Wake Up with Greatness

Lamentations 3:23-24 | October 4, 2020

Have you ever been a little nervous about something?

A guy was in an interview and there was a large bottle of water and some glasses on the conference table.

One of the interviewers told him to help himself.

So, the guy poured a glass of water and it slightly overflowed. 

The interviewer smiled and asked, “So, are you a little nervous?”

The guy calmly responded, “Not at all. I always pour 110% into everything I do.”

My man knows how to interview.

Of course, Count Von Count would tell us that there is no such thing as 110% – because 100% is the most that any person can actually give. 

I knew a guy in college that always gave his schoolwork 100% – he gave…

• 10% on Monday
• 25% on Tuesday
• 50% on Wednesday
• 20% on Thursday
• 5% on Friday

Who do you know that really gives 100%?

Who is that person that you know you can always count on?

Who is that person that you can turn to for almost anything?

You got their face or their name in your mind?

Ok, here’s a follow-up question…

Has that person always done exactly what they said they were going to do – 100% of the time?

• They never got sick and missed school?
• They never had a death in the family and missed work?
• They never had car trouble and missed practice?
• They never made below a 90 – not even on their lipid test?
• They never picked up Claritin instead of Allegra?
• They never put paprika instead of chili powder in the chili?
• They never overcooked the hamburgers?
• They never undercooked the baklava?

No matter how faithful and wonderful and trustworthy that person is, it is impossible for them to be 100% good and right and helpful and present 100% of the time.

So, why does that matter?

Because when it comes to your future you need something that can keep it a hundred.

When it comes to the kind of hope your soul needs for life and for death you cannot get that kind of hope from a grade in school or a win on the field or a paycheck from a job or an investment in your retirement or an election in November.

You need something more.

Is there anything that is 100% reliable – 100% of the time?

Yes, there is.

Listen to Lamentations 3, beginning with verse 23…

23 Great is Your faithfulness.

By general revelation and special revelation and personal revelation and personal experience and personal testimonies from more than a million people, the prophet Jeremiah proclaims that the faithfulness of the one, true, holy, majestic, sovereign, God – Jehovah – is great. 

The one, true, holy, majestic, sovereign, God – Jehovah – is the only one that is 100% faithful 100% of the time.

In other words, the hope of your future – the hope your soul needs for life and the hope your soul needs for death – can only be found in God.

The science teacher you depend on in high school will not follow you and be your science teacher all through college.

The doctor that you count on for all your medical needs will retire and volunteer as a science tutor at a high school.

Your mechanic might close his shop and buy a boat and become a fishing guide.

Your hair care professional might hang up her scissors to stay at home full-time with her kids or start being a caregiver to her grandkids.

Your candidate might not get elected or reelected.

Things can change with every person you depend on.

And the ultimate reality that we all seem to act like doesn’t really exist is that every person that has ever lived will die.  

So, I graciously ask you, what is your hope for the future?

Who are you putting your hope in for your future?

Not just the next 25 years, but the next 25,000 years. 

C.S. Lewis once said this about The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien…

C.S. Lewis

I’ve never met Orcs or Ents or Elves – but the feel of it, the sense of a huge past, of lowering danger, of heroic tasks achieved by the most apparently unheroic people,

C.S. Lewis

of distance, vastness, strangeness, homeliness (all blended together) is so exactly what living feels like to me.

We have become so obsessed with this year or the next four years or the next 25 years that we are numbing ourselves to the reality of eternity.

We have lost the feel of a huge past and a lowering danger and an unlikely hero that has made a way for your soul to be right in life and right in death – for your soul to be satisfied in life and satisfied in death.

How do we know that God is faithful?

We sang these words together just a few moments ago…

Thomas Chisolm

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth…

What does it mean to be pardoned?

It means to have an offense or an error or a mistake forgiven.

It means to be set free from the just and right penalty and guilt of something.

In the grand economy of the universe one of the most basic human desires is the desire for justice.

We don’t want people to get away with murder or child abuse or voter fraud or tax evasion or a thousand other things.

We want justice to be served – until it comes to us – and then all we want is mercy. 

We don’t want to be held accountable for stealing pens from work and we don’t to be held accountable for being late to dinner and we don’t want to be held accountable for being unloving to our spouse or overbearing to our kids and we don’t want to be held accountable for posting and reposting things about elected officials on social media that almost always violate every single part of Ephesians 4.

We want justice for everyone but us. 

But here’s the truth of the grand economy of the universe – justice will be served to everyone. 

So, what kind of justice are you destined to receive?

There are only two kinds of justice – life and death.

And the Bible does not describe death as one and done. 

The Bible describes death as everlasting and eternal – the kind of death that never ends – the kind of death that your soul never stops feeling.

So, is that the justice you are destined to receive?

Or are you destined to receive the other justice – life?

And how do you get that life?

This is what Jesus said…

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Eternal, everlasting life can only be obtained through Jesus. 

There is no other way. 

So, if you are putting your 100% in anything else, we plead with you to stop today and repent and come to Jesus.

How do we know the faithfulness of God is great?

How do we know that he is 100% faithful 100% of the time?

You can take the fantastic journey of the Old Testament and see time after time after time how God was faithful to his people for more than 3,000 years.

Or you can walk through the New Testament and see the patterns of how he has been faithful for the last 2,000 years.

But the most defining mark of the faithfulness of God is seen in the pardon for sin and the peace that endureth.

The most defining mark of the faithfulness of God is seen in what he has done and what he continues to do in and through Jesus.

The prophet Micah said…

Micah 7:18

Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession?

The answer to that question is no one. 

No one in your school and no one at your job and no one in your house and no one in the church house or the State House or the White House or the Supreme Court pardons sin and forgives and rescues like God – no one!

Why?

Micah 7:18

He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love.

God delights in unchanging love.

Just take a casual look this past week over all the people you love and all the people that love you.

Has the love between you been unchanging and perfect?

The only honest answer is “no”.

God’s love is the only love that is unchanging and he delights to keep giving his unchanging love by pardoning sin and giving a peace that endures far beyond elections and graduations and retirement and protests and wars and peace treaties and death. 

God is the only being that is self-existent, therefore, he is the only one who can be perfectly faithful and reliable 100% of the time.

And his faithfulness is most beautifully and most radically seen in that he sent His Son, Jesus, to die for you and open the doors of heaven to you.

Jesus is the only hero who can rescue you from the eternal danger of everlasting death.

If you are not a Christian, God never stops inviting you to come and be saved and to come and be free and to come and find what your soul is longing for – he’s inviting you now.

And if you are a Christian, whatever situation feels impossible right now, whatever frustrating issue is wearing you out, whatever you don’t like about how things are going with the government or how things have changed at work or school or church, I cannot promise you that things will get back to what you think is normal or that things will change and you will get what you want or that God will give you any explanations for all the things that bother you, but I can promise you in and through Jesus Christ that there is one thing that cannot change and one thing that you cannot deny no matter how hard you may try – God is faithful and his faithfulness is great.

What does that look like in real life?

I was reading something by John Piper recently that was super helpful for my heart and mind when it comes to the faithfulness of God and I hope it will be helpful for you too.

This is from 20 years ago…

“I had flown to Greenville, South Carolina, to visit my stepmother and to help my father make some adjustments to living alone after she had moved into a nursing home. When my visit was over I left his house with enough time to drive by some of the places where I grew up.”

“Just beyond the old Coca-Cola bottling plant, boarded up now, was the office where my mother sent me to a dermatologist because I had acne so bad in high school. He would burn me with a lamp, then rub dry ice on my skin and then poke me until I looked like a boxer. And I thought as I drove by: It was a mercy. It cut me off the fast track of popularity and girls and made me look to God for help and hope. It was hard and it was good.”

“I drove through what was once called the ‘black section’ and I remembered with shame my own participation in racist attitudes and behaviors. I felt shame again. But then I thought about the path where God has led me until today, and all I see is mercy. I have sinned and God has had mercy.”

“I drove by Billy Shaughnessy’s house and looked at that front yard where we used to play tackle football. And I recalled that Saturday morning when we tackled Billy and broke his neck, but after weeks in a brace there was no paralysis. And I thanked God for his mercies, not mainly that I have not been killed or seriously injured, but that I have never killed anyone else or injured them permanently. That too is a great mercy from God.”

“Two blocks later I parked in front of the house where I grew up, 122 Bradley Boulevard. I got out so the smells would mingle with the sights. My mother and father designed and built the house in 1951. I was six when we moved in. I grew up there. All my childhood and teenage memories are there.”

“I don’t know who lives there now. I didn’t have time to ask. I just looked. The blue spruce is gone. The crabapple tree is gone. The shrubs are all different. But the dogwood tree is still there 48 years later…And I thought of all the lonely and happy days sitting out on the grass under it, looking over Dellwood Valley to Piney Mountain and composing poems, because that seemed to give some shape and meaning to my feelings. Oh what a mercy from God that he met me there again and again, and gave me hope.”

“Finally, I drove to the cemetery where my mother was buried in 1974 after being killed in a bus accident…I stood there alone and let myself have a good fifty-four-year-old cry – as I poured out my heart in thanks to God for his mercies to me in twenty-eight years of faithful mothering. Yes, the loss at twenty-eight was hard. But God was good. Oh how many are the mercies of God in our lives – even in the hardest experiences!”

His dad was married to his stepmom for 25 years after being married 36 years to Piper’s mom.

His dad, who was an evangelist, was a super example of loving faithfulness.

Before he went for his drive around Greenville that day he was standing on the back porch at his dad’s house and this is what he was thinking… 

“I thought to myself: my stepmother has left this house and will probably never live here again. Daddy is alone, and who knows when he will move out, or go to be with Jesus. Soon, I will stand here for the last time, clear out the things that are his, and this twenty-five-year chapter of life will be over. And I will never enter this house again.”

“And the question rose in my heart – almost like a cry of rebellion – Lord, is this all that life is – the accumulation of memories? The closing of one chapter after another? And as we move to the end of our lives, more and more life lies behind and less and less lies before, so that the closing of every chapter becomes more and more painful?”

“Or does this very ache in our heart – this reflex of rebellion against the closing of chapters – signify that we are made for something more? Something future? Something permanent? Is this immense longing in my heart to experience something precious and deep and true and beautiful and personal and satisfying that is permanent and not passing away – is that longing just an evolutionary, chemical development with no more personal significance than an upset stomach?”

And then, God was faithful by the Holy Spirit, to answer those questions.

“And at that moment, standing on that porch, I rejoiced that God has made known to us in his word, the Bible, that we can belong to a kingdom, and a family that is permanent, and that not even death will separate us from him and from all those who trust him, and that his mercies will be new every morning forever and ever, and there will be no more sense of loss. No painful endings anymore.”

Dear Christian, maybe today would be a good day for us to take a drive – physically or mentally – to help us remember that there is one non-negotiable in life – God is faithful. 

But you won’t believe that unless you can get this next part from Jeremiah…

24 “The LORD is my portion," says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”

It’s interesting that he says his soul says this, because we all know that sometimes our mouths won’t say it.

We want to sing old hymns about having hope in God and we want to sing new worship songs about having hope in God.

We want to buy t-shirts about having hope in God and we want want to design a Magnolia’s-style room at our house full of catchy wall designs and pictures about having hope in God.

But when the test comes back from the teacher or the team comes back to score against us or the results come in from the election or the doctor comes into the family room for an update, our mouths don’t always hope in God.

That’s when we need our souls to say to us, “The Lord is your portion.”

What does that mean?

I was reading something the other day about how the word “portion” can be kind of hard to translate from the original Levitical language.

So, I’m thankful for the simplicity that Derek Thomas gave it when he said it means this…

Derek Thomas

God is everything to me. God is my life. God is my all.

• The Lord is my portion
• The Lord is my everything
• The Lord is my life
• The Lord is my all

If you can get the math of that right, then you will have everything you need.

But if you get the math of that wrong, you will create difficulty in your life. 

How?

• If your spouse is your portion
• If your kids are your portion
• If your grandkids are your portion
• If your parents are your portion
• If your grandparents are your portion
• If your doctor is your portion
• If your investment banker is your portion
• If the Tigers are your portion
• If the Gamecocks are your portion
• If the Bulldogs are your portion
• If the Republicans are you portion
• If the Democrats are your portion

You will be in trouble. 

Why?

Because it is impossible for any of those people to be 100% faithful 100% of the time.

Does that mean that none of those people are important?

Not at all. 

You need to deeply love your family and your friends.

You need to support your doctors and your bankers and your team and your candidates. 

But there is only one person who is great in faithfulness.

There is only one person that must be your portion for life and for death.

Carrie Enstrom’s father died of cancer in March of 1999 at the age of 89.

Not long before he died, he wrote a letter to his grandson Jeff.

Carrie shared that letter with her pastor Ray Pritchard.

Here’s part of that letter that Ray shared once…

Jeff’s Grandfather

While I have difficulty with my breathing if I try to move about, I feel fine and have no pain if I sit still and behave myself.

Jeff’s Grandfather

We are so thankful to the Lord, as we look back and see how he has led us to make decisions, do things and make moves that have prepared us for these times that he knew were ahead of us.

Jeff’s Grandfather

So, each day he gives a fresh taste of his love as he provides.

Jeff’s Grandfather

We hear from your Dad that things are going well for you folks and that you plan to break ground on your new home in the spring. We are so glad for you.

Jeff’s Grandfather

I am looking forward to a new home too, it is paid for and debt free, and there will be no maintenance expenses because it is going to last forever.

Jeff’s Grandfather

Jesus told his disciples when he was here on earth, that I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there ye may be also. I have believed and trusted in the Lord Jesus as my Savior most of my life.

Jeff’s Grandfather

It has been such a joy to rejoice with him in the high smooth times of my life, and to be assured and experience that he was there and helped me in the valleys and rough places.

• The Lord was his portion
• The Lord was his everything
• The Lord was his life
• The Lord was his all

The Lord was there, and the Lord was faithful.

• Can you say that?
• Could you write that letter?

Only the one, true, holy, majestic, sovereign, God – Jehovah – is 100% faithful 100% of the time.

I pray that he is the hope of your future.

Message by Dow Welsh |

October 4, 2020 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

 

more |

Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/thank-god-for-the-mercies-of-christ

https://www.keepbelieving.com/sermon/1999-06-13-Faithful-to-the-Defeated/

 

 

So Have you ever been a little bit nervous about something Ever a little nervous about something? So the guy was in a job interview and he was in this big, huge conference room. There was, you know, several people that were going to be interviewing him that day. And on the conference table there was a little tray and some glasses and a big old bottle of water. So one of the interviewers said, Hey, help yourself if you want some. And so the guy, you know, grab the bottle. And he began Thio reach over and got a glass, and he decided to take that bottle and for himself, some water. So when he did, he slightly overfilled the glass. One of the interviewers said, I catch You're a little nervous today, huh? The guy very calmly said no, I'm not nervous at all. I always pour 110% and everything that I do. Pretty sure that guy got that job. Now Count von Count would tell us that there is no such thing as 110% right? Okay. The most that a person can actually give is 100% 100% is the maximum. I knew a guy in college that would give 100% to his score. He'd give 10% on Monday, 25% on Tuesday, 50% on Wednesday, 20% on Thursday and then 5% on Friday. He gave it 100%. So who do you know that gives things 100%? Who is that person is? You can count on that person that you could turn to for for just about anything. You got their name, their face in your mind that that person that that's 100% person to you. All right, now here's a question for that person that you're thinking of. Has that person perfectly always done exactly what they said they were going to do perfectly, always done exactly what they plan to do, meaning they never got sick and had to miss school, meaning there was never a death in the family, and they had to miss work, meaning that they never had car trouble. And they missed practice, meaning they never made below a 90 not even on their lipid test, meaning that this person is somebody that never went into the store and picked up Allegra instead of Claritin by accident. This person never put paprika instead of chili powder in the chilly. They never overcooked the bread pudding, and they never undercooked hamburgers. They've never, never, never, never failed. Look, no matter how wonderful and faithful and 100% ish that person is that you're thinking of, they are not reliable 100% of the time because it's not possible nobody can be. Nobody can be 100% faithful 100% of the time. So what? Why does that matter? Well, it matters because about that, I'm like, really behind on my slides. That was supposed to go with a guy who was lazy. That's two weeks in Aurora had a sloth picture, and I missed it. All right, so now we're upon pictures. Here's why it matters. It matters because your future needs to be with somebody. That's 100% the hope that your soul needs for life and the hope that your soul needs for death is not going to be found in a better grade at school or win on the field or the right results after an election or the right results from a doctor's visit. The hope that your soul needs for life and death has to come from something that is 100% faithful, 100% reliable 100% of the time. So is there anything like that? Yes, there is. The Prophet Jeremiah is going to tell us about it. Lamentations, Chapter three, Verse 23. Jeremiah says this great is your faithfulness by general revelation by special revelation by personal revelation by personal experience by personal testimonies from more than a million people, Jeremiah is proclaiming that the faithfulness of one true holy, majestic sovereign GodJehovah is 100% faithful, 100% reliable 100% of the time. In other words, the hope of your future is completely wrapped up in God. The hope that your soul needs for life and the hope that your soul needs for death is completely wrapped up in God with one true god. The science teacher that you depend on in high school will not follow you and be your teacher all through college. The doctor that you depend on for your medical care is going to retire. He'll go to high school and be a tutor. Maybe your mechanic might close shop might go buy a boat and start being a fishing God somewhere your hair care professional might hang up her scissors and go be with her kids full time at home. Or Or maybe go be a nanny to her grandkids. Your favorite candidate may get elected, but they may not get reelected, or they may not get elected to begin with. In other words, every single person in our life in some way, shape or form cannot be perfect 100% of the time. We can't depend on the people and live. Now. That sounds kind of bad. Well, maybe you're supposed to be able to depend on people. I'm not saying don't depend on people, but we're talking about the life of your soul and the need of your soul at death. And so for those things, the ultimate reality is we have to remember that things can change with every single person that we depend on, and for some reason, way kind of live in this fog of kind of pushing against the fact that every person that has ever lived and every person that will ever live will die. And so we cannot put our total confidence and people. So just a very simple question for you backing up to what we said at the very beginning. Where is the hope of your future? What are you setting your hope on in the future? Not for the next 25 years, but for the next 25,000 years. Where is your hope for the next 25,000 years? Being set today? C. S. Lewis was talking about The Lord of the Rings, The book written Siri's really written by his friend J. R. Tolkien, and he said this. I've never met orcs or INTs or elves. But the feel of it of sense of a huge past of lowering danger of heroic task achieve by the most apparently unheroic people of distance vastness, strangeness, homely nous, all blended together is so exactly what living feels like To me, there's a reason to him says, when we've been there 10,000 years, they fear that we as a culture, we is the people, particularly even as believers that we've become so obsessed with this year or the next four years or the next 25 years, that we are numbing ourselves to the reality of eternity, that there is an eternal God that has called us to an eternal life. We are forgetting we're losing the feeling of a huge past and a lowering danger and an unlikely hero that has made a way for our souls to be right in life and our souls, to be right in death, our souls to be satisfied in life and our souls to be satisfied in death. God is the one that brings that satisfaction about because it's fake. But how do we know that? How do we know God is faithful? We sang these words just a few moments ago. Pardon for sin and a piece that endurance. What does it mean to be pardoned? It means that you are having an offenses and error, a mist ake forgiven. It means that the just and right penalty and guilt of something is being removed. You're being set free from that. To be pardoned is one of the greatest things in the universe. See, in the grand economy of the universe, there is this one desire that all people have and it's this desire for justice to be served. We want justice to be served. We don't want someone to get away with murder. We don't someone to get away with child abuse. We don't want someone to get away with tax fraud or voter fraud or anything else. 1000 other things. We We want justice to be served until justice kind of comes and rings are doorbell, then we won't mercy. We don't want to be held accountable for taking those pins from work way. Don't we don't want to be held accountable for being late for dinner. We don't want to be held accountable for being overbearing with our spouse. We don't want to be held accountable for being overbearing with our kids. We don't want to be held accountable for posting and re posting things about elected officials that pretty consistently always go against the entirety of Ephesians, Chapter four. We don't want to be held accountable. We want mercy. We don't want justice. But again, in the economy of the universe, one thing is true for all people. Justice will be served to everyone. And so the question is, which justice will you be served? So ultimately, justice comes down to really just two categories. Life and death. So which category will you be served? Which justice will you be served? And just to be clear, the Bible does not describe death as Hey, you just die and that's it. And there's nothing else. The Bible describes death as eternal, everlasting death, the kind of death that never ends, the kind of pain and horror that your soul never stops feeling. That's the language of the Bible, and so is death justice that you will be served. Is that Is that your destiny, so to speak, Or will you receive the other type of justice life? And where do you get this life? This is what Jesus said one day for God so loved the world that he gave his Onley begotten son that whoever believes in that son will not perish come to destruction but rather will have eternal, everlasting life. The life of eternity, everlasting life can Onley be found can only be obtained through Jesus. There is no other way you can search the whole world over, but you're not going to find it. So if you are putting your 100% in anything or anyone else, we would plead with you today to stop. Turn to Jesus, be saved. Be free. Be satisfied. How do we know the faithfulness of God? Israel? How do we know that? It's great. How do we know that on Lee God is 100% faithful 100% of the time? Well, you can pick up the Bible on greed through the fantastic journey of the Old Testament, and you'll see time and time again where God was faithful to his people. He was faithful to his people over and over again for for more than 3000 years. And then you could walk through the fantastic journey of the New Testament. And you can see these amazing things that God was doing in this one moment in time. And the patterns of what he did in that moment have proved his faithfulness over the last 2000 years. God is faithful, he's faithful, and he's not just faithful. His faithfulness is great, but for all that, we may read about godless people in the Old Testament. For all the stories we may read about the Church and the New Testament, if we were to try to say the most defining reflection of the faithfulness of God. We would have to say that it's what we're saying a few moments ago, pardon for sin and a piece that endurance. In other words, the most defining mark of the greatness and the faithfulness of God is what he has done and what he is doing in and through Jesus Christ, the prophet Micah said. This who is a Godlike you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession. The answer. That question is nobody. Nobody, No one at work. No one at school, No one at your house, No one at the church house, No. One at the State House, No. One at the White House. No one in the Supreme Court pardons sin and for gives and rescues like God No. One and why Michael tells us next part of the verse. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. God delights in unchanging love, unchanging love, just like a casual look at the people that you love. And the people that love you just kind of take a quick little picture of the people you love and the people that love you and just look over this past week has the love amongst all those people been perfect and unchanging. Let me just go and say The only honest answers is no, it hasn't been. But God's love is perfect. It's unchanging, and God takes his unchanging love. And one of the things he does is he pardons sin. He forgives sin. He gives peace that endures far beyond elections and graduations and retirements far beyond protests and wars far beyond peace treaties even far beyond death. The unchanging love of God is so powerful because Onley God is self existence. That's why we are not perfectly reliable. We are not perfectly faithful. Some of us are so full of pride. We think we are. We are. And we would even hope that people at our funeral is, um and you could always count on Dow. He was 100%. No, he wasn't. Never, because we're not, we can't be. But God is. He's self existent. And because he's self existence, he is perfectly faithful, perfectly reliable, 100% all the time. Nothing can change that, and his faithfulness is most beautifully scene, and that he sent his son to die for you. He sent his son Thio, open the doors of heaven for you. That's the faithfulness of God. Jesus is the Onley hero that can rescue you from lowering danger and give you eternal, everlasting life. He's the only one that can rescue you from death. So if you're not a Christian, please know this. God never stops inviting you to come and be saved to come and be free to come and have what your soul longs for the most. He is inviting you right now. And if you are a Christian and then whatever impossible thing you're in the middle of right now, whatever frustrating thing is wearing you out, whether it's what's happening with the nation, the country, the government, whether it's the changes at work, school, church, whatever it ISS, I cannot promise you that things will get back to the normal that you want. And I cannot promise you that things will change and things well, at least in some way look like the way you want them toe. Look, I can't promise you that God's going to explain any answers to you about anything that's bothering you today. But I can promise you this that in and through Jesus Christ there is one thing that cannot change. One thing that you cannot deny, even if you try and that's this. God is faithful and his faithfulness is great. It's great. So what does that look like in real life? I was reading something by John Piper recently, and it just super encouraged my heart and my mind, and I hope it will help you to. It's a story about a day in his life 20 years ago. I want to read some of it to you. I've flown to Greenville, South Carolina, to visit my stepmother and to help my father make some adjustments toe living alone after she had moved into a nursing home. When my visit was over, I left this house with enough time to drive by some of the places where I grew up. You know anything about Greenville? Some of these things might strike a chord just beyond the old Coca Cola bottling plant. Boarded up now was the office where my mother, my mother, sent me to a dermatologist because I had acne so bad in high school. Listen to this, he would burn me with a lamp, then rub dry ice on my skin and then poked me until I looked like a boxer, plus his heart. And I thought as I drove by that place, it was a mercy. It cut me off the fast track of popularity and girls and made me look to God for help and hope. It was hard and it was good. He kept driving. I drove through it once called the Black section, and I remember with shame, my own participation and racist attitudes and behaviors. I felt shame him again. But then I thought about the path where God has led me until today, and all I see is mercy. I have sinned and God has had mercy. And he kept driving. I drove by Billy Shaughnessy's house, and I looked at that front yard where we used to play tackle football, and I recalled that Saturday morning when we tackled Billy and broke his neck. But after weeks and embrace, there was no paralysis, and I thank God for his mercy is not mainly that I have not been killed or seriously injured, but that I have never killed anyone else or injured them permanently. That, too, is a great mercy from God. He kept driving. Two blocks later, I parked in front of the house where I grew up. 1 22 Bradley Boulevard. I got out so the smells would mingle with sites. My mother and father designed and built the house in 1951. I was six when we moved in. I grew up there, and all my childhood and teenage memories are there. I don't know who lives there now. I didn't have time to ask. I just looked. The blue spruce is gone. Crab apple tree is gone. The shrubs air all different. But the dogwood tree is still there 48 years later. And I thought of all the lonely and happy day sitting out on the grass under it, looking over Dellwood Valley to Piney Mountain and composing poems because that seemed to give some shape and meaning to my feelings. Oh, what a mercy from God that he met me there again and again and gave me hope. And he kept driving. Finally, I drove to the cemetery where my mother was buried in 1974 after being killed in a bus accident. I stood there alone and let myself have a good 54 year old cry as I poured out my heart and thanks to God for his mercyes. To me, in 28 years of faithful mothering, yes, the loss of 28 was hard, but God was good. Oh, how many are the mercyes of God in our lives? Even in the hardest experiences remember he was there because the step mom had been moved to a nursing home. He was there to encourage his dad. His dad had been married to his step mom at that time for 25 years after being married 36 years to Piper's mom. So Piper's dad, who was an evangelist, was also a great example of loving faithfulness. But before he took his drive that day, he was standing on the back porch at his dad's house and he was thinking some things to himself. And this is what he said, I thought to myself, My stepmother has left this house and will probably never live here again. Daddy is alone and who knows when he'll move out or go to be with Jesus? Soon I will stand here for the last time. Clear out the things that air hiss and this 25 year chapter of life will be over and I will never enter this house again. And the question rose in my heart, almost like a cry of rebellion. Lord, is this all that life is the accumulation of memories, the closing of one chapter after another. And as we move to the end of our lives, mawr and mawr, life lies behind and less and less lies before so that the closing of every chapter becomes more and more painful. Or does this very ache in our heart? This reflects of rebellion against the closing of chapters, signify that were made for something more made for something future made for something permanent. Is this immense longing in my heart to experience something precious and deep and true and beautiful and personal and satisfying that is permanent and not passing away? Is that longing just a evolutionary chemical development with no more personal significance than an upset stomach? And then God was faithful by his spirit to answer those questions from Piper said this At that moment, standing on that porch, I rejoiced that God has made known to us in his word the Bible that we can belong to a kingdom and a family that is permanent when we've been there 10,000 years, and that not even death will separate us from him and from all those who trust him and that his mercyes will be new every morning, forever and ever. And there will be no more sense of laws, no painful endings any more. Dear Christian. Maybe today what we need to do is take a drive, maybe physically or may be mentally, just to remind our hearts that there is one non negotiable. And that is this. God is faithful and his faithfulness is great. That's great, but you won't believe that unless you can get this next part. That's what Jeremiah says next. Verse 24 The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I have hope in him. I gotta say, I think is a little funny that he said his soul said this because for honest, our mouths don't always say it. Our mouths don't always say, Hey, I hope in God. We want to sing old hymns about hoping and God and we want to sing New worship songs about hoping and God and we wanna hoping God T shirt. And we wanna have a magnolia style room at our house with great wall designs and pictures that say hope in God. But when the test comes back from the teacher, when the results come back from the election, when the team comes back and scores against us, when the doctor comes back into the family room with an update, our mouths don't always say that we hope in God. That is why it's so necessary for our souls to say tow us. The Lord is your portion we needed in our souls because our mouths won't always say, What does that mean? The Lord is our portion. I was reading something this week about how this word portion is a little hard to translate because of some of the low biblical language there. And so I I'm really thankful to Derrick Thomas for how he defined it. The Lord is our portion means this God is everything to me. God is my life. God is my all. I can understand that the Lord is my portion. The Lord is my everything. The Lord is my life. the Lord is my all. If you can get that math right, everything else that you have will be found in that you'll have everything that you need. But if you get that math wrong, you're setting yourself up for difficult. How if your spouse is your portion if your kids are your portion, if your parents are your portion. If your grand parents are your portion, if your grandkids are your portion, if your doctor is your portion, if your investment banker is your portion, if the Tigers are the Gamecocks or the Bulldogs or the Republicans or the Democrats are your portion, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. Why? Because none of those people are 100% faithful 100% of the time? No, no. Does that mean that none of those people matter? Not at all. Look, we need toe love our family. We need to love our friends. You need to support your doctor and your banker and your team and your candidate. But when it comes to what our soul needs the most when it comes to what our souls desire the most, there's only one person who is perfectly faithful. There's only one person that needs to be your portion for life and your portion for death. Actually, there's only one person that must be your portion for life and your portion for death. Carry instruments. Father died of cancer in March of 1999 at the age of 89 not long before he died. He wrote a letter to his grandson. Jeff Kerry gave that letter to her pastor, Ray Pritchard, and and Ray shared a part of that in a sermon one time. And I just want to read a portion of that letter while I have difficulty with breathing. If I try to move about, I feel fine and have no pain if I sit still and behave myself. We're so thankful to the Lord as we look back and see how he has led us to make decisions, to do things and make moves that have prepared us for these times that he knew we're ahead of us. So each day he gives a fresh taste of his love, as he provides. In other words, he's faith and he says this. We hear from your dad that things were going well for you folks and that you plan to break ground on your new home in the spring. We're so glad for you. I am looking forward to a new home, to it is paid for and debt free. And there will be no maintenance expenses because it is going toe last forever. Jesus told his disciples when he was here on Earth that I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there ye may be also I have believed and trusted in the Lord Jesus is my savior most of my life. And then he wrote this. It has been such a joy to rejoice with him in the hive, smooth times of my life and to be assured and experience that he was there and helped me in the valleys and rough places. In other words, the Lord was this portion. The Lord was his. Everything. The Lord was his life. The Lord was his all the Lord, in his words, the Lord was there and the Lord was faith. God is 100% faithful 100% of the time, and he's the only one. And so my hope for you My prayer for you is that with one true holy, majestic sovereign God, Jehovah is your hope for your future