8/7/22

The way they should go

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to "Try Jesus!" If this is your first time joining us, it’s great to have you with us. Isn't it great when you are relocating, and things start to come together the way you planned? God receives the glory through every process (Proverbs 16:9).

I would like to thank those for joining "Try Jesus" from Florida (more new members) and those from the state of Washington, thanks for joining! God is continuing to reach out to hearts that have a story to share. Please continue to pray for this ministry.

The Lord still works his plan for us out of his goodness towards us. Let's be thankful in prayer for his word this morning. "Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us together in service. We thank you Lord, for the gift of salvation through trusting in your death on the cross and your resurrection. Help us today, Lord, to be rooted and grounded in your word of truth. May our lives be an act of worship that glorifies you today. We thank you Lord, that all things are made new by your hands, in Jesus’ name, amen."

How many of you love to receive gifts? How many of you sent love gifts with strings attached to them? Have you ever sent a gift and it made things worse? How many of you received a gift you didn't want? Have you ever returned a gift to someone? How did they feel after receiving back from you? Did you contact them? There are certain gifts that you should never send. Can you think of gifts that are always a "No, don't send that!"

Throughout the year there are days when you have to think of a gift to send to someone one you admire. You can tell if someone didn't care for a certain gift, by showing up and seeing the gift tucked away and unused. Here's an example. You get a call to come over your friend’s home to play a variety of board games. You feel so excited because that's the very gift you purchased for them five or ten years ago.

When you arrive, you walk in and greet all the guest and family. At the table you notice many board games that have been laid out. You quickly glance and see your gift is also on the table. Your smile quickly turns upside-down. Why? Because your gift is the only game that still has the shrink wrap on it. Remember, it's the thought that counts, right? Does it hurt more when you put a lot of work, time, and effort into a gift that’s been set aside or rejected?

Growing up, I loved gifts because I would sometimes see the joy on the face of my siblings when they received a gift. When you come from a relatively big family, you celebrate the giving of gifts. There was always a birthday cake and candles in the home I grew up in. Some families will incorporate in a grab bag process for birthdays, and holidays.

What do you think of people who give gifts, expecting something in return? Do you think they are self-centered and selfish? Is it really better to give than receive? What does God have to say about giving and receiving gifts? If you have your Bible nearby (and you should) let’s look at how God defines and looks at gifts.

In Christian theology we understand that God brought forth the cosmos (creatio ex nihilo). He created everything out of nothing (ex nihilo). God simply spoke this through his intention and his will, through his intelligence and his love. God’s will be not only creative but preservative. He both brings and sustains all things in being. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1 KJV).

My friend’s, everything God does is perfect and good. The word of God is absolute truth (John 17:17). It is impossible for God to lie (Numbers 23:19; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18). Need more proof. Read James 1:17,18. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. {18} Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures" (James 1:17-18 KJV).

[God is the sovereign creator of the sun, moon, and stars. He gives us good gifts and illuminates our minds to see the goodness in these gifts. We are his prized possession. Sin has caused all creation to fall from the perfect state in which God created it. The world is subject to frustration and bondage to death and decay so that it cannot fulfill its intended purpose.]

God’s eternal acts of giving gifts was placed inside his creation. Some of these acts are found in scripture. You can read just a few in the Old Testament (Genesis 25:6; Esther 2:18; Daniel 2:48). Giving gifts is nothing new with God. It pleases him to bless his creation with gifts.

Someone long ago said, "You can never out give God." His resources are inexhaustible. Why is God moved to act this way? Because he is love. Please read these entire verses aloud to yourself. It is God conveying to you how much he loves you. He loves you so much, he stretched out his arms and said "it is finished" (1 John 4:7-21).

The word love and the suffixes related to love is written 26 times in 1 John chapter 4 by the apostle John. John knew this love up close and personal (John 13:23). Here are the Greek words for love in the passages; (agapaō, and agapē. This specifically in the plural sense is a love feast. A feast of charity affection, good will, love, benevolence, and brotherly love. Let me state this undeniable fact; God loves you more than I could say or pen in any message or sermon.

He desires to submerge you in love. How do I know this? Because he is the full of love. Some people have told me "Pastor Todd, I'm not sure Jesus loves me, or could love someone like me." I always give the same answer. Jesus loves you because he gave you life. Without Jesus you wouldn't be you. Satan is the one who wants to trap you his low self-esteem prison. Jesus came to give you life, and much more in abundance (John 10:10).

Others will say, "But my life is such a mess." I always say "who's isn't?" Honestly, I'm more weary of those who walk around saying "I've arrived, my life is perfect!" All you need to realize is that God can use your past and current wrecked to show the incredible difference he can make in your life once you’ve surrendered everything (your heart) to him. God has the power to make beautiful things out of devastating situations.

Just think how you got here. God determined in his own timing when he would bring you to life. He had thoughts of you long before the genealogy he would place you in. His thoughts were only good concerning you. How do I know this? Because he speaks plainly about you in (Psalm 139:13-18). If you are suffering from depression or self-hatred, please read this verse with your heart not just your mind.

We've heard the phrase "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder." God so how beautiful you were before he placed you in your mother's womb. By the way, men cannot have children! That’s another message for another day. But know this, it is a fact that everyone on this earth came through the legs of a woman. Except Adam and Eve. You may claim anything you want to be outside of God, but those parts that belong to a female will always be from a female. Ok, let's continue on how much love was shaped in God giving you life.

God’s love for the unborn and their mothers and fathers go beyond just to be fruitful and multiply. God's love for you is unmeasurable. Listen my friends,  from the time he gently forms you in the womb until the time you are brought into his created world, until you return to the dust of the earth, his thoughts and love for you never change (Psalm 139:17,18).

It is amazing that his love and good thoughts of you are more than the sand on any beach you could try to count. Did you know that you are a gift from God? All babies are gifts from God. How do I know? Because he tells us in his word. If you want to know how valuable your life is, just start reading the Bible.

Read (Psalm 127:3-5 KJV) aloud to yourself. {3} Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. {4} As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. {5} Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

In the New American Standard Bible, it says verse [3] Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. [The Bible calls children “a gift from the LORD,” a reward. Not only do they bring pleasure and joy, but we can learn valuable lessons from their inquisitive minds and trusting spirits.]

[This psalm is a reminder for all parents and grandparents that they should fully participate in loving, raising, and discipling the children in their care to follow God. When children are raised to follow after Jesus, they will be like well-aimed arrows and not launched into the world randomly.]

Let me soundly repeat that, "children are a gift from the Lord!" They are not a nuisance, inconvenience, a blob or simply nothing that we arbitrarily go in the womb and destroy them. Jesus said, "suffer the little children to come unto me." (Mark 10:13-15). This includes the unborn. Why? Because Jesus did not come to destroy lives, but to save them (Luke 9:54-56).

Jesus loves women and mother's to be in good health. But just like the disciples randomly choosing that he call down fire to destroy a group of people, Jesus chose to love the Samaritans (John 4:9,10). Here you can see Jesus offering her the gift of living water (New life). So, when people use the term women's health to hind behind the spilling of innocent blood, it grieves the heart of God that his gifts are treated this way.

In the beginning of the message, I spoke about returning gifts you don't like. If we are hurt by someone returning or tossing our well thought out gifts aside, how much more do you suppose God is hurt by us destroying his greatest gift to us? Think about it. These gifts never got to see the other gifts God created for them to see. Some of you are still hurting by the hurtful decision you made. Just imagine what that gift would look like today.

There are many people who are bent on destroying innocent lives. One such person was a women named Margaret Sanger; she was an American birth control activist. In promoting birth control, she advanced a controversial "Negro Project," wrote in her autobiography about speaking to a Ku Klux Klan group and advocated for a eugenics approach to breeding for “the gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extinction, of defective stocks, those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization.”

The vast majority of the abortion vendors have set up shop in minority neighborhoods, which can be seen in the scarce statistics available at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Though they are only 13% of the female