Jesus Loves Me...This I Must Know

Introduction

God loves the world — This means you and me.

Matthew was a tax collector. This means he was the lowest of all rungs on the societal ladder. He was a thief. He was a traitor to his people. He hung out with prostitutes. One can assume he had few if any morals about him at all.

Jesus knew all of this about Matthew. He knew who he was and what he did. He knew the company he kept. Yet, when Christ walks by Matthew at the tax collector booth He says, “Come follow me.” Jesus came to call the sinners to repentance. Matthew was a big sinner, perhaps one of the biggest and yet he was called to follow Jesus.

Jesus didn’t put Matthew on a shelf and tell him, “You just barely made it into heaven buddy. My sin covered your sins but your past life has disqualified you from serving me like someone who hadn’t committed all the sins you did in your life before you became a Christian.

No, Jesus called Matthew to be a Christian and then made him one of the 12 Apostles. He was a leader, missionary, preacher, evangelist, church planter and martyr for the faith. He is in heaven now, sitting on a throne.

What can God do with you? Are there any limitations?

Paul was a murderer. He was present at the stoning of Stephen. He held the cloaks of those throwing stones at the man until he died. He persecuted the early church. Paul calls himself the chief of all sinners and a blasphemer. 1 Timothy 1:12-13

1 Timothy 1:12–13 NKJV

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

But God saved him and then called him to be an apostle. He was the greatest missionary/evangelist in the history of the church.

The Samaritan woman was married five times and had a live in boyfriend at the time Jesus met her at the well. She had come to the well in the middle of the day so as not to be harassed and picked on by the other women in her town. They looked down upon her because of her sin. She was a nobody among her people. She was rejected by everyone who didn’t want to use her. But she was the first person in scripture to whom Jesus revealed that He was the long awaited Messiah.

The Samaritan woman was the chosen vessel to share the most important message, the message of Salvation from sin and eternal life, to her people. She repented, followed Jesus and became an evangelist for Christ.

What can God do with you? Are you divorced? Were you promiscuous in your younger days? Have you sinned terribly since becoming a follower of Jesus? Have you had an affair? Have you been a thief? Do you struggle with porn? Alcohol? Love of money?

What sin is the enemy holding over your head and using to convince you that you are unworthy? That God could never love you as He does others? Or that God could never use you as He has someone else?

John 3:16 is for you too. It is for all of us. It is for the whole world. No one is left out. No one is exempted from its call and power to save.

Everlasting Life — Is a life of utmost quality and quantity. When we come to Jesus He saves us. Saves us from sin, the power of sin and all condemnation resulting from our sin.

Romans 8:1-2

Romans 8:1–2 CSB

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

These words are for all of us. There is right now no condemnation for our past. NONE. Nothing about our past limits what God can and will do in our present.

We are a new creation in Christ Jesus 2 Corinthians 5:17

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

The old has passed away and the new has come. Your past needs to die if it hasn’t already. It has no rights on you. It has no power to dictate your present or future. Matthew, Paul, the Samaritan woman…none of them let their past sin rule their life after they came to know Christ.

If you have been limited in your thinking about who you are in Christ and what God can do with your life then today is the day to throw down aside the grave clothes and walk as the resurrected, new man or woman and Christ that you are!

New

So what can God do with your life? What can He do with mine? Are there any limitations? The only one I can see are those we place upon ourselves.

We are called to a life of faith. That is faith in what God has done for us and what He intends to do in and through us.

Faith is belief plus trust which equals a changed life. Belief in the character, power and intentions of God toward us. Trust is the reliance upon those things. Our life should look different because of our faith.

But too many are struggling to live by faith because they still struggle for that first step of life in Christ. They aren’t sure they are totally made new in Him. They are not certain every one of their old sins are covered.

They aren’t sure they are completely made right, acceptable and usable in the Hands of even God.

Read, understand and know the Word of God…then trust it for you. Then get ready for an amazing life ahead.

Ephesians 2:10

Ephesians 2:10

Ephesians 2:10 CSB

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

I am going to close with this very familiar passage today and a word about faith.

Beasley — Faith is believing it is so when it is not so because it is so because God has said it is so.

Your life may not look like a masterpiece right now. In fact, in your estimation it may have more in common with a Greek tragedy that some work of art.

Everything about you in this moment might have the look of brokenness and disaster. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. What we see, think and perceive isn’t pertinent at all.

What we believe is what matters. What do you believe about God and His Word?

Do you believe God is true to His word? Even when it pertains to you? Can God take you, your mistakes, your particular iniquity, your mess and make you a work of art?

Can God take even you and make you His highest work? A trophy of grace? A demonstration of what He can do? An illustration of what happens when He takes even the greatest mess and makes it more beautiful that imagination in this age might allow?

Do you believe this can happen for you??? Can you believe your life to actually be a masterpiece even when it doesn’t look like one so that it might actually be one?

You see…what I mean is this…Can you believe you are more than your sin, past mistakes and current struggles? Can you see yourself as God does in this moment? It can happen if we have faith.

And if we can begin to see ourselves this way it changes the way we feel…the way we see our past, present and future. We see ourselves as forgiven, healed, free, new, loved and usable for God’s plans in this age.

Herein is the second part of what we must have faith for in Ephesians 2:10. Can you believe and trust that God has a plan for your life and that nothing you have done has disqualified you for His plans? Nothing has derailed His purposes?

I am talking about the person walking by faith in God’s grace right now. God has a plan for your life…you may not feel worthy…may not see yourself as useful…may not see yourself as someone God would want to use…But His word says He wants you…has plans for you and intends for you to be a part of His plan.

Would you have faith for God’s plans to be revealed and fulfilled in your life?

Conclusion

Would you believe it is so…that God has completely forgiven, saved you and made you a born again, completely new person in Him…that nothing about your past is held against you this morning? God’s grace has completely covered you?

Would you believe it so…that God finds you completely usable in His hands. That He has a plan for the rest of your life and it involves enjoying and bringing glory to Him?

Would you believe it is so even if this very moment it doesn’t look to be so…so that it might become so?

Too many are living a depressed kind of life because they refuse to believe it is so. They live a purposeless, useless, boring life because they refuse to believe they too were meant for so much more in Jesus.