The God who Loves Us

Thankful to be God’s

GAME:

Give everyone a notecard and a pen.

Write a noun on that notecard (A person, place, thing, or idea)

then pass it into to me.

Mix cards, pass them back out.

DO NOT SHOW YOUR CARD TO ANYONE

hold the card up to your forehead without reading the front of the card.

Now walk around the room and talk to others, You are trying to figure out who you are but you can only ask yes or no questions.

Make Sense? GO!

Is that notecard your identity?

For the game, sure… but is that really who you are?

What about in real life now, who are you beyond your name, your family?

What makes you… you?

A few other questions to consider tonight too…

Are you thankful you belong to God?

How do you view God?

How do you view yourself?

How do you value yourself? What is your self-worth?

I want to play you one of my favorite videos real quick…

*MARSHAWN LYNCH VIDEO* start at 55 seconds play to the end.

Recently on a Sunday morning I talked about good ole marshawn and his post-game interviews are some of my favorite content of all time.

He did this on several different occasions where the media would ask him questions about the game and he would just respond with one word answers.

In one interview he literally responds with “YEAH...”

They probably ask him 50 questions and every single one he says, “YEAH” its hilarious.

But to this particular video… you know what I love.

He says, “I’m thankful...” over and over again. This is one of the shorter Marshawn interviews… but his only response is “I’m thankful...”

What do you have to be thankful for?

Tonight… every day… every moment

**We should be thankful that we belong to God.**

Everytime you look at other people, things, or ideas to fill you with happiness, you will miss out on the joy of belonging to Christ.

Psalm 139:13-14 says, “For it was you who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful and I know this very well.”

No one knows you like God

vs. 13 says, “God created my inward parts...”

What does that mean?

What is inside you right now?

your guts, veins, brain, heart that’s pumping, muscles moving in conjunction with your bones. Nerves that are sending signals to the brain.

Human body is amazing.

But is that all that GOd is talking about here?

It’s not just your guts, brains, and heart.

The Hebrew word here indicates the deepest part of man.

The mind, soul, and emotions. God made that about you.

What is the coolest thing you’ve ever made?

Jewelry box.

Note: Logs, cut those into slabs, planed slabs down, cut them to size, cut all pieces, glue and joint together.

When I look at it, I didn’t even buy the lumber, I literally made it from a tree to the finished product.

Yet, could that box speak? Could it eat? Could it make decisions? Could it reason and even have the self awareness that it is a box? NO!

It’s just a box.

What if that box turned to me and said, “I couldn’ve done better...”

I’d say, “Box… meet fire… have fun being ashes.”

Think about how special you are to God. He made you, He gave you the ability to think, reason, create.

God also made you with the freedom to say “No” to Him. (We will come back to that in a minute.

You didn’t make you… God made you.

2. God Created You. You didn’t make you.

He owns us in the best of ways. There could be no one or no thing in all of creation better to own you than the one who made you and knows you!

You see, nothing about you is hidden from God. He knows you to your core. He knows the thoughts of your mind.

All the emotions you feel throughout the day but maybe don’t show or act on

He knows your struggles and sins.

Nothing is hidden from the creator of you.

Does that scare you or make you thankful?

What about the fact that God created you with the ability to say “No” to Him?

Think about it, in the garden, Adam and Eve said “NO” to God’s Command and “yes” to disobedience by acting on Satan’s words and not God’s words.

God wasn’t setting up Adam and Eve for failure by giving them to tree, but He also knew, for us to Love Him, He had to give us the opportunity to choose Him, and consequently, to choose against Him.

In other words, for us to Love God, he had to actually give us the choice to decide to Love Him or Hate Him.

How thankful we should be. How much more we should go to Him!

Vs. 13 also says, “You knit me together in my mother’s womb.”

*SHOW PICTURE OF BABY*

Check this out.

Yesterday, Allison and I got to go see our next baby.

We got to see the doctor measure his feet, look at his veins and arteries, see his heart pumping blood, see his brain, see his arms and legs moving.

And when you see that, I’ll tell you right now, no sane human walks away thinking you are the most powerful thing in creation.

You know God exists when you see a baby growing.

And yet, that baby is completely depended on you! On Allison!

That baby needs us to protect it, feed it, and help it grow already!

In this miracle, God is working.

God not only knows the deepest part of your mind, but He forms you in your most vulnerable state… when you’re growing in your mom.

3. God knows the hidden you.

Those hidden deep dark sins you’re most ashamed of, God knows those.

When you were not in control of your body and were in your mother’s womb, God knew you there too.

You see, where you are most vulnerable - in your own head- God is there …

When you were phyiscally dependent on your mom… God was there.

I went to a private Christian school ok… so my schooling was different than most of you.

I often say I’m a recovering private school kid.

On one occasion, I remember being in middle school and this girl started wearing a ton of makeup to school.

I mean… honestly it looked awful.

A group of my guy friends, being guys (dumb and jerks and middle schoolers). we started calling her “faceplate.)

Which is a dumb nickname all around. ok.

Well, we got caught doing this and somehow I bore the brunt of the blame for the whole thing.

Now… let me say I was absolutely a guilty party, but I was not THE guilty party. I don’t even know who came up with the name…

But to be a good friend, I took the responsibility and the punishment and almost got suspended from school for bullying.

Here’s the point…

That girl didn’t do anyting wrong, she was trying to figure out life.

Trying to figure out make-up.

We boys were jerks.

Can you imagine if a middle school boy was in charge of creating the universe?

All I will say, is none of us would be here.

At the same time, can you imagine if that girls mom or another lady never helped her with her makeup?

The point is, we all make some bad decisions in middle school.

Some of them have greater or lesser consequences.

It’s a vulnerable time.

AH.

there’s that word again.

God meets you in those places.

God as your creator loves you so much and that’s why vs 14 says,

“I have been remarkably and wonderfully made.”

DO you believe that?

Do you beleive that God made you remarkably and wonderfully?

I hope you do.

APPLICATION:

Maybe you look at yourself and want to change something

Maybe you think God made a mistake

This word “Remarkably” in vs 14 means, “carefully, thoughtfully, and powerfully.”

Guys… God carefuly, thoughtfully, powerfully made you.

He didn’t make a mistake.

Satan looks at a lot of people today and is trying to convince them God made a mistake.

That God messed up their gender,

That God messed up their hair color

That God messed up and didn’t give them enough muscles

That God didn’t give you the right personality

That God is holding something back from you.

NO

You are remarkable not because of anything you’ve done, but simply because of the One who made you.

And not just made you.

Loves you.

And not just loves you, but gave you the choice to Love Him or not.

1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.”

You didn’t teach God how to love.

God is love and continually teaches us how to love.

Are you thankful for that?

Are you thankful for how God has made you and for what he has given you?

There is no deep part of your soul that is so dark that God can’t love you there.

There is no phyiscal flaw you think you have that disqualifies you from God.

There is no place you can hide from God’s overwhelming grace He wants to give you.

Maybe this month we need to start with one simple truth.

We need to be thankful we belong to God.

No one loves you like God loves you.

Do You Love Him?