February 7, 2016

Pastor Dan’s Message

Romans 5:5 “God’s Love”

Turning Point Wesleyan Church

Just Not Good Enough.

All I want is to be enough. 

I want to be skinny enough;

Smart enough;

Tall enough;

Pretty enough. 

All I want is to be enough. 

I just want to look in the mirror and not hate everything I see. 

I want to wake up in the morning and not wish that I was still sleeping. 

Because when I sleep, I escape reality. 
And in reality I am not enough. 

I Am Just Not Good Enough

Is it just me?

Am I the reason why I may not be good enough?

Am I Too Lost to be Good?

Do I love too much?

Do I Hate too much?

What is missing from my life?

This life that I am in – it just doesn't seem to be enough.

I Am Just Not Good Enough

That thought just echoes through my mind.

I can't silence it.

I try to convince myself I am worthy

But the voice in my head echoes even louder.

"I AM JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH".

I try to build myself up but there is always just something there that knocks me back down again.

I feel so lost.

I Am Just Not Good Enough

I take my first step in – and I want to step back out.

I try speak the first word – but I want to shout it!

My very first sentence is - “Life is just too tough!”

My very last breath, I Scream! – “I just wasn’t good enough”.

All I want is to be Good Enough.

How does this speak to you? What in it speaks to you? Do you find yourself entrapped in these words? Do you see others who are trapped within them?

How does this speak to you?

In Romans 5:5, God says this through Paul.

5) (ESV) “And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s Love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

5) (NLT) “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God Loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

We have Evidence of this HOPE and We rest Assured in a Life within His HOPE:

·         God’s Love is in your heart RIGHT NOW!

·         AND there is EVIDENCE of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your Life!

And this HOPE does not disappoint.

And How do we know this? Because the Love of God has been poured out into your heart by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

This HOPE does not disappoint:

The HOPE that suffering builds in us is not a HOPE that will be disappointed.

We are assured of this because God has proved or assured us of His purpose to complete His work in and into each one of us. The proof being of the love of God … poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Every Christian should KNOW what it is like to have as well as FEEL the Love of God … which has been poured out into their heart –

Each of us has a deep - inner awareness of God's love for us.

We are only in chapter 5 but it is very clear that Paul's approach to writing this Book is in his usual way, approaching things with the use of Logical Arguments and those logical arguments do stir up some deep emotions within us. At times, these emptions do their work by shocking us, they push us into some very disturbing areas of our lives and they show us how sin constantly demoralize us as well.

But the Book of Romans is Not lacking in the Emotion of or in the Passionate Experiences with Our God.

Paul wants us to think and he directs us to find the right thoughts about God, but he also wants us to know and to have the right experiences with God as well.

“The Love of God … poured out in our hearts.” God does not issue His Love to us as if it was delivered to us in a trickle.

As if to make sure that we can absorb it all, dripped upon us as we walk with Him and just drippling it upon us to assure that none of it falls off and is wasted.  

But rather it is poured out in our hearts.

It is poured out with an abundance.
It is poured without worry or caution of it being accepted or not.
It is poured without concerns if it will go to waste.
It is poured without any signs of hesitation.
It is offered to us all.
It is not a onetime gesture type of thing but rather it comes to us as a continue offering.
It gushes down upon us, overflowing in abundance.
And totally without any hesitation or concern of what we will do with it.
It is a True Offering of Grace.

Some Christians try to accept it and try to live their lives as if this Gift was only given in a trickle but God wants us to know that it is an outpouring of His love.

How do you see God issuing His Love towards you?

·         Is it like a Flash Flood?

·         Or is it as a Trickle?

Or maybe the question that should be asked is:

“How do you, in what way do you accept God’s Love towards you?”

As a Flash Flood?

§  Drenching you to the bone,

§  Soaked you through and through,

§  Whereas you have and do live life as if are totally and absolutely surrendered upon to Your God.

or

As a Trickle?

§  “Just give me a little at a time, Lord”.

§  Let me earn it as I go.

§  Let me be comfortable with this before I get more.

§  Let me be in control with my reality

§  But all the while thinking that I still find my Love within You God.

This love is ours, yours and mine. And it came from and delivered with the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

As I began today with talking about - Just not being Good Enough:

·         Did you find yourself within that description?

·         Are you still feeling that way?

·         Or at one time, did you find yourself feeling that way?

·         Did that describe how someone who you know maybe feeling?

When we find ourselves in that type of thought, the vision of our reality is that way BECAUSE we are lacking of the awareness of God's Love.

Lacking in the awareness of the Holy Spirit.

We are captured within this state of mind because we fail to accept the constant Flood of God’s Grace which continues to come from Him all the time.

This Grace of Love is designed to fill up our soul. But if we refuse it, reject it, it leaves us exposed and so quickly the enemy takes us and makes us his captives.

This Grace from God is being offered to us by our Loving God, the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit beckons us, He calls us to be in a constant walk with Him.

Think of it this way,

The Love of God is like ‘light to a blind man’s eye’.

That is until the Holy Spirit opens that eye.

May we open not only one but both of our eyes in submission to our Lord.

And let us embrace the Holy Spirit and welcome Him to live within all of us.

Let us welcome God to cover us.

To pour out of abundance.

To flood us with His Love.

And let this Love of His soak out of us for all to see. Amen.

Everyone who is a Christian has the Holy Spirit within them.

(Romans 8:9 “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”)

But not every Christian lives in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. There are a large number of Christians who have begun their walk but for this reason or that, they have found themselves stalled within that walk.

(Ephesians 5:18 “Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,)

And not every Christian walks in the Holy Spirit. But when you are filled with the Spirit, He lives out of you and this New Life is an outward sign of an inward Peace with God.

 (Romans 8:4-5 “He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.”)

In John 16, we find Jesus talking to his disciples and explaining to them that the time is coming soon for His Crucifixion.

They do not understand it yet but He is telling them that soon, they will ask the Father for things and the Father will grant those things because they ask in His Name.

Jesus will no longer be asking the Father in their place but rather, they will be directly asking the Father and the Father who is listening to them because the Father is pleased with them because they have Faith in Jesus.

Jesus finishes his lesson with these few words, (John 16:33) “I have told you all this so that you may have PEACE in ME. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

Remember, Temptations comes from the Evil One. And Trials come from the Lord.

God gives us Trials not as being mean to us but rather through His Love.

And it is important to know that He does not put anything upon us in which we cannot handle. So Jesus is telling his disciples that out of His Glorious Love, they will receive trials from Him so that they can grow in Love and in Life with Him. But Jesus also tells them that they will also experience grief. Sorrows will come because why, because they, you and I are no longer part of this world. We reject this world to pursue a life with Him. Through our Faith in God, we are separated from this world. We can find comfort from Jesus’ profound promise found in His last words, “Because I have overcome the world.”

I would like to close with a Deborah Ann’s Poem.

Take heart,
lest you become weary
for I will never forsake you
though things may be dreary.

Take heart,
when troubles come your way
for I came to give you peace
by shedding light on your way.

Take heart,
when worry is at your door
for I came to give you hope
in a new life for evermore.

Take heart,
when burdens overload you
for I will lead and guide you
on what you need to do.

Take heart,
when disappointments mount
for I came to encourage you
on Me, you can always count!

Our decision of faith in God is all about us. He allows us to make the decisions on how far or how close we want to be with Him. Although, we make that decision and that decision should be very important to us, regardless, He continues to rain down His Love upon us all. That is what True Love is. That is the Character of Our God and Our Lord.

Love; He is Love.