![\"God](\"http:\/\/www.all-creatures.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/lambleft.jpg\")
<\/a>A Sermon Delivered to
\nThe Compassion Internet Church<\/p>\n
8 February 2015<\/p>\n
Frank L. Hoffman, Pastor<\/p>\n
Scripture References:<\/p>\n
Psalm 147:1-20
\nIsaiah 40:21-31
\nMatthew 6:10<\/p>\n
God remains faithful in the midst of corruption so that people would not lose hope.<\/p>\n
God remains faithful for all who trust in Him.<\/p>\n
At the same time we know that this is true, we wonder why God has allowed millions of humans and billions of animals to suffer and die every year.<\/p>\n
The only answer we get is that God has allowed the corruption of creation to remain until the peacemaking children of God rise up and actively help free creation from its present corruption without causing any more pain and suffering.<\/p>\n
In other words, God seems to allow our world society to suffer at the hands of our own evil creation, until we repent and return to God\u2019s heavenly will.<\/p>\n
This is also why wars and revenge never are a lasting solution, for they only create more violence and not peace.<\/p>\n
Psalm 147:1-20 is a psalm of praise that contains examples of how God remains faithful to everyone, but at the same time He remains righteous and separates those who live in His heavenly will from those who follow the corrupt ways of the devil.<\/p>\n
1. Praise the LORD!
\nFor it is good to sing praises to our God;
\nFor it is pleasant and praise is becoming.<\/p>\n
True praise is pleasant, but just reciting words like so many people do with the Lord\u2019s Prayer is ungodly, for while many people pray for \u201cThy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven\u201d (Matthew 6:10), they don\u2019t do anything to help bring it to pass nor do they indicate that they really want to live according to God\u2019s heavenly will.<\/p>\n
2. The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
\nHe gathers the outcasts of Israel.<\/p>\n
3. He heals the brokenhearted,
\nAnd binds up their wounds.<\/p>\n
Even with God doing all of this, the people turned away from God, and He exiled them to Babylon.<\/p>\n
This also seems to explain the kind of corrupt world we are living in today, where only a small percentage of humans have any real empathy for animals and don\u2019t eat or otherwise exploit them.<\/p>\n
Without empathy and compassion, people can never become children of God.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, God remains faithful.<\/p>\n
4. He counts the number of the stars;
\nHe gives names to all of them.<\/p>\n
5. Great is our Lord, and abundant in strength;
\nHis understanding is infinite.<\/p>\n
God really understands the intent of our heart and soul, and sees those who follow the corrupt and blood-thirsty ways of this world.<\/p>\n
Nothing can be hidden from Him.<\/p>\n
Likewise, He sees the true loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God.<\/p>\n
6. The LORD supports the afflicted;
\nHe brings down the wicked to the ground.<\/p>\n
God remains faithful, but He is also righteous.<\/p>\n
However, we need to ask ourselves a question: Are we going to be part of the wicked ways of this world, or are we going to repent and be part of the righteous people whom God supports?<\/p>\n
7. Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
\nSing praises to our God on the lyre,<\/p>\n
We can only truly do this if we are children of God who live in His heavenly will.<\/p>\n
8. Who covers the heavens with clouds,
\nWho provides rain for the earth,
\nWho makes grass to grow on the mountains.<\/p>\n
9. He gives to the beast its food,
\nAnd to the young ravens which cry.<\/p>\n
These are examples of some of the ways God remains faithful in the midst of corruption.<\/p>\n
10. He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
\nHe does not take pleasure in the legs of a man.<\/p>\n
These are examples of the way people live in the world and try to control everything themselves, rather than living in the heavenly will of God.<\/p>\n
11. The LORD favors those who fear Him,
\nThose who wait for His lovingkindness.<\/p>\n
This kind of fear more correctly means to reverence God.<\/p>\n
12. Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem!
\nPraise your God, O Zion!<\/p>\n
The psalmist calls all the people to do this; but as we know, they really didn\u2019t do it with all their heart and soul. They still lived in the ungodly ways of this world with all its pain, suffering, bloodshed, and death, just as most people are doing today, particularly when it comes to the way we treat animals.<\/p>\n
13. For He has strengthened the bars of your gates;
\nHe has blessed your sons within you.<\/p>\n
If people truly lived in peace, this would not be necessary.<\/p>\n
And we believe that if we are true peacemakers\u2026<\/p>\n
14. He makes peace in your borders;
\nHe satisfies you with the finest of the wheat.<\/p>\n
Note carefully that God does not supply flesh and other animal products; He supplies plant foods, like those He created in Eden for us and the animals to eat.<\/p>\n
15. He sends forth His command to the earth;
\nHis word runs very swiftly.<\/p>\n
16. He gives snow like wool;
\nHe scatters the frost like ashes.<\/p>\n
17. He casts forth His ice as fragments;
\nWho can stand before His cold?<\/p>\n
These are examples of God\u2019s judgement.<\/p>\n
18. He sends forth His word and melts them;
\nHe causes His wind to blow and the waters to flow.<\/p>\n
This is what happens when we truly repent and seek to live in God\u2019s heavenly will.<\/p>\n
19. He declares His words to Jacob,
\nHis statutes and His ordinances to Israel.<\/p>\n
These are more examples of how God remains faithful.<\/p>\n
20. He has not dealt thus with any nation;
\nAnd as for His ordinances, they have not known them.
\nPraise the LORD!
\nNASB<\/p>\n
We cannot live with one foot on this corrupt world, and with the other try to get into heaven.<\/p>\n
We must choose how we are going to live.<\/p>\n
We should be 100% committed children of God who have no part in the corrupt ways of this earth, even though we happen to physically live here; we are to spiritually live in the heavenly will of God and bring it to earth as part of everything we do.<\/p>\n
Isaiah 40:21-31 is a beautiful passage of Scripture that helps us live in the heavenly will of God even while we remain upon this corrupt earth.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all part of how God remains faithful.<\/p>\n
21. Do you not know?
\nHave you not heard?
\nHas it not been declared to you from the beginning?
\nHave you not understood from the foundations of the earth?<\/p>\n
The Lord told us in Genesis 1:26 that we are to be stewards of His creation and protect it from harm, which we know is true, for there was no pain suffering or death in Eden, nor is there any in heaven.<\/p>\n
The Lord also gave us and the animals only plant foods to eat, so that no living being would suffer or die, and said that everything He had created in Eden was very good (Genesis 1:29-31).<\/p>\n
We know that people have heard this, but most of them don\u2019t seem to want to understand or live as God wants us to live; rather, they have chosen to follow the corrupt ways of the devil and bring suffering, death, and destruction to His beautifully created earth.<\/p>\n
22. It is He who sits above the vault of the earth,
\nAnd its inhabitants are like grasshoppers,
\nWho stretches out the heavens like a curtain
\nAnd spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.<\/p>\n
Why don\u2019t most people seem to recognize who God really is?<\/p>\n
Why are they following the corrupt ways of the devil with all its pain, suffering, bloodshed, and death which leads only to destruction and more corruption?<\/p>\n
23. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing,
\nWho makes the judges of the earth meaningless.<\/p>\n
24. Scarcely have they been planted,
\nScarcely have they been sown,
\nScarcely has their stock taken root in the earth,
\nBut He merely blows on them, and they wither,
\nAnd the storm carries them away like stubble.<\/p>\n
25. “To whom then will you liken Me
\nThat I should be his equal?” says the Holy One.<\/p>\n
Most people seem to want to live in worldly ways and ignore their pending doom.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be one of them!<\/p>\n
26. Lift up your eyes on high
\nAnd see who has created these stars,
\nThe One who leads forth their host by number,
\nHe calls them all by name;
\nBecause of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power
\nNot one of them is missing.<\/p>\n
Recognize the magnificence of the Lord our God, and seek to be one of His peacemaking children.<\/p>\n
God remains faithful to accept our true repentance, forgive us, and transform us into children of God who can help heal this earth from its present corruption.<\/p>\n
27. Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel,
\n“My way is hidden from the LORD,
\nAnd the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?<\/p>\n
These are the lies that people tell themselves when they live in the corrupt ways of this world.<\/p>\n
We need to wake up to the truth about who God really is and how He wants us to live, and stop eating the tortured remains of animals, and stand up to the corrupt ways of this world, and become true peacemakers.<\/p>\n
28. Do you not know?
\nHave you not heard?
\nThe Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
\nDoes not become weary or tired.
\nHis understanding is inscrutable.<\/p>\n
29. He gives strength to the weary,
\nAnd to him who lacks might He increases power.<\/p>\n
30. Though youths grow weary and tired,
\nAnd vigorous young men stumble badly,<\/p>\n
31. Yet those who wait for the LORD
\nWill gain new strength;
\nThey will mount up with wings like eagles,
\nThey will run and not get tired,
\nThey will walk and not become weary.
\nNASB<\/p>\n
This is who we all should be.<\/p>\n
God remains faithful, and will lift up all who turn away from the evil and corruption in this world and follow in His pathway.<\/p>\n
We believe that the root cause of almost all of the violence and corruption in this world begins with our society\u2019s systematic exploitation of animals, and the way the animal exploiters hide the truth from the general public, and particularly from the youth; thus hardening their hearts and souls which furthers even more violence and corruption in the world for the generation to come.<\/p>\n
And this has been happening for thousands of years, but has become much worse in the past century.<\/p>\n
We need to stop this trend and tell youth the truth about where animal products come from, with all its gory details.<\/p>\n
We need to stand up and tell the truth in the face of all the lies that are circulating in this world.<\/p>\n
God remains faithful, but we also need to do our part to bring true heavenly peace to this world and all who live in it (humans and other animals).<\/p>\n
Amen.<\/p>\n
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