Hey everyone this is Troy. So I was reading an article the other day about a
couple stars out in space, and it was real interesting because it was
describing how scientists have observed these stars through telescopes
or radio waves, or however they do it, they observe these stars out in space
somewhere getting caught in each other's gravitational pulls and they began to
spin around each other, basically dance around each other in circles and
eventually they collided. And I'm reading about this and thinking, "wow." There's so
many things in the universe. In outer space there's so many planets and stars
and galaxies and black holes and all sorts of these crazy things that
some things we've not even discovered, or things that we don't even know
about yet -- and it made me think about how God created this amazing universe and He
placed human beings on earth, somewhere out in space. And it made me realize that
God is telling this amazing story through His creation. And when I think
about telling a story through something that you create, I'm reminded of this
time when I was a kid when I used to watch all sorts of stop-motion animation
movies and videos and stuff -- I loved them so much -- and if you don't know what those
are, basically stop-motion is a movie that's made up from individual pictures
that make up all the frames. So it takes a long time. Anyways and so I was
real inspired by watching these movies mostly like clay animations and stuff, so
what I did was I got some clay and I got some wires and and I built this little
figure, it was like a little dog out of wire and I put clay on it
and I molded it together and that made it look real cute and everything, and
then I got my little digital camera out and I started taking pictures of it
because I wanted to make my own story using this stop motion technique.
Eventually I got to the point where I looked at everything I had done -- I had
been working on it for over an hour -- and I was tired and I was thinking, "I
wonder what I've got finished so far?" So I clipped the photos together and I
looked at them and the only thing I had done was I had made this really bad
looking little clip of my figure waving this much. And
and I just remember looking at it thinking, "Oh, I spent all this time
and effort on it and he's literally just doing this." And I just gave up.
I thought, "This is too hard it's too difficult I've run into too many
problems I'm just gonna give up on it." And to be honest, nowadays, I don't really
think about that clay figure that I made very often, like, he doesn't come to my
mind -- you know -- on a regular day, but it made me think in contrast about the way
that God sees us. Even with all the amazing things that are happening in the
universe, and all the amazing things that God has created, He still thinks about us.
He still thinks about you. God literally made us from dirt, which is a lot like
clay, like those clay figures I was making, and yet He values us so much that
we occupy His thoughts. And even when we messed up, even when we ran away from God,
He never said, "This is too hard. This has gotten to be too difficult, it's not
what I expected, I'm just gonna give up on these people." No, He never said that.
Instead He stepped down into His creation, as a man, and He paid the
highest price so that we could still be in relationship with Him. So what I want
to do is I want to show you a couple places in scripture where we can see
clearly that God thinks about us. Psalms 56:8 says about God,
"You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your
bottle. You have recorded each one in your book." Now when I think back to all
of the sorrows of my life, all of the difficult things I've gone through, all
of the trials I've faced, at times I thought about God and I thought, "God, You
just don't understand," or "You just don't know what I've been through. You just
don't know what I'm facing right now." And yet when we look at this verse we can
see that not only does God understand, not only does he know but he does not
forget about the things that we faced in our life. And then, Zephaniah 3:17 says,
"The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over
you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He
will rejoice over you with shouts of joy." Now you might look at a verse like this
and think, "Well, that doesn't apply anymore because it's the Old Testament,
God was talking to His people in the Old Testament." But here's why I think we
can look at this verse and say it applies to us today -- it's because God
never changes. He's the same yesterday today and forever.
So if He never changes and He's talking to His chosen people in the Old
Testament we as believers in Jesus Christ are His chosen people now. We've
been grafted in. And so what that means is we can look at this verse and we can
take the principle or the characteristic of God behind the verse and we can apply
it to ourselves. So if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, God rejoices over you.
And then, Romans 8:34 says, "Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised,
who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us." Now when I'm going
through something extremely difficult it's nice to know that somebody else is
praying for me. Here's what's so amazing about this verse -- if you're a believer,
Jesus himself is praying for you. Now when I think about this verse, I believe
that I can do anything that God is calling me to do. And then, Job 1:8 says,
"The Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is
no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away
from evil." In a way it's almost like God is bragging about his servant Job in
this verse. When I look at this verse I can't help but consider the fact that
like any loving parent God, enjoys talking about his children. And finally
in Matthew 23:37, Jesus says this, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem who kills the
prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How I have wanted to gather your
children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were
unwilling. Here's what we can pull out of this
verse; even if you don't yet know Christ he still longs for you. So I want to ask
you a question today and it's simply this; What is God thinking about you
today? Is it something like this, "Look at My son, look at My daughter, look
how perfect they are because of the blood of Jesus. Look at the
transformation that's happened and is still happening in their heart. I'm so
very proud of them for accepting My Son and I just love knowing them so much and
I cannot wait to reveal more of My love to them."
Or is He thinking something more like this, "There they go again. Oh how I long
for them to know Me. If they can only understand and see how much I love them.
If they would just accept My Son and turn away from those other things. If
they could just see how much I want to fulfill them and give them abundant life.
If they would only allow Me to heal their hurting heart." If you think you're
in that second camp right now, in a minute I'm gonna give you an opportunity
to move from that second camp to the first one. And you might be thinking, "How
can I be sure what God thinks about me? I think I was saved at one point, I know I
said a sinner's prayer, but I'm not really sure -- you know -- I have these doubts
about my salvation and I'm not sure what God really thinks and how He really sees
me." Listen to what 1st Corinthians 2:16 says, "For who has known the mind of the
Lord that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." If you've been
born again you have the mind of Christ, and that means that God Himself will
assure your heart through the Holy Spirit. Getting saved, accepting Jesus,
it's not just like fire insurance. There's a relationship that begins when
you receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior and what happens when that
relationship starts is you get to know him on a personal level and
suddenly your character begins to transform so that you're no longer
wanting to do the wrong thing, now, you naturally want to do the right thing, you
want to please God because your sin nature has been replaced with the nature
of Christ. That doesn't mean you're perfect, it doesn't mean you're never
gonna make a mistake, but what it means is that God is transforming you into a
likeness of Christ. And if you're thinking, "That's never happened to me. I
may have said the sinner's prayer at some point but I don't think I have a
real relationship with Jesus Christ." Nail it down today. Don't wait another second,
you can be sure of your salvation right now. God made it really easy for us to
get saved it's not something we have to work hard enough to achieve it's not
something we can buy or earn our way into, if you want to be forgiven and
saved today, this is what you need to do; repent and believe. Admit that you're a
sinner and that you're in need of a savior and then believe that Jesus died
and rose again to become that Savior for you. Because of God's amazing love for us
Jesus His son came to Earth, He lived a perfect life as a man and then He was
killed on a cross to take the punishment for sin that we deserved. And now when we
turn away from our sin and we turn to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, God sees us
as His perfect, spotless, children and that relationship begins because Jesus
lives inside of us and He begins to transform our lives.
I want to pray right now and if you want to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior
I want you to pray with me. Nail it down today, be sure that you were walking with
Christ and that you have a real relationship with Him.
"Lord Jesus, I admit right now that I am a sinner, God, and I have made mistakes. That
I have messed up, that I have not done things Your way and that I am in need of a
savior, Lord Jesus, so I just ask right now that You would forgive me of my sins
and that You would come into my life, God, that You would be my Savior, Lord. I
believe Jesus that You died on a cross and that You were buried and that You
rose again on the third day and now You're seated at the right hand of God.
And I believe that by faith my sins are covered by the blood of Jesus and I
believe that love covers a multitude of sins, so I just accept Your righteousness
right now in Jesus' name. Amen." There's two things you can do for me
today. Let me know in the comments if you prayed with me today, and the number two
is share this with somebody who needs it.