Keith Battle - God's Got Us

I want you to tell them my subject is, if you’re preaching it: tell them this—God’s got you. God’s got you. Tell them, God’s got you. Somebody needs it; somebody needs to hear that. Tell them, God’s got you. God’s got you. He’s got you. God’s got you. Put me on here. God’s got you. He’s got you in Landover. He’s got you. If you’re in Woodbridge right now, I need to tell you, God’s got you. If you’re in Fort Washington right now, I’m telling you, God’s got you. I don’t care where you are right now. You’re watching online; I don’t know where you are right now, but God’s got you. He’s been talking to me all week with you in mind. He’s got you. He’s got you. He’s got you. He’s got you, and He’s got it. I said He’s got you, and He’s got it. He’s got it. He’s on it. He’s on it. He’s over it. He’s over it. He’s in control of it. He’s not going to let you down. No weapon formed against you shall prosper because God’s got it. I’ve been young, and now I’m old; yet I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken, because God’s got it. When my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up because God’s got it. Somebody give God a praise because He’s got you. He’s got you. He’s got me. He’s got me. He’s got me. He’s got me. He’s got me. When it looks like I’m surrounded, He still’s got me. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him because He’s got me. Some of y’all, that’s all you needed to hear today: God’s got me. He’s got us. Just hold someone’s hand next to you. Say, «God’s got us.» He’s got us. He’s got us. He’s got our family. I don’t care what the doctor said. He’s got us. I don’t care what the attorney said. He’s got us. I don’t care what the report says. He’s got us. I don’t care how I feel right now. He’s got us. I don’t care what it looks like right now. As long as the Lord is with us, we’re going to be all right. The first two words of Isaiah 43 are shocking given Isaiah 42: «but now.» «But» as a conjunction means whatever’s coming next is different from what just came, and that was free. But now, that means there are two changes. I’m coming off of what I said, but now, when you think about «but now» in light of chapter 42, where the Israelites—the people of Israel—Jacob’s name means Israel. His name is Israel, and the Israelites are his descendants. It speaks in chapter 42 of how wretched they are and how rebellious they don’t listen. I mean, you should just read it. All you have to do is start in verse 18 of chapter 42 through verse 25, and you’ll see they don’t listen to what God’s saying. They don’t see things; they don’t see the error of their ways. They don’t walk in His statutes and according to His will. They are rebellious and disobedient. Even when they suffer consequences for their failures, they don’t change. That’s another level right there, where you get in trouble and don’t change. That’s how they were, and you would think that on the heels of that, you’d come into the next chapter and hear about their demise. But against the backdrop of a people who are rebellious and disobedient and know right from wrong but still do wrong, God comes into chapter 43, verse 1, and says, «I created you. I formed you. I love you. You’re precious to me. I honor you. And when you get in trouble, I got you.» Please don’t miss what I just said. When I tell you that God’s got you, what I’m trying to say is God is saying He’s got you to some people who don’t even obey Him, who don’t even listen to Him, who are not even respectful of Him. When I tell you that God’s got you, I want you to be encouraged, but I don’t want you to think that it’s because of how you’re behaving or how you performed or that you earned it. You can’t earn a «God’s got you.» You can’t earn His unconditional love. God’s got you when you do right. He’s got you when you do wrong. God’s got you when you’re up. He’s got you when you’re down. God’s got you when you’re obedient. He’s got you when you’re disobedient. It’s a love that doesn’t make sense. It’s hard for us to get our arms around this kind of love because it’s illogical. We don’t roll with people like this. If we were God, we would have been done with ourselves by now. I would have been done with me. But if we were God, we would be sitting up in heaven, pushing buttons to cancel: «You’re blocked. Don’t pray to me. You’re unfriended.» We would be doing that all the time. But God is so unlike us. Let me tell you something: God is good even when we’re bad. I said God is good even when we’re bad. Isn’t that good right there? That is love. It’s not based on our performance. That, wherever we are on the spectrum of good and righteous or evil and failing, God still loves us. Now, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t live right. There are consequences to living bad, and there are benefits to living right. But whether you live right or wrong, it doesn’t change the love of God.