Weekly Word of Encouragement: 04/08

How are you? How is your week going? Have you considered your end during this pandemic?

COVID-19 has affected so many people, and it has taken so many lives. We hear horror stories of healthcare workers not having enough equipment, FEMA sending refrigerated trucks to NYC hospitals, or the government warning their people to embrace for the worst.

This pandemic has brought into view the truth that our days are numbered. We are finite and mortal. We are face-to-face with our own end, and it makes us ask the difficult but very important existential questions: Why are we here? What’s the point of life? Is there anything after death? If there is a God, what does He think about me?

This past Sunday, we just finished the sermon series on the life of Jacob. Nearing the end of his story, I believe he asked those same existential questions. He might have had the right answers to some of those questions, but he failed to live by those answers.

He knew there was a God. He encountered that God in different ways and in various circumstances. And yet, he lived his life in sin. He was a deceiver from the beginning. He only considered himself and not others. He disobeyed God, even after he received a new name and identity.

With his end in view, I’m sure he was wondering if God still loved him, if God was still with him, and if God would still restore him. How was redemption and restoration possible after all that he had done?

But in Genesis 35, we saw that God met Jacob again as He had done in times past. God’s grace was relentless in pursuing Jacob and drawing him back. He reaffirmed Jacob’s blessings and new identity. And he taught Jacob an important truth that will stay with him for the rest of his life: Nothing in all of creation can separate him from the love of God in Christ.

This is the same promise for us. Nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, if you believe in Him. God’s grace is relentless and will pursue us till we arrive at our home in heaven.

Men much wiser than me have said this: “We can never be so sinful that we fall out of the reach of the grace of God, and we can never be so holy that we fall out of the need of the grace of God.”

This is the sure and steadfast truth that will last for eternity. Everything else may fade away, but the truth of God’s grace will still remain. This is the only sure place of eternal comfort and truth. It is the only sure place of eternal love and security.

How is this possible? It’s because of the season we are in. It’s because of Good Friday and Easter. It’s because of Christ’s death and resurrection.

See, Jesus considered His end from the very beginning. He knew He was going to die, and He knew that His death had a purpose. That purpose was to die the death for the sins of His people. He received the wrath of God so that we may receive the grace of God. He was condemned so that we may be justified. He was cursed so that we may be blessed. He died so that we may have life for eternity. He was separated from God’s love so that nothing can separate us from that love.

And the resurrection shows us that His death has been accepted as just payment. It shows us that He has won the victory over the grave. It shows us that there will be a day when there will be no more pain, sin, suffering, shame, disease, and death.

Have you considered your end? If you have, then you must ask one more question that will change not just your life but your eternity. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you trust in Him as your Lord and Savior?

If you do, then you have a hope, peace, and comfort that will never be shaken nor taken away. Hallelujah!

In Christ,

Pastor Tim

Photo Credit: Here