Renewing Our Relationship with God: Recap

Series: Renewing Our Relationship with God

Sermon: Recap and Testimonials

Scripture: Various

First Message – Accepting God’s Love.

Some people find it difficult to believe that God could love them. Believers and unbelievers alike may find it difficult to accept that God loves them.

But listen to the love letters God has written to you:

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”

We must accept that God not only loves us, but that He also likes us. He calls us His friends.

Second Message – Responding to God’s Love.

We respond to God’s love in many ways. God wants us to love Him in return by following Him. Follow Jesus. Not out of hero-worship, not out of selfish motives, but from a simple child-like faith.

God wants us to love Him in return by telling others about Jesus. Oops, is that what He wants? No, He wants us to tell others what Jesus has done for us.

God wants us to love Him in return by obeying Him. "If you love me, you will obey what I command.” And what are His commands? “This is my command: Love each other.”

God wants us to love Him by loving each other. “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Third Message – Sharing God’s Love

We share the love God has given to us by loving each other. Our neighbors, our family, even our enemies.

Fourth Message – Forgiving God’s People

We can never be renewed as long as we hold a grudge, or harbor bitterness in our hearts. We must forget about keeping count. We may even have to cancel the debt of the person who offended us. We must remember our debt that God has cancelled through Jesus Christ.

In all of these messages I have had this one or another one come to me and say with conviction and some with tears, “This was just what I needed to hear.” Scripture is always what we need to hear because it has the power to speak to the very heart of our lives.

Now, it’s your turn to share your story for the benefit of your spiritual family. You have an opportunity to build us up through your testimony of God’s victory in your life, or the way God is still working on you.

One of the things Jesus said to those He healed was, “Go tell others what God has done for you.” That’s what we need you to do today. How has God been working in your life as it relates to those themes we’ve been discussing the past few weeks?