Well, good morning, everyone. Good morning. Yes, good afternoon. Thank you. Yes, as Dave said, a couple months ago, I had started talking with the elders, asking them what it would look like to start an internship with the church. And during that process, I had been told, yeah, we'll have you come up and preach some sermons. And so this morning, my dad called me, and he said, so, What do you think about having today be one of those days? So I said, okay. So because of that, we're gonna take a week's break from the sermon series that my dad had started. And today's passage is going to be Isaiah 40, verses 9 through 23. And just as forewarning, I'll be reading from the New King James. So if you have a different translation, there may be some words that are slightly different. So if you would, please stand with me for the reading of God's word. So Isaiah 40, verses nine through 23. O Zion, you who bring good tidings, get up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, you who bring good tidings, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, behold your God. Behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand, and his arms shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure, weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or as his counselor has taught him, With whom did he take counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales. Look, he lists up the isles as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted by him less than nothing and worthless. To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare to him? The workman molds an image, the goldsmith overspreads it with gold, and the silversmith casts silver chains. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks for himself a skilled workman to prepare a carved image that will not totter. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth useless. Let's pray. Dear Father, as we look at your word today, I pray that you would direct us to see you rightly. Lord, I pray that you would help us to not only see your goodness and your might, but also that you would help us to see what that means for us today. Lord, I thank you that despite changes in schedule and changes in plans, your word remains steadfast. Lord, teach us now through your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. Well, I was in the car a couple weeks ago and I was listening on the radio to some stories about some of the wars that are going on overseas. And as I was listening, I was thinking to myself and realizing that most of us, and there are a few exceptions, but most of us have really no concept of what it means to be in an actual battle. We don't know what it means to have bullets whizzing by our heads or have mortar shells exploding nearby. But imagine for a moment if there was a battle that was here on American soil. And imagine for a moment that all of the rest of the United States had been conquered except for Ceres. And so we're sitting in the church right now, we're looking around, and the entire city is surrounded by an enemy foe. Well, that would bring a whole new perspective to war, wouldn't it? Well, for the people of Judah during the time of King Hezekiah, that's exactly what happened. They had just been surrounded. Jerusalem had been completely surrounded by the Assyrian army. And through a series of divine deliverances, the Assyrian army leaves. And so, King Hezekiah, after this fact, he's watched the Assyrian army leave, and suddenly on his doorstep, there come an envoy of foreign ambassadors. It's a group of Babylonians. And the Babylonians were the ancient foes of the Assyrians, and so Hezekiah is so excited. Here's his chance to get an ally against this foe that just came and surrounded him. And so he welcomes the Babylonians in, he shows them everything. But after the Babylonians leave, Isaiah comes to King Hezekiah and he says, King Hezekiah, the Assyrians didn't defeat you, but the Lord has said that the Babylonians will someday come and they will completely destroy Judah and they will take your people captive. So immediately after this pronouncement of doom comes a word of hope, and that's where our passage comes. The first verse of Isaiah 40 says, comfort, yes, comfort my people. And as Isaiah 40 unfolds, everything in Isaiah 40 points back towards this goal of comfort. And so today as we look at this passage, the overarching message that I want to leave with you is simply this, God is good. So our passage today displays God's goodness in three ways. So we're gonna be looking first at how God's goodness is seen in his sovereignty. Second, God's goodness is seen in his wisdom. And then third, God's goodness is seen in his care for his people. So his sovereignty, his wisdom, and his care for his people. So starting with the first of these, God's goodness is seen in his care for his people. Isaiah 40 verses 9 through 10 begins with a call to Zion and Jerusalem to get out and to cry for Judah, to cry out to them, behold your God. And so verse 10 says, behold, the Lord God shall come with a strong hand and his arm shall rule for him. So the Lord is the one who rules, but what's more, he comes with a strong hand. And that phrase, the Lord coming with a strong hand, signifies to us his coming in might, his coming with a purpose. And so right from the start, the Lord at the beginning of this passage declares his power to his people. Verse 15 continues this idea, and it shows God's power not just over Judah, but over the entire earth. And it describes how the nations are a drop in the bucket, how Lebanon is not sufficient to burn. And one thing that's clear from these verses is that God's power is huge. He lifts up whole islands like we would pick up a penny from the sidewalk. And Lebanon at this time was renowned for its cedar forests. And so God says, those forests, they're not even worth burning. Now imagine that kind of power. That is the power that God says is coming to Judah. From human standards, the time period in which Isaiah was prophesying was one in which there were some of the most powerful nations the world has ever known. You had the Assyrians who had conquered most of the Middle East, and they had conquered even parts of Eastern Europe, all the way down to Africa, and so they were just this major superpower of the day. Babylon had started out as a tiny country near modern-day Kuwait at the end of the Fertile Crescent, but over time they grew and grew, and eventually they overthrew the Assyrians and took their place as the world's dominant power. And even Egypt at this time is still extremely powerful and continuously tries to throw off Assyrian and Babylonian rule. And so caught in the midst of all of these superpowers of the day is the tiny nation of Judah. And so they're just stuck between the crossfire as these nations battle for domination. Yet what the Lord says is that even these gigantic nations are as nothing. And in this passage it says, they are less than nothing and worthless. So God rules in power and his power extends over all things. Now the lesson for us is the same as it was for Judah. The world is not simply directed by a bunch of random forces, nor is it in the hands of a frail, feeble being like the idols that are described in verses 18 through 20. Rather, all things are under the control of a living, sovereign God. But it doesn't always seem like that's true. The other day I was talking with Casey, my brother, about two artificial intelligence programs that were pitted against each other in games of chess. And as most of you know, chess is basically a game of complete strategy. And so these two programs both had analyzed thousands and thousands of different games, and both had just incredibly complex algorithms. And they were pitted against each other in a series of 100 games to see which one could win. And so each of them is using their algorithms, trying to figure out the best move so that they can come out ahead. Well, as this trial progresses, two things became clear. The first program, was clearly the dominant one. It consistently won against the second one. But what was strange is that it also made a lot of unusual moves. Now, it would take some of its pieces, it would move them forward, and to chess grandmasters looking on, they would be looking at it and going, Why is this doing it? Is something wrong with this program? And it would just keep doing that. It would make all these moves that appeared foolish, but then all at once it would do another move, and then all of a sudden the whole thing would come together, and they would realize, whoa, how did it get to this point? It's in such a good position, and it would win. And that's often how our lives are. Things seem chaotic. It seems like there's a bunch of foolish moves and yet everything is striving for a purpose. Now in some ways we have so much trouble with this concept because of what has popularly become known as the problem of evil. We try to reconcile God's sovereignty with his goodness and we say God can't be all powerful because otherwise why is there evil in the world? We try to bail God out of this seemingly tough situation, but in doing so, we abandon all of our hope. If we cannot trust the sovereignty of God, if we cannot find refuge in the fact that someone has control of the situation, then all we are left with is despair. If the hardship we experience is outside of God's control, then our struggles are meaningless. And if God can't save us, we have no hope. So I wanna reshape our thinking for a moment on this. The fact that God is sovereign, that he rules over all things, is to be a comfort to us. So I wanna look at this a different way. Instead of talking about the problem of evil, I wanna look for a second about the problem of good. Now, how is it possible to have a good world without a good God. I want you to think about that for a second. How is it possible to have a good world without a good God? Evolutionary theory can't explain it. They say that we're all just fighting for survival of the fittest. Atheists can't explain it because there are no absolutes. So goodness is only possible if there is a sovereign God who can restrain evil. So the first way in which we see God's goodness is through his sovereignty. But there's another way that God's goodness can be seen, and that's through his wisdom. If God is sovereign, then he's in control and he must have a plan. And that's exactly what we see in Isaiah. So the second way that we see God's goodness is through his wisdom. Verses 12 through 14 of Isaiah 40 ask a series of questions. And it asks things like, who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Who has directed the spirit of the Lord or been his counselor? And as you go through this list of questions, it's meant to direct you towards one answer. And that is that God is the one who created and no other. There was no one who gave him instructions on what to do or how to create. There was no one that gave him the material or the blueprints. There's no one that told him how big to make the mountains or how much volume of water to put in the oceans. It was God and God alone. But there's more to it than just that. God not only created all things, but he did so in wisdom. He didn't just say, I'd like to make a person, but you know, that whole nervous system thing and blood, that just seems way too complex. I think I'll just make a big boneless toe. I think that'll be sufficient. No, God doesn't do that. It's a good thing that he doesn't do that. God instead creates humans in such a way that everything is working together for a purpose. Now we're often tempted to doubt that the Lord has a plan for a particular situation. Some of us have lost loved ones this past year, whether through illnesses or through COVID, and all of us are constantly struggling with our own areas of sin. And in these situations, it's easy to say a good God would not let this happen. How could he? Now many of you remember a couple years ago when Johnny Erickson Tada came to family camp and gave us some talks. And as we learned during that camp, Johnny has a pretty amazing story. When she was 18 years old, she had been boating with some friends in the Chesapeake Bay. And as they're out on the water, she decides to dive off and just go for a swim. Well, she misjudged how deep the water was. And so almost immediately after she dives in, she hits the bottom. And in the process, she fractures her vertebrae and is paralyzed from the shoulders down. Now Johnny is 71 years old now, and as we were sitting with her at camp, and as her husband Ken is giving her bits of food and water every once in a while, Johnny kept stressing the fact that while she didn't choose this life, she didn't choose to be a prisoner in her chair, and completely dependent on others. But nevertheless, God has used that experience to give her a platform to reach hundreds of thousands of people. And even more than that, it's taught her to train her heart to look beyond this life to something more. And friends, God makes no mistakes. With our limited understanding, we may not always comprehend why things happen the way they do. We can only see things in a minute, in just a brief moment, and we can't see the vast expanse of time. Yet God in his wisdom has orchestrated all things. When Johnny was laying in the hospital with all of these nurses around her telling her that for the rest of her life she may not be able to move anything except her neck and her head, at that point everything just seemed like failure and pain. And yet, that event has led to more blessing in her life than she could even imagine, but not the blessing that she originally expected. So the story of Johnny is not one of failure, but is one of hope. And we see this even in the life and death of Jesus. At his death, Jesus was abandoned by his disciples. He endured torture and mocking, And for our sake, he suffered the wrath of an almighty God. And yet in Acts 2, when Peter is speaking to a crowd at Jerusalem, he says, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. Now, all that could be seen initially was failure and pain, the death of an innocent man on a cross. But Peter says that even in this, God had a plan. And in this plan we see God's goodness displayed. We have hope of eternal life because Jesus bore that punishment for our sins upon the cross. Now what appeared to be a moment of defeat was really the moment of victory. And so God's goodness is seen through his wisdom. So we've seen that God is sovereign, we've seen that he does things with a purpose, but there's one last reason why we can trust him. And in some ways we've been alluding to the concept all along. And that's God's goodness is seen in his love and his care for his people. Sheep in ancient Israel and Judah served an important role. Israel and Judah and a lot of the surrounding nations were largely agrarian societies, and so not only was your wealth measured by the size of the herd and flocks that you had, but they were also important. They gave milk, they gave wool, they gave meat, and so sheep were essential to the life of these people. But there was one problem. And that is, you needed grass for them to eat. And so there was this constant need to go find new pastures, new sources of food for these sheep. And that task was left to shepherds. And these shepherds were entrusted with guarding the sheep, with caring for them, for tending to them. And it may sound odd at first to say that God is a shepherd. And that that's one reason, one way in which his goodness is displayed. But this is the imagery that the Lord himself uses in verse 11. God is described as a shepherd who feeds his flock and gathers the lambs in his arms. He gently carries them in his bosom, gently leads them, and in this imagery, we see God's goodness and his love displayed. The Lord loves his sheep and cares for them. And in fact, later on in Isaiah 53, we see that God's care goes far beyond just watching over his sheep. Isaiah prophesies of a coming servant who will not only watch over his sheep, but will lay down his life for them. Now again, remember the context of Isaiah 40. Judah is told that it won't be long until the Babylonians destroy them and take them captive, but God tells them to take comfort and to trust him because he is sovereign, because he has a plan, and because he is their shepherd. Even with an impending invasion, the Lord is still watching over and caring for his people. And for us, again, we have the same reminder. In John 10, Jesus proclaims that he is our shepherd. And after alluding to his death and resurrection, Jesus says these words, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. While God's sovereignty and his wisdom reveal his goodness to us, The imagery of God as our shepherd is in some ways the strongest reminder of that. As a shepherd, God not only directs us and cares for us, he not only has a purpose and a plan for us, but all of that is directed towards the purpose of caring for his sheep. So hear these words of comfort today. Our God is a good God and his purposes for us are good. His plan for us is good. No matter how confusing, how hopeless, how painful the situation looks, the Lord is still guiding and directing us, calling us to follow and picking us up when we stumble. So don't be afraid of what may happen. Dave mentioned earlier in his prayer how we have this temptation to just listen to the radio and think about how everything is just going to ruin. And it's so, so tempting to have that mentality, to think that our state, our country, our world is just going downhill and to be caught in despair. But we forget that God is still in control. Remember Isaiah 40. Israel has just been attacked, they're told that they will be attacked again and taken captive to a foreign godless land, and yet God says, wait, I love you, I care for you, you are my people, this is my plan for you. So, when you go home tonight, I want you to do one thing. After you lay in bed, as you're thinking about your duties for tomorrow, thinking about things that might happen, I want you to pause, Take a deep breath and then say three words out loud. God is good. Can you do that? God is good. So when you get up to work in the morning, as you prepare for school, as you begin to watch your children for the day, I want you to think to yourself, God is good. When you stub your toe, God is good. When you get a flat tire in the mountains and can't make it to church, God is good. Now, when we're in the depths of despair or hopelessness or grief, in all of those situations, God is still good. Now, I want to leave you with one more story, and it has special importance for me because it's about my sister, Hope. And Hope's also stuck up in the mountains, so I can tell this story today. But in some ways, Hope's name perfectly describes her story. When Hope was six years old, we started the process of adopting her and we were told that Hope had a unique heart condition, where her heart's actually on the wrong side of her body. And so all of her organs are shifted around, some of her arteries are functioning as veins, her veins as arteries, everything is just mixed up. Now, during the first six years of her life, Hope had two surgeries that were done in China. And as we were going through the adoption process, we had some other doctors in the United States look through Hope's files, and they said, ah, yeah, Hope has this unique condition. Her heart's on the wrong side. But one of those doctors, he actually did the wrong surgery. This wasn't the right one. And Hope, at that point, if she did any type of exercise, because her body wasn't able to get enough oxygen to the different parts of her body, her fingertips would start turning blue, her lips would start turning blue. And so we always just had to tell her, Hope, just walk. So, we finished the adoption process, we brought Hope home, and we knew that right away we'd need to take her in for a third surgery. And so, we're in this prescreening, or rather my parents are in this prescreening with the medical staff, and the staff is saying, yeah, we'll do this third surgery, but chances are Hope won't even live until she's 18 years old. My parents are going through this process. Well, at the children's hospital that they were at, there was a retiring heart surgeon. And he heard about Hope's case. And he asked to see her file. And so he's reading through. And he sees something. And he comes and talks to my parents. And he says, you know what? They diagnosed this wrong. Hope actually has an even more unique condition than what they were saying. This condition, there have only been about 100 reported cases of this ever. And she's one of them. But he said, you know what? I'm actually the one that discovered it. And I developed a procedure to correct this. And if we do this procedure, Hope may even have a normal life expectancy. And he said, and wait, there's one more thing. That Chinese doctor who did that second surgery, that was the only possible surgery that could have saved her life. If he had done the normal surgery, there would be no Hope. We wouldn't be able to do this procedure. Now, as many of you know, Hope's doing great today. She's up in the mountains. And next year, she turns 18. So friends, remember, God is good. Let's pray. Lord, God Almighty, Lord, you are indeed good. You rule over things in wisdom, and when we reflect on what you've done, all we can do is repeat the words of Paul. Oh, the depths of the wisdom and the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Lord, how unsearchable are your judgments. Your way is past finding out. Great are you, Lord, and greatly to be praised. Amen.