Life Verses: You Are His, He Is With You, He Will Make a Way | Jess Silikiwai
Good morning! It's wonderful to see you all. For those who didn't catch that, my name is Jess. I am the students and young adults pastor here at City Church. We're approaching almost four years here now, and we love it. It is our home, and God is doing something wonderful in Swansea, isn't He?
This month we start a sermon series titled Life Verses. Over the next few weeks, we have the privilege of hearing from some incredible seasoned ministers offering us a wealth of wisdom and experience. I'm so looking forward to it. But this week you've got me, not quite seasoned but have been through many seasons.
I'm excited to bring this word to you this morning as we dive into my favorite passage, Isaiah 43. If you would like to turn your Bibles, open them up, get them on your apps, Isaiah 43 verses 1 to 2.
I would love it if you could read this with me. We are in the ESV version:
"But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you." (Isaiah 43:1-2 ESV)
Hallelujah! I could just read that, and then we could thank God for His promises and His unending grace and mercy and presence in our lives. Amen.
Life Isn't Always Easy
Here's the thing though, I don't know if you've noticed this yet, but life is not always that easy, is it? You've had those days, maybe where you felt really overwhelmed, right? I'm sure we could all relate where you wonder if God even sees you, or if He will ever come and help you.
Trying to run or hide from the troubles of this world we live in can leave us vulnerable and ill-equipped for the battles we will inevitably face. Holding on to God's promise and His presence has been an important key for me when facing life head on.
Don't worry, it is not all doom and gloom. Today, I am not just here to remind you of how hard life can be. Stick with me. Watch how holding to the promises and the presence of God takes the realities of this world and flips it all upside down, and gives us freedom and victory and peace.
The Context: Hope in Exile
For some context, Isaiah 43 is written by Isaiah, the prophet. He was a messenger for the Lord to His chosen people. God was comforting the Israelites with promises of His presence, of redemption and restoration, particularly during a time where they had very little hope for the future, where they had become exiles at the hands of the Babylonians.
There really didn't feel like there was much way out in any way they turned. They were lost.
But Isaiah 43 verses 1 to 2 is part of a scripture that has been foundational in my personal walk with God.
My Story: Called By Name
After I was saved as a 15-year-old, I started to experience the presence of God in powerful, tender, and sometimes quite miraculous ways. I quickly gained a hunger for the word of God as I sought to encounter this Lord that I had heard so much about.
There were times where I'd walk into my pink attic bedroom and just fall to my knees in awe of the tangible presence of God.
I actually used to write all over my bedroom wall in pink and orange highlighter pen, which did take my parents many layers of paint to get rid of in the end. But I would write these things on my wall above my bed when I discovered a new thing about Him.
But what was written in the largest and brightest font on my wall was Isaiah 43 verse 1: "I have called you by name. You are mine."
At the time of giving my life to Christ, I quickly felt this conviction from the Holy Spirit to separate myself from a core group of friends. These friends at the time, as we often experience as teenagers, were closer than family and much more influential at the time. But it was also an incredibly bad influence and as a result, had taken me to endure some really dangerous and hellish experiences.
So I obediently stepped away with God's assurance that I was not alone. Even as I sat on the toilet seat to eat my lunch alone—very dramatic teenager feeling misunderstood and painfully set apart—I knew His words: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you."
I needed it to be true. And I took this verse as a promise of His presence, and I felt it.
Everything else could be stripped away, everybody else could be taken away, but if He was with me, I'd be okay.
A Life Lesson That Carries Through Every Season
I learned a lesson I'm grateful for so early on that has carried me through all seasons of my life ever since—through new exciting adventures and living in foreign countries, including more recently the exotic move to Wales, to near death experiences and tough journey to parenthood and many more wild ups and downs as I'm certain all of us have experienced in different expressions, haven't we?
I learned to grip tightly to this simple truth: I am His, and He is with me.
The message the Lord has put on my heart to hopefully speak directly into your heart is this: You are His, He is with you, and He will make a way.
Let me speak that again over you: You are His, He is with you, and He will make a way.
Breaking Down the Promise
Let's get back into verse 1. Would you read with me?
"But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine."
To break it down as simply as I can, there's so much we can take from this first verse. I want to draw our attention to three things happening here that I don't want to just let pass by:
There is an instruction to not fear
There is a reminder of what God had already done
He affirmed who they are and who they belong to
There's significance here on being reminded of all God has already done for us, and knowing our identity in Christ before we go on to walk into life's trials and God's plans for us.
When we face uncertainty, we are vulnerable to having our identity questioned, and forgetting all that God has already done in our lives to save us.
Jesus' Example: Identity Under Attack
Even Jesus, when He was baptized, God affirmed Him saying "This is my Son in whom I am well pleased." Before launching into His ministry and divine purpose in His death and resurrection, what happens?
Jesus goes into the wilderness to be tried and tested, His identity, His worth, and His position. All questioned: "If you are the Son of God, prove who you are. If you are who you think you are..."
All the enemy's attempts came to nothing, as we know, as Jesus responded with truth from scripture and a concrete security in His identity as the Son of God.
But the devil here reveals his strategy, doesn't he? This was Jesus. The enemy would be pulling out all the stops to make sure that the Son of God who held his demise would fall.
So when we are redeemed and called and set to walk in the plans and purpose God has for us, often the first attempt to stop us is to question our identity and to feel shaky in our trust of the Lord to come through.
I wonder if you've experienced this, and that's what's coming to mind right now. How many times and how often does it happen? When we start to get shaky in our, sometimes even our belief in God through the difficult times, and we start to question who we are and lean on our identity in things that God never intended us to define ourselves with.
Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name, you are mine.
Let these words fall on your heart to hear God saying to you: Fear not, I have redeemed you, I have saved you from your sin. I have made you my son or daughter; you are my child, I have called you by name. The God of the universe has called you by name, He doesn't miss one. God says you are His, He is with you, He will make a way.
When You Pass Through Waters and Fire
Now track with me as we move into verse two:
"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you."
Israel had and would have their trials as we have ours. Trials are inevitable.
Notice, it doesn't say if you pass through the waters. It says when, when you pass through the waters. It says God will be with us in the toughest of circumstances. Trials are varied. Sometimes we face waters, sometimes rivers, and sometimes fire.
You see, floods overwhelm and fires consume. How many of us can recognise those moments, those seasons, those times where we feel overwhelmed by the greatness of our problems?
How many of us have felt or feel consumed, our every thought, our every question, our every waking and sleeping moment consumed by something?
The Lord promises us that His presence is in the midst of all of that.
What I have been learning even in this current season that I am in is His presence doesn't always remove the problem that we face. But it does turn our face towards Him so that we are removed from distractions meant to overwhelm us, to consume us, to kill, steal and destroy, so that we may not lose hope in Him—the one who will redeem us and will bring us out to safety.
The Story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
Let's focus on the fire. Fire sounds great until you're in it, right?
"When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, the flame shall not consume you." What an incredible promise.
This is some powerful imagery and reminds me, as I'm sure some of you, of the story in Daniel of three Hebrew men: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. (And I said that right, because it keeps autocorrecting to Shadrach, mishap and Indigo. So I did well to remember that.)
We read of these three young men, brave believers who held onto their faith in God, even when threatened with a fiery death.
King Nebuchadnezzar had a huge golden statue built of himself, how humble, and commanded his people to bow down and worship this statue whenever they heard the music of the herald. Those who disobeyed the order would be thrown into an immense blazing furnace to their death.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, however, worshipped only one true God, our one true God, and they refused to bow down to false idols. They were brought to the king to face their fate but remained courageous in the face of the king's demand to bow down before him.
They knew the consequences, but it was worth the cost.
Furious, Nebuchadnezzar ordered the furnace to be heated seven times hotter than it usually was, and the three men were bound and cast into the flames. The fiery blast was so hot that it killed the soldiers who were escorting them to the fire.
But as the king peered into the furnace, he marvelled at what he saw. And this is in Daniel 3:25:
"But I see four men unbound, walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods."
Then the king called to the men to come out of the furnace. All three of them emerged unharmed, with not even a hair on their head singed or the smell of smoke on their clothing. How incredible is that? I can't even go to a barbecue without smelling of smoke for five days.
Unharmed and Unsinged
I think there's something in that passage right there, this story that is for a number of those in the room who may have recently or in the past experienced this fire that we are talking about, these trials, these difficulties, these struggles.
There's a promise and there's a hope here that they emerged unharmed, with not even a hair on their head singed or the smell of smoke on their clothing. That is how much our God is with us. He is surrounding us. He is consuming us, so that when we do inevitably walk into the fires, when we are tested and trialed and blamed and we sin and all of this mess and chaos that erupts in the fire, He says, "You will leave with me unharmed, unsinged, and you will not even smell of the smoke."
What a promise that we get to hold on to.
They were quite literally in the fire and were neither burned or consumed by it.
The Fourth Man in the Fire
So who is this fourth man that Nebuchadnezzar saw in the flames? Many Bible scholars believe He was a manifestation of Christ, this divine angel of the Lord. Regardless, His appearance was miraculous, a heavenly bodyguard sent by God to protect them and assure them that He was there with them in their intense time of need.
The scripture says the fire did not harm them, but it didn't say that they didn't feel the heat.
We may go through things that feel so much, and they feel all consuming. And that's where this verse gives us a heavenly perspective over a situation. Even in the greatest difficulties, as we draw close to His presence and remember all that He has already done to redeem us, and believe who He says we are, it's crazy how our faith and trust in Him can strengthen in these times, or how we can grow and mature in seasons where we can't really rely on anything or anyone else, just Him.
Just as the three young men's faith was tested, it was strengthened.
The fire doesn't get to define you, but He will use it to refine you.
See, the waters won't overwhelm you. The fire will not consume you. He has promised to be with you.
You are His, He is with you. He will make a way.
You say that with me: You are His, He is with you. He will make a way.
When You Feel Consumed
I'm aware that as I'm speaking about this, you could currently be watching online or in the room right now, thinking, "That sounds great, but my thing is too consuming. It will consume me. I feel consumed. I feel overwhelmed."
And I encourage you to take hold so tightly of His promise: You will not be overwhelmed. This will not define you. Seek Him, and He will use it to refine you. He will.
A Time for His Presence
Now we're going to take some time. As we are talking about His presence and the importance of this promise in our lives, to be in His presence, that would make sense, right?
Some of us simply need to be comforted today in the truth that you are His. Others need to be reminded to seek the promise of His presence right now. And for others, there's a need to be encouraged that our God will make a way for you.
You are His, He is with you. He will make a way.
In this moment, I encourage you to not let what could consume you consume your worries and your thoughts right now. Let us be reminded of everything He has already done. Let us be reminded about who He says we are, and let us hold on to the promise that He will make a way.
For those of us who simply need comfort in the truth that we are His, I ask you just to lay a hand on your heart to whatever it looks like for you to receive.
Father, would Your presence be so tangible here right now. Would we feel the grip of being placed in Your hand and held by You alone? Holy Spirit, would You come? Would You renew our mind? Would You consume our lives?
And for those who are seeking a reminder of His promise, of His presence, I want you to just stretch out your hands or something in an effort to just physically receive what He is freely giving.
We love Your presence. We love Your presence. We recognise that You are here right now, You are here right now.
And for those who are desperately seeking for our God to make a way where there seems to be no way, I declare over you that the plans and the purposes of God for your life are good. If you do not know the Lord Jesus as your saviour yet, be encouraged that on the other side of acceptance into the kingdom, He will make a way in your difficult place right now.
Let's just spend a moment worshipping Him and declaring His goodness and faithfulness in our lives.
Thank You, God. Thank You for Your presence.