Knowing God: God Unchanging

Hebrews 1:10-12

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Well we um we want to stop and first off thanks thanks Harley for putting that video together. Thank you, um Grace, for being willing to share your story. Um and rather than having Grace come up on the stage this morning, I want us to stop and pray for her. But I also know that some of you identified with uh the struggle that she was had and and is having, and that for some of you, even as she gave us instruction this morning, depend on the Lord. You may not be facing cancer right now, uh, but you may be facing a broken relationship, a broken marriage, you may be facing hardship in your finances, you may be facing uh some other uh difficulty that's creating anxiety and fear and worry. And so, just in light of her instruction, I want to pray over us as a body right now that God would help us to depend on Him, to look to Him. Our tendency is to try to control, our tendency is to try to figure it out, fix it on our own. And uh I just want to remind you, like, we we need God's help. I think you guys know that. And so I always simply ask that across this room, just real quick, by an act of faith, like if you're in a position right now where you know, like, I really need to depend on God, I'm really, I'm really wrestling with that. If that's you, just lift your hand real quick. If that's you, you know you need to depend on God this morning. Yeah, I think all of us, right, in some way. And just as we acknowledge that, the Bible says that as we humble ourselves and we acknowledge that, that he will meet us there. Because no one in this room has it all figured out, no one's got it all together. So let's call on our God and just ask him. And let's specifically pray as we did during this time for grace this week and her surgery procedure. Father, I just thank you so much for your faithfulness to us. And even as we talk about that this morning, we call on you with great a great sense of confidence, God, that that you are a God who hears and you're a God who moves. We can trust your heart. God, across this room, even as our hands are lifted, just as a sign of humility, a sign of we need you. God, I raise my hand. Raise both hands, God. I need you. We are we are in such need of you. And and I know, God, that it is not our natural tendency to make that a declaration, um, to be honest about that. But God, we we pray that you would help us today to depend on you, to rest in you, to rely on you, to stop trying to control and manipulate and direct our lives. God, pry our fingers off of the control. And God, help us to just find ourselves on our knees. And just as Grace shared, God, just being still and knowing that you're a God. Help us today, Father. I pray for grace, I pray for her procedure. I pray that you give her blessing upon blessing through this time. Continue to use her great gift of faith, her obedience to you to bless others as she encounters them. We pray a song in your strong name, Jesus. Amen. Amen. Uh well, church family, it's um it's encouraging to get to preach uh God's word this morning. And for those of you guys that are guests or new here, uh, we're in the middle of a series on called Knowing God, and we're talking about the attributes of God. Thanks, man. And uh, and so we're gonna be um in the book of Hebrews. And so if you have your Bible, I encourage you to get it out. Um we're gonna start just in Hebrews chapter one and read just a short little section there this morning as we get get going. But before we jump right into the message, one note I need to make is on my left, your right, if you happen to be sitting on the end of a row, um, there is a little black pad notebook uh that we call the connection notebook. If you just reach down and grab that. And whether you are a regular attender or uh a visitor guest today, uh everybody, we ask you guys just to fill that out. It's just a way for us to keep up with who's here and to check in on you to know that uh that who's with us on a weekly basis. And if you're guests, we'd love to follow up with you and invite you to some of the ways you can get more connected at point. Uh we won't harass you, we promise that, okay? Um so as I was saying, uh I get to preach a message on God's attributes this morning, and the specific message I get to speak is on God's unchanging uh, his unchangeability, his immutability is the technological, uh, the tech technical, uh, the uh theological word for that, okay? Oh, now we got a wasp up here around my head, so y'all pray for me. Um what's going on? Uh so we've got this idea that God is unchangeable, he's unchanging. And what's great about that is uh not only the fact that the last three messages I preached, God's jealousy, God's justice, and God's wrath, this is actually a fun one, um, is that this is really an awesome thought uh that we get to uh to remember that God and all these attributes that we've been talking about, uh that he doesn't change, that he's consistent in these things. Uh in one sense, I could actually stand up this morning, y'all might like this, and say, listen, if you haven't heard all the sermons before, go back and listen to them online and just know that those are all going to be the same forever. All right, done. Let's pray, we'll go home. Right? That's one way we could go at this because in essence we're saying all these attributes that we've been talking about are consistent and constant for eternity. Uh but I want to encourage our hearts this morning. I need to be encouraged this morning, and every time we get together, we really are seeking to center ourselves on the person and work of Jesus. And we're asking the Holy Spirit to speak to us so that some of the things we maybe have already heard, maybe we've already talked about over the course of our life or even through this series, that God would just make them fresh. Because I find myself on a regular basis throughout the week forgetting who God is, forgetting how awesome he is, forgetting how in control he is, even as we just pray, forgetting how he is working. And so Sundays are a great opportunity for us to gather as a community to remember and reflect on those truths. And I pray that you'll walk out of this room really encouraged today that our God is good. Um, Hebrews chapter 1 is our passage, as I already mentioned. You some of you have got your Bibles open there. And here's what it says in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 10. And in the beginning, Lord, you establish the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like clothing. You will roll them up like a cloak, and they will be changed like a robe. But you are the same, and your years were never end. Now, if there's one thing about life that we all could agree to, and there's a lot of things we could probably agree to, but there's a lot of things we disagree on, but we could agree the fact that life includes a lot of change. That there is a lot of things in life that are changing. Um, if you just look around at the world, it doesn't take long to figure out that, again, things are just not gonna always stay the same. Uh, those of you guys that have lived a long life, you've seen a lot of change over the course of your life. Those of you who've lived in Austin for very long have seen this city change, right? I mean, even this building where we sit, when they built this building on this piece of property around here, this neighborhood wasn't next door, these assisted living places weren't next door, there wasn't a fire station going up over there. Uh there's just there was an apartment across the street. There was just this building out in the middle of a field with nothing around it. And now you go out this door here and there's all these things around it, right? Uh drive down Old San Antonio. All of us live in areas where there's neighborhoods being developed and growing. We know 156 people a day moved to Austin. I mean, this this city is changing. We are changing. Life is changing all around us. Um uh seasons change, right? And I mean, like as in weather changes. And if in Texas they say if you don't like the weather, just wait 30 minutes, right? Or whatever. It's like we have lots of change here. Uh change happens uh all around us on a different on a daily basis. Uh thankfully, styles change, like clothing. Have you guys ever gone back and looked at like old pictures of yourself? Thankfully, like hairstyles change. Uh clothing, thankfully, like no one's wearing parachute pants this morning. Uh well, maybe maybe one, but I won't point them out. And uh uh but but basically we see that styles change, you know, um, and and that's a good thing. Uh and and there's there's just lots of things in life that that are changing. Our health can change, uh, our thinking changes, you know. It's like we're just very accustomed to change. In fact, Heracletus is one of the uh ancient Greek philosophers in Ephesus, and it maybe some of you have heard this phrase before, but this is kind of where it originated. It says the only thing that is constant in life is change. You guys experience that? You agree with that? And so sometimes because of all the change, the world can feel a little chaotic. It can be a little uh destabilizing, it can feel a little uncomfortable, can feel a little insecure because things are shifting around us on a regular basis. Not only, again, is are things shifting around us, but even inside, internally, we are we are changing. I mean, people change, right? According to the great theologian Katie Perry, uh you're hot, then you're cold. You're yes, then you're no. You're up, then you're down, right? You're in, then you're out. Whatever. Like we some of you are like, yeah, okay, thanks, Nick. Um I was like, we we are fickle. That's just the reality of life. We don't even stay the same. And change, by the way, can be a really good thing, right? Because change can be a good thing because it can develop for the better. I hope that all of you in this room are getting wiser every day. That you're not getting more foolish, right? But hopefully we're getting wiser, we're changing for the better. Uh hopefully that you are learning. Um, you know, and we look at like a little child from the time that they're young and how they develop, and we're trying to teach them uh how to how to do the right thing, and hopefully they're growing in good ways and developing. Um, there is a mindset in our world that believes that you know that everything will eventually develop to this perfect, this state of utopia. Uh that's not going to happen. Because the world and the state in which we live in is not changing for the better in a lot of places. In fact, it continues to uh to change for the worse in places, right? We've experienced some of that. But I say all of this because in the midst of all the chaos, in the midst of all the confusion and discomfort of change, God is eternally and perfectly consistent. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, is how Hebrews writes it. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8 actually says this. And he says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ is God. He is one of the Godhead, and we know this is speaking to God Himself, that God is the same yesterday and today and forever. And throughout the Bible, we could find a lot of other passages of scripture, Psalm 102, which actually Hebrews 1 we read was referring to as a portion of that text there. But all through the Old Testament, the New Testament, we find this idea that God is constant. He is not changing. And we want to talk about some of those things this morning. A.W. Pink says this God cannot change for the better, for he's already perfect. And being perfect, he cannot change for the worse. That's good, right? So as we start this morning, remember that while God cannot change, that's a really, really, really good thing because he's perfect, and we don't want him to change. And because he's perfect, he can't change in a way that would be uh adverse. It would be worse. So I want to give you just three ways that God uh is perfect and consistent for eternity. And these are umbrella areas, and there's some things that will come underneath them. And again, these are just three. We could talk about every attribute we've already discussed in the series, and we could basically go back through the whole thing again and say, hey, he's forever this, or he's consistent in this, he's constantly this. But I want you to hear these three things this morning. First off, God is eternally and perfectly consistent in his position. And what do I mean? Well, he is forever in charge. God is the king. And he is forever the king. That's not going to change, right? He is forever the one who is over all. The Bible says he is overall in all through all. God is in charge. He is the king of kings, the Lord of lords for eternity. Psalm 9.7 says it this way: But the Lord sits enthroned forever. That Jesus Christ, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, they are God, and they will reign forever. Um, and as I already said, this is what we call the immutability of God, that he cannot change, and that he actually is in his kingness, is in his he is in his position of authority and rule, that he will not change in that. That is forever going to be the same. Uh, Isaiah chapter 9, which is a verse we read the first week of the Advent series. Uh, and we talked about this, actually had somebody uh Benji and his wife stand up here on the stage and read from some from Isaiah 9. It says, His kingdom shall have no end. Because he's forever going to be the king. It's always gonna be his kingdom. He's always in charge. Now, here's the thing this is this is really good news this morning. If he was a bad king, that would be a problem, right? I mean, it'd be a real problem. But here's the truth God is not just any king, he is a perfect king, he is a good king, he is a loving and gracious and merciful king. He is a king that every person, when they start to really see him rightly, actually wants to obey, actually wants to submit to. I think part of the reason why we resist him, aside from the fact that we in our humanness, like we want to be in charge, right? We don't see him rightly. We don't understand that actually coming up under his kingship, his lordship, his authority is a really, really good thing. Because he is a good leader. He is the king, and he's forever in charge, and that's not, like I said, gonna ever change. His character is always and forever perfect. And here's what's great about that his invitation to us as king is not just simply that we would be his subjects, but that we would become his children. Think about that. God doesn't just want to have subjects in his kingdom, he actually wants to have children. Sons and daughters. Galatians says it this way: Galatians chapter 3, verse 26. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And he goes on in chapter 4 to say, so you are no longer a slave, but a son, then an heir through God. Now there's something I need to make really clear for you, because there is an idea in the world, and some of you guys may feel like we harp on this too much, there's this idea that if you're a human being, you're one of God's children. But the Bible actually doesn't teach that. You're a creation of God, but a child of God is something completely different than just a creation from God. Okay, does that make sense? Here's why. Because in that passage I just read from Galatians, it says that we are children through faith in Jesus Christ. To become a child of God means to put your faith and your trust in the person of Jesus Christ and then to be adopted into the family of God. That God actually changes us. Well, he's not changing, he's changing us, and he actually takes us from being an enemy to being a child. And that's a beautiful reality, right? It's a good thing. And so what's great about our king is that he doesn't just want servants, he actually wants to adopt us into his family. So if you are a child of God this morning, if you have put your trust in Jesus, if you've stopped trying to save yourself, trying to earn your way to God, and you've actually said, Jesus, you are the way, if you've done that, then you're a member of the royal household. You're a member of the royal family because you are now a part of the king's family. You've been adopted in, brought in. And that, my friends, brothers and sisters, is such a gift to us. And that cannot change. That will not change. God is our king and he's also our father. And that's been made possible through our big brother Jesus, which is an interesting thought. Have you ever thought about that that way? That he's brought us into the family because he laid his life down for us. Faith in Christ Jesus. Why is that so necessary? Because we couldn't resolve the problem that we faced, the sinfulness in our lives, the rebellion to God. We couldn't resolve that on our own. There wasn't enough church services we could attend, not enough Bible verses we could memorize, there wasn't enough people we could tell the good news to Jesus about, there wasn't enough prayers we could pray. Salvation comes through putting our trust in Jesus and saying, Jesus, you were perfect, you were sinless, you were slain, and you suffered and died so that your sacrifice could pay the price for my forgiveness. Thank you for that, Jesus. And thank you that now I'm adopted into the King's family. The second thing that God is eternally and perfectly consistent in is his power. This is a really good one. God is eternally and consistently existing as the all-powerful. We use the word omnipotent God. He is not just reigning over as a king, but he is all powerful. Listen, he never gets weak and he never gets weary. He never gets weak and he never gets weary. Listen to what the Bible says about this in Isaiah 40, verse 28. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Yahweh is the everlasting God, the creator of the whole earth. He never grows faint or weary. There's no limit to his understanding. Now, this is really good for us because how many of you in here are tired today? Anyone worn down? Anyone like, you know, life starts to happen, right? We're in the middle of the holiday season. Some of you guys have had some late nights. We had neighbors at our house last night. We had a Christmas party in our neighborhood, and uh, I was a little bit weary trying to get out of bed this morning. God never struggles to get out of bed. He's never like, oh man, I'm just so tired today. You people are wearing me out. He never feels that way. God never gets weary. The Bible says in Psalm 121, He never sleeps, He never slumbers. He doesn't have to. God just doesn't, he is all powerful all the time. That's so weird to me. Because I wear out. A cloud of cedar dust comes in and I get tired. Anyone say an amen on that one? So I see some of your puppy eyes. Like a crowd full of Rockies out there, you know? He's like, oh, look beat up from the cedar. Hey, listen, here's the deal: God doesn't wear out. He doesn't run out of strength. Um, back in the day, you guys, some of y'all, y'all, uh, this will this y'all know about this, but you guys remember the energizer bunny? Like the little playing the drums, boom, boom, boom. You know that thing? And everywhere, as like, for some reason I remember as a kid thinking, like, man, God's way better than the energizer bunny, but he he never runs out of strength, never runs out of capacity. Okay? I was a weird kid, sorry. And so that's just that's I remember, think about like God doesn't have a time where he is tired. He's never yawning. He's never like, man, I gotta kick back on the couch and watch some Netflix, man, because I'm just tired. I gotta go veg. God doesn't do that. God is completely powerful. And here's what's great. In Isaiah 40, the same passage we just read, the next three verses that follow that, listen, here's great news for us if you're one of God's children this morning. It says in verse 29, He gives strength to the weary, he strengthens the powerless. Youths may faint and grow weary, and young men may stumble and fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint. Just what I want to remind you of this morning is if you're one of God's children, that powerless, that powerful God, uh, He is capable of giving us strength and power to endure. To endure hardship, to endure seasons of trial and difficulty. God will strengthen you. That's this video this morning couldn't have come at a perfect, more perfect time. We talk about this idea that you know that even as Grace faces this hardship, like God will strengthen her. And he'll do that for all of us. He is a God who can give us supernatural strength and capacity. He never runs out of it and he offers it to us in our weakness. Now, part of the problem for us, again, is that we feel like we got this. God, I got this. But we know how that goes, right? We know where that ends. We end up in a pile in a heap in the middle of our floor in our house, like, God, I'm done. I can't do it anymore. And he's like, good, I've been waiting on you. I'm glad you're finally to the end of yourself, because I'm the all-powerful God. I've got strength for you, I've got capacity for you that you don't have in yourself. Praise God. He's a God who is all-powerful all the time, forever. He is faithful in that, he is consistent in that, he is forever that way and unchanging in that. The third thing God is also unchanging in his promises. Now, again, there's a lot of ways we can go here, but I want to make sure that we understand that our God always speaks the truth. He always speaks the truth. Whatever God says will come to pass. There's a guy named Everett Stark. He's in Canada. And he's a teacher. I mean, teachers in the room. And yeah, a few teacher hands went up. Good. So he's a teacher up there, and he's a believer. And he was looking at the Bible, and he was like, man, God promises a lot of things. So he started counting it up. 7,487 promises in the Bible that he could count. And here's the deal. All 7,487 promises in the Bible, those promises, God's going to deliver on. Because that's our God. He is faithful, he is consistent in keeping his word. Psalm 33, verse 4, which speaks about the word. And by the way, if we want to know about God, we look to his word, right? And this word is true. And what's great is that this word that's true is God speaking to us. And it's the reason why it's reliable, is because it is God's word that he inspired men to write down. And we know that in this word, it says about itself that it's true, that it is right, it's consistent. So anybody who says that they're a Christ follower but says that they don't believe the Bible, that's inconsistent. That's not true. We believe the Bible and we believe what it says about God and what it says about Jesus. And so he always speaks the truth. Psalm 33, verse 4. For the word of the Lord is right and true. He, God, is faithful in all he does. Later in that same chapter. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. God's plans, his promises, they will come to pass. Because that's our God. He is constant. Now, here we are at Christmas time. And we've taken time to think about this through the Advent. We've also been talking about just ways within our life groups that we can remember, we can reflect on Christmas. We can reflect on the arrival of Jesus. It's hard for us to really fully imagine what it was like for the people in the day when Jesus comes on the scene, when he actually is born in that little manger in Bethlehem. It's hard for us to imagine what the people of Israel felt fully. These people were the promised people. They were the chosen people. They had heard over 400 prophecies in their scriptures in the Old Testament that we have. Over 400 times, where these prophets had stand up, stood up in front of them, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and spoken on behalf of God and given these prophetic words that a Messiah was coming, that there would be one who would sit on the throne of David forever. And so now, you know, there was this period of silence between the Old Testament and New Testament, for those of you or may not know your Bible, but there's this period of time between the end of the Old Testament, the book of Malachi, the New Testament, where there was silence. There was nothing. They weren't hearing from the Lord anymore. Scary thought. And then Jesus shows up. And he fulfills all these prophecies. It's one of the reasons why, like I said, we have confidence in this word, because the things that are said here actually come to pass. They're consistent. And so these people, as they experienced the arrival of Jesus, while some rejected Jesus because they were stubborn and hard-headed and wanted to do it their own way, many who came to faith realized that God's promises were true. That God did exactly what he said he was going to do. And he sent his son, Jesus, to live a perfect life and to die on the cross. They experienced that. Well, what about us today? Well, one way we can actually identify with those people is we can think about the fact that we live in a day where we're still experiencing the hardship of being a human being, right? We still experience on a daily basis the hardship, the difficulty of suffering, of um of hard relationships. We experience sickness. We experience anxiety, fear, addiction. We experience a lot of these things in this life. And if you're like me, increasingly I'm praying the words that I find the very end of the Bible in the book of Revelation. Anybody know what it says at the very end? One of the very last things that said in the book of Revelation is this word Maranatha, which is a really weird word. I remember there being like Maranatha churches, Maranatha music back when I was a kid, but I didn't really know what it meant. It means Lord, come quickly. And increasingly I find myself praying that prayer because when I look at the world and I see the injustice and I see slavery and I see women and children abused and I see the brokenness around me, I'm like, Lord, please come back and fix all this mess. And here's the beautiful thing. When I'm praying that, I know it's gonna happen. I don't know when, but I know it's gonna happen. And I can trust that God said when He is going to send Jesus to come and to judge and to make all the wrong things right and to restore all things and to recreate this broken world, that that's actually gonna happen. Because our God is faithful, he is true, and he is constant. His word, his promises are sure. In the meantime, a couple things that I want you to focus on and think about. One is that we can be confident that God's promises to work in our lives are true. So Philippians 1.6, the apostle Paul writes to the people at Philippi, and he says this, he says, Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. That's good, right? Anybody ever feel like you're really struggling to make progress in your walk with God? You ever feel like your love for God's just not what you want it to be? You feel like your understanding is just not what you want it to be? You feel like you're still struggling with the same old sins, deception and lying, struggling with addictions, struggling with looking for the approval of others rather than resting on who God's called you to be. You ever feel like that? Here's the good news this morning: God's not done with you yet. Not only is he not done with you, but he is going to continue to pursue you and he's gonna faithfully complete the work he started in you. And that's good for me to know this morning, because there's moments where I feel like, God, are we ever gonna get there? Am I ever going to grow up in these ways? And the answer is yes. Because God is going to be faithful to complete the work he started. Now, I also want to remind you this morning, in James 1.16, verse 17 says, Don't be deceived, my dearly loved brothers. Every generous act and every perfect gift comes from above, coming down from the Father of lights. With him there is no variation or shadow cast by turning. The last little section there just says that there is no changing in our God. Some of you feel like that God is saying things to you and he's trying to trick you or trying to confuse you. You feel like that he's trying to like pull one over on you. And I wanted to remind you this morning that that's not our God. And if you feel frustrated at God this morning, if you feel like you're doubting him, I know in church we're like, can we can we say that? Absolutely. In our humanness, we go, we do get to a place of doubting God. And we get a place where we we're even like questioning him. And I want to encourage you this morning, if that's where you are, you need to know that you have a God who, when he speaks, it's true, it's right, and it's good. And he's not trying to confuse you, he's not trying to tick you off, he's not trying to make you mad. He's trying to speak what is good and what is true and what is right and what will light your path before you. And you can trust him. His promises are sure. Now, while God never changes, our understanding of him does. And so should our response. Now, how many of you guys have ever been at a stoplight and you looked next to you and there was a car that was moving, and you thought you were moving. You ever had that experience? Isn't that weird? Sometimes it's like you look at the window and you're like, wait, whoa, and it's like, am I moving? I've got my brake on. Now, that experience is kind of funny to me, but sometimes we actually think that God is changing, but it's not God who's changing, it's us who's changing. We are actually learning who he is. We're getting greater clarity and understanding of his ways. And Isaiah 55, 8 and 9 reminds us that God's ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And some of us don't like that, right? I mean, what we've been talking about in this whole series, these attributes of God, these are not easy pills to swallow. In fact, I would hope that none of you are like, yeah, okay, got it. Moving on. Like, if that's how you feel about some of these attributes we've talked about, then you haven't taken seriously the need to study who God is and realize that it takes faith. I feel like we've been saying as a leadership team, every week we get to the end of the sermon of these attributes, and in a way, it's like we're on the edge of a cliff. And it's like, am I going to step off by faith and trust in who God is, or am I going to just keep trying to cling on to control and kind of keep my image of God that fits into my nice neat little package? And what I would encourage you with this morning is that you can trust God. You can step into him. Your understanding will continue to develop the rest of your life. You'll never have all the answers. Here's what's great: you can actually know God even though you don't know everything about him. You can still have a personal relationship with him. You can still hear from him. This is why it's so, so important, again, that you actually spend time in his word. Um, I say this fairly often around here. Reading your Bible is not a have-to, it's a get-to. Does that make sense? Like when you're a kid growing up and your parents say you have to eat that because it'll put hair on your chest, which is a weird thing. Like, I don't know why they say that, because that didn't make me want to eat it anymore, like broccoli or whatever. But you have to eat that. Like the reading your Bible is not a have-to, it's a get-to. And the more you read it, the more you want to read it. Because the more you get to know this amazing God who made us and who loves us and who we get to serve and be a part of his kingdom and his purposes. I want you to know that you have an enemy who doesn't want you to spend time in this word. Who doesn't want you to actually get to know the God who never changes. You have an enemy who wants to keep you from spending time with God because if you don't spend time with God and you don't spend time in his word, you'll keep buying into every one of his lies. You'll keep believing he doesn't really love you. You'll keep believing that you have to perform to get him to love you and accept you. You'll keep believing that there's a gospel other than the one that the Bible preaches. You'll keep believing that satisfaction can come in the temporary things of this life and it won't. You'll keep believing that your God is powerless, weak, doesn't know everything, not in charge, all the things we just said. You'll keep believing that. But when you read this and you walk with God and you ask him to help you, he will build your faith. And it's a lifelong process. Part of the reason why so many Christians walk with Jesus is anemic is because we don't put, we don't give him any time. We don't give him any time at all. We don't actually sit and be still. Like our instruction this morning from Psalm 46, 10, be still and know that he is God. While God never changes, our understanding of him will. For the rest of our life, our understanding will. And so should our response. Life can and should be a growing confidence in a God who made us, who loves us, who saves us, who even calls us to join in his work. I don't know if you guys realize this or not, but you, if you're a Christ follower, you have a purpose that is massive. You have such a significant opportunity in front of you. I would dare say that most Christians in the United States never actually join in the work that God's given them to do. I would say for most Christians in the United States, we come to church on Sunday, we sing some songs, we hear somebody preach, we critique it, we say that's good, that's bad, that was dumb, didn't like this, oh, I like that, that was cool, kind of helps me, I feel better. And then we move on. But we forget that we're actually children of God, and he actually wants us to help be a part of the reconciliation of the rest of the world. Did you know that? Whether you work in a barber shop, whether you work in an auto shop, whether you're a teacher, a lawyer, a banker, wherever you are, God has invited you into his purpose. He's invited you to participate in his work. Maybe the reason, this is a side note, maybe the reason we don't share the gospel is because we don't actually believe the gospel. Maybe we don't actually believe we've gotten forgiveness of our sin and eternal life through the person of Jesus. So we feel like, well, why would I tell my neighbor or my coworker or my friend something that I don't really even believe? When we understand who God is, and we understand he is unchanging, he will use us. He will give us opportunities to be used by him. And it's not again because we have to get to. Because of his grace, because of his kindness. Not so he'll love us more. God loves you more than you can even begin to imagine. We can be confident that God's in charge. We can be certain that he won't fail us. We can know that he will do all he said he will do. It's gonna happen. We can be these kind of people. Um, one of the ways that we can actually reflect God being the same all the time as his children who are made in his image is we can actually seek to be the same all the time. Now, I know nobody else in this room struggles with this, but in my life, there can be a public Nick and a private Nick. And I think about that with God, like his character is consistent all the time, and he calls me to follow him and to follow his example, to be the same all the time. And there could be the public nick where I want people to think I'm a good person, I'm a nice person. Even times when I'm in the store and my kids are misbehaving, and I'm like trying really hard not to lose it. And then there can be like the nick at home when nobody's looking, and then it's like, well, nobody's around right now, so I can just unleash the beast. Right? Nobody under okay. I'm alone on this one. Well, this is my therapy session, and this is my problem is that I have a problem with duplicity. Here's the great thing: God knows that. He is gracious, he's merciful towards that, and he calls me to be the same person in every situation, every circumstance. And he empowers me to do that. He empowers you to do that. One of the practical applications this morning is that because we have a God who is unchanging, we can grow into be people who are consistent in all environments we find ourselves in. That we aren't just Sunday Christians, but we're all of life Christians. That we're not just public Christians, but we are private Christians. That we are in all of life pursuing God. God is consistently pursuing you. Did you know that? He is consistently working in your life. He is He is pursuing you, He is wooing you. Even through pain and hardship and suffering and trial, He is trying to help you grow in who He's called you to be. And this morning, you can trust Him. Listen, here's the thing people will fail you. Amen? They will say things to you, and they will then turn around and break those promises to you. Situations and circumstances will fail you. You will think, man, this is a solid situation. This is not gonna change. Man, this is awesome. And what? The bottom falls out. A boss comes in and says, sorry, we don't need you here anymore. You sit in front of a doctor, you thought you were totally okay, and your health fails you. And they say, Sorry, we've got to tell you, you've got cancer. Listen, God will not ever fail you. He won't. He will not fail you. And here's the beautiful thing. Rebecca even alluded this to it to this in her prayer today at the end, and she didn't even know about this. But what's most significant is to think that the gospel, the good news of Jesus, that all of these things that I just talked about, these uncertainties that we faced, can actually be redeemed. That plan has not changed from before you were even born. From before the foundations of the world were laid, God had a plan in motion, and that is constant and consistent and unchanging. Now, some of you in this room today, you've put your trust in Jesus, you have a personal relationship with Jesus, and your spirit inside of you should be saying, Amen, amen, amen. Praise God. Like stirred with fresh passion for that. Some of you have never put your trust in Jesus, and so maybe you're just like teetering on, I don't know if I really buy this or not. My prayer today is that you would just surrender the control of your life. You would surrender to trying to figure it all out. What I like to think of and call the self-salvation project that you're working on. And actually trust in the person of Jesus. And actually lean on him. And if you're our Christ's follower, that you would actually lean on him, rest in him, find strength in him. Because he is what you are not. God never changes, but we are being changed. And we will be. That's good. Let me pray for us. Father, I pray for every person in this room, and even those beyond this room that are in our lives on a daily basis, God. I think about even neighbors I met last night and interacted with. I know that we struggle. Oh, we struggle in our humanness to trust you. I know that this morning we sit in the room like this, and there's just struggles in our heart to really embrace an unchanging God who is faithful in all of your ways. But I pray that this morning, by faith, we would step forward and we would believe. And that you would meet us there. And I pray, God, that you would help us, even as we're in this Christmas season, to remember that that baby in the manger is just one indicator that you're a God who keeps your promises. And that just like you came the first time, you'll come again. But it'll be different. And you will ultimately fix the broken things in our lives. God, I pray just during this time of response, that we would respond in obedience and faith. And uh I pray, Father, that you'd lead us in that. We need your help. I pray us in your name, Jesus. Amen.