WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.640 Now, just for a short while this morning, I want to turn back to the passage you read 00:00:07.640 --> 00:00:11.599 in Isaiah, chapter 49. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:17.800 And I'm going to particularly just pick on two verses that we have in this chapter, because 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:23.080 it's, as I mentioned earlier, it's a chapter, or Isaiah is a book that, where the Prophet 00:00:23.080 --> 00:00:29.960 Isaiah living in Israel at the time, is the whole nation's kind of broken down spiritually. 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:37.039 And Israel is, during Isaiah's reign, Israel is going to be taken into captivity by Assyria. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:42.760 And then Judah, the two tribes of Judah, as opposed to the 10 tribes of Israel, Judah 00:00:42.760 --> 00:00:47.359 will be taken also into captivity later on in Babylon. 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:52.960 And they've fallen away from their worship of the Lord, their idolatrous and their under-God's 00:00:52.960 --> 00:00:53.960 discipline. 00:00:53.960 --> 00:00:59.039 And Isaiah's speaking into that, both in terms of judgment and in terms of hope. 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:04.799 And really from chapter 39 onwards, it's much more about hope and about the future. 00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:11.480 But he calls on them, in verse 13, he calls on them to sing praise and to break forth 00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:15.599 in praise and in singing. 00:01:15.599 --> 00:01:17.560 But they have none of it. 00:01:17.560 --> 00:01:22.599 They'll have none of this praise and worship to God, because they say in verse 14, the 00:01:22.599 --> 00:01:25.719 Lord has forsaken us. 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:27.719 The Lord has forgotten me. 00:01:27.719 --> 00:01:31.519 It's a singular, just singular speaking for the whole nation. 00:01:31.519 --> 00:01:33.519 It's just that the Lord is nowhere to be seen. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:35.519 He said, well, why should we praise Him? 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:36.519 He's abandoned us. 00:01:36.519 --> 00:01:37.519 He's left us alone. 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:38.840 He's forsaken us. 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:46.199 And we're surrounded by nations, pagan nations, that are very soon going to take us into captivity 00:01:46.199 --> 00:01:47.959 and enslave us. 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:49.919 And we're going to be taken out of the promised land. 00:01:49.920 --> 00:01:54.400 His land flowing with milk and honey, all the promises of God are going to be broken. 00:01:54.400 --> 00:01:58.920 And you've abandoned us, God, and you've forsaken us. 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:01.799 Barren and spiritually dull. 00:02:01.799 --> 00:02:04.079 Now you may feel like that. 00:02:04.079 --> 00:02:05.079 You may not. 00:02:05.079 --> 00:02:06.920 You may have felt like that. 00:02:06.920 --> 00:02:09.400 You may feel like that sometime in the future. 00:02:09.400 --> 00:02:14.759 It may be that over this last year, and we're kind of really wanting just to spend a little 00:02:14.759 --> 00:02:20.759 bit of time reflecting on the character of God as well. 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:22.120 It's been a difficult year. 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:23.120 It's been a tough year. 00:02:23.120 --> 00:02:26.239 It may have been a particularly tough year for you spiritually. 00:02:26.239 --> 00:02:30.039 It's certainly been a tough year for us as a church. 00:02:30.039 --> 00:02:36.759 And there can be times when we go through experiences like that, and we do feel forsaken. 00:02:36.759 --> 00:02:39.280 We do feel like God is far away. 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:41.359 We wonder where the earth He is. 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:46.920 We wonder why He's not answering our prayers, and we feel that all His promises are a little 00:02:46.920 --> 00:02:52.640 bit empty in our lives that they don't seem to be coming to fruition. 00:02:52.640 --> 00:02:59.160 And that is kind of how Israel felt as they were, as the shadow, the dark shadow of captivity 00:02:59.160 --> 00:03:05.040 and of oppression and of slavery was coming upon them. 00:03:05.040 --> 00:03:10.080 And all I want to do is I just want to finish this year in our public worship together with 00:03:10.080 --> 00:03:16.920 two very powerful and evocative pictures from God as He speaks into that situation, and 00:03:16.920 --> 00:03:20.360 may speak into the same kind of situation you feel. 00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:25.200 And even if you don't feel like that, I think they're very powerful and helpful images and 00:03:25.200 --> 00:03:30.240 unexpected images in many ways that we get from God in this passage. 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:35.080 And the first one is that of a mother's love. 00:03:35.080 --> 00:03:41.520 He, because verse 14, but Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:42.520 me. 00:03:42.520 --> 00:03:45.960 That's the people of Israel saying that, so corporately. 00:03:45.960 --> 00:03:48.160 And then God speaks in response. 00:03:48.160 --> 00:03:54.040 He answers them with a question, and He says, can a woman forget her nursing child, a mother, 00:03:54.040 --> 00:03:59.000 that she has no compassion on the son of her womb, even though she may forget yet, I will 00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:00.920 not forget you? 00:04:00.919 --> 00:04:06.319 And so He answers their question about being forsaken and about being forgotten, about 00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:15.479 being abandoned by giving this amazing picture of a nursing mother and saying, is it possible? 00:04:15.479 --> 00:04:20.879 The mother's here, the children here have had mothers who have mothers who have had 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:29.399 mothers, parents, and all of us can, can a mother forget her child, especially her child 00:04:29.399 --> 00:04:33.079 that is nursing at her breast, can she forget that child? 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:40.679 And He uses that picture that, because He wants us to understand that His love for us 00:04:40.679 --> 00:04:46.479 and His remembrance of us is greater even than the tenderest and most loving parent 00:04:46.479 --> 00:04:49.359 that there is in the universe. 00:04:49.359 --> 00:04:57.399 The closest bond between mother and child, between parent and children is given here as 00:04:57.399 --> 00:05:06.479 an illustration, but He says, even though sometimes a mother might forget, and occasionally 00:05:06.479 --> 00:05:11.159 it kind of eats us up in our hearts, doesn't it? 00:05:11.159 --> 00:05:16.000 We recoil from it, don't we, when we hear about sometimes a story of a mother that abandons 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:17.639 her child. 00:05:17.639 --> 00:05:24.359 Maybe fathers do it more often, but a mother abandoning or being found guilty of neglect 00:05:24.359 --> 00:05:25.799 or abandonment of a child. 00:05:25.800 --> 00:05:32.199 It seems we recoil from that picture, but God says, even if they may forget, and sometimes 00:05:32.199 --> 00:05:36.800 a mother will forget, He says, I will never forget you. 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:44.240 And it's a great picture of God's great love for us, and it's a maternal picture. 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:50.960 It's kind of unusual in the Bible, we so often, and maybe you often characterize God, because 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:56.759 He's characterized mainly in the Bible in masculine terms, but of course He's not masculine 00:05:56.759 --> 00:05:58.079 or feminine. 00:05:58.079 --> 00:06:03.719 He is a spirit, God is a spirit, infinite and eternal and changeable, and He is neither 00:06:03.719 --> 00:06:11.399 male nor female, but He's described very often in male terms biblically, but He is also described 00:06:11.399 --> 00:06:18.159 in maternal and in feminine terms as well, because in God's image, male and female were 00:06:18.159 --> 00:06:19.159 made. 00:06:19.160 --> 00:06:27.040 And I wonder if you struggle to picture God in a maternal way, we call Him Father and rightly 00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:29.000 so. 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:36.600 But we're given this great maternal picture of God, a God who has loving compassion on 00:06:36.600 --> 00:06:37.600 His children. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:42.400 If you're a child of God, if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:49.839 in this relationship with God, a new relationship, a relationship of promise and of love, where 00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:55.159 He will provide for us, and He says He will give us what we need, not always what we want, 00:06:55.159 --> 00:06:59.599 and the parents here know the difference, don't they, between giving what our children 00:06:59.599 --> 00:07:02.639 would like and what they need. 00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:06.599 And maybe Christmas time has maybe been a particular reminder of that to us. 00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:12.600 And they open their present, maybe not what they were wanting, but they got something that 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:15.600 they needed very much in their lives. 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:21.000 And the loving wonder of the gifts that God gives. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:29.640 But more, not only when children hunger, but when they're upset also, what do they do? 00:07:29.640 --> 00:07:32.080 They find their mother's breast, don't they? 00:07:32.080 --> 00:07:36.439 They come and find a mother's embrace, because that's the safe place. 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:37.879 Well, remember that, don't we? 00:07:37.879 --> 00:07:38.879 Who are hurt? 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:39.879 Are we graze or knee? 00:07:39.879 --> 00:07:40.879 Are we fall? 00:07:40.879 --> 00:07:45.639 When we're small, maybe not when we're so big, but when we're small, we run to our mother's 00:07:45.639 --> 00:07:50.560 arms for comfort and for strength and for warmth. 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:58.879 And there's that instinctive relationship, selfless relationship, sacrificial relationship 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:01.560 between a mother and her child. 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:10.759 And God uses as a picture of his instinctive and maternal and protective and renewing and 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:13.399 reviving love for us. 00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:18.560 It's a unique bond that we have spiritually in Jesus Christ with God. 00:08:18.560 --> 00:08:25.120 Now you know that physically there's a unique bond between a mother and her child, the child 00:08:25.120 --> 00:08:26.120 she's born. 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:33.840 An umbilical bond, we could say, and that speaks into the bond that God has with us through 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:43.000 Jesus Christ, because there is an image there of the spiritual bond that we have in Christ 00:08:43.000 --> 00:08:46.600 that when we came to Christ, you might not remember it, you might not have sensed it 00:08:46.600 --> 00:08:52.639 as such, but you were born again, you were born anew into a relationship with God. 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:59.679 And He gives birth, as it were, the Savior God gives birth to a people, to a nation, 00:08:59.679 --> 00:09:02.360 to an individual, to a church. 00:09:02.360 --> 00:09:04.159 We are born into His kingdom. 00:09:04.159 --> 00:09:07.799 We are adopted into His royal line. 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:17.679 His divine line, we become those who are with spiritual genetics linked to God through the 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:25.399 Holy Spirit in dwelling us, and that indissolvable link is through Christ in the Holy Spirit. 00:09:25.399 --> 00:09:37.120 And you can, as long as she's alive, I hope you can always go back to your mum. 00:09:37.120 --> 00:09:39.639 But what about God? 00:09:39.639 --> 00:09:45.000 As a Christian, do you feel as dry as a desert today in your spiritual walk? 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:47.679 Is it that you feel far from Him? 00:09:47.679 --> 00:09:48.679 Do you feel guilty? 00:09:48.679 --> 00:09:52.519 Do you feel you've gone too far? 00:09:52.519 --> 00:09:57.639 He says, trust me, I will never forget you. 00:09:57.639 --> 00:10:04.000 I haven't forsaken you, and I definitely haven't forgotten you. 00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:05.000 My arms are open. 00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:08.279 It's the prodigal father picture as well, isn't it? 00:10:08.279 --> 00:10:10.759 And we're always encouraged to come back. 00:10:10.759 --> 00:10:14.360 We're always encouraged into His presence and into His company. 00:10:14.360 --> 00:10:20.120 This is not about how good we are and how much effort we put into our lives as Christians. 00:10:20.120 --> 00:10:29.680 It's the recognition that when God looks at us, God is the nursing mother or the prodigal 00:10:29.680 --> 00:10:37.240 father, He sees His own Son Jesus in His perfection because His believers were covered 00:10:37.240 --> 00:10:39.440 in His righteousness. 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:43.519 So that's the first picture that we get, a nursing mother. 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:48.519 The second picture is an engraved palm. 00:10:48.519 --> 00:10:50.039 An engraved palm. 00:10:50.039 --> 00:10:54.159 Behold, I have engraving you on the palms of my hands. 00:10:54.159 --> 00:10:57.360 Your walls are continually before me. 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:01.919 So He's wanting to strengthen the image, not just of a mothering child, but then He gives 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:06.480 us a different picture of our names being engraved on His palms. 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:12.799 It's a great picture of how God remembers us that we're not forgotten. 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:19.039 You know, that's why I got the kids to draw their hands and write their names on it. 00:11:19.039 --> 00:11:22.799 So if you've done that, kids, then that's what we're talking about here because it says, 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:26.199 I will engrave you on the palm of my hands. 00:11:26.199 --> 00:11:30.120 And it's more even than just our names. 00:11:30.120 --> 00:11:34.599 He says, I will engrave you on the palm of my hands. 00:11:34.599 --> 00:11:38.399 Our very being. 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:46.600 Our whole personality is symbolically or in a picture engraved on the palm of God's 00:11:46.600 --> 00:11:51.079 hand and He has done the engraving. 00:11:51.079 --> 00:11:55.600 It's not just the picture isn't of us sneaking into God's presence and writing our name on 00:11:55.600 --> 00:11:56.600 His hands. 00:11:56.600 --> 00:11:59.279 He remembers me. 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:01.959 It's that God has done it Himself. 00:12:01.959 --> 00:12:07.120 The moment we came to Christ and put our trust in Christ, our names were engraved on the 00:12:07.120 --> 00:12:08.560 palm of His hands. 00:12:08.560 --> 00:12:10.560 Our very being was engraved. 00:12:10.560 --> 00:12:12.399 Now, what does that mean? 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:20.200 Well, it's simply the hands in the Bible are the source of a person's action and strength. 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:25.600 You know, the Psalms a lot speak about the right hand of God and it usually means the 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:31.159 hand of His power, you know, the King's right hand. 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:35.759 The hand was always the source of action, the source of power, the source of significance. 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:45.679 It's also a picture, a vision of always being before us, always being before His eyes. 00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:50.799 It probably doesn't happen now because everyone's got social media and phones and notes on their 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:51.799 phones. 00:12:51.799 --> 00:12:56.720 But in the old days, if you wanted to remember something, you quite often had a pen and you 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:01.759 just wrote it on your hand because it was a great way to remember it because your hands 00:13:01.759 --> 00:13:02.759 are always there. 00:13:02.759 --> 00:13:04.080 They're kind of in front of you. 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:07.879 And if you're doing anything, you can see what's written on your hand. 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:10.080 Sometimes it was the back of your hand, you would write it in. 00:13:10.080 --> 00:13:21.520 But it's this whole picture of the hand being the active source of divine activity and strength. 00:13:21.520 --> 00:13:28.080 And really what he's saying is in all that he does, in all that God does, in all that 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:33.879 God has allowed to happen today, in all his sustaining of the world in which we live, 00:13:33.879 --> 00:13:43.240 in everything that He's done, He has His people before His mind and in His thoughts. 00:13:43.240 --> 00:13:51.840 More than that, it's that actually everything that is happening is happening with His people 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:57.120 in mind, with you and I in mind. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:05.000 The universe is moving to the tune of our redemption, to the work that He has done in 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:09.759 us and will bring to completion when He returns. 00:14:09.759 --> 00:14:16.879 Our lives, everything that happens, everything that's happening in this world, it's happening 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:19.759 because He's bringing in His people. 00:14:19.759 --> 00:14:25.519 He's bringing in all those who will trust in Him until every single one of them comes 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:29.600 in and then He will return. 00:14:29.600 --> 00:14:38.600 So our lives, everything we do has significance because they're before the mind of God. 00:14:38.600 --> 00:14:48.960 And as we trust in Him and as we rely on Him, our lives have great significance in His presence 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:51.919 and in His power and in His grace. 00:14:51.919 --> 00:14:57.759 So whatever circumstances might be saying, whatever circumstances might appear to make 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:04.439 us feel that we are forsaken or forgotten by God, He's saying, no, absolutely not. 00:15:04.439 --> 00:15:08.279 Even in the dark circumstances, the difficult circumstances, the suffering, He says, you're 00:15:08.279 --> 00:15:15.360 not forgotten, I am there working through them and they're bringing you forward as gold 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:16.360 as it were. 00:15:16.360 --> 00:15:23.800 They're defining us as gold to make us more and more like Him in our lives. 00:15:23.800 --> 00:15:31.480 So the engraved palm speaks of His commitment to us and that His power works on our behalf. 00:15:31.480 --> 00:15:39.279 But there also surely must be here in the mind of God, a different, a deeper picture, 00:15:39.279 --> 00:15:45.920 not just that image of us being engraved in the palm of His hands as an image, but surely 00:15:45.919 --> 00:15:55.279 it points forward to Jesus Christ Himself, His indestructible love for Christ in glory. 00:15:55.279 --> 00:16:06.079 Now with His resurrected body is in heaven, but still has nail-pierced hands and feet. 00:16:06.079 --> 00:16:15.599 So there's this sense in which the church and the people of God, every believer is physically 00:16:15.600 --> 00:16:27.399 ingrained into Christ's palms through the nail-pierced hands and feet. 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:35.120 You know, the image of being engraved comes from being hewn out of rock. 00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:40.160 It's not just a simple, it's scrolling or writing. 00:16:40.160 --> 00:16:44.879 It's the idea of being hewn from rock, not a surface scratch. 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:48.159 Being deliberate, something very permanent. 00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:55.439 And that engravement on the hands of God is very much what is being spoken of here, that 00:16:55.439 --> 00:17:04.799 is deliberate, sacrificial suffering of Jesus in His nail-pierced hands and feet for our 00:17:04.799 --> 00:17:07.559 salvation. 00:17:07.559 --> 00:17:12.720 And He then goes on to say, Your walls are continually before Me. 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:15.759 When He's speaking to Jerusalem, He's speaking to the people of God, He's speaking to the 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:19.559 city of God, and He says, Your walls are ever before Me. 00:17:19.559 --> 00:17:25.360 And it's an interesting picture because very soon these walls would be broken down and 00:17:25.360 --> 00:17:31.480 would be destroyed as the Assyrians and then the Babylonians come and take Judah into captivity 00:17:31.480 --> 00:17:34.200 and Israel into captivity. 00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:39.880 But it's as if God, when He sees the walls of Jerusalem, sees something different, doesn't 00:17:39.880 --> 00:17:45.000 see them broken down, doesn't see them as they represent all the idolatry and the sinfulness 00:17:45.000 --> 00:17:55.120 and the failure of the people, but rather sees the walls as He intended them, perfect, protective 00:17:55.120 --> 00:18:01.080 and created to be part of the great city of God. 00:18:01.080 --> 00:18:09.120 And these pictures are repeated in Isaiah 65 and Revelation 20. 00:18:09.119 --> 00:18:14.919 Especially Revelation 20, which speaks about heaven and it speaks about the walls, when 00:18:14.919 --> 00:18:18.199 the twelve apostles being the foundations of the walls. 00:18:18.199 --> 00:18:26.159 And it's a picture of the heavenly Jerusalem, which again is paralleled with the earthly 00:18:26.159 --> 00:18:29.359 broken down material Jerusalem. 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:36.599 And I think there's again a reminder there of what God sees when He sees us. 00:18:36.599 --> 00:18:43.959 He doesn't see our lives as broken down and crumbling and failed. 00:18:43.959 --> 00:18:45.039 He sees the bigger picture. 00:18:45.039 --> 00:18:46.679 He sees the finished article. 00:18:46.679 --> 00:18:51.240 He actually sees what Christ has done and achieved for us. 00:18:51.240 --> 00:18:56.079 He sees the righteousness of Christ and He sees us as a glorified people. 00:18:56.079 --> 00:18:59.599 He sees us as what we will be. 00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:04.699 He doesn't, when He looks at us, He doesn't register us in judgment or even our temporal 00:19:04.700 --> 00:19:08.360 condition when we're Christians. 00:19:08.360 --> 00:19:10.960 He doesn't even see how weak our faith is. 00:19:10.960 --> 00:19:11.960 He knows it. 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:19.400 But what He sees is Jesus Christ and He sees the commitment and strength of Jesus Christ 00:19:19.400 --> 00:19:24.400 to us and the reality that Jesus will take us home and will perfect us. 00:19:24.400 --> 00:19:29.039 And as we close a year, I think it's good to remember that. 00:19:29.039 --> 00:19:35.279 It's good to remember that it's not all about us and it's not all in our hands and it's 00:19:35.279 --> 00:19:42.240 not all about our success or even our faithfulness important though these things can be. 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:47.920 It's all about Christ and what He's done and we hold on to Him and we trust in Him and 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:51.440 we rejoice in Him for who He is. 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:58.159 So I think at the end of the year, as I conclude, there's always a need within us for self-reflection. 00:19:58.160 --> 00:20:03.700 For asking about whether the last year was a year where we honoured Christ, where we 00:20:03.700 --> 00:20:10.000 followed Him, where we grew in our desire for Him, where He was more important to us 00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:11.240 than other things. 00:20:11.240 --> 00:20:16.640 Where He took first place, not second, third or maybe even last place. 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:27.080 And where we also consider our responses to our experiences that we go through. 00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:33.599 If it's been a year where we've felt forsaken or that we fail forgotten. 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:40.599 Reminding us to look to who Jesus is, His strength and His purposes. 00:20:40.599 --> 00:20:45.960 We are after all, all of us, a year nearer eternity. 00:20:45.960 --> 00:20:51.279 So I think it's important then that we do examine our lives. 00:20:51.279 --> 00:20:55.759 Later on in Isaiah, when He's speaking to the people, He says to them, Behold the Lord's 00:20:55.759 --> 00:21:00.440 hand is not shortened, it cannot save again that picture of His hand, of His strength. 00:21:00.440 --> 00:21:02.119 Or is He your dull that He cannot hear. 00:21:02.119 --> 00:21:05.799 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God. 00:21:05.799 --> 00:21:11.119 And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. 00:21:11.119 --> 00:21:16.519 So isn't there always that challenge to look at whether, rather than blaming God for our 00:21:16.519 --> 00:21:21.599 Christian lives and our sense of forsakenness and our sense of being forgotten, that maybe 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:27.599 it's our sins that have separated us, that it's our sins that have kept Him from hearing 00:21:27.599 --> 00:21:30.039 and listening as it were to us. 00:21:30.039 --> 00:21:31.959 And He wants us to deal with that. 00:21:31.959 --> 00:21:33.759 That's why we celebrate the Lord's Supper. 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:36.039 He says, because we examine ourselves. 00:21:36.039 --> 00:21:39.439 And we look, and maybe at the end of the year, it's a great time to do that, just to examine 00:21:39.439 --> 00:21:40.439 ourselves. 00:21:40.439 --> 00:21:44.759 Is there sin in our lives and hearts we need to deal with, that we need to confess, that 00:21:44.759 --> 00:21:46.159 we need to repent from? 00:21:46.159 --> 00:21:50.719 Do we need to cry out confession? 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:55.360 On our own behalf, confession is a church, confession is a people. 00:21:55.360 --> 00:22:01.799 Do we see the importance of overcoming sometimes the barriers in our own hearts and lives to 00:22:01.799 --> 00:22:07.079 sensing God's love, asking Him to show us, Lord, is there any way in me that you want 00:22:07.079 --> 00:22:08.200 to deal with? 00:22:08.200 --> 00:22:12.720 Is there anything that's keeping me from knowing you better, from loving you, and from not 00:22:12.720 --> 00:22:15.559 feeling forsaken and forgotten by you? 00:22:15.559 --> 00:22:20.279 So examine our lives, very important. 00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:21.279 Give praise. 00:22:21.279 --> 00:22:26.480 Verse 13, which was the first response that we looked at. 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:31.279 Sing for joy, O heavens exalt, O earth, break forth, O mountains into singing, for the Lord 00:22:31.279 --> 00:22:35.279 is comforted as people and will have compassion on His afflicted. 00:22:35.279 --> 00:22:36.279 Give praise. 00:22:36.279 --> 00:22:38.720 We're called to be a people of praise. 00:22:38.720 --> 00:22:41.200 We're called to sing praise to Him. 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:46.759 We're called to remember that things are not as they seem, because there is a plan, there 00:22:46.759 --> 00:22:51.359 is a purpose, and God in His grace and His love is at the very centre of that purpose, 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:57.920 and will take us like a nursing mother, like a prodigal father into His own arms. 00:22:57.920 --> 00:22:59.559 I will never forget you. 00:22:59.559 --> 00:23:02.480 Maybe you particularly need to hear that this morning. 00:23:02.480 --> 00:23:03.480 I will never. 00:23:03.480 --> 00:23:05.480 God says, I will never forget you. 00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:07.480 Isn't that amazing? 00:23:07.480 --> 00:23:15.960 God said, now if I said that, or if anyone said that here, we would think, well, okay, 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:19.319 that's nice, but we've got fading memories. 00:23:19.319 --> 00:23:23.240 The older we get, our memories are not that great. 00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:28.160 And maybe it wouldn't be that important even if we could remember. 00:23:28.160 --> 00:23:35.840 But for God to say, for God to say, for God to say, I will never forget you. 00:23:35.840 --> 00:23:39.079 Now, these are words you want to hear. 00:23:39.079 --> 00:23:41.960 These are words that are very meaningful. 00:23:41.960 --> 00:23:44.640 Truly amazing. 00:23:44.640 --> 00:23:49.960 You know, within a number of generations, we'll all be forgotten by most people, maybe 00:23:49.960 --> 00:23:54.480 by everyone, and soon by everyone, you know. 00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:58.720 But God says, I will never forget you. 00:23:58.720 --> 00:24:09.240 That's a great thing, maybe particularly in the world, where we can seek to gain significance 00:24:09.240 --> 00:24:11.240 by being unforgettable. 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:17.200 But nobody's really unforgettable, are they? 00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:21.359 And we soon forget, even the most famous of people, we soon forget. 00:24:21.359 --> 00:24:23.759 But isn't it utterly astonishing? 00:24:23.759 --> 00:24:31.319 And isn't it a great reason today for praise that if you're in Christ, if you're known 00:24:31.319 --> 00:24:36.200 by God because you've given your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ, He says, I 00:24:36.200 --> 00:24:39.839 will never, I will never forget you. 00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:47.279 And it's a challenge if you're not a Christian to come to faith in Jesus Christ, to hear 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:52.159 these words, to give praise, to examine our lives, and also to share our faith. 00:24:52.159 --> 00:24:58.519 In verse 22, there's this kind of, it's quite difficult picture, but the people of God are 00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:01.279 asking, who are all these people around us here? 00:25:01.279 --> 00:25:02.399 Who are all these children? 00:25:02.399 --> 00:25:03.919 We were barren and bereaved in it. 00:25:03.919 --> 00:25:05.639 All of a sudden, there's all these children here. 00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:11.360 And it's just a picture of the broadening out of the kingdom, and it's a picture moving 00:25:11.360 --> 00:25:15.480 forward as Isaiah often does of the gospel moving out to the Gentiles, not just to the 00:25:15.480 --> 00:25:18.120 Jews, but the gospel going out into the whole world. 00:25:18.120 --> 00:25:23.040 Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations and raise my signal to the peoples, and they 00:25:23.040 --> 00:25:27.240 shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried in their shoulders. 00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:31.680 And it's just this picture of the gospel moving forward, the great commission going 00:25:31.680 --> 00:25:38.680 out into the world, and bringing in those who are to be gathered into the kingdom. 00:25:38.680 --> 00:25:46.120 It's just a great promise of hope in Isaiah, of the gospel spreading out, even to Edinburgh. 00:25:46.120 --> 00:25:48.799 Even to Edinburgh. 00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:54.720 And we live in a society where I think there's a lot of people who feel forgotten and forsaken, 00:25:54.720 --> 00:26:01.360 and maybe in darkness, and who need to know about the great light as Jesus Christ. 00:26:01.359 --> 00:26:06.319 We have that great responsibility and that great privilege of sharing our faith as those 00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:14.719 who are New Testament Gentile believers belonging to the covenant, to share our faith, to usher 00:26:14.719 --> 00:26:21.719 other people in, and to help them to come to that place of trust, to know His incredible 00:26:21.719 --> 00:26:28.759 love, and to know that in Him, whatever happens in life, and whenever we face that last great 00:26:28.759 --> 00:26:34.599 enemy, defeated enemy, death, we will never be forgotten. 00:26:34.599 --> 00:26:37.200 We will never be forsaken. 00:26:37.200 --> 00:26:41.440 So it's great to be Kingdom Harvesters in 2022. 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:47.759 It's my greatest prayer for the church, and for myself, the courage, the strength, and 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:57.680 the words, and the life that provokes questions of people, and that we have clear answers pointing 00:26:57.680 --> 00:27:03.120 them to Jesus, and to the hope of the gospel, and to this great message right in the heart 00:27:03.120 --> 00:27:09.160 of the Old Testament to people who felt abandoned and alone, that God has a purpose and a plan. 00:27:09.160 --> 00:27:11.640 He's engraved them in the palm of their hands. 00:27:11.640 --> 00:27:13.600 He's like a nursing mother. 00:27:13.600 --> 00:27:15.400 May that be our experience also. 00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:16.400 Amen. 00:27:16.400 --> 00:27:20.200 Father, God help us to understand you and know you better. 00:27:20.200 --> 00:27:22.519 Thank you for these pictures. 00:27:22.519 --> 00:27:26.400 Thank you because you condescend to give us simple pictures that we can understand. 00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:29.200 I mean, you're the sovereign God of the universe. 00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:36.040 You could use all kinds of scientific or mathematical or philosophical images that would blow our 00:27:36.040 --> 00:27:38.440 minds, but you don't do that. 00:27:38.440 --> 00:27:44.720 You give us simple pictures that we understand about mums and about dads and about children 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:50.280 and about eating and drinking and about water. 00:27:50.280 --> 00:27:55.640 Little everyday ordinary things, bread and wine, because you want us to understand. 00:27:55.640 --> 00:28:04.480 You don't want us baffled by intellectualism and by concepts that are meaningless or insignificant. 00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:06.840 You want us to understand who you are. 00:28:06.840 --> 00:28:13.400 You've done that most powerfully in the incarnation and Jesus and God becoming flesh so that we 00:28:13.400 --> 00:28:26.720 can understand God and yet be utterly speechless by a God nailed to a cross out of his outstanding 00:28:26.720 --> 00:28:31.720 love for us, that he was willing to take the wrath and the separation and the death that 00:28:31.720 --> 00:28:37.960 we deserve because of our sin and take it entirely in our place so that we can have 00:28:37.960 --> 00:28:43.880 his righteousness, his goodness, his perfection and no adoption into God's family. 00:28:43.880 --> 00:28:46.640 May we remind ourselves of these simple truths. 00:28:46.640 --> 00:29:00.039 May we not become people who look for great stuff that's deep and meaningful but doesn't 00:29:00.039 --> 00:29:08.319 act our lives in our daily walk, help us to find our walk moved by the simple truths of 00:29:08.319 --> 00:29:12.159 the gospel that are embedded in our hearts. 00:29:12.159 --> 00:29:14.119 May that be our experience today. 00:29:14.119 --> 00:29:15.119 Bless us. 00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:16.559 We thank you again for this year that has passed. 00:29:16.559 --> 00:29:23.039 We pray for your protection and guidance and help and your gifts, all that we need moving 00:29:23.039 --> 00:29:25.639 into 2022 for your glory. 00:29:25.639 --> 00:29:27.319 We ask these things. 00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:30.119 Amen.