NOTE ON THE RECORDING: Due to a power outage, a portion of the sermon was not able to be recorded. The missing portion comes at 20:11 in the recording, after the reading of 43:14-21. Please see the attached sermon notes for a manuscript of the sermon, with the missing portion of the recording highlighted (see pages 4-7).
Sermon Outline:
1. Having reminded His people of who they are on their own strength, God reminds them of who He is and who they are in Him.
2. God promises His people that though their exile shows what they themselves can accomplish, He will surely save them to vindicate his own name and character.
3. God makes promises for which His people can bear witness and praise him both before and after those promises are fulfilled.
4. God’s comfort in our distress:
i. God loves us with a deeper love than we can ever know.
ii. God has bound himself to us and bound his own glory to our salvation.
iii. God has demonstrated time and again he is able to do everything He promises.
iiii. God has made you to bear witness and worship Him for His salvation
iv. Trusting in these certain promises is God’s answer to our fear and anxiety.
Family Discussion Questions:
1. What did God want his people to understand about themselves through the exile?
2. What did God want his people to understand about Him through his deliverance from exile?
3. What is the primary way by which God desires to show that He is the one true God?
4. What was the significance of God’s people being blind and deaf witnesses? What does this mean for us as we experience God’s salvation in Jesus?
5. How has God made it necessary for himself to save His people? Why has He done so?
6. How did God’s promises of salvation exceed even the greatest hopes of His people?
7. What are some of the ways that God speaks of his relationship with His people in this passage? How easy is it for you to apply those to your relationship with God?
8. What particular comforts do you see in this passage for your own situation?
