There are certain Bible texts that are so important to

Pastor John's life and ministry that we need to stop and focus on them.

We saw one last time on the gutty guilt of Micah 7 versus 8 to 9 looking at what we do when we come

face to face with the guilt of our darkest sin.

And today we look at another important text, Isaiah 43 versus 6 to 7.

It's essential to know and study and maybe even memorize.

It's so rich, which is why it comes up all the time on this podcast, which you'll see in the APJ book on pages 87 to 88.

Isaiah 43 versus 6 and 7 is on my mind today because we read it today.

We read Isaiah 42 and 43 together in our Bible

plan alongside three other texts. It's a lot of reading today. And again, Pastor John, one of my fears

with the Bible reading plan like the one that we're on trying to read the whole Bible in a year

is that we just make it so easy to breeze past important text, especially ones that you draw

from all the time.

So I want to hit pause and have you slow us down to meditate on Isaiah 43 versus 6 to 7 for 10 minutes or so to draw out the points we need on this text.

It seems like a huge and awesome blessing that the Creator would explain to us why we

exist.

It is huge.

One of the reasons these verses from Isaiah 43 have been so central to my thinking

is that 55 years ago, when I was in seminary I bought a book by the seminary faculty titled Things Most Surely Believed. In that book Daniel Fuller things most surely believed.

In that book, Daniel Fuller, one of the faculty, my most influential teacher, had a chapter

titled, Why God created the world.

And that chapter was an exposition of these verses.

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