Confident Hope In a Faithful God // Of Promise & Prophets // Read

Sin ruined everything. With one bite—one choice—it separated us from God, setting mankind on a path towards dysfunction and death. The days turned dark and evil...and the days turned into months, then years, then centuries. The glorious plan of a loving, faithful relationship between God and man seemed to be nothing more than a long, forgotten memory. Yet in the midst of the silence sin created, prophetic voices called out with a promise of hope. A hope that God hadn’t forgotten his people, and that He was crafting a bold, beautiful rescue operation to save the world from its sin. And the truly amazing thing? The same voices of hope beckon to us today—that no matter our sin, no matter our rebellion—we too can experience deliverance.

Kings, judges, presidents...thousands of men and women have held power over the centuries. They’ve all made promises of the good they’re going to do, and they’ve all failed. And who can blame them? They’re not God. They are fallen people - just like us! Jesus is the only wise King worthy of our trust and devotion. And when we trust in Him, we will never be let down.

I think we all know a little something about God's goodness in this building, don't we? We know that we serve a God who is faithful God who is good. I want to read to us from Hebrews chapter 10. As we start today, here what Scripture says it says, Therefore brothers and sisters since we have confidence, to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus by the new and living way he opened for us. Let us draw near to God, with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope that we profess, for He who promised is faithful, He is faithful. That's the God we serve a faithful God, a God who hears us when we call, let's call upon his name right now, Father, we are here today for you. We're here today to declare once again that you are the king of our heart, you're the king of our mind, you're the king of our soul, you're the king of our body, you're the king of our life, God, have your way in the US have your way in our church. God, we want what you want. We may not live that all the time. But we declare that truth today. And God we ask for your help from your spirit, that your spirit would guide us in all righteousness, that he would push us down the path of holiness, the path that makes us more into Jesus. We need your help to God fill this place. And by this place, I don't just mean the brick and mortar here at Cornerstone. I don't just mean the rooms where people are watching online. I mean, fill this place, fill our hearts, fill our spirits fill our souls with you, and with your presence and with your goodness and with your mercy and with your love. Because we need it. We need you we need a God who isn't just with us who isn't just in us. We need a God who is for us. And that's the kind of God that you are. And so we praise You and we celebrate you today, Lord, help us to listen to your word today, to sit under your word and allow it to change our hearts in our minds that we would become more like Jesus. And we'll give you all the honor all the glory all the praise because no one else deserves it except you. It's in your name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. You guys can go ahead and grab a seat. It's so good to be here with everybody. You guys are excited to be the house of God this morning. Excited to be watching online. It's so good to have everybody joining us today. Why don't you turn to your neighbor real quick and tell them God is with me. God is with me putting in the chat. If you're watching online, God is with me. Even when doesn't feel like it God is with me. That's the focus of what we talked about in week one of this series as pastor Brenda kicked this series off for us a few weeks ago of promises and prophets. We looked at the prophet Isaiah, and how his prophecy was of a God who would be with us a God who would be called a manual, which literally means God with us. And we need a God like that. We need a God who is with us, a God who goes through the storms with us, and a God who is a promise-keeping God, a God who says he's gonna do something, and he is good on his word. That's the God that we serve. Why don't you also tell your neighbor this? Tell him, God is in me. God is in me put it in the chat. God is in me. You see, God isn't just with us. He's not just with you, God is in you. And that matters. That is a difference. The fact that God isn't just walking alongside you in life, he's actually in you and he's at work in your life. We looked at the prophet Micah last week and how he spoke about Jesus's coming birth in the town of Bethlehem this tiny, little insignificant town that's on its own is not noteworthy on its own there's nothing you know, newsworthy of it there's no reason for us to pay attention to Bethlehem but because God moved in that city because God moved in that town. We still remember Bethlehem today and the same is true in our lives that when God is at work in us when he's not just with us when he's in us we can live a life of true significance a life of true strength but it's not good enough to just have a God who was with us not good enough to just have a God who is in us we need something more my daughter eat and I made a blanket for at our house I went all out this thing is pretty it's pretty slick. I gotta tell you, I made a fort in our basement with a bunch of blankets and you know it's intense. I can get in there like this a lot you know how big of a thing is I, I can get in there and fit in there. And so I made it the other day I tried to make it nice and sturdy. The kids were pumped, right like Evelyn Eden and Griffin are loving it. But Eden, her personality, as soon as she sees it, she runs upstairs to her room and starts grabbing items. Like she starts grabbing stuff. And she comes back down with a bunch of snuggliest. And she throws them in there. And then I see her come back up the stairs again, and come back down with a bunch of books and throws it in there. Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up timeout. I wonder what's going on. Like, it's a big tent. But it ain't that big, like, what are you doing? And so I talked to her and I'm like, what's going on? She's like, Daddy, I need these. Like, I need these things. I need the Snuggies because they'll help us feel comfortable and safe. And I need my coloring books. So we can do something in our spare time. And I need my other books down here. So I can read Evelyn, she's telling me all these things that she needs in there. And as I'm hearing them, I'm like, oh, that that makes sense. I get why you need these things. And I think about and I'm like, Man, the kind of God that we serve. And the kind of God that we need is the kind of God that we need to keep running back to because we need him for multiple things. Just like Eden was running up the stairs, we need to constantly run back to God because we don't just need God to be with us. We don't just need God to be in us. We need a God who is for us. We need a God who is for us, let's say together. I need a God. Who is for me? I need a God who is for me. This is what it means. Because that's a very Christian thing to say like he is for us. What does that mean? I think we say a lot of these Christian things, and we don't really play them out a lot. Um, what's it mean that God is for us, it literally means that he is on our side. He's on our side, he is working for our good in the sense of our good not what we want. Not what we desire out of life, not the car, not the job, not that kind of stuff. God is for our true good. He's for our true good, our true ends and our true purposes of God is on our side. That's what it means that he is for us. He is on our behalf working for our ultimate good. And we need a God like that a God who isn't just with us, a God who isn't just in us, but a God who is for us. And you want to know how I know that you need a God who is for you. You will know how I know that because if you're anything like me, you need a God who is for you. Because you are constantly against yourself. Right? We need a God who is for us because we so constantly shoot ourselves in the foot. We so constantly screw things up. Or I'm sorry, is that just me? Is it just me or? Right? I think self-sabotage is just part of the human condition. We constantly are shooting ourselves in the foot, we need a God who is for us because we are constantly against us just this week. So we've got three cars, okay, we've got my car, a Toyota rav4, my wife's car, a Honda Pilot. And then we have a car, my dad had bought an old used Corvette, and he left one to me and one of my brothers. And so we've got that car. Now, something's going on with it. There's some kind of part of the car that's drawing electricity, even when it's turned off. It's not the lights, there's, there's something that's drawing from the battery. And so the car keeps just dying like the battery gets drained out. So it's sitting in our driveway, but it's dead right now like it's just ain't moving. I've tried jumping in, it's not moving right now the battery is just shot. So that's parked all the way over on the left Jessica parks on the right, so then there's this middle area for me to pull in. The problem is, is if we have like enough room for us to get in and out of the cars comfortably, then Jessica is like pulling up into the grass and stuff like that. And it's if you know anything about me, you know that the lawn is like,

don't drive on the lawn, like just save the lawn. So to do that, but at the same time, I don't want to park on the street. Like I'm a very type of person, I want everything looking the way it's supposed to be and is where it's supposed to be. And the car is supposed to be in the driveway. So I'm like I devised a plan. I'm like, You know what I'm going to do, I'm going to pool as close as humanly possible to the Corvette. And so like I pulled up where there's maybe this much space between me but my driver's side door and that door, so I can't get out of the driver's side door, right, I have to climb over the middle console. But it's worth it to me. Because everything's in place, then all the cars are in the driveway. The grass isn't getting driven on. So I'm like, Okay, I'll do that this is going to be perfect. And so I pull up the other night and I pull as close as I can. I'm like oh, this is I'm a genius. Look at how much room. Look at how much room Jessica is going to have to get out of her car. This is beautiful. So I start to pull my seat back, I start to go over the middle console. As I do I have an auxiliary cable sticking out in the middle place. It catches on to the back of my pants. And as I put my leg over rips the back of my jeans, and not just that it's snapped the cable off into the car like where it's plugged in. So that's stuck now. That's stuck that's broken. My jeans are ripped in As I'm, like, sitting there about to lose my Christianity and say, say unforgivable things. I'm like, What? What was I thinking? Like, I'm just, I mean, idiot, like, I brought all of this, I brought all of this on myself. Like, I didn't need to do this, I could have just parked on the street. It really wasn't this big of a deal. And I'm like, Man, I just shot myself in the foot. This is self-sabotage. I brought all of this upon myself. And I think about that I think about my own spiritual life, my own walk with Jesus, and I think me and how often do I do the exact same thing? Do I shoot myself in the foot? Do I self-sabotage? How often am I constantly against myself? Self Sabotage is real. It's a real thing. We ruin relationships, we fall into bad habits we give into poor mindsets. And if we are honest with ourselves, if we're honest with ourselves, how often are the dysfunction and the sin in our life, really the responsibility of anyone else? It's, it's not often it's me. I am the person who leads to my own dysfunction. I am the person who falls into self-sabotage, it is on me the procrastination, that's me. The rudeness, that's me, the debt, the giving into consumerism, that's me, the all of these just faulty ways of thinking these bad mindsets, man. Other people may be able to do certain things and say certain things to me. But those are my choices. It's up to me. And so constantly, we self-sabotage. So constantly, we are against ourselves, we are against ourselves. Even the best of us. Even the best of us. This isn't a sermon talking down to anybody. This is like we talked about here at Cornerstone. This is an all-skate. This is everybody. If you've got blood pumping through your veins, you are liable to fall into self-sabotage. You just are. We see in Scripture, King David, a man who thinks about this, a man that scripture proclaims that God Himself says, is a man after God's own heart. Imagine that. Imagine God's word describing you that way. Right? That's pretty big stuff. And yet, King David, this incredible man, we know. He had some monumental mistakes, screw-ups, and sin in his life, self-sabotage, going against himself doing things that you're like, David, what do you what are you doing? The most famous one David sees a beautiful woman named Bathsheba takes her to be his own. He calls her to the palace. He sleeps with her, even though she's married, has a husband who's off at war, and then to be able to take her as his wife. He has her husband Uriah sent to the frontlines of battle where the fighting was the most fierce so he would be killed.

Unbelievable. Adultery, murder, accessory to murder. I mean, these are huge, huge things. And this is what David did. These are things that he committed. Listen, this is from Psalm 51. This is some poem that David wrote, not long after this had happened, and he was called under the carpet by a prophet by the name of Nathan. This is what David says he realized the severity of what he had done the sin he committed. This is from Psalm 51. Listen to what it says, Have mercy on me. Oh God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions. My sin is always before me, against you, God have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge? Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. That's King David. That's one of the best of us, as a man whose scripture says was a man after God's own heart.

We self-sabotage, every single one of us we need a God who is for us because we are so constantly against us. And you see what's so important in this passage is that David doesn't just realize his own sin. He doesn't just realize his own tendency towards self-sabotage. He realizes he needs a savior. He needs a God who is for him. He understands I need a God who is willing to redeem me who's willing to step into the muck that I have created and rescue me. He sees that he sees this need and let me tell you, this is something so important. David doesn't just realize he needs a God who is righteous and God who is holy, we hear that a lot that God is for his own righteousness, and God is for his holiness, which is true. That's absolutely true. But and I got to be careful, I got to make sure I don't go too far off on my time because I could preach an entire sermon just off of this. But something that is so important that we need to understand. David doesn't just need a God who is for righteousness and for holiness. He needs a God who is for him. He needs God who is for him, we have got to understand believers, Christians. If you listen to one thing in the sermon, listen to this, we have got to understand that God is love. That is not one of many of his attributes. It is his core identifier. That's why John, one of the closest followers of Jesus, when describing Jesus and describing God said, God is love, every other aspect of God, God's holiness, God's righteousness, God's truth, all of that flows out of the fact that God at his core, being his love, and because God at his core being his love, that's how God can be for you. And for me, let me tell you, you don't want a God who is just for righteousness, for holiness, because you're not that. And I'm not that. But because love is his core identifier, his core, motivating a personality trait. That's what sent Jesus to the cross because he is for us, he is for a relationship, he is for redemption. David knew I don't need a God who was just for righteousness and holiness, I needed a God who's for me, because I screw up, and I fail, and I'm sinful. I need a God who is for me, regardless of my sin, regardless of my shortcomings, regardless of my failings. And let me tell you, that's the gospel. That's the gospel, that we have a God who is for us, even when we are against us. We have a God who is for us, even when we are against him, he is for us. That's the message of the gospel. That's the heart of the gospel, that God even when we were an enemy, even when we didn't know him, God died for the ungodly. That's good news. That's good news. God is for us. And God is good on His Word. God is a man of his promise, right? He makes a promise and he stands by it. So when he says he is for us, we can trust him and take that to the bank. God is good on his word. And one aspect of what that means for us, and this might sound a little crazy at first, but just follow with me. What it means is that when it comes to God being for us, because He is for us, your sin doesn't matter, no matter the sin, your sin, no matter how great it is, no matter how terrible you think it is, in the long game, if you put your faith and your trust in Jesus, your sin doesn't matter. No matter the sin, no matter how big it was, no matter how devastating it was, no matter how terrible you feel about yourself, you are not so far gone, that God can't rescue you and redeem you, no matter how against yourself, you've been, no matter how much you shot yourself in the foot, God is for you. And your sin doesn't matter, no matter the sin again, let's look at David don't take my word for it. Let's look at scripture. David, this is a man who had another man killed so he could take his wife that he had already slept with. This is a terrible, terrible situation. But we know from history, that at this point, David had already been promised by God, that from his line, the Messiah would come. God had promised David, your kingdom essentially will have no end. Because down the road from you, I'm going to raise up a ruler who will be the Messiah, he'll be the true ruler, not just Israel, but the true king of the world. God had made this promise to David. Now tell me if there was ever a time to be able to rip up a contract or a covenant. That's the moment right? The person who you're like, hey, my own begotten Son, Jesus, I'm gonna raise him up from your family line. Wait, you did what you took whose wife? You had him killed? Are you kidding me? Okay, never mind like that. That would be the moment where you can absolutely imagine God saying, now I'm out. I'm out you. You have not held up your end of the bargain here. But that brings us to our Prophet for today the prophet that we're looking at. So week one we looked at Isaiah, we two we looked at Micah. Today we are looking at the prophet Jeremiah, an incredible man of God, a prophet who lived during the time of Israel's fall. Jeremiah lived whenever Israel fell to the Babylonian Empire. Just a terrible, terrible moment. This is the moment when Jerusalem fell. The Jewish people God's chosen people were put into exile taken off to a foreign national living under pagan rule. Just a time when it seemed like every dream and every promise God had made to them, was crumbling and falling apart. And that's where Jeremiah comes into this profit status. He's actually known as the weeping prophet because of the things that he saw and the things that he endured. And the prophecies that he made. I want to read this as from Jeremiah, chapter 23. Listen to what he says he is speaking on behalf of God says starting in verse three, I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their pasture. Well, they will be fruitful and increase in number, I will play shepherds over them who will attend to them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing declares the Lord. And then here we go, verse five, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David, a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.

You see, at this point, David had sinned. David's bit has lived his life, led the nation of Israel and he's been dead for a while now when Jeremiah makes this prophecy. And despite David's shortcomings, despite David's sin, despite all the ways that he messed up, God says I'm still holding on to my word. I made a promise to you. I promised that from your line, the Messiah would come and I am not going back on my word. You may be against you. You may shoot yourself in the foot, you may self-sabotage. But I am a God who is for you. I'm a God who doesn't break my promise. I'm a God who doesn't break my word I am for you. Despite your sin, despite your failings, despite your shortcomings, I am still for you. And my promise still stands. David's sin didn't matter. No matter the sin, no matter how great it was, it didn't factor into the equation of God saying, never mind. I'm gonna back out I'm not gonna fulfill my end of the bargain anymore. The sin didn't matter, no matter the sin. Isn't it amazing? When does a promise stand? When someone says they're going to do something, and they actually see it through. It's incredible because we see it so rarely anymore. People so really just break their word. They just break their promise. Hey, if it's convenient for me, if it benefits me, sure you can count on me. But the second is that this doesn't work out for me. The second this deal isn't for my benefit. I'm out. The second you breach any of the contract negotiations I am out of here. It's amazing. When a promise stands, I know my son, Griffin. He was only like six months old. Whenever COVID started to really break out here in the US. You know, it was early March like March 10 11th. Whenever COVID really became like our national consciousness here in the United States. And only about 10 days after that, like March 20. Through the 22nd. Griffin got really sick. He ended up testing negative for COVID. But he got really sick and you remember what those first couple of days were like, it was terrifying, right? Everyone was scared. Everyone's like what's going on. And so Griffin all of a sudden, about 10 days into the pandemic, starts having this really, really weird breathing just sounds really really hoarse, really deep in his chest. It just did not sound good. And you could tell he was struggling just to breathe. Like his, his breathing was really shallow and kind of quick. And so Jessica called the nurse line. I was like, Hey, I don't I don't know what we should do. Normally I would just instantly bring him in. But I know all the hospitals are saying do not come here because of COVID we have COVID patients who are coming and we don't want you to catch anything. It's just like I don't know what to do. And so the nurse says well just put it on speakerphone so I can hear what his breathing sounds like put it on speakerphone. Instantly the nurse was like yeah, you need to come in like that's, that's not good. I can just tell by how it sounds. So Jessica took him in and it was pretty serious. He had an I can't even remember how to pronounce it. Acute bronchial itis or something wasn't it? It was a different kind. It was a pretty severe case. They had to give him breathing treatments, all these different things. He had to stay there for two nights before he really started to improve and his oxygen levels got better. But it was scary. It was scary. And then whenever he got home the health scare went away because he's like okay, he's good to listen to his breathing. He sounds great. The health scare headed and but the financial scare was just starting. Because I'm like, Oh yeah, there's a financial end of this like there's gonna be a bill coming. That's scary whenever you don't have insurance right and so we don't have traditional insurance in the sense that It's like, you know, here's your deductible, pay that what the church has, we have a thing called Christian health care ministries. It's actually a great organization, headquartered in Barberton. And what they do is it's like a sharing service people all over the country, pay monthly premiums and it goes into like a gigantic pot pretty much like insurance. And whenever you have a medical issue come up, you submit a claim, as long as it meets the guidelines, don't they'll pay it in griffins, things all met the guidelines. But I'm still scared. Because you know how this stuff works out. People look for ways to break promises. People look for ways to get out of contracts. People look for ways to see if you slipped up it Oh, you mean? Oh, it was a day of the week that ended and why so no, we will not be able to cover what happened I'm sorry, right? People, people look for ways to be able to get out of things. And so I was scared. I'm like, I don't know. I mean, I've read the guidelines. But I'm still expecting to get a letter back that says we're sorry, your claim has been denied and meets the guidelines or whatever. And so we submitted it, and we waited a couple of weeks. And unlike prepping myself for the worst. And we have a thing. It's called USPS notifications. And so we get an email that lets us know, it gives you like a little screenshot of what mail is coming to your house that day. And I saw the one day I checked my email and I saw on it said like Christian health care ministries, and I'm like psyching myself up all day, like, okay, like, it's gonna be okay. I don't worry, don't freak out. God's got this, like, no matter how big. I know, we're not gonna get the money and stuff like that. And so I got it, and I got home, got the envelope, open it up. And the first thing I saw was a check. I'm like, Oh, no way. No way. So I pull it out. And they're like, Here you go. We're praying for Griffin, here's the money to cover the bill. You know, if you can write your like praise report afterward, so we can publish it on our website and all these things. I'm like, this is incredible. This is incredible. I kid you not, I cried. I cried, pulling that out. Because whenever I tell you, it's a lot of money. It was a lot of money. Like, we'd be paying that off. And like, in the same way, we'd be paying our house off. Like it was just a lot of money. And so I mean, I just started crying, because I'm like they, they fulfilled the promise. They stood by their word. It's an amazing, amazing thing. When people stand by their word when people stand by their promise when they fulfill what they said they're going to do, and I want to let you know, God is good on His Word.

God fulfills every promise that he says pastor Brennan talked about in week one, God is a God of yes and amen. Every promise that he made is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. And so every promise he made, including the promise not just to be with us, not just to be in us, but to be for us. He will see that promise through he is for you, even when you are against yourself, God's coverage stands. I want to go back to Jeremiah real quick. I want to read one more time verse five, from Chapter 23. Again, it says the days are coming declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, a cane who will reign wisely and do what is just in right in the land. What stands out to me right there as I was reading this is the fact that God says I will raise a branch a righteous branch to David. That's kind of a remarkable thing. Because at this moment, David didn't even have a tree. Right? Like the nation of Israel is fallen at this point. There is no kingdom anymore. There is no throne to sit on. There's no tree like it's been cut down. The Babylonians made sure of that, because of the wickedness in the sin, that Israel had been living in king after king just ignoring God's will and their own choices, leading them to destruction and leading them to a place where they could be overthrown the tree, the tree had been cut down. But God says He will raise a branch, a righteous branch for David. In the middle of this dead thing, God says, I'm going to bring new life in the middle of the ways that you have self sabotage in the middle of the ways that you've shot yourself in the foot in the middle of the ways that you have sinned against me and you are now suffering, the outcome of your own sin in spite of all that I can still bring life out of this dead thing. I can still work and move a miracle. That's the kind of God that He is Jesus will bring new life to even your most dead of dreams. Jesus will bring new life to your dead dreams, the dreams that died because of your sin, because of your dysfunction. Because of your poor choices. Jesus can breathe new life into those things, just like he did for David he can raise up on new branch he can do something new in the midst of death. In the midst of the ways that you have hurt yourself, he could still do something amazing. Pastor Brenda's told the story numerous times. Has anyone heard Pastor Brenda's work glove illustration about people passing away? It's incredible. If you haven't bought a copy of her book yet Poppy's work glove, make sure you get one there. They're incredible. It's so good. What it is Pastor Brenda gives an illustration, she started doing this at funerals, where she would put on a glove, and kind of help give an illustration for kids because kids have a hard time processing what happens when a loved one passes. And so she would use an illustration that the glove is a lot like our body, that when the hand is in the glove, the glove looks alive. The glove looks like it can do a lot of things and it looks live. But as soon as you take your hand out, it goes limp, it goes lifeless, it doesn't look like it's alive anymore. And the same is true with our bodies that whenever the Spirit is the spark of life that God gives us when it is not present anymore. That's why our bodies die. Because the real us is not there anymore. And so she was given this illustration, she had done it in a few different funerals. And Rachel, her daughter had said to her mom, just wondering is that like, is that your intellectual property? Is that something that you've come up with that illustration? Or have you heard it somewhere before? And she's like, No, I have that's just something I had thought of something that I felt God kind of put on my heart and I started to use and she's like, well, you need to write that. Like you need to write that down. You get that trademark to something. Write a book about it. Because man, that's so good. That is so helpful. So pass Brenda home, talk to her husband about it. Dr. Pastor Charlie and he were like, yeah, absolutely, you should, you know, I've been telling you forever, that you should be writing more, and you should be doing more books. I think that would be an incredible idea. Brenda, I

think that could help so, so many people. And this all happened around October of 2018. By January of 2019, my dad pastor Charlie would pass away. And he had no idea None of us did that back at that time when we're talking about this book. And what a great idea it would be. That he would be the central figure of the book, that the book would be named after him that he would be the main character, this incredible godly man who passed away and, and now the real him does the spark of life is with Jesus until the great day of, of the resurrection. But this book, The whole reason this thing was able to happen was that God brought something new, God breathed life into a dead situation. And so now, there are multiple people, multiple children, who pastor Brenda has spoken at funeral after funeral and been able to give copies of this book to kids just giving them for free. And it has helped them tremendously. And understanding death and being able to trust God and put their faith in him even when they don't totally understand it. All of this new life, all of this blessing all of these incredible things brought out of death. That's the God that we serve. A god of resurrection, a God of redemption, a God who even when things seem against us is constantly working for us. He's a God who brings death to life. And I know for me, I can't say this for you. But I know for me what that does for me, knowing that God even in the middle of dead things, even the middle of death, things that I have caused, that I myself sabotage my own sinful patterns, my terrible ways of thinking, all of these areas that I serve a God who even in the middle of that is working for me, and can bring new life out of those situations. What that does for me, is it gives me confidence, confidence in living life, because I know, man, no matter what comes my way, what what what the enemy brings my way, or what I bring my way, whatever comes my way I can handle it. I can get through it because I have a God who is for me, that gives me confidence. But here's what I'll say. And this is where it comes to us. This is the choice that we all have to make today. That confidence, you cannot have godly confidence with a guilty conscience. You cannot do it. You just can't. It eats away at you. It eats away at the confidence that you have. If you want to have godly confidence in life. You cannot do it with a guilty conscience. King David knew this. He knew he didn't just need to God with him, knew he didn't just need a god For in him but a God who was for him a god who was working for him to take his sin and to take his shame away because sin and shame what they will do are they will eat away if the confidence God wants to instill you with it will eat away at it. My daughter Evelyn yesterday had a rough day. She's the sweetest little girl. She's so fun. She's very special. donkey raises a spunky little girl. Yesterday she had a rough day though she would she just was not listening. Very good. So mean just got a corrector a few times. And then finally, you know, she got sent to her room. Wherever she came down. She was just bawling. She's just crying and, you know, bawling, and she sits down, and it's because we had to correct her multiple times. So she comes back down, she sits down, and she says through tears, and she's just weeping. She says, Am I the worst kid ever? Like, oh, my gosh, makes you feel terrible, right? Like, Oh, no. So I said to her, I'm like, Honey, no, you're no, you are not the worst kid ever. You made some bad decisions today. But you're not the worst kid ever. Why was she even questioning that? Because sin eats away your confidence. It just eats away at you. It eats away at you. So the stuff that you can feel confident about is the fact that God is not just with you, but he's in you, and he has for you. Suddenly you question all that when you're living in sin when you're constantly going against his will you start to question Well, is he really for me? Is he really with me? Is he really in me? I don't know. I don't know. And when you question all that stuff, you start making bad choices, you start giving into it. Don't let the enemy rob you of your confidence.

Don't let him do that. That's what he wants to do. He wants to destroy your confidence. He wants you to feel less than once you to feel unworthy. And it brings us back to where we started at the beginning of the sermon, we engage in self-sabotage. We have no confidence. So we start doing things that are counterproductive to what God wants to work in our lives. And we work against ourselves. We are constantly working against ourselves. And the worst part about it is we are colluding with the enemy. When we do that. We are colluding and we are working with the enemy to bring about our own demise, to bring about the death of our own dreams. What are we doing? What are we doing, we are constantly working against ourselves when we are not believing God and trusting Him at His word. That's why we need a God who is for us because we are so constantly against us. We need a God who is fighting for us who is out there pulling tooth and nail to get us back to where we need to be. And in Jesus, that's exactly what we have. It's exactly what we have. We have God who is for us, a God who has for us again, I want to read one more time from Hebrews chapter 10. This is what we read at the start of today's sermon. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence, to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way that he opened for us. Let us draw near to God, with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. And let us hold unswervingly to the hope that we profess, for He who promised is faithful. He's faithful, He's faithful, and he is for us. We don't have to go through life with a guilty conscience. We don't have to go through life constantly against ourselves and shoot ourselves in the foot. Because we have a God who is for us, a God who is fighting for us trying to bring us back into the center of his will for our life. In fact, God is so for us, He forgives us. You can't get any more for a person than that. God is so for us that He forgives us in Jeremiah 23. This set of verses that we were looking at today, verse six says this, the name by which he will be called Talking About Jesus the name by which you will be called, is the Lord our righteous savior. And I love it because whenever you look up the actual wording that's used there, the literal word for word translation would be the name by which you will be called is the Lord our Righteousness. He's not just our righteous Savior, He Himself is our righteousness. Our righteousness is found in him because he's for us. He is for us. He's not just for his own righteousness. He's not just for His own glory. He's not just for his own holiness, He is for you. And he is so for you that He forgives you and gives you His righteousness. That's how for us. God is. We know God has for us because God forgives us and that is the promise that Jeremiah was pointing to the promise that the Lord Himself would come and he himself would become our righteousness, that he would forgive sin that he would grant new life and that he would restore confidence. I want to tell you if you are someone who is engaged in self-sabotage today if you're someone who is constantly shooting themselves in the foot if you are someone who whether you realize it or not, you are colluding with the enemy to bring about your own downfall. There is another way there Another way, and you just maybe haven't realized it yet. Because you believe that God can be with you and you believe that God can be in you, but you, you don't really understand that no, God is actually fighting for you. He is fighting for you, on your behalf, he is working for your good. And maybe it's because of bad past experiences or things that have happened to you in a church before. You don't believe that about God. But I am here to tell you that he is fighting for you. He's fighting for you. His core identifying characteristic is love. He wants that relationship with you. So no matter how bad you feel about yourself, no matter how down you feel about yourself, because of the way that you have shot yourself in the foot, because of the way that you have sinned, the way that you have fallen short, know that even the best of us, even a man after God's own heart had sinned in gigantic, monumental ways, and it still wasn't enough for God turned his back on him. He is a God of his word. He is a God of his promise, and he is a God who is for you. I want to pray with you. Let's bow our heads and let's pray together real quick. Father, the God, thank you for being for us.

A God who fights for us, tooth and nail to get us back to where we belong. Even when we fight against ourselves, even when we join with the enemy to bring ourselves down, you're still there, fighting for us, going to bat for us, calling us and wooing us back to you and back to your will in your way for our life. God help us to submit to you today help us to remember that truth that you are fighting for us so that we can join with you to fight for ourselves that we can join with you to start to turn the tide on our self-sabotaging ways that we can stop shooting ourselves in the foot. And rather than making poor decisions and letting those cascade into more and more poor decisions that we can decide to follow you and follow your will and your way today and walk into the new life that you offer. God I also pray for anyone who has not received that new life yet, anyone today who has not taken that step of faith to trust you to be a God of your promise God, I asked that they would be so impressed right now that you would be drawing them near to you as we read in Scripture today that they would draw near to God at this moment. And that they would admit right now at this moment that God I am a sinner. God, I know that I am self-sabotage. I shoot myself in the foot. But God I am. I am agreeing about my condition today. I'm recognizing that I have colluded with the enemy to bring about my own downfall. And I am turning my back on those ways. And I am turning and running towards you the God who fights for me. God, I want you to be the Lord of my heart. I want you to be the king of my heart. I placed my faith and my trust in you and God for all of us who have already prayed that prayer today. Help us to renew and recommit to that, that we will trust you and everything that you truly would be the king of our heart, and that we would join with you. We would partner with you to live our life headed towards a fulfilling future in you. We love you, Father, we pray all this in your name. Amen.