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God’s Comfort in Difficult Times. Isaiah 40.
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God’s Comfort in Difficult Times Isaiah 40
Isaiah 39:6-7 6 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the LORD. 7 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." Difficult Times
Those in Exile • For those who have wandered • Crisis • Far away from God • Chained to our circumstances • Our up bringing • Lost all hope in life
Comfort from prayer “God, give me the tongue to equal this opportunity.”
Ophrah’s Big Give Comfort of Dreams
God’s Comfort in Difficult Times • 1-2 Comfort of His forgiveness • 3-11 Comfort of His coming salvation • 12-26 Comfort of realising who He is • 27-31 Responding to that comfort Real Comfort is Rooted in Him
Comfort of His Forgiveness • Isaiah 40:1-2 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her • 1.that her warfare is ended, • 2.that her iniquity is pardoned, 3.that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.
The reason for the carnage Hypocrisy-empty worship Trusting man instead of God Worship idols Unrighteousness -Injustice
Comfort of forgiveness • Exile teaches us that God is serious about sin • Based on repentance • If not restored there is no peace
Purpose of Discipline • Hebrews 12:6 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. • Hebrews 12:11 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."
1 Timothy 5:19-20 19 Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. 20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
Dealing with the root= Sin Gloss over Do not determine Right or wrong Do not confront No accountability Unity over righteousness, unity over truth
John Newton When people are right with God, they are apt to be hard on themselves and easy on other people. But when they are not right with God, they are easy on themselves and hard on others
The comfort of His forgiveness becomes real when we realise the seriousness of our sin
Isaiah 40:3 3 A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Isaiah 40:4 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.
Isaiah 40:5 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
Isaiah 40:6-8 6 A voice says, "Cry!" And I said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
Isaiah 40:9-11 9 Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, "Behold your God!"
Power • 10 Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.
Tenderness • . 11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young
John 10:11 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 10:27-28 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord
1 Thessalonians 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Comfort from Who He is Vv 13-26
Isaiah 40:12 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
Isaiah 40:12 12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
Isaiah 40:12 enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?
Isaiah 40:13-14 13 Who has measured the Spirit of the LORD, or what man shows him his counsel? 14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding?
Isaiah 40:15 15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
Isaiah 40:17 17 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
Isaiah 40:18-20 18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? 19 An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. 20 He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.
Isaiah 40:21 21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Isaiah 40:22 22 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 like a tent to dwell in;