Good morning. Well, the last few weeks have been jam packed for Nellie and I. We began 3 weeks ago with a week long V.B.S. Then, 2 weeks ago we drove down to Myrtle Beach for the week. And now, this past week we have been over in Grayson at S.I.T.S. Before we start this morning, allow me to share with you about the week:
- Kids locked out of room
- Caving trip
- Girl passing out
- Great worship times
- Awesome speakers
- A good time of growing closer to each other and to God
Anyway, with as busy as the last few weeks have been, now that they are over, I am ready to relax and get back to work.
Usually, on a day like this, so close to the 4th of July, you would expect to hear a sermon about freedom or something relating to the holiday that we are about to celebrate. However, after spending a week on a youth trip, I like to address a little bit of what we focused on during the week.
Now most years, the theme has been pretty clear in all of the lessons, and I have been able to give just an overview of everything that we learned. However, this year that is not the case. This year it took me a little longer to decide what I wanted to share with you from the past week. Finally, on Friday, I realized that one of the songs that we had been singing all week long was not only a great song, but it was a good summary of some of the more important things from the week.
Now the group that was there leading us in worship did a mixture a song called “Never Let Go”, and “Nothing But The Blood”. Unfortunately, they had not recorded that version yet, and so I had to make do with the original version of the song “Never Let Go.” At this time, go ahead and listen to this song and take a look at the lyrics.
PLAY CD “NEVER LET GO!”
Before we move on, let’s open with a word of prayer. Let’s Pray!
The theme for this year’s Summer In The Son was “Pulse.” I think that as we went through the week, there was one thing that was evident in everything that was said by a speaker; and that is the fact that God loves us. There is nothing that we can do to earn His love. And all we need to do is come just as we are.
Go ahead and turn with me to I John 4:7-12. We all know the familiar passage of John 3:16 when it says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” The main word to focus on in that passage is the word loved. God loved us before we were born. He is the one who brought us into this world, because He loved us. Now, here in I John 4:7-12 it talks about love as well. Here in this passage it says, “1”
Well, throughout the week it quickly became clear just how much God loved us. Do you realize that there is nothing that you can do to cause God to love you? The truth is that God already loves you. In fact, you could let your Bible sit in the closet for 6 months and do nothing but collect dust. You could commit all kinds of sins and not ask for forgiveness. And you could neglect praying to God for 6 months, and the amazing thing is that God would not love you any less.
On the flip side of the coin, you could read your Bible every day. You could avoid sinning, and when you do go to God for forgiveness, and you could spend hours upon hours in prayer each day, and the truth is, God would not love you any more. The point I’m trying to make, is that there is nothing that you can do that will cause God to love you any less or any more than He already does.
Now, from our text, not only do we learn that God loves us, but we also realize that we are to love others. When we love others, the love of God is made complete. In order for us to truly grow as a Christian, we need to realize that God wants us to love others.
Now this is not a conditional thing that we are called to. It is supposed to be a love like God’s, an unconditional love. Sometimes we say, “I will love so and so, because of what they do for me, or because of what I can get out of it.” However, God wants us to love others no matter what. No strings attached love.
The next thing that we listened to this past week was the fact that we can come to God just as we are. All throughout scripture we see people living in sin, and still coming to Jesus. God does not say that you have to have everything figured out in your life before you come to Him. That is impossible. There will never be a time in our lives when we have it all together. But the amazing thing is, God says, come just as you are. God never told anyone to go and quit doing this or that, and then come back later. Instead, He said, come to me, then He tells them to get rid of the bad habits in their lives.
Now as we apply this to our own lives, we need to realize that we need to be where people are. We need to meet people at the stage of life that they are in and then minister to them there. I believe it was Paul who wrote, “I become all things to all people, so that some may be saved.” Now I don’t think that God is telling us to become an alcoholic to be able to minister to them. Nor do I think God is telling us to have sex with someone we are not married to as a way of minister to them. But I do believe that God wants us to be in contact with these people and try to minister to them where they are in life.
God never asked anyone to get it all together before He would share His message with them, and neither should we. We need to meet them where they are and share Christ’s love with them there.
Now, as we look at the song that I played for you at the beginning, we see part of the 23rd Psalm. As we read that passage, and as we focus on the words of this song, we realize that even in the worst of times, God never let’s go of us. The problem comes when we get to those tough times, and we don’t see the answers that we want to see. Then the question arises, “Do we TRUST God?” Now most people believe in God, but they don’t always believe that He is good.
For example, look at Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were not Atheists, they still believed in God, but they didn’t trust Him. In our lives, most of us believe in God. In fact, we are so sure that there is a God, that we show up at church, and we do many other things as a way to worship Him. However, when it comes down to it, we don’t trust Him as being good.
What we need to realize is that when we are in the calm times of life as well as the storms of this life, and when we are at our highest point and our lowest, we can fear no evil because of God’s perfect love.
Now this week has been a tiring week, but it has been a refreshing week at times as well. One thing that stands out is that in order to get the complete picture of God, we have to realize that he loves us, no matter what. In the song it tells us of a glorious light that is coming, when all our troubles and problems will come to an end. But until that day comes, we know that God is still here with us. His love is here, and we need to focus on that.
In a moment, we are going to have an invitation time. During this time we are going to sing that song “Never Let Go” together. If there is any decision that you need to make, please realize that God never let’s go of us, and that His perfect love is always with us.
As we sing this song, may we all realize that God never let’s go of us. May we be able to sing, “In every high and every low oh no you never let go, Lord you never let go of me.”
Let’s Pray! |
