The Faithful One

Oh, well, good morning, everyone. I hope you are doing well. I was talking to someone and I was like, “Hey, your hair looks great. Your haircut looks great.” And they’re like, “I cut my hair a few weeks ago.” And I thought, “Oh, well, it’s growing in really well,” is all I could come up with to say. And then I realized that in the beginning of February we were on vacation, and then I was in kids church, and then I went on a last-minute trip to California. And so I realized it’s been a few Sundays since I’ve actually been in here worshiping with you guys. And so I am so excited.

We decided last year that we were going to be teaching and focusing this year on the names of God and talking about who He is. We decided that around October, November. And little did we know that things would begin to change and shift so quickly in the world around us. And I’m like, Lord, You’re so good that You would give us a direction on how to lead our church in this time, which is ultimately to give our attention to the Savior, to the Good Shepherd, and talk about and declare who He is, remind us of who He is, and give our attention to Him instead of everything that’s happening around us.

Because when we have an understanding of who He is, when we have it in our heart who He says He is — it’s not even what I think, it’s who He says He is — that dictates and changes how I go about life and how I live. And so I was reminded that Bible literacy matters. Knowing God matters. Knowing the Word of God matters. How it applies to our life matters. And so our hope is that as we’re bringing you through this series for the year, focusing on the names of God and the attributes of God, all of those things will increase. That our biblical literacy will increase as we look to Scripture to see who He is. That our understanding of how we should function as believers will increase as we know who He is, and that it’ll impact our life and how we move forward. That knowing Him and what His words say about Him, our lives would increase in joy and hope and faith, because we have our attention on Him and are growing in our understanding of who He is.

And so I am so excited. I want to encourage you, because today I’m probably going to go a little quick — I think I always go quick. We have a lot of Scripture, and we don’t have the time to break it all down. I know we have small groups that generally go through a portion of the message, but especially if there’s a scripture that stands out to you, don’t ignore that. Jot it down. Spend some time in the Word. We do our best to rightly divide the Word of God and teach you, but it is imperative, especially in this time, that you become biblically knowledgeable and you study it. You let it get down in your heart.

So if there’s something that sticks out to you, I would encourage you to write it down and study it. One way that I study Scripture is I just read the different versions. Sometimes I’ll read New King James, then I’ll go NIV, then NLT, then King James Version, whatever it might be. Because what I want is for the Word of God to speak and shape and form who I am. And so as we’re going through this, if there’s a question — you’re like, “What did you mean by this?” or “How did you get to that?” — write it down and let’s have a conversation.

Don’t be afraid of Revelation

I’m going to actually start off in Revelation today. And for a long time Revelation was a place that I avoided, because there are people who are way more knowledgeable and have spent their lifetime studying the book of Revelation and have gone through in-depth studies trying to understand pre-, post-, mid-tribulation, all this stuff. Especially if you were like me, a kid in the ’90s, you might have learned to avoid Revelation, because there were books about it. But we’re going to start in Revelation. We’re going to turn to Revelation 12, but in Revelation 1:3 it says, “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”

And so that is the encouragement as I start off in Revelation: we are blessed when we read it. We are blessed when we hear the words, the prophecies that are in here, and we are blessed when we keep those words near to us. So we don’t have to be afraid of Revelation.

I was thinking about this as I was studying. My dad — he’s no longer with us — lived in California, and he had asked us to drive back with him from California to Wisconsin because he was going to be moving here. And I thought I was just going for kicks and giggles. I’d help him get stuff in the truck, and then I would rotate between him and Jay, because that was the plan. Jay and him would drive, and I would be the entertainment. I would just sit in the passenger seat and eat and then flip between whoever’s car I wanted to.

My sister had gone a few weeks prior, and she’s like, “Hey, just letting you know, Dad has a lot of stuff.” This was his lifetime. So we get there, and not only did he have stuff, but he had a storage unit. And we went to the storage unit, and I thought it was fun. I literally crawled up top, because I was the smallest and the most agile to get back there, and I was throwing stuff in the back — you know when you stack stuff in and you just hope for the empty space? I’m just throwing stuff back there. And we leave his storage unit, and his apartment still had his bed, his couch — we hadn’t even packed up his things. And I told Jay and my dad, “I’m going to see you guys. You guys figure it out. I’m going to go have dinner with a friend,” because I was born and raised in California.

And I remember Jay calling me — I have a point to all this. Jay calls me and he’s like, “Hey, we’re going to get another truck.” And I was like, “We’re supposed to leave tomorrow.” That’s all he says. And I’m thinking, “We’re going to have to unpack my dad’s whole truck and then repack it into a new truck. We’re not getting out tomorrow.” And what I realized, when they said that in their conversation, which was never communicated to me, was that we were going to get another truck, as in there were going to be two trucks, and now I was going to have to drive, and we were going to caravan from California to Wisconsin. No one explained that to me.

And this is what I realized in that moment. Now I do have the longevity to drive, but at that point, if you would have said, “You’re in a caravan and you’re going to be by yourself for up to 12 hours driving in a car, and you have to stay awake,” I would have said, “No way, José. Cannot do it.” But in that moment, you don’t have a choice. So my dad was so kind to get us our little cooler so we could have water, whatever we wanted. And we caravanned from California to Wisconsin.

And as I was reading the Scripture and starting in Revelation, I realized that if we were intended to know everything, we would probably bow out. We probably would say, “No, Lord. I’m not going to do it. I can’t follow You like that. I don’t understand it. What do You mean there are these dragons and horns?” It just would be too overwhelming. And all He’s saying is, open the book. Just get there. Let Me bring the revelation of My Word. Let Me speak to you through My Word. Do not be intimidated. Don’t even be paralyzed by the times that are ahead of you. Just come be with Me. Open My Word, and My Word will give you everything that you need in the right time.

So that’s my encouragement as we start in Revelation. If you’ve ever been afraid of Revelation, just open it. We don’t need to know everything. If we were intended to know everything, He would have put it that way. His heart is to speak to us through His Word, for us to come alive, for us to read something and meditate and then allow Him to meet us in that moment, because He wants to meet us in that moment.

Revelation 12, verse 7. And again, there are some crazy things happening in this scripture. Revelation is one of those things where you’re like, “Huh? What?” I love my study Bible. I love reading commentary when I study. But we’re going to start in verse 7 here, and there’s a lot that is going on. It says, “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought.” So there’s this cosmic war that’s happening. “But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

This is John saying, “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.’”

Overcome by the blood of the Lamb

Today we’re going to be talking about the Faithful One. God, the Faithful One. And you might be like, “What are you talking about here?” Even as I was worshiping, I’m like, “Lord, help me articulate what I’m trying to articulate and what I sense inside of me.” Because sometimes I don’t feel like I’m the best communicator, especially when the Lord is working something in me. I don’t know if this ever happens to you — you’re trying to communicate it and you’re like, “That didn’t feel right.” So I’m praying that I will articulate what needs to be articulated here.

This passage is rich in its context and its significance and its interpretation. Again, none of those are my strong suit. If you really need deep revelation and interpretation, talk to Pastor Larry. He could probably give you a very in-depth part of that. Before this, in chapter 12, verses 1–6, it’s talking about the woman and the child and the dragon. That’s basically talking about the Old Testament, the covenant that He had with Israel. He’s talking about the child, which is Jesus, and the dragon. And so all of these things are stirring up and happening. That’s the context. But then we find this scripture, and there’s this cosmic war that’s happening. And then it says something so profound and beautiful.

It says, verse 11, “And they overcame him” — the enemy — “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” We’re talking about the Faithful One, and they overcame him. Who did they overcome? The accuser. They overcame Satan, who was no longer in heaven. They overcame him by, number one, the blood of the Lamb.

As I was doing communion with my mom — you would have thought she was reading some of my notes as we were taking communion. She was leading us in it, and we were about to drink the juice, and she was saying, “Thank You for Your new covenant. Thank You for the blood that was shed for us. Thank You that there is a new covenant that we get to operate in today.” While we look at Scripture holistically and everything we read is impactful, today we live in a new covenant. And the enemy was overcome by the blood of the Lamb.

See, Jesus was the Lamb, and He was made perfect for us as a sacrifice. The lamb represents many things, but one thing that we’re focusing on is the faithfulness that is found in the Lamb. Jesus being named a lamb represents the essence of who He is: faithful, gentle, perfect, and good.

When we go back to Genesis, if you are familiar, we see where Abraham gets a promise from God that he’s going to be a father of many nations. And he has this son, Isaac, and the Lord gives him this instruction. He says, “Go take him to be sacrificed.” Now, in this time, in pagan cultures, child sacrifice was horrific, horrible, and something that they practiced. And here God is asking him to take and sacrifice his son. Didn’t You tell me that I was going to be the father of many nations? And so Abraham willingly, obediently takes his son. And his son isn’t of an age where he doesn’t realize what’s happening. He’s of an age where he understands and recognizes what’s happening.

When you read the Scripture, there comes a point where Abraham leaves the people that he’s with, and it’s just him and Isaac going to finish the rest of this journey. And he says to them, “We’ll be back.” He indicates that God is going to be faithful to His words. He says, “Just wait for us here. We’ll be back.” He doesn’t know how God is going to do it. He just knows that he serves a God who’s faithful. And in the midst of everything, where Abraham is willing to lay the most prized possession, the promise from God, everything, quite literally at the feet of God — there in a thicket, in a bush, a lamb is provided.

See, this is how faithful God is. Oftentimes we want to hold on to things because it makes sense. We want to hold on to things because they’re important to us. And we forget that we’re actually serving a God who is the Faithful One. He wants to meet us in the darkest place. I would presume that would be a very hard journey. That would just be dark. Have you ever been in those times where it doesn’t make any sense in your mind? Like, God, You said this, but this seems so contrary to what You have already said, both in Your Word and what You’ve spoken to me. And so I could just imagine Abraham walking, and he’s like, “This just doesn’t make sense. I feel like there’s a better way to be doing this. I feel like if I was God, I would…” Have you ever done that? I feel like there’s a better journey in all of this.

And then all of a sudden, in the thicket, there’s a lamb — I mean, a ram. And not only is He providing for that moment, but He’s declaring something to us. Being where we are now, we know how this ends. He’s foreshadowing and saying, “Hey, just keep your eyes on Me. What I can provide is much greater than you could ever do on your own.” This is the faithful God that we serve.

So in our hardest moments, He wants us to know that He’s already overcome the situation by the blood of the Lamb. That He’s already overcome the situation because of the covenant, that we are never abandoned, ever. That in our moments that seem uncertain, we’re in covenant with a God who cannot lie. We need to understand that, because as the noise gets louder, what the noise wants to do is drown out the truth of who He is and the promises that we get to hold on to — that we’re living in the promise of the new covenant that is found in Jesus. That He was perfect and gentle and good, and He’s faithful.

The word of our testimony

So that’s one part of this. The second part that I found really interesting is that it says, “And they overcame him” — the accuser, Satan, the devil, whatever you want to call him — “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”

We’re going to talk about this for a little bit here, because I want us to really understand this. I think we need to grapple with this and understand it deeply. It says that we overcome the enemy by the word of our testimony. But what are we testifying of? We’re to testify of the Faithful and Good One.

See, what I realize is that the enemy for so long has convinced us it’s better for us to keep our mouth shut. Because when we recognize that the power we have to overcome the accuser comes by the word of our testimony, why wouldn’t he want to bring doubt to keep you quiet? If there was something that could blow my mind — I wish there was some sort of thing that you guys could see, because I want us to understand how important this is. The enemy wants to keep us quiet about anything that the Faithful One has done in our life, because when we keep our mouth shut, he cannot be overcome. It says that he is overcome by the blood of the Lamb, which has already been done and taken care of, and the word of our testimony.

And the only thing I am here to testify of is the goodness and faithfulness of God, because He is the Faithful One. Literally, I could stop there. But I want us to understand that the enemy wants us to stay quiet. He wants us to not say anything. He wants us to walk in doubt. Because when we do those things, when we do not use the rightful authority we’ve been given — to come and bring God glory, to come and testify of what He’s doing — then he can rule and reign in any situation.

So I want us to know the power of our words. It says that he was overcome by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. They did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to walk in obedience to God. And I’m just going to tell you, I think we love our lives just a little bit too much. And we are servants to ourselves instead of testifying of the goodness and faithfulness of God. So then we stay quiet, right?

I had these questions that I wrote down. If we don’t testify of the goodness and faithfulness of God, then how are people supposed to have breakthrough? How are we supposed to have breakthrough? I’m going to tell you how many times I have been afraid to say something or testify, because my question is, well, what if it doesn’t happen? What if the circumstances change? What if I look like a fool? What if I embarrass myself? Those are things that hold me back.

Do you know how many times doubt comes in, and the purpose of the doubt is clearly and purely to keep my mouth shut? When our mouth is shut, we are unable to declare the faithfulness and goodness of God.

What happens if you pray and nothing happens? Because that requires me to say something, right? What happens if you share and they think that you’re weird? What happens if someone asks you a question and you don’t have an answer? What if you share the good news and they’re offended? What if you pray for someone or share the gospel at work and you lose your job? What about being bold about your faith?

What if — does it really matter if I follow Him now? I just want to live my life in high school, and then I just want to live my life in college, and then I just want to live my life freely in my 20s. So then when do you follow Jesus? We don’t know the future. I guess you could wait till you’re older, but for what? I’m telling you, I have the least amount of access and audience to people than I have had in a while. You young people, you guys have an unlimited audience of people. And the lie to the young people is that being popular matters, that not sharing your faith matters. That’s the lie. Just wait until you guys get older. Because if he can keep your mouth shut, then the audience of young people is gone.

But the Lord needs you young people to rise up and testify of how God is faithful and good. To testify, “I was feeling really stressed, and then I prayed.” That’s you, young people. “I find my peace in Jesus. I find my identity in Christ.” People need to hear that. And the enemy wants young people to think, you’re not qualified enough, you don’t know enough. And that’s just a lie from the enemy. It’s not about being perfect, but people need to hear what God is doing in your life.

I was very encouraged. If you’ve not listened to the testimony a couple in our church shared of what God has been doing, go back and listen. I think it was two weeks ago, because I was in kids church. She stood up here and she testified of God’s faithfulness and how He heals, how He’s healing her — and it’s not just the physical healing, it’s the emotional healing. I’m going to tell you, it’s probably a risk that they had to decide to take, to testify of God. I can’t speak for them. I guess I should have asked. But I’m going to tell you, I listened to that and I was stirred up. God, I don’t want to hold back. I don’t want to put You in a box. I don’t want to tell You how You should do it, but won’t You do it? See, the enemy wants to keep us quiet.

And as she talked about up here, the journey for them hasn’t been easy. Most of our lives and our journeys are not easy. But God is still faithful, because He is the Faithful One and He cannot lie. And we have to remember that. It says in Scripture His Word will not return void, but it will do the very thing that He sent it out to do. It says, does the rain return to the heavens? No. It comes down and it does what it needs to do. Rain or snow, it’s intended to do something. That’s how the Word of God is. But we don’t live that way. We live expecting that the rain is going to evaporate back into the sky and never do what it was supposed to do.

No — God cannot lie. He does not have a plan B, guys. He’s already sent His Son. His Son did His part. He’s waiting for His church to rise up. He’s waiting for us to step out and say, “God is faithful.” He’s waiting for us to testify of His goodness. He’s done His part, and now we’re the second part of His plan. It’s not based on our condition. It’s not based on how good we are. Do we have things we need to get settled in our life? Absolutely. Are there things in holiness and sanctification and process that need to happen? Absolutely. However, His mercies — oh, I’m getting ahead of myself — His mercies are new every day. He still has you and I as part of His plan. And He’s just saying, “Will someone rise up?”

What if nothing happens?

Here’s the deal: what happens if I pray and nothing happens? Well, Scripture tells me, and Jesus says, lay hands on the sick and they will recover. He’s already said by His stripes you’ve been healed, right? He’s come to heal the brokenhearted. If you’re sick, call the elders of the church and have them pray for you. What are we supposed to do? Lay our hands. We’re to pray. We’re to come together. And then what is He supposed to do? Heal them. That’s not my responsibility, because I’m not the Savior, just so we know. It’s not based on my condition.

All I am responsible for is to say, all right, Jesus, Your Word says, “Lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” So my responsibility is to say, okay, God, You are the Faithful One. So I come and we pray, and we thank You that You are good, that You are faithful, and by Your stripes Your Word has already said they’re healed. So God, we ask for healing in their body. And then guess what? You do what You need to do, Lord, because You’re God. My part is to come and lay my hands. My part is to come and declare. And You are the Healer. I am not the Healer.

My job is to step out in faith towards a Faithful One who cannot lie. And the enemy wants to minimize the right things that I need to be doing, and he wants to magnify my lies and my feelings. Well, haven’t you prayed for someone before and something didn’t change? Well, what about that person who was praying for this and that never changed? He wants to magnify, “Oh, well, what are they going to think?” He wants to magnify the lies and my feelings.

And the Word of God says — we just read it in Revelation — that the accuser is overcome by the word of my testimony. So when I testify and I say, “I’m going to lay my hands on you, because the Word of God says by His stripes you’re healed,” and that healing is for today and that He wants to heal the brokenhearted — what am I doing? I’m testifying of the Faithful One. And I’m saying it’s up to Him. Whatever’s going on, it’s not what I can do. It’s what He wants to do and what He’s already said He will do.

What will people think?

Well, what happens if I share with people and they think I’m weird? Guess what? People are going to think what they’re going to think. If they think you’re weird, they probably already thought you were just a little weird. If they think you’re a bit much, they probably already thought you were a bit much. People are going to think what they’re going to think. And too often we shrink back. I’m telling you, if they’re going to think it, they’ve already thought it. It’s not my responsibility to control what someone thinks about me. It is my responsibility to live in communion and rightness with the Lord. So He’s shaping and forming me, and He’s bringing refinement to who I am. But if you’re going to think what you’re going to think, you’re going to think it whether I shrink back or not. And too many times I have shrunk back, and guess what? They still thought it.

I remember this friend. I was so afraid to pray for her. We would talk, and I would always be very mindful and careful, because she’s like, “I’m a Buddhist,” and all this stuff. And she was very direct about what she thought, very direct. And so I would shrink back. I wouldn’t say anything. I would just listen. I’d be like, “Oh, yeah, okay.” And I remember this one time — I’ve shared this before — we were leaving together, so her back was to me, and I said, “Hey, can I pray for you?” And she turned around, and we were close, and she goes, “Right now?” And I said, “Yes.” And she said, “No, thank you.” And I was like, “Okay.” And then we walked and left.

And let me tell you, I was so afraid, trying to protect the friendship, and I ended up losing the friendship. Not because of offense, not because of anything. We just grew apart. And so the window for me to share the testimony, to plant seeds, to share the goodness and faithfulness of God — I was trying to protect something out of my own fear, and I ended up losing it.

I think one of the greatest strategies we see the enemy utilizing right now in this time is: what will people think about us? It’s put focus on our identity, on our image. We now have generations of kids, including myself, who completely overshare publicly. We get likes and dislikes. It’s just where we are with things. Maybe we’re all on a spectrum of that somewhere. But the biggest thing right now is we have a generation of kids who think that something matters more than it does and something matters less than it does, if that makes sense. We’re just in a toppled time right now, I’m going to tell you that.

So again, the enemy’s strategy is to get us so consumed with ourselves that we get our attention off of our Father. We get our attention off the Faithful One. We get our attention off what He said: I’m a new creation. All things are new. He calls me a child of God. So if my attention is on everyone else, my attention isn’t on the One who’s faithful, who has spoken the truth about us, who says, “You’re forgiven. You are loved. You were created with purpose and intention. You were created in My image.” See what the enemy does here?

Romans 12:1–2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

What’s being said here is that our life is supposed to be proof of what is good, what is acceptable, and the perfect will of God. It’s not saying, “Hey, I want you to be perfect and good and acceptable.” No, He’s saying, “Present yourself to Me. Live in fellowship with Me. Renew your mind with My Word. Renew your mind with what I say about you. And then your life will actually be proof that there is good and acceptable and that there’s a will of God for your life.” That’s what the Scripture is saying. It takes the weight off of us needing to be perfect, and it puts the weight back on the Faithful One. He’s just saying, “Come live in submission to Me. Come be in fellowship with Me, and I’ll renew the things that need to be renewed, and your life will be a testimony.”

It goes back to a testimony. We testify: I’m not that good; no, God just did something inside of me. And I begin to testify of the Faithful One. And they’re like, “Well, why do you have joy? Why does this not move you?” Well, because I’m in fellowship with the One who’s perfecting me. It’s not about me being perfect.

Jay mentioned this, I think maybe during communion: we’re supposed to be living and experiencing the goodness of God here on earth. But instead we’re busy acting and living like everyone else. We’re trying to be conformed to this world. We’re trying to have people see us. Even for myself, I’ll walk into a situation and I’ll assess who I need to be, and that’s the wrong question. It’s, “Lord, what do You want me to do? I’m walking into this place. Do You want me to be quiet? Do You want me to say something?”

I’m just sharing with you — this may not be any of you — but I walk into too many places, and I said this a few weeks ago or a month ago, I don’t know how long ago: we need to be walking into the room like God sent us there, instead of walking into a room like, “Oh, why am I here?” No, no, no. He wants us to walk into rooms knowing, God, You’re doing something in me. And as I testify of that, people will come to know You.

What if people ask a question that I don’t have an answer to? Guess what? We have the answer. It’s Jesus. Quite literally, Jesus is the answer to everything. Is it a journey? Yes. Are we to grow in relationship with Him? Yes. But we know the answer, which is Jesus. We need wisdom. We need community. That’s why small groups are important. We need wisdom and community that can be found within one another. But the greatest gift we can give someone is Jesus.

And the lie the enemy wants us to believe is that we need to know everything. But Scripture actually tells us that He uses the foolish to confound the wise. It also says in Scripture that even a fool is considered wise when he keeps his mouth shut. So if you’re unsure, just, “Mm-hmm. Got it.” But let’s be a Jesus freak. Do you remember, in the late ’90s, Jesus Freak was a thing? It was this cool thing, and then it was no longer cool, at least in my time. That kind of was the progression of it. But we know the answer. Jesus is the answer.

And the enemy wants us to be silent. He wants us to not testify of the Faithful One. He wants to bring doubt about our encounters. Maybe it was just coincidence. Maybe it was just coincidence that this happened. No, nothing is a coincidence, guys. God is at work. He is after so many people beyond ourselves. He wants people to have an encounter with Him. There is nothing coincidental if we realize that God is deeply at work, after people.

Hold fast to your confession

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19 says, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus…” That’s what qualifies us: the blood of the Lamb, the new covenant, the new life that’s found in Him. And since that’s already been done, we are to walk boldly into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, “by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God.” That’s Jesus. It says in Scripture that He is in heaven at the right hand, interceding for us, that He is our intercessor. That is what’s happening right now. When the accuser is coming, Jesus is literally there saying, “I’ve already paid for this. I’ve already done this.” He’s interceding for us. He’s our High Priest.

Verse 22: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.” For He who promised is faithful. For He who promised is faithful. And because He’s faithful — this is how I read it — “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Back to Revelation. If you are reading Revelation, if you read Scripture, we are nearer the end times than we ever have been. So if I’m reading the Scripture, it’s saying I need to hold on to the hope, and I need to hold on to my confession. I need to be mindful of how I am confessing who He is and what He is doing. And then I need to consider one another. So my confession is actually to stir you up.

So do you have maybe sin in your life? Well, I mean, I’m married to you, so I know. He eats apples most nights and it drives me nuts. Anyways, that’s a whole different point. But is the Lord doing a work in him? Absolutely. So what is my job? Hold fast to my confession. And then, guess what? As I grow in my faith and my confidence in God, I get to say, “Hey, Jay, you’re a man of God. He’s called you for this time. Rise up. Let me put my hands on you. Let me pray. Let me pray that you have a greater revelation of who God is in your life.”

And as I’m stirring those things up in him, it’s building him up. And then, as he’s positioning himself and he’s boldly coming into the throne room of God — “I just want to see You move, God. I want to know You more” — then guess what the Holy Spirit does? He refines him. Or I can just be like, “Jay, you’re doing this wrong. You’re doing this wrong. Don’t you know better?” Do you see the difference between the two? Because when God gets a hold of our heart, it shifts and changes things, because that’s what He’s after. He’s not after our good works. He’s after our hearts. So because of that, we can walk boldly in the confidence that Jesus is our High Priest. And as we confess our hope to others, then He gets to do something. That’s His heart.

Not easily offended

What if I share the good news and I offend someone? I am just going to say, we’re in a day and age where people are easily offendable. And you might be easily offendable. You’re probably going to offend someone. And my heart isn’t, “Well, I’m going to offend someone, so I’m just going to say no,” because our heart posture matters. But, Lord, would You just keep me soft? Would You let me be a person who isn’t easily offended? I remember my father-in-law — Jay’s dad — has talked about this a few times, about not being easily offended. Man, what a witness that can be, if it just slides off.

I think sometimes we’re offended by non-believers. But if they don’t know Jesus, why does it matter what they say? And then as believers, if we’re just trying to be right, then we’ve kind of missed the point. And so when we learn to posture ourselves to just let things slide — I’m just not going to take that personally; I don’t know what their day is, I don’t know what’s going on — could we be a people who are not easily offended? Because when we have a posture where we’re not easily offended, it becomes a lot easier to share the love and the faithfulness of God and allow Him to do the rest.

Again, we’re calling them to Jesus, not to us. Look to Jesus, not to me, because I’m going to do something. And you know what? I might catch you on a bad day. You might be catching me on a bad day. Jay and I went out to dinner the other night, and Jay was walking ahead of me. Obviously he’s much taller than me. He’s just walking and trying to move out of the way, and as he’s walking, there’s someone about my height, maybe a little bit taller. I see them look, and when I see the movement, I look, because they’re right here, and I realized it was someone we knew. Well, Jay just walked right past him. Jay had no clue he was there. Jay was already ahead of me, because there was this crowd, and he was most certainly ahead of where this gentleman was. And so then I go, “Oh, hey, it’s so good to see you.” And then Jay turned around, and he’s like, “Oh my gosh.” But Jay just looked past him. The guy was shorter, there was a crowd, and Jay was trying to get us away from the crowd, right? But if we were to live in offense — just how easy it is to misinterpret that, right?

Sometimes I’ll just yell “Kid!” to Jay. That’s all I have, because I’m like, oh, he has no clue that the kid is right there. But if we learn to posture ourselves in being unoffendable — if someone rejects the gospel, they’re not rejecting us. They’re rejecting Jesus. If they have something wrong to say about Jesus, I’m not the judge. He’s the judge. If they’re cursing His name, I can bring the good news of the gospel, but I don’t need to be offended. Even more so, if they don’t know Jesus, I ought not be offended. So, keeping our hearts in a place that is pliable.

His mercies are new every morning

And then lastly, Lamentations 3. It’s after Jeremiah, in case you’re wondering. Lamentations 3:22–25. It says this — and again, the whole scripture here is so good — “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed.” So because of God’s mercy, we are not consumed. We are not judged. We have a moment to respond because of His mercy. “Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him!’ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.”

We need to be leading people. And when we testify of His faithfulness, as we testify of His mercy, as we testify of His goodness, we lead them to the tender mercies of God. And that’s where change happens. That’s where we want people to encounter Him, because that’s His posture towards us.

See, judgment for this moment has happened. Jesus died on the cross, took our sins, and was brought back to life. He gave His life. Judgment for this moment has happened. And what we’re trying to intercept is people experiencing eternal judgment, which has not yet happened. And so we sit in the mercy and the compassion of God in this moment. That’s what we need to be testifying of.

Do our decisions sometimes have consequences? Yes. Sometimes we find ourselves in places where it’s not God — it was just our bad decisions. But His mercy and tenderness never change, because we’re living in this compassion. We’re living in this era. And so what we need to be testifying of is His goodness. When we learn how to share our testimony in a way that shares the SparkNotes version of it, right — the highlights — when we say, “Yeah, I was a sinner. I was struggling like this, and this is where God met me” — that’s how we testify of the goodness of God. That’s how we testify of the Faithful One.

We’re saying, “Hey, we’re in this time frame. Find Him while He can be found.” He says that, right? And it’s not, “Hey, you better find Him.” No, we’re in a time frame where He can be found. There’s not been the final judgment in their life. If they’re still here and we are still here, we need to be testifying, “Hey, His mercies are new every morning. He wants to pick you up. He wants to encourage you. He wants you to be renewed by His Word. Get in His Word.” That’s what we’re calling people to. We want to teach people how to seek after the Faithful One so that their heart belongs to Him.

I was thinking about this. There have been two different situations, especially as my kids have gotten older. And what I realized was there have been times where I have parented out of fear and reacted out of fear. And those are probably not my best moments as a mom. Not probably — they’re not. I don’t need anyone to confirm or deny. I know that those are not my best moments, when I’m parenting out of fear. But my best moments, which generally have a lot fewer words, are the ones when I’m being led in faith.

And I can tell you that there have been times Jay will call me out in my approach about something, and I’ll know he’s right, and I’ll be mad about it. But there’s something so gentle when the Lord corrects me that changes my heart, that changes and shifts my vision and my perspective. Both are right. Jay can be absolutely right about something, and when he says it, I’ll hear it and I’ll change my behavior. But I’ll tell you, the greatest change is when the Lord gets a hold of my heart and He says, “Mm, that wasn’t right.” And I’m like, Lord, help me — not in condemnation, not in shame — just help me, Lord. Help me be led by faith to trust You.

That’s what He wants to do with all of us. There are times when people will speak wisdom and give insight into things we don’t see, and we’re not going to like it. But what we want is to always lead people back to Jesus. Because when you — I don’t know if you’ve ever experienced it — He just kind of gets you. And He says, “Oh, but My mercies are new every morning. Let Me come and shape and change your heart. Let Me show you how to walk in that boldness to enter the Holy of Holies.” That’s where we want to encourage people to get. The Lord is always after people’s hearts, and He wants our words to be a reflection of His heart. So when we learn to testify of the Faithful One and lead people to the Faithful One, circumstances will change.

Faithfulness to all generations

We’re going to end here in Psalm 89. Psalm 89, verses 1 and 2, says this: “I will sing.” And I just thought, yes — what do we do when we’re singing? We’re opening our mouth. Worship is a whole different part, but when we’re worshiping, it’s so important for us to open our mouth and worship. We’re testifying of something. We’re declaring something. We’re getting movement in areas where maybe I don’t have words. But I love that it says, “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations.”

With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. Why is that important? Because the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony is how we overcome the accuser of the brethren. There is no other way. The one way has already been done, which is Jesus’ way. And then the other way we overcome is by the words of our mouth.

And when we make His faithfulness known to all generations, generations are changed. There are curses that are broken. There are iniquities that are dealt with when we declare His faithfulness to all generations. This is why we need an intergenerational church. Because there’s something that only my mom can impart, that comes from my mom and goes to my kids, because it’s from generation to generation. That’s the way He has it set up. That’s the way it’s intended to be in the church: that we come together, and it’s not just my preference. No, I need people who are ahead of me to declare the faithfulness of God, because that’s what I’m going to lean into when I’m going through it. I need to hear how He’s already done it for them, how He’s already met them once and twice and for all of their lifetime up to this point, whatever it may be. We need to be a people who will testify of the faithfulness of the One for generations.

“For I have said, ‘Mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens.’” He’s saying, at the end of the day, in the heavens or wherever, Your faithfulness, Your Word — You cannot lie. It’s going to be faithful until the end. And then verse 8: “O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty like You, O Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds You.” The thing that surrounds Him is His faithfulness. Faithfulness surrounds the Faithful One. And that is the good news that we have: that we’re not just serving a God who’s mighty, who’s powerful, but what surrounds Him is His faithfulness. That is the promise we hold on to.

So as we go this week — I’m going to pray for you, so you guys can stand — my heart is that we would be people who testify of His goodness, of the Faithful One. That we would be people who rise up when the accuser comes with disqualifications, with doubt, with whatever the accuser comes to you with — because generally he comes the same way all the time. He might dress up a little bit different, but it’s all the same. That we’d be people who would testify, “No, God, I know what You said. I know You met me there. I may not know anything, but I know what You said. I know I encountered You here.” That we would testify, that we would share our faith with people about the Faithful One.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for who You are. We thank You that You are the Mighty One whom faithfulness surrounds. God, that You are unchanging, that You are unmovable, that You are filled with tender mercies and compassion. I come against the lie of the enemy that would say that the church is filled with hypocrites and judgmental people. And God, the reality is that we are people who are after You, who sit in the tender mercies of who You are, who know that the first judgment has already happened. And our heart is that people would not face eternal judgment without You.

So God, we pray that we would be a church that would rise up. That we would be people who would testify of Your faithfulness to all generations, God. That we would be people who overcome the enemy because of what You’ve done, because of the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. That we would not be a people who would love our lives so much that we would keep our mouths shut, but that, Lord, we would love You more. We would have vision from You. We would be empowered by You through Your Word, through the building up of our faith, through the renewing of our mind, to walk in the boldness and courage that You give. You say, “Enter the Holiest.” Boldly come into the Holy of Holies, because You’ve made us holy, because You’ve made our heavenly Father accessible, because You are our High Priest interceding for us.

God, I pray that there would be an awakening in our hearts of how we have stayed silent out of fear, how we have stayed silent out of faithlessness, how we’ve stayed silent because we don’t know how the circumstances are going to end up. And God, we say that we would be obedient people who would say, “I’m going to do my part. I will pray. I will lay my hands on people. I will testify of Your goodness. I will go take the gospel wherever it is.” Those were Your words: that we would preach the gospel to the places that are closest to us and the places that are far from us.

God, Lord, I pray that we would be a people who would rise up with vision in these last days. That it wouldn’t be a time where we would just try to survive and hide and not get hurt or not experience any loss. But God, that we would be a people who would rise up in boldness and confidence in who You say You are — that You are the Faithful One. And that we would rise up and say, “Your Word will not return void, but it will go out to do the thing that You sent it to do.” God, I pray that You would put people in our path who need to hear of Your faithfulness, who need to hear of Your goodness, who need to hear of Your mercy, and that we would rise up with boldness. We thank You, God, that You would have Your way in this church. We will continue to declare who You are, God, and that You would be glorified in this place and in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.