back to index2017-08-13 Our Father's Love for Israel Part 2
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I'm going to jump into the text this morning in Romans chapter 11. 00:00:11.120 |
Elder Joe already read it, and I'm going to just jump right in, just continue the theme 00:00:18.200 |
So let me pray first, and then we'll jump in. 00:00:19.400 |
Gracious Father, what an awesome God you are. 00:00:25.720 |
We want, as you've been faithful all these years, and at times as we labor, sometimes 00:00:33.720 |
there's frustration of wanting to see fruit in a certain way, but we know, Father, you're 00:00:39.160 |
sovereign that in your time and in your purpose, Lord God, that you will fulfill what you have 00:00:47.360 |
I pray that as we've been reminded, Lord, of your grace over Rita's life, that you would 00:00:52.160 |
continue to help us to be faithful, to fix our eyes on Christ's eternity and all the 00:00:59.880 |
So I pray that your word would speak to us to remind us that again. 00:01:06.400 |
You know, the question that Paul has asked previously, and he's been trying to answer, 00:01:12.040 |
not just in the last few chapters, but probably from the very beginning of the book of Romans, 00:01:18.480 |
And this is a huge question in the church today, that the church in some sense is divided 00:01:24.160 |
because depending on what commentary you open up or what church you go to, they will say 00:01:28.700 |
that Israel is done, that God had his time with the nation of Israel and now Israel and 00:01:35.640 |
And so whenever the scripture talks about his people, he's talking about the church, 00:01:43.360 |
I believe, again, and my conviction has grown only stronger in the years, that when God 00:01:51.720 |
was working with the nation of Israel, he wasn't just temporarily saying that until 00:01:55.840 |
Christ comes and the Gentile church comes into existence, that he's going to be faithful 00:02:00.960 |
And once that happens, he's going to mesh them all together and we're just all going 00:02:04.240 |
That sounds good, but it's inconsistent with what I see in scripture. 00:02:08.440 |
And I'm going to be talking briefly about the subject of the church in Israel. 00:02:12.480 |
Again, I'm not going to go too deep into it, but about God's faithfulness, his love to 00:02:17.960 |
And we may sit here and think, that's one of those topics that only seminary students 00:02:22.960 |
or pastors or theologians are interested, but for the average person, that's not a subject 00:02:32.120 |
But I want to start off by telling you just how important this is. 00:02:35.200 |
And the main point or the application of God's love for Israel, I'm going to share that at 00:02:41.840 |
So even though you might be sitting, I'm already addressing the issue of maybe some of you 00:02:45.000 |
guys sitting here is like, "Oh, he's going to talk about Israel." 00:02:49.640 |
But again, I hope that you stay with me to get to the conclusion and the application 00:02:56.000 |
Obviously, Paul has said already, but he's repeating again, if everything that you have 00:03:00.920 |
said about the gospel is true, that it is by faith and by grace alone and not by observing 00:03:12.000 |
If they've hardened their hearts against God and they sin over and over again, is God done? 00:03:21.640 |
And then the answer he gives is, "I'm a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin." 00:03:25.480 |
In other words, he said, "I have personal vested interest in this." 00:03:40.160 |
I could spend probably weeks talking about why I believe that Israel is still in the 00:03:45.560 |
And when I say Israel, we're talking about Israel as his people, as a nation. 00:03:50.080 |
Now we don't have time to go into the details and intricacies of how that will play out, 00:03:54.040 |
when it will play out, but why I believe this subject is so important. 00:03:58.600 |
One, the previous passage, he said that the gospel was opened up, the kingdom was opened 00:04:14.120 |
I don't know about you, but I don't know anybody who breaks off from a previous relationship 00:04:19.040 |
that he's completely done with and is doing things to make that person jealous. 00:04:23.880 |
The only reason why you're trying to do things to make that other person jealous is hoping 00:04:30.520 |
Nobody who's moved on is going to do anything to make them jealous, because if they're jealous, 00:04:34.200 |
they're going to hinder what you're doing with this new person. 00:04:37.160 |
The only reason why God is doing this to make them jealous is because God is not done with 00:04:42.600 |
It would only make sense that God is trying to stir up the nation of Israel. 00:04:47.000 |
So at one point, say, that same God who loves the Gentiles, he also loved us, but look at 00:04:51.960 |
the blessing upon them so that Israel will be brought back into the fold. 00:04:56.640 |
Not only that, the whole time in Jesus' ministry, the disciples were asking, is it now? 00:05:04.080 |
At the kingdom, can you let me sit to the left or to the right? 00:05:10.520 |
They didn't fully understand, but after his death and resurrection, before he goes up 00:05:15.420 |
to heaven, the disciples still couldn't let it go. 00:05:20.280 |
And the last question that they asked Jesus before they left in Acts chapter 1, 6, so 00:05:24.760 |
when they had come together, they asked him, the disciples asking Jesus, "Lord, will you 00:05:36.120 |
Because you and I don't live in a, you know, like a patriotic, and even though we think 00:05:41.920 |
we are, but if you've ever been to a country where the nationalism, the patriotism toward 00:05:52.800 |
You know, when I was younger, Korea was like that. 00:05:55.360 |
You know, when Korea had, some of you guys may or may not remember, when they had the 00:05:58.800 |
World Cup, they said 80% of Korea had watched the World Cup soccer. 00:06:04.320 |
I grew up, when I was younger, in a country where the country came above everything. 00:06:10.280 |
It came above your parents, your friendship, your school, your education. 00:06:16.080 |
So living in a country like this, it's hard for us to understand the kind of nationalism 00:06:22.400 |
So that's why Paul, the very first question, he says, "Is God done with his people?" 00:06:29.720 |
See, when the disciples were asking, they weren't just asking about this kingdom that 00:06:36.560 |
They were specifically saying, "Are you done with Israel?" 00:06:40.680 |
Jesus doesn't say, "Hey, you've got the kingdom wrong. 00:06:44.120 |
You've had your chance up to this point, so now the kingdom is going to open to everybody 00:06:48.640 |
And so we're talking, if he wanted to correct them, that would have been the perfect time 00:06:57.840 |
He answers them and says, "It is not for you to know the times or the season that the 00:07:06.760 |
He doesn't say, "You need to have a new understanding of the kingdom." 00:07:09.280 |
He says, "No, God has fixed, he has ordained a specific time when that is going to be fulfilled." 00:07:20.400 |
"You just don't know that, but it's going to happen." 00:07:24.400 |
In Revelation chapter 5, even at the very end when we see the vision of heaven, we see 00:07:33.760 |
Now we don't know if that's an actual number of 144,000, but there is a distinction between 00:07:40.000 |
the nation of Israel and then behind them standing the Gentiles who are worshiping behind 00:07:46.040 |
So there is a clear distinction between Israel and the rest of the church. 00:07:54.040 |
Again, I'm going to get to that at the very end. 00:07:57.400 |
But let me give you a hint of why this is so important. 00:08:00.880 |
Because it reveals to us our God's nature of who he is. 00:08:06.020 |
The answer he gives in chapter 11, verse 1 and 2 is very simple. 00:08:13.200 |
He said, "By no means, for I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member 00:08:19.120 |
God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew." 00:08:24.120 |
The simple answer to that question is he didn't reject Israel because he foreknew them. 00:08:29.680 |
Now it's important for us to understand the doctrine of foreknowledge because in it contains 00:08:35.700 |
why God is not done with Israel and why we can bank on his promises. 00:08:40.380 |
He says, "God is not done with Israel because he foreknew them." 00:08:46.440 |
Now what I want to do for the rest of the time is to dissect and understand the doctrine 00:08:52.560 |
What does God mean when he says he foreknew Israel? 00:08:55.320 |
And also in return what it means to foreknow us. 00:08:59.480 |
One, foreknowledge means that God chose to know Israel intimately. 00:09:05.200 |
That God sovereignly chose to know Israel intimately. 00:09:09.460 |
Some people have taken the English word foreknowledge and said, "Well, God knows what they were 00:09:18.320 |
The word for foreknowledge in Greek is pro-gnosco, that he knew beforehand. 00:09:25.800 |
Not knew as in he looked down history and he kind of predicted and he saw something 00:09:34.480 |
I'm just going to read straight from the Bible dictionary in complete word study dictionary. 00:09:39.480 |
This is kind of like my go-to Bible Greek dictionary. 00:09:43.520 |
And instead of me explaining it to you, I'm just going to read what it says about this 00:09:47.600 |
"In the language of Scripture, something foreknown is not simply that which God was 00:09:54.360 |
Rather, it is presented as that which God gave prior consent to, that which received 00:10:03.160 |
Hence, this term is reserved for those matters which God favorably, deliberately, and freely 00:10:11.360 |
So he wasn't just looking down history and say, "Oh, that's what he's going to do." 00:10:16.880 |
The doctrine of foreknowledge is God willfully, deliberately, freely choosing the nation of 00:10:25.560 |
But to add to that, the meaning of that, the word to know in the Bible is not the way you 00:10:33.400 |
Like I know how to eat, I know how to drive, I know how to read. 00:10:37.760 |
Those of you who are at the family retreat, I think Pastor Ray did a great job talking 00:10:43.960 |
The Bible used to know oftentimes to describe a relationship between husband and wife, that 00:10:48.840 |
Adam and Eve knew each other and they had children. 00:10:53.440 |
That they didn't exchange information about each other. 00:10:56.560 |
It means they had physical relation, sexual relation. 00:11:00.920 |
And because of this intimacy, they were able to have a child. 00:11:03.680 |
So the scripture often uses the word knowledge as intimate, personal relationship between 00:11:12.960 |
So to pre-know something means that God had determined prior to Israel even existing that 00:11:20.440 |
He had predetermined to focus His attention, to choose them. 00:11:25.440 |
So in Amos chapter 3 verse 2, when it says, "Israel only have I known," He's not saying 00:11:32.680 |
that He didn't know anything about the Babylonians, He didn't know anything about Assyrians, He 00:11:38.960 |
He said that Israel was specifically chosen to focus His attention and His love for them. 00:11:46.320 |
So the first understanding of foreknowledge, it was predetermined, that God pre-knew and 00:11:54.640 |
Secondly, the doctrine of foreknowledge means that God committed to make them His people. 00:12:00.460 |
He didn't just choose to know them, He chose to make them His people, to love them. 00:12:08.160 |
Deuteronomy chapter 7, 6 through 8, God describes the beginnings of Israel and He says, "For 00:12:17.120 |
The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession." 00:12:22.120 |
Not just to own, He said, but treasured possession. 00:12:24.520 |
"Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, it was not because you were 00:12:28.240 |
more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you. 00:12:32.800 |
For you were the fewest of all the peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is 00:12:37.560 |
keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers." 00:12:41.920 |
He predetermined not only to choose them, but to love them. 00:12:47.000 |
In Deuteronomy chapter 32, His love for Israel is described as the apple of God's eyes. 00:13:00.880 |
Apple of God's eyes, again, I think for the sake of time, the best way to describe it 00:13:04.080 |
is He's illustrating the fact that if something is coming toward your eyes, you don't think 00:13:11.780 |
as the thing is coming and say, "Should I close my eyes?" 00:13:17.960 |
Even a lint is coming in and you immediately swipe it away. 00:13:20.440 |
If it's a little tiny fly, you don't think there, it's like, "You can't harm me." 00:13:24.900 |
You don't sit there and say, "You know, I'm just going to wipe this out." 00:13:30.560 |
You do anything in your power to duck, to get it away, to protect your eyes. 00:13:34.980 |
You may not do that if it's coming toward your arm or anything else, but for whatever 00:13:37.680 |
the reason, God had made it instinctively because of the sensitivity that if anything 00:13:43.240 |
is coming toward your eye, we instinctively, without even thinking, God is using that as 00:13:48.400 |
an illustration to describe the preciousness of Israel to Him. 00:13:53.240 |
Instinctively, if you harm Israel, you are harming the apple of my eye. 00:13:59.680 |
Not only did He predetermine to choose them, He says He predetermined to love them, to 00:14:08.080 |
Also in Psalm 105, verse 8 through 8, He says He remembers His covenant forever. 00:14:13.240 |
The word that He commanded for a thousand generations, the covenant that He made with 00:14:17.040 |
Abraham, He swore, His sworn promise to Isaac, which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute, 00:14:26.840 |
He said He made this covenant and He said He will never break this covenant. 00:14:31.600 |
But yet some people will look at the prophet Isaiah and they say, "Well, I mean, there's 00:14:36.160 |
a clear evidence that He is done with Israel. 00:14:39.560 |
Israel kept on rebelling over and over again and as a result of that, they're going into 00:14:44.280 |
And so, some of you guys who studied the book of Hosea, it starts out by saying God telling 00:14:49.280 |
Hosea to go marry Gomer, a prostitute, and she's going to keep prostituting herself, 00:14:53.960 |
but you're going to keep forgiving her and embracing her to physically illustrate the 00:15:01.960 |
To further illustrate this frustration, this rebellion, that Hosea has three children. 00:15:09.320 |
The first child's name is Jezreel, which means God's souls, meaning that God is about to 00:15:14.720 |
reveal something very important to the nation of Israel. 00:15:17.680 |
The second child they have, a daughter, her name is Loharuma. 00:15:22.160 |
Loharuma literally means she has not received mercy. 00:15:26.940 |
As a result of the rebellion, God is going to withhold His mercy. 00:15:30.560 |
And then third, finally, the end result of this rebellion, the third child's name is 00:15:40.800 |
Some people will read that and say, "Well, there's clear evidence that their rebellion 00:15:51.560 |
But if you keep reading in the book of Hosea, you will find that even in the context of 00:15:57.040 |
rebellion, even in the context of God bringing judgment upon the nation of Israel, He tells 00:16:04.680 |
Hosea chapter 1, 10-11, "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand 00:16:09.640 |
of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. 00:16:12.680 |
And in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' it shall be said 00:16:19.400 |
This is right after He told them that because of your rebellion, you are not my people. 00:16:23.960 |
But He said even in that context, He says, "I am not done with you." 00:16:29.040 |
In Isaiah 49, verse 15 and 16, He says, "Can a woman forget her nursing child that she 00:16:33.880 |
should have no compassion on the son of her womb? 00:16:37.300 |
Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. 00:16:40.400 |
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. 00:16:47.820 |
He promises the nation of Israel over and over again that He will not forget His covenant. 00:16:55.200 |
It wasn't at some point, you know, even as they were rebelling against God, God says, 00:16:58.980 |
"Because of your rebellion, judgment is coming, but I will never forget my covenant with you." 00:17:04.840 |
So first, He preordained His choice of Israel, and then He preordained His choice to love 00:17:15.580 |
Thirdly, the doctrine of foreknowledge means that God chose to establish Israel through 00:17:21.740 |
So the natural question is, if God is going to be that faithful to the nation of Israel, 00:17:27.020 |
does that mean that they don't need to believe the gospel, that they're just going to be 00:17:31.060 |
And that's where He brings this example of how God preserved the nation of Israel during 00:17:42.020 |
Elijah's ministry happened during the time of King Ahab. 00:17:45.740 |
King Ahab is probably considered maybe either the worst or second worst king of Israel. 00:17:53.180 |
So there's a debate between, is Ahab worse or Manasseh the worst? 00:17:56.260 |
There's a, you know, it's a toss-up between the two. 00:18:00.940 |
Elijah, even before his encounter with the Baal priest, he's already burnt out. 00:18:07.580 |
His encounter in chapter 18 begins by saying, "There's no other prophet left. 00:18:12.460 |
And God speaks to him and says, "Go tell Ahab. 00:18:15.740 |
Go tell Ahab that there's going to be an encounter." 00:18:25.260 |
He wants to make this very public in hopes that after this encounter of demonstrating 00:18:31.300 |
God's power, that revival is going to break out in Israel. 00:18:37.500 |
You gather 450 Baal priests, and then I will stand by myself, and we're going to put up 00:18:46.580 |
And then he turns to the nation of Israel, and he says to them, "It is enough for you 00:18:55.380 |
If Baal is God, make up your mind and worship Baal. 00:18:59.340 |
But if Yahweh is God, then make up your mind and commit and repent and worship him." 00:19:05.180 |
So the whole reason of this encounter was in hopes that when God showed up, that there 00:19:13.700 |
If you know the story, he says, "You know what? 00:19:20.940 |
He sacrifices it and puts it up on the altar. 00:19:24.500 |
You know, all 450 of you, start praying to Baal. 00:19:28.700 |
So all morning, they're chanting, and they're crying out, and they're asking Baal to come 00:19:35.340 |
And something comical, and this is Elijah, the first sarcastic prophet that we know in 00:19:41.220 |
And he basically says, "Is your God sleeping? 00:19:49.980 |
There's one guy with 450, and he's like, "Maybe he's tired. 00:19:55.800 |
So they keep going all day long, and nothing happens. 00:20:00.900 |
And then he moves him aside, and I'll show you. 00:20:05.200 |
But before he does that, he wants to make sure that everybody knows that something supernatural 00:20:12.700 |
So he takes three buckets of water, and he pours it on. 00:20:22.760 |
He puts so much water over this sacrifice that the water is flowing over this altar. 00:20:40.040 |
And so he fully expects revival to break out. 00:20:47.440 |
Instead, after this is all done, Jezebel, the wife who was silent throughout this whole 00:20:52.920 |
process, you know, who was the wife of Ahab, appears. 00:20:58.160 |
Now, you know, you probably heard, at least jokingly, people say that the husband is the 00:21:04.520 |
head and the wife is the neck, you know, because the neck controls the head. 00:21:18.600 |
Ahab, though he was the king, was completely controlled by Jezebel. 00:21:23.080 |
You know, there's a reason why people don't name their daughters Jezebel, because she's 00:21:28.640 |
Like boys aren't named Judas and girls are not named Jezebel. 00:21:35.720 |
She shows up on the scene, and Ahab is scared to death because of what happened. 00:21:40.880 |
Jezebel comes on the scene, is like, "You fool. 00:21:43.640 |
You're going to let that one weird prophet destroy everything that we built?" 00:21:48.840 |
And so she makes an edict, "Get that guy and kill him." 00:21:51.760 |
Strangely, you would think after experiencing this kind of power, and Elijah is known in 00:21:59.680 |
Israel's history to be the most powerful prophet. 00:22:02.440 |
He performed the most miracles, the greatest and most powerful miracles, and because of 00:22:07.120 |
her threat, because of her threat, he runs out into the desert and he's hiding in the 00:22:16.400 |
You just won the MMA championship and it was the greatest fight of your life. 00:22:20.520 |
You destroyed everybody, and all of a sudden, the guy you destroyed, his wife says, "Get 00:22:26.080 |
And he's just, "Oh," and then he just starts running. 00:22:27.560 |
That's basically what happens in 1 Kings chapter 18. 00:22:32.320 |
God shows up and God simply says, "What are you doing here?" 00:22:37.360 |
And he asked him several times, "Elijah, what are you doing here?" 00:22:46.680 |
But if you look carefully, you'll find exactly why. 00:22:59.800 |
He comes and he says in 1 Kings 19.10, he says to God, "I have been very jealous for 00:23:07.480 |
For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed 00:23:14.160 |
And I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away." 00:23:19.840 |
In other words, he thought revival was going to break out, but it didn't. 00:23:25.000 |
He thought people are going to be on their knees repenting and claiming love for Yahweh, 00:23:39.600 |
And I'm sure he was probably thinking the same thing. 00:23:45.760 |
If they won't repent after this, what hope do we have?" 00:23:50.000 |
That's why he was in the cave, because he felt like he had nobody. 00:23:55.160 |
Obviously, you know the story, God shows up, not in the earthquake, not in the fire, but 00:24:02.880 |
God reminds him, "It's not because of your power. 00:24:08.160 |
He said, "I have 7,000 men who have not bowed to Baal. 00:24:20.280 |
That it wasn't your effort, it wasn't your cleverness, it wasn't this powerful encounter, 00:24:25.000 |
simply because God made a promise to Israel that, "I'm going to keep my covenant." 00:24:33.000 |
In Isaiah 10.20, "In that day, the remnant of Israel, of the survivors of the house of 00:24:37.520 |
Jacob, will no more lean on him who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy 00:24:45.000 |
Again in Isaiah 37.31.32, "And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again 00:24:50.360 |
take root downward and bear fruit upward, for out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and 00:25:06.040 |
Why am I speaking about this so passionately? 00:25:08.960 |
"Oh God is faithful to Israel, God's not done with Israel." 00:25:13.180 |
Because God's faithfulness to Israel is his resume. 00:25:18.840 |
There's a reason why your credit score matters. 00:25:22.480 |
Why before they give you a loan, they look at your credit score, and if you, you could 00:25:26.200 |
have been faithful and you paid off your loan 9 out of 10 times, but that one time that 00:25:30.840 |
you didn't pay off your loan, there's a possibility that you might, even if it's 10%, even if 00:25:35.120 |
it's 5%, if I loan you the money, there's a good chance that you might not pay it back 00:25:39.280 |
because you have a history of unfaithfulness. 00:25:43.480 |
There's a reason why when you go get a job, they ask you to get references. 00:25:48.900 |
And they want to check your different references. 00:25:50.400 |
Or you may show up and say, "Oh, that was like that in the past. 00:25:53.480 |
You know, I'm sure I'm not going to be like that today. 00:25:58.000 |
But they say, "Well, your past doesn't show that." 00:26:02.520 |
There's a reason why these things are important because in order to entrust something to you, 00:26:08.440 |
that there has to be a track record that you're not going to, you're going to be faithful 00:26:14.320 |
See, God's love for the nation of Israel is his resume. 00:26:21.840 |
For 2,000 plus years, he made a promise to the nation of Israel, and he stuck with it 00:26:32.400 |
In their rebellion, in their idolatry, in their complacency, even as they're going into 00:26:41.320 |
captivity, even after prostituting themselves over and over again, even after beating, even 00:26:52.160 |
And then if that wasn't enough, he sends his only begotten son, and they don't recognize 00:27:03.360 |
And you would think that that was a final straw. 00:27:09.840 |
That I've been patient with all of this stuff, and you even beat my son? 00:27:18.960 |
So when Paul asked that question, now, will you reject his people now? 00:27:27.180 |
Even now, I can understand why you would have rejected Israel a long time ago. 00:27:45.280 |
God will remain faithful to his covenant because that's who he is. 00:27:49.960 |
In Hebrews 6, 18, it says, "So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible 00:27:54.520 |
for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast 00:28:03.400 |
He cannot change his covenant, and he cannot lie. 00:28:06.280 |
So therefore, we have encouragement, strong encouragement, to hold fast to everything 00:28:13.600 |
If he said to the nation of Israel, "I will be faithful to you," and then says, "You 00:28:22.760 |
I meant kind of like Israel," then how can we be confident when we get to the end? 00:28:30.040 |
He said, "Well, when I say saved, I didn't really mean saved. 00:28:33.500 |
When I said heaven, I didn't really mean heaven. 00:28:36.440 |
When I said love, I didn't really mean love." 00:28:39.480 |
If fundamentally, he made all of this covenant and all the things that he said in the Old 00:28:46.040 |
He said, "You know, I only held on to you to serve a purpose, and you served a purpose, 00:28:58.200 |
He made a covenant with the nation of Israel, and he is faithful. 00:29:03.760 |
And all the books of the Old Testament is a history of God keeping his covenant. 00:29:14.400 |
God is not man, neither shall I, nor the Son of Man, that he should repent. 00:29:22.680 |
And because he is faithful to his covenant, he is faithful to his covenant with us. 00:29:33.440 |
The only reason why you and I are here today as a church is because Jesus said, "I will 00:29:40.920 |
build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it." 00:29:45.400 |
Despite our sins, despite our rebellion, despite the divisions, despite our weakness, despite 00:29:51.120 |
our everything that we've done, we're still here today because God foreordained to love 00:29:56.800 |
us like he foreordained to love the nation of Israel. 00:30:02.360 |
This is why this doctrine is so important, because the study of the nation of Israel 00:30:07.280 |
is his resume that guarantees that everything that God has promised for us, that we can 00:30:13.840 |
bank on, that we can invest today and forsake everything, because God said, "Heaven is 00:30:21.880 |
That no matter how difficult this life gets, no matter how many times we fail, he said, 00:30:27.360 |
"If you ask for forgiveness, he will forgive you of your sins." 00:30:31.240 |
And you can bank on that, just like Israel has banked on the promises that God made to 00:30:52.240 |
To know that the promises of every word, jot and tittle, will not pass away until it is 00:31:05.120 |
Again, as we ask the worship team to come back up. 00:31:10.080 |
Maybe because of life circumstances and difficulty, maybe because of your own failure, sometimes 00:31:21.360 |
When you look at the faithfulness of Israel, you know God will be faithful to you. 00:31:28.120 |
Let's take some time as we come before the Lord and as our worship team leads us, be