A God Who Knows and Cares
Speaker: Pastor Jeremy Witherow
Date: May 4, 2025
Please Note: This sermon transcript was generated automatically and may contain occasional errors or odd phrasing due to the transcription process.
Introduction
Thank you for having me to the church here, Pastor Ruben. And I didn’t get to meet your wife, but I saw her photo online. I went to the website and it’s a joy to be in Penang. We arrived a week ago. And the thing with Penang, it’s easy on the lips, hard on the hips. It’s one of those places, isn’t it? But I’ve had a few bad meals here as well, to be honest with you. I was at a hawker centre and I was fixated. I was fantasising about Nasi Lemak and thinking, “Wow.” And then I went and ordered one and it was just a real complete let down. So, I think I’ve forgiven that woman since, but I probably won’t frequent her shop ever again.
But yeah, we’re just here for a little bit longer until Wednesday and just doing a few things at Ashley’s late parents’ home is down in Green Lane. And we’re just sorting through some things there, getting it a little bit tidied up. And so, people will always say, “Oh, you’re just here on holiday.” And I say, “Not really. I’m working reasonably hard.” But there’s perks here as well. So, yeah, well, I’ve got a message today titled, “A God Who Knows and Cares.”
Well, some 700 years before Jesus was born, the prophet Isaiah was quickened by the spirit of prophecy to speak on God’s behalf and to deliver a message to God’s people. If you’ve got your Bibles, could you please turn to Isaiah chapter 53? And we had those, some of those words come up in our communion message this morning, which was interesting as well. So, we’re turning to Isaiah chapter 53. And so, through the mind of God, this prophet had seen certain things that would take place and culminate in the person of Christ, coming as the Saviour to the world.
The Prophecy of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53)
Reading of Isaiah 53:1-5
Verse 1 says this, “Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground, He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem. Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered Him punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.”
Prayer
Let’s bow for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for this opportunity to gather around this word, Lord, this passage of Scripture. Your word is life and light, and it just illuminates things in us, it challenges us, it comforts us as well. I pray for the comfort of the Holy Spirit to be upon this word today. Pray for hearts that are just hurting and frustrations and just longings and unmet needs and so on. Lord, I just pray that Your comfort would be here, and we would have this reminder this morning as to Your life lived upon the earth, but also the challenges You went through, and our challenges sometimes as well, which are small in comparison, but Lord, we know that we also grieve, we also feel pain, and we also go through bereavement and loss and so on. So we thank You, Holy Spirit, that You are here. We bless You in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Understanding the Context
So what is the context to that passage? Well, if we go right back to Genesis, we learn of the transgression. We have Adam and Eve that are in the garden. There’s a tree that’s told to keep away from. Now, I believe that was a Musang King durian tree, and they were told, don’t go near that tree, eat everything else, take the dragon fruit, the sour sop, you can even eat the lychee, keep away from that one tree. But we know that the sad demise, the sad story, in fact, is that that tree was just too exotic or too somehow beckoning to them. They eat of this tree and swiftly judgment came. They’re driven out there, expelled from the garden, and they suffer certain consequences.
The Original Transgression and Promise
Now, at the time when God comes to this couple to decree the sentence that was imparted because of their transgression, He says to the woman, He says, “Out of your offspring, one will come that will crush the neck of the serpent.” In other words, to break the powers of that serpent, which was Satan, his powers over humanity. And it was a promise given, so although there was judgment, there was a casting out from the garden, but nonetheless, there was a hope that was also going to be given to that original couple. And so ever since that time, they were driven out and then we had the law came through Moses, we had different covenants in place, but we always had that promise in mind, well, God always had that promise in mind, that one day this deliverer would arise, one day this one that would crush the neck of the serpent would arise and begin to put things into their rightful place.
Jesus: The Humble Emmanuel
And so we see Jesus coming into this world as that one, as that one that was born in very humble beginnings. He came as the writers of Scripture would call Him Emmanuel, God with us, because He would walk with people, He would be with them, He would manifest His grace and His presence for them. And though Jesus didn’t come into this world in the manner of royalty, because we see His birth was and very humble beginnings, born in a manger surrounded by animals, surrounded by cows. And I remember once being in Cambodia eating rice upstairs in this house and below me were these big bullocks, and you could smell them a mile away and I’m eating my rice and my curry and I’m thinking, man, this must have been like Jesus minus the curry. But this must have been a little bit like animals under, you know, and it’s pretty basic stuff. It’s pretty basic stuff.
Now He didn’t come into this world born in that kingship arena where there was a palace and there was the best of this world. And we know His life was lived in such a humble manner, He came and basically lived in a very obscure little town, similar to Penang. Just kidding. Don’t get angry with me. They call Penang the Pearl of the Orient. But, you know, Nazareth, it was like the backwoods, probably like New Zealand. You know, the bottom of the earth, you know, it was like, New Zealand, man, anything good come out of New Zealand? Well, thank you, Lord. So I just have to encourage myself, you know, sometimes people take me too seriously and think, man, this guy’s really vain, really proud. I’m a little bit anti Ashley. No, she’s shaking. Thank you. That was the right gesture right there.
But anyway, Jesus comes from this place of real humility, you know, nothing flash about His beginnings, nothing interesting, born in a manger. And yet we see that there were kings who were actually pagan kings from Persia. They made their way, they followed a star and they actually came and paid homage to this little child offering up sacrifices of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Now that’s a fascinating story as well. And that is really what we celebrate during Christmas, obviously.
The Vulnerability of the Messiah
And so, and in outlining the life of Jesus as the Emmanuel, Isaiah begins to tell us that Jesus grew up before His Father, like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. Now, if you’re a gardener, you know, that when you have a little tender shoot, the plant has just shown its head, you got to be a little bit careful, because it’s very vulnerable. You don’t want to over water it, under water it, you need to keep tremendous, you know, tenderness with that plant until it establishes. Now, Jesus came into this world like that. He was born at a time of persecution, Herod was breathing death threats and genocide, all kind of, you know, breathings and things about the first born children of Israel were to be put to death, which is why the angel came to Joseph and said, go down to Egypt. So Jesus is born in a very humble manner. His life starts in this obscure way. He’s born in a manger. There’s a vulnerability at the start of his life due to this great persecution that was being swept, sweeping through the land as Herod was out to kill this deliverer, this saviour.
The Messiah’s Appearance and Life
Unremarkable Appearance (Isaiah 53:2)
And then we begin to read from Isaiah about the physical appearance of Jesus. Now, it would seem that Jesus wasn’t good looking or charismatic by worldly standards. Now, not often you see the pictures of Jesus and it’s like an American with a square jaw, you know, a bit buff and six pack ab and, you know, a bit like me, you know. Okay, that wasn’t a joke. But you see these pictures of Jesus and they’re presented like that in these movies. I think the Passion of the Christ was the best, the way they captured Jesus in that. But some of the older Jesus shows, you know, Jesus looked like a model that just stepped off the catwalk in Milan, you know, or somewhere like that. But Jesus, according to Isaiah, was not like that. He was not like that. He didn’t have that natural magnetism that would draw us in. In fact, it would seem that he was the complete opposite of that. For the Prophet tells us that Jesus possessed nothing desirable to make people want to know Him or to even look twice. Isn’t that interesting? He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him.
A Life of Suffering and Rejection (Isaiah 53:3)
And then there was the manner in which He lived as a man. For Isaiah tells us that He lived His life under the shadow of suffering and constant threat of hardship. Verse 3 of Isaiah 53 says, “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces. He was despised and we held Him in low esteem.” In low esteem, the grim portrait that Isaiah gives to us of the one called Messiah is as one whose life would be marred by rejection, by sorrow and by pain. Maybe your life has been marred by those things as well. Well, Jesus understands that kind of pain because He walked in it, He lived it, He experienced it at the core of His being.
Jesus was a king and yet there was little recognition of His kingship by other people. It seemed that nobody was aware that He was a king, that He was of royal blood. And so His manner of life and growing up as like a carpenter made it difficult for people to receive Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world. It made it easy for people to just simply write Him off and to dismiss Him altogether. And so, you know, not good looking, nothing really appealing about this guy. He can’t be who He says He is. People turned and walked from Him.
And so He’s the Son of a carpenter, which was a fairly, you know, laborious kind of job. And building tables and chairs, you know, “Where’s Jesus when you have your renovation? He could have helped you guys out. I’m sure He will help you out, but not as a carpenter this time, okay?” As a one who brings what’s needed as one who opens the barns for you to have enough. But in fact, as Isaiah records, the promised Messiah would be one people would find it easy to hide their faces from, you know, just don’t find it very easy.
Misconceptions vs. Reality
The Expected vs. The Actual Messiah
You see, the Jews were expecting their promised deliverer to come in the manner of a mighty military ruler riding a white horse armed with a sword in his hand and slaying all the enemies of God. That was the mindset that they were holding to. They weren’t looking for a carpenter. They weren’t looking for a guy who was living in an obscure town and Galilee. They were looking for someone mighty and of that same kind of stature as someone like David, you know, with the supernatural strength of Samson. That kind of figure they were looking for.
And then there were the Greeks. And the Greeks had a completely different concept of what a God should look like. They were into Zeus and, you know, lightning bolts being thrown out of the sky and, you know, all this kind of stuff going on. They were into power displays that was the God of their choosing and the gods of their choosing. For them, they’re Greek gods. We’re gods of thunder and power who showed their might through displays of dominance where they asserted control and influence over their subjects. So that’s kind of the Greek idea, but the Jewish idea was of a David-like figure. But, you see, Jesus fulfilled no stereotype of what a God should look like or should be like. You see, there was no fulfilling any known stereotypes here instead of coming as a man of war, in a blaze of supernatural power. He would come into this world as a little baby living in that obscure Nazareth town and would wait a… Sorry, later work as a carpenter. Isaiah depicts Jesus to be a simple man, a simple man, but whose life was well acquainted with all manner of sorrow, rejection and suffering.
Our Human Condition: Like Sheep Astray (Isaiah 53:6)
We read in verse 6, it says, “We all like sheep of gone astray. Each of us has turned to our own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of our soul.” So Isaiah is now turning to focus on our human condition, on how we are the way that we experience pains and situations in life, but how we have turned away from the very help that is needed to get us through this life. And the metaphor used is one of sheep. Now coming from New Zealand, I’m kind of familiar with sheep because there’s five for every one person over there. It’s a sheepish nation, you know, but most of those sheep don’t have a hope in the future, they end up on somebody’s dinner plate with gravy and mint jelly. I know it’s a very… you might become vegetarian after this message, but I like to watch the sheep in the paddocks and they dance around and you know they do their thing and I’m reminded that man I’m a bit like this sheep, you know, they’re very fearful kind of animals but they’re also very curious and they kind of like, you know, they have this sort of ability to watch you and then you get too close, they’ll just start doing strange things and they run off.
And so Isaiah can use this metaphor of sheep very clearly because he knows the characteristic of them. Like sheep, they just run off, you know, they’re not really aligning themselves and with an allegiance to anyone. I mean they have to earn the trust of the shepherd but they have this way about them of just doing their own thing. And so what the prophet observes here in fact and I believe we can all agree with him about this is that we are like sheep, we have gone astray, we have walked away for the most part even though we claim, I surrender all… that lasts about five minutes, you know, we walk out of church and then we’re just living our own life and spitting on the floor and not you guys but… sorry, somebody felt convicted right now but, you know, we have our own thing and we don’t… sometimes I’m scared to sing these songs, I really am because I think God, I don’t know if I’m doing that. Why sing it if I don’t mean it, you know, but I don’t want to digress too much.
But we’re all like sheep. You see our preoccupations in life and our constant rebellions against God and doing what’s right has turned us away from him and has also hardened our hearts. Our hearts have become hardened and impervious to his promptings, to the breathing of his spirit. We want to live life on our own terms, we want to follow the dictates and desires of our own hearts, we want to indulge ourselves in whatever feels good. If it feels good, do it. Just do it. Nike, the prophet Nike, the false prophet Nike, just do it, you know, just run after those things. If it feels good and all of these things have left us numb to the plight of suffering and oppression so many in our world experience, you know, do we get moved when we see a beggar on the street or do we just go, oh, get a job, you know, and keep walking. I mean, sorry, but do, what do we actually feel? Do we feel what they feel for a second to make a heart connection? And it’s really hard, I mean, it’s really easy in this world to harden our hearts, isn’t it? Because we, you know, we see so many things and we have our own philosophy about life and we think, you know, you can change and you should do this and you should do that, but we don’t know, we haven’t walked in other people’s shoes. We have no idea what they battle each day.
It’s the same for us here in the church, we have no idea the struggles each one of us go through and some of us go through a lot and we don’t share those things and sometimes we harden ourself, you know, and we become numb because ours is a world where power is celebrated, where money is worshipped, where it’s all about the who’s who and the a-listers. Yeah, our self-centered world, it’s become narcissistic, it’s a world all about, you know, celebrity status and entertainers and living our secondhand life through somebody else. That’s what the world tries to promote, you know, Kim Kardashian and, you know, look like her and go and get some Botox while you’re at it, you know, I don’t recommend it, okay. But, you know, this unfortunately is the world we live in and it’s become very, very dark and I’m very concerned, to be honest with you, what I’m seeing, but that’s for another message. But it is a world where only those who are powerful and successful and who own vast wealth are considered worthy. As everyone else has looked down upon or made to feel a bit inferior, this way of thinking has conditioned us to look down on others and has made us critical of those who we perceive lack any kind of status. So we judge people by their clothes or by their occupation, you know, we judge people by the car they drive or they don’t drive, they have to take public transport. We judge people.
The Messiah’s Sacrifice
The prophets telling us here that the Lord of heaven would lay all of the world’s inequity upon this man of sorrows, this man of suffering, that Jesus would ultimately absorb into himself all the evil that you and I would ever commit and who would be subjected to the full penalty of sin for our evil deeds.
Silence Before Accusers: The Lamb to the Slaughter (Isaiah 53:7)
In verse 7 of chapter 53, he was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its share is his silent, so he did not open his mouth. You know, when Jesus was arrested by the Romans on account of the Jews and questioned by the governor Pontius Pilate, he remained completely silent. He didn’t open his mouth, he didn’t give a justification or a defence for the situation of, you know, what he was being accused for, he just kept quiet. He closed down. He didn’t defend himself and say anything that would vindicate him. Neither would he call upon the angels of heaven to judge all of the enemies of God and wipe them out. Now some of you and I might have done that, you know, it’d be so easy just like and then 10,000 angels descend and boom. It’s like, whoo, but he didn’t do that. He just kept quiet. For Jesus fully knew what his assignment on earth was all about. You see, Jesus was born to die. I know it’s very grim and you might have come this morning for a very uplifting sermon and I’m sorry that it’s a bit like this but I felt this was the word I was meant to bring you guys this morning. And so his life, you know, was his assignment was death. It was all about death. He was born to die, to die for the sins of the world. It’s very grim. It’s very bleak but that is the story of our salvation history. That is our redemptive history.
Condemned and Crucified: The Ultimate Suffering (Isaiah 53:8-9)
It goes on in verse eight to nine to say, “By oppression,” Isaiah is saying, “and judgment he was taken away. Yet whoever’s generation protested, for he was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people. He was punished. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death. Though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.” So though Jesus would go on to live this blameless life, evil men would rise up to accuse him of blasphemy and he would later be condemned to die. That criminal’s death in the most inhumane kind of way. A crucifixion was no joke. You know, it was the worst kind of punishment. The cross was an instrument of death and asphyxiation and bleeding and just incredible, credible physical torment. I don’t know. I can’t imagine what one second of it would be like. I remember once watching this show where this Australian guy got crucified on a cross in the Philippines for penance and he was screaming like the most severe screams and I thought and they quickly pulled them out and then they gave him bandages and things. I think he was trying to get his mother healed or something like that. So he went through this subjection because they do that in the Philippines. You know, people actually do get nailed to crosses during Easter time. Anyway, I mean, we can’t imagine what the real horror of crucifixion would look like and we’ve only scratched the surface of, I think, the unimaginable pain of it, the torment of it and just the horror of what you go through. Because we know that to die on a cross made of wood would be such a torturous thing and in the ancient world it was such a torturous, horrific way in which people would, you know, go through and causing their lungs to collapse and slowly to asphyxiate in that position as you’re waiting for death, as you’re waiting for that moment, praying for death, just saying, just come, you would be calling on death in that pain, in that horror. That’s what Jesus went through.
God’s Sovereign Plan in Suffering (Isaiah 53:10-11)
It goes on in verses 10 through to 11. Isaiah says, “Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied by his knowledge. My righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities.” The death of God’s righteous servant, Jesus’ son, was orchestrated, was completely planned by the Father. It was completely written out, I guess, in heaven, the manner in which this would take place. It blows our mind, in fact, to think that, you know, God the Father would allow such a torturous thing to happen to his only begotten son, that he would allow this excruciating situation and the manner in which death would come for the sins of humanity. I mean, from a human perspective, couldn’t there have been an easier way to atone for sin? Like the guillotine, you know, it’s over pretty fast. If the knife is sharp, it would be pretty quick. But this kind of long, agonizing way, but you see, Scripture tells us, in fact, that God’s ways are not our ways. The cross was God’s way of dealing with sin once and for all. It was God’s modus operandi, his method that was in place, that after dying on the cross and being put and placed inside a tomb, God the Father would bring about the vindication of Jesus through the resurrection from the dead. Praise God. I mean, that is good news to us, isn’t it? For he would raise Jesus’ son back to life and would allow him to sit at his right hand forever more in glory. Now that’s the Gospel story.
Victory Through Death and Resurrection (Isaiah 53:12)
But we return to Isaiah, then we finally read in verse 12 of chapter 53. “Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors, for he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.” I mean, Jesus prayed for his enemies as well. Amazing, isn’t it? He prayed for those that did that to him. Where does that kind of love come from? It has to be a supernatural kind of love. You know, you can’t make that up. You can’t fake that till you make it. That can only come from the Holy Spirit. Jesus pours his life out for the forgiveness of sin for many. The many mentioned here obviously are the multitudes of people who would put their faith in Christ and would receive Jesus into their lives, receive his free gift of salvation.
Two Points for Reflection
But I want to leave us with two points to reflect upon this morning as we get ready to kind of, you know, wrap things up. Let me just give us two points to leave you with.
1. Jesus Understands Suffering
His Empathy and Relevance
The first being Jesus understands suffering. Jesus understands, you know, what’s so amazing is how Jesus doesn’t observe our lives from a distance as one who’s detached from all of our pain. Now we often talk about God as high and lifted up. He’s the transcendent God, but he’s also the imminent God who’s drawn near to us through his son, and he knows our plight. You see, he sees, he knows, he actually cares. That’s the amazing thing.
Maybe today you find yourself in a shadowy valley where it seems that hope has all but vanished and where your life is wracked with pain, regrets or sorrows. I mean, I don’t know who we have in the room here today, but there could be people that are grieving. And sometimes we can even come to church and put a brave face on and praise the Lord, brother. Inside we’re, sometimes we feel like that, don’t we? You know, even when we’re the preacher. And sometimes, you know, it’s like, man, I don’t want to go to church today. Then Ashley elbows me in the ribs and says, you have to, you’re the preacher today. So that’s why God gave me a wife. Praise God. Praise God for that blessing. Yeah. So anyway, he sees us. He sees the shadowy valleys sometimes that we’re ushered into. You see, Jesus, you’re Emmanuel, understands your pain. He understands your questions in relation even to your suffering. He’s been there. His own experience of pain is what makes Jesus so relevant to all of us. You know, I find Jesus so relevant.
2000 years ago, the gospel story all came to pass. And we could think as modern people that, well, life is, you know, technologically advanced and science has told us so many things and medical breakthroughs. But Jesus is so relevant today because he understands the condition of the heart. He understands the human heart. He understands humanity and the pain and the anguish and the brokenness, the temptations all of us go through. He understands.
The Pain of Separation on the Cross
And Jesus, when he hung on the cross, experiencing the most unimaginable, unbearable pain, there was another kind of pain that he suffered from. He faced in the final moments of his life, it was the pain of separation from his father. You see, Jesus had always known that connection 24 seven with the father. It was always forged. He was plugged in all the time. But in this moment of separation, because when Jesus was saying it is finished as the weight of the sin of the world came and was absorbed into Jesus, the father had to turn away from him. And that connection momentarily was broken. And momentarily, there was nothing the father could do. He couldn’t even be in that place where the full ugliness of sin that started way back in the garden suddenly was manifested to its final and climatic degree at that moment as Jesus was there enduring that torment. So that ugliness of sin was there. And you know, the ugliness of sin is something we all struggle with in our own lives, don’t we? We all struggle with this sometimes sin that makes us ugly. You know, we don’t mean to be ugly, but sometimes we’re driving the car and the guy cuts in front of us and it’s like blast the horn is loud and wave half a peace sign out the window. No, none of you in Penang would do that. But people in New Zealand do that regularly. They sometimes chase you in their cars if you cut them off. And anyway, there’s an ugliness in all of us, isn’t there? There is an ugliness. And only sometimes our nearest and dearest may understand fully that ugly side that we have. But there is this part that is ugly.
But when Jesus uttered those lonely words on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It spilled out of a heart that had never known separation from the Father. It spilled out from a heart that was crushing under the weight of separation, under the weight of God the Father abandoning him in that moment.
Our “Why” Questions
And you know, the cry of Jesus has also become the question we ask when we’re going through suffering and pain. It’s the same question. We want to know the why question. Why was my car pranged? Why did my child not get into that university? Why did this thing happen and I lost my job? We want to know the why question when we’re going through it. Why am I going through this? Where is God in this moment of suffering? For Jesus came to, you know, break the neck of the serpent. But it was as he breathed his last breath. It wouldn’t be before uttering the words of fulfillment. It is finished. So in other words, it’s completed. Nothing more to add to it. It’s that said, that’s the finality of that situation. For Jesus comes to break the serpent’s neck, to break the enslaving power of sin and to save all who would call upon his name.
Countering Misconceptions about Suffering
But you know, there’s a popular teaching in the body of Christ, which states that if only we have enough faith, we never need to go through pain and suffering. You might have heard that. It sometimes goes under the guise of prosperity teaching or of faith or health and wealth. You know, maybe there’s things we can learn from that teaching, some of that teaching too. But you know, the idea that we never have to suffer is not a biblical idea. It’s not a scriptural idea. Because all of us are going to go through storms. All of us are going to go through situations, but we have to be real when we do. You see, the gospel isn’t a message built on the warped idea that people never need to suffer. That we just look around our churches and we know that that is not even correct. It’s built on the truth. In fact, the gospel that God has taken care of the punishment of sin in his son, Jesus Christ, and that we can all be freed from its ugly grip. Now that is the message of the cross.
And now we know that God does bless us and often materially and financially and everything and I’ve experienced it in my own life to his glory. And so God does come through, but he doesn’t always come through the way that we thought he would. Because his ways are not our ways.
God’s Presence in Our Pain
But maybe you’re sitting here and you feel that the pain you experience in your life is the result of some kind of curse. And sometimes we think, well, obviously I’m doing something wrong for my life to be like this. And we start to go through and say it must be because there’s an open door or a sin or a generational curse. Now, I know that those things can contribute to situations of compromise. They can. But sometimes it’s really just that we’re living in a fallen world, that things are going wrong. And maybe because life can be difficult, we feel it gives evidence that God doesn’t really care for you. You know, sometimes we think, well, why, where is my blessing? How come I’m going through this storm? You know, and we start to think that maybe God isn’t caring for me. Maybe God has overlooked me, but I want you to know today that God stands with you in your pain, in your grief. He understands everything that you’re going through. He’s not impartial to your suffering, but he’s drawn near to you through his son. He stands with you in your diagnosis, in your bankruptcy, in your failed relationship, in your addiction, in your mental health challenge, in your loneliness, in all of life’s misunderstanding, and in all of the unanswered questions of life that you face, he stands with you. Praise God.
And he’s the friend that sticks closer than a brother. When all the other friends walk out the door, he never walks away. And he understands. And he stands with you and he says, I’ll support you. I’ll work with you through this. I’ll walk with you through this and I’ll help you overcome. That is our savior. That’s what makes him so relevant because he went through it himself. He comes to you today and he says, I understand. I care.
But we can get so lost in our disappointments and frustrations, thinking that God is punishing us until we become bitter and harden our hearts towards him. If we’re not careful, we can become bitter and we can think that God doesn’t care. But God wants you to know that he understands your pain and he cares. And it’s for the reason that Jesus went through all manner of human suffering that he can stand with you today. He can even weep with you today. You see friends, there’s a glorious day coming when he will wipe every tear away where your experience will be one of completeness, of wholeness, of shalom, and freedom from all that plagues you in the present moment. Now we still have a foretaste of those things today, praise God. We can still have peace and freedom, but there’s a day of completeness where Jesus will complete everything when we receive a glorified body. How many people are excited and looking forward to receiving a glorified body? Praise God, no short-sightedness, no backache, no ligament torn, no need for surgery. You can walk through walls. Praise God, I’m looking forward. I’m looking forward.
2. Jesus Walks With You Today
And finally, my second point, we’re just getting ready to close, is that Jesus walks with you today. Amen. I wonder if I could ask Pastor Reuben to maybe play the keyboard while we get ready to close. Jesus walks with you today. You know, friends, there’s many times in life, and I know this isn’t the happy clappy message this morning, but I didn’t feel to bring that kind of message. There’s many things that we go through in our humanness that hurts us. Many are the questions that we come to Christ, to the Lord with, and how come I’m needing to go through this challenge? God may not always answer every question we have, but He’s there with us. He’s there with us.
The “Footprints” Poem
I just want to close with a poem, and it’s written by an anonymous author. And many of you will be familiar with this particular poem. It’s called “The Footprints Poem.” Yeah, it’s a beautiful poem. I’m just going to read it out to us as we close. It says, “One night I dreamed a dream, as I was walking along the beach with my Lord, across the sky, 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 the Lord. After the last scene of my life flashed before me, I looked back at the footprints in the sand. I noticed that many times, 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.” Amen. Amen.
Closing Prayer and Personal Testimony
Father, we thank you for just the reminder that you always walk with us, even through the valleys, even through the dark night of the soul, the times of trouble, the times where life doesn’t seem to be going in the direction we hoped. But we know that you’ve been there before, that you understand, and you do have hope for us. And by your stripes, we are healed. And by your stripes, we are invigorated in faith. And we are lifted up in hope. And we’re given a new spring in our step, a wind in our sail, because of your goodness, because of your grace. And so today, Lord, we just want to open our hands afresh to you. Maybe we can just symbolically lift our hands to the Lord. Just receive a fresh touch of His grace today. Experience His relevancy coming around you. Experience His assurity to you. He knows, He cares, He walks with you. He understands. Even the things you have never shared to another individual, because you’re too ashamed of what they would think of you. That deep pain, that thing that you kept hidden in the closet, God knows. God actually cares about that too. God understands. It’s a beautiful thing to have such a God who understands, who is so relevant because He felt the full impact of the human condition. But He went through so much more. At a spiritual level, He experienced pain at a physical level, but also an emotional, psychological level too. He experienced the bruising realities of rejection and pain.
Pastor Jeremy’s Personal Story of Rejection
You know, when I grew up and went to high school, our family went through many challenging times. It was a very dark season. It was like a shadow had fallen over the family home and there was things that took place. My father tried taking his life a couple of times and there was just a whole lot of chaos and a whole lot of brokenness in that place. I began to suffer in my school marks. I couldn’t concentrate at school. In fact, I thought I had ADHD. I sometimes think I still do. That’s my wife. I think she says, “Just focus, Jeremy.” I’m like, “I’m trying. I’m trying. My mind’s all over the place.” But anyway, it was a dark time and it really felt like all hell was breaking loose in the family. And to make matters worse, I was at a high school where they had a culture of bullying. And I used to be the small kid in the class. And so, you know, it felt like I became everyone’s punching bag. And I used to have to rush home from school on my bike as fast as I could so that the other kids didn’t corner me and push me off my bike and do something to me. So, I used to be running the gauntlet coming home from school. And to make matters worse, I used to have a very foul mouth back in those days. I would abuse people. I would create this awful cycle where people were out to get me. But I kept… It was the way I had to get rid of the anger. You know, I tried. But as a result of all of those years that I went through in that system and what was going on at home, being the youngest of three boys and always feeling looked down upon, I grew up with a spirit of rejection. And I felt no one liked me and no one would ever want to be with me and no one would ever want to spend time with me. And I carried this wound for years and years and years. I carried it. And I felt completely isolated from people. I always felt that they looked down on me. I always felt no one understood me. And I always felt despised by other people. Now, it’s only a fraction of what Jesus would have felt. But it was significant enough to feel the heartache.
God’s Restoration and Encouragement
And God in His mercy has wonderful ways of restoring us and bringing identity and perspective and revelation. Here’s a wonderful way of doing that. So, I just want to encourage you today, you know, we’re not spared in life from pain. We’re not spared from it. But we have a saviour that went through it before us and He understands. And we have a saviour that supports us through our own trials and tribulations. So, it’s not about trying to remove it all the time because we can’t. Some of these things happen when we least expect it. It’s about working with God in it and understanding He knows and He even understands the questions of doubt and fear that plague us. So, we thank you Lord for today and we just thank you for who you are.
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