Learn more about how much that God loves us and use it to encourage yourself to keep going.
Enjoy the video!
Sermon Notes: https://www.heartofgraceministries.com/blog/after-the-fact/gods-love/
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belief
God’s Love Toward Us
God loves us so much that He loved us even before we realized who He was
1 John 4:19
19 We love him, because he first loved us.
- It is by this kind of love we realize that we must love others to help them realize how much that God loves them. By this love it opens the eyes of a person that does not know God to realize God has sent people into their life so they know God greater.
God loves us so much that even when we are on the fence about trusting in His love that He continues to love us while we decide
Romans 2:4
4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
2 Peter 3:15
15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
- It is by His loving patience toward us that while we are into things that we should face punishment and exposure for that we receive mercy even when we have not apologized and confessed our sins to God.
God loves us so much that once we are Christians and we stumble that He gives us another chance rather than giving up on us.
Job 33:27-30
27 He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;
28 He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
29 Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man,
30 To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
- God knows that as we fail and move forward that we have the chance to learn from our failures to be stronger people. Thank God for another chance for growth!
God loves us enough that even when we suffer that it is never more than we could stand.
1 Corinthians 10:13
13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Matthew 11:29
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
- What would be too much on our own without God we know that through Christ we can do all things. It may not always be how we wanted it or as easy as we wished it could be, but through Christ we can make it!
God loves us enough that while we are on earth that we have everything that we need in order to sustain a happy and Godly life. Materially, physically, literally, mentally and spiritually.
2 Peter 1:3
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Hebrews 13:5
5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Psalm 37:25
25 I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
God loves us enough that irregardless of what we have done prior to this moment that if we come to him and ask forgiveness of our mistakes and accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that by accepting Christ as Lord of our life that we can be forgiven from our past and have a eternal future in Heaven.
Romans 10:9-10
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
– Not only forgiveness and freedom of our past is rewarded but we also receive power by the Holy Spirit to have a present authority to write a new chapter of a bright and marvelous future!
Tradition Will Make The Gospel Of None Effect
Matthew 15: 1-9
[1] Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
[2] Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
[3] But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
[4] For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
[5] But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
[6] And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
[7] Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
[8] This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
[9] But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society. Every type of group (family, community, church, religion, organizations, etc.) has traditions. If we are not very careful, we will make the Gospel of none effect by tradition. In Matthew 15 we find the Scribes and Pharisees are in opposition against Christ because the Disciples didn’t follow their tradition of washing their hands before they ate bread. Their intent was to find fault with Christ. Jesus ignored their tradition because He knew it was not scriptural. Knowing their hearts, he did however speak to them of a commandment they were not keeping. Notice the commandment was from God whereas the tradition was of a carnal nature. Jesus told them they were not honoring their father or mother but were giving their estate to the Temple so they wouldn’t have to take care of their aged parents. This freed them from their responsibility. But Jesus told them they had made the Commandment of God to Honour their father and mother of none effect by their tradition. I have visited many churches over the last few years and have found each church worships somewhat differently. Should I be offended that one church may worship God differently than I or should they be offended if I worship God differently than they? No, tradition should not matter but only that God is worshiped in spirit and truth.
I don’t want to worship in vain which means that my worship would not be accepted by God although it might meet the standards of man. I want to worship with my heart no matter how it may impact my flesh or those around me. I might look foolish and act differently from others but whatever God wants I want to be willing and ready to do. The Pharisees were offended at Christ because He didn’t follow their tradition. It is okay if others are offended as long as I am following what He wants in my life. If those around you get offended because you are obedient to God’s call on your life, then let them alone and press forward. This is what Christ did. He let them alone and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon where there was a Canaanite woman with a daughter who needed healing. If you are willing, God has much in store for you to learn and obtain. For years, I was wrapped up in traditions. I wasn’t listening for God to speak or for God to give me knowledge but I was taking the knowledge that another person had passed onto me instead of seeking God’s will and guidance for my life personally. Don’t be guilty of doing something because this is the way it has been done for years but ask God, Lord what would you have me do, where do you want me to be, what do you want me to say, what do you want me to do. Lord, I want to be what you want me to be. Please forgive me for not being effective in my life and in my worship of you.
What Moves You? God Does, Right?
When you begin to read of certain events in the bible, the sad ones to me start to reveal the defeat or downfall of people. There is always a direct correlation in the lack of either the belief in or stirring up of God within. Even as I personally go through things from week to week, it is very easy to lose sight of what we are striving for. With our best of intentions we are always aiming to do our best to help others by default.
As life continues to come with new surprises, many of these things will try and delimit the amount of time and level of passion that we hold in our hearts for God, thus eventually bringing our talents and gifts to help to a grinding halt. Staying in a halt state after a while will lead to a point where we try to assume full control and things become unglued and beyond our ability.
What I would like to address is that part of us that gets “moved”. Typically we are emotionally driven with most of what we do. A very big problem with that is too often our emotions get skewed by one event which adjusts us for the rest of everything else. I know (even to me at times) it seems impossible to keep our emotions in check, but it is vitally necessary to not let your emotional self overdrive or overpower the spiritual self. Life will not always be driven by feelings; for life has little guarantees or the types of emotional victories you can achieve. Being spiritually grounded always guarantees and presents the qualities of the spirit of God, which at baseline produces peace, love and joy. As you grow with the basics, you are able to add unto your faith many more virtues that can build your character and help you to reach out to others on a more continual constant level.
Be spiritually moved and driven for your motives, goals and intentions. Let go of yourself and let God be your guide and lead you to the impossibles you never thought you could do on your own!
God Can Be Everywhere, Right?
One of the toughest things that we have to be continually reminded of is that God is “always with us”. I preach it and write it so often that it makes me begin to wonder if that part of the mind refuses to believe it. I then begin to realize that it’s not the believing part that is hard, but the hanging on to the belief once it is there that is.
You see, a person can believe that God is everything and ever present in a time of trouble all day long. I know that with all that is in my mind, heart and soul! The part that begins to increase the difficulty is when things begin to happen to loosen the grip you have on that belief. When and if something comes up to discourage or remove your focus from about God, we lose it little by little. Before you know it we eventually go from feeling completely secure to feeling completely lost sometimes in as little as months, days, hours, or even minutes.
To me, the grip is as strong as your faith is. The more I am able to have faith in a time of trouble, the easier it is to hang on to God and to see a trial through to victory. I encourage you today to hang on to your faith. I am here to remind you that no matter how bad things look right now, that God has not left! God does has no intentions on going anywhere! The only thing that does is our faith! Keep the faith today in God! Remind yourself today by keeping the blessings of yesterday in your heart! Keep what you have today in your mind and know that there is more in your future!
The children of God are not a defeated people! We live in victory, and we should learn to live it! Get your minds and hearts in the mindset of Christ! Continually remind yourself daily that things WILL not be perfect around us, but as we strive for perfection God will prevail!
I hope that as we all continue to serve God together that we all play a role in being the “reminder” for someone, or in other words, that witness!
Once An Overcomer, Always An Overcomer, So Come On!
Let’s take a moment and ponder about how terrible life is….WAIT…that’s what we’ll do if we are not too careful. When we read in the word of God, each and every indicator that you study on about where people found the willpower to go on was from the strength of God and their foundation of belief. When I consider my own foundation, I find that it is solid based on the many (countless!) times that God has came through. There were times where it was in my prayers or through the prayers of others. There were times where it came after a period of time or when it came suddenly in a second. There were even times when God moved when I wasn’t even aware of things to come ahead in my future! So when I think upon these things, it helps me to stay grounded and not easily moved when events try to occur to shake it up.
We are “made” over-comers, right? I have to put myself in a position where I “make” my mind up to overcome things. I have to be strong in times where weakness wants to prevail; faith must dominate doubt each and every time. I know that there might be some critics out there that are saying “you are a bunch of talk, just wait til you walk it”. Trust me, I might not have been alive 50-75 years yet, but it doesn’t take me a thousand loops through life to realize where my help and strength comes from! So come on! Get yourself out of the “doubtin” and “poutin” and “doin withoutin” and think yourself happy. Continually stir the part of you that God needs to be strong in.
Make yourself an over-comer today by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony!
The Evidence Of Things Not Seen
Hebrews 11:1 – Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
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I would like to talk about the other half of the phrase of faith, which is said in the bible to be “the evidence of things not seen”. Carrying from the same theme from the last page, I would like to define evidence: The available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid; Information given personally, drawn from a document, or in the form of material objects, tending or used to establish facts in a legal investigation or admissible as testimony in court; Signs; indications
Most of what persuades about evidence is usually defined by things that we can be persuaded with by sight. And yet, when we read the word of God, we base our faith upon evidence of things we cannot see. For those who do not believe God, this is ludicrous. It is often referred to as being “absurd” at the ideal of people believing in faith to a higher power. When you think about it, it would be easy to understand this point of view if you did not know the experience of having an everyday relationship with God. That is why it is so important to have one! I am proud to say that in big and small ways that I practice faith every day! I pray, believe and trust God for things that I could only reach by hope in God and not my own power. That is how that we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us! By faith! Remember that we cannot always base our hopes on what we can see, but we build our faith in the hope through Christ the way will be made for you!
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Put Into Practice:
At some point in each of our lives we have had to either experience or know someone who has went through a time where they were losing a loved one. When someone is slowly dying and deteriorating, there are two different ways that people can really handle speaking over it: with or without hope. I know in my own personal experiences that throughout some of my loved ones that I saw slowly leaving this life that in my heart I was hoping continually. My mind was not going to be persuaded that they were getting worse, even when I began to hear reports that tried to persuade me otherwise.
The point that I am trying to get across is that we have to begin to face some of our worst situations with speaking hope and things that are not as though they are. Give this a shot: find one thing that you know that you have been working on to a change for a while and truly speak (or write down) a sincere statement of faith. If you are bold enough, speak it faithfully to someone else. If you are even bolder, speak it to someone else and ask them to help you pray. Seek God and begin to allow your faith to build. That is how it begins! It builds by the great things that God has done in the experiences of your past and the hope that you build for the future victories that are ahead of you! And as you make it through another mountain, it is yet another step up closer to a faith that you will not leave!
Finding Clarity Through The Fog
Proverbs 29:18 – Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.
2 Corinthians 12:1 – It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
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One of the easiest things for people to do in the midst of a confusing situation is to simply give up. Giving up is usually followed a by decreased obedience, which in turn leads to a prolonged spiritual death. A spiritual death means that there is no life to you to draw strength from God. In essence, it is like walking through the fog with no vision. We are going only on our sense of what we think is right to do. When you consider that and our rate of failure, it scares me.
It scares me to think that people are going through the motions of life and being a part of it but doing it blindly without any purpose or knowingly what they want from it. You see, the entire basis of belief to God and Jesus Christ is through faith. In the midst of the fog of confusion, my faith is unlocked when I hope upon the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. I may not know where I am at in a trial because it is new or I may be too emotionally connected. What do I know? I do know of what God has already done for me! I have the roads of hope in my life that I have traveled and made it through before!
The only clarity that I can find in the midst of chaos is trusting God and to know that if He has done it before, that He will do it again. God will never leave or forsake His children! You should know that you are not alone and should not be wandering around in life without God. Recognize your guide, and let him lead you! We should not try to take the “grab life by the horns” approach because the latter outcome of this is usually a guaranteed failure. We cannot realize the outcome of any future for any trial. God sees into our tomorrows! Allow God to be the light in the midst of your darkness! Turn the lights on! Find some clarity through the word of God and all the spiritual things that will lift you above the hard times and let you see things for what they truly are!
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Put Into Practice:
When I first began to drive, I always wondered why it was so hard to drive through fog with the lights on the brightest setting. I thought, “You would think the most amount of light would get you through the fog, right?” In all reality, the best solution was to use a dimmer light and to hear the wisdom of others. That is the advice I give you today. When you hear a great God-given word to you, try not to resist it to bad and think your brighter ideas will solve it all. Trust your brothers and sisters in Christ that bring the word of God at your churches to give you the right now word to lead you through tough times! And if you are not getting it there, pray for it!
Look At Your Limits
2 Corinthians 13:5 – Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
Psalm 26:2 – Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; try my reins and my heart.
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As you are embarking on your day today, let us take a moment to consider our limits. Limits are commonly defined as the furthest extent of one’s physical or mental endurance. More often than not the limits we consider dominant are the ones that are self-applied.
There have been so many times that I have seen the limits go on me and others over the silliest of things. I have literally seen church services die out (in a matter of minutes) and not be fruitful or successful to the pulling down of strongholds because the body of Christ had limited themselves because of their lack of belief in Christ! The saddest part of all was that the only people that truly lost out in the end were those that were truly lost. God is looking for a people that know that they are not limited by what the mind would try to present in a time of trouble.
Take the time to remind yourself today that God has no limits. A great thing to tell yourself each and every day is that “I am as strong in God as I allow myself to be” All the tools that you need to get you where you need to go are already there for you; you just have to begin to use them! Take the limits off of yourself, and be who God has called you to truly be!
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Put Into Practice:
Verbally recognize some limits that you have put on yourself. An example may be “I do not allow myself to praise God like I should” or “I do not pray like I need to” I am asking you to do it verbally because we often can hide it or deny it more easily mentally. Sometimes speaking it out loud makes us consider what we say.
After you think about a couple self-applied limits, pray that God help you to take off all of the limits that you have set on yourself. Learn to be greater than the bondage applied!
Get Past Your Unbelief!
Luke 8:49-56
[49] While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.
[50] But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.
[51] And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden.
[52] And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.
[53] And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.
[54] And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise.
[55] And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat.
[56] And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.
Get past your unbelief in your mind! Your doubt! Anything that would hinder you or stand in the way of your faith or belief! I always remember the old adage “A mind is a terrible thing to waste”. In these scriptures, there were people that had to be put out. There will be things in our mind and life that will have to be put out in order for us to see the miracles of God in our life. We might not like it and may not want to do it either, I know. Then again, you have to consider what is of more worth to you: the blessings of God or the one or two things you have been hanging on to for way too long, or some problem that you have had with someone that you need to let go of. Those problems and stumbling blocks will make us walk right into unbelief! O
One thing I have learned in my life is that God cannot operate if I do not believe. End of story. If I carry doubt in my heart, and hold limits against God, things will just continue to stay the same, if not continue to get worse! We HAVE to get past the little things to see the bigger picture!