>> Well, good afternoon. It is such a joy to be with you. Welcome to everyone who has come both from near and far. I've heard people coming as far as from New York and places like Ohio and the Midwest. I'm a Midwesterner myself, so I resonate with that and I appreciate the East Coast.

So we're just so thrilled to have everyone here and our heart is to encourage you. We understand both the importance of the scientific disciplines, STEM and everything, but at the same time, we also understand that it can be difficult. There are challenges for all of you who are involved in so great an endeavor.

So our heart is just to bring like-minded believers together so that you all can have mutual edification and go back to where you're ministering and working in, and to be just strengthened in the Lord. So if we can offer you that service, that is our absolute joy. I was able to just observe the fellowship happening at lunch, and it was just encouraging to my heart because it seems like that task is being accomplished.

Well, let me begin us with a word of prayer and then we will jump into what the Lord has for us providentially this afternoon. Our God and Father, as we think of so many matters, particular and technical, nuanced in nature, ultimately we still yet understand that it is all subject to your word, and that the issues that we face, though specific they may be, in the end, they are addressed by the eternal transcendent truths of the scriptures which you have revealed.

So we ask that in times of discouragement and in times of challenges and trials, that the word of God minister deeply to our heart, and even more than that, the God of the word be glorified. To that end, O God, grant us clarity and joy and encouragement, and ultimately worship as we go through the text of your revelation this afternoon.

In your name we pray. Amen. Well, like I said, this conference, at least from my vantage point, is about encouragement. It is about finding some respite from the storm of the world that can be around us, in the face particularly of industry or even in education. And so I do want to encourage you, because what really can I, as an individual, contribute to your knowledge?

You guys are the experts. You guys are the specialists. And yes, I will admit this, I am a son of scientists. My parents were chemists. They worked in the industry. My church growing up, every person, I think almost every person in my church had a PhD in some field of science.

That's the way we grew up. One of the few magazines that I had in my home growing up was Chemical and Engineering News. Thank you. I thought that's what every kid grew up with. And I would read it, and I wouldn't understand most of it, but, you know, in the back there are these jokes.

And I really appreciated that section. I thought that was the kid's section for all the parents, you know, and things like that. So that's how I grew up. I grew up talking about patents, and grants, and labs, and OSHA. When I heard that word, it wasn't used very positively.

But people talked about these things, and experiments. And as children, my friends and myself, we all knew that this was the case, that whenever we asked our parents a question about science or math, we were hoping just to get the answer so we could finish our homework. But we knew what would happen.

We would get a lecture instead. And then after the lecture, we'd get more homework. Because clearly, we didn't know what we were doing. So our parents thought, well, you got to get reinforcement and got to do it for two more hours just to solve the same kind of problem over, and over, and over, and over again.

It was a very effective strategy to quash questions. In any case, I was a son of scientists. And to be clear, I so value the sacrifices that my parents made and investment in that way my parents made in me. I may be a son of scientists, but I am not a scientist in that regard.

But I can encourage you. I can encourage you. My job might not be to expand the specialized fields that you have, but I would love to be able, by the grace of God, to strengthen your own heart in Him. And before I get into the main topic of encouragement that I want to go through this afternoon, I would be remiss if I did not talk to you about the nobility, the worshipfulness, the glory, and the honor that God has given in the sciences, in math and science, in all of STEM.

And I think this is very important because sometimes in churches and sometimes when you meet with fellow believers who are not in the discipline, they say, "What do you do for a living?" And then you say, "I work in this." And then their reaction is, "Cool." And then after an awkward silence, they say, "So what's the point of that?" And of course, that can be a little bit insulting.

And sometimes in churches, there can be even suspicion about science. And I recognize that too, and all of that can be discomforting. All of that can be discouraging. And so I would be remiss if I did not just first and foremost establish and encourage your heart that what you are doing can and should be done for the glory of Christ, that God has a purpose behind these disciplines.

Now, to be clear, reason never overrides revelation. Reason never trumps the God who made the universe and ordained what it is. In fact, reason presupposes that. Reason depends upon that. And we understand that the Scriptures, theologically speaking, provide three categories of information. It provides the category of what we call special revelation that is focally found in the Scriptures.

That is God's particular, detailed, specific revelation about himself. God discloses these things, and it is powerful because as Psalm 19 reminds us, it is what converts the soul. That is the power of special revelation. And then a second category the Scripture reveals is general revelation. And it is general in every sense.

It is general in scope and in source because it is found in creation in its totality, not in its specialization. It is general because it reaches to all people and makes them without excuse. It is general in even what it declares. It does not declare every single detail about God, but what Psalm 19 and Romans 1 remind us, it declares that God exists and that he is powerful.

It declares the divineness of his nature in that way. And it is general even in its effects because general revelation cannot convert anyone to Christ. That is why Psalm 19 contrasts general revelation, the heavens are declaring the glory of God, with special revelation, the word of Yahweh is perfect, converting the soul.

And Romans 1 reminds us that people suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And so general revelation, though declaring the glory of God, cannot convert the soul. It gives you just enough information so that all men and all people are without excuse. But there is a third category of information, and that is what the Bible terms as knowledge.

Unlike the first two, which are about revelation, God unveiling, God disclosing himself, knowledge is us discerning things God has done. Knowledge is us looking at things, and observing things, and deriving things from what God has established. One is God declaring it to us, the other one is us deriving things.

And they are two categorically different areas of information. And often what can happen when we are not careful is we elevate our reason on the level of general revelation, thinking that, "Well, general revelation talks about creation, I'm talking about creation, so they must be the same thing." And then we elevate general revelation, or what we call general revelation, to the level of special revelation.

"Oh, well, then that means that my discoveries must be on the level of Scripture. That is a dangerous road." They are different and distinct areas of knowledge. The way they are disclosed, the way they are derived, what they do, what they communicate, and their substance, we can never get them confused.

Nevertheless, while reason can never override revelation, what scientific reason in the providence of God does, it expounds upon the ramifications of revelation. It explores the ramifications, and the consequences, and the ripple effects of all that God has revealed in Scripture because the Scripture has told us who God is, and the Scripture has told us what God has done, that He is who He is, I am who I am, and He has made the heavens and the earth.

And science, and STEM, and math, and all these areas of observation and discovery, find, and locate, and explore all that God has already done, and all that God is as He has revealed in His Word. You could think of it this way, Scripture establishes who God is, and science expounds upon what God has already established.

Grace is being translated in that way into science. Think of it this way, science is then the magnification of God back to God. It is the magnification of God back to God. You say, "What do you mean by that?" Well, it's really derived from Philippians 1 where Paul says, "In everything I do, I want Christ to be magnified." There are two ways to magnify something.

One way is that you take something itty-bitty, and you put it under the microscope, and it magnifies it so it becomes larger. You take the small and make it bigger. Or you can magnify something similar to how a telescope works, where you take something that actually truly is very big, but we have thought of it as small, and we magnify it so that we see it the way it really is, the greatness that is really there.

And science, like all of life, should be doing the latter with God. Science has the ability, and it's a noble discipline. It's a worshipful discipline because it can make every miracle and show the power of every miracle. I was one time talking with a neuroscientist who said, "How do you make somebody lame walk and function?

How do you make somebody with a withered hand, whose hand is disheveled, to actually be whole?" And he was talking about all the ways that the nerves would have to be reconstructed, and all the ways the pathways to the brain would have to be reconstituted. And he said, "If any scientist could do that, they would make billions of dollars." And he said, "It's amazing that Jesus can just say it, and it happens." Science discovers the greatness of God in miracles.

It glorifies his wisdom in creation. When we look at creation and we say, "Wow, that's genius. He's genius," that's what we're really saying. Likewise, science exalts his supernatural power, his sovereignty over everything, and his unique wisdom and transcendence. Psalm 104 is a good example of this. In Psalm 104, the psalmist recounts how God made the earth in six days, rested on the seventh.

But in that framework, he says, that is the psalmist, on all the wonders of how God made things and how he uses them for his glory. What I like to remind my students to illustrate this point is, just even think of the way God created water. He created water in such a way that it can flood the earth.

If you were me and you just thought it'd be hilarious to make water more like Jell-O because, you know, I like Jell-O or whatever, then you couldn't... It's very difficult to flood the world with the viscosity of Jell-O. It's very difficult to allow Jell-O to water the plants. That's what Psalm 104 says, that the water that takes away life is the same water that gives life, and feeds the plants, and feeds the animals, and feeds the humans, and gives beverage, and liquid, and life, and hydration to all.

That's the brilliance of God. In sum, you could think of it this way, science is such a noble endeavor because what it constantly is discovering is how great thou art. That is the endeavor of science, and it's a noble one. It is a noble endeavor. In whatever you are doing, whether that be working with bacteria, or DNA, or a chemical, or a compound, or an equation, what you are magnifying to God is the depths of how great thou art.

There is the nobility of your discipline. Whatever you may be doing, that is what ultimately, when done rightly, is happening. And for that reason, you need to be encouraged. You're not wasting your time. Even sometimes when believers give you a funny stare, and they don't understand exactly what you do, even when your kids look at you funny and say, "Dad, I don't understand what you're doing." God knows.

And it's an act of an amazing worship back to him because you are magnifying the greatness of God back to himself. So be encouraged, and be particularly encouraged in times of hardship, and that is particularly what I want to address this afternoon. I may be the son of scientists, but like I said, I'm no scientist, but I am a pastor.

I am a pastor, and I am a university president, and so I understand that the workplace can be a hard place. Industry can be difficult. Even education can have its own challenges. And there are burdens, and worries, and trials, and perhaps one of the most acute of all of them is loneliness.

It's loneliness. Especially in a discipline which has been overtaken by secularism and paganism, you can really feel isolated. You can really feel all alone. You are the odd one out. You are really different. And it may be that you are one of the few in your office, in your department, in your group that loves Christ, and you feel like the outlier, and you feel alienated, and you feel like the outcast.

And as I was praying what to share with you all this afternoon, this idea really came to my mind. And it was really accentuated when Tide and A came to our board meeting, and she said one of the impetuses behind this symposium is that, she said, people sometimes feel like they're all alone, like there's no one who thinks like they do.

They think, "Does everyone think I'm crazy? Maybe I am crazy." And as she was discussing these things, it really confirmed in my heart what I wanted to share with you all this afternoon. In this world, and by the way, it isn't just the scientists, it isn't just the specialists that feel this way.

Even your pastor can feel this way. I remember being at Shepard's Conference, and at Shepard's Conference, there's about 5,000 pastors who come together, and the singing is tremendous. It's loud, it's almost deafening. They don't even have to mic the person at the piano, it wouldn't make a difference anyway because they just get drowned out by the men singing.

And I was talking with some pastors on that phenomena, and I asked, "Why do you think they sing so loud?" And all of them there, it was about 100 guys, said, "It's easy." Because that time in our year, we realize we're not alone. We're not the only ones who believe what we believe.

We're not the only ones preaching from a pulpit, begging people to be a certain way, and pleading with them about doctrine, wondering if we're the only ones who do this, or have these kind of struggles, or have these kind of issues. At that moment, when we're with 5,000 other men, we realize we're not alone.

Everyone faces this. Everyone faces this, and you all face it acutely, I recognize. And so, what I would like to do is to remind us about how, and what to do, and how to think when we face definite loneliness, when we feel the pain of rejection and isolation. And at those moments when we're sad, it is not the moment, I recognize, to engage, maybe it is for you, but I don't think normally, it's a time where you want to engage in a complex theological proof and discussion, and to remember 57 different things, and to just arrange them all in order.

At that moment, you just need a phrase. You just need a truth to hang on to, one that is rich, one that will minister to your heart, one that you can say quickly, but know with endurance. And the Bible gives that to us. The Bible has a refrain, and we should memorize it.

We should memorize it for this afternoon, and carry it with the rest of our lives. And it is found in Hebrews 13, 5. And it's so simple, you almost don't need me to tell you it. You don't even necessarily need to turn your Bible there, although you should, but by the time you turn there, you'll have it memorized.

You already will know it. "I will never leave or desert you. I will never forsake you." You know that phrase. We say it all the time. We say it all over the place. We know that. It's in the Old Testament. It's in the New Testament. It's everywhere. It's a catchphrase.

We know that. But my goal this afternoon is to make sure we really understand the depths of it, so that when the trials come and we feel by ourselves that we can say that phrase, and we know exactly what it means, and let the truths therein minister to our soul as it is special revelation.

So, the text that we're covering is Hebrews 13, verse 5. "I will never desert you. I will never forsake you." The context of Hebrews is really appropriate to discuss when we're talking about the issue of loneliness. And that might sound a little bit odd, but it's actually very, very both illuminating and hopefully encouraging.

Because I think when we think about Hebrews, we often have a superficial understanding of the issues that the people of Hebrews, the audience of Hebrews, face. Yes, we know the book of Hebrews is about the supremacy of Christ. Yes, we know, perhaps, that Hebrews is not just a letter, but it's a motivational, inspirational, driving sermon and exhortation for people to cling to Christ with loyalty.

Yes, we know. And we know that there is a warning and an urging never to go back to Judaism. Yes, we know, and we know that people were tempted to go back there. But why was all that happening in one word? It's very simple. They were lonely. They were lonely.

Even to this day, in Jewish culture, this is how Christianity is understood. I one time was talking with a believer from Judaism, out of Judaism, and he's Jewish in ethnicity and background. And he said to me, "The day I was baptized, my family, not just my immediate family, my whole family, extended family, held a funeral for me.

The very second I was baptized, they knew the minute and hour I was baptized, and they proclaimed me dead." That is the typical understanding in truly orthodox, to use the term, Jewish families about when someone believes in the Messiah. They are dead to us. We hold them a funeral.

It's as if they don't exist in our world anymore. And what you had with these Jewish believers in the time of the author of Hebrews is a bunch of people who not only were facing the political trials of being Christians, but whose families and friends and lifelong associates had essentially cut them off.

They were by themselves. And it's hard to be alone. It's hard to be by yourself. And that's why in the book of Hebrews, there's exhortations like this. Hebrews 3 verse 1, it says this, "Therefore, holy brothers, partakers of a heavenly calling." Why does the author of Hebrews call them brothers?

Not just brothers, but holy brothers. Why does he remind them? You guys are partakers of a heavenly calling. It's simple. He reminds them, and he's urging them, "Yes, I know. You feel like you're gone from your family. Yes, I know. You feel like you're cut off from your friends.

Yes, I know. You feel like you are disconnected from your community, but you still are holy brothers. You have a new family. You have a new fellowship. You have a new society. You have a new friendship and a new reality that links you, not just your Jewish heritage, but that you are partakers of a heavenly calling." Why is it that the apostle writing this or exhorting this book has urged about the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ, for sure, that he is better than Judaism.

But in Hebrews 4, he reminds us, "He will hold you fast. You can hold on to your confession. You can endure because of his intercession for you. You can persevere because he preserves you." Why talk about that? Because the world can be a very lonely place, and you need to know that somebody is on your side, and Jesus is that one.

And there's no one better than him. This is exactly why in Hebrews 10, we are familiar with it, "Do not forsake the assembling of one another together." Why? Because that's the only way you can overcome the loneliness of this world. Yes, you may feel like it is so lonely out there, and your family has disowned you, and you are completely cut off from everything.

Well, the solution isn't to go back there. The solution is to get into fellowship here. That is the author of Hebrews' argument. Hebrews 11, why talk about the Hall of Fame of Faith? Because he's reminding his people, "Yes, just like Abraham, you're walking around. You're by yourself. Just like Moses, you're by yourself.

Just like Noah, the whole world is against you, minus eight other people. But you are all by yourself. But the way you please God in the beginning, faith will get you through. The way you endure throughout all of that life, in the middle of it, just like Abraham had to endure, just like Sarah had to endure, just like Noah had to endure, God will get you through.

And he will get you through to the end. No matter what the challenges are, you will overcome. God will get you through, even though you're an exile and sojourner in this world, only seeing the promises from afar. Hebrews exalts the glory of Christ to people who feel like they're the only one to force them to understand you are never alone.

You are never alone. That's why the church exists and Christ is always with you. So there is hope. You have not come to a mountain of darkness, as Hebrews 12 says. You've come to the mountain of the saints. You've come to the mountain of the firstborn of God, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, the preeminent one.

You have come to him. You are never alone. You have the best blessings of all. And in this grand presentation of Christ, there are all kinds of applications that can be had. You should, of course, know about Christ and his priestly ministry and his glories. That's true. You can, of course, know him.

That would be very good. And, of course, you can remind yourself of these things and conform yourself to these things. That's true too. But there are some very practical, very specific actions that the author of Hebrews counsels all believers to do, that by doing those rudimentary activities, it enforces and implements the entire theology of the book of Hebrews.

And that's what you have in Hebrews 13. If you want the starting steps, the very practical on-the-ground work that can be done and should be done to live out the book of Hebrews, you do this. Let brotherly love, as it says in verse 1, continue or abide. Why? Because if you're loving each other, you'll never be alone.

And if you love each other with brotherly love, you will provoke each other to love in good deeds and remind each other about the glories of Christ and live that out together and encourage each other in it. Let brotherly love continue. Show hospitality. Don't be neglectful about hospitality. Why?

Because when you feel like a stranger because you're cut off from your family, what you need is a new family. You need somebody to invite you into their home. And when you're home with them, you realize, "I'm not alone. I'm not cut off. I'm not doing Christianity just lone ranger by myself.

Look at all these people I have with me who love me and care about me and are encouraging me about Christ." And the only reason that you would ever have that kind of relationship with a so-called stranger is simple, because the two strangers know Christ and they're no stranger from each other.

That's the reason why. And so, hospitality, do it. If you want to have encouragement, don't neglect and don't forget, but remember those in prison, especially for the faith. Why? Because prison can be a very lonely place. And so, you don't forget those people either. And you have a good marriage, verse 4.

Why? Because when you've been beaten up by the world, even at work, where do you go? Home. And if home is a refuge where Christ is exalted and you see the love of Christ through your spouse, then you are constantly anchored to him there. This is practical. But all these have been interpersonal.

Let's talk about a personal one, verse 5. At the heart of it all is contentment, that riches, wealth, status would never lure you anywhere else. And that's the struggle for a lot of the people in the author of Hebrews' time. They saw the political safety that Judaism had. They saw that there was all the wealth there and all the network and all the connections and all the advancement and all the promotion and all the fame.

It was there in that culture. All the safety and security and prosperity was there. And your heart could say, "Well, it's just hard to be for Christ because I have to give all of that up." And without contentment, that will always pull you away from the Lord. So, what do you have to remember in those moments of loneliness?

What do you have to remember in those moments where your heart is struggling with contentment and your heart is struggling to want something it can't have and it shouldn't have? The author of Hebrews says, "This is the key to everything. Just tell yourself what God has promised you. I will never desert you, nor will I forsake you.

I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you." There are two statements here and there are two points then to this message. One, God will never disconnect from you. God will never disconnect from you. God's first promise is this, "I will never." This is the strongest or one of the strongest and most emphatic declarations of negation.

"I will never desert you," or, "I will never leave you." The word "desert" or "leave" here, this first of two phrases, first of two promises, it's not a common verb. It's not a common word. It actually means to unfasten something, to open something up, like when you open up somebody's chain or you loosen a rope.

That's what it's talked about in Acts 16, verse 26, as well as Acts 27, verse 40. It's talking about when you cease contact from something or you loosen a connection with something, when something is not tight, when something, it has distance, when something is released. And since this quote is a quote from the Old Testament, that's what the author of Hebrews is doing here, he's quoting people a promise, Deuteronomy 31, verse 6.

Then, if you look at the Hebrew word that this is translating, it means to become slack. It means to become just completely disconnected from somebody. And so, negatively, you could think of it this way, that what God is promising here is that he will never disconnect from you. He will never lose the closeness he has with you.

He will never depart from you. He will never be physically distant from you. He won't let you go. He won't be disfellowshipped from you. And you say, "Yeah, I understand that." And, of course, what is driving this truth and reality is the doctrine of God's omnipresence. And how we think about the doctrine of God's omnipresence, often what we say is, "Well, God's everywhere.

He's here, He's there, He's over there, and He's next to me. Of course, He is because He's everywhere." And that is true. That's a good way to think about it. Psalm 139 reminds us, "Where can I go from His presence?" And the answer is nowhere. He's always with you.

That is true. But it is healthy not just to think about the doctrine of omnipresence relative to you. It is healthy to think about God's omnipresence relative to God. Often, how we think about the doctrines of God and the attributes of God is how we are affected by them or how we see them.

We often don't think about them relative to God. Put in scientific terms, please criticize me after this message. Well, we sometimes critique our fellow man about that they observe things phenomenologically from their perspective, sunrise, sunset. But we say, if you look at it from a true angle, a more objective angle, something completely different is happening, something very glorious, something amazing, something astounding is happening.

Yes, what you're seeing is legitimate when you couch it in language of human observation, but you're missing out on something even far grander when you understand it from a different perspective, a more third-party perspective, and not just how you like to see things. Well, you can do the same thing with theology.

Often, when we look at doctrines, we're just looking from our perspective. What's God's perspective on this doctrine? And I love this. The doctrine of omnipresence essentially says this about God, that he is not contingent but absolutely independent spatially. That is what it means. Omnipresence is the assertion of God's absolute transcendence, of God's absolute independence, that God has no need and no reliance on anything for his presence.

You and I, we rely on things for our presence. If someone came up to you and said, "Sir, your kids aren't here. We can't find them." Your response is, "Normally not." Well, that's okay because they're not contingent on being in a certain place at a certain time. It's kind of irrelevant to say that and so I wouldn't worry about it because that's not really a matter of particularity.

You wouldn't say that. You'd say, "That's not good because they got to be somewhere and I need to know where that somewhere is." They're contingent on something. It reminds me of one time there was a negotiation between Israel and the Arab nations and the Arab nation says, "We are totally okay with the existence of Israel." And everyone said, "That's great, as long as it's not on a map." How do you exist as a nation if it's not on a map?

How do you exist as a nation without a land to exist on? Things are contingent, our presence, our existence is contingent on physical locationality in this world. We are contingent and reliant and dependent and predicated upon things. God is not. God has never been predicated upon space or time.

He has never been relying on something to anchor His existence. He is completely autonomous above and beyond all of that. That is God. That is why He is not a man. That is why He is not creation. And there are so many passages that celebrate this. It is Psalm 23, "Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, you are what?

With me." Why? Because it doesn't matter the space or the time, God is there. It is not contingent on, "Well, this is a pretty hard place to get to, so I don't know if God can be with me." That is irrelevant to God. There is no such thing as hard or easy space because you're not confined by space to begin with.

It is the glory of God to be with you because it demonstrates that He was never dependent on any of those factors to begin with. They never hindered or factored into Him whatsoever. Likewise, Ezekiel 1. Ezekiel 1 depicts God in this divine chariot throne. In fact, the very chariot itself symbolizes creation.

You can even see it. There's a wheel within a wheel, like a sphere, like a globe. And then on top of that, it says this, that there was a firmament. Where have we heard the term firmament? Genesis 1. It is as if you can see the world, the sphere of the wheel within the wheel, and the firmament on top of that, and then the glory of God on top of that in this divine chariot.

It's a symbol. The divine chariot itself is a symbol that God's presence is everywhere. His glory fills the whole world. And therefore, just like a chariot is mobile and a chariot that has spherical wheels is the most mobile because you don't even have to turn the wheels like you do in a car, God's presence is unhindered.

It goes everywhere and anywhere without any problem because it was never contingent on anything for its physical locationality to begin with. That is the presence of God. He is strong, stronger, and nothing binds Him because He is omnipresent. And you might say, "Okay, I understand that God is everywhere.

I understand that He is with me, but it's really hard because I don't see Him." But remember this, His presence is not conditioned or contingent on anything. It's not even conditioned or contingent on His visibility. That's the point. You don't have to see Him for Him to be there.

It's not a prerequisite for you to see Him for Him to be there. He is there because He's not contingent on anything. No factor disqualifies or could ever preclude God from being present because He's omnipresent and inherently transcends all of those things. And so, at any place, any situation, any trial, any hard moment, God has never left you.

He has never deserted you. He has always been there. He has never disconnected Himself from you. That's to put it negatively. But there's another way to describe this, and we could describe it positively. Positively. If He's not deserted you, if He's not slack, if He's not loose, if He's not disaffiliated, then what is He?

He's not just by your side. He's not just nearby. Sometimes, I tell students, and I think we tell each other, "Hey, hey, I'm not that far away. You just text me and I'll be there." "Oh, I'm not that far away. You just give me a call and we'll be right there." And our definition of not far away or really being close is just accessibility.

It's just convenience. And that's good for human beings who are bound by space and time, I recognize. But here's the glory of God. It's not just that He's present. He's tight and close to you. That's why the text says, "He does not loosen Himself from you." What does that mean?

He's just right there. He's not just nearby. He's not just close by. He's right intimately in you and in your situation. He's not just a prayer away. He's there. He's there. That's what's so powerful about this. Think of it this way. Psalm 46, I think we're very familiar with it, "A mighty fortress is our God." We know that.

And then the next phrase is, "An ever-present help in trouble." Do you know what the word ever-present means? It means always found. That's what it means in Hebrew, always found. But it's very hard to translate always found help. What does that even mean? So we just translate it ever-present.

But it really, in Hebrew, means always found. Why? Because in our minds sometimes, when we are in trouble, when we're going through a situation, when we feel by ourselves, when we feel threatened, we feel like we have to find God. Where did he go? Where is he in this situation?

I got to go search for him. I got to go seek him out. What does God say? "I never deserted you. I never left you. I'm right there. I'm always found. You never need to find me. I'm always found. I'm right there. I'm not a phone call away where you have to then give a report, like to your boss, about what's going on and kind of help him to understand the situation.

He's in the situation. He knows it better than you do. He's right there. You don't have to go looking for him. He's found." In fact, it goes to this point. This is amazing. In Psalm 73, verse 23. Psalm 73, verse 23, it says this, and listen to the words carefully.

"I found. I am with you. I am with you." Listen to those words for a second and think about it this way. Often, what we say to God is, "You are with me." That's how we often think about it. God's with us. God's with us. And that's a biblical phrase, and that's a biblical truth.

Amen and amen. God is with us. And the presumption that goes along with this is that we're meandering throughout our lives and going about our jolly business, and God is right by our side. He's hugging very tightly close to us, and that's true. But what does a psalmist realize in Psalm 73?

That we are so close to God, and God is so close to us. It's not that he is with us. We are actually what? With him. This whole time, you have thought that you are going along your life, meandering down the ways and the path of this existence, and then God is just tagging along with you, supporting you as you go.

And there is a truth to that, but the real truth, if you're looking at it from a third-party, omnipresent perspective, is this. God was actually leading you the entire time. He was the one cutting the path forward. He was the one driving through every single trial. And it wasn't that he was with you.

It was that you were alongside of him for the ride. That's how close he was with you. He was holding your hand and dragging you through, not the other way around. That is the God who never deserts us. That's how close he is. When God says, "I will not desert you," it's a promise that he will never slacken.

He will never loosen. He will never create distance. He will not disconnect. But rather, he will always be in the closest, most intimate, most involved position with you. He, and when you have trouble, and when you have trial, you don't need to search for him. He's found. And when you feel isolated in work, or at school, or in industry, you don't need to go to meet him.

You don't need to go anywhere. He's there. And when you are hurt, and when you are rejected, and you are wondering, "Does anyone understand what I'm going through?" God does. Why? Because he's there. He's right there in the situation. He has not deserted you in that moment. He's right there.

He is not spatially bound. And if you say, "Okay, I understand that, but I just can't see him, and I struggle with that." Remember this, you may not be able to see him, but that doesn't mean he's not there because that he was never contingent on that visibility to begin with.

He will never desert you. He's right there. He's always found. It's not that he's with you, you're with him. That's what's going on. Second, God is not just not disconnected, he is not distant from us. Notice the last phrase, equally emphatic, "I will never, it will never happen. I will never forsake you." Sometimes loneliness is not just a physical reality, just being physically by yourself or physically isolated or quarantined, it's relational.

You know, you can be in a room filled with people but be alone. You can be in a room with all your colleagues but be completely rejected. And probably some of you here have experienced that. People can shun you, people can mock you, people can feel uncomfortable around you, people want to distance themselves from you.

And even though they're right next to you, you can be all alone. And that perhaps is even more hurtful than sometimes being physically by yourself and wondering if there's anyone out there. Because when you're physically by yourself, nothing is happening. There's no one around to do anything to you.

But when people are there and they're proactively rejecting you, that's when it hurts the most. And here is exactly what was happening to the people in the author of Hebrews Day. They had people around them all the time. They were presumably in the city of Rome, but they were all by themselves.

They were all by themselves. And so what does the author of Hebrews do? In the final chapter, he reminds them of this promise, "God never has ever forsaken you." Here's the idea. There's never been a point for the believer, for the one who knows Christ, where God has not only just disconnected from them physically but shunned them.

He has never closed the door on them. He has never turned a cold shoulder on them. He has never rejected them. He has never just had enough and doesn't want to listen anymore, and just completely distanced himself from them. No, rather, what is it? It's the opposite of that.

God has always embraced his children. He has always been near to them. He has always warmly hugged them. He has always warmly loved them. He has always been intimately related and connected with them. And even in discipline, even in discipline, he still shows that care. You know, as an educator, sometimes you just feel like you can never win.

If you grade your students harshly, then they say, "The teacher's too harsh. Writes too much. Tell him to slacken off a little bit." So then you abide by their instructions, and then you don't say a thing. And what do they say in their reviews? "The teacher seems very disinvolved with the students, doesn't pay attention, doesn't participate enough in their lives.

We need some more critique. We need some more rebuke." Which one is it? But that's the point. Even when we're rebuked, even when we're disciplined, it's because a God is there, not because he's not. It's because God has not shunned his children. He's there. He's there, still holding on.

He's there, still embracing. He's there, loving, and understanding, and caring about you as his child, as his adopted son, as his heir. You can always have comfort. Even when everyone is ridiculing you, and you feel completely misunderstood, and they don't understand where I'm coming from, and they don't get me, there is one who always does, and that's your God.

He perfectly does. And he is right there, and he is right there, and therefore, understands everything completely in that second. And as we go to him in prayer and seek solace in him, you will always have it. Why? Because he will never forsake us. There is no distance between us and God ever, relationally.

But if that's not enough, if you just can't seem to grasp and have our hearts compelled by this truth that God always embraces us, and always keeps us close, and always relationally understands, and he is our sympathetic high priest who is not just understanding, but interceding so that we persevere to the end.

And if that just doesn't grip our heart, remember why God will never forsake us. Remember why God will never forsake us. You see, Hebrews 13, 5, like I've been saying, is a quote from the Old Testament. And it is a quote from the Old Testament, and the Hebrew word "forsake" is found in other very, very key passages.

You know of one of them, Psalm 22, verse 1. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" There's a reason why God will never forsake you. The reason is this, because he forsook his son. The reason God will never forsake you is because there was one who took your place.

Do we deserve to be forsaken? Absolutely. Do we deserve rejection and the worst kind of repudiation, and humiliation, and wrath? Of course we do. Do we deserve the worst kind of punishment, and the worst kind of alienation, and the worst kind of despising that we could ever receive? Of course we do.

But why don't we have it? Why do we have the complete opposite? It's because there was one, in space and time, that was forsaken. And it was not us, but our substitute, the Son of God. And he was forsaken on our behalf. He, in his humanity, was rejected by the triune God, and by God the Father, and poured out his wrath on him, absorbed the penalty for us, so to speak, took our place.

And all of that happened so that we would never, never, ever in our life, in our entire existence, face what it really means to be forsaken. It will never happen because someone took our place. And in the times when you wonder, because you're hurting so badly, or you feel so poorly, "Does God still really love me?

Does God even care about what is going on?" Remember this. Yes, he does. Why? Because someone already took our place to secure that for forever. That we would never face that. And in the moments when we're skeptical about how deep that love could be, and how intimate that care, and compassion, and sympathy is, just remember what God has communicated here through the wordplay of the text.

He says this, "I gave up my son for you. I forsook my son for you. Do you really think that I would forsake you when I could give up and I did not spare my only son? Of course, I care about you. Of course, I love you." Remember that.

Remember that. We will never, ever be forsaken because someone took our place and was that for us. So, God says, "I will never desert you. I will never leave you nor forsake you." He's not disconnected. He's not distant from us because he's always right there. He's ever found. And he cannot disconnect from us because his son took that on our behalf.

And when you feel alone, and when you feel rejected, tell yourself that phrase, and that'll carry you home. You see, you might say, "How do I know that that's true?" Remember, this is an Old Testament quote. It's first found in Deuteronomy 31, where Moses told that to Israel, and Moses told it to Joshua.

And then, it's found again in Joshua, where God told that to Joshua to tell to the people of Israel. And then, it's found again in 1 Chronicles 28, verse 20, where David is telling that to Solomon. What you start to see is that every generation tells that truth to the next generation, which tells that truth to the next generation, which has told that truth to the next generation, which has told that truth to the following generation.

And so, the author of Hebrews here, he said, "Don't forget what your parents told you. Don't forget what was true throughout all history, not just in your lifetime, not just in your parents' lifetime, not just in your grandparents' lifetime. It's the only reason why you exist. It's the only reason why history has flowed the way it's flowed.

It's because of this truth, because God has never left you, nor will he ever forsake you. That's why you exist now. That's why history is the way it is. There is a history, a history of proof that this is the truth. The author of Hebrews reminds us, "Don't go by just what you feel.

Never go by what you feel. Go by what is true, what has always been true." And with that, God is always with us. He's always found. He's never disconnected. He's never distant. And you may feel the acute pain of loneliness and rejection. It comes with being in this world where we are sojourners and exiles.

But just remember, our God never deserted us. Our God never forsook us. In fact, what he did instead is he forsook his own son so that we would never, ever be forsaken. And that's how much, that's how great God loves his children, how much he loves us, how much he is with us.

In fact, truly, in the end, he is so with us that we are, in fact, not we are, God is with us, but we are with him. you