The case is closed Pt2

Primary Scripture: Nahum 1:7 - "The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him."Supporting Texts: Nahum 1:3, Psalm 119:68, Exodus 33:18-19 & 34:6, John 1:14-17, Genesis 17:1 & 18:14, Jeremiah 32:17 & 27, Romans 8:28-32, Genesis 50:20, Hebrews 13:5INTRODUCTION: THE TWO HALVES OF HOPE There is a phrase that has been sung in churches, whispered in hospital waiting rooms, and shouted in moments of victory for generations: "God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good."It is easy to say when the sun is shining, the bills are paid, and everyone in the house is healthy. It is much harder to say when the diagnosis comes back wrong, when the bank account is empty, or when grief sits heavy on your chest. In those moments, a quiet question creeps into the human heart: If God is so good, why is this happening? Or, if God is so powerful, why doesn't He stop it?Today I want to look at two words we often put together in our worship, yet quietly separate in our minds: Good and Almighty.Think about what happens if you separate them.Suppose God were only Good, without being Almighty. He would be like a deeply compassionate friend sitting beside you in a crisis. He would cry with you, hold your hand, and desperately want to fix your problem - but He wouldn't have the power to do anything about it. A good God without almighty power leaves us pitied, not rescued.Now flip it around. Suppose God were only Almighty, without being Good. He would have unlimited power to create galaxies and govern the universe, yet no goodness to guide it. He would be a terrifying cosmic tyrant. You might obey Him out of sheer fear, like a subject bowing before a cruel dictator, never knowing when His mood might turn against you. An almighty God without goodness leaves us terrified, not loved.The glory of the Gospel - and the anchor for our souls - is that our God is both. He is Good God Almighty.

Scripture: Psalm 23:6The Hebrew anchors: Chesed (חֶסֶד) and Radaf (רָדַף)Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.If you live long enough in the modern world, you will eventually develop the subtle, exhausting habit of constantly looking over your shoulder.We are a culture that feels chronically hunted. We are chased by looming deadlines, pursued by the consequences of our past mistakes, and stalked by the creeping anxiety that the other shoe is about to drop. When you are walking through a valley, or eating in the presence of your enemies, it is easy to believe that disaster is always one step behind you, waiting to strike the moment you stumble.Looking over your shoulder

Part 3: The Table and the Overflowing Cup (Psalm 23:5)Scripture: Psalm 23:5The Hebrew anchors: Arak (עָרַךְ), Dishen (דִּשֵּׁן) and Revayah (רְוָיָה)Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.Opening: dinner in a war zoneNobody plans a dinner party on a battlefield.When the pressure is on, we don't set tables; we set up defences. We skip meals, we eat standing up, we keep one eye on the door. When people are against you, whether it's a hostile boss, a family conflict, an accuser online, or the voice in your own head, rest feels irresponsible. Survival feels like the only option.And yet, in verse 5, right after the darkest valley, David describes the most surprising scene in the whole psalm: a beautifully laid table, with his enemies standing right there watching.

YHWH My Shepherd, Part 2Scripture: Psalm 23:4Even though I walk through the [sunless] valley of the shadow of death,I fear no evil, for You are with me;Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort and console me.The Hebrew anchors: Tsalmavet (צַלְמָוֶת), Shevet (שֵׁבֶט) and Mish'enet (מִשְׁעֶנֶת)Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.Opening: no one signs up for the valleyNo one signs up for the valley.We love the green pastures, and we celebrate the moments our souls are restored. But eventually the terrain of life shifts. The open, sunlit spaces disappear, and the path narrows into a deep, rocky ravine where the walls close in and the light begins to fade. It happens when a medical report brings unexpected news, a relationship fractures, or a financial crisis looms. Suddenly you find yourself walking through a season marked by one distinct element: a heavy, suffocating darkness.

Literal rendering (from the Hebrew)YHWH — my shepherd. I will lack nothing. In pastures of fresh grass He makes me lie down; to waters of rests He gently leads me. My life He brings back. He guides me in right tracks — for the sake of His name. Even when I walk in a ravine of deepest darkness, I fear no harm — for You are with me. Your club and Your staff, they comfort me. You set in order a table before me, facing my foes. You drench my head with oil; my cup is saturation. Only goodness and covenant-love will hunt me down all the days of my life, and I will return to the house of YHWH for length of days.

Speak to the Mountain but Hold the ImageThe Principles and Practice of Outcome-Based PrayerBig idea: Outcome-based prayer is praying from an outcome God has already secured in Christ, and holding that outcome in the heart until it is seen.Main text: Mark 11:22-24Supporting texts: Romans 4:17-21 · Genesis 15:5 · Hebrews 6:13-19 · Psalm 78:7 · Romans 10:17 · James 1:6-8Flow: what prayer is → the principles (Mark 11:23) → the practice (Mark 11:24) → Monday morningPrayer is not begging an angry God. That is a slave’s mindset. Prayer is love communion with a God who loves us without limit or condition. It is intimacy: a place of exchange and fellowship.If we are partakers of the divine nature, then prayer is not pleading for what we lack. It is aligning with what God has already provided in Christ.We still ask. Jesus taught us to ask for daily bread. But we ask as children who are sure of the Father, not as beggars unsure of a master.What “outcome-based” means•             It does not mean a technique for getting results out of God.•             It means the outcome is already secured in Christ, and prayer is how we receive it and call it into our circumstances.•             Faith is a response to the promises and character of God. It is not something we do to get God to move.Keep that definition in view. Everything that follows rests on it.Tell this slowly, in the present tense. Put them on the road.The morning walkCome with me. It is early, and you are walking out of Bethany with Jesus and the twelve. Yesterday was palm branches and shouting crowds. This morning it is just the road. By the traditional reckoning, it is a Monday.Jerusalem is about two miles off, over the Mount of Olives. Nobody has eaten. Mark tells us Jesus is hungry (v12).Up ahead stands a fig tree in full leaf. From a distance it promises breakfast. He walks over, parts the leaves, and finds nothing. All show, no fruit.Then He speaks to it. No shouting. One sentence:“No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever.” (Mark 11:14 KJV)And Mark adds a detail: “his disciples heard it.” You heard it. You were standing right there.Nothing seems to happenNow look at the tree. As far as you can see, nothing has changed. The leaves are still green. Nobody says anything. You all keep walking.A whole day goes by. The temple, the tables overturned, the long walk back out of the city at evening (v15-19). You go to bed with that sentence still in your ears and a tree that looked exactly the same.The same road, the next morningSame road. Same bend. And Peter stops dead.“Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away.” (Mark 11:21 KJV)Mark says it was “dried up from the roots” (v20). From the roots. It began to die the moment He spoke, underground, where no eye could see. The leaves were the last to know.What Jesus says, standing thereHe does not explain the tree. He turns to you and says:“Have faith in God.” (Mark 11:22 KJV)The phrase can also be read “have the faith of God”. Either way, He is pointing at what you have just watched. Then He says “this mountain”, and you are standing on one.“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” (Mark 11:23-24 KJV)You know this roadYou have walked it. You prayed. You spoke to the thing. Then you looked, and the leaves were still green. The bill was still on the table. The report still said what it said.That is the walk between the word and the withered tree. This message is about how to walk it.

The Faith of God: Framing Your RealityMark 11:12-14, 20-24 · Hebrews 11:1-3 · Romans 4:17-21Look at something solid near you: the phone in your hand, the table in front of you. It feels permanent. So do the problems we can see. A doctor's report, a bill, a broken relationship can all seem as fixed as stone, and most of us let what we see have the last word.Scripture says otherwise. What we see is the last stage of a deeper process."By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible." (Hebrews 11:3)The Greek word behind "framed" is katartizo, and it was an everyday working word. Doctors used it for setting a broken bone back in place. Fishermen used it for mending their nets so they could hold a catch, which is what James and John were doing when Jesus called them (Matthew 4:21). In public life it described restoring order to a city torn apart by faction.So when God framed the worlds, He was not decorating. He was setting things in place, mending what holds, and bringing order out of chaos. Everything visible was made from what is invisible.What you see came from what you can't

Have you ever noticed that when we get overwhelmed, our first instinct is to run faster?When we feel we are losing control of our finances, our family or our future, we start manoeuvring. We stay up later. We worry more. We try to control everything and everyone around us. We treat life like a war we have to win by out-hustling the problem.But what do you do when the problem is too big to out-hustle?

When It's Your Own Heart in the Second CourtroomRomans 8:1 and John 8 answer condemnation coming from outside — the law, the accusers. But the second courtroom in the parable above is usually run by no one but you. Scripture has a direct answer for that version too: 1 John 3:19-20 — "whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything."Notice what this verse doesn't do: it doesn't tell you your heart is wrong to feel what it feels, and it doesn't deny there might be real fault underneath the feeling. It does something more specific — it says that even when your own conscience convicts you, there's a higher court, and His verdict outranks your heart's. Not because He's more lenient, but because He has the whole file — the sin your heart is condemning you over, and the finished work that already answered it. Your heart only ever sees half the case.That's the appeal available every time the second courtroom opens: not out-arguing your own conscience, but taking the case to a higher court that already ruled.

Guilt is the only one of the four built to be temporary by design — it's supposed to hand you off to correction and then disappear. Shame, regret, and condemnation don't respond to self-effort at all, because none of them were ever actually about your performance. They were about your status. And status isn't improved. It's declared.That's the whole teaching, if you want it in one line:You cannot behave your way out of a verdict. You need the verdict changed.