​The counsel of the LORD opens a way, where there once was no way, to walk through to deliverance. His counsel alone shall stand!

My Counsel Shall Stand
(ISAIAH 46:8-13)
 
Pause & Reflect
 

1. What has God been teaching you through last week’s message? Read the texts once more and discern what the holy Spirit is desiring to say through it.

 
8 “Remember this and stand firm,
    recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9     remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
    I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning
    and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
 

1. [v.8-10] *Biblical principle – DIAGNOSIS OF THE PROBLEM: As was the case for God’s ancient people, the main problem is our spiritual Alzheimer’s/dementia. The mind is corrupt and set on forgetting the LORD, impairing our thoughts and behavior. “Remember the former things of old,” says the LORD. This is not just a call to recollect what is in your memory, but what is in His Word – what He has said from the beginning. The starting-point of what we remember must be in the Creator God, among whom there is no other, declaring the end from the beginning. We, then, as His creatures, can be counseled aright. While they strenuously carried their idols on their shoulders, God’s people had forgotten that they were being carried in His arms. While they cried out to an object that could not move nor answer, God’s people had forgotten it was the LORD alone who was moving and answering them, beckoning them to listen to what He was saying. God calls us to remember Him – beyond the scope of our memory – from the very beginning of creation – “the former things of old.” From the Scriptures, what can you remember about God in what He has done, in how He created a people for Himself, in making a way to save them although they constantly turned away? How can you enlarge the framework of your memory back to creation? Are you framing your memory there or on what you can recall from personal experience alone? Alzheimer’s/dementia is a terrible disease that progressively snatches away your memory. It begins with mild memory loss and then advances to loss of all control in thought, language, and action. Yet although we lose control of all our being, the Spirit of God preserves the power to remember the LORD as He revealed Himself in Scripture. It is like the light at the end of a dark tunnel that we can never lose to see and have back. We may lose our memory, but God can never be lost within us. Are you losing your way, or finding your way by strengthening your memory in the LORD’s counsel? What are you forgetting that the LORD is calling you to remember? What do you remember about God from this past week, past month, past three months?

 
11 calling a bird of prey from the east,
    the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
 

1. [v.11] *Biblical principle – TREATMENT PLAN: There is no self-cure to renew the corrupt mind that continues to deny remembering the LORD. Since it is part of our nature, no medicine can permanently reorient and heal the structure of our heart and thoughts. Therefore, as God sovereignly provided a future deliverer for His people from their captivity (King Cyrus of Persia), He did for us what we could never do for ourselves. He has called, spoken and purposed His own Son, Jesus Christ, to not only treat us, but transform our lives permanently to His purpose in putting to death and raising to life His own Son for our own sins yesterday, today, and forever. A bird chasing its prey is a portrait of unswerving purpose. This bird was Cyrus for God’s people then, and it is Jesus Christ for God’s people today. Jesus is the only cure to our uncurable spiritual dementia. How is Jesus not only treating you, but transforming you? How is the one whom God has called, spoken, and purposed for your life becoming your new life? Why is a personal relationship with Jesus – above and beyond any relationship in your life (spouse, parent, sibling, relative, employer/employee) – the sustaining treatment and transformation out of spiritual dementia? How is what Jesus Christ has done through the cross and resurrection a memory that cannot ever be forgotten or erased?

 
12 “Listen to me, you stubborn of heart,
    you who are far from righteousness:
13 I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off,
    and my salvation will not delay;
I will put salvation in Zion,
    for Israel my glory.”
 

1. [v.12-13] *Biblical principle – [v.12-13] FOLLOW-UP: We are permanently sealed by the holy Spirit and transformed by the work of the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, it takes time and self-discipline to grow into what God has done fully and finally done, just as a child grows into becoming an adult one day. The LORD will continue to check-up on our stubborn hearts by convicting us to listen to His counsel, for it is near and not far off nor delayed. Repeatedly, we need to listen to the full counsel and collective wisdom before us in His Word. This isn’t about knowing more, but hearing more from our Wonderful Counselor (Isaiah 9:6). Are you listening? Once the problem is diagnosed (corrupt minds and hearts set on forgetting the LORD) and reframed to find a treatment (Jesus Christ who gifts us new minds and hearts set on recalling the LORD), our ears can open to listen and hear the word of the LORD constantly, daily, repeatedly as we apply the counsel of Christ into our lives. How can we be hearing but not really listening? When we really listen, is God’s counsel far or near? How can we cultivate listening to the LORD’s counsel in His word as near as it is – one way which you are doing already through this life group? How can we make listening with the intention to act upon it a spiritual habit? James 1:22-25 says, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” Are you following-up on listening to God in what He has spoken? What action do you need to take with what you have heard and listened to?

 

 
The central truth of this word was –
“Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness: I bring near my righteousness; it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay,” says the LORD God. Listen to the counsel of the LORD! Only His counsel shall stand! Our minds and hearts are corrupt, in denial of remembering the LORD of creation, who appears far off. Instead, we declare our own counsel to control the beginning, middle, and end of all things. Yet God in His grace has the God-man of His counsel – Jesus Christ – who reverses the corruption in ourselves to bring us into His righteousness. Listen to His words. Be treated and transformed. Keep in-step and follow Him!
– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 

Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)

I will Carry You and Save You
(ISAIAH 46:1-7)
 
Footprints by Margaret F. Powers (1964)
 
One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.
 
After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.
 
This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."
 
He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."
 
Pause & Reflect
 

1. What has God been teaching you through last week’s message? Read the texts once more and discern what the holy Spirit is desiring to say through it.

 
1Bel bows down; Nebo stoops; their idols are on beasts and livestock; these things you carry are borne as burdens on weary beasts.
2 They stoop; they bow down together; they cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity.
 

1. [v.1-2] *Biblical principle – The cause of burdens is our idolatry. Idols make you carry their weight. They can only drop, so they will drop to the floor to stoop before the LORD. Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Drop the idolatry you carry, or you too will be carried away to the floor with it. “Bel” and “Nebo” were two prominent idols of wisdom and creation that the ancient Babylonians worshipped. It is strange how God’s people would choose to worship the idols of their abductors – those who carried them off to captivity, but they did. They were influenced by Babylonian prosperity, instead of God’s promises. These idols were heavy, burdening even their livestock that carried them. The idols themselves “cannot save the burden.” Their end is to stoop, bow down together before the LORD of lords and King of kings. What causes our burdens? Why do we choose to carry them over drop them? How do we believe the lie that carrying burdens on us can “save/deliver the burden” from us? How are your burdens like dead weights you carry around? What are your burdens that weigh you down, and how can you drop them off at the cross of Christ today?

3 “Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb;
4 even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
 

1. [v.3-4] *Biblical principle – The LORD God says, “I will carry you… I will bear, I will carry and will save.” We can stop carrying our own idolatrous burdens. The LORD will carry us, bear the burden, and save us. He has already been carrying us from before our birth, born of Him, carried from the womb, and will continue to carry us to our old age and gray hairs. Like the good shepherd that brings home his lost sheep wrapped around his shoulders, He carries us from beginning to end. The act of dropping our burdens instead of carrying them opens the ear to listen to what the LORD is saying. “Listen to me… who have been borne by me from before your birth… even to your old age… I will carry you,” says the LORD. How can we listen to the LORD today? If the LORD has been carrying us from even before our birth, how does that bring His comfort to loosen our grip on our burdens? If the LORD will carry us to gray hairs, how does that give us hope to deny carrying future burdens? If the LORD holds the totality of our life from eternity past into eternity future, how do we need to listen to Him today and rest on His shoulders instead of ours?

 
5 “To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike?
6 Those who lavish gold from the purse, and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; then they fall down and worship!
7 They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place, and it stands there; it cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble.
 

1. [v.5-7] *Biblical principle – [v.5-7] Stop comparing the LORD God with your idol. Idols will deceive you to think they are worthier of worship. Yet they will place a crushing weight on your shoulder although they cannot answer you, move for you, nor save you from trouble. Comparing anything with God or comparing others with yourself will destroy you. Only Jesus is the burden lifter and burden bearer. He carried the weight of the cross for us, so that our shoulders can be freed to carry His cross to a dark world. How do our burdens begin with a spirit of comparison – comparing God with other people or things, and comparing others with someone else, and comparing yourself with other people? Idolatry is born when we compare people or things to God, giving them equal or greater worth than God. This idolatry becomes a burden once our expectations of these things are not met, and we become disappointed for one reason or another, because they fail to move for us, answer us, and save us. What are these things in your life? How does Jesus call you to be freed from them today by picking-up your own cross, that throws off everything you’ve been carrying? How does carrying your cross for Christ make all your burdens light and easy?

 

 
The central truth of this word was –
Jesus is inviting us day after day to place our burdens on Him. Why carry something that will weigh you down to the floor? Like our idols, we’ll only end up stooping before the LORD God, who says, “I will carry you.” Let Him do so. Stop comparing others to God. Stop comparing yourself to God. Stop comparing other things to God. It will always come up short, keeping you burdened in sinful shame. Instead, trust Him that He is carrying you. Stay yoked with Jesus, who moves for you, answers you, carrying and saving you. Come to Him, all who are weary!
– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 

Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)

​Turn to Me and Be Saved, All the Ends of the Earth!
(ISAIAH 45:14-25)
 
Pause & Reflect
 

1. What has God been teaching you through last week’s message? Read the texts once more and discern what the holy Spirit is desiring to say through it.

 
14 Thus says the Lord: “The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no god besides him.’” 15 Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior. 16 All of them are put to shame and confounded; the makers of idols go in confusion together. 17 But Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation; you shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.
 

1. [v.14-17] *Biblical principle – In order to make a U-turn, you first need to know you are going the wrong direction. When we begin to truly know our sins, it can produce two directions – shame and withdrawal or confession and approach (faith). This is the difference between sinful guilt and godly guilt. “You shall not be put to shame… to all eternity,” says the LORD. Look off your shame, because Jesus has taken it away for all eternity. The LORD says that He will turn the heart of the King of Persia (Cyrus) to Himself by giving Cyrus vast military victories and the wealth that belongs to those ancient nations into his hands. With this, these nations will claim that God was with Cyrus and there is no other God besides Him. Then, Cyrus’ heart would turn to be moved by the God of Israel to release His people from 70 years of captivity, decreeing them to return to their homeland and even providing their needs for the long journey back home. The key here is that God moves to turn our hearts towards Him, orchestrating the events around us to do so, and all who turn to Him will never be put to shame. What shame (distress, sadness, regret, humiliation, foolish-sinful decisions/behaviors) is hindering you from turning to the LORD? What generally happens when you keep looking upon your shame and the shame in others? How can you look off shame, and what does the LORD promise for all those who do?

18 For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other. 19 I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right. 20 “Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations! They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save. 21 Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.
 

1. [v.18-21] *Biblical principle – Once we know we are going the wrong direction and need to make a U-turn, the next step is to act with purpose. You now have the sole goal to find a U-turn or find a parking lot where you can make it safely. “I did not say… ‘Seek me in vain,’” says the LORD. God did not make it confusing or meaningless to seek Him. He has given us a purpose to act upon – to glorify & enjoy Him as our Creator. The LORD is not hiding from us. He did not make it hard for us to hear Him and turn around to Him. “I did not speak in secret,” says the LORD. His entire Word is before us in Scripture that speaks truth and declares what is right. We now have the divine obligation – the stewardship and clear purpose – to act on what we hear and not continue carrying on our idolatry and idolatrous prayers, “praying to a god that cannot save.” How has the LORD clearly made a way for you to seek Him in truth instead of vanity? What is the purpose He has given you to act on right now? How has our sins painted God as hidden, vain, and confusing? How are we making practical steps to walk in the Spirit purposefully, instead of demanding the Spirit to conform to our steps?

 
22 “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. 23 By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ 24 “Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. 25 In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.”
 

1. [v.22-25] *Biblical principle – Lastly, to complete our U-turn, we not only need to know we are going the wrong direction, or act with purpose by finding a safe U-turn area, but finally following-through with the turnaround and staying on the new road to the correct destination. “Turn to me and be saved,” says the LORD. Jesus is the new road we need to stay on. It is already paved to the very end. Keep your eyes on the road, on Jesus! When we look off shame and realign ourselves to act on His purposes, we must now follow-through with our eyes to turn and look upon the LORD. Turning towards (or looking at) the LORD is what everyone must do – all the ends of the earth – every knee and tongue – for we all have shame from our sins and fall short of His righteousness. When we turn to the LORD, we find His righteousness and strength do not put us to shame, but rather is gifted to us freely – we are justified by His grace that becomes our glory and hope. How can we follow-through to keep turning, looking, and gazing upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ instead of our own rightness? When we start to turn and look at the LORD, all the ends of the earth (all those around us) should also be influenced to look at Him too. As you turn to the LORD, how is it influencing those around you to turn to Him too, or to turn away from Him too? How can you keep your eyes on the road – on Jesus today? What makes your eyes wander from Jesus’ road? What needs follow-through in doing that U-turn, that Texas turnaround to Jesus? Where are we going halfway with Jesus, while He has gone all the way to death and back for us?

 

 
The central truth of this word was –
Simply, look at the LORD, just as the people of God simply looked at the bronze serpent to be healed! Look at Jesus through the cross and empty tomb! If you have, then know your life is making a U-turn everyday by the leading of His Spirit. Look off your shame. Look towards His purpose to grow in this new direction in creature-Creator relationship. Act on it! Follow-through to look wholly upon Him, the new road to life. Keep your eyes on the road, for His righteousness and strength in Christ is with you to the very end. Make that U-turn now!
– *How has the LORD spoken to you today through this?
 

Holy Spirit Moment
Take a moment to invite the Holy Spirit to fill you, and pray.
 
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 THESSALONIANS 5:16-18)
 
…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (PHILIPPIANS 4:6-7)