You Can't Improve Them

Title: "You Can't Improve Them | Pastor Joel Mason (Sunday Service)" URL: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_D_20hhsMQ" Transcript: "(00:01) garden. And that promise was that God was going to um that he would be faithful to us in in light or in spite of uh our unfaithfulness. He promised to be faithful. He promised to put death to death. He promised to crush evil. Colossians 2:15 it says, "In this way, he dismissed or he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. (00:24) He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. God then promised to renew all things. And that is that has its anchor in uh clear back in the garden. God made it for us to walk with him. We rebelled. God said, "I'm going to make it new and you're going to live with me again. (00:43) " And Jesus on his on the cross paid for what separated us. His resurrection gave us life to have relationship. And so God was in the process of renewing all things. Isaiah 43:19, it says, "For I'm about to do something new." See, I've already begun. Do you not see it? I'll make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. (01:02) God also promised for forgiveness and salvation. And we experience that. He promised the Holy Spirit. He promised the enthronement of his Messiah Jesus in heaven next to him. And so just the whole picture of the promises of God are those things that we can talk about and go, "Yeah, that's that's good. (01:22) That's a cool thing. I'm thankful for from or we can actually begin to understand and this is what God intends. If we know his promises then we will know him and it is through his promises that we come to a place where we truly can live in light of a knowledge of God. He didn't give his promises because he felt like he had to say something and it's like well things are I I promise we'll take care of that. I'll take I'll do this. (01:48) I promise. Not like we sometimes tend to make promises that are hopes that we can accomplish it or do something for someone. God promises based on his character and those promises display his character and who he is. So we need to become those who understand fully what God was doing clear back from the moment of our rebellion all the way through the cross and the empty grave even to why we sit here this morning. (02:15) God is saying to you, I've made promises. Do you know them? Because if you don't know them, if we don't know the promises of God, we really do not understand God's purpose, his direction, why he's doing what he's doing, and we really don't know him that well. Now, I'm not saying you have to go and memorize every promise of God. (02:35) I want you to begin to look at we as a church are doing reading through the Bible this year again. And and we as we're through that, I'm now you're probably about the same spot. I'm in getting to the end of First Kings. As you're looking in the Old Testament, what God's done all the way woven through all of those failures of those kings, it stands in contrast to what? The faithfulness of God, the promises that he has made. (03:03) We need to know the promises of God because the promises of God, your ability to understand the promises of God will give you a clear understanding of how firm the ground is on which you stand when you walk in relationship with him. If you and I can understand that, you and I will begin to see what God has done, what he is doing, and what he will do. (03:25) In our last series, Life Unlocked, what did we do? We walked through 10 foundational beliefs of the Christian faith. We looked at 10 actions that flow from those beliefs and ultimately God's desire to uh work to turn us, can't even talk here, make us into those who reflect his character. Absolutely true. (03:48) And we had it's belief to action to becoming. That's what we talked about. Now, tied to this as we were going through that, this series came to mind because I felt like what we need to do is we need to have a little bit clearer description of who God is. So that as we are becoming who he wants us to be, we understand who he's leading us. (04:09) He's drawing us to become like himself. It's not he is here and this is who he is and we kind of are out here and he's just doing things for us. He has an intent to create us into as Romans 6 tells us, Romans 8 tells us he's creating us into the image of his son and his son Jesus. What do we read? Read in Colossians. He is God as well. He is part of the triune God. (04:30) He's the God who created all things and he acts according to his character. And if he's making me like Jesus, then I've got to know God. How do I know God? by the promises he has made because they're based on his character and in those promises he's fulfilled them. So I see fully what the character looks like. It's not an idea. It's an actual action. (04:54) It's an expression of his person. Does that make sense? We have to move beyond ideas of God to actually understanding God as he has displayed himself. So I go back to Easter. What did Jesus display? He displayed humility. He displayed sacrifice. He displayed uh dependence on his father. (05:16) He he just he displayed the full character of God as scripture tells us because he was God. And in that display he was acting upon the very promises that were made to Adam and Eve to us as humanity. This is who I am. This is what I will do and this is how you will benefit if you turn to me. So we are going to be looking at this idea of the promises of God. (05:44) Now in Revelation 21 it says this and the one and the one sitting on the throne said this is speak Jesus speaking now look I am making everything new. And then he said to me write this down for what I tell you is trustworthy and true. And he also said it is finished. I am the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end. (06:03) To all who are thirsty, I will give freely from the springs of wa the waters of life. All who are victorious will inherit all the of these blessings and I will be their God and they will be my children. He was referencing in that in the statement that he is making all the promises that he has made. (06:22) And he is now he's bringing it to consummation. It's coming to conclusion. I promised I fulfilled you benefit. You have life with me. This is what you will know. But in the meantime, it's not living a life here, Hillsboro, Oregon, thinking one day I'll know the pharmacists of God fulfilled. They've been fulfilled. Christ rose from the dead. (06:44) The foundation of every promise made came to its conclusive uh fulfillment on the resurrection of Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross. We are getting now. We are in the season of living under the full fulfillment fulfillment of the promises. And so we need to know the one who made the promises. Not just the promises. (07:04) See, this is not just promises made, but the person who made them. And here's why that's significant. Sometimes I believe we will go through life with this mentality that God promised um you know, I'll never leave you or forsake you. We like that one. Grab a hold of it. We don't live to that to be an expression of the fact that I can know the fact that God is always with me and I can know him deeper and deeper. (07:27) We look at it as I screw up and something gets bad, God's going to take care of it for me. You see the difference in mentality? That's one is one is taking the principle of what is stated and try to make that the means and the source by which I live or the other is taking the person who made the promise and get to know them. (07:47) And it it's the outcome is totally different because we want to claim I'll never leave you or forsake you. God, you have forsaken me. Life's miserable. Yeah, you don't know me. You're not walking with me. What did Jesus say in Matthew 7? Depart from me. I never knew you. We've got to know the one who makes the promise. Not claim the promise to fit how I want it to be. (08:09) There is a big difference in that. And and if nothing else, if you get nothing else from what we talk about this morning or what we talk about in this series, the promises of God are not just some lucky charms that you get to hang on to and you rub them a little bit when life is difficult. And God's got to do what I say because he promised. You promised. (08:29) No, it's God, may I live according to your promises that I might know. You see the significant difference. Um Hebrews 10 23 it says, "Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God is trusted to can be trusted to keep his promise." I want you to think about this context of what we're talking about here this morning. (08:52) In our last series and last week, I talked about the hope of the resurrection, how it brings power to our life. Our hope in God is solely based in his promises. I talked about that several weeks earlier in the series, but I encourage you go look at that. If God does not fulfill his promises, we have no hope. (09:13) Can that does that make sense? If God cannot be trusted to do what he has said, then why are we seeking to to know him? We would be fools to play that game. But God is faithful. And as it says there, God can be trusted to keep his promises. How do we know? Because every promise he has ever made has been fulfilled and it's based in who he is. (09:37) Our problem is we often don't know who we're talking to and we really get screwed up. this week. Um I think it was Wednesday. Day doesn't necessarily matter, but Renee and I were doing a few things. I had to take her up to the doctor's office and uh in the middle of the day and I was sitting in my car doing some texting, responding to some people who had been getting a hold of me doing that. (10:08) Well, prior to our leaving, Renee and I leaving, she and I had been having a conversation around some things that we were wanting to do. And I was uh just gently and playfully uh talking to her about um sometimes you're like a squirrel. You are really excited about what you're doing and I love that she's got great enthusiasm in life, but this thing that she has in moment can suddenly be well that looks good and she's over here. (10:40) Okay, now I'm not saying that at all as a criticism. That's a joy she brings to our our relationship. But sometimes sometimes it's a challenge because and and for instance what was happening was I was leaving the house that morning and I was going to go do several had several things to do and I said I'll be back at this time and she said well I've got to get these things done and she listed off the things she had to do and I said okay but don't approach them as a squirrel because I know you won't get to the things you need to do. You've got to (11:13) get them done. Okay. So, and again, all good naturatured. No, no animosity here at all. Just there. Okay. So, I'm sitting in the parking lot at Kaiser having taken Renee to the doctor because I she was going to need a ride home. She had some stuff done her eyes. And I'm using that as time to get caught up on some stuff. (11:36) And um as we're sitting there, I'm text Renee. I I'm thinking about Renee and what we had been talking about. And right as I'm doing that, I get a text from Adam Fe and Adam's not here this morning and my little squirrel's not here. So anyway, um he uh he texts me or I think maybe I had fired off a text to him. That's how it it expired because Adam, if you may not know this, Adam and Misty put together a Easter egg hunt for our kids in the church last week. (12:08) And after the service, there were 15 families, 30 kids out there, mass med bedum out there on their uh property, and they had a great time. I wanted to know how that went. And he and I were texting back and forth about this event. So, he's listing out all of these things that are going on or took place and who was there and and and it was awesome. It really was cool. (12:31) Great turnout and great result. And so I'm in the middle of that text and then I thought, "Oh, I want to send a text to Renee." And I went to Renee, or so I thought, and I send a, you know, a smiley face blowing a heart. You've probably seen that emoji. And a red heart. So there, we send it off. And and then I follow that up with, "You're such a cute little squirrel. (13:09) " Okay, so you see where this is going. Two hours later, I get home. I'm open up my uh text on my computer because I'm now working on my computer and Adam Fe thing pops up. And I see those emojis. I'm like, "Wait a minute. What? Oh, no." So, I text off to Adam. Um, Adam, I just had a good laugh at my own expense. (13:42) But, uh, it appears that I was communicating what I was aimed for, Renee, to you. And he goes, "That's okay. We had a great laugh." So, my whole point in that is this. You got to know who you're talking to. Okay. And I've made that mistake a couple of times. You would think I would figure it out sometime to pay attention, but I'll be doing two or three texting threads and find myself giving responses to the wrong people. (14:11) Sometimes I believe our approach with God when we think about this idea of needing to know him is one where we get on the wrong text thread when we are in the process of living out relationship with him. And so we start communicating with him when we actually don't know who we're communicating with. (14:33) We haven't allowed who he is to inform what we're saying. And so we start to do things where I might treat um obviously my relationships with God should should interact with every relationship I have. But I'll start to treat God like I treat people to a certain degree. And I don't mean this in a negative, but what I mean that is I treat him not as God to be feared and bowed and humble before, but as just somebody else in the process of my life. (15:05) That's not God. Because if I think of God that way, it doesn't matter what he's promised because I'm going to view him in light of how I view other people. And other people fail on their promises. And I'll find myself in a situation where I'm responding to God based on how I've seen other people treat me and I lose out. (15:28) Not only do I look a little foolish, but I lose out on the strength and the presence of God. And I do never I don't ever experience the impact of his promises. And then you know what starts to happen when we do that? We think that we have to help God with his promises. We start to think that if we do certain things, we can help those promises become more effective. (15:57) We think that we'll start to maybe live life in this way. I'll do my best, God, and you pick up the rest. That's not living on the promises of God. That's trying to add to them. And it's it's a big mistake. I'm just telling you right now, it's a big mistake. If you think life is intended to be you do your best, God does the rest. (16:22) You're not going to see God. I've said this before, I'll say it again. God does not compete and he's not going to compete with you. And if you think your best somehow is better than who he is, you're going to wonder why God's always letting you down. And he's saying, "I don't even know you. What are you talking about? You don't know me. (16:42) If you knew me, you would lean fully into what I have promised because there you will find me and you can live according to who I am and what I've said. I think that's pretty cool. But somehow in our minds and spiritually, we process things often from me first, then God. But if we're going to live according to the promises of God, we've got to know his promises. So we know God. (17:10) So we live God first then me and less and less of me and more and more of him and we suddenly discover a richness and a power and a freedom in life that he has promised to every one of us. But we don't trust him. We don't know him. We don't trust him. We don't know what the promises mean or how they become fulfilled. So I want to take just a minute and look at this a little bit further. (17:38) Second Peter 1:3 and4 it says by his divine power God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. I want to stop in that phrase first of all it doesn't say God has given us some of the things we need to for living a godly life or a few of the things that we need or one of the things that we need. He has given us everything we need to live a godly life. (18:01) Now you may go well I do I want to live a godly life. That's really your choice. You need to make that decision. The the decision to live a godly life is to live in full dependence on the promises of God. His character, know him, live by him, through him, and for him. To choose to live an ungodly life is not I'm not here to condemn anybody, but if you are uh to choose to live an ungodly life is simply to live life according to what you think you can accomplish. (18:34) You see, because God's given everything, what can you add to it? I've never figured out how we think we can add to everything. But we'll often do that because we don't know God. So, we think of God as we think of ourselves. And we may use the word everything within our control. We may try to do everything we can. (19:01) God says, "I will do everything." And he does it for you to be able to live a godly life. Switch the phrase or phrasing around on godly life just a little bit so we understand it. A life that reflects relationship with God. You want to live a life that reflects God, you got to know God and live by his promises. It's that simple. (19:26) But it's your choice. He's given you everything you need to make it happen. You got to choose whether everything will satisfy who you are. And that's what it is to put faith in Jesus. A determination that I'll take everything from God over anything from me. I need you, God, to forgive my sins because the best I do is keep adding to them. I can't remove them. (19:55) I can't discount them. I can try try to justify them, but God, I need you to remove them. I need life with you, but I'll try to do that through pleasing you by doing things and works and add up the points and surely you'll be satisfied. And God says, "No, everything means I already did what was necessary. (20:18) You can't get there. You can't add anything more to it. You can't you can't subtract anything from it. You can't do it. You either have all of it or none of it. That's how God's God works. But in his love and his mercy, he wants you to have all of it. That verse verses continue. We've received all of this by coming to know him. (20:41) Underline the word know him if you're a notetaker. The one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. You see, again, Paul is stating it in this way or Peter stating in this way. God's done all the work for you to be able to experience who he is. He's done everything to make it happen. Not only is he fulfilling all his promises, he's done all the work to make it happen. (21:01) And he's asking you, if you want to come to know God, then you have to understand it is God himself who has done what's necessary for you to know him. It's not by you somehow going, I decided today I'm going to know God. and he's going to be really happy and excited that I finally decided because he's going to go, "Wow, Joel's my friend now. (21:24) " We are called friends of God, but you know why we're called friends of God? Because of what he did for us, not what we did for him. We need to know fully that it is God who has done it. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and uh precious promises. Oh, the promises are being woven in here into the connection of knowing him. (21:46) These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. If I if I had um maybe I should have done this morning a big whiteboard up here, I diagram this verse for you because it's it's really a uh Peter does an excellent job of describing what God has done and its effect on us. (22:11) All the effort was done by God. None of it was done for us. And the result is that we know God because of what he has done. And as a result, we share in his character and we begin to express glory back to him. And in that process, do you see the greatest of life is experienced in glorifying God. I want that one to sink in for a minute because I don't know that we fully comprehend it, nor do we appreciate it. (22:40) The greatest of life is in glorifying God. He's the one that created life. He's the one that breathed it into you. He's the one that determined it for you. And he's the one that set it for eternity for you if you choose him. So to be able to bring reflection back to God by him, I'm living life to the fullest. (23:03) I hope that makes sense because I'm not trying in any way trying to just talk, hey, this is a great theological idea up here. This is the reality of putting foot to ground and taking a step every day that God is with me. How do I know that? Because he's promised it. What are the effects of those promises? And he lifts them out. (23:22) Here are the benefits of knowing me. You see his promises right there in those verses. Peter is connecting a knowledge of God with directly with his promises resulting in life for everybody who walks with him. So, how important are the promises of God? I sometimes think I'll put this on my on myself. Oh, God made promises. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I know. (23:50) And I try to fit the whole this whole concept of of Christianity into a a package that allows me to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, how I want to do it, as long as I talk about Jesus in a good way. Yay. Yippee Jesus. and everybody's happy. Except I miss out on the very heart of what this book talks about. It's not a the good news. (24:18) The gospel is God in flesh for you and me walking among us and saying, "I'm going to make you like me and I've promised I will do it and you can know me through my promises and my son time." You know what? You get to experience the very life I intended for you. Life that is beyond description. So no matter what your circumstances are, you know me. (24:42) See, this is what the apostles learned. All of them eventually put to death. But you know to to the person, every one of them would tell you there is no greater joy than walking with Jesus. If the road gets hard, I know Jesus more. I lean on him. If the pain increases, if I suffer, I can rejoice in all things because I know the one who made the promise and I know the fulfillment of that promise and I know the effect of that promise in my life. (25:10) If we will come to handle the promises of God like the very character of God, we will be empowered in ways we never imagined. we will be able to enjoy that neighbor that won't shut up, the the the traffic light that won't change. This morning on the way to church, I don't know if any of you know this, the traffic light at the corner of Baseline and 185th is the worst traffic light in all Oregon. (25:36) Yes. And I tell you, I was listening to music that was setting my heart in the right direction. I've been talking to God all morning, and right there, God went out the window because of that stupid turn light. But when I learn that God has promised that he's with me, even when I have to sit through two or three cycles of a turn light, then it starts to bring life into perspective. (26:02) You see, I lose perspective really fast. I don't know about you, but I often lose perspective really, really fast. Little things will get me irritated. Little things will change that weren't supposed to happen that way. And you know what God's saying? So what? I'm with you. You can know me. Here's what I want to do. (26:27) Hey, I gave you an extra couple minutes to listen to some song to a song about me. I gave you a few minutes to to meditate on what you read this morning. I want to talk to you about what you prayed about this morning. I am going to take care of you. Who cares what the traffic's doing? Who cares if the engineer who put that light together should be fired? That's a whole another issue. (26:50) We need to learn to love the promises of God. So, we learn to love the God who made the promises. And that's what this series is about because we go through life thinking we are can manipulate and use God rather than being molded by God. And I know what I want and I know what I need. You're probably better than me, but I need to be molded by God because it's really pretty stupid that a traffic light can set me off. (27:27) I'm just being honest. It is. And little things that can get under my skin and bother me. If I really know God, I see the world differently. I really do. And that's what I want us to understand. 2 Corinthians 12:9 it says, "Each time he said, 'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness. (27:50) So now I am glad to boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ can work through me." The Apostle Paul pinned those words and he was talking about the things that he had gone through and the sufferings he had and the experiences and if he were to live life according to his experiences, he wouldn't know God. But he began to realize that the experiences of difficulty and suffering and hardship were actually allowing him to see his weakness. (28:17) And in his weakness, it allowed him to surrender to the very presence of God and to the promises of God in the person of God. And so he could he could boast in his weakness. There's great wisdom in that statement. really great wisdom that if we could learn to boast in our weakness rather than our accomplishments, you and I would know God personally. (28:45) We would learn to be those who who thrive in and for and just rejoice in the evidence of the fulfilled promises of God because every time we see the element of his promise that he has made, you see, here's one more thing. Time out. Put a little caveat right here. God's promises have been fulfilled. God's promises continue to be fulfilled. (29:10) And because of that, every time in my circumstances, I am in a situation that is that is working out or exposing is probably the better way. Exposing the weaknesses in me. It's a point of rejoicing. Oh God, I see how I have yet to know you and apply what you've promised into that area of my life. So, forgive me for letting a light determine my mood. (29:40) I'll see you every time the lights don't go my way. You can be in my weakness and I'll rejoice in that. Now, a light is a pretty minor thing. I don't get too upset. Renee didn't have to calm me down. But maybe it's for you, it's in your family. Maybe there's somebody that you have a relationship that just doesn't understand how important you are and they just bug you. (30:16) It's an opportunity to know the promises of God. Do you know what God says? I'm going to break some news to you. He doesn't say you're important. He says you're valuable, priceless. because in you he placed his image and he says he wants his image to come to its full fruition through the power and presence of his spirit. (30:39) So when in those situations he's going, "Okay, Joel, this is an opportunity for me to rub away a little of the tarnish that you've brought. I've forgiven you. I'm redeeming you. But now I'm going to remove some of the stain, some of the tarnish, and we're going to make you a little more like my son. We're going to teach you patience. (30:58) We're going to teach you kindness and gentleness, things that we talked about in our last series. I want you to look like my son. And it's in those I should be rejoicing. Thank you for loving me enough to make me look like Jesus. I got a long way to go, but you're a God who's got eternal patience. So, thank you. (31:19) You see, that's why it becomes so important for us. I'll bring it right back to the whole idea of promises. If I don't know the promises of God, I do not know what God wants to accomplish. I do not un give it doesn't I I lack an understanding of the process of what God is doing and I really ultimately just don't know him. (31:39) We don't want to be there. 2 Corinthians chapter 3:es 4 and 5. It says this, "Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves, there it is, to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God." Uh, encouragement this week. Memorize that verse. (32:06) Sufficiency doesn't come from you. It comes from God. I'm going to read that one more time. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us. But our s sufficiency is from God. Take that to heart. Then in the opening chapter of second Corinthians and let me give you context for uh 2 Corinthians 1 and 2 Corinthians real brief context. (32:34) It was a church that Paul had started on on uh one of his missionary journeys. And in the process there in in Corinth, he's writing a letter to them now. And in that um there had been an arrogance and if you don't see this in the first and second Corinthians, it's important you understand it if you're going to understand what Paul is writing. (32:53) There was an arrogance in the church that they felt that uh they knew more than Paul. And Paul wasn't trying to defend himself as knowing more. He was trying to defend himself as knowing God better, walking with God. His life had expressed it and he he has shown it and he has shown it among them. (33:15) And he talks about that you if you can bring a complaint, bring a complaint. But I did all I didn't uh you know he talks about the things that he wouldn't take from them and how he uh treated them and everything. It was not about him. It was about Christ first. Paul argues and he's saying if you are getting distracted by me then you don't know God and you don't know what he has promised and you are not living by those promises. (33:38) So in cha in the second book second letter they were uh we have it as a second letter he writes this in the first chapter for Jesus Christ the son of God does not waver between yes and no he is the one whom Silas Timothy and I preach to you and is God's ultimate yes he always does what he says for all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with the resounding yes and through Christ are amen which means yes ascends to God for his glory See if I can pull that together for you. (34:10) He is saying Paul was being questioned uh in a negative way by some people in the church in Corenth because he had told them he was going to try to come to them at a certain time. But things happened and he wasn't able to come. And so people in in general, this is the easiest way to understand it. (34:26) They were saying he was being flaky and he didn't care about the church because his schedule had been changed. And Paul is saying, "You don't understand. I live by Christ. The Christ that I preached to you with Timothy and Silas when we were there, we preached Christ. And Christ does not waver. He didn't waver. (34:47) He did exactly what he said he was going to do. He went to the cross, died on the cross, rose again. He gives you life. And for you to call into question what I have taught you because I can't get there when I thought I could get there is plain foolishness. And it shows you don't know what you say you believe. And so Paul says, 'Look, as he says, as God's God's ultimate, yes, he always does what he says. (35:11) Jesus has proven that God doesn't waver. I may have to change. God does not. So do not base your your knowledge of God on what happens with me. Base it on what you know about the promises of God and how he's fulfilled them. Jesus is the ultimate yes. He's not when he's saying yes and no, it's not like God's sitting there going, "Well, yeah, maybe." Yeah. No. Yes. No. It's Yes. (35:35) God always does according to his character, always fulfills his promises. Isn't that great news? And so, we don't have to worry when a person lets us down. It does not mean that God will let us down. And that's another place where we often make mistakes is we base our trust in God on how what we've experienced in relationships in this world. (35:56) Let me ask you a question. Anybody had a relationship fail in this world? Yeah. Every one of our hands should be up because people let us down. Let me ask you this and I would love to know this. Anybody here ever had God actually fail them? The answer would be no. I know that God has never failed you. You may not have known God in a circumstance by your own choice, but God has never failed you. (36:25) I know that. How do I know that? Because Christ came out of the grave. Christ died on the cross and shed his blood for my sins. God never waivers. Uh God wakes up in the morning and says, "I don't feel like doing anything for for uh Luke today." Doesn't go that way. Sorry, Luke. Thankfully, it doesn't go that way, does it? It's whether I know the God in my circumstance who has promised to be himself for me. (36:56) This is exciting. And this is why I am so pleased that we're going to do this series because it ties into where we've been, but helps us become what we've been going through to become even more personal. We need to know God. And the great thing is God has made himself known. How has he made himself known? It's one of the prime uh premier ways top means of knowing God is by knowing his promises. (37:17) So we're going to walk through the next seven weeks. We're going to look through the promises of God to see what that means to us and to challenge us. What I want us to get as we walk away today, you and I can't make them any better. We can't add to them. We embrace them and we live by them. And here's the thing. Here's a good clue. (37:34) If you think you are somehow needing to make a promise of God better, let that be an indicator. A little red light that's going off. Beep beep beep. That tells you, did you know lights make noise? Just letting you know that. Um that it's a warning. It's a sign. It's a signal. You don't know the God who made the promise. (37:54) You're trying to make the promise reflect who you are. So, we're going to get to know the God of the promises that he has made so we can walk with him with great confidence no matter what our circumstance. Sound like a good idea? That's where we're going. Let's pray. Father, I am thankful that your yes is always yes because I fail all the time. (38:20) I really do. I struggle. You know that. better than anybody. And so may we each become those who know you because we understand what you have promised and how that changes how we approach life, live life, how we're empowered and ultimately the joy of knowing you. What's so amazing in your promises is that you're calling for us to know you in another facet of your beauty and your character. (38:47) So a promise just is an invitation. come and see, taste and see how good I am. And so I want to take that invitation. I pray for us that we will individually take that invitation to taste and see through your promises just who you are and how faithful and good and merciful and gracious and kind and loving and forgiving. (39:14) And we could go on and on of who you are that we will embrace and rejoice in the opportunities to know you more. And we pray this in the beautiful name of our savior. Amen."