Knowing God, Week 3

Krystal Walker | June 30, 2024

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Before we jump in, let me first honor our pastor. Thank you for the opportunity. Yes, come on man of God. Thank you for the opportunity to serve in this capacity because usually I'm with y'all kids and I'm going to miss 'em today. And I want to say whether I'm in the kids' ministry or youth ministry, I enjoy coming alongside of you as parents to help disciple your children. So I say thank you for entrusting us to partner with y'all in that way. So would every parent just praise the Lord because it takes a community, right? I must before I get started, shout out our young adults where you at a couple of Fridays ago, almost 200 young adults flooded the lawn on a Friday night. They could have been anywhere else. I personally am still recovering. I'm a little older, but we had a time.

We had a time. I have my parents here. My mother celebrates a birthday tomorrow. We praise God for them Another year. Yes, yes, yes. And the family and friends, they say it takes a village to raise a child. I'm starting to think it takes a village to keep me together. It take a whole lot of people. So thank you everyone, especially my husband, for your support, endless support to allow me to do what we feel like God has called me to do. Y'all know we are in a series called What? Knowing God. Yes. We are in a series called Knowing God. We are taking a journey through Joshua today, and I am so glad as a teaching team that we decided to highlight God in this book. It's an easy book to make all about you, but I have a personal burden to help the people of God, to see God rightly.

Because if we're not careful, if we're not careful, we will begin to create a God, myself included. That is not the God of the Bible. So it is always good just for some maintenance to take a moment to sharpen our view of who God is. So that's what we're trying to do and accomplish today. Week one, we learned about the holiness of God. MJ taught us so well about the holiness of God. We should know a little bit more about God's holiness. Last week, pastor Sarah talked on the grace of God. She used five women that we cannot pronounce their names, and she talked on the grace of God. I was going to attempt to rattle them off today, but I will not praise God. And today, today, today, we are going to talk about something that I believe is fundamental to who God is.

And if we don't understand this characteristic rightly, it will be very hard to trust God. It will be impossible to trust God actually if we don't get this one right and understand it rightly, we will have a very shallow relationship with God. Our bad days, they'll just stay bad days. We won't be able to hope for tomorrow. Today we're going to talk about the faithfulness of God. That is also my title, the faithfulness of God. Is that all right? Yeah. Let's pray. God, we thank you. We thank you for your word and God, we just pray that in this time together in your word, that you would illuminate a word specifically for each individual. Yes, I prayed. Yes I prepared, but only you will be able to take this and feed as many people going through different situations with different backgrounds. Only you can specifically use your word to speak to each individual under the sound of my voice. So use me, Lord, here I am and Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I think we all would agree that we don't live in a very faithful culture. If we had to think of some words to describe our culture, faithful wouldn't be one of them or any of the other synonyms, like trustworthy, loyal, consistent, enduring. I think we live more in a fickle culture than faithful. We live more in a flaky culture than faithful.

Let me tell you a time when I was leaving work, I had a long day at work and I wanted to decompress by eating my favorite cookie from Panera Bread. Alright, don't judge me. I love their lemon drop cookie. It's amazing. Well, I have quite a ways from church to home and I decided that I was going to go to the Panera Bread on my side of town. I don't know, I play games with myself. I was like, if I make it through traffic, that's like my reward, right? So I was like, I want to go to the one on my side of town. So that whole ride to Panera Bread, I was thinking about this cookie. I couldn't wait to enjoy this cookie. I get to Panera Bread on my side of town, I wait in line and while I'm waiting in line, I'm trying to decide do I want to get one cookie or two cookies.

I finally get to the intercom and I say, Hey, can I get two of your lemon drop cookies please? Y'all know what this lady told me. Wait, wait. Not that they had ran out. That's forgivable. It's the end of the day. They go like hotcakes. She told me that they had discontinued my, that's what I'm saying, my favorite cookie. I sent them an email and everything and I was like, wait, wait The lemon, you mean to tell me the lemon drunk cookie is no longer being served at Panera Bread? They said no. They gave me a reward and they said, Hey, we want, they put some extra money on my card and said, hopefully you find a new favorite. I said, no, y'all are fickle. I can't trust you can't be trusted. The things of this world is just fickle. One of my good friends got a new washing machine and you're getting old when you get excited when your friends get washing machines and stuff.

So I was like, Hey. I was like, tell me about it. All the bells and whistles. I want to know about the washing machines. Then eventually in the conversation we were reminded how washing machines, they just don't last like they used to the washing machines back in the day, they just last forever. I feel like I grew up, my mom has to verify. I grew up with the same washing machine my whole life. I don't remember them switching out and having to replace washing machines because appliances are fickle. Maybe the, I would say the worst pill to swallow is when people are not faithful, they're fickle when they're flaky. Some of us have experienced the disappointment of a flaky friend or unfaithful business partner, unfaithful spouse. Some of us grew up with parents that were not committed and loyal to us in the way that they should have been. But how many of y'all are glad God is not like man?

The Bible says that his ways are not like our ways. It says as high as the heavens are from the earth. The Lord says, so are my ways higher than yours? So as we talk about a faithful God today, don't put 'em in the same category as that fickle washing machine or that changing menu at your restaurant. He is not like, man, we are going to talk about a faithfulness that we have not seen or experienced here on earth its own category. And even if you've had positive experiences with faithfulness, I praise God, hallelujah. Have a faithful husband. Thank you Jesus. And the faithfulness I experienced from him does not compare to the God that bestows faithfulness on me. The definition we're going to use for the faithfulness of God comes from a Bible dictionary. They did a really good job summarizing and giving us words for the faithfulness of God as we see it in scripture.

So the faithfulness of God is defined as God's perfect loyalty and consistency in being true to his name, his character, and his word. It says, perfect loyalty He doesn't miss and consistency and being true to his name, his character and his word. And I believe as you look at the book of Joshua, that's what you see the entire book of Joshua is a direct display of God's faithfulness, him being true to who he is. Now if you're not familiar with the book of Joshua, it's okay. It's week three I'm, I'm going to make sure everybody knows exactly what's going on in this book. All right, I got you covered. I'm going to do a quick overview. The book of Joshua is a historical book, alright? And the events take place in Joshua after the death of Moses. So lemme make sure you got your timeline right.

You got the children of Israel, they are God's chosen people. They're enslaved in Egypt. Then God calls a man named Moses to free them from Egypt all. Now once they get freed from Egypt, they're headed to the land called Canaan Canaan. The land called Canaan was a called the Promised Land. It was a land that got promised years, years ago that he would give to this group of people. So they had the Canaan. This was only supposed to be an 11 day journey. It ended up taking them 40 years. The Bible says they wandered 40 years in the desert. Now eventually Moses dies. He's not permitted to go into the promised land because of his own disobedience. And then this is where the book of Joshua picks up. Joshua becomes Moses' successor and Joshua chapter one verse two, God says to Joshua Moses, my servant is dead.

Therefore the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites across the Jordan River and to the land I am giving them. So this entire book is a historical account of the Israelites taking possession of this land. There were people occupying the land before they got there, so they have to fight these battles. So you'll read about battles upon battles. You'll read in the book of Joshua about them dividing the land, settling in the land as well, and I want to spend most of my time today at the end of Joshua. So this is after the battles had been won, this is after land had been divided. We're going to see very clearly God's faithfulness displayed. So we're going to look at chapter 21 and we're going to start at verse 43. It says, thus the Lord gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers and they took possession of it and they settled there and the Lord gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers, not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the Lord had given all their enemies and two their hands.

This is where we're going to sink our teeth today. It says not one word, somebody say one word, not one word. Of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed, all came to pass. The writer is trying to communicate something here, want to make sure we do not miss it. There's a bit of repetition in this passage and the writer want to make sure that we understand that God performed what he promised, that he is a promise keeper. He is a man of his word, that he is a faithful God And the reason that we in 2024 can get excited about reading about the God in the Old Testament is because the same God that came through for them is the same God that will come through for us. Now for this passage to hit to, I think you need to know about the type of promise that God made to the house of Israel.

So that means that we have to go all the way back to Genesis where we see the promise being first made. God made this promise first to a guy named Abraham. He made a covenant with him and he said that parts of this covenant said that he would bless Abraham and his descendants and that he would give his descendants this land called Canaan. Now a covenant is simply a binding promise. It's really serious and there are two types of covenants in the Bible. You see a conditional covenant and an unconditional covenant. Is it okay to teach it a little bit? Lemme tell you the difference between the two. A conditional covenant is exactly what it sounds like. There are conditions, there are obligations, there are regulations and agreements that must be met. If any party do not live up to their agreement, their commitment, the covenant is broken, alright?

It no longer remains. Now we're familiar with conditional agreements in our society today because we pay bills. Let's talk about your cell phone bill. All right? Your cell phone company has an agreement with you, a conditional agreement that says that we will provide you cell phone service if and only if you pay us a certain amount of money every month and you are only going to pay that money if they provide that cell phone service. There are conditions. Now if you happen to not pay them that designated amount of money, some of y'all know about this, they will, they no longer provide you the cell phone service right condition. Y'all get that right. Y'all get that. Now, God did not make a conditional covenant with Abraham. He made an unconditional covenant. Now an unconditional covenant, in most cases there are conditions and the covenant is kept regardless of the other's party's fidelity or infidelity to those conditions.

So whether the party upholds their end of the agreement, whether they uphold their commitments, the covenant still stands. It's just like if you stop paying a cell phone bill and your phone still works and day after day and morning after morning, you still have cell phone service. Almost always someone who's part of an unconditional covenant is getting something they do not deserve and we learned last week that's called what Grace. Now God makes this grace filled unconditional covenant with Abraham and the house of Israel. God promised that even if Abraham and his descendants would not fully obey and stay faithful to him, he still was going to be faithful to his covenant with the children of Israel. Anybody glad that we have a God that was sometimes say keyword, sometimes say despite of your foolishness, I'm still going to bless you that he says that I know you don't deserve it, but I'm still going to provide for you.

I'm still going to preserve you. Even if you turn your back on me, I'm not going to leave you or forsake you. God is a faithful God. Now that we have a little decent understanding of the promise that God made to the house of Israel and the type of promise he made, I want to do a deeper dive in the faithfulness of God. We sing about it all the time. We say it all, it's part of our Christian vernacular. God is faithful. What exactly are we saying when we talk about the faithfulness of God? I have three points about God's faithfulness that I hope will help us understand a little bit better about who he is. The first point is God is faithful to himself.

The Bible scholar in the room is like, I know where you're going sis with this. When you peel back and really dissect and do an X-ray on the faithfulness of God, you see a God being faithful to himself. What I'm trying to say is that we are not the object of God's faithfulness. I know that might be tough to hear because we say God is faithful to me all the time and we sing the songs and I want you to know that is true. Don't get rid of your playlist, but there's a truer statement, a more accurate statement that when God demonstrates his faithfulness, he's simply being faithful to himself. I want us to turn to two Timothy two 13. It's a great verse that really shows us and dissects the faithfulness of God. It shows us the motive and the basis of his faithfulness. Two Timothy two 13 says, if we are faithless, he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself.

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot we can say about this verse, but in this moment I want us to observe the reason why God remains faithful. If you look at the verse, it has very little to do with us. He remains faithful because he cannot deny himself. He cannot act contrary to who he is. So his commitment to being faithful is rooted in his commitment to be God and to act in accordance to his character, his name and will to act in accordance to who he is. And the only reason we experience God's faithfulness is because he is first faithful to himself and we are recipients and beneficiaries of a faithful God. That's a great place to praise the Lord.

Lemme tell you why you need to know this. You need to know this because God's faithfulness and the way he shows up for you is not influenced by anyone outside of himself. That means he can be trusted that his faithfulness is not swayed or there's no influence of anything external. It's like, it's like God when he needs to show up for you. It's like he looks in a mirror and we ask the question, what should Jesus do? He looks in the mirror and the way he's going to show up and respond and your situation is going to be in accordance with who he is. Amen. This idea that he cannot deny himself was intriguing to me. You don't see in the Bible God not being able to do anything right? He's all powerful. He can do all things except this one thing and that is deny himself and act contrary to himself.

Let me remind us of our definition of God's faithfulness. God's perfect loyalty and consistency in being true to his name, his character and his word. Lemme break this down. We see this all throughout scripture, him being faithful to his name. Do you remember Moses when he got commissioned to go to Egypt and to go to Pharaoh to free the children of Israel? He asked God, whose name should I say, sent me? And you remember God sent him with the name. He said, I am that I am. He sent him with the name Yahweh and we see that God was faithful to his name to deliver and to do all that he said he was going to do. How do you know he was being faithful to his name? Well, in Psalm 1 0 6, the writer when he's recounting the exodus of the children of Israel, he said that yet he saved them for his namesake.

Do y'all see that? Yeah. For his namesake that he might make known his mighty power is for his namesake. Y'all remember David in the Psalm 23, he says, he leads me in the path of righteousness for what? For his name's sake. He leads us in the right path for his name. He's serious about his name. If you serious about your name, you better believe God is serious about your name. His name, because his reputation, it is who he is. His name is a strong tower. It's consistent. It's enduring his name. He is faithful to his character, his character. He will never act out of character. You can trust that you can't ever say to God you acting brand new. Nope, never. He will always act in accordance to his character. That is the core of who he is. There's one aspect of his character that I think is critical for you to really know and understand so that you can rest in the faithfulness of God and that is that he's unchanging.

The fancy theological word for that is immutable. All right? He's unchanging. He's immutable. That means that he will never change. Malachi three, six says, I have a hard time reading this in ESV, but I'm going to try. It says, for I the Lord do not change. Therefore, KJV, go ahead. I The Lord changes, not Oh, he changes not. And if you go on and keep reading, this is Malachi. He's a prophet. All right? This is when children were acting up children of Israel. He said, oh, children of Jacob are not consumed because they deserve to be swiped. The Lord loves starting over. He could have just swiped them and said, listen, I'm just going to start over, but because he made a covenant with the Father Abraham, he said, I cannot change my mind. The Bible says he is a man that will not lie. He is not a man that will change his mind.

Yes, thank you Jesus. He is faithful to his name. He is faithful to his character. He's faithful to his word. Now, when I say word, I'm talking about the written word. Ooh. There's so many promises up in here if we just start here and believe for and expect all that God has given us. I'm talking about the promises in his written word and I'm talking about the promises that you've received through his spoken word. God, has anybody believe God still speaks? I believe that God still speaks. He says, my sheep, they know my voice and he's speaking today, and I believe that some of y'all are trusting God for words that you have received from the Lord and he's faithful to his word. Isaiah 55 says, as the word goes forth out of his mouth, it will not return to him void. The Lord says, but it will accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

He said to Jeremiah that he watches over his word to perform it. He watches, he doesn't let his eye off his word. I think about the image I get in my head is a golfer in their golf ball. I have a golf ball in my hand. Any golfers in the house top, any top golfers in the house, put, put, put, put mini golf. I got you. Yeah, it's good to know the top people I'm rolling with. I'm the same way. Now look, this golf ball has an intended purpose in the hands of a golfer that it would get in the hole, right? And the golfer will do all that they can do to make sure it reaches its end goal. You will never see a golfer strike the ball, hit the ball, and then walk away and get distracted, right? The golfer will watch this thing like a hawk and it doesn't matter the heels, how it may sway, how to win may blow. This ball is going to get in the hole. God, in the words that he has concerning you and I, when he speaks a word, he doesn't walk away and move on to something else. He watched this word to make sure that it accomplishes what it's supposed to, so that means that we can trust him, that we know that the words that he has spoken, he's going to make sure that it comes to pass in our lives.

When the Lord told me I would preach the gospel and at the same time having been diagnosed with a rare lung disease, I had to believe that God was going to do what he said he was going to do. I was telling first service that just today that as I in worship, I try to sing to the Lord. I know it don't sound good, but I try to lift my voice up to the Lord and am expending a lot of lung capacity when I do that, and as I was singing, I was feeling winded. I say, ah, I got to preach. And then I reminded I was preaching on the faithfulness of God and that God was going to supply the breath that I need because he said it, he said it. I must emphasize that God would be faithful to his word and not your word, right? That he'll be faithful to his plans and not your plans. I could not pastor wait to get a mic to say this to the world that he said, go ahead. So I guess I'm going to say it that you cannot manifest anything if you don't know what I'm talking about. There's this movement of idea that you can manifest things in your life, so all you got to do is visualize it long enough and speak it over your life long enough and it will happen. But let me tell you, baby, if the Lord didn't say it, it ain't happening. I don't care if it's on your vision board. If it ain't the plans of God, they'll not succeed.

Going to help the people I see on Instagram one more time. You didn't manifest that you not that powerful baby. Let me move on. Point number two. God's faithfulness is not limited to blessings.

When you think about the faithfulness of God, you typically think about the warm and fuzzy blessings. A common misconception is that the faithfulness of God only includes blessing, but the truth is is that it also includes his judgment and his discipline, and I want us to have a good balance of this. I have to preach both sides, and if I'm honest, it may make you feel a little uncomfortable because we like the warm and fuzzy, but it's going to get a little cold up in here. Okay? Joshua chapter 23. This is some of Joshua's final words. He is on his way to go sleep with his fathers, and he says this to the children of Israel, but just ask all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you. So the Lord will bring upon you all the evil things until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you. So after God made a covenant with Abraham, he made an additional covenant with Moses and the children of Israel, and part of this covenant include the 10 Commandments. You're familiar with it? This was a conditional covenant. Okay? Remember that means that there are conditions. God promised that he would bless the children of Israel if they would faithfully and fully obey his commandments. He said that they would be blessed in this city. They would be blessed in the field. Fred Hammond wrote a song about it.

We love to sing that song. It's a good song, but I need you to know that in that same chapter of Deuteronomy 28, he said, I will bless you and if you do not obey me, I will curse you. He said, you will be cursed in the city and you'll be cursed in. Who's writing that song?

God's promises included both promises and curses, and God is not only faithful to bestow the blessings and act in a way that feels good to us. He is also faithful to enact his judgment and his discipline. We see this clearly in the book of Joshua. Joshua chapter seven, a guy named Aiken disobeyed God. He stole things that was set apart and it brought, this happened in seven and chapter six, God's word came through Joshua and said, if you do this, if you take what is set apart and what is holy, it will bring destruction on Israel and yourself. And it did. He was faithful to his word and he destroyed him and his family. Some of y'all are like, well, crystal, that was new. That was Old Testament. We in a new era of grace. Yeah, new era, but same God, though,

God still disciplines today. Hebrews 12 tells us about it. Hebrews 12 tells us that God only disciplines his children and the ones that he loves. This means that if you experience the discipline of God, if you're a believer, then he loves you deeply. I feel like we need a little encouragement. It's going to get a little warmer. Hold tight. He says, this discipline in verse 10 is good for us that we may share in his holiness. God is concerned about you looking more like him. Show me, I work in kids' ministry. Now show me a child that does not undergo discipline, and I'm going to show you, I'm going to see a child that does not model the values and morals of their parents, a child that has gone rogue so it makes sense that our heavenly Father would discipline us so that we can look more like him.

Do not get it twisted. This is not punishment for your sin because Jesus paid that price. This is for your sanctification, so don't resist this side of God's faithfulness just as much as you welcome the blessings. Would you welcome his loving, compassionate discipline? And let me say this, do I have time to say this? I think I do thank you. As we talk about discipline, the discipline of God, I want us to know that God is faithful in the process if you happen to sin and we all sin. The Bible says in one John that if we confess our sins, here's our word. He is what? Faithful and adjust to forgive us and cleanse all unrighteousness. Faithful. Father, if you happen to find yourself in temptation, one Corinthians 10 tells us that he is faithful not to allow us to be tempted beyond our ability, and he is faithful that staying faithfulness applies to the next part of that scripture. To provide a way of escape.

You got to take that way of escape though. He going to provide it. You got to actually go through the door. God's faithfulness endures, all right? And all those scenarios, and if for some reason we don't take that door and we sin, we see faithfulness where he's forgiving us and we see faithfulness in his discipline. God is faithful to his word. He's faithful to his blessing and his discipline, the children of Israel, they went through a season of discipline, and at the end of the book of Joshua, we see that Joshua dies. Alright? And shortly after Joshua's death in the book of Judges, that's the next book after Joshua, we see that the children of Israel forsook the Lord and they were exiled from the land. God was true to his word. They were cursed in the city and cursed in the field. Their inability to keep their commitment to God and obey his law pointed to a desperate need for something better, someone better.

This whole scenario sounds awfully familiar. The combination of people not obeying God's word and then suffering consequences and then being exiled from a land that God had prepared for them. That sounds like we've seen this before. It sounds a lot like the story of Adam and Eve. You remember, God told him not to eat from a particular tree. They disobeyed God. God bestowed his judgment. He was faithful to his word and did exactly what he promised. And not only did they not, not only did they experience a spiritual death, they also was exiled and kicked out of Eden, a place that he prepared for them. This blows my mind because in the midst of their judgment, we still see God's grace. His grace shows up.

He promised that the offspring of the woman would defeat the enemy, that she would crush the head of the serpent. This points to desperate need of something better or someone better. And this leads me to my final point, that Jesus is the ultimate evidence of God's faithfulness. If for some reason you need further proof that God is faithful, all you need to do is look at Jesus. He is the fulfillment of that promise. We see in Genesis three, God ensured the people time after time that he was going to come through on his promise. Perhaps one important reminder happened when the children of Israel were in exile. God, though he kicked them out of the promised land, though they were in exile, the word of the Lord still came through prophets, and that's God's mercy. He didn't have to speak, but he still sent prophets to speak his word.

And through the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the Lord said this, Jeremiah 31, 31, behold the days are coming declares the Lord. When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, this covenant would be like none. Other parts of this covenant included that they could have a personal relationship with God. They did not need another person or a priest that they could know God for themselves. Part of this covenant said that he was going to write his law on their hearts, which would give them the desire to obey. This is a promise that the Spirit would come. Ezekiel said that this way that he was going to put his spirit in them, parts of this covenant said that their sins were going to be forgiven and remembered no more. This new covenant would be made through Jesus. And finally, after multiple generations in years of waiting, Jesus is born.

He becomes the faithfulness of God. In flesh. He becomes, Jesus becomes the living Word. John one says, the word became flesh and wealth among us. The word came down and we see God being faithful to his word, Jesus in his birth, Jesus in his death, Jesus in his burial and resurrection, completed and fulfilled every promise, every prophecy and every covenant He fulfilled and the fulfillment of the covenants in a way where everyone else, the children of Israel could not live up to the law. Jesus fulfilled the law and Jesus became the promise. Lamb of God, the promise. Wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace. Jesus became the faithful priest. The promised seed of David Jesus became the righteous king, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life. Jesus became the holy one. The one that prophets prophesied of old Jesus is the ultimate evidence of God's faithfulness. So if you ever need a boost, if you ever are in doubt, if God is going to come through for you, I'm telling you, if you just remind yourself of Jesus, if you just remind yourself of all that was promised and that God is faithful to perform what he promised, you might make it another day resting in the faithfulness of God. But wait, there's more.

There's a to be continued in this story. There's like a sequel waiting to happen. There's another promise we're all waiting to be to see fulfilled. It is no coincidence, no coincidence that the Hebrew name for Joshua in the Greek name for Jesus both translate to mean savior. So the book of Joshua, as we spent three weeks in it is supposed to point us to Hebrews four, eight says this, for if Joshua had given them rest, then God would not have spoken of another day. Later on, just as Joshua led the children of Israel to the promised land in Jesus, we are led to our eternal promised land. Can I preach about heaven? Give me 30 seconds just a little bit. I need y'all to know that what you see is not what all there will be. That God had promised that he has prepared a place for us and that in this place that there will be no more tears, that death would be defeated, that in this place that he has prepared for us, that we will join with the angels and sing Holy, holy, holy, that this can I preach about heaven just a little bit.

We don't preach about it enough that there's a place for us and we need to wet our appetite for this time that will come. The Bible says that Jesus is coming back like a thief in the night. No man knows the hour. No man knows today that he's coming back to take us to this place where the veil will be lifted and we will see Jesus face to face. Jesus is coming back again. They call it the second coming, and let's trust and believe that if he came the first time, he's going to come back the second time because God is faithful to perform what he promised. That's a great place to give God some praise.

Hallelujah. God is faithful. What was the point of today? Some folks just need to be reminded that God is a faithful God. He will perform what he promised. I don't know what you're believing God for. I don't know what he has promised you personally, but I hope you're convinced that he will not fail. Our prayer during this series has simply been that you will have a clearer picture of who God is. I believe that the clearer picture you have of God, the deeper and more authentic your worship would be towards him, and we're going to give you an opportunity to express your gratitude to worship this faithful God. I'm going to invite the altar team to come and get in place. We're going to give you an opportunity to worship and I would be remiss as sermon series is called, knowing God not to give an invitation to anyone who may not know God personally.

If you want to know God through Christ Jesus, we want to give you that opportunity. The alters will be open. Just calm down. If you want to make that commitment, today is your day. If you want to take part in that promise that we have in Christ Jesus, you can do that today. So will we all stand and worship our God for his faithfulness? Make it personal as you think about how faithful he has been to you already, and imagine what he's going to do for you in the future. Let's pray. God, we thank you, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, hallelujah for being a faithful God that we can put our trust in you. We thank you that you are faithful to yourself and that we as your children get to share in that and get to benefit from that faithfulness knowing that you are never going to do anything outside of who you are concerning us, and we thank you for it. God, we even thank you for the times of discipline. We thank you. Even the times when it doesn't feel good, we know that it's for our good and we thank you for that and we thank you Lord, that you are a coming king, that we have inheritance in Christ Jesus, that our time here on earth,

You tell us to work while this day while we can, I pray that we be faithful and the things that you've called us to, so when that day comes, we can celebrate and worship you eternally. We love you Lord. We thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.