Give Thanks to the Lord - For His Faithfulness

Curtis & Rachel Rhoadarmer

Give Thanks to the Lord - Advent • Sermon • Submitted 5 months ago • Presented 5 months ago

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We are thankful this Christmas Season because God is faithful to keep His promises.

Notes

Transcript

Victories: 1. God is infinitely wise and we can trust Him 2.

Prayer: Pioneer Faith Evangelical - Dean Terrell

Missionary Prayer: Jack & Iva Dean Henderson, Texas - Pray for pastors in Mexico & the 2500 Bibles crossing the Border soon to be put in the hands of those who need it.

In Jesus’ Name, I pray.

Bible Reading: Deut. 7:6-11

Intro

Life rarely happens the way we expect it to happen and yet somehow when we look back at even the hardest of times in our lives we see the hand of the Lord faithfully directing our paths. That is why when we come to Christmas we desire to worship God because He is faithful. Over the next 4 weeks leading up to Christmas I want to prepare us to worship God and to give thanks for all that He has done. This week as we begin the Advent season I want us to thank God for His Faithfulness and to do that let’s go all the way back to the beginning of God’s Faithfulness so let’s read. Read Gen. 3:13-15

Faithfulness of Eve - Gen. 3

Sin began

Can you imagine being Eve the second after taking that bite. When she realized exactly what she did. Life was moving along with ease and comfort she was always on the top of her game and she had an incredibly great life. A husband created by God to be her mate, a job to maintain a beautiful garden, pain didn’t exist and fear wasn’t an emotion she knew. She had it made, perfection was at her fingertips, purpose, love, care, provision and a deep relationship with God. One moment perfection and the next everything changed. Shame, fear, and a knowledge of evil replaced all the perfection she once knew. I can only imagine the deep amount of regret that both Eve and Adam faced in those moments after that one bite and then that same amount of guilt every time they thought about all they had lost. Every time they saw one of their children and grandchildren sin they knew they had caused it all. Sin still has that effect on our lives. Maybe not in exactly the same way because we have never even come close to perfection but we too experience the regret of sin all too often. However, we are thankful because God never leaves us in our regret He is faithful to relieve us from our regret through the promises of God’s faithfulness.

It is here that we see a faithfulness from Eve that might be overlooked. Eve messed up and Adam right along with her but she believed God’s promise of a future salvation. She went right on living life even though she messed up. She and Adam had three sons recorded after they left the garden and they had to live out their consequence of sin, but They lived life despite their sin believing that God would be faithful. Paul reminded his student Timothy of God’s faithfulness in 2 Timothy 2:11–13 “This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him, We shall also live with Him. If we endure, We shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” Our God is faithful to deliver on the promises He gave to Adam and Eve, and He is faithful to deliver us from our own sin and shame as well.

Sin began with Eve but continues with us. Our lives are filled with these moments of failure and we too have a choice we can either continue in our sin or we can place our hope in the God who has been faithful to each generation. To our God who indeed remains faithful for all generations because He cannot be anything else.

Sin’s Defeat coming

Now imagine this; Adam and Eve’s folly from God’s prospective, well at least as much as we can. God just created an entire world; it was shiny and new and in that world He placed another new creation one that could think and build and protect and love and help. God created mankind and placed them in authority over everything in the garden and when He was done God said it was “Good”. What does mankind do with its brand new life? REBEL against it’s creator. Here is where my own ability to imagine God’s point of view completely breaks down. There is no way in the world I could have just given all the time and energy to make something as beautiful as this world and then watch the creation rebel so horribly. The unimaginable part of this whole scenario is that somehow in His righteous anger pointed at the sin they just committed against Him, that God doesn’t just wipe them off the face of the earth and start over. That would have been my inclination but I am not God. He forgave them, gave them a new home, and promised to fix the problem they created. Jeremiah the prophet was amazed by the Lord’s mercies when he wrote in Lamentations 3:22–23 “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” Think about that and praise God for it. Even though my sin is deserving of death, even though there is nothing about me that deserves anything from God, He does not consume me but instead shows me mercy. Day after day after day His mercies are refreshed. Praise the Lord for the mercies of His faithfulness.

There in Genesis 3:14-15 we see God addressing both the serpent and Eve with the consequences of their actions. To the serpent God cursed above all the other animals and it was said that serpents would be hated by all and there is a promise of a destruction of the serpent. However while those curses are important the most important words that God uses here are the promise of the serpents destruction in the last of verse 15. Genesis 3:15 “He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” God stated His intention to fix what Eve and the serpent started.

The horrific nature of sin is that it didn’t just stay with Eve, she caused Adam to sin, and then together through their offspring the entire world fell into the curse of sin. But here is where we are to praise the Lord for His goodness is greater than we could ever imagine. God chose to save humanity instead of destroying humanity and at the highest cost imaginable.

Sin was to be defeated but not by Eve, not by Adam, not by Abraham or Moses or David and not by us. Sin was going to be defeated by our God who is faithful above all else.

Faithfulness of Abraham

God has a plan

While sin is our curse; pride is our our sin. If you ever want to get down to the root of your sin problem at the very bottom you will find that you sinned because you wanted to. I often quote this from our counseling conferences that Rachel and I have attended, “You do what you do because you want what you want.” Pride is at the heart of our sin. Therefore as we move on from Adam and Eve we see that pride is never far from our hearts and it shows us in our need to control our lives. Turn with me to Gen. 12:1-4.

Humanity didn’t change after Adam and Eve’s sin in fact they got far worse. So bad that God had to flood the entire world in order to partially start over and yet He left a remnant. Several generations after the flood a man named Abram and his wife Sarai show up in the Bible. These two are just living their lives trying not make a way in the world the best that they can, and among all the people who are now inhabiting the earth God chose Abram to turn his attention on. We are not told that Abram was special in any way, he is not necessarily powerful or rich and yet God chooses to bless Abram in a way that amazing. However, the first step for Abram was to obey the Lord and that meant giving up on control. Genesis 12:1 “Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.” God told Abram to leave the safety of everything he knew, his country, his family, and his father’s house all to go to a place that God was going to show Abram.

However, there was a reason behind God’s command to Go. Genesis 12:2–3 “I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” God was going to bless the world through Abram.

Because Abram obeys here, God does indeed bless the entire world. God changes Abrams name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah and God causes their family to grow, giving them a son in their very advanced ages. God told Abraham to go and Abraham obeyed, and even though Abraham wouldn’t be around when God truly gave their descendants the Promised land Abraham still had faith in God’s promise. You see God had a plan and that plan involved Abraham but didn’t require Abraham. In the same way God has a plan for each and every one of our lives and He is often telling us to “Go”. Are we listening and will we obey?

God’s plan is best

God’s plan is best no matter how hard it might be to live out. Abraham had to leave everything behind in order to follow God. What are we being called to leave in order to follow God? Jeremiah again gives us insight into the thoughts of God, Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Where we seek only our selfish wants and needs God desires to give us a future and hope where we have none. Therefore our lives are made all the better when we obey no matter how hard it might be to live out His plan. Abraham had to pick up and move for the rest of His life and yet because of His obedience we get the entire Jewish People, we see Gods faithfulness to all generations. We praise God for He is faithful and His plans are meant for our future and for our Hope. How do we know this? One name, the name above all names, the promised Messiah, Immanuel, God with us, JESUS.

Faith in Jesus

Sin defeated by Christ

Adam and Eve brought sin into the world but Jesus Defeated it. Sin was, is, and forever will be defeated by Christ. The third verse of Joy to the world says, “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found,” The curse is found in every human being and therefore the sacrifice made by Christ also had to be for everyone. The faithfulness of God is shown in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus our faithful Lord and Savior didn’t just give us an example to follow but He paid for our sins with His life. Sin is defeated because God is faithful.

God’s plan was completed in Christ

Did God know that Eve would sin? Yes and yet He still loved us so much that He chose to create us anyways. God’s plan was never thwarted, His plans never will be. Jesus Christ is the plan that God gave all the way back in Gen. 3. Jesus would defeat the serpent, He would destroy sin, and through Jesus all the world can rejoice. We are to give thanks to the Lord for He is good. Let us end this by worshiping God just as the Psalmist did in Psalm 107:1–2 say it with me, “Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy,”

Gospel

Jesus died for our sins and because He did we can place our belief in that sacrifice. 1 John 1:9 says, “we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We have the promise of God that if we ask for forgiveness and believe in the saving power of Jesus we will be saved. And from the saving power of Jesus, we become new creations. 2 Cor. 5:17 states, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” This means that as Christians we get a fresh start we aren’t who we used to be and we have the power of God behind us to change who we are becoming. Glory to God in the highest for He has saved my soul and He can save yours to if you will let Him. If you aren’t sure then you can confess Him as your savior. If that is your desire today you can say this prayer with me. Bow your heads.

Dear Lord,

I know that I’m a sinner. I’m sorry for my sin, and I ask you to forgive me. I believe you died for my sins and rose from the dead. I repent of my sins and I ask you to come into my life and take control. I make a commitment to follow you, and I trust you as my Lord and Savior.

Friend if you prayed that prayer today I ask that you come and speak to me after the service.

For those of you who are believers- The Lord is faithful; let the redeemed of the Lord say so.

Benediction: Philippians 4:7 “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (AMEN)

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