Sunday School Lesson for Dec. 5, 2010: God Gives Strength (Isaiah 40:1-8, 25, 26, 29-31)

Jeremiah 32:27


“I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?



1 Peter 1:23-25
23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,

“All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”[a]

And this is the word that was preached to you.



‘Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith you God.’ These are some of the most familiar, encouraging words in Scripture (I’ve been listening to Handel’s ‘Messiah’ all morning). This 40th chapter of Isaiah has several really recognizable scriptures throughout, concluding with the passage about ‘mounting up on ‘eagles wings’. What’s God saying here? Why? God is telling Israel that He’s about to do the unthinkable. He’s going to accomplish the impossible. He’s about to save beyond their (or our) ability to imagine. He’s about to send mankind a ‘gift’ in the person of Christ, who will accomplish that which is absolutely impossible. He’s about to take this fallen creation, the hopelessness that we’ve become and redeem us unto Himself. Hallelujah. Very very very ‘Good News’. Read this chapter, the entire chapter when you have an opportunity. God declares himself in such grand fashion in order to get the hearers to believe that what He has spoken, He is able to perform. What about you, Beloved? How does God need to declare Himself concerning you? What impossible, hopeless situation does He need to speak to in your life? If you read the entire chapter, you will find that God declares Himself to be bigger than all of Israel’s looming circumstances. Bigger than exile, destruction, famine, their sin… everything. Once His absolute Majesty is established, what can’t He accomplish… if they (and we) will only believe? Yes Beloved, believe. Believe that He is bigger than the ‘giants’ in our lives. Bigger than every circumstance that we’re facing. Additionally, He wants us to believe that He can and will do the impossible, the unthinkable and unimaginable. Have faith my friends, as we enter this most wonderful season. Have faith that God is yet able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask, or even think. Enjoy the lesson…



-wb



1 Thessalonians 5:19-21
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not treat prophecies with contempt 21 but test them all; hold on to what is good,

2 Peter 1:21
21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.