Relate Church

To be faithful, you have to start with faith. The Scripture tells us what faith is: “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Heb. 11:1 NIV).
Faith is knowing that something right and good is going to happen and doing something right and good because of that.

 

You have the ability to listen to and understand properly what God is saying. You don’t have to live in the dark, like everything God has said is in code, too hard to understand.
There are times that people don’t want to hear what I am actually saying, trying to teach God’s principles, so they will not only not actually hear what I am saying, but they will make up words that I never said to justify their not listening. I know exactly what Jesus was talking about when He looked at the disciples and people around Him and said, “Are you listening? Really listening?”

To start this series, I want to talk with you about Remember You Love.
This is one of the things that God has a big problem with, people forget they love Him. 
In Revelation, listen to what God said to His church: “But this is what I have against you: you do not love me now as you did at first” (Rev. 2:4 GNT).

Like we talked about last week, God allows certain moments to get people where the need to be, for His Mission.
Your pain is a setup.
Even your failure is a setup.
God is always trying to reach people; it’s His Mission.
And God is always trying to recruit people to His Mission.

God does have a plan. And every one of us have a part in that plan. You have a part. And no matter how small or seemingly insignificant you may feel you are, your part makes a huge difference.
You may think you are being humble by staying back, shrinking to the background of life, staying out of sight, not putting yourself out there. But BECAUSE you were created by God to do His PLAN, your life won’t make sense until you begin doing it. 

Today I want to talk with you about committing yourself to love. Without God, there is no love.
God IS love. Love IS God. For anyone to say they have love for anything or anyone is to acknowledge God’s existence. Love does not exist without God.

It’s important for you to know that in God’s Kingdom, you can’t wait for someone to twist your arm to get you to make the commitments you really need to make. 
You are going to have to do the work to love God and love us. God and nobody here is going to beg you, or talk you into it.
Here’s a question for you to answer as we get started in this new year:
Is your life committed to doing what you have chosen to love? 

This time of the year is a time when we get to put all of this past year’s success and failures behind us. 
It’s a time when we get to start with a clean slate. 
When you look at things through that lens, its like God is saying, “Take a deep breath, I’m giving you a fresh start”. 
So right now, take a deep breath and say to yourself, “This is going to be my best year ever”. 
Because no matter what this coming year throws at you, God has a formula for you to be successful. 

God wanted to experience true love—so He became a baby. 
The whole point of your entire existence is that God wants to know what it is to be loved by you. Do you care about Him? Do you care about what He likes and doesn’t like? What He wants and doesn’t want?
Or are you so caught up in your own desires, your own needs and wants? Demanding your own way?

“Lord, I am overwhelmed.  Please come to my help” (Isaiah 38:14b).
Have you ever felt like Isaiah? What can you do when you are overwhelmed? 
Here’s a little hint: Start by doing the exact opposite of what you feel like doing.