WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:22.260 Hi, and welcome to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast. 00:00:22.780 --> 00:00:25.880 This is where you can find audio for our current and past sermons. 00:00:26.100 --> 00:00:30.420 We hope that you enjoy this week's installment, and be sure to check back next week to hear 00:00:30.420 --> 00:00:31.260 the latest message. 00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:32.460 Thanks for listening. 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:49.440 Hey, well, good morning, and again, to all the mothers out there, happy Mother's Day. 00:00:49.540 --> 00:00:52.760 Thank you so much for joining with us today in worship. 00:00:52.760 --> 00:00:57.920 If you've got your Bibles, open them up to Micah 4, as we're going to continue in our 00:00:57.920 --> 00:00:59.500 study in the book of Micah. 00:00:59.660 --> 00:01:01.920 So it's been a good study so far. 00:01:02.040 --> 00:01:07.540 What we're seeing is the continual flow of Scripture that comes forth from the message 00:01:07.540 --> 00:01:12.580 that God's revealing, as He's calling His people, reminding His people for His desperate love 00:01:12.580 --> 00:01:20.240 for them, and their return love back to Him, and then also God's call for justice, for us 00:01:20.240 --> 00:01:21.500 to love our neighbor. 00:01:21.620 --> 00:01:24.720 And what we saw last week is what this means, to love our neighbor. 00:01:24.860 --> 00:01:28.500 It means to love our friend, love our enemy, to love the widow, to love the orphan. 00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:33.700 That's this calling on our lives, and that when God's people break from that standard from 00:01:33.700 --> 00:01:35.960 Him, that there's consequences to that. 00:01:36.020 --> 00:01:36.940 And so that's what we're seeing. 00:01:37.420 --> 00:01:43.420 And so last week, as we finished up the end of chapter 3, where God's people are as a nation, 00:01:43.520 --> 00:01:46.220 if it just ended there, it's a gloomy message. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:52.000 But what we're going to see begin to roll forth in chapter 4 is that not only have we seen 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:56.120 the punishment of God, not only see the wrath of God, but what's going to come out of that 00:01:56.120 --> 00:01:58.720 is a message of hope that we're going to look at. 00:01:58.900 --> 00:02:02.740 And it's going to be a part of that as we look at the entire narrative of Scripture that 00:02:02.740 --> 00:02:04.960 we begin to see and apply for our lives. 00:02:05.140 --> 00:02:10.780 That this isn't just a message for them in their day, but it's what we can draw from as 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:16.760 you and I face our own set of circumstances, as you and I face our own sense of reality 00:02:16.760 --> 00:02:20.760 of where we are, and the hope that comes to us from Christ. 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:25.440 So let's start reading this morning in Micah chapter 4, starting in verse 1. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:27.280 God's Word says this, 00:02:27.420 --> 00:02:32.340 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall 00:02:32.340 --> 00:02:34.820 be established at the highest of the mountains. 00:02:35.140 --> 00:02:40.060 And it shall be lifted up above the hills, and peoples shall flow to it. 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:43.200 And many nations shall come and say, 00:02:43.600 --> 00:02:48.060 Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:53.400 that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths. 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:59.240 For out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 00:02:59.720 --> 00:03:04.960 And so what I want us to see are three different aspects in this that cause us to look forward 00:03:04.960 --> 00:03:10.480 regardless of the circumstances that we have and the certainty that we have in our relationship 00:03:10.480 --> 00:03:11.060 with God. 00:03:11.300 --> 00:03:14.560 And so the first thing that we're going to do is we're going to talk about what it means 00:03:14.560 --> 00:03:18.660 looking to hope, to look forward to hope. 00:03:18.880 --> 00:03:26.940 Micah begins in this by establishing that in these last days, let's understand the when of 00:03:26.940 --> 00:03:28.640 what he is talking about. 00:03:29.100 --> 00:03:33.780 Micah isn't just speaking to the end of the captivity for Israel. 00:03:34.100 --> 00:03:40.500 He's not just speaking to an earthly season that will await them, but Micah is speaking 00:03:40.500 --> 00:03:46.480 instead to a point in the future to an eternal reign of God. 00:03:46.700 --> 00:03:52.000 And what he's reminding them of what awaits them as captivity is there, that there should 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:58.340 be within them, that what captivity should create in them is a longing and a hope for the future. 00:03:58.660 --> 00:04:03.640 Not just a future for when they'll be set free from their earthly captivity of the Assyrians, 00:04:03.640 --> 00:04:09.360 but when they'll be set free from the captivity that is held of us within this world. 00:04:09.820 --> 00:04:16.440 And it's not just them, it's not just the Israelites that need to long for this day, but it's you 00:04:16.440 --> 00:04:17.000 and I. 00:04:17.340 --> 00:04:24.700 And that what is set in us by God is an eternal longing that will call us to long for him. 00:04:24.980 --> 00:04:28.060 Paul talks about this in Romans, starting in verse 19. 00:04:28.880 --> 00:04:30.340 Paul writes, and he says, 00:04:31.380 --> 00:04:41.680 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected 00:04:41.680 --> 00:04:48.460 it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and 00:04:48.460 --> 00:04:51.680 obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 00:04:52.020 --> 00:04:58.060 For we know, right, the church knows that the whole creation has been groaning together in 00:04:58.060 --> 00:05:00.080 the pains of childbirth until now. 00:05:00.500 --> 00:05:06.840 And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grow 00:05:06.840 --> 00:05:14.480 inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoptions as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:20.940 And so what we begin to look at is a difference in mindset from what we're used to in our earthly 00:05:20.940 --> 00:05:28.840 days to instead this eternal longing that we have for Christ to return and to establish 00:05:28.840 --> 00:05:30.740 what is there for us. 00:05:30.980 --> 00:05:36.940 And so how I think about this in my life is in our world, are we simply trying to shuffle 00:05:36.940 --> 00:05:41.480 the circumstances or are we looking forward to bringing redemption? 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:46.300 Now, one of the things that happens oftentimes in our house, let me see if I can explain it 00:05:46.300 --> 00:05:52.400 this way, is that Aaron and I, we move into a home and we take our furniture that we bring 00:05:52.400 --> 00:05:58.200 into the home and we set up what we think is going to be the best home possible for us. 00:05:58.280 --> 00:06:02.940 And then after a couple of months or maybe even a couple of years, we look around of what 00:06:02.940 --> 00:06:06.600 we've established and we decide, you know what, this isn't the most efficient. 00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:08.000 It's not what we need. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:11.560 And so what we do is we don't throw out the furniture, right? 00:06:11.640 --> 00:06:18.180 We reshuffle, we rearrange the furniture that's in the room to now best suit for us. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:20.900 Well, then what do you think happens a couple of years later, right? 00:06:21.240 --> 00:06:22.960 We shuffle it back over again. 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:25.160 And so we're not getting anything new. 00:06:25.380 --> 00:06:27.980 We're just shuffling around what's there. 00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:33.500 And that's oftentimes what we do in our life is not living in the hope, not looking for the 00:06:33.500 --> 00:06:40.840 hope that we have, we instead look at the circumstances around us and we shuffle them around in our 00:06:40.840 --> 00:06:41.240 life. 00:06:41.300 --> 00:06:46.420 But what we find is that later on, we still see that we're not satisfied because there's 00:06:46.420 --> 00:06:51.980 something created in us that what we're looking for is not to shuffle our circumstances, but 00:06:51.980 --> 00:06:56.360 we need to look forward to the bringing redemption that comes with Christ and Christ alone. 00:06:56.500 --> 00:07:03.320 So that in this world, you and I right now as believers in Christ, as followers of Christ, 00:07:03.460 --> 00:07:10.420 we're not satisfied with the way things are because simply put, we're never going to be satisfied 00:07:10.420 --> 00:07:14.660 in the way things are because the way things are in this world are broken. 00:07:15.320 --> 00:07:18.820 We're not meant to find our satisfaction in them. 00:07:19.260 --> 00:07:25.900 And so in us should be a groaning for the way that we long things to be, the way that will 00:07:25.900 --> 00:07:28.940 come when Christ comes and establishes. 00:07:29.300 --> 00:07:33.600 And so we look at this world and we realize the effect of the brokenness of this world. 00:07:33.780 --> 00:07:34.920 So here's what I'm not saying. 00:07:35.020 --> 00:07:39.200 I'm not saying that we don't need to look at this world and figure out how to make it a 00:07:39.200 --> 00:07:39.800 better place. 00:07:40.200 --> 00:07:42.240 We need to do that as we talked about last week. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:47.300 I'm not saying that in this world, we don't look around and not try to figure out how we 00:07:47.300 --> 00:07:48.220 can help people. 00:07:48.220 --> 00:07:50.920 We should absolutely do in that. 00:07:51.340 --> 00:07:57.840 And this is not a cop out for you and I as Christians, not to look into a way to make 00:07:57.840 --> 00:08:01.660 this world a better place and to work for the betterment of mankind. 00:08:02.120 --> 00:08:03.560 But here's what I am saying. 00:08:04.120 --> 00:08:12.020 Because of sin, there is a brokenness that is here and that will always exist in this current 00:08:12.020 --> 00:08:13.020 world that we know. 00:08:13.660 --> 00:08:15.000 There will always be unrest. 00:08:15.780 --> 00:08:17.380 There will always be strife. 00:08:17.380 --> 00:08:20.920 Greed, destruction, and war. 00:08:21.540 --> 00:08:25.040 And what God does is God takes these things. 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:26.940 God takes this pain. 00:08:27.440 --> 00:08:28.700 God takes this suffering. 00:08:29.100 --> 00:08:34.220 And he uses that in a wonderful way to draw us to him. 00:08:34.620 --> 00:08:36.680 Look back at verse 23 of Romans 8. 00:08:37.080 --> 00:09:00.320 So when we see the destruction of this world, when we see the destruction of this world, when we see the pain of this world, when we see the pain of this world, when we see the struggles and the suffering of this world, 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:15.640 when we see the suffering of this world, what it creates in us is a longing, what it creates in us is a suffering that comes as we long for Christ to return. 00:09:16.360 --> 00:09:27.380 There's a phrase that we use, and I'll be honest with you, there's a phrase that's used by many different churches as they talk about the next season of life, or maybe even the next season of their church. 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:37.200 Or I know that I've used this before in my life is as I move out of a difficult season or as I'm in a difficult season and I look forward to the next season of life. 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.800 And we use the phrase, the best is yet to come. 00:09:40.320 --> 00:09:46.840 But the reality is, unless the best is Jesus, then our target is too low. 00:09:47.460 --> 00:09:55.860 Because if the best is yet to come, and that's what we're talking about for Christ, and the season of his return, the eternal season that will never end, 00:09:56.240 --> 00:10:00.240 then the target that we set and the standard that we set is too low. 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:06.020 Because next season doesn't bring the best if the best isn't Jesus. 00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:15.580 And so as Micah speaks to God's people then, as he speaks to the people, as captivity faces them, as the wrath of God faces them, 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:20.400 it's the same exact message that he shares with us today. 00:10:20.900 --> 00:10:22.500 We're not going to be satisfied. 00:10:23.060 --> 00:10:24.460 We're going to be held captive. 00:10:24.900 --> 00:10:28.780 And what we're looking for is not a different season of life. 00:10:29.080 --> 00:10:34.920 What we desperately long for is not to be moved and not to reshuffle the furniture. 00:10:35.000 --> 00:10:43.640 But what we're looking for is the return of Christ, where all the things that we know that were old are gone away. 00:10:43.800 --> 00:10:47.360 And what comes from that is the new. 00:10:48.160 --> 00:10:56.300 Micah's looking forward to a better tomorrow, where God's people are no longer held in captivity. 00:10:56.540 --> 00:11:04.120 But that happens through the saving work of Christ and God's plan for all of history. 00:11:04.280 --> 00:11:11.020 Micah wants to set this mindset in the people who stand in the path of God's wrath, 00:11:11.540 --> 00:11:14.040 that there is still hope. 00:11:14.780 --> 00:11:17.760 And hope is going to come with Christ. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:19.240 So what is hope? 00:11:19.700 --> 00:11:20.620 What does that mean? 00:11:21.020 --> 00:11:23.060 Again, it's a phrase that we use. 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:27.580 And when we think of hope, oftentimes we refer to hope as wishful thinking. 00:11:27.940 --> 00:11:31.560 And so we use phrases like, you know, I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. 00:11:31.980 --> 00:11:34.080 I hope I get the promotion at work. 00:11:34.380 --> 00:11:38.780 I hope I get the feeling better as I get past this cold that I'm going through. 00:11:38.780 --> 00:11:43.640 But when we talk about hope in terms of what we're looking at with Scripture, 00:11:44.160 --> 00:11:50.460 hope is connected to not what we know, but what we wish to be true. 00:11:50.920 --> 00:11:53.680 And biblical hope is much different than that. 00:11:54.240 --> 00:12:03.540 Biblical hope is a confident expectation of what we know because of who we know in Christ Jesus. 00:12:03.820 --> 00:12:09.160 And so it's what we see, it's what's described in Romans 8, 24 through 25. 00:12:09.700 --> 00:12:12.720 For in this hope, we are saved. 00:12:13.420 --> 00:12:16.720 Now hope that is seen is not hope. 00:12:17.060 --> 00:12:19.100 For who hopes for what he sees? 00:12:19.520 --> 00:12:24.720 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 00:12:25.160 --> 00:12:27.280 And so this is what comes from in our life, 00:12:27.280 --> 00:12:33.640 that we have such a deep-rooted confidence in who Christ is and what Christ has done 00:12:33.640 --> 00:12:37.280 and what Christ brings, that that establishes hope. 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:41.180 So it's not just a simple wish of what we would like to take place, 00:12:41.380 --> 00:12:48.500 but it is instead a rooted confidence in who God is because of we know who he is. 00:12:49.520 --> 00:12:51.600 The writer of Hebrews talks about this, 00:12:52.120 --> 00:12:56.480 of the connection between hope and faith in Hebrews chapter 11. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:02.060 And he gives many examples of this, but one of the examples he gives is with Noah. 00:13:02.260 --> 00:13:04.860 In Hebrews 11, verse 7, he says this, 00:13:05.800 --> 00:13:11.840 By faith, Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:13.000 What's he talking about? 00:13:13.460 --> 00:13:16.020 So God comes to Noah and tells Noah there's going to be a flood. 00:13:16.500 --> 00:13:18.720 Now there's never been a flood that's ever happened 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:22.120 because the oceans stop where the oceans stop. 00:13:22.560 --> 00:13:25.380 But yet God said that there's going to be a flood that's going to happen. 00:13:25.460 --> 00:13:27.740 It's going to happen because rain is going to fall, 00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:30.040 and rain has never fallen before. 00:13:30.540 --> 00:13:32.600 And so what does Noah do? 00:13:33.140 --> 00:13:34.820 Does Noah question God? 00:13:35.080 --> 00:13:36.320 No, he doesn't question God. 00:13:36.380 --> 00:13:36.780 What does he do? 00:13:36.920 --> 00:13:38.620 He has faith in God. 00:13:38.780 --> 00:13:40.700 He puts his hope in God, 00:13:40.780 --> 00:13:42.180 and it becomes action. 00:13:42.380 --> 00:13:43.040 Because it says, 00:13:43.180 --> 00:13:57.960 And so that's what we see. 00:13:58.720 --> 00:14:01.000 And Micah continues to build on that. 00:14:01.640 --> 00:14:02.880 An eternal hope. 00:14:03.400 --> 00:14:07.200 Because Micah's not just talking about the hope for the Israelites. 00:14:08.140 --> 00:14:12.820 Because in verse 2, he talks about all of the peoples will gather. 00:14:13.520 --> 00:14:19.420 And all of the nations will be there at the mountain of the Lord. 00:14:20.260 --> 00:14:23.040 Micah's speaking beyond the circumstances. 00:14:23.640 --> 00:14:26.420 And what that teaches me today is this. 00:14:27.020 --> 00:14:34.080 Is that just as my hope in God is bigger than the circumstances of the captivity that God's people faced. 00:14:34.540 --> 00:14:44.640 That my hope in God is bigger than the circumstances and the situations and the fears and the doubts and the struggles that I face today. 00:14:44.840 --> 00:14:48.000 And so in that, we look forward. 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:50.420 We focus our eyes. 00:14:50.900 --> 00:14:51.980 And we claim the hope. 00:14:52.560 --> 00:14:54.960 Not just wishing that tomorrow will be different. 00:14:55.520 --> 00:14:59.020 But the hope of what we know will come with Christ. 00:14:59.620 --> 00:15:01.260 Let's keep reading verses 3 and 4. 00:15:01.420 --> 00:15:01.680 It says, 00:15:02.460 --> 00:15:32.440 And so what we see is not only looking. 00:15:32.460 --> 00:15:33.500 For hope. 00:15:33.640 --> 00:15:35.980 But we can see here, finding peace. 00:15:36.260 --> 00:15:39.620 So there's a result of the hope that Micah wants to talk about. 00:15:39.900 --> 00:15:41.540 And that result is peace. 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:45.820 And it's peace like you and I cannot even possibly imagine. 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:47.480 It is peace like no other. 00:15:47.640 --> 00:15:52.660 And so what happens is Micah says that the weapons that we carry, the sword and the spear. 00:15:52.980 --> 00:15:56.820 That this peace is so permanent that they'll be turned into farming tools. 00:15:57.180 --> 00:16:02.200 That nations will stop fighting and not just a moment in temporary peace. 00:16:02.200 --> 00:16:05.080 But that they'll never fight again. 00:16:05.400 --> 00:16:08.440 And this happens not because man has figured it out. 00:16:08.560 --> 00:16:10.960 Not because man has built a peace treaty. 00:16:11.140 --> 00:16:14.060 But because God has put it in place. 00:16:14.320 --> 00:16:18.440 You see, what you and I know in our world is temporary peace. 00:16:18.680 --> 00:16:20.860 We know temporary peace between nations. 00:16:20.860 --> 00:16:23.360 We know temporary peace between people. 00:16:23.800 --> 00:16:31.480 We even know temporary peace within us as individuals as we battle through the individual battles that we have. 00:16:31.720 --> 00:16:34.880 But Micah is not talking about a temporary peace. 00:16:35.000 --> 00:16:39.840 But he's talking about an eternal peace and the reign of God that will never end. 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:44.180 The word peace is used 429 times in scripture. 00:16:44.560 --> 00:16:48.700 And here's what we can learn about peace as a snapshot from God's word. 00:16:49.080 --> 00:16:51.540 Number one is this, is that peace is a gift from God. 00:16:51.900 --> 00:16:55.560 That peace that we get is given from him and him alone. 00:16:55.560 --> 00:16:58.520 And it's only given the second thing to God's people. 00:16:59.020 --> 00:17:04.740 Isaiah 48, 22 tells us that the wicked will not gain the peace of God. 00:17:05.140 --> 00:17:08.940 We do know from scripture as well that peace is counterfeit. 00:17:09.140 --> 00:17:13.040 That we can be given an illusion of what peace would be. 00:17:13.180 --> 00:17:15.340 But it's a tool used by Satan. 00:17:15.560 --> 00:17:16.640 It's counterfeit. 00:17:17.020 --> 00:17:19.380 We know that peace is connected to rest. 00:17:19.560 --> 00:17:20.780 An eternal rest. 00:17:20.780 --> 00:17:25.520 And that's why it's proclaimed at the birth of Christ, peace on earth. 00:17:25.700 --> 00:17:29.700 The rest that will come from him and from him alone. 00:17:30.580 --> 00:17:33.400 It says that we're not to simply wait for peace. 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:39.720 But that you and I are called as believers to seek peace between each other. 00:17:39.940 --> 00:17:42.100 That we do wait for it eternally. 00:17:42.420 --> 00:17:45.740 But that we seek it in the immediate between us. 00:17:46.260 --> 00:17:50.860 We find out through God's word that peace should reign in our hearts. 00:17:51.260 --> 00:17:56.020 Meaning that we as believers, that that's found when we follow God. 00:17:56.140 --> 00:17:59.100 And we trust him with all that we are and all that we have. 00:17:59.640 --> 00:18:06.140 But we do know this, that a reminder from Micah and the reminder from so many, that peace will 00:18:06.140 --> 00:18:10.740 not fully come until the eternal rule and reign of Jesus comes. 00:18:11.120 --> 00:18:13.060 And that's part of the strife that we go through. 00:18:13.260 --> 00:18:16.480 It's part of the longing of what's there. 00:18:16.700 --> 00:18:18.280 And so it's what we seek. 00:18:18.560 --> 00:18:21.220 It's what we look for and that we hope to find. 00:18:21.300 --> 00:18:23.240 Let's continue on in verse 5. 00:18:23.860 --> 00:18:24.080 It says, 00:18:24.160 --> 00:18:29.940 For all the peoples walk each in the name of its God. 00:18:30.580 --> 00:18:36.980 But we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever. 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:43.900 And what we see and begin to understand in here is that as we look for the hope, as we seek 00:18:43.900 --> 00:18:50.260 to live in the peace, as we seek to hope for the peace that will come with Christ, what that 00:18:50.260 --> 00:18:57.140 looks like in our life is living in reliance, to live in reliance of God. 00:18:57.220 --> 00:18:57.660 So how? 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:00.380 How can you and I find this hope? 00:19:00.800 --> 00:19:06.480 How can you and I find this peace and make this our reality right now in all the battles 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:08.660 and all the strife that we go to? 00:19:09.060 --> 00:19:14.180 When Micah says this, he says, all of us, what we're doing is we're walking in the name 00:19:14.180 --> 00:19:14.860 of something. 00:19:15.120 --> 00:19:19.980 And to walk in the name, that phrase that he uses means to adhere to religious requirements. 00:19:20.400 --> 00:19:25.000 And so what he's saying is, he says this, you're either walking in the requirements of your 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:32.860 little G false God, or you're walking in the requirements and the strength of the holy God. 00:19:33.400 --> 00:19:38.940 And so what that builds from us on, if we're walking in the strength of God, then what or 00:19:38.940 --> 00:19:41.200 who do we rely on? 00:19:41.600 --> 00:19:42.820 Church, think about that. 00:19:43.140 --> 00:19:47.720 When it comes to your life, when it comes to your welfare, when it comes to your care, 00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:51.780 who are you truly relying on? 00:19:52.140 --> 00:19:56.900 I know one of the things that the coronavirus is teaching me right now as we're walking through 00:19:56.900 --> 00:20:02.940 this season is as we walk through the season right now, we have to make decisions not based 00:20:02.940 --> 00:20:07.380 off of experience because we've never experienced anything like this, not based off of training 00:20:07.380 --> 00:20:12.580 because we've been never been taught and how to walk through situations like this, not on 00:20:12.580 --> 00:20:13.500 anything else. 00:20:13.500 --> 00:20:18.680 But if the one thing in my life right now that God's teaching me more than anything else is 00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:21.480 that we have to rely on him and him alone. 00:20:21.480 --> 00:20:24.780 I want to share this story real briefly with you. 00:20:25.060 --> 00:20:29.160 But we've learned this as a church and God's faithfulness and how God's worked through you. 00:20:29.540 --> 00:20:35.320 When it came as the opportunity for us to apply for the PPP, for the payroll and put out by 00:20:35.320 --> 00:20:40.600 the government, we were given that multiple times and asked to that from our bank that we 00:20:40.600 --> 00:20:42.180 could apply for that. 00:20:42.560 --> 00:20:43.780 And so we prayed about that. 00:20:43.940 --> 00:20:49.220 And here's where we came to the decision on that is this, that we didn't want to depend or rely on a 00:20:49.220 --> 00:20:52.800 government to pull us through what we knew that God wanted to pull us through. 00:20:53.160 --> 00:20:59.440 And what God has done, God has done through each and every single one of you that through this 00:20:59.440 --> 00:21:04.680 season of struggle, that through this season of many churches and many businesses not making it, 00:21:04.680 --> 00:21:11.000 that because of God's faithfulness and because of God working through you and because us as a body of 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:19.540 believers relying on him and him alone and our dependence on him, God has brought us through that 00:21:19.540 --> 00:21:26.980 because we have not relied on ourselves, because we have not relied on anyone or anything else, 00:21:27.620 --> 00:21:30.320 because we have relied on God. 00:21:30.940 --> 00:21:39.300 Church, who are you relying on for your day-to-day, for your eternity, 00:21:39.980 --> 00:21:45.360 for your salvation, for every part in every aspect of your life? 00:21:46.020 --> 00:21:47.220 Who are you relying on? 00:21:48.020 --> 00:21:50.960 Let's close out this chapter in verses six through eight. 00:21:51.760 --> 00:21:52.020 It says, 00:21:52.100 --> 00:21:53.520 In that day, declares the Lord, 00:21:53.940 --> 00:22:00.180 I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted. 00:22:00.620 --> 00:22:06.580 And the lame I will make the remnant and those who were cast off a strong nation. 00:22:06.580 --> 00:22:12.940 And the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore. 00:22:13.620 --> 00:22:19.660 And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, 00:22:20.220 --> 00:22:27.900 to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem. 00:22:28.540 --> 00:22:34.280 And what I want us to close on this morning is becoming the remnant. 00:22:34.580 --> 00:22:38.080 You know, remnant is a difficult word for me to embrace, 00:22:38.180 --> 00:22:44.120 because oftentimes remnant is connected with the negative, as it's the leftover. 00:22:44.800 --> 00:22:50.500 I think of remnant with, like, you go to grab something that you desperately want or that you desperately need, 00:22:50.620 --> 00:22:54.900 and what you find in there is not enough, but what you find in there is just the leftover, 00:22:55.260 --> 00:23:00.020 what someone else has already taken, and all you get is what's left behind. 00:23:00.420 --> 00:23:04.480 But God, in his redemptive nature, redeems that word for us. 00:23:04.760 --> 00:23:11.840 And what we see when we think of the word remnant in Scripture is not something negative, but it's a positive. 00:23:12.500 --> 00:23:20.340 And it refers to those who not have been left behind, but it refers to those whom God has saved. 00:23:20.580 --> 00:23:27.760 In Isaiah chapter 10, the remnant are those who are no longer under the Assyrians because God saved them. 00:23:28.120 --> 00:23:36.060 In Genesis chapter 6, Noah and his family are described as the remnant after the flood because God's saved them. 00:23:36.320 --> 00:23:44.640 In Genesis chapter 19, Lot and his daughters are described as the remnant because God saved them from Sodom and Gomorrah. 00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:53.220 And so what we see is a beautiful picture of what it means to be the remnant in Scripture, that it is those who God has saved. 00:23:53.880 --> 00:23:58.600 But it is the minority. 00:23:59.620 --> 00:24:02.560 But it is the few. 00:24:03.560 --> 00:24:06.000 It is not the masses. 00:24:07.120 --> 00:24:14.180 Because those of us who found our salvation in God are the remnant. 00:24:15.120 --> 00:24:18.580 Let's look at Jesus' words in Matthew chapter 7. 00:24:19.580 --> 00:24:20.820 It says this, 00:24:22.120 --> 00:24:50.660 Those who find it are the remnant. 00:24:51.120 --> 00:24:52.440 Why is it so hard? 00:24:53.180 --> 00:24:56.380 Why is the gospel of Jesus so hard? 00:24:57.060 --> 00:25:03.700 Because I believe it's counterintuitive to everything and our sin that we long for. 00:25:04.480 --> 00:25:14.160 You see, the gospel calls you to look at yourself and see that in and of yourself that you're not good enough. 00:25:14.960 --> 00:25:31.980 But the gospel also calls you to look at yourself and to look at your bad and see that you're bad, that you're filth, that you're sin, yours and mine, cannot overcome the good work of Jesus. 00:25:32.340 --> 00:25:43.520 You see, that's what makes it so hard for people to hear the message, for people to respond to the message. 00:25:44.200 --> 00:25:53.560 Because it places all the beauty on him, because the remnant is found in Christ and in Christ alone. 00:25:54.420 --> 00:26:02.240 So church, for Israel, as they look to their future, their future was not found in what would happen through the powers of military. 00:26:02.680 --> 00:26:05.740 The future would not be found in what would happen in their economy. 00:26:06.120 --> 00:26:10.320 The future was not going to be found in what happened to them and to them alone. 00:26:10.740 --> 00:26:13.500 But it was found in the work of Christ. 00:26:14.080 --> 00:26:24.120 So I want to ask you as you sit there in your living room this morning, when you think of your future, when you think of your hope, when you think of your peace, when you think of what you're relying on, 00:26:24.560 --> 00:26:29.160 is it found in the situations in where you find yourself today? 00:26:29.600 --> 00:26:32.420 Is it found in your strength or your strength alone? 00:26:32.800 --> 00:26:35.960 Because if it is, then you're part of the masses. 00:26:37.960 --> 00:26:39.660 Is it found in Christ? 00:26:40.700 --> 00:26:42.740 And in that, you're the remnant. 00:26:43.420 --> 00:26:43.940 Let's pray. 00:26:45.200 --> 00:26:51.080 Lord, as we go back into worship, Lord, I pray for the people who hear this message today. 00:26:51.920 --> 00:26:59.140 Lord, I pray that they would find their hope in you, in you alone, their life in you, in you alone. 00:26:59.620 --> 00:27:01.700 Lord, thank you for the remnant. 00:27:02.420 --> 00:27:05.900 Thank you for what you call us from and what you save us for. 00:27:06.700 --> 00:27:08.400 And it's in Jesus' name we pray. 00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:09.460 Amen. 00:27:09.460 --> 00:27:09.560 Amen. 00:27:36.700 --> 00:27:41.440 Willow Ridge Church on Facebook and Instagram.