A Love That Always Works
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18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
19 Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
I will never leave you - I will work in you and for you
All things for good is not a raise
new house, car, etc
God knows the best He could ever do for you is form you to the image of His Son - God is working all the events and circumstances in your life to that end
All things are working; there is no stagnation. They are working together, like the cogs of two wheels revolving in different directions. They are all working for good. The only condition is love on our part. Those who love God are loved by God, and all winds blow from the quarter of God’s love. And that love is a sure sign and token that they have been called; and if called, they may be sure that they are on the moving stairway which is bearing them up and on through successive stages to glory.
He is forming you
Working on you
Never will you be able to escape that work
Philippians 1:6 (KJV 1900)
6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
The very mold of Jesus Christ
The circumstances
The warfare
God is doing something good in our hardships
Working something good
Until we see Jesus, God will be working in us so Jesus can be seen in us
He did that today
Tomorrow He will do the same thing
Conforming, molding, initiating
28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
His purpose = not yours
Circumstances
Warfare
Pain
Failure
Disappointment
even the difficult
even the bad times
even the hurts
even the failures
James 1:2–4 (KJV 1900)
2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
trying of your faith works
Patience have her perfect work
trial = be joyful
wanting nothing = lacking nothing - the bigger character spiritual things
They are there to complete you, so you will respond to your trials the way Jesus responded
More spiritual growth, more spiritual strength
tears and failure do a greater work than success and laughter
He works through trials
Great believers throughout scripture were used by God through the trials God allowed in their life
Failures
Pain
God uses your failures to work things for ultimate good
Even problems of our own making
Paul =
Beatings
shipwrecked
naked
thorn in his flesh
abandoned
beheaded
= Molding into Jesus
Why the pain
conflict
hurt
abandonment
suffering
= forming into Jesus
God formed man of the dust of the ground - Gen 2:7
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Changed into the same image from glory to glory
Progressive change
Christ = ongoing process of change
We are no longer
We behold His glory and His glory can be seen on us and through us
2 Corinthians 4:17 (KJV 1900)
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
Light affliction = Beatings
Imprisonment
shipwrecked
nakedness
thorn in his flesh
abandonment
would be beheaded for his preaching and teaching
God was doing an eternal work through all of that
preparing
equipping
The affliction is light, but the glory of the future is fraught with radiant and satisfying blessedness. The one is transient, the other eternal. The one is the price of the other, though each is the gift of God. The comet which has gone farthest into the outer darkness returns closest to the central sun. - FB Meyer
Turning away from the world
Turning away from the flesh
The good that God has for you in your pain and trial
Sometimes when we pray, we are looking for the quick solution
cure
promotion
answer
solution
health
wealth
Paul here confesses that he was troubled, perplexed, persecuted, and cast down, always bearing the scars of Jesus, and being perpetually delivered over to death. But he gratefully accepted all these disabilities because he knew that they gave greater opportunities to Jesus to show forth, through him, His resurrection power. With the daily decay of the outward, there came the renewal of the unseen and spiritual. It is only in proportion as we are conformed to the sufferings and death of Christ that we begin to realize the fullness of what He is, and what He can be or do through us. Our one thought must always be the glory of Christ in the salvation of others.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
Few men have been more conscious of their weakness than was the Apostle. The earthen vessel had become very cracked and scratched, but the heavenly treasure was unimpaired, as in the case of Gideon, when the pitcher was broken the lantern shone out.
The victory in the Apostle Pauls life wasn’t his wisdom
His strength
His wealth
His power
His intellect
His connections
His business
His bloodline
The victory in the Apostle Paul’s life was the excellency of the power of God
Have you ever just felt like throwing in the towel
People pack up and leave
family
church
Christians fellowship in the body of Christ
All conflicts we experience have been ok’d by a Sovereign God
That’s amazing
People run from the very things that are conforming them into the image of Christ
How is your prayer life?
God will allow things in your life to get you to pray
We want out of conflicts, then we don’t pray
How is your Bible study time
Scripture memory
God is loving
God is kind
God is good
God is going to order situations into our life to teach us to respond like Jesus would respond
God is bringing us to a place that in our Spiritual, Inner man - we will not want to
act
respond
perform - outside of the Father
Luke 10:22 (KJV 1900)
22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
30 I and my Father are one.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
The pattern Jesus left us was one of dependance on the Father
Sin is merely acting independent of the Father’s guidance
Do you share Jesus with others?
Yesterday my oldest boys were with me as we shared Jesus with a man
This is part of the Christian life
Our Privilege
Our Duty
God will work our circumstances to a place of obedience in this area
Do you help others who are weak in their faith?
God will perform a burden in your heart
God allows adversity to conform us into the image of His Son
Sin has been passed down to you from the first Adam
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted; That I might learn thy statutes.
Some of the most unhappy people I have met have been Christians running from God’s plan for their life - God loves them enough to allow affliction, because God knows what is good for them = that is them being conformed into the image of Christ
We must learn to respond to trial and afflictions the proper way
There are three types of sanctification
Salvation - Heb13:12
12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.
Current - IThes5:23
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Future sanctification in Heaven - Rev 7:9
9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
Presently God provides adversity to:
Cause us to pray
Encourage us to meditate on His Word
Teach us our need for the local assembly of believers
You might be able to be saved without a local church
You can’t be an obedient Christian without a local church
Being saved is a miracle new birth that takes place when someone is convicted of their sin and realizes that Jesus paid for that sin at calvary.
Being a Christian is being like Christ - I don’t understand how a person could be like Christ and be disconnected from the assembly Christ shed His blood for.
God uses the church to reveal to us our carnality.
We may not like all the brethren, but there is something in each of them that Christ loves. Let us try to discover it, or love them for His sake. We can love people with our mind and think for them, or with our strength and serve them, even though the heart is somewhat reluctant.
12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
You are saved and God wants that salvation to work out of you - much of that happens when adversity hits us and God’s glory shines out
11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Titus 2:12 (KJV 1900)
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
We have the ability to reject God’s grace
God’s grace teaches us to
deny ungodliness
worldly lusts
Soberness
righteousness
Godliness
There are christians that struggle on the weekends
1 John 3:1–3 (KJV 1900)
1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.
Are you in the family of God?
Sons of God
We know:
He shall appear
We shall be like him
We shall see him
vs 3 this hope causes us to purify himself
Have we forgotten that?
Do we think this is all there is?
God will keep working on you and in you until we see Him
If we know He shall appear
we shall be like him
we shall see him
that will change how we live
We must keep our eyes on Jesus
As we see our needs
as we look on Him - we will be fashioned into His image
I will never leave thee
I’m not trying to make people be like Jesus - I don’t have the strength