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Welcome to the Grace Church Messages Podcast! These are the weekly Sunday messages from Grace Church in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. Listen to biblical teaching from our weekend services to help you understand Scripture, follow Jesus in your everyday life, and grow in your faith. Perfect for the morning commute, the treadmill, or wherever life happens.
There are a lot of things that we can't see but we believe are very real. Right? Do you agree with that? Let's give you a couple of examples. This morning is actually here at Grace. I spilled my my coffee was like filled to the brim when that coffee fell off the table. I did not wonder if that coffee was going to go up or if it was going to go down.
Right, Because there's this invisible law called gravity that I can see. But I believe it, right? I know. I want to go. It's going down right? How about smell? Let's say you're in a car with some people and the windows are up and a smell comes from We won't say where. Right? And no one's willing to own it.
And someone says, I can't see it. I don't believe it's really good. yeah, it is definitely real. Is definitely real in here. Right. You can see, smell, but you believe it, right? How about cold? Cold is not really a thing called as the absence of heat and those of you engaging online. If you heard Mary before, don't pull.
It's like 73 degrees here today in my head and it's beautiful. And you can't see. But you say, yeah, it's cold. And we take appropriate measures. Right? How about electromagnetic waves? You can see there are sound waves, all kinds of waves all around us. WI fi. You can't see it. But if we could see, you know, what it look like, it looks sort of like this right here.
If we could see the invisible, we would see something like that all through this room. You're going to get the car after a church maybe, and you think like, Yeah, I want to just continue my worship and you turn on the fish or something, you know, any of you turn on the radio and. And what happens? Magic, right?
You're driving along and in your receiver on your radio connects to those radio waves and brings music into your car. Did those waves appear Only when you turn the radio on. Now they're all around you, right? There's all of you can see it, but you believe it's real. So you don't turn the radio questioning like, I wonder if I'm going to connect with some radio waves today.
We just know, right? We believe it because it happens so many times. Just because you can't see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. We would all acknowledge that. And yet, I think for many is one of the key obstacles to faith, isn't it, that we'd say, you know, if I could just see God, you know, I've never seen Jesus, can't see the Father, can't see the Holy Spirit.
And so I wrestle with I just want to like if I can, is he real? You know, to just peak and head to the New Testament when Jesus, he says to his followers after his resurrection, he says, Blessed are those who haven't seen and yet what? And yet they believe What if we viewed the existence, the reality of God, the same way that we view sound waves and gravity and smell and cold?
Just because we can't see an invisible God doesn't mean He is in real, right? The Bible actually acknowledges the challenge of this, the need for faith. And and here's what we read in Hebrews Chapter 11. Listen to what the author says is not if we're going to get to someone 39, but just for a second, your faith shows the reality of what we hope for.
It is the evidence in there is evidence, evidence of things, what we cannot see. But there's evidence, but we can't see it. And it's impossible to please God with our faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek him. Here's here's why. Faith, I really believe, is rational, intellectually credible.
Just like we can't see radio waves. But we hear what we hear the music. And just like you can't see cold. But you took extra measures today, probably. You said I'm going to wear, you know, a coat exception for my friends over here wore hoodies, they said, right. And but and just like you can't see smell but on the way home today, if it's really pungent in your car, you might actually put the windows down for some fresh air.
We may not be able to see God, but we we see evidence, right? We see his fingerprints and and all over nature, around us, we see the power of God's working. I got an email this morning about this amazing healing, and I just said, Wow, that could be coincidence. But it's amazing how many coincidences happen when people pray or you see a transformed life and you go, I never, ever would have expected that person to become who they are today.
And you go, I don't want to say it except this God, I mean, I don't know. And that we can say, God, we can't see you, but we observe the evidence of who you are all over the place. Just because we can't see an invisible God doesn't mean He isn't real. So here's the question What if God is actually everywhere we go?
Like, what if he's more personal than sound waves? What if this God is really, really good, extraordinarily powerful, inviting us into a relationship with Him all through the day, wanting us to interact with him through prayer and and worship, and to acknowledge his presence and his friendship and who loves us more than any other person in this life could ever love us.
What if that God is really with us wherever we go? That would be amazing, wouldn't it? Let's turn to Soul 139 if you're not there already. We started this new series called Near last week, and here's what the Psalm highlights said. Christianity at the core is a relationship that Christianity is not a list of do's and don'ts. It's not just like guardrails for behavioral modification.
It's not a series of religious obligations that it's all about Christianity is all about the nearness of God. It's about a relationship with him. So last week we heard the testimony of Scripture, the first six verses that God is Elroy. He is the God who what, who sees. He sees everything. The fancy theological term for that is that God is omniscient, omniscient.
Would you say that one with me, omniscient. He sees and knows everything and there are no surprises to him. Not only that, this almost is going to go on here and tell us that God is omnipresent, and He starts with a rhetorical question. He's not trying to run away from God, but he's like, Is there really any place I can go where God is not listen now?
He says, verse seven, he says, Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? In other words, is there a place you can go where God is not already there in His grace, in his power, in his watchful care? And David, the writer here, is this powerful leader who's wealthy and famous and successful and recognized as one of the standout leaders in the world of that era.
And yet he recognizes his own limitations and he just acknowledges, God, you are so great. And David responds to his question, Where could I ever go? The God is not. He responds with five If statements, five statements, if you can pick them out, beginning in verse eight, he says this If I go up to the heavens, you are there.
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I sit on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say surely the darkness will hide me And the light become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you.
The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you Pause right there There's a logical progression here And and David looks at three sort of spheres where God is. He starts in verse eight with the cosmos, the universe. He's like, You know what? However, however deep you would go into the depths of the earth, however far out in the stretches of the universe, you can say, God, you are here, you're there.
In other words, you can never travel so far into the universe that you would find a place where God is not present. I mean, just ponder that and just go. That sort of just makes your mind almost explode. I wonder if out in the universe we might sense his power even more, his presence. It's been true of numerous astronauts.
There was an interview this past summer with one of the astronauts, Jeffrey Williams, and he revealed how his experience of Earth from space strengthened his faith. And here's here's what he writes. He says, There's this incredible pattern of color and beauty. This is from space looking back, and it invokes wonders when asked about seeing the Grand Canyon of coral reefs in space, he completed five spacewalks, four missions, and set an American record for 534 total days in space.
Now, that's a business trip, isn't it? Which he said, deepen his relationship with God. Williams said he captured about a half a million photos, many of which he shared in his book, the work of his Hands, A View of God's Creation from Space. He's from Wisconsin, and he said, I'm often asked if my my work as a scientist is somehow in conflict with my faith.
And he says this to the contrary. Many of the great scientists of the past, such as Johannes Kepler Isaac Noone and Robert Boyles, were also theologians. They were all convicted by the Scripture and driven by the Scripture and their calling as scientists. And they recognized and assumed a rationale to be in God's created order that there was an ordering of things.
And the illustrations of that are obvious. Williams is not the only astronaut to have the sense of God's presence in space. John Glenn, one of the first astronauts chosen by NASA's one, said that while aboard the shuttle Discovery, he said this to look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is to me impossible.
You might remember how Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong made their lunar landing from the historic Apollo 11 mission. And on his return to Earth, Aldrin read aloud from soul Mate. And here's what he read when I look at the night sky. This is from Soul Mate, and I see the work of your fingers. God, the moon in the stars you set in place.
What are mere mortals that you should think about them human beings that you should care for them to think that this amazing God invisible, yet everywhere. That if you were to go to the furthest stretches of the cosmos or to the depths of the earth, you're saying that God, who cares for you is there. He's there. Soul mate goes on.
It talks about East from West verse nine If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. The dawn would always be in what direction? In the east. Right. And when he talks about the sea sca, he's talking about if you lived in that day, you're talking about the Mediterranean Sea, which was in the West.
And so, David, I wonder I don't know where he wrote the song, but maybe, you know, he was up in the some perch balcony of his palace and he's has this vision, this view of the horizon. And he's like, God, no matter where I go to as far to the east, as far to the west, God, you're there.
You're there. A couple of our worship team members today grew up in faraway countries, and we have a lot of international students here at Grace, people who are on business visas. I want to just tell you, we're really glad you're here. You you make us a richer church family. I'm sure there are times my first year of study was in Europe and it was not as big of a, you know, move.
A lot of people spoke English in different places I'd go to, but I was 17 years old. And I remember there were times that, you know, I had my I just I felt very lonely. And, you know, you miss the familiar. Your family's thousands of miles away. You miss maybe familiar foods, things that other people know about. And they're just in some of you.
That's that's you. And I remember this verse was such an encouragement to me when David writes, If I rise on the Wings of the Dawn, if I settle on the far side of the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Mediterranean, wherever, even there, your hand will way guide me. There's nowhere we can go East or west. The God is not there.
One more aspect of God's presence that David highlights. He goes from the heights of space to east and west, and then he sort of says, and in my day, whatever time of day, whatever season of life, verse 11, if I say surely the darkness will hide. I mean the light become night around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you.
The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you. Some of you been in a cave tour. You go to down a Mammoth caverns or something and they'll be like our high one standstill. And they turn off the lights. And I mean, you cannot see like, a finger in front of your face, right? It is pitch black.
David saying, even in that God sees you, but not just when it's physically dark, when it feels like the lights have been turned off in your life. Some of you were there today and you're just my life right now. In an article three months ago, Irina Creek writes about growing up in the former Soviet Union and she writes this and she quotes this psalm.
I want to just she says, My family was burdened by alcoholism, landing. My father in prison and often throwing my mother unconscious on the roadside the night my mother walked away from us. All I remember is seeing my sister Katya, searching for who? Through the dark window. Katya said she had this feeling deep in her chest that we would never see our mom again.
And to this day, we don't know what happened to her. She never came back. Often, even as God's children, we face unanswered questions. I don't know why our mother never returned. I don't know how we survived those days of poverty and hunger. But before I knew him, God was already sustaining me through all of my own, answered questions.
My sister and I were soon taken to an orphanage, saturated in verbal and physical abuse. I remember thinking, Is this how you treat children? One night the cruelty got to the point where I decided that I hated my life, and that was when God met me. He saw my heart, even though I did not know God at the time.
He nudged me to keep looking forward because all this pain would one day be in my past. God doesn't always pull us out of dark circumstances. But Psalm 139, verse 12 reminds us that even in the darkness, even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day for darkness is as light to you.
God saw me in that dark place. He knew about my struggles and by his strength, he allowed me to endure the suffering and step toward a brighter day. Later, my sister and I were transferred to another orphanage where the caregivers do not tolerate any kind of abuse. The atmosphere was completely different, and soon after we arrived, the director of our new orphanage made an astonishing decision.
He allowed Operation Christmas Child. So you heard of that? To enter with shoebox gifts and share the good news about Jesus. When I received my shoe box gift, maybe from someone here, a Grace wrote, Who knows? We've sent thousands of those out around the world every Christmas. Everything about it was so exciting and colorful and new, simple items like hair clips in my own diary filled me with joy.
But more important than anything in my shoebox was that through Operation Christmas Child, I heard the life changing message of the gospel for the first time. They talked about a God whom we call our father. They told us about Jesus, who came from heaven to earth to rescue us as an orphan. To me, that meant that God is the God of adoption.
My dream all through my childhood was to be part of a loving family. And now God was inviting me into his royal family. It felt as if the light had finally won territory over the darkness in my life. I gave God my burdens. I gave my burdens to Jesus and began to faithfully pray and seek after his heart, the darkness could no longer stop the light from getting in.
And she ends this way We all face darkness today on this side of heaven. But no matter how deep the shadows seem, God sees us. He hears our cries and his faithful to answer. Wow. No matter where you are in the darkness, God sees you a love the way that the new living translation puts it. It says this darkness and light are the same to you is for us.
We can say I can't see it's for God. He sees us no matter the laws. He's everything you're going through. He feels your pain. He's full of compassion and he invites us to turn to him. But here's the deal. We have to believe that God exists right? So we write in Hebrews. You must believe that He exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Friends of you and I can grab hold of this truth. I'm convinced it can change the way that we live. Let's turn to one more passage. Genesis Chapter 28. Genesis 28, a passage we read just this week in our Bible reading plan. And let me give a shout out, by the way, to our 2024 Bible reading plan called The Full Story.
You see it there on the screen for beginning to the Amen. It walks you through the Bible one day at a time. There are helpful videos. You can listen to it. Share the play with the friend. We love to have you join us and and it'd be great to have you on the journey. Genesis 28 gives us the account.
Jacob He's the third person in four generations that the history is told from Genesis Chapter 12 to 50. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jacob's 12 sons there. And so Genesis 28 is about Jacob, verse ten. Here's what it says. Jacob left Beersheba set out for Haran when he reached a certain place. He stopped for the night because the son had said taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.
This guy needed a pillow, didn't he? He had a dream in which you saw a stairway resting on the earth and its top reaching to heaven and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the Lord and one of the promises God gives him verse 15, I am one with you and will watch over you where ever you go.
And I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I promised. When Jacob awoke from a sleep, he thought, surely the Lord is in this place. And I was what? Not aware of it? I think that's such a compelling verse, isn't it? Why? Apparently it's possible for God to be all around you with you and to completely miss it, Right?
It's possible for us to sleepwalk through life. Living without an awareness of his presence. I think of that and go, God, I don't want to live like that. So the question is not really whether the Lord was with Jacob and really whether he is with us. He is. The question is, am I aware that Jesus is with me right now?
Do I live like that? Because some people are aware and some people are not. Here's what Jacob's experience shows us so clearly. God is with you, with me, even we don't see him even in the most unlikely times. In places when you're at work. Night shift. Day shift is with you in a crowded restaurant or eating by yourself.
When you're standing in line, you're alone at night, you're on the road far from home. He's there when you're incarcerated. Our brothers are Loraine Correctional. We love you guys. Jesus is the one person who doesn't need to go through security to get in. Right, Joseph? We read about his life this week in prison and Genesis. He it says the Lord.
When Joseph was in prison, the Lord was what was with him? He was with him. And the darkness of is when you're occurs and when you're down, when your family life is healthy and when you feel like it's completely dysfunctional, God is there. I want you to think of a place you're going to go this week if you have an appointment coming up or I don't know, something at work might just be a routine of life at the dinner table or you're exercising.
What if we said with Jacob? Surely the Lord is in this place? Maybe we would also say, and I was not aware of it. I want to be aware, don't you? I want to live with confidence and with assurance and to say, God, you are here wherever I go. David is saying to the furthest stretches of the cosmos, to the depths of the earth, from east to west and the light in the dark, God is with me.
So how do we remind ourselves? You see, see the next line in your notes there? How can we find ways to remind ourselves that God is with us? Just a couple of suggestions. I wish we could talk over coffee because I like to hear from you as well. But let me just give you five ways that in my life have been just keys to remind myself.
Number one, read it, read, recalibrate with God's Word, make it a daily habit. We talk about this a lot because we really believe you cannot grow spiritually like God wants you to without letting this word be like water to your soul, absorbing it, internalizing it through the written word. We get to know the living. We're like, We actually hear from God and we're reminded like, God, you were with them and you're with me.
Read it, pray it. See how many times this week, all through the day that you can just send up what I like to call error prayers. Just saying like, Lord, I love you, Lord. Thanks for the wisdom you gave in that moment. God, thank you that you're with me right now. Lord, as I go into this meeting. Thank you that you're going before me.
God, I need your grace to know how to respond in this challenging conversation right now. Lord, thank you that it doesn't matter whether things go my way or not in circumstances, I can know that you're here. Read it, pray it. And by the way, I think when you have an opportunity to pray out loud for me, that helps me to focus.
I do that most when I'm in the car probably. And that's also where you find me singing my my lungs out. And because the people probably driving along saying, you're going, what is up with that guy over there? Right. But nowadays everyone is talking on their Bluetooth or whatever. And so talk out loud to God, read it, pray it, declare it, state the truth of it each day.
I found it helpful to have a visual reminder. I'm going to ask our ushers if they can get some cards here, but ushers, if you Are you ready to go there? And but we have a card that we printed off for all of you that just as this Lord Jesus, you are with me right now, surely the Lord's in the place.
See the card right there and just with the reminder. And if you guys can come right now, ushers and distribute those and it might be on your computer screen, it might be on the mirror of your of your bathroom, it could be on the dash of your car, might be at your workplace, wherever it may be, but that you just had this.
That's right. Lord, you're with me right now. And by the way, we have such faithful ushers. These folks volunteered you just to express your appreciation to them. And thank you guys. So declare it declared and have that in front of you and just say, God, I want to believe this to be true. Next, reflect it reflected to others around you.
One of the things that's the culture of grace and those of you engaging online, maybe you missed this, but when people are in the lobby or they're milling around or the global grounds or wherever it may be, and guys, Loraine Correctional, I see with you as well, you see people all of a sudden you'll see them like an arm on a shoulder and they're just praying together.
It's a reminder we don't need to be at the front of a worship center. We don't need to. We can pray wherever we are. You might be in the hospital this week visiting someone. You might be with the friend on the phone. You would ever say, Hey, guys, would it be okay if I just pray right now? Just ask God to give you what you need in this moment?
And it's a reminder to others, reflecting to other people. God is with you right now, then sometimes as being the hands and feet of Jesus. We got a note from a guy this week. I'll just keep it anonymous. But he writes this. He says, I struggled with my faith during this season of illness and I was encouraged by so many people.
Agrees. And he lists several. And then he says, many others encourage me and help me listen to this. To see Jesus even through the dark times, it's often the people around us that are reflecting the presence of Jesus. You said they help me to see Jesus even through the dark times. My family and I are really grateful, reflect it and then sing it.
Mary and I were saying that sometimes we sing because we believe it's an overflow and we're like, Man, we're just singing, you know, about whatever hymn or song or some other times we sing ourselves into saying, God, I know this is true, and I just don't sense it right now. And we sing ourselves to to a point of belief.
The Christian faith is all about the nearness of God. What if we told him as many times as we could this week, Lord Jesus, you are with me right now. Right now. How would that change the way that you respond to temptation? How might it increase the frequent sea of your prayers? How would it dial up the confidence level as you go through your daily life to know this God who is so great extra ordinarily powerful, who loves me more than I could ever comprehend, So wide, so high, so deep, so long is the God who's with me right now.
May it be friends that you and I every day practice the presence of God? Because He truly is near? Do you believe it? Let's thank him together, Lord Jesus. Thank you again. With you there is no darkness that you cannot break through. Lord, There's no brokenness that you are unable somehow to redeem. Lord, there's nothing that you cannot use for our good and for your glory.
So thank you. Thank you. That the moment we trust in you, that you adopted us, you brought us into a family. And then you make these promises that you'll never leave us in and that we become the house of the very living God. Lord, thank you. Thank you. That this is true for today and for tomorrow, Lord, every day until you come again, that you're going to be with us.
We bless you and we love you. Remind us by your spirit this week of this truth. In your name, we pray. Amen. One of the things we said we're going to sing it was, Let's sing it together. Okay, let's sing this truth. And stand as we're led.