Two Unshakeable Pillars

Isaiah 42 verse 6, briefly on the memory verse. This is how the Lord convicted me from this verse. What if I were to get news of a dream that has come true? There could be different dreams. This is not my dream, but what if someone were to call me on the board and say, hey, we're going to make you the next CEO of Apple. Imagine the number of problems that could be solved. Imagine the, ah, it's an amazing thing to be CEO of some big company. Or if we're dealing with some sickness, here's the medicine. We're looking for some prayer to be answered. If you were to get those news, or for our children, got admission to a top school or a top job, wouldn't that make our day? And, you know, on an earthly level, many of these things could. You know, we really find it difficult in this world because of different challenges we have. It could be relationships that we're looking for to be reconciled. It could be something more. It doesn't have to be money. It could be things that we long for our children that are good, that we want the best for them, or parents or in-laws, difficult things. We may be longing for different things, but what the Lord convicted me of from Isaiah 42 verse 6 was the immensity of the promise. It's almost like I was getting an email from God. It was almost as if God called me on the phone and said, Sandeep, I am God. I'm calling you in righteousness. I'm going to call you. I'm going to hold you by the hand. I'm going to take care of you. And I'm going to appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations. Where will that weigh? Where will that weigh in the list of wonderful things that happened in my life today? Compare that with a call that you'll get that solves some earthly problem. Weigh that in the balance compared to something else that we're really longing for. And ask yourself, how much do I put weight on the promises of God? These promises of God are supposed to be worth so much more than any earthly benefit. But for whatever reason, we don't tend to value these promises. And I think that's what I got from this verse, was what a tremendous promise it is. If I would take the time to receive it as something that is coming from God himself. So I want to encourage you, dear brothers and sisters, take time to meditate on this promise. Weigh this promise. Weigh this promise with the weight that it deserves. Just think about the weight. The king of a country or the president of a country would tell you this. Imagine you'd be like, you'd be floating on air. If the CEO of your company were to send you an email right now saying, hey, Sandeep, I just want to tell you, you did a great job on your last project. You know how much that would do for me in a project, let's say, that I'm struggling with or difficult with? That's such a trivial thing that the CEO of my company may recognize me for some project I'm doing and just send me an email. That's it. How much more if I would look at this promise and see God telling me this to be true? Well, what do I have to fear then? If I weigh this promise with the weight that it deserves, I can always pull back this verse like an email. When things are going difficult, this verse can become such a strength. When I'm having a difficult time with my boss at work, I can bring up this email from the CEO saying, but the CEO said that he really values me. He really thinks that I'm doing a great job and I'm a great asset to the company. So even though the underlying bosses underneath don't feel that way, I know the boss thinks this about me. The ultimate CEO thinks that about me. And to think about this when we're going through difficult situations, well, this is what God thinks about me. And he picked up the phone and called me and said, Sandeep, I'm calling you in righteousness and I'm appointing you to be a light. What a tremendous call up. You know, I'm following cricket in India and there's this Indian cricket player who was, father was a coffee, selling coffee on the street, a little coffee shop. And through a series of incidents, almost injury to other players, whatever that he ended up playing in the highest level of test cricket of Indian cricket representing the country. I think six months a year ago, six months or a year ago, he was a nobody. But then he got a call saying, come be part of the team bowl against the top players. And then he got another call and everybody's raving about how this guy went from nothing to becoming the top in a few months or years. And the Lord was asking me, weigh this promise. I told you, I'm going to hold you by the hand. I'm going to watch over you. And okay. And I think we're going to be okay. I think I'll make it then. And this promise becomes a jewel. It becomes my lifeline to hope, my lifeline to rest. When the worries of this world come over me, promises like this, if they become life, see the word of God is a sword of the spirit. It's not a sword. It's the sword of the spirit. So the Holy spirit wants to take this verse and make it a sword. Otherwise, it's just a piece of metal. We have to weigh with, we have to meditate on it on my word. I will meditate day or night. And God says, I will change these promises to go from being flimsy ropes to bring solid rocks. God can do that. Malachi 3 says, test me, try me, see if you can depend on me. The psalmist says, taste and see, taste it, taste the promises of God, take it in, see if I'm good. This is what God wants our promises to be. And this is just an example of it. I also want to share from Isaiah, sorry, Psalm 73, the passage we heard on Sunday, there are two bookends. Yeah. I don't know if you know what a bookend is. A bookend is one end. Then you got a bunch of books and then you got another bookend. And in between all the books, there are two pillars on either end of Psalm 73. Psalm 73 verse one starts by saying, God is good. And Psalm 73, 28 says, the nearness of God is my good. There's two pillars that are truths that God is trying to establish in our lives. One, that God is good. And the other, that the nearness of God is my good. Psalm 73 verse one, God is good. It says that God is good for those who are pure in heart. If I don't see in any situation, no matter what happens in my life, if I start to doubt that God is altogether good, it's because I've lost some purity of heart. God is good for those who are pure in heart. That's Psalm 73 verse one. If I start to doubt whether God is good because my child failed, because my business failed, because my job got, I got to let go of my job because I've got a sickness. I start to take that to say, is God good? You know, some impurity has come into your heart. So whenever I doubt God's goodness, I can be absolutely sure that impurity has entered my heart. Let's not let that truth have any dust on it or have any dirt on it. Let's keep polishing that trophy. God is good. When your children question it, when your feelings question it, when circumstances in the world question it, God is good. Go ahead, get a rag and polish that trophy. God is good. Don't let anybody, don't let any child of yours, don't let any loved one of yours sow a seed to doubt whether God is good. That's one pillar. The other pillar is at the end of the chapter where he says, the nearness of God is my good. The greatest compliment we can ever get is that we get from God, well done, good and faithful servant. And Jesus said, why do you call me good? No one is good, but God alone. This is something that many people can get many compliments, but Jesus was saying, there's nobody good, but God alone. And God at the end of our lives can say, well done, good servant to us. The greatest compliment we can ever receive is that we are good. The greatest compliment is not success with lots of money or prosperity or healthy children or successful children. Good is the best compliment. When God tells you on the final day, well done, good sister, good brother, it's the best compliment you can ever get. And this psalmist tells you how to get there. Nearness to God. Dear brother and sister, don't worry about victory over sin as much as you worry about nearness to God. I know we all are interested in victory over sin. I am, you are, but I meant what I said. Don't worry so much about victory over sin as you worry about nearness to God, because this is what will happen when you stay near to God. You'll get victory over sin. You'll get his righteousness. You'll get his victory. You'll get his hatred for sin. And so you'll get victory. Focus more on nearness to God. And Asaph, he was troubled by envy. He was troubled by the wealth and prosperity of those around him. And he discovered one thing. The greatest compliment is to be good. And the way I can be good is to be near God. Dear brothers and sisters, this is such good news. You don't have to have children. You don't have to be married. You don't have to live till you're 80. You don't have to have all your children go to this school or that school. You don't have to have lots of money or anything. You just have to be near God and you can get the greatest compliment God can give anybody. You don't have to go to Bible school. You don't have to preach a single sermon. Anybody, no matter where you are stuck because of COVID with four walls, Delta, bad situation in life because of any kind of situations, you can get the greatest compliment of all, which is that you're good. Just keep staying near God. The nearness of God is my good. Dear brother and sister, why are you not near God? We have no excuse. Prodigal son is the only reason why we're not near God. Not come to our senses. Get up out of the pig farm if you're stuck in some sin. Just go be near God with your tattered clothes, with your dirty smell. It's okay. Get up and go home. The nearness of God is my good. That's another pillar. Dear brother and sister, remember God is good. The nearness of God is my good. Not that I overcame sin today. Not that I didn't shout at my wife today. Not that I was full of rest with all my children in their homework, in their schoolwork. Those are all wonderful things. You and I know that we're striving for these things. We want to control our tongue. We want to control your eyes. I've spoken about this. You've heard about this over and over again, but let me just put that in context. So much more important than that is nearness to God because there are Hindus and there are Muslims who are controlling their tongue but are not near Jesus. I'll take nearness to Jesus over anything else. I don't want a shortcut to controlling my tongue through yoga or meditation or things like that. I want nearness. I want victory over sin over my tongue and my eyes and everything through the pathway of Jesus and being near to Jesus. I will not give up on being near to Jesus. That's a non-negotiable, even if it means that my victory over sin is going to take a little bit longer. And it is possible. Dear brothers and sisters, what I love about this message is that it is inviting to everybody right now. You can be near God. This is the great message of the gospel. The kingdom of God is here. That's what Jesus came and said. Repent. The kingdom of God is here. Come, come. You don't have to pay anything. God is good and nearness of God is my good. How do I get this like we get everything in scripture? Luke chapter 18 verse 17. Let me end with that. Luke 18 verse 17. Here's how this is all available to you. Luke chapter 18 verse 17. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the good news like a child will not enter it at all. Here's the way to receive every one of the promises of God. Like a simple hungry child asking for food. That simple. You don't need a complicated concordance. You don't need complicated Hebrew, Greek, interlinear Bibles. You just need to receive it like a child. Receive, dear brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit like a child. Receive the kingdom of God like a child. Simple, simple. Let's simplify things. Let's not complicate things. Do business, dear brothers and sisters, with the promises of God. Isaiah 42, 6. We're memorizing this verse. Try before here and Sunday. This is my challenge to you as well as God's challenge to me. Between now and Sunday, try to receive Isaiah 42, 6 as God himself speaking this to you. Hold your hands as you look at it and say, God, you're telling this to me that you hold me by this hand of mine, your nail pierced hand in my hand, and let me receive it like a child. I'm not talking some mystical experience, but we have some feeling. Please, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking like a child. Children don't have mystical experiences, but they have beautiful experiences because they receive it. It's simplicity and humility. So, dear, meditate on these verses and give up on all our ambitions. Oh, I wish I could get the call that I've been promoted. I wish I could get the call that the healing has happened. I wish I could get the call about this, that, done with that. You've gotten a call. I've called you in righteousness. I'm going to hold you by the hand. I'm going to watch over you. I'm good. You stay near me for the rest of your life, and you'll get this commendation that you two are good, well done, good, because you just stayed near me. Receive it like a child. I want to get better and better, dear brothers and sisters, treasuring these wonderful promises of God and giving up all other ambitions and desires and saying, Lord, I want to be near you. That is good. I want to receive it like a child.