It is good to be back again with you this week. I want to say to those of you who select and then lead the singing, those are phenomenal. I'm going to say to the rest of you, I would like you to stay, but if you want to know the summary of my message this morning, just consider the two songs we sang. That God is unstoppable, unshakable. He is God alone. That's what our passage is going to tell us. And then the power of the cross is that Christ became sin for us. And He bore the wrath of God. He bore our shame and our sin so that we could be set free. I could do a closing prayer and y'all could get an early lunch after a late breakfast if you wish. I think that would not meet my purposes for this morning. I gave you an outline and it has blanks to fill in. I want to warn you that I'm probably going to get excited in preaching the text and forget that there's little blanks to fill in. I was never really cool in filling in blanks anyway, but We're back in Isaiah 40, and it was easy to choose my title. Last week's was Good Words from God When We're a Good Ways from Him. And this week is More Good Words from God When We're a Good Ways from Him. And we'll cover the rest of the chapter. That's 31 verses. You might be wondering, so you just gave us five verses last week, this time you're going to give us like 26 or something. Why didn't you split it more evenly? And well, I had to see whether I'd be invited back again, so I decided to go short last week. But we're going to cover a lot, not in detail. Those of you who are obsessive compulsives are going to want to know more about the meaning of a particular verse, and you can get Lance to explain those in detail after I'm gone. But we want to move through this text to see what Isaiah has for the people of his day, as well as the people to whom he prophesies 150 to 200 years after him. God miraculously allows him to speak into several generations in the future when Israel will be captive in Babylon. I want to relay a story in beginning that Max Lucado shares he heard from a Brazilian pastor. Ana was a single mother of a growing, maybe late teen, early young adult daughter, Cristina. Ana being a single mom in a small little dusty village, not too far, but far enough from Rio de Janeiro, had a kind of an independent streak about her. She had to be, to make it through life, a single mom in a very family-oriented culture. Christina, on the other hand, had some of that same spirit, that independent, strong, free-spirited type of drive. And for her, life in a small, dusty little village was boring. She would talk often about the lights of the big city, the lights there in Rio, and about getting there. And Ana would say to her, don't you go to Rio. You don't have any family there. There's no one to support you there. Ana knew that because of Cristina's beauty and because of her lack of support, the kind of things she might end up doing just to support herself. And she dreaded that Cristina would ever really make do on her wishes to leave. One day, Anna woke up, went into Christina's room, and the bed was empty, made. Some things were missing from the room. She looked around a bit, but instinctively she knew where Christina had gone. with a sense of desperation and equal determination in her heart. And I went down to the bus stop, purchased a ticket to Rio. But before she would go to the bus stop to get in, get on, she went into one of those little booths that some places have where you can pay a certain amount of money in coins and get a set of pictures. And she paid a couple of times to get enough pictures of herself. She shoved them in her little bag and got on the bus and took the rumbly-bumbly trip into Rio. In Rio, she went to all the places she thought a young woman like Cristina might eventually end up. And everywhere she went, she took a picture of herself. She took a thumbtack or whatever she could find and she put it up there. She never found Christina. Brokenhearted, got on the bus and went back home. Sometime later, I don't know how long, Christina was descending the steps of a seedy, bad district hotel. It was a day, in many ways, when she felt like she'd aged years only in weeks. She looked around and across the little lobby, if you could call it that, of this tiny hotel, on a post, stuck there with a rusty thumbtack, was a picture of her mother. She walked over to that picture. Took it down and looked at it something about the eyes of her mother peering back at her Spoke to her heart She happened to flip it over and there was a message that spoke to her heart as well It said Christina No matter what you've done No matter what you've become Come home Christina No matter what you have done, no matter what you have become, come home. She did. Here in Isaiah 40, we're going to find thumbtacked, if you will, some pictures of God the Father. And those pictures have a message on the back that say to us, No matter what you've done, and because of what I've done, and because of who I am, come home. Isaiah is saying that to the people of his day. He's saying that to the people in Babylon, whom God miraculously allows him to prophesy to. as they are suffering the just punishment for their immorality and their idolatry, 70 years in captivity, their home country, their capital, their temple, destroyed and in ruins. And there they are, far from God, longing for good words from him. And Isaiah is saying to them, not only come home, but I'm coming to bring y'all home. And there, these words from God comprise a picture of the face of God looking back at us. We looked last week at those first two promises in verses 1 and 2. God says, I'm ready to pardon your sins. and end your punishment. It's beautiful just the way it's expressed. Call out to her, her warfare, her iniquity, her sins. In other words, it's their fault. But he says, tell her, her warfare has ended. Her iniquity has been removed, and she's received of the Lord's hand double. In other words, I'm twice as fast ready to forgive you as you are ready to repent. I want to forgive you. That's part in presence is the next little paragraph verses 3 through 5 repent those are the words that John the Baptist spoke later on or were written about him a Voice is calling clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness make smooth in the desert a highway for our God get ready Our God is coming from Jerusalem to Babylon to take us back to Jerusalem He's going to restore us to our land forgive our sins and take care of us John the Baptist would make that presence of God even more real by saying, God is sending his own son to live among us, to represent his character to us and show us that not only will he forgive us, he delights to be present among us. Emmanuel, God with us. Let's look at verses six through eight. A voice says, call out. Then he answered, well, what shall I call out? Say this, all flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it, surely the people are grass. And then repeated, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. I don't know where you've been spiritually, where you are this morning. It could be that you heard what God had to say to us last week and you said, yeah, that's nice. But I don't think God wants to forgive me. I don't think God wants to hang around with the likes of me. Sure, I'm in church, I'm dressed, I got my Bible, I had a good breakfast, I'm here with God's people. But my heart is very far from God. I don't really think he wants a second with me. How can I trust this promise of pardon and presence? These verses tell us that God is not like human beings. Human beings make promises that they do not keep. Their promises fade and they fail. But the word of God, God's word and God's words stand forever. He uses the illustration of the grass of the field and the flowers of the field. I think in Texas we would call those wildflowers. Now, March, April, we get in our cars, and we drive out 290. Maybe we get as far as Washington County. If we haven't seen as much as we would like, we drive further. We get off on side roads. And what are we looking for? We're looking for blue bonnets and Indian paint brushes. And we're looking for, it looks like God was walking by with buckets of paint, and He spilled red, white, and all that all over the fields. And we're looking for wildflowers. Now, when we get done with the service, do you want to drive out there with me? Got a head shakes, silence, dead, no response. Okay, why? Because the grass withers and the flowers fade. And in our drought times, they turn brown and ugly. That's what humanity is like. You're in the reception room and the nurse says, the doctor will be with you in a moment. It's a nice cover word in a moment, right? How long is a moment? The delivery services, it will absolutely positively be there this Friday. Two arrogant men stand up to debate before a nation, wanting to hear what they promised to do for our country. And the election comes and goes, and... Human beings make promises, make statements they cannot deliver on. But this one phrase says, but the word of our God stands forever. Here we were this morning, roughly 2,000 years after Jesus died on the cross, and we were singing. He took the blame. He bore the shame. He bore our sin. He became sin for us. Why? Because what he did then and was told us in the scripture stands forever, and it will go on and on into eternity. The word of our God stands forever, though humans' words fade and fail. Some would say, well, OK, if God, I'll take you at your word, Isaiah, that you're promising that God wants to pardon us, that he will be with us, and that he will keep his promises to us. So God's going to lead us from here in Babylon across a lot of land occupied by people who are not so friendly to Israel, Israel as they once existed and in the pitiful state they exist now. We're going to go there unarmed. with no provisions, to a city that has no walls, with a temple that's been destroyed, no defenses, who in the world is gonna take care of us, if indeed you keep your promise, you're gonna deliver us over to Israel. God says in verses 9 through 11, listen, verses 9 and 10 first, get yourself up on a high mountain. Here's God speaking to the prophet or the prophet speaking to a messenger, one or the other. Get yourself up on a high mountain. Oh, Zion, he's speaking actually to Jerusalem. Jerusalem, bearer of good news, lift your voice mightily. Oh, Jerusalem, bearer of good news, lift it up. Do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah. Pause right there. Have you noticed the tone of the voice in this passage? Go back to verse 1. Speak, or verse 2, speak kindly. Jerusalem talk tenderly these are words of romance the way they're used in the Old Testament verse 5 verse 3 a voice is calling the voice gets a little louder and Then verse 6 a voice says call out it gets a louder yet louder still what you like call out And then we get it now. We're up on a mountain lift up your voice mightily Shout it out. Why because it's good news worth hearing and Lift up your voice mightily. What are you going to say? Say to the cities of Judah, these broken down, busted, almost uninhabited cities of Judah left behind after the captivity. Say to the cities of Judah, here, here is your God. Friends, God's called us to walk out to our city. and to the broken down, busted people in our neighborhood, and our campuses, and our offices, and to say to them, there's your God. Let me point him out to you. I'm a bearer of good news. Here's your God. Well, what's he like? Verse 10. Behold the Lord God will come with might Just look at his muscles not like mine more like Lance's The Lord God will come with us with might With his arm ruling for him behold his reward is with them and his recompense before him Arm ruling before him makes enough sense powerful powerful enough to take charge to rule We read those words, his reward, his words, his reward, his recompense. And we tend to think of those as like awards or prizes for achievement. Kind of like what may have been given out a week and a half ago at VBS for whoever memorized the most verses. Or a patch, if you're an Awana and you memorize the verses and you get the next patch or the next pin or a reward. I think that misses the point here. Isaiah is saying God's power is coming and it's payback time for anybody who messes with me and mine that kind of recompense you harm Israel and I harm you and so he says I'm gonna protect you Israel all the way back to Babylon and Whatever governors and small-time powers that are around you who try to resist the thing that I'm doing through you in Jerusalem they're going to get it and I'm going to take care of you. So God says, I want to forgive you. I will be present with you. I'll keep my promises to you and my power will protect you. And then verse 11, like a shepherd, like a shepherd, he will tend his flock. We turned from a image of powerful warrior, G.I. Joe, superhero, to the image of a shepherd taking care of defenseless sheep. Both sides are true of God. Like a shepherd, he will tend his flock. In his arm, he will gather the lambs and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead the nursing ewes. First, did you notice all those verbs of what God will do? He will tend, He will gather, He will carry, He will gently lead. God takes responsibility for dealing with us and caring for us in our need. And then notice the two focuses, or foci, I don't know if you say that, two focuses of His caring ministry. He will tend His flock. Look at me, please. more or less looked at every single one of you. You're his flock. God will tend his flock. There's not a single person among his sheep that will ever lack his wise management and his expert care. He gives extensive care to everybody who owns the name of Jesus. not just here at Harvest, not just here in Cyprus, not just in Texas or the USA, but all over the world, everyone who has placed their faith in Jesus Christ gets God's personal extensive care. Some of you are saying, that's fine, but I have some particular issues. illnesses, financial circumstances, some difficulties, some family relationships that seem intractable, some problems at work and people who seem to have it out for me. I have some particular needs. It says, he will tend his flock. But more, he says, in his arm, he'll carry, he'll gather the lambs, so the littlest ones, the most vulnerable ones, the ones that have special needs. And he will not just gather them in his arms, he will carry them in his bosom. Well, in his bosom is closest to his what? To his heart. Yeah, all of us get his extensive care. Some of us need and receive his intensive care. He deals particularly with those who have special needs. And he will gently lead the nursing use. So what are you this morning? Are you just a card carrying member of the flock? Or are you intensive care unit? You don't have to answer that out loud. God knows your heart. And if you have particular needs, he's right there, like a shepherd who knows how to care for sheep. The Lord knows sheep. So he says, I'm your all-capable shepherd to provide for you and to guide for you. Let's look at verse 12. Interesting what happens from here on in the text is a series of questions I'm gonna name them out for you If you if you are one of those people free to write in your Bible if you're on your phone, I'm sorry for you but if if you write in your Bible look at the very last part of verse 12, there's a question mark and Verse 13, there's a question mark. Verse 14, there's two question marks. Verse 18, two question marks. Verse 20, ooh, my eyes are so bad. 21, question mark, question mark, question mark. Verse 25, question mark. Verse 27, question mark. So God's doing the questioning. We would call this in debate or otherwise, these are rhetorical questions that, all right, I'm gonna ask something and you tell me, you tell me. And basically the answer is gonna be obvious by the question that is given. And so God is saying, all right, is it too irreverent to say God is gonna do some trash talking here? He's going to say, all right, let's look at who I am. If you think I'm not able to forgive you, to keep my promises to you, to care for you, to protect you and guide you, let's just look at my resume and check it out. Now you tell me. So in verse 13 or verse 12, who has measured the waters in the hollows of his hand and marked off the heavens by the span and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure and weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales. And all God's people said, not amen, that you flunked the test if you say it, God's people said what? Nobody but God. All right, let's try that again. And all God's people said? That's right. Okay, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? I live just down the road a piece in villages of Cypress Lakes. We've got several lakes. Let's just choose the smallest of those lakes. Summer when it's drought time. Okay, so it's not as deep as it can be after a storm and let's take several buckets or Pails Niles, where are you Giles? We're talking about a difference between buckets and pails in between the British and English here. So let's go and let's scoop out the smallest lake in the villages of Cypress Lakes and Fill buckets with it. All of y'all can bring a bucket. Okay, we'll see. I think we could do it with this, right? I In the hollow of my hand. All right, just for the sake of doing it faster, we can do two-handed, okay? How long's that gonna take us? Okay, we've just got the smallest lake and village of Cypress Lakes. Now let's take all of them. And then whatever subdivisions are around here that have lakes, let's do that. And then Lake Houston, and then let's make our way down to Galveston and stand there. It's gonna take a lot of buckets, right? God holds all the waters of the world In this I'm amazed that he even knows my name And that he cares about me for all the way I turn against him and he bothers to speak to me and Who has measured the waters in the hall? Who has marked off the heavens by a span? Who's gotten out his tape measure and decided to like, we're gonna measure out the whole place here. Who has calculated the dust of the earth by the measure? The dust of the earth. Okay, you go on vacation and go down to Galveston. After you've done scooping out the bay, then start counting the measures of sand, all right? When you're done, give me a call. Weighed the mountains in a balance and the hills in a pair of scales all right. I'm on subdivisions this morning So many subdivisions have in front of them a nice arrangement of flowers, and then they've got these landscaping rocks They just look so gorgeous placed out there some of them with moss on them. It's just so let's let's bring our scales I'll bring the backhoe or the whatever the forklift and And we'll start putting those rocks on scales and then putting them in a truck so we can measure all of the rocks that are in front of the subdivisions of our general area here in Cyprus. And then they say, well, let's go out to enchanted rock. And someone will have to bring a jackhammer, and we'll start cutting enchanted rock. And just to make it a little easier, we'll only do it level with the ground. We won't go with what's down beneath. How many of us could begin to measure enchanted rock? And then let's go to the Rockies and the Andes and the Himalayas. How big is our God that he can say, oh, let's take the Andes. Little tweezer. Let's take the Rockies, put them on a scale, measure them out. That's our God. That is how huge he is. What did I say you're supposed to? Who is grander and more immense than I am? No one compares with me, God says, in terms of, and I'm putting in quotes, in terms of size. God does not have size. He outranks measurements of size. Verses 13 and 14. Who directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor, as it has informed him, and with whom did he consult, and who gave him understanding, and who taught him in the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and informed him in the way of understanding? With whom did God make an appointment and say, look, I'd like your advice on this? Nobody. God is wiser than the combined wisdom from Plato and Aristotle all the way through today. He is the fountain of knowledge and wisdom. I wonder some ways, and when you put these two verses together, his bigness over creation and his wisdom, if Isaiah is not referring to who informed God how to intricately create a bumblebee and a blue whale and a lion and a butterfly. Who made all of those diverse creatures? And then go into the average, what do they call it, exotic fish store. I'm not a fish guy. But go in there and just look at the comical and the beautiful ways God designed various fish of the sea. And this is just a small collection. Who advised God, look, I think the camels look great with humps. Who said, you know, a mane on a lion would make him look so much more royal. Who advised him that a horse, what else do you say about a horse? We're in Texas, right? Goodnight, they are beautiful, I'd love to. I don't necessarily like horse racing, but I love to see the triple crown races just to watch the beauty of a horse running in speed. It's just a gorgeous thing. God made that. Who advised God about how to put this all together? Who advised us about our blood and circulatory system and heart and lungs and eyes and ears to hear? It is just phenomenal. No one advised God any of that. Who is wiser or more knowledgeable than I am? No one compares with God in terms of what he knows and how wisely he applies it. Verses 15 to 17. Now tell me. Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket. and are regarded as a speck of dust in the scales." Okay, so you got the scales here, and you're kind of gonna clean them off before you put something else in. Somebody tells you, you know, you just blew off Russia and South America. That's how tiny they are to God. who, behold, he lifts up the islands like fine dust. Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, nor its beast enough for a burnt offering. In other words, the forest of Lebanon, dense, is not enough wood to burn the sacrifices, to praise God. And all the lands, all the sheep, are not enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him. They are regarded by him as less than nothing and meaningless. So what if we say, we're going to call the forces of the United Nations, and they're going to put this war to peace. Most of the world has grown to say, that's meaningless. Well, God says, gather up all your armed forces with all your smart bombs and your missiles and your nuclear weapons, gather up all the armed forces of the total world, and they are like nothing to me. That's how powerful he is. He sits above it all. Tell me, do you think the nations are a threat to my purposes, God says? I can not be thwarted. All the nations combined are nothing compared to my sovereign overarching authority. Verses 18 to 20. To whom then will you liken God? Okay, if I'm that big, then show me something that compares. Let's put them side by side. Or what likeness will you compare with God? All right, let's take idols. Case exhibit number one. As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold, a silvermith fashions chains of silver. Oh, if he's too impoverished for such an offering, well, he'll select a tree, some wood, but wood that does not rot. He seeks out for himself a skilled craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter. So you want a God, a God of your own making, well, find a craftsman, either a craftsman in silver and gold, precious metals, or if you got to go downcast your God a little bit, then let's go for wood that doesn't rot or spoil. And you make it so, you know, make it so, the foundation of it so level that it won't totter, because if it totters, it might fall and break, and you gotta smudge your God's, God has a smudge on his nose, and you gotta brush that off. God says, this is rich, this is rich. You have to take care of your God and you're gonna bow down and worship that God and expect that God to care for you and meet your needs and satisfy your soul. They are nothing, they're lifeless and they can't do anything for you. Okay, well we say, well, I've never sought out a craftsmith, a silversmith or goldsmith. I've never made an idol out of silver. I've never gone out in the wood, chopped down a tree and carved something up and bowed down to it. I don't have any idols. Really? What about the number 401K? Do I trust in that to care for me in my old age? I'm already there. My old age? More than the God of the universe who weighs the nations and the mountains and the waters like this? How about the way my wife thinks of me? Husbands, if I could just make her happy, I'm gonna be a happy man. If I get her approval and recognition and honor and respect, we've made our wife an idol. What about your kids? If they would just obey me. And your kids' obedience becomes a thing you live for. What about the upward climb at your place of work? to get to the corner office, or to get to that raise, after which will come another, but to get that raise, that becomes the thing I live for, devote my energies to, and it will satisfy me if I just get that. What about the vacation? Not just any old vacation with a small V, but THE vacation. Capital V. The one that everybody else sends pictures back or posts on Facebook and you ain't ever been there But you know when you get that life will be good We have our idols too and we bow down and worship them and God says They totter and fall and get broken and they don't meet a single need of your soul Look at me who can compare with me? How about verses 23, 24? Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It sounds like a teacher beginning a review session, right? You guys ought to know this God is saying to Israel in captivity and to Israel of Isaiah's day. Didn't you get it? Didn't you get it? Or what should they have gotten? Got it. It is God who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. Stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in it is he who? Reduces rulers to nothing who makes the judges of the earth meaningless Scarcely have they been planted scarcely have they been sown Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but he merely Blows on them and they wither and the storm carries them away like stubble Israel And Babylon say, yeah, but what about Nebuchadnezzar? Or what about Cyrus? These are emperors. These are kings. They have authority. There's even governors between us and getting back to the land of Israel. What about them and all the power and all the pomp that they have? Their dictates can mess up whatever we hope to happen with Israel. And God says, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Didn't you get it from the very beginning? I made the place and Rulers are like nothing to me Scarcely do they get started and therefore your team it for your term is over Scarcely is the election over and they're already being written in the history book They're nothing to me. We need not care about November 2024 We have a God in heaven who rules the universe. And he says, these are nothing. I was born about nine years after the end of World War II. And my Sunday school teachers were adult men and women who lived through that war. One of them told me about a cartoon that appeared in the newspapers toward the end of the war. And it was a picture of a mound, a hill, let's say. And standing on that hill was a figure of Hitler, the short mustache, with his fists raised up to heaven, like, I rule this world, and they will bow before me. And then the next part of the cartoon strip backs out a little bit. as it ends up there is a finger and Hitler's on that finger and Then it backs out a little bit more and there is a thumb You know where I'm going coming down on that finger and I When we lived, the world collectively lived during Hitler's day, he frightened us. We were horrified of what he could do and what he might do. And God says, and he says that to Biden and to Trump and whoever else will be elected I run the place. You need not worry about the rulers of this world. My purposes and plans will not be thwarted. Amen. Verses 25 and 26. It is God who sits above the circle of the earth. I'm sorry, I read that one. To whom then will you liken me? That I would be his equal, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see. Who has created these stars? The one who leads forth their hosts by number. He calls them by name because of the greatness of his might and the strength of his power. Not one of them is missing. I read this this week, actually I read this back in November, pulled it up again this week. It's from the James Webb Space Telescope Center. And this is just a tiny little snippet. According to a study published Monday, this was back in November, in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, two galaxies at nearly 33 billion light years away are the second and fourth farthest galaxies ever observed. During this revelation, only three other galaxies had been confirmed as these far-flung distances in the universe. Okay, let's just review. If you want to get out your phones and calculator app, you can do this. Okay, so light travels at what? 186,000 miles per second. There are 60 seconds in a minute. There's 60 minutes in the hour. Light has traveled a good way since I began preaching. There are 24 hours in a day. Has your calculator blown up yet? There are seven days in a week, 52 weeks in a year. And these galaxies are said to be 33 billion light years away from those who are observing it through the James Webb telescope. I don't know how far that is, but I can't throw a rock that far. God made not just those galaxies, but the hundreds and thousands, some say billions of galaxies, I don't know. But they're out there, this vast expanse of space. And it says that God, in one previous verse talked about God measured them by a span. You can move into a new apartment without curtains. And you get out your tape measure and you measure the windows. And God says, let's go for 33 million light years. And that tape measure just never quits. That is how immense our God is. I think, did we sing it this morning or last week? Our sins, they are many. His mercy is more. His mercy is unstoppable, unshakable. He's unchangeable. He's ready to forgive our sins. And believe me, I think he counts as many as I'm pulling out of my tape measure right now. He just never quits. He knows my sins and yet stands ready to forgive them. Verses 27 to 31. These are perhaps the most oft-quoted verses, and they're put in, crocheted on little pieces of art, and decoupaged, and all that kind of thing. Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you assert, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God? In other words, God lost my file, lost my case in his files. Why do you say that? Okay, it would be easy doing this, right? If God is that big, and I'm this tiny, if he measures Lake Superior or the Atlantic Ocean here, I can't even see myself in that hand. If he's that big, what does he do with me? It's no wonder the psalmist said, when I consider the works of your hands, What is man that you are mindful of him? Or the son of man that you consider him? We could easily walk out of here thinking, God has forgotten us. He's so grand and immense and huge. And he has a lot of planets and stars to keep going. He doesn't think about me. Again, I love how God said this. Do you not know? Wait a minute, folks, let's review again. Do you not know? Haven't you heard? He's repeating this again. The everlasting God. Okay, the God who's eternal. The Lord, this is Yahweh, the God who is personal. The everlasting God, eternal. Yahweh, the personal God. The creator of the ends of the earth. And by implication, the expanse of the universe. He does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. The seminary professors say one of our problems in theology is that we try to unscrew the inscrutable. We can't untangle the amazing wisdom of God. So he doesn't get tired, he doesn't get weary, he understands everything, and he gives strength to every weary one. And to him who lacks might, he increases power. Young people might grow weary and tired. Even vigorous young men will stumble badly. Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. That's for those who wait on the Lord, who believe in His promise, who repent and come back and align themselves with His authority. As John the Baptist said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. After me comes one who is mightier than I." Jesus said, I'm here. I am the king. I'm ready to pardon you. I promise to be present with you. I keep my promises. I'm so big that nothing can thwart what I do. I'm so knowledgeable that no one's ever advised me a single second. I am so careful to tend for you like a shepherd. And every one of you that has special needs, I will come to you. Your moment of need and right now. How did we sing that and right now in the good times and bad? You are God alone That's what God's saying to us right now right now in your moment of sin in Your feeling distant from God in your feeling that he couldn't possibly care from you for you. He is with you He loves you, and he says, like the picture, come home, no matter what you've done, no matter what you've become, come home. Let's pray. Our grand and majestic God, whom we cannot possibly comprehend, but whom we love. We marvel that you think of us and love us. And the best we know how, we put our trust in you. The best we know how, we turn from our sin to your saving mercy and grace. the best we know how, failing and weak as we are. We come before you to pledge our loyalty and to seek your grace, to walk with us through another week, bringing honor to your son, whom we will around whom we will delightedly dance and sing for eternity. This is our God. He's the one who saved us. We worship you again with all our hearts. In the name of Jesus, the blessed name of Jesus, amen.