What Does God think about you?

What God thinks about you!

Intro: Welcome! Thanks for spending your Sunday with us. Thanks to all of you who are watching our live cast out there on interweb.

A. Ryan finished up our annual giving sermon series.

· I noticed a lot more people here today so I am preaching today on people who avoid our annual giving series.

· I know everyone complains about church always talking about money, but we really don’t

· Sometimes I think we need to talk about it more. It is so important on how we give.

· If you want to pick the series up you can go to our website. Afreshwind.org or myfw.church

B. Today we are going to talk about What God thinks about You!

Joke: Man circling parking lot making promises to God

· NO, no, this is good…

· This can be exciting… Maybe…

· I know he loves me, but what does he think about me?

>>> We live our lives knowing we don’t measure up. We also know that God knew we would never measure up but sent Jesus anyway. That is God’s love. Is it hard for God to love like that? We say he is love. If he is love can it be that hard? You might say you don’t know my life…

I had great parents

A. kind and supportive

· I was never an over achiever

· Dad told me I could sell ice to eskimo’s Naw give me a 9-5

B. I would say they gave me grace

· They gave mercy

· Then they served me till I left. More than mercy. Gave me what I didn’t deserve.

· There was a lot I didn’t live up to.

· I knew they loved me and I knew they were proud of me. At least my Dad. Mom was more worried than anything else.

· I just felt like they were disappointed. The un-realized potential

· Some of us feel that way about us and God.

When it comes to what God thinks about us its more complicated

· We know how we act and think. We know he knows

· When we know He knows it’s tough to come to grips with what he might think.

· A lot of it might be wrapped up in your pride

· After a while we get used to the fact that He knows and we lean back on His love and the fact that Jesus is making us perfect and some sweet day I’ll sing up there the song of Victory.

>>> What about today? We know God is on our side. If he is for us who can be against us. He goes before and he comes after. That is what he does because He loves us. Oh how he loves us…

ILLUS: How it feels as a follower of Christ sometimes: Vending machine, Filled with things that God either wants out, like pork rinds, or things he wants to use like snickers and God has this huge bag of quarters and is making choices on what he wants to take out of your life, what he wants to use you for, and you are sometimes out of order. Sometimes empty Why is it Empty?(Did you never put what supposed to in there in there)Sometimes he selects something and you don’t move, he puts more quarters in and it moves a little. You are just waiting to hear the bang on the machine. Waiting for Him to grab you and shake you to get it out. Your life has a glass front to Him and You feel like sooner or later He will get frustrated and flip you over…

What if I told you this was false. That God is not frustrated. That he has feelings about you? Lets talk about what he thinks about you.

I. Does God love you?

A. You say Why would God love me? Why would someone who created the earth want to know me or be with me?

· It doesn’t make sense. I have nothing to offer to a perfect being. I haven’t accomplished anything.

· We find ourselves trying with all your might to accomplish love for you.

B. Yet God’s love doesn’t work like that.

· There is no way to earn His affection. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more or less.

· A new-born baby has done nothing to deserve love, it simply is loved because it’s alive.

· That is how God feels about you (and me, apparently) beaming with love for no other reason than we are His creation. And that is the most incredible thing in the world.

Luke 15:20 NLT

“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

· If your life has lacked unconditional love, God’s love might seem impossible.

“So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.

· If your life has lacked unconditional love, God’s love might seem impossible.

· Wrestling with this love is a life long undertaking. Realizing it in your own life.

· When you finally get it then living with that assurance is freedom and victory.

ILLUS: Boy you really messed up this time. Yes I did but he love me.

>>> Does God love you. Yes! He is love! He sent his son to die in your place. Remember he doesn’t forgive us because he loves us. He is a just God. Your sinful life had to be paid for. He forgive us because Jesus paid for it on the cross. That is His love for you. I get all that Tim and not to be un grateful or disrespectful and I love that God loves me, but God is love. He loves the world. He can’t love us anymore or any less you said that. Your sermon is called what does God think about me! I need something for me today not us. Okay how about this…

II. Is God pleased with you?

Hebrews 11:6 NLT

And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

Now without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him.

A. If it is impossible to please God without faith. How do we get faith?

A. If it is impossible to please God without faith. How do we get faith?

Hebrews 10:17 NLT

Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.”

So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.

· Faith comes by hearing the good news about Christ.

· Faith comes by hearing the good news about Christ.

· Faith in all things. When you hear about Christ you get the faith to believe David killed goliath

B. Without faith you can’t please him

· We believe he exist because of the message of Christ and then we please him? No not yet.

C. When we believe he begins to change our heart to please him

Philippians 2:13 NLT

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

· God is working in you to give you the desire to please him

· That is what we call sanctification. God working in you. Transforming you into the image of Christ.

>>> Is God pleased with you? Yes, he is working in you to give you the power and desire to please him because you can’t accomplish it yourself… You say see Tim that’s what I am talking about. If I please God it’s because of Him! SO it is not what God really thinks about me it is about what he thinks about His own handy work. I need something they may be or maybe not. God is going to transform me into the likeness of His son, which is great… and I am not being ungrateful but that is A guaranteed promise of God. It happens to me and I am excited for it to happen but that is not what I am looking for today…

Okay Is God your friend maybe… No, Abraham believed and God called him friend. Jesus called us friends instead of servants but that was because of our relationship that he extended to us. He said you are my friends if you do what I command but that leads us back to pleasing him…

I have a secret. A secret verse I found that might be what your looking for. It is secret because no one will believe you. You have to keep it close to the vest. Everyone knows followers of Christ screw up as much as everyone else so they will not be convinced. If I share it will you keep it secret, keep it safe. Like the one ring…

III. Is God proud of you?

A. First of all I don’t know if I want to know..

· Pride is a sin, its what caused Lucifer ti fall

· Pride goeth before a fall’

· God resist the proud and gives grace to the humble

>>> This is god being proud so it would be perfect and just and full of love

B. What Kind of Pride

· Like a baby’s first step or first word, its always dada

· You are just feces and spit up machine but parents are still proud.

· Like First soccer game all run in a pack

· Like graduation

· I’m proud even though I know my kids can’t pay the phone bill?

>>> This is a pride not about who you are to Him but what you have done.

C. Some of you don’t really have anyone in your life telling you they’re proud of you and some never have.

· What if God was proud of you?

· If you knew god was proud of you would it change your relationship?

>>> You say I can’t stand it this is the longest lead in I have ever heard get on with it! Don’t be so testy!

D. called the hall of faith / faith heroes chapter

· It list a series of people who are acknowledge by their great faith

· Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah this is the list before verse 13.

Hebrews 11:13–15 NLT

All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back.

All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. 14 Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. 15 If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back.

· Here it is… keep it secret keep it safe. I am going to put it up there but really small so none will see it.

· Here it is… keep it secret keep it safe. I am going to put it up there but really small so none will see it.

Hebrews 11:16 CSB

But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Hebrews 11:1616 But they now desire a better place—a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

E. Does this really mean that God might actually be “proud” to be called my God?

E. Does this really mean that God might actually be “proud” to be called my God?

· Fortunately, this wonderful possibility is surrounded (in ) by reasons: one before and one after.

First reason he is not ashamed to be called their God, it is the reason after.

· God has done something for them. He made them a city — the heavenly city “whose designer and builder is God” ()

· is that he has worked for them. Not the other way around.

· Wow like a good father. Preparing a room in his house, where have we heard that before. In my fathers house are many rooms…

· Like you would expecting a baby.

· God has designed a city for His people. This is the destination. This is what God has for us. A perfect place.

Second Reason is the one before

· It goes like this: “They desire a better place or country, that is, a heavenly one. therefore in some translations, God is not ashamed to be called their God.”

· “Therefore” signals that a reason has just been given for why God is not ashamed to be called our God.

· The reason is their desire. They desire a better place— that is, a better country than the earthly one they live in; namely, a heavenly one where God is.

· When we desire this heavenly city — this dwelling place of God — more than we desire all that this world can give, God is not ashamed to be called our God.

· We get so caught up in our sanctification, the way we live our failures and our struggles here on this earth we forget we are foreigners and nomads.

· Our minds desire the fixes here in this world. Sense our desires are focused here our priorities become worldly.

Give me Jesus Give me Jesus You can have all this world Just give me Jesus

· When we make much of all that he promises he’s made to us, he is proud to be our God. This is good news.

· If your desire is the kingdom which way is your life going to go? Your decisions are based on your on personal priority structure. You will make decisions with the desire for that heavenly city not this one.

· Like giving, Pastors preach all the time to give so God can bless you here. When you give because of that city, you give to fill that city with the object of God’s love he is proud.

>>> I want very much for God to say to me what he said about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: “I am not ashamed to be called your God.”

· open your eyes to the better country, the city of God that he has prepared for us, and let yourself desire it with all your heart. God will not be ashamed to be called your God.

· Seek his kingdom first.

· You are the light of the world. You are a city set on a hill for all to see, you’re the city that opens the path to the heavenly city

· What if lived a life where we knew God was proud of us. Wouldn’t that change your relationship with Him.

Summary: Our answer to vending machine Illustration is this, if it will advance the kingdom ill let him have it. When we see our struggle with what we give up to God in this way he is proud to be called your God. What he has done for humanity is prepare a place for them. And make a way for them to get there, You need to desire that! For you and others.

If you want God to be proud of you don’t worry about your past, the slop you have been in, where you came from. Don’t worry about your struggle with this or that. Don’t worry about the fact that you don’t feel acknowledged in the faith or in the church. If you focus your desire on the promise of that heavenly city where God is. I can tell you what God thinks about you. He is proud of you.

PRAY: Today God I choose to focus that city.

He is a good good father.