Read Hebrews 11
Abel – Genesis 4
Enoch – Genesis 5:18-24
Noah – Genesis 5:29-10:32
Abraham – Genesis 12-25
Sarah – Genesis 12-23
Isaac – Genesis 17-35
Jacob – Genesis 25-50
Joseph – Genesis 37-50
Moses - Pentateuch
Rahab - Josh 2:1, 3; 6:17-25
Gideon - Judges 6-8
Barak - Judges 4-5
Samson – Judges 13-16
Jephthah – Judges 11-12; 1 Samuel 12:11
David – Ruth 4, 1 & 2 Samuel
Samuel – 1 Samuel
How can we relate to these people? Many of us when we open up the Scriptures, it’s so hard to enter into this world! Why? When the pleasures of simple entertainment are so readily available? Why even open the Bible? Because our lives our in the balance! And life is so short. The God is the same that the Old Testament saints worshipped. God is directing our lives. Your destiny is in His hands. The Bible reveals God’s unchanging character.
God is immutable!
1.) God’s life does NOT change!
Psalm 93:2 Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.
1 Timothy 6:15-16 he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
Psalm 102:26 They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.
Our lives are so short. Story of my dad’s things…that have outlasted us. Trees outlast us. The Broad River will be here long after your gone…God the unchangeable one is here and wants to have a relationship with you.
We need God! Christianity is not a religion where we go to feel good about ourselves. We need God for our every breath.
2.) God’s character does NOT change!
Exodus 3:14-15 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.
Exodus 34:5-8 The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go in the midst of us, for it is a stiff-necked people, and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your inheritance.
We change. And you become what you worship. Are you the person you want to be? Are you being daily transformed even more into the image of Christ. Progressive Sanctification. The Holy Spirit brings it about in our lives, but we have to follow Christ! That’s our responsibility. Don’t be the same person you were two years ago or fiver years ago. If you are, you are wasting time.
3.) God’s truth does NOT change!
Our words are always changing and they’re not always true! Sometimes we think we’re right but we’re wrong!
Story about LIZ at school.
Seriously, how many things have we said that have been flat out wrong?
Isaiah 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.
4.) God’s ways do NOT change!
God has not changed. God is not more advanced. God wasn’t primitive when he was destroying villages. The people were evil and had rebelled against God. God deals with us the same way we he did with OT saints. If you’re hear today, I think the LORD has a special hand on your life. God loves everyone, but there are some that the LORD loves more.
5.) God’s purposes do NOT change!
1 Samuel 15:29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the LORD your God.”
God doesn’t change his mind or his intentions!
We can believe God’s promises!
Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Psalm 33:11 The plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.
6.) God’s Son does NOT change!
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
