SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome to the IPC Hope Temple Podcast, where hope lives, faith grows, and lives are transformed. We're so glad you've joined us today. Get ready to be inspired, encouraged, and strengthened in your walk with God as we dive into the uncompromising word of truth.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

In the morning, when the mercy started when the teeth when my soul needs when my heart is confused when my heart feels lost when I'm home, you can't get it.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

We are faithful, God, we are good God. We bless you for your presence in this place. We thank you, King of Kings, we bless you, Lord of Lords. In the mighty, matchless name of Jesus, Father, speak to our heart today. Bring us to the revelation of knowledge of what it means that for you to be faithful. Father, Lord, cause us, Lord, to be lifted from any form and shape of my re clay and quagma, and place us on the solid rock of Jesus Christ by your word. For your word is a little active, sharper than any two edges of piercing even to the dividing accent of the soul and the spirit of the bone of the man, Lord. Father Lord, as we gaze upon your glory through your word, the Bible says we are changed, we are metamorphosed into that very image from glory to glory. Father Lord, speak to our hearts, hide me behind the cross, and let Christ alone be revealed to God at the end of the day when all is said and done. Take all the glory, take all the glory, take all the glory and change our lives for good. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So some may be wondering why we have declared the month of July to be a month of Thanksgiving, and we are talking about how great God's faithfulness is. What's the correlation? Like I probably said earlier, this is because when we understand the faithfulness of God, we will not only thank him for what he has done, but we will be grateful for what he's even yet to do. Beyond that, we'll be thankful to God for not just, you know, or we'll be thankful to God for just being God and our Father, even when there is no apparent promise or testimony in sight. The goal is for us to come to a place of desiring God for God and other things of God. Are we together? Hallelujah. Now the Bible does not just say that he is faithful, it says how great it is. It is, it means it's not something you can miss, his faithfulness is in your face. You can decide to ignore it, but God's faithfulness is too conspicuous for us not to be conscious of it. Now let's understand what faithfulness means and then we'll unpack the scripture that I earlier read. So faithfulness is the quality of being steadfast, or sorry, the quality of steadfast loyalty, trustworthiness, and being true to one's word, commitments, or duties, a reliability that does not waver. Amen. It shows that God is committed to you and He will do anything and everything to help you get this life thing right. And I want to tell you this, and I need you to believe it. God cannot mismanage your life. I want to repeat that for free. God cannot mismanage your life. Tell your neighbor. Amen. The average Christian will think that or will think of God's faithfulness, will think of God as faithful when we pray and ask for something and we literally see it happen, right? That is when God says yes to us, then we call Him, oh, a prayer answering God. He's a faithful God. God indeed answers prayers. We however think that God answering prayers means that he is doing it how we want it, when we want it, where we want it. What we need to realize is that even a no is still an answer and a complete statement. And sometimes when God says no, it is actually a no access to the enemy. What I mean by that is this because peradventure, the no that God is giving as an answer to a prayer is because if that request were to be granted, it would position you in a place where you are not prepared to handle because the enemy will not gain access to your life. Amen. So the book of Lamentations, as we read from, I would want to provide some context, you know, so that when we get to that scripture that I read earlier, we would better appreciate it. And the book of Lamentations is attributed to the prophet Jeremiah. And I mean, the for the word it implies sorrow, grief, right now, these lamentations by the prophet were around a time when God's people were besieged, surrounded by you know the enemy, Babylon, and they were held captive, and a city that once stand or stood so tall and glorious was in utter ruin. If I wasn't preaching, I would have said they were in a state of Hagamaga autopsy teve. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. So the things that were evident in this time, for which reason there were lamentations by the prophet, was that one, the city walls were breached, two, the temple that Solomon had built was burned. The palace, the major buildings that you know were significant for the economic um standpoint of the people was destroyed. Many people died, and the survivors were exiled to the kingdom of Babylon. And so basically, the people of God ceased to exist as an independent kingdom. In the interest of time, we wouldn't read those long chapters from chapter one before we hit chapter three. So, what I intend to do, I'll just mention those scriptures and I'll highlight what happened there to give us a clue to the context for our conversation. So in Lamentations chapter 1, verse 1 to 4, Jerusalem is personified as a widow and a grieving woman. Once honored, but now sits abandoned, betrayed, and mocked. And maybe some of us can relate to this. Where peradventure, a few years ago, you know, um you were on top of your life. Things were working for you, but everything now seems to be crumbling down, and nothing seems to be working. In verse 11, it says, All her people groan as they search for bread. They trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. Look, O Lord, and see, for I am despised. The people saved severe financial crisis. The city, like I mentioned, was besieged over two years. They were frustrated until the economy came crashing down. In the verse 12, it says, Is it nothing to you, all who pass by, look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger. Now, this may be someone's story in the sense that where you feel like nothing anyone is going through can be compared to what you are going through, because you are really going through it. In the verse 19, I'm just jumping verses to highlight the characteristic of the events. I called to my lovers and they deceived me. My priests and elders perished in the city while they sought food to revive their strength. So this speaks of those of us who at a point in our lives we feel betrayed, deceived. You know, those of you who those who claim to be your friends, you know, betrayed you, those who trusted in their boyfriends and girlfriends, and they didn't marry you. Sorry. You know, and you see that the scripture said something there. My priest and elders perished in the city. It shows also to us that you cannot put your trust or faith in the pastor or prophet. At the end of the day, they are also human beings with their own problems. He has withdrawn from them his right hand in the face of the enemy. He has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob, consuming all around. This touches on those of us who used to be able to do some things. You thrived in a certain area of your life so strongly, and now you look like a shadow of yourself. You seem to have lost your powers. And basically, it feels like that mighty hand of God that, or that invisible hand that held you cannot be found anymore. In the verse 11 of 2, it says, My eyes were spent weeping, my stomach churns, my bowel is poured out to the ground because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city. This shows the gravity of the situation that Judah was facing. And it goes on and on. In the interest of time, I'll just skip some of them that I've listed here. Amen. So, in summary, after all these things that were happening or surrounded the lives of the Israelites or God's people, you come to our uncle's scripture and it says that, but this I call to mind. I'll take that again from verse 19, the ESV. Remember my afflictions and my wanderings, the warmwood and the gale. My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I will hope in him. In summary, this was a season of darkness, brokenness, isolation, betrayal, abandonment, loss of peace, economic power. And I believe that some of us can relate to all these things that were as the Israelites also experienced. But here is how we turn things around in spite of the situation we find ourselves in. Here is how we are able to appreciate the faithfulness of God. How can we tap into the realization that God's faithfulness, his constancy cannot is unwavering, it cannot be shaken. That in spite of all these things that the Israelites were going through, for which the prophet lamented about, for which we can also relate to, how he began to turn things around, he started by saying, But this I call to mind. Therefore I have hope. In other words, what you remember in the times of difficulty, in times when things are falling apart, is very important. Your mind is very powerful. As part of the major, you know, job descriptions of the Holy Spirit's coming, of all things that Jesus could have said, He said he will teach you and bring you to remembrance. It means remembering is very crucial for survival. So the first step to understanding God's faithfulness is when you have his word and you can call it to remembrance. If you do not know his word, there are no metrics for you to measure his faithfulness because his faithfulness is based on what he has promised in his word. Hallelujah. Then he went on to say that his mercies never come to an end, they are new every morning. And you see, this is the build-up to declaring how great God's faithfulness is. And watch this build up. He talks about mercy. Say mercy. The Bible says they are new every morning. Mercy is the mechanism by which God administers his faithfulness. And I would explain that. By the way, I'm not talking about mercy from Argentina. It's mercy. Amen. So mercy is when you are pardoned or acquitted, when you are discharged, even though you deserve a punishment for something you did not do right. Mind you, all the things that the Israelites went through for which they were or the prophet was lamenting about, majority of the event was because they rebelled against God. Because there are consequences for not going in accordance with the word of the Lord. And so that was a situation they found themselves in. But God's mercy is his compassionate action towards us when we are helpless, when we are guilty, and when we are undeserving. Favor, salvation, blessings. But mercy withholds what we do deserve. Did you get that? Grace gives us what we do not deserve, but mercy withholds what we deserve. Because what we deserve as a result of our actions, as a result of the things that we may have done, is judgment, is condemnation, is punishment. Mercy, however, goes beyond whatever actions we may have done, and God pardons us. And I want you to see something I discovered that really touched my heart regarding mercy, God's mercy. There is something known as the Paleo Hebrew pictographs. Paleo Hebrew pictographs. Now, what that basically is, is that back in the days when you and I were not there, you know, the the earliest concepts of the Hebrew alphabet were they were pictographic. Okay? They were pictographic. And so the word for mercy, it comes from a root word which means womb, the womb of a woman. And when you look at the breakdown of the word, it begins with the word resh and it's a picture of the head of a person representing somebody of highest importance. And then the second part of the picture talks about or shows a wall, a things, which represents protection, separation, or containment. And then the last part of the pictograph is a picture of water or chaos. And so the letters in the Hebrew word for mercy is a picture of a person providing a protective wall to shelter someone from the chaotic waters of life. Hallelujah. So what God is saying when he says that his mercies are new every morning is that when you wake up each morning, when he gives you life in spite of what you may have done, what he's saying is that I've carried you in my womb throughout the night. And as a mother, I have birthed my new child, and I will take care of you regardless of what you have done. You know, in the Ghanaian proverb, we have something that goes like, you know, when the baby poops, you don't throw away the baby together with the water, you wipe the baby clean, you bathe them, and you carry and nurse them. That is a picture mercy paints for us. Like I mentioned at the beginning, mercy is the mechanism by which God administers his faithfulness. Because you and I cannot merit his faithfulness. It takes his mercy. It takes the mercy of God. In the interest of time, I would need to cut things short. Let me put it this way. After he had talked about his message anew, then he went on to say, Great is his faithfulness. To understand God's faithfulness, we need knowledge of two things, which I've mentioned earlier, his promise, his word. You know, when the prophet said, And I put to my mind these things. So the reason, when you look at all of these things, the reason God's faithfulness is distinct and special is because it is based on a covenant. And covenants are established by blood, which is life. The Bible says somewhere in the book of Genesis that the life of the flesh is in the blood. I'm building a point. So the reason you and I can rely on God's faithfulness is because it is based on a covenant, number one, and God's integrity, his namesake, his reputation. In the book of Exodus, chapter 2, verse 23 to 25. During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out. And their cry for help, because of their slavery, went up to God. For God heard their groanings and remembered his calling. Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them. God's response to their groanings and you know what they were going through was not merely because of what they were going through, it was because God remembered his covenant with Abraham. Like Adam shared with us during the prayer, that he's faithful because of his promise, because of his word. And there are many scriptures like that. I wouldn't read them, I'll just mention them. Leviticus 26, 42 to 45, where he tells you that he remembered his covenant, and because of that, he withheld you know certain punishments for the rebellions that his people had undertaken. Another scripture, 2 Kings 13, 22 to 23. And we can also add Ezekiel 28 14. I wouldn't read them, just note them and go and study them afterwards. So number one, covenant. And then number two, Exodus 20, 22 says, Nevertheless, I withdrew my hand and acted for my name's sake. So the second thing, like I mentioned, his integrity, his reputation, his namesake. You can also find that in Exekiel 36, 22 to 27. It says, He told them, Therefore, say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, I do not do this for your sake, oh house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake. In verse 32, he says, Not for your sake do I do this, let it be known to you. You can also add 33 to 38, the same Ezekiel chapter 36. And so Psalm 105, 8 to 9 also highlights this. It says, He remembers his covenant forever, the promise he made for a thousand generations, the covenant he made with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac. Hebrews chapter 6, verses 13. Now Ding Swa highlighted this during her call to worship. In verse 13, it says, For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying, I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, which have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil. The point I'm trying to make here is that the faithfulness of God is tied to his covenant or the covenant he had with Abraham and to his reputation. He swore by himself. Lots of scriptures here. I wouldn't mention them. But watch this carefully. Like we have unraveled in the Old Testament, we see that God remembered his covenant with Abraham and acted the way he did for his namesake. Two things the covenant by blood and the actions it takes to withhold punishment by showing mercy because of his namesake. And so in the New Testament, he then gives us his son Jesus, who sheds his blood, and then he gives us a name. So the methodology has not changed. As we understand that the Old Testament is a shadow of the consummation in Christ, God's faithfulness towards us in spite of our sins, is based on the finished work of Jesus. And when we call on his name. Because if you don't understand this and acknowledge the fact, as scripture puts this, that he is the mediator of a better covenant, you would think that you are not a partaker of that which God had established with Abraham. In Galatians 3 29, it says that if we are Christ, then are we Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So whatever covenant that God established with Abraham, for which reason or which are the basis for his faithfulness, we become partakers of that same covenant, we become partakers of that same mercy because of Jesus Christ. The relevance of this is how we escape any feeling of guilt, any feeling of condemnation, any feeling of self-doubt, feeling unworthy, feeling that you are a loser in life, feeling that you will not amount to anything, regardless of whatever you have been through. The Bible says God is faithful. And now your understanding of faithfulness is not based on what you have done, it's not based on where you have been, it's not based on the background that you find yourself in. It's based on the fact that the Bible says, Whatever He has said in His word, He's able to perform it. And He's performing it on the basis of His integrity, on the basis of the covenant He has established with Jesus Christ as the mediator of. And so, by virtue of finding yourself in Christ, it doesn't matter how late you think you are, God is able to restore you. It doesn't matter how late you feel you are, you think that by now, you know when we're in school.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

By 28, you have three children. By 30, you've built five bedrooms in this economy.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

In this economy, you know, and sometimes in going through life, in our encounter with people, we are led astray, we are led astray. And so, what's like the Israelites, what could have taken a few days now takes years. But by virtue of the fact that you are in Christ, and by virtue of the fact that God's faithfulness is not based on what you have done or what you have gone through. So long as we can have faith in his faithfulness, God will bring us into fruitfulness. Hallelujah. I'm jumping so many things because of time. I think I'll try and wrap up over here. So whatever God has said, I think the Bible says, is it in Romans 3, 4? So let God be true and every man a liar. Basically, what that means is that God cannot lie, like we read in Hebrews, and so every promise he has made, he won't fail you. In fact, he has already accomplished it or completed it in Jesus Christ, and to you it may look impossible. But the Bible says, For with God all things are possible. I don't know whatever it is you are going through. So at the end of the day, this is how or why you know you ought to live in thankfulness and gratitude because God has already accomplished it, He's already finished it in Jesus Christ. We rid ourselves of walking in this covenantal blessing. When we open the door to anxiety, when we open the door to worry, when we open the door to, you know, you feel that there's nothing to thank God for because you're not you are not seeing something tangible in your hand. But if you understand these things, you know that number one, God has promised it in his word, he's shown us mercy because we are undeserving. His integrity or his faithfulness is based off of his integrity and not because of where you are or what you think you have done. So as long as we can have boldness, like Hebrews 4 says, and come to the throne of grace, we would obtain mercy and find grace in our time of need. Hallelujah. The last few things I would want to say at the end of the day, all these things that we have established, you need to understand that the Christian life is not lived on autopilot. You have to be in active collaboration with God to see these things tangibly in your life until you are in an active collaboration with God, it would feel like God is far away, even though he is faithful. And so the way out going forward is to know that indeed, or understand that indeed God has completed everything, like I've already been saying, and it's not because of what you have done or where you find us yourself, and so start thanking God all your life. When you wake up, his mercies are new, he's giving you another opportunity. When God gives us a new day, it is God reposing confidence in what he has placed in you, knowing that if you would walk with him and obey him, rely on him, there is nothing he has said that will not come to pass in your life, regardless of where you find yourself in. So trust God, keeping step with his word, find because his faithfulness is because of what he has promised. You can't hold him on something when you don't know what he has said. So find out what God is saying about your life in the remaining half of this year. Seek God for what he's saying concerning your life, knowing that he is faithful and will bring it to an accomplishment. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

Thanks for tuning in. We hope this message spoke to you. Be sure to subscribe, share, and stay connected with us. Until next time, God bless and take care. IPC Raising Heroes.