The Real God - The Faithfulness Of God, Part 1

Are you down today discourage maybe even really really depressed is a relationship turned so sour so difficult that you never thought you could feel the way that you feel is a job health issue. Something happened you like you just feel like I can't go on and I don't know where to go from here if that's you stay with God has a word of encouragement today.

Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge Chip Ingram trips are vital to this international discipleship program chips in a series called the real God talking about seven key characteristics that describe who God really is.

The first six characteristics we studied were God's goodness and sovereignty, holiness, wisdom, justice and love to hear those messages, you can catch up anytime Chip Ingram this program chip reveals the multifaceted attribute of God's teaching. He's going to give us some practical ways to begin experiencing God's faithfulness. Even today, you know, you may have a friend needs to hear this message.

If you do, just tell them about the chipping roadmap where they can listen anytime okay let's get going. Here's to this message. Faithfulness of God. If you would come into my home.

We have a four year and at the very end before you go anywhere there is a picture that hangs and as you get a close-up. We happen to take a good one is about a year old. The pastor's family.

Everyone looks nice and happy in each one of my sons and daughter.

They married well and think they're all walking with God and raising these kids and you would just kinda think that you know that stereo typical you know God must bless pastors and their lives are kinda pretty easy and wonderful and things just turn out right.

That's not why it's it the hall.

It's not so much for other people but every day I have to walk past it and this picture for me is a reminder of the greatest trophy of God's grace is what he did in that group of people. My wife and I neither grew up knowing God. We both came to Christ as adults above us came from alcoholic families with fathers that were deeply wounded from World War II, and it produced some very unhealthy things. We came to Christ and by God's faithfulness. Some people came into her life and help us get into the Scriptures and gave us good counseling and we did life in community and little by little we changed in recruiting. Then we got married without policies can be great. I love God you love God first generation in. And that's about six months. We realize that we couldn't communicate.

We didn't how to resolve conflict. We both had loads of baggage from alcoholic families. By God's grace. He brought a professor and a counselor into her life and we started going to marriage counseling and he begin to heal us. Well, Patrice had been married before before she was a Christian and when he found out that she was pregnant he left with another woman that he been saying and I just couldn't figure out how to love my wife because it was like BBs off of the tank the way she saw herself from her background and being rejected and abandoned is that she saw herself so negatively. I saw her as beautiful and godly in and then I saw God's faithfulness, where again we got some help in.

We dug into some books together and I watched God begin to heal her and then these poor communities were knee-jerk twin boys and no I got to adopting great privilege when they were 5 1/2 and so they had this overachieving workaholic over-the-top dad who was way too hard on them and my one son was just because of his early background very fearful. I had to make him learn to ride a bike, the other had a four year rebellion that was the biggest heartbreak of our life and the one that was afraid of people is now a physical therapist and has the best people skills and her family of loving people in the one that we thought will he ever come back to the Lord is now writing music that the world's things at my other son his senior year he had a pornography problem and you have" my accident. It really did, and was hidden for year and he took some major steps and still all the passwords.

His wife keeps he's a pastor now my daughter was a lot younger. She's six years younger than my youngest son is six years younger than the older boys and she kinda grew up with these sort of you know psycho dad who's really intense in a very loving mom and and so she got a little bit perfectionistic and so might my one son didn't like school and then he lied about most of the time and this ring true. Anybody else has family like this. He he's a pastor now and my daughter somehow got thinking that she probably needed to do really really well so my one son got a B. I took him out to dinner to celebrate my daughter got a B. I took her out to celebrate for different reason. It was like the first one in like nine years always said you need to lighten up. In a word, our family and our family picture are nothing more nothing less, than the faithfulness of God. This is what God does with people who have been messed up backgrounds who make big mistakes who struggled with sin who had problems in their marriage who really wanted to do it right, but often found they didn't do it right, but had one passion in the midst of it all to say Lord we don't know how life works but we want to break the cycle of our backgrounds and we want to pursue you with all of our heart and we experience forgiveness and healing and restoration, and often three steps forward and two steps backward because God is faithful to the Lord's mercies, his kindness never ceases his compassions. His heart is tenderness never fails. Great is his faithfulness. Three observations that you already know, but because I like to be logical. I wanted to give them to you.

Observation number one is all of us depend on something or someone to hold us up inside, we all do. For some it's your mate or relationship job.

For some it's how you look or how much money you make, or how successful your kids are, but we all have something or someone can be money. Anything that hold us up inside than what we know is when that something or someone is coming through for us a sense of satisfaction and optimism and things are going well. When that something or someone doesn't come through for us. We have anxiety we have no peace. We have fear and often despair and all I want you to know is that there is no one in there is nothing they can come through for you 100% of the time except the Lord Jesus Christ.

So if you put your hope in a job or in a mate or in kids or in money or how you look or whatever it is I mean your blink away from that completely changing and so your life goes up and down the circumstances and relationships. And so the key to the secret to life is to find someone who come through for you 100% of the time in any and every circumstance and I just want to tell you the real God.

His faithfulness is that's what he'll do his mercies are new. His loyal love for you in the midst of your hurt and your pain, your weakness, your sin, your failure if you would out of the study say I'm gonna pursue. I want to make knowing God. The most important thing I want to get close to Christ.

I want my life to revolve around what is says I want to be wise and do like his way. I will tell you there is a friend with supernatural power, who is fully God and fully man who rose from the dead, whom never ever let you down as you open your notes. Let's define faithfulness. So were all on the same page. Dictionary says it steadfast in affection.

I like that steadfast in affection.

He's in love with you.

Allegiance, loyalty, when we say God is faithful, we mean he's dependable, trustworthy, staunch, resolute, constant, reliable, true to one's word keeps his promises always comes through and ask yourself how can God be faithful all the time and it kinda allows us to do something that's really important is if you're not careful you can think of.

Okay, we talk about is holiness and we talked about his love and talked about his justice.

But those things operate all together in unity simultaneously in harmony with one another, God can come through for you and me 100% of the time because he is all-powerful he never encounters anything to convert his plan is purpose.

She can come through because he is holy. He's pure. He's full of integrity. He's unable to lie he's absolutely not approachable like he always does the right thing they can come through because he is eternal. He's not affected by space or time. He sees the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end he can come through because he is omnipresent. Nothing can ever happen outside the sphere was influence and finally he can come through for you because he's immutable.

He never changes. He's consistent. God never has a bad day, you never go to him and praying. As you know, maybe later.

And I'm having a really rough day. He's love, his justice, his kindness is compassion 100% of the time. AW Koser writes in his book the knowledge of the holy all of God's acts are consistent with all of his attributes and then I put in bold because this is one of the sentences that it's so profound it hurts my head.

No attribute contradicts any other, but all harmonize and blend into each other in the infinite abyss of the Godhead, the infinite abyss is love his Majesty's power his goodness is holiness in the infinite abyss. This God who spoke and galaxies billions of them come into existence and yet says to you and me.

I want to be your friend and I will never ever leave you and never let you down, and anything that I have ever said any promise I've ever made. I will guarantee based on my character and my track record that I'll be with you. It's absolutely amazing. So what I want to do in our time is talk a little bit about intellectually and biblically will. How has God revealed that but I want to spend the great majority of our time on how that faithfulness impacts the deepest struggles and challenges of our life.

So let's talk about how as he revealed his faithfulness, first by creation.

Psalm one 1989 and 96 is forever Lord, your word is settled in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations, you establish the earth and it stands my dad was a science teacher and I had many majors in college in science was one of them and I like the physical sciences and you you learn about the planets and you realize this this planet of ours is going around the sun on you is like 24, 25,000 miles an hour it's crazy and and were spinning around very fast and yet year after year, thousands of years after thousands of years.

We go around the sun within a fraction of the few seconds, exactly the same exact things when when our atomic submarines because of the magnet magnetic pools of the earth want to come up and they've got those really powerful rockets inside of them and it can't be all they have to surface every 90 days and they put up in intent and what they do lock onto the Norstar because the Norstar is more accurate. We call it science because what we have learned is these things are predictable. There the same as always all that mother nature. That's the first or second law of thermodynamics and we observe all this consistency in God would say we can observe it but it's there and it's consistent because I hold it together by the word of my power. I am the creator and the sustainer of all life. Second is through people.

God shows his faithfulness through he made promises to Abraham and the patriarchs ate Abraham's son to make you a great nation. Can you imagine this one little nomad guy running around in a tent 4000+ years later the nation of Israel. It's endured Jesus and I'll build my church and the gates of hell can't prevent against it.

You got 12 little followers and and one betrays you and you start this big movement with 120 people and you change the world you never travel 4050 miles beyond where you were born in your living in a world where there's 2 billion followers of Christ and law and culture and all of history is defined by the God man the Lord Jesus Christ. I can tell you have time when I pray for my sons in ICU just before he went into surgery and got healed. I could tell you about times and in my marriage and I thought there's no way this is gonna work and crying out to God and the lights coming on God's faithful to his people.

Third, he's faithful, by virtue of his character.

I mean if you want to know what the fathers like the sun is like the Scriptures absolutely clear the Old Testament picture of God the father classic verse number 2319 God is not a man that he should lie, or the Son of Man that he should repent or change his mind.

Has he spoken, and will he not do it or has he said it and what I not bring it to pass towards God is always consistent and faithful. If he speaks if he promises hundred percent.

He does the Spirit talk about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, the character of the Holy Spirit develops faithfulness because it's the very character it's the fruit of God the spirit or Jesus you can read the entire New Testament and you get to the end and he came as the Savior but the whole book of Revelation. The theme is he's going to come back and shot righteously. He's going to make things right at the very end of history we have the conqueror of the righteous judge on a white horse and he has a robe and on his robe has to word and on his thigh ready for the faithful and true, he could have chosen any words. He wants you to know you can depend on me and finally I don't know about you but I did not grow up ever reading the Bible. I didn't understand it but his word is true, you can depend on the promises in Scripture on the last night Jesus prayed in John 17. Father, sanctify them or set them apart or make them holy. These followers now and followers in the future make them holy by your truth word is truth. In Deuteronomy it says God keeps or is faithful to the covenants that he makes with us to a thousand generations in Hebrews. It says let us not sway or swerve or fall away, for he who promised is faithful to us and then we have in Christ first coming. Hundreds of very specific predictions 700 years before Christ was born will be born in Bethlehem of a virgin. This is what will happen. I mean hundreds of specific prophecies all for you to say to learn God's faithful to his word. So that's the intellectual biblical basis for trusting God's faithfulness. What I want to do now is talk about when it really matters to me. I've got to have that become mucking through my brains in the trash. But the fact the matter.

The final one I think is most important to the digestive to apply God shows us his faithfulness in the way that he shapes our life the way he intervenes in our life when were weak when were tempted when we sin and we utterly, utterly fail. It's when you feel like you don't deserve it. When I feel like I can go back to this picture and I can go through seasons were my wife and I just sat up in bed and cried over one of our kids and thought this was never going to work. I've had seasons where I've been so mad at her and got this marriage will never work on you hang on your promise because I don't have any other option God works in our life.

The apostle Paul was having a conversation with God in a moment of weakness get some physical issue that God allowed him to have born as a slushy called some people think malaria some people thinking I disease. Personally, I think with a bad back constant pain and God speaks to Paul after Paul asked God says no Paul as God says no third time God says my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly therefore I will rather boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ may dwell in me and look at this crazy application.

Therefore, I am well content literally the word is I will delight it's a choice with weaknesses is plural with insults plural with distresses plural with persecutions and difficulties why I say for when I'm weak that I'm strong what what you need to know the reason I showed you that picture is, this is a testimony not of a family or been married you are the man. This is the testimony of struggling people that didn't know anything. God was faithful in our weakness in my weakness on the bailout of my marriage and my weakness over the like. Not on my kids heads off. Maybe so crazy and in my weakness as I struggled with with lust that there wasn't even the Internet back then.

Praise God praise God, but there were four girls to every guy I struggled and struggled and struggled in my weakness. God met me sequent when were weak we can to run and we want a silver bullet will find that person, or we go eat or we open the refrigerator and an input something intuitively knows not good for us in our weakness. We try and fill the holes in and here's the deal. God is faithful. If, in your weakness rather than running to the shopping or to work or to prescription drugs or to focusing on your kids or focusing on your work defining who you're going to be in your weakness. Say God he chooses promise I'll sustain you my powers perfected in weakness and in your prayers are. I can't do this. Member little Ryan, but my wife learn from some lady goes something like when you say I can't do this. God says I never said you could and then he says goodbye, my strength. I promise you always and God wants to meet you and your weakness.

He wants to shake.

He wants to change your character gets changed in weakness, listening to the first part of Chip's message the faithfulness of God from his series, the real God will be back with his application, but before he is to give you a quick sketch of the series overall in the real God chip looks at seven key attributes of God's character and explains that none of them is ever diminished or overshadowed by the others which means that God is 100% love 100% just and 100% merciful kind of mindbending when you think about it that way and why it becomes a lifelong adventure to get to know him for who he really is a great way to learn how these attributes of God work together is to do this study with a small group of friends.

So for a limited time, small group resources for the real God are discounted because we want to do everything we can to help you get a clear accurate view of God to place your order or to get more information on the real God. Go to LivingontheEdge.org Special offers on the chipping roadmap or give us a call at 8883336003 will now here's chip with a quick reminder if you been listening to Living on the Edge for a while you may have heard me talk about bio the B is for before God. The I in community and the 04 on mission and here Living on the Edge. We have about a million folks who listen each week like you are right now we get hundreds of thousands who use our small group studies read the books, listen to the app and go to the website every year and for many, the teaching and the resources we provide to Living on the Edge.

It helps them understand what it really means that did come before God and into medium and experience them. For others it is kind of their lifeline to doing light and community but there's a relatively smaller group of people who step up and say I'm all in. We want to be on mission with you and we want to make this ministry happen. So here's what I'm asking. Nearly all that we do it, Living on the Edge is only possible through the financial partnerships of folks like you. Will you help when you pray about becoming a partner with Living on the Edge financially. We just stand in agreement with us on our mission as we pursue in this day and age help Christians really live like Christians.

Thank you for doing whatever God leads you to do if partnering with Living on the Edge is an idea that makes sense to you. We'd love to have you join us helping Christians live like Christians will change the world we live in, to give a gift. Just give us a call at AAA 333-6003 that's AAA 333-6003. If you prefer to give online donate securely of LivingontheEdge.org and up listeners just Donate your partnership will be a great encouragement. Okay chip let's get to your application, we began today's program by making three observations about the human species. You know regular people like you and me. We said number one that we all depend on something or someone to hold us up inside. Now think about that and then ask yourself what is that for you. Second, we said that when that something or someone is coming through for us. We experience a sense of peace, satisfaction, and optimism about the future thirdly said that when that something or someone fails to come through for us. We experience a sense of anxiety, dissatisfaction, and ultimately despair and I walk through this rather quickly, but I want you to process it. Now, in light of what you've just heard in my conclusion in the introduction was that it seems and I think this is accurate, that the secret to a life of unending joy and genuine peace is defined something or someone who will come through for you 100% of the time in every situation and what we learn today is that's who God is. Often we think that God is a lot like us that he has mood swings and he has good days and bad days and we get this feeling that when were good.

Gotto be there and come through and when were bad. Well, you know were on our own. Did you listen to the teaching today.

Did you hear the definition that God, in and of himself, his innate essence is character. He's faithful is faithful to his people. He's faithful to his word. He's loving 100% of the time he's just 100% of the time he's holy 100% of the time he's compassionate 100% of the time. And God has revealed this faithfulness through creation and through his people and I like to suggest that is also revealed to you in your life. And so what I would like you to do is to literally out loud before God. Recall in the last week or two or even the last month two or three or four specific things were.

You can say God came through for me he loves me. He's for me and then as you do that, here's what I want you to do this day, this hour that I want you to think of the most difficult thing you're facing, and then say to the Lord, Lord, if you came through in those areas because your faithful I'm going to choose to trust you and what seems so hard and so difficult to face today. He is faithful he is for you. He loves you and he will see you through it all.

Great way to get more out of every message is to use chips message notes while you listen you will get his outline all of the Scripture references. Lots of fillings to help you remember what you're learning. Use them personally, or even with your small group chips message notes are a quick download@livingontheedge.org under the broadcasts App listeners tap fill-in notes in your set will be sure to join us next time.

Until then, this is Dave really saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge