit men for his latest expedition.
[19:12] That expedition was to cross over the whole of the continent of Antarctica via the South Pole. Now, Shackleton was an experienced explorer. He'd been many times to the South Pole, rather, not the North Pole, the South Pole, and he knew exactly what it was like in that frozen wasteland.
[19:31] And so he put it quite clearly and bluntly in his advert what was expected for those who would come with him. This is how his advert read. Men wanted.
[19:43] For hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return.
[19:55] Doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success. In spite of that rather off-putting advertisement, over 5,000 men and three women applied to ask if they could go with him.
[20:10] And after the process of elimination, only 28 were chosen. Now, if you knew what lay ahead in the coming year, would that be a help to you or a hindrance?
[20:25] Is it better to know beforehand so that we can be prepared or to be ignorant and cope with situations as they arise?
[20:35] Some of us, I'm sure, would like to be able to say, I know what's going to happen in 2017, so that I can be prepared and ready for it. Others of us would say, I just don't want to know what's going to come ahead.
[20:51] Of course, the reality is that none of us know. And there's no way for us to know. There's no way for us to be able to gaze into the coming months and the coming year and say, I know for sure this will happen or that will happen or what is in store for me.
[21:04] But, like Shackleton, who had been through the experiences of being on the South Pole, we have got something of the experiences of life.
[21:15] We know that in every year there must be ups and downs. In every few months there are going to be joys and sorrows, blessings and troubles, good times and bad.
[21:26] We know that because it's the same for all of us, whoever we are, whatever age we've lived to, that has been the reality thus far in every year. But as well as learning from the school of hard knocks that life has difficulties as well as joys, we have the teaching of God's Word.
[21:47] God's Word always speaks to us in reality. It never speaks to us in some dreamy fairytale land. It speaks into the lives of people who are going through the realities and the troubles and the difficulties that we go through.
[22:02] It always is relevant, always is contemporary, always is up to date. When the Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples on the night before his death, he made it very plain what was in store for them.
[22:16] In John 16 he says to them, in this world you shall have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world.
[22:28] Elsewhere in the Scriptures we find that this reality is true, that there are troubles, there are joys, there are difficulties, and there are delights. But God does much more than just warn us about the troubles of 2017.
[22:43] God does much more than just say, be on your guard, be careful, be aware, problems will come. For in Isaiah 43 we have here a message of great comfort and encouragement to God's people for their future.
[22:59] At the very start of the chapter we have those two little words, but now. But now. Now this is what the Lord says. Referring back to what has just been spoken, what has just been promised, what has just been prophesied through Isaiah.
[23:16] And what God has prophesied, particularly in the second part of chapter 42, is this. Is that God is angry with the nation of Judah and of Israel because of their sin.
[23:26] And Isaiah's ministry and Isaiah's work was to call the people back to God. To call them away from the sin that they were committing, which was primarily to worship false gods and to look to them rather than trusting in the Lord their God.
[23:44] A sin that had kept on doing again and again. It's a sin that actually we do as well in our land. Again and again. Not by building necessarily statues or monuments and bowing down and worshiping to them, but actually putting our faith and trust in someone else or something else than the Lord our God.
[24:03] Even putting our faith in ourselves is idolatry. It's worshipping and trusting ourselves rather than the living God. And God had warned them about this particular sin.
[24:15] He says to them in chapter 42 and verse 17, Those who trust in idols, who say to images, you are our gods, will be turned back in utter shame.
[24:26] God had warned and told the people that there was coming a day when his anger would be felt and seen. That sin would have its consequences. That there would be a time when ultimately the very patience and goodness of God would come to a point where he must judge and he must act and he must punish sin.
[24:49] And particularly, chapter 42 tells us what's going to happen is that there's going to be an army that will come and conquer the land and many of those people who live there will be taken away into exile.
[25:02] This is what he says there, chapter 42, verse 24. Who handed Jacob over to become loot and Israel to the plunderers?
[25:13] Was it not the Lord against whom we have sinned? For they would not follow his ways. They did not obey his law. So he poured out on them his burning anger.
[25:26] A wicked people who had turned away from God. A wicked people who had committed all sorts of sin and rebellion against their God again and again over centuries and centuries and centuries and God had continued to warn and to chastise and to save them.
[25:41] If you keep doing this there can only be one end and that's destruction. Who completely ignored him in spite of people like Isaiah, Jeremiah and many of the other prophets coming and speaking to them.
[25:53] But that wasn't true of every single person. That wasn't true of every single person in the nation because there were those who trusted in the Lord. There were those who did not lose their faith in him.
[26:05] There were those who walked faithfully in keeping his commandments. Those who loved him. Those who hated what was going on. But they were living in a spiritually and a morally corrupt and deteriorating society.
[26:19] What would God do with them? What would God do with those who put their faith in him? Would he just lump them all together with those who had acted wickedly? Would he just cause them to suffer for the sins of others that they had not committed?
[26:33] Now it's to those believers that Isaiah 43 is written. To those small number who were faithful and trusted God in the midst of all that was going around about them. Who weren't swept along with the wave of false worship.
[26:46] Who weren't those who went along with the crowd. With the popular position of the day. They were those who stood for Jesus. Stood for God. Stood for faithfulness.
[26:57] And it's to those people that God speaks. Now what does God say to them? Well he says to them in reality that they are going to suffer to a certain degree.
[27:09] They're going to experience some of the repercussions of the sin of the nation around about them. Some of them would be sent into exile. Some of them would lose their homes and their lands.
[27:20] Some of them would suffer that invasion. But God says to them in spite of all of that do not fear. Now what has this got to do with us?
[27:33] What does this event and God's words to these people thousands of years ago have to say to us today? Is there anything that we can draw from it?
[27:44] Anything that is relevant to us? Well so much. So very much. You see we are living in a world and in an age which is sinful. In fact when Paul writes to the Galatian Christians he says about this world today as this present evil age.
[28:02] He's not just talking about the first century after Christ was born. He's talking about the world in which we live. It has always been a present evil age. Men and women have always sought to please themselves.
[28:14] They've always sought to reject God. They've always sought to put their faith in other things than him. They've always sought to throw over his commands and his laws and do their own will. The truth is that as God's people we too suffer by living in a sinful world.
[28:32] We suffer because we live in a sinful world which is at war with God and because the people of this world are sinful and so are we. We are fallen people too.
[28:46] Much of the consequences, much of the suffering in one sense that we endure is actually at our own hand by our own foolishness, by our own selfishness, by our own greed or pride.
[28:58] But the reality is this, is that in the world in which we live as Christians when troubles come, when difficulties come, when problems arise, when hard times are experienced, that is not as we might think God punishing us for our sin.
[29:16] It's due to the fact that this world is under God's judgment. And so when God speaks to his people here, he's speaking to us. His people have always been that number who are faithful and sought to follow and trust in him, but are people who are living in a world which is going the other way, the other direction.
[29:37] And you know that. You know that yourselves, whether you're at school or college or in the workplace, wherever you live, in your families and relationships, you know that you are, in one sense, walking against the tide, walking against the popular position.
[29:51] Now, what does God have to say to us about this? Particularly as we see that difficulties will come, suffering will come, hardships will come, for you, for me, in 2017.
[30:10] There's no doubt about that. Well, God describes what we will face in two ways. The second way we'll look at next week. The first way is there in the first part of verse 2.
[30:23] He describes living in this world and the troubles that we face and will face in 2017 as passing through the waters and passing through the rivers. Now, as he's speaking to the people of Judah at the time, he's literally talking about the army that will come from Assyria, that great northern empire, one of the superpowers of its day.
[30:46] Because earlier on in Isaiah, God had said this, the Lord is about to bring against them, that's his people, the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates, the king of Assyria with all his pomp.
[30:58] It will overflow all its channels, run over its banks and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it. like a great mighty river, like a great floodwater, bursting its banks and flooding and washing away everything before it, houses and trees and crops and plants, so the Assyrian army will come down from the north and sweep through the land, bringing destruction and devastation in its wake.
[31:30] there are times, you know, in our lives, dear friends, when we feel as if we are overwhelmed by the circumstances of our situation.
[31:42] There are troubles that flood into our lives and they seem to be like those great waves that knock us off our feet, that buffet us and push us along.
[31:55] And no matter how much we want to stand against them, no matter how much we feel that we have the strength to do so, we are unable to do so. We're just knocked down. That's just how David the king felt at times in his own life.
[32:10] Psalm 69 is how he describes his troubles and difficulties. Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths where there is no foothold.
[32:22] I have come into the deep waters. The floods engulf me. These metaphorical floods, these metaphorical rivers and waters, we feel as if we're drowning in, as if we are gasping for air, as if they will certainly sweep us away.
[32:47] Now that's exactly what the people of Isaiah's day thought. When God had said to them through Isaiah the prophet that the Assyrians are coming and judgment is coming, their knees began to quake.
[32:58] They lost all hope. They felt as if there was nothing they could do and that surely this was the end. But God tells them, do not fear.
[33:11] Do not fear that you will be overwhelmed. Do not fear that these problems will sweep you away. Do not fear that you will drown under them. So what is it that we are afraid of in 2017?
[33:27] What is it that causes us anxiety? What is it that we fear may overwhelm us and be too much for us? Perhaps it's our health as we're getting older.
[33:39] Perhaps it's our work. No certainty as to whether the work will continue, whether we make it redundant. No certainty about the finances of our situation. It may be great fear concerning members of our family, loved ones, children, grandchildren.
[33:57] The troubles that they experience, we experience. Too much. We can't cope. Perhaps it's just fears for ourselves, for our own circumstances, for our own mental health, for our own struggles.
[34:12] Yet for each of us, and to each of us, God's word says, do not fear. Do not fear. I'm reliably informed, though I haven't done this myself, that there are 365 occasions in the Bible where God says to one or more of his people, do not be afraid.
[34:33] You do the maths. Do not be afraid. Fear not. But the reality is that our fears have a foundation. There are those sort of fears which are unfounded.
[34:45] Silly fears, foolish fears, fears which have no reason to have a place in our minds and hearts. But the fears that we do have for 2017 about these things, they have some foundation.
[34:57] We know, as I've already said, God's word tells us and life tells us there will be troubles and difficulties coming our way. We know that we are weak people. We know our own limitations.
[35:08] We know our smallness of faith. And we know that the devil is much against us, his schemes and assaults to overcome us. So for God simply to say fear not isn't enough.
[35:21] If it's just like somebody saying to a person who is unwell, get better. Don't be ill. Words aren't enough. You need something more than words.
[35:32] You need something more than just simply God saying don't be afraid. afraid. Well, why shouldn't we be afraid? God makes us a promise, doesn't he?
[35:45] He makes us a promise there in verse 2. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. They will not overwhelm you.
[35:56] They will not be too big for you. They will not destroy you. They will not wash you away. So God makes a promise. Don't be afraid because these problems and difficulties will not overwhelm you, will not sweep you away.
[36:10] But even then, we need something more than that, don't we? We need something more than simply a promise. We need more than just nice words which say everything's going to be okay.
[36:22] Everything's going to work out. You're going to be fine. So what does God say? To give us the assurance, the confidence, the hope that whatever comes our way, we will not be overwhelmed if we trust in him.
[36:39] Well, God gives us the guarantee. He guarantees the promise with those words there. I will be with you. I will be with you.
[36:50] It's repeated again, isn't it, in verse 5. Do not be afraid for I am with you. The promise of God is that we shall not be overwhelmed, we shall not be blown away, we shall not be drowned on the problems and difficulties of life that we face in 27.
[37:07] Why? Because God is with us and being with us means to support us, to sustain us, to help us, to carry us, to bear us up, to bring us through. Many years ago when our oldest children, our two oldest children were very small, only probably four and two or something like that, we went away and had a little break and one afternoon we went for a walk and the circular walk brought us to a ford in the river.
[37:38] Unfortunately it was autumn and the river was quite swollen and the ford was running very fast, it was only six inches deep but it was running very fast. It was obvious that the children couldn't cross that ford by themselves and so we did what every other parent has done before, we put them on our shoulders and carried them across that ford, that very fast river.
[38:01] You see when we face troubles in life, when we face difficulties, God does not provide us with a bridge that we might go over them and they might just pass underneath us. God doesn't provide us with a detour around the flood.
[38:18] He doesn't say, well there's a flood, you can just go right, you can go all the way around, you can miss it altogether. No, God always takes us through. It's like David in that 23rd Psalm, though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death, we have to go through these things.
[38:32] We would like to avoid them, we would like to retour them, we'd like to have a bridge over them, but actually no we don't. God doesn't take us away from them, he takes us through them.
[38:45] And this promise is exactly that, that God says I will be with you when you pass through the rivers, when you pass through the storms, when you pass through the flooding waters, it's not then that I abandon you, it's not then that I leave you, it's not then that I forsake you and you just have to do it yourself, it's then in one sense that I am with you most of all.
[39:04] How many of us have experienced something like that in our lives? Times when we've experienced such great difficulty and trouble, such great hardship perhaps and loss and yet somehow there we've known the very presence of God in a very special way.
[39:21] for I am the Lord your God, for I am the Lord your God and with you. Now if we doubt that promise then we need not, we need only look back two weeks to see what happened when the Lord Jesus Christ was born.
[39:40] What is the very essence of Christmas? It is Emmanuel, God with us. It is God coming to us where we are in a sinful and broken and hurting world.
[39:52] That's Christmas. When we look at the Lord Jesus Christ himself, the very purpose and mission of his life, the very coming of himself into the world and going to the cross was to enable and make certain that we would always have God with us.
[40:09] The very experience of Christ on the cross where he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? It's him experiencing what the believer shall never experience. It's him taking our sin and God's judgment upon himself so that we shall always know God's nearness.
[40:28] And when our Lord Jesus Christ left this world to ascend, to return back to his Father, the very end of Matthew 28, what are the very final words he speaks to his disciples as they're about to see him no more?
[40:42] It's those words of assurance, surely I am with you always, even to the very end of the age. What's the very ministry? The ministry of the Holy Spirit himself, who was sent by the Father and the Son.
[40:57] The ministry of the Holy Spirit was to be another advocate, another paracletos, another one who comes alongside. For the Christian, dear friends, each one of us has that confidence and assurance that we are indwelt by the triune God.
[41:14] He lives with us wherever we go. He is with us, never leaving nor forsaking, that wonderful hymn that we sang just then. We don't need any other hope.
[41:28] We don't need any other help. If we have that promise of God that I am with you, when we pass through the troubles and the difficulties of life, then we have all the promises of God.
[41:43] Because we have all of God with us. And everything that he's said and everything that he's promised to do, the total sum of God's promises are this, I am with you. Everything that God has done for us, everything that God is doing for us, all our hopes for the future are found in his word.
[42:05] So dear friends, this coming year, there will be deep waters, there will be fast-flowing rivers, there will be huge waves, there will be trials.
[42:22] But God has promised they will not sweep over you for I am with you. Hebrews 13 verse 5, because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.
[42:39] Father, let's spend a moment in prayer together. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray.
[42:50] Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray.
[43:00] Right. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray.