Do you like yourself_1

From A.W. Tozer: "Anything God has ever done, He can do now. Anything God has ever done anywhere, He can do here. Anything God has ever done for anyone, He can do for me.

The vision of this Church, can anyone tell me what it is? Love God and love people.

I have this as a goal for this church and will continue to do so. It is simple but a life long job. Therefore I am always looking for ways to get to this goal and every now and then I recognize things that can hinder us from this Godly vision.
Love God--…………….Love People. AS YOURSELF!

YOU, we are called to love ourselves. Not in the selfish manner where we only live for ourselves, but a Godly manner. I think the position is important. God –Us—others. The love of God must travel through us, and be received in order for us to have something to give others.

Rom 15:4 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (NIV)

Hope is an excited expectation of the best coming to you or happening to you.

I Jn 4:16 And so we know and rely (believe, receive) on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (NIV)

God places a certain value on us and we must come to a place of agreement with him.

All selfishness is, is really lowering our value by degrading ourselves with selfish acts, sex outside marriage, drugs, drunkenness, etc.. these sins are selfish because we are destoying the very llives that God loves and places such a great value on. We are not caring about the plan that God has for us, or our wives that will survive us or our children.

I have preached and talked about the love of God for almost five years now. It is the most important subject, yes, but more than that it is the most important experience that we can have. Christ in our lives is the manifestation of this love and the continual life of Christ in us is his abiding love for us.

Rom 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all-- how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

But do you know that there is still such a big difference between knowing something and believing (Receiving) something? Our heads are full of the fact but too often our hearts are empty of the product.

Rom 5:1-11

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

It has been provided

2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

By faith we enter in to this Grace

3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Only if we let the Holy Spirit pour the love of God into our hearts through these experiences will we end up with Hope!

Love like the Holy Spirirt will not enter our hearts unless we receive. Then we have love in us. We enter in to everything that God has already provided by FAITH.
If we have not received it, we cannot love God, others, or ourselves the way God intended.

6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! 10 For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! 11 Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (NIV)

The first installment of his love that we must experience is the “GREAT EXCHANGE”

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Reconciled - katallasso-to change, to exchange, as coins for others of equivalent value

Gen 1:26a-27 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, …27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

God is the creator.! Today when someone creates a new product they give something to assure you that it will function. What is that? A guarantee (read it)

guarantee

1. A formal written promise by the manufacturer to repair or replace an article that malfunctions or breaks within a certain period of time.

2. A promise or material possession of any kind given to give security that something will happen.

v Because of the guarantee that God had on Adam, he became responsible for the debts and obligations that came because of his actions. ie.. us and our sins.

v He made himself responsible to repair or replace the broken creation!

A guarantee, as for a product or service: a new refrigerator still under warranty. A guarantee to perform something in a specified way. God has made himself responsible to make sure that the product (you) perform as planned. Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

v You’re sitting at home and you are watching your old 40 year old B/W television. It can only get one channel. The picture is there sometimes and sometimes it’s not. You hate it but you don’t have the money for a new one.
One day your wife is looking through some papers in an old box and she finds the paperwork on the TV. She says casually „ Do you know that the TV still has a guarantee on it?” What? Yes it says that it has a lifetime guarantee that if you are not satisfied for any reason that you can bring it back and get the new model.
What would you do?

v Another scene, you’re sitting at home living your 40 year old life it has lost all it’s color too. Life is the same purposeless one channel existence. Sometimes you can enjoy life most of the time not. You have tried so many things and nothing has really satisfied you, so you resign yourself to just exist.
Then one day your wife finds the guarantee on you (The Bible) What a guarantee on Me? Yes it says that you have a lifetime guarantee that if you are not satisfied for any reason that you can bring it back and get the new model. You mean I can bring me back to the manufacturer and start all over again? I can have a new life for this old one?
What will you do?

You can choose to turn in the old life and have a new beginning with God right now.