06 Oct God is FAITHFUL

Hebrews 6:13-20

¹³ For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” ¹⁵ And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. ¹⁶ For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. ¹⁷ So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. ¹⁹ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Have you ever been encouraged by other people’s words? I remember one time I came to church with such a heavy burden. Many things were happening leading to that Sunday, and I was weary. I didn’t want to go to church. I wanted to stay home and binge on Netflix. But I couldn’t. Why? Because I am the pastor, and I had to preach that Sunday. Imagine if I didn’t show up and I turned off my phone. Maybe I should do that one Sunday. But I remember coming to church not wanting to be there. And unexpectedly, someone came to me and said, “I don’t know what’s happening and what you will do, but I’ve been praying for you. And I just want to tell you that God put you in my heart and I am with you.” And just like that, my whole attitude changed. If before I was frowning, then I was smiling. If before I did not want to be at church, then I was excited to preach God’s word. That’s the power of encouragement. I am sure we all can relate to that. There were moments in our lives when we were about to give up, but then someone came to us with the words we needed to hear to keep going. This is what we are going to see in our passage today. God wants to encourage his people with the words they need to hear.

Today we are on the tenth sermon of our series, “God is”, where we look at the attributes of God. The premise of this series is when we know who God is, we know who we are. And when we know who we are, we know how to live rightly. The attribute we are looking at tonight is faithfulness, God is faithful. And to do that, we are going to look at the book of Hebrews. Let me refresh you on the context of the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians who were struggling to follow Jesus. What happened was they faced severe persecution. They were not only persecuted by the Roman Government, but they were also rejected by their Jewish communities and families. And because of it, they were tempted to leave Jesus behind and return to Judaism. If they converted back to Judaism, they would not be persecuted by the government and they would be welcomed back by their families and communities. And the same applies to us. We live in a culture that is hostile to Christianity, and we are called bigots for living out our beliefs. Following Jesus is costly.

On top of that, there is also our personal constant struggle with sins. And in our struggle with sins, we often get frustrated and overwhelmed by it. We thought we had victory over it for some weeks, only for it to come back stronger than ever. We thought we had forgiven that person and let the bitterness go, only to find ourselves agitated by the same person again weeks later. We thought we already overcome that sexual issue, only to fall into the same temptation again. We desperately want those things to go away from our lives, but they keep coming back and haunt us. We are weary in our struggles with sins. And for others, we are weary in waiting for God’s promises to come to pass. We have waited for weeks, months, even years, and we see nothing. We begin to wonder if God will come true with his promises. And historically speaking, the church does not help much. Church loves celebrating the supernatural testimony that none of us had, except that person. “Addicted to porn for 20 years and it’s gone in a single night. Now I’m addicted to Jesus.” Or “God told me that I would meet the right person. A week later, I met that person in the church, and a month later I am married.” And we ask, “What is wrong with me? Why is that not my story? Why am I still struggling? Why am I still waiting? Does God still love me? Does God change his mind about me?” So, what’s happening is we live our Christian life with fear and anxiety instead of assurance and joy. But that is not how God wants us to live. As we are about to see in our passage, God wants to take us aside and tell us, “I don’t change my mind about you. I am not going anywhere. You can trust me.” God wants to assure us that he will be there for us no matter what because he is faithful. So here is my sermon in a nutshell. The faithfulness of God is the strong encouragement we need to be faithful to God. The more we see God’s faithfulness to us, the more we can be faithful to God.

So, the question is, how can we be sure that God is faithful to us? Three things we can see in this text: the example of God’s faithfulness; the assurance of God’s faithfulness; the anchor of God’s faithfulness.

The example of God’s faithfulness

Hebrews 6:13-15 – ¹³ For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, ¹⁴ saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” ¹⁵ And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

In order to encourage the struggling Jewish Christians, the author of Hebrews reminds them of the story of Abraham. Why Abraham? Because Abraham is their founding father. Abraham is the father of their faith. And not only theirs but ours as well. The Bible calls Christians the children of Abraham by faith. If you grew up in church, I’m sure you heard this song. “Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham; I am one of them, and so are you, so let’s just praise the Lord. Right arm.” And the song becomes a body combat exercise after that. So, let’s look at Abraham’s story.

Genesis 12:1-3 – Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

It is said that the rest of the Bible is the fulfilment of God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3. That’s how massive this promise is. In the end, all the families of the earth shall be blessed in Abraham. Abraham was already considerably wealthy at this time. He was a man with many possessions. But there was one thing he was lacking, an offspring. But God promised to make Abraham into a great nation, which means he had to have children. However, Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was barren. Biologically speaking, it was impossible for Sarah to have children. But God promised Abraham would have an offspring. How? God would do it. Pay attention to this promise. How many “I” do you see in this promise? “I will show you, I will make of you, I will bless you.” God wanted Abraham to know from the beginning that God was the one who would do it. God was saying, “Abraham, I am the one who will make it happen. I will make my promises come true. Not you.”

Many years passed and Abraham was still childless. But then God came to Abraham again and said he would have many children. Genesis 15:5-6 – And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. This is one of the most important verses in the Bible. Abraham looked at the impossibility of his situation and he chose to believe God over his situation. And God counted it to him as righteousness. That’s amazing. At that time, Abraham did not even have one child, but he trusted God’s promise to give him many children. Was that the end of the waiting? No. Abraham and Sarah were still childless. So, after more years of barrenness, Sarah had an idea. She said, “Babe, I am old, and I am not getting any younger. I can’t give birth. I have an idea. Why don’t you sleep with Hagar? She is young and fertile, and she is my servant. So, her child is technically my child.” And Abraham replied, “Sure babe. I’ll sleep with your servant if that’s what you want.” So, Abraham slept with Hagar, Hagar conceived, and Ishmael was born. And Abraham thought Ishmael was it. He thought Ishmael was the promised son. But God said no. Thirteen years after Ishmael was born, God appeared before Abraham again and reaffirmed his promise to Abraham to make him the father of many nations. But then God dropped the bomb. He said, “Your wife Sarah will give birth to a son.” And do you know what Abraham did? He laughed. Abraham laughed at God. And this was not a laughter of joy. It was a cynical laughter. Why? Because they were too old already. At this time, Abraham was already 99, and Sarah was 90 years old. Imagine if your grandparents call you tonight and tell you that your grandma is pregnant. You would laugh. Why? They did not have what it takes to produce a child. Even if they tried, biology told them it was too late already. And Abraham already had Ishmael as his son. But God said, “Not Ishmael. Your heir will be Isaac, the son you will have with Sarah.”

A year later, Isaac was born. After twenty-five years of waiting, God’s promise to Abraham finally came true. Isaac, the seed of promise was born, and Abraham celebrated with a great feast. But that’s not the end of the story. Many years later, God came to Abraham to test his heart. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only beloved son, Isaac. Ishmael was already thrown out of the family at that time. Isaac was it. Abraham had no other son. After all those years of waiting, Abraham finally had Isaac and now he had to give him up. God was asking the question, “Abraham, who do you love more? Do you love me more or my promise?” Abraham answered, “God, I have seen your faithfulness over the years. You have been faithful to me even when I was unfaithful to you. I have seen how you make the impossible possible. I know I can trust you. So, I am going to give Isaac to you.” When God saw that Abraham was about to pierce his dagger into Isaac, he stopped Abraham. And listen to what God said. Genesis 22:15-17 – ¹⁵ And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven ¹⁶ and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. This is not simply God reaffirming Abraham of his promises. This is God swearing an oath to Abraham. This is what the author of Hebrews is referring to.

What can we learn from the life of Abraham? It is simply this. God is always faithful to keep his promises. Abraham waited 25 years for the glimpse of God’s promises to become a reality. 25 years. That is a long wait. And Abraham was not perfect. He messed up a lot along the way. He wavered and made mistakes again and again. He failed to trust God many times. But God was faithful to Abraham. And the faithfulness of God enabled Abraham to receive the promise. Do you see? The primary focus was not on Abraham but on God. The promise of God for Abraham did not depend on Abraham’s faithfulness to God but on God’s faithfulness to Abraham. If it depended on Abraham’s faithfulness, there would be no Isaac. There would be no Israel. There would be no Christianity. It wasn’t Abraham who remained faithful to God. It was God who remained faithful to Abraham. And it was God’s faithfulness that sustained Abraham through the ups and downs. Abraham persevered because God refused to give up on Abraham. And by persevering, Abraham received what God had promised. God always delivers on his promises. The life of Abraham is a prime example of it.

So here is one key takeaway point from Abraham’s life. The strength of our faithfulness to God is not nearly as important as the strength of God’s faithfulness to us. Our faithfulness is a byproduct of God’s faithfulness. And this is important. Many of us come to church tonight with burdens. We have issues, concerns, and problems in our lives that discourage us from following God. We are overwhelmed with fear, worry, and anxiety. We are weary and exhausted. We are at church, but we don’t want to be at church. And we wonder if God feels the same way toward us. Do you know why we feel like that? Because we are looking at the wrong object. We are looking at ourselves. We are looking at our faithfulness to God to determine God’s faithfulness to us. No wonder we are anxious. Because our faithfulness to God fluctuates all the time, and we think God changes his mind about us because of it. But the encouragement tonight is to stop looking inward and start looking upward. Rather than focus on our wavering faithfulness to God, focus on God’s unwavering faithfulness to us. God’s faithfulness to us does not depend on us but on himself. God is faithful because he is faithful, and he cannot deny himself. And that’s what’s going to make us faithful. The more we focus on God’s faithfulness, the more faithful we become. Our faithfulness is the byproduct of God’s faithfulness. Yes, we must patiently wait for God. Yes, we must persevere in our walk with God. But we do so with our gaze on God who is faithful to keep all his promises. Just like God did not fail to keep his promises to Abraham, he will not fail to keep all his promises to us.

The assurance of God’s faithfulness

Hebrews 6:16-18 – ¹⁶ For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. ¹⁷ So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

These verses are mind-blowing. I remember when I first studied it a few years ago, I could not believe what was happening in these verses. It radically changed my life. But if we read it too quickly, we won’t see it. To truly get what the author of Hebrews is saying, we need to slow down. We need to chew these verses slowly. So, that’s what we are going to do. Stay with me. I promise these verses are life-altering. First, we need to understand the character of God and his word. God is a faithful God. Whatever God says is true, and he is faithful to keep his word. But God is not only faithful, but he is also all-powerful. God can do whatever he wants, however he wants, and whenever he wants. That’s what makes God, God. So, when God says something, it is not only true, but we can also be sure it will happen. He is different from us. When we give someone our words, we can’t be certain it will happen. We can only do our best to make it happen. If I tell you, “The sermon will end in five minutes,” I can only do my best to finish my sermon in the next five minutes. But there is no guarantee it will happen. By the way, don’t get too excited. This is just an example. I won’t finish my sermon in the next five minutes. But God is different. Whatever God says will come to pass. We can trust his word. Why? Because his words are powerful. His word created everything out of nothing. He spoke and it came to be. And his word is unchangeable because God is unchangeable. Therefore, we can trust his word. If all God gives us is his word, that is more than enough. His word will not fail to accomplish what it sets out to do. Are you with me?

But what happens in these verses blows my mind. Hebrews 6:17 – So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. Notice that it was God’s desire. It was God’s willingness. It was what God wanted. No one forced him to do it. He acted out of his own desire. What did he want to do? He wanted to convince the heirs of the promise. Who are the heirs of promise? Paul says in Romans and Galatians that all who put their faith in Jesus are the heirs of the promise. That’s you and me, Christians. So, in order to convince us of God’s unchangeable character of his purpose, in order to convince us that he does not change his mind about us, in order to convince us that we can be assured, God did the unthinkable. God swore an oath. When we swear, we always swear on something greater than ourselves, right? We do not say, “I swear on my cat’s life.” No. When we swear, we swear on things bigger than ourselves. We say, “I swear on my mother’s grave. I swear on the life of my family.” What we say when we swear is that if we don’t tell the truth, may that very thing be accursed. The point of swearing is to ensure the other person as much as we possibly can that what we are saying is true. Now when God wanted to swear, it put him in a dilemma since nothing is bigger than him and everything is created by him. Heaven? He created heaven. Angels? They are his servants. It doesn’t matter how beautiful and majestic it is, nothing in creation can be compared to the Creator. God is more valuable and precious than all creations combined. He is it. So, do you know what God did? He swore by himself. In other words, God was saying, “If what I say does not come to pass, then let me be accursed. I’ll die.” That is absurd. And look at the next verse.

Hebrews 6:18 – so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. What are the two unchangeable things? First, God is faithful to his promises and his word always comes true. And second, on top of being who he is, God swore an oath. It is then impossible for God to lie. So, listen. It is impossible for God to lie because he is a faithful God who keeps his word, and he swore an oath by himself. The moment he breaks his word is the moment he stops being God. The question is, why? Why did God have to go to such an extent? What purpose was he trying to accomplish? God did not need to make an oath. His words alone are sufficient. But why did he? Listen to what Sam Storms writes. “The oath itself adds nothing to the reliability of God’s initial promise. It does not make God’s statement truer than it would have been otherwise. God’s word, for no other reason than that it is God’s word, is indefectible and immutable and always rock solid true. But for our sakes, in order that you and I may be increasingly encouraged and overwhelmingly convinced and all doubt forever removed, God added the oath.”

Did you get that? So, in God’s mind, God was asking the question, “What is the strongest encouragement I can give to my people for them to hold fast to me? What is the strongest encouragement I can give for them to not walk away from me? Oh, I know. Let me swear to them upon my own name.” If God could have gone higher to give us stronger encouragement, he would. But there is nothing higher than God. That means the only way God can break his promises to us is if God stops being God. Translation: that day will never come. In taking the oath, God wanted us to have as much confidence in God as it is possible for us to have. God took extreme measures to let us know that his promises will never fail. In other words, listen. The reason God went to such an extent to swear an oath by himself is for one purpose: so that we might have the strongest encouragement possible to trust him. God is a promise-keeping God. God wanted us to know with unshakeable assurance that he would keep his word.

Can you see why this is life-altering? The reason God made an oath is because he knows our fragile hearts. He knows how slow we are to believe his promises. He knows how quick we are to doubt his word. And rather than condemning us for our weaknesses, God meets us in our weaknesses. God did not swear an oath to make his purpose unchanging but to let us know with absolute certainty that it was so. He swore an oath for our sake. Because here is what I know about my own heart. My heart often whispers, “There is no way God could have loved me after all that. I am sure he doesn’t want me. I am sure he must be tired of me. Even I am tired of myself. He might have chosen me before the foundation of the world, but I am sure God must have changed his mind about me by now.” Does anyone else hear those whispers? And here is what the author of Hebrews is telling us. Can God change his mind about us? Yes, if God can lie. But if God can’t lie, if God swore upon himself, then we can know with confidence that God will never ever change his mind about us.

And isn’t that what our hearts long for? Our hearts long for someone who is always there for us no matter what. Here’s the irony. We want to have someone unchangeably committed to us, someone who is always there, and yet we ourselves cannot be that for anybody else. One of the reasons people get married is because they want to know someone will be there for them till the end. But no one can do that. You can’t do that for your spouse and your spouse can’t do that for you. Even if you have the best marriage where you never fight and grow more in love with each other every passing day, you still can’t be that for your spouse. Do you know why? Because you will die. And when you die, your spouse will no longer have you. So, is there anything that will last? Is there anything that doesn’t change? Is there anything that we can count on no matter what? Is there anything that will never let us down? God is saying to us, “I swore an oath by myself to let you know that I am not going anywhere. I will never change my mind about you. I will keep all my promises to you. As long as I am God, I will be faithful to you. I will never let you go. So, hold fast to me.”

The anchor of God’s faithfulness

Hebrews 6:19-20 – ¹⁹ We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

What is an anchor? An anchor is what is used to help a boat remain steady and stable above water. A few years ago, some of us decided to rent a boat and have a fellowship on the boat. When they said they wanted to rent a boat, I didn’t know why what came to my mind was a yacht. I was very excited. But when I got there, I was very disappointed. It was not a yacht; it was a boat. Then I realised there was no way we could afford a yacht. We were not in that tax bracket. So, we got into the boat, drove it to a nice location, and let down the anchor. The purpose of letting down the anchor was so the boat would remain where it was and not drift because of the wave. However, our boat was not steady. It kept moving. So, we pulled out the anchor and we let it down again. What happened? For the anchor to function properly, two things must happen. First, the anchor must be attached to the boat. Second, the end of the anchor must be attached to something firm and permanent that can hold the weight of the boat. It does the boat no good if the other end of the anchor is not attached to anything firm and permanent.

So here is what the author of the Hebrews is saying. Your soul and my soul have an anchor. And that anchor is not loose. That anchor is attached to something firm and permanent. It is a sure and steadfast anchor. And what is weird about the anchor of our soul is that it does not go down, but it goes up. It is an upside-down anchor. Our anchor is not attached to anything in the deep sea but in the high heaven. He says that our anchor is a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. This is an Old Testament language that refers to the presence of God in the holy of holies. The holy of holies was a place where a high priest would enter once a year to offer a sacrifice of sins to make peace between God and God’s people. So, our anchor is a hope that enters the presence of God to make peace between God and us. And our anchor has a name. His name is Jesus Christ. And the author of Hebrews says that Jesus Christ enters God’s presence as a forerunner on our behalf. A forerunner is someone who makes a way for others to follow. In other words, Jesus enters God’s presence in order for us to follow him there. There will come a day when we will be in the presence of God forever, but that day is not here yet. For now, we experience God’s presence partially. But we have the guarantee that we will always have access to God’s presence. How? Because Jesus not only enters God’s presence on our behalf, but he becomes a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

We have a whole sermon online talking just about the order of Melchizedek if you want to know more. The point is that Jesus’ priesthood is different from all other priesthoods. His priesthood is eternal. It is unchanging. It is firm and permanent. Therefore, we do not need another high priest. Jesus Christ is forever our high priest, and he is right now interceding with God on our behalf. So, if we want to know what Jesus is doing in heaven right now, this is the answer. Jesus is praying for you and me in God’s presence. There is not a single second that Jesus does not pray for us as our high priest. And here is the good news. If Jesus prays for us, he will not fail. God will hear Jesus’ prayers. Therefore, we can be absolutely sure that we always have access to God, and we too will enter the fullness of God’s presence and be with Jesus one day. Our hope is not a mere wish but a sure and steadfast anchor in heaven. Our soul is anchored to Jesus and his perfect work for us.

So, here is God’s promise for us. Life is not easy. Following Jesus is extremely hard and costly. But God is faithful. When we follow Jesus, we will be shaken and not shaken at the same time. Here is what I mean. The wind and waves of this world will continue to rock our boats. Problems and hardships will not go away. Our struggle with sins will continue as long as we are in this sinful body. And there will be days when it feels like we are not going to make it. Maybe not days. Maybe it’s months, seasons, years. The storms of life will shake our boats ferociously. But we can be steady. We are steady not because we are strong. We are steady because something firm and permanent is holding us, our anchor. The purpose of an anchor is not to stop storms from coming but to keep us steady amid storms. And the good news is our anchor is strong enough to hold us firm amid the biggest storms. Listen. Our confidence is not in our strength but in the strength of our anchor. Our souls are secure not because we have great faith but because our faith is anchored in Jesus Christ, our great eternal high priest. God is faithful.

But here is the question. How? How can God be faithful to us when we are unfaithful to him? Does God simply decide to close his eyes to our unfaithfulness? He can’t do that. God’s faithfulness does not negate his justice. This puts us in a dilemma. If God is faithful but he is not just, we cannot trust him. Why should we trust the faithfulness of someone who overlooks evil? But if God is faithful to his word and punishes evil, how can he bear with our unfaithfulness? What is the cost of our unfaithfulness? The answer lies in the covenant God made with Abraham to seal his promises to Abraham in Genesis 15. What is a covenant? A covenant is a legally binding contract between two parties. In ancient times, when you made a covenant with someone, you acted out the curse of breaking the covenant. So, if I were making a covenant with you, I would say, “I promise to do this and that” and you would say, “I promise to do this and that.” And then we would take animals, cut them in half, walk together between the pieces, and say, “If I don’t keep my promise, if I break our covenant, may I be cut to pieces like these animals.” We were acting out the curse.

But what’s amazing about the covenant God made with Abraham is that Abraham did not walk between the pieces. God was the only one who walked between the pieces. It was God’s way of saying to Abraham, “I will keep both sides of the covenant. I will be faithful to my promise, and I will pay the price when the covenant is broken.” Do you know what it meant? Abraham should have paid the price for his unfaithfulness to God. He broke his covenant with God. Abraham should have been cut to pieces and God should have been free from the covenant. The curse of breaking the covenant with God is to be cut off from a relationship with God. But God said, “I will pay the price of your unfaithfulness. I will take the cost of breaking the covenant. I will keep my promise, and I will be faithful to you even if I must be cut for it.” That’s how committed God was to keep his promise to Abraham. He would do it. That’s God’s faithfulness. But Abraham had no idea the lengths which God had to go to keep his promise. Because for God to be faithful to Abraham, God had to pay the price of unfaithfulness.

And the same is true for us. Every time we sin, we are being unfaithful to God. We break our covenant with God. And the curse of breaking the covenant is for God to deny us. We deserve eternal separation from God for our unfaithfulness. So, the question of our hearts is, “I know God is faithful, but I am not. Just this week alone, I failed God many times. I do not keep my word to him again and again. How do I know God is still there for me? How can I be sure he is still faithful to me despite my unfaithfulness?” Here is how we can know for sure. God cut himself for us. How? Through the cross of Jesus Christ. At the cross, God the Son in his humanity was cut off from God the Father. Jesus experienced the curse of breaking God’s covenant. At the cross of Jesus Christ, the only person who lived out God’s covenant perfectly, the only person who was faithful to God to his last breath, was cut off so that we who put our faith in him will never be cut off. This is the reason why God will never give up on us. This is how we can know for sure that God will be faithful to us. This is how we know that God who began the good work in us will complete it on the day of Jesus Christ. Because God himself paid the price of our unfaithfulness. God will never ever let us go because of what Jesus has done for us. God is faithful to us because of God’s oath-bound promise, secured and made fast by the finished work of Jesus at the cross. This is the anchor of our souls. So, whatever storm we might experience, we can always run to God. Flee to him for refuge. God has given us the strongest encouragement for us to hold fast to him when he gave us Jesus Christ. And when we run to God, we will see that we can hold fast to him because we are held fast by him. God is faithful. Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. What struck you the most from the sermon?
2. Do you tend to focus more on God’s faithfulness or your faithfulness? Why?
3. How does God swearing an oath encourage your fragile heart?
4. What does it mean to have Jesus as the anchor of your soul?
5. How can you be assured of God’s faithfulness to you when you are unfaithful to him?