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Nov 24, 2019

So Help Me God

So Help Me God

Passage: Isaiah 43:8-15

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: Isaiah: The Story Beneath the Story

The highest thing we can say of God is perhaps also the hardest thing to say in our day: He is Lord.

Order of Worship

Pre-Service Text: Psalm 46:1-3
Call To Worship: Psalm 95:1-6
Christ the King Sunday: Corporate Prayer
New Testament Reading: Colossians 1:15-20
Sermon Title: So Help Me God
Central Text: Isaiah 43:8-15
Benediction: 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
Post-Service Text: Psalm 46:10-11

11.24.2019 Sermon Notes

Readings & Scripture

Pre-Service Text: Psalm 46:1-3
1 God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

Call To Worship: Psalm 95:1-6
LEADER: Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

PEOPLE: For the Lord is a great God,
and a great King above all gods.

LEADER: In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it,
and his hands formed the dry land.

ALL: Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!

Christ the King Sunday: Corporate Prayer
Almighty and merciful God,
you break the power of evil and make all things new
in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe.
May all in heaven and earth
acclaim your glory and never cease to praise you.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen

New Testament Reading: Colossians 1:15-20
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Central Text: Isaiah 43:8-15
Is. 43:8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes,
who are deaf, yet have ears!
9 All the nations gather together,
and the peoples assemble.
Who among them can declare this,
and show us the former things?
Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right,
and let them hear and say, It is true.
10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD,
“and my servant whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me
and understand that I am he.
Before me no god was formed,
nor shall there be any after me.
11 I, I am the LORD,
and besides me there is no savior.
12 I declared and saved and proclaimed,
when there was no strange god among you;
and you are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and I am God.
13 Also henceforth I am he;
there is none who can deliver from my hand;
I work, and who can turn it back?”

Is. 43:14 Thus says the LORD,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“For your sake I send to Babylon
and bring them all down as fugitives,
even the Chaldeans, in the ships in which they rejoice.
15 I am the LORD, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your King.”

Benediction: 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Post-Service Text: Psalm 46:10-11
10 “Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
11 The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Related Scriptures:

  • Psalm 24:8-10
  • Psalm 46
  • Jeremiah 23:1-6
  • Luke 1:68-79
  • Acts 1:6-8
  • Acts 4:12
  • 2 Corinthians 4:4
  • Colossians 1:11-20
  • 1 John 1:1-4

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. Why do you believe Jesus is Lord? What reasons do you have for preferring His authority over other people or ideas that claim authority?
  2. What would you say are the main reasons someone might have for not believing Jesus is Lord?(How do some of those sometime feel legitimate?) What are several alternatives people turn to that serve in some similar function as belief in Jesus?
  3. Who is the passage calling upon to give testimony--and about what?
  4. What is the passage out to tell us mainly about the Lord?
  5. What accounts for all His claims to being supreme?
  6. If Jesus is in fact Lord, how is He better than any common alternative people turn to for whatever they’re looking for in it?
  7. Where do you sense in this very moment Jesus may have been set aside as Lord in some way--in some priority, aspiration, relationship, desire, or otherwise?

Quotes:

 

  • The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God's acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God in the dock. - C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock
  • . . .how is it possible that we can both (a) think we have compelling reasons to believe in God, and (b) even find atheism incoherent or obviously false in many ways, and yet (c) still feel it to be a living option? - Joseph Minich, Enduring Divine Absence 
  • There is a widespread sense of loss here, if not always of God, then at least of meaning. - Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
  • If you are a Christian you do not have to believe that all the other religions are simply wrong all through. If you are an atheist you do have to believe that the main point in all the religions of the whole world is simply one huge mistake. If you are a Christian, you are free to think that all these religions, even the queerest ones, contain at least some hint of the truth. When I was an atheist I had to try to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong about the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view. But, of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong. As in arithmetic-there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong: but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others. - C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
  • In Judaism, we don’t have the concept of grace. We aren’t born steeped in sin, but in a neutral state. You’re worthy of God’s love as long as you follow his commandments, and when you fail and sin, you can earn back his love with t’shuva, repentance. Was there a form of repentance that could restore us, and make us worthy of love, worthy of pride as a nation? Or was the sin of our history too grave? Would only grace do? And if so, who could grant it? - Batya Ungar-Sargon, “A Tale of Two Churches”

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