Audio Files

Five Ways God Shows He Loves Us

  (Audio)

7:36

What More Could God Do To Prove His Love?

  (Audio)

3:19

Christ Holds it ALL together

  (Audio)

4:18

Five Ways God's Love, an Alternative Look

  (Audio)

11:51

These are excerpts from messages given to those in a recovery program. 

Most of the subject matter in these clips applies to all Christians.

TRANSCRIPTS

      FIVE WAYS STUDY

Alright. So there are five different ways God shows his love to us.

First one, before time began, he knew we were going to be mess-ups, right? And he created us anyway. And he planned to die for us anyway. Why is that important? Because Satan's thing in you, you guys are messed up. You're addicts, you're this, you're that, you're losers, right? And you go, well, yeah, I'm a loser. Everybody's a loser. But guess what? God knew about it before he even got created time and he made me anyway. So there must be something special. All right. So before time began, he loved us. (2 Tim 1:9-10)

He died for us. You know, it's like, oh,

   "He's died for me."

That's cool. Wow. We, we, we are so flippant about it sometimes, and we really think about it. Wow, somebody gave their life for me so I could live. They took my place. I'm out of prison because they're in prison for me. And now I'm acting like, oh, well it's all about me. He bailed us out of prison. He got, he took us out of prison and said, go live a good life. I'm getting you out of this place. You had 20 years left to go, now you're free.

    Go live like a free person.

Don't go back to the things you did that got you in here. And he, there's an incredible price paid that shows love. (Romans 5:7-8)

He calls us sons. Most of our dads didn't show a lot of love to us in different ways. If your dad did, that's awesome. Okay? But most of our dads failed us in some significant way, right? God never fails us. And he called us his sons, right? And, and we need to receive that love from him. And he shows that love in lots of different ways. And we tend to block it sometimes because, for example, and this goes to thankfulness, which is a whole other subject that we've been into.

If you wake up in the morning and you could say, okay, I could have been born in, I could be living in a third world country right now, but I'm here. And yeah, it's a pain sleeping along here with all the other people sleeping here. I can't imagine it's not, not cool, but still waking up in a third-world country with your teeth rotted out and, and no medical care and all kinds of problems. And hungry. because you haven't eaten for a day and a half. I mean, there's, there's girls that travel two miles each way just to bring water back and forth. They can't go to school because they're so busy carrying water back and forth.  

Right? That's why we have, well things going on. Christians are paying to have wells drilled. You start comparing yourself to something like that. Here's a whole different thing. You have a whole different view. You're thankful. Well, thankful. I'm fed and I'm warm. And yeah, the guys smell and the, and it, and they're snoring. And I had a hard time sleeping, but man, it could be worse. Okay? It could be a lot worse. And so we, our perspective keep us from being thankful a lot of times because we keep raising the bar.

    We set the bar for our thankfulness.

Everything above this we're thankful for. If it's below this, we're not. Well, why would you set the bar so high? Why would you want to do that?  

Set the bar lower. Be thankful for everything that God gives you. And the thing that's the hardest to be thankful for, but you have to understand that you're his son, (We just said we're sons of God.) and he disciplines those he loves, is when he is disciplining us. When he is giving us the hard thing to do, that's when he's showing us his love. He's training us, he's preparing us, okay? And what we do is we fight against it. because it's hard. Oh, I shouldn't have to go through anything hard. Where, where do you get that? I shouldn't have to go through anything hard. Yeah. You know, I mean, where does that come from?  

I remember when my ex-wife left the first time, and I was Mr. Mom to the kids because she was bipolar. We didn't know. She was just depressed all the time. And my kids were gone and I was the one that's taking care of them. You know, she took them, took off. And I, I, I was so ashamed not to even talk to friends. And I slept seven hours in a week, right? Could hardly eat. I lost like 15 pounds and I just moaned, just moaned, you know? Horrible, horrible pain. Horrible pain. And you go, well, I shouldn't have to go through this. Going through that made me who I am. All right? It's horrible. I would never want that on anybody. You know, "Where's my kids?" My son's birthday. They were four and five years old. That's how old they were. And it's horrible stuff.

And we go through horrible pain at times. But

    God uses those difficult things to mold us and change us into who he wants us to be.

And we have to trust him, because if he is for us, who can be against us, right? (Rom 8:31) And, and we are his sons. We're his sons. All right? And, so it's going to be tough sometimes, but he loves us as a son. (I John 3:1-2)

He glorifies himself in us. This is really, and I mentioned when I started a couple, couple days ago, about all the people I know that died or left the program and not doing well. Right? I mentioned a few of them anyway. And when one part of the body hurts, we all hurt. You know? But those people who died unnecessarily; they had a spirit in a life that's unique and special. And you need to see yourself that way. You need to see that you are unique and you are special. Nobody can do it like you can do it.

   Nobody can love other people the way you can love other people.  

You don't be cocky about it, but because that's just the way God made you. You didn't do anything to have that. But your unique special person, unique special person, all the guys that come work for me, I've been doing this for several years, four years. They come to work at my house and each one's got a different special personality and they bless me in different ways. And it's, it is awesome hanging with them, right?

When you're using, you're not much use to anybody, okay? But realize you're unique and God wants to glorify himself in you. He wants his love to flow through you. That's his goal for you. God wants to be glorified. That is what you're here for. Foundation. That's the foundation. Why are you here? Oh, to do my thing, to get a job to this that no, you're here to glorify God.

    We are here as Christians to give glory to him.

And we do it by living our life for him, being all that we can be in our own special, unique way, and seek him. You say, well, what good am I for this and that? Trust me, you're a lot of good for a lot of things.

My friend Terry, who's developmentally disabled, he spent 40 years working at the pancake chef as a busboy. You know, he, he did good. And when he's with you, he's right there with you. You know, he, he listens and if you got a problem, he's, oh man, I'm so sorry, Rick, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I wish it was better. I, I'm going to pray for you, Rick. I'm going to pray for you. That's special. That's special. What makes him less than anybody else? Nothing. He's awesome, awesome dude.

He's had cancer for four years, stage four. The dude is so strong, he just keeps pushing through it. He calls me probably twice a week and he goes, Rick, Rick, when are they going to find a cure? When will they find a cure? I'm so sick of this. I'm so sick of this. I just want to take it home, throw it into the garbage dump. I just want to get it outta me. I wanna get it outta me. This special dude, special dude. He's strong, and keeps pushing through it.

  You're special. Live like you're special. Find what God's gifted you to do, and let his love flow through you to other people.

Find somebody around and say, can I touch that person somehow? Lord, show me who to touch.   (Eph 1:11-12) 

And he's gone to prepare a place for us beyond our imagination. Okay? No eye has seen, no ears heard, no mind can conceive what God has in store for those who love him. So I'd like you guys to memorize the five things you can memorize however you want. Before time began, he knew we were going to mess up and he loved us. He died for us. Call us sons. He glorifies himself in us and he's gone to prepare a place for us beyond our imagination. (I Cor 2:9)

Saying God loves me and I know it. No question about it. I know God loves me. My dad didn't love me, right? My friends didn't love me, right? My brothers in Christ walked away from me at times. All this stuff happens. But I know God loves me. How do we know?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for his all, how will he not also along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:32)

He said, if

     I died for you, why wouldn't I do anything else you need?

Right? If you ever go, well, I, I'm not, I'm not trusting that God could take care of this. You go, I, I died for you. You know, I hung, I bled out. What, what more do I need to do to prove I love you? What more do you want? I want you, I want to say that again. I want to hit home because so many times we feel God's not providing the way we think he should, or we don't think he can, or he will, or he doesn't care enough. So ask the question.

    What more do you want Jesus to do to prove he loves you?

He was up in heaven. Everything's cool, everything's happy. He is with the Father and, and all this wonderful bliss. And he makes himself, man, comes on down to earth and, and starts off crying a little baby. Limited. He did not consider being equal of God, something to be grasped, but he became man and humbled himself as a man. Philippians, right? That's what he did. That's suffering in itself. (Philippians 2:6-8)

And he walked as a man for all those years. You guys know the suffering. It's like to be human. What about when you know what it was like to be not having to deal with it, and you're going to go deal with it? You know, I'll give you an example. Just, it's just an example. It's not a perfect one, but you decide you're going get into prison ministry. And so you're going go spend 30 years in prison when you're innocent, just so you can do prison ministry. Anybody interested? No takers, right? Alright. That's similar. That's not even similar, but it's just a little tiny example of what it was like for Jesus to come through. And then he was mistreated, insulted, attacked, and killed.

But the worst thing was when he said, father, father, why have you forsaken me? That was the worst. Because he separated from everything he loved, right?  

You guys are in a community here. You've got family and this and that. Just imagine all of a sudden you're out alone in the dark in another country, okay? You're, you're over in Africa, in some South Africa someplace, and you have no idea. You don't know anybody. You don't know anything, and you're all alone out in the desert. You go, what? Where do I go? What do I do? Where nothing is common to me. That's just a tiny example of being separated from everything you love and everything you know, everything.

   When Jesus was separated from the Father, we can't even imagine the pain and the suffering.

My father, my father, why have you forsaken me? This is what Jesus did for you, okay? He showed you. He loves you.  

Scripture says, Christ holds all things together. (Colossians 1:17) He holds it all together. That means every part of your body, every part of everything around every moment Christ is holding together. He just kind of said, forget it; it’s done. Think of a, think of a dad holding a little baby. He's holding that baby up. Eh, I'm tired. Boom, baby drops. He's got to exercise energy to hold that baby up. He quits exercising the energy, it's done. Christ holds. He's holding all things together.

  So when you think everything's going to pieces, no; Christ has got it, just not the way we want it.

So we have two things. God's love, God's power. I've talked to you guys about this before. You've heard it, but I'm explaining to you how that relates into having the victory and the strength and the prosperity. The prosperity when you move on. Alright? Because when you're standing strong there on his love and his power when the weight comes, you don't stumble.  Right? It's just like being stronger. because your legs are strong. And so when the weight comes on, you go, God loves me. He's all-powerful. I got this. I got it. He loves me. He's all-powerful. I don't have to worry about what's going to happen. I don't care how big the trial is. I don't care how big it is. I don't care what it is.

  Through it all he loves us. We're his children. He's in control of all things.

When Job was being attacked by Satan, he had to go to God. This part of it, he had to go to God at every vet. Everything he was going do, he had to get permission from God. Satan is the prince of this earth. He, he runs the earth all but, but God decides what power Satan has. Did you get that in back here? There? I'm just giving you a principle for that. Every, everything goes through God when Satan is bringing things against us and all evil comes from Satan. And when, when Job is being attacked, one thing after another after another, he got permission from God to do it. Horrible things happened to Job. He lost everything he owned. He lost his family. He lost everything and God allowed it to happen. He allowed those horrible things to happen. He loved Job. Yeah, but he knew there was something better.

Scripture says, "Endure. hardship as discipline." (Hebrews 12:7) It says, "don't be surprised," here it shows God's controlling things.

   "Don't be surprised at the painful trials you're going through."

(I Peter 4:12) Okay? Don't be surprised. These are things that God's allowed for your strengthening. He's allowed those things to make you stronger. (James 1:2-4) It's in his control. So

   if it's happened to you, he's allowed to happen to you.

So when you go through difficulties and the weights come on, the strength comes from your mind and your faith. But the faith doesn't have to be big. (Matt 17:20-21) It has to be in the right place. I believe God loves me. I believe He's all-powerful. And when you guys have the next time something comes against you, you’re feeling a hit. It could be this morning, there's some things you're dealing with. Stop and say, does God really love me?

   What more could he do to show me he loves me?

What more do I want out of him to believe He loves me?

Ask the question because Satan doesn't know how to answer that one.  Satan's always in our mind and he asks the question, say, come on, bring it on. What could he do? What more could he do?

   What more could he do to show He is all-powerful?

What more, oh, well, he can fix everything on the earth. Well, did he do that for Jesus? Did he make it all easy for him? Why should scripture say, why should we expect any different? So why should I expect it easy if he allowed it difficult for Jesus (Romans 8:17), allowed it difficult for the Apostles, disciples? (I Corinthians 4:9-13) Why should I expect it easy? Well, you shouldn't I guess. So you don't.  

  Most of our hits in life come from us having unrealistic expectations.

That's where we get the hit. And unrealistic expectations mean we're not walking in truth. Okay? It means that we're we're, we're believing a lie.  

FIVE WAYS STUDY

And so he's shown, he's shown his love to us. We know he is powerful. And I'm going to take a little time this morning to go through some of the verses you guys already have written out, in the different ways that God shows his love to us. Why is this important?  

Because it is the foundation,

  God's love for us is the foundation of everything we do.

And these things remain faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. And this love that never fails. Everything else fails. And it's love that doesn't fail. That's the only thing that lasts. And when things are difficult for you, you need to be able to come back to the foundation and understand it. So I'm going to go through the different verses. There's five different ways God shows He loves us. And you guys have that card, and the verses are there already. The references are there. I'm just going to go through them with you.   

(Sample cards to print)

 Okay? So he, he called us not for anything we've done because of his purpose. It's about him. And that

   grace was given to us before the beginning of time,

before time even began. He knew we were going to need grace and he gave it to us. So you go, okay, you, before time even started, you had this thing all figured out.  

You knew about all the failures in the world. You knew that Adam was going to sin, you knew all this stuff, and you have grace. 

He died for us. 

He bore our sins. He took them all the garbage we've done. He took it on himself. Who'd do that? And it goes, it goes on to say, in, in, in Romans, very rarely would someone die for a righteous person, but for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die.  

So he says, "okay, yeah, I know Jesus died for me." You know,

   Jesus died for you?  

Living like he died for you.

   Are you living like it?

We just kind of use words. Yeah. Jesus died for me. He bore everything you've done wrong. He paid the price for it all. So you don't have to pay the price for any of those things you've done wrong. It's for eternity.  

Amen.  

How big a deal is that? trying yourself Any of you guys interested in paying the price for what you did? Number one, you can't because you can't undo the harm you've done to other people. Can't do it. But even if you could, would you?  

Anybody interested? And that's been done for you and you go, well, Jesus died for me. Oh, well that's cool. And we just kind of, we don't spend time there and think about how much we're loved. And so you don't feel loved. Go there and say, well,

   what would it be like if Jesus didn't die for me?

Whoa. Well, I have no hope of eternal life. I have to pay for my own stuff. I'd be full of guilt on an ongoing basis. That's a pretty crummy life.

He calls us sons.  

So we've been called children of God, what we're going to turn into someday we can't even imagine. It's, it's not yet been made known. Well what it's going to look like for us. But we know that when he appears, when we see Jesus face to face, we're going to go, I got it. And we're going to be like him. He's going to perfect us. when he appears it's amazing. You're children of God.  

There's something coming ahead that's beyond your imagination of what the work that God's going to do in you.  

Well, I'm just a junkie. Oh really? Well, that's a, that's a label of Satan. You're believing the lie. Again, remember <laugh> the lie that Satan says, I'm just a homeless person. I'm just this, I'm just that. And

   you have all these labels you can put on yourself. All the things that people  might have called you,

your parents called you growing up. It doesn't matter. This is what the Bible says. Yeah. You think your parents really got it figured out? No. You think anybody of those people who labeled you, they got truth?  

No. Why are you listening to them? Why are you taking,

  why would you ever take on yourself the words that some other flawed human being says to you?

When you really think about it, this other person in the world went and said these things to you. And so now you go, yeah, that's, that's what I am.  

And you take it. Just some other flawed human being. I mean, really, you're going to listen to that? No. When

   God says you're his child

and you got, and what you're going to be is not yet made known, you're going to be like Jesus and you're going to live with him forever. This is who you are.

  This is your identity.

And when you have that in your mind, these, these are the foundations. See? And when you have this foundation in your mind, it changes everything. You say, well, Rick, you've been talking about this like week after week. You know? Yeah. But it's got to be deep in you. Yes.  

Okay. And that's why I keep going over, because you're not, when I say this, don't take it the wrong way. When I say you're not living it, I'm not pointing at anybody, but I'm saying nobody's fully living it. Amen.

  Nobody's fully walking each moment with the joy of their salvation

with the joy of what Jesus did.  

You guys would have the biggest smile on your faces here. I'd be going and say, what? What'd I say? It was so, but what are you so happy about? Because we'd just be just full of joy. And so we need to be there. When I'm talking to all of you, I'm talking to me too. I don't ever want you to think I'm talking to, that's why I don't stand up there. All right? because I don't hold myself above you, why do I? Why am I able to teach you stuff? Because I walk the problems. Okay, why do I have this wisdom?  

Because I've walked the problems, because I have the same problems.

And so I walk and struggle with all this stuff and that's why no, no one's attained it. because no matter how much you try, we're always,

  the world is just pulling and pulling at us.  

And it's, it's in your face all the time and it's pushing you down. That's why one of the foundations is remembering, remembering things God's done. We need to remember his faithfulness. And what happens is Satan keeps bringing our unfaithfulness and other people's unfaithful to remember. He's saying, those people are unfaithful to you. You're unfaithful. Those people are unfaithful. You're unfaithful. And he keeps bringing that to mind. And it's right in our face all the time. Because that was the guy that messed with me. See, he's right there. There he is again. And we get reminded. And God's saying, set your heart on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.  

He's trying to get us to keep going here. So every time we're looking at that guy and say, you're the guy that mess with me. He goes,

   What are you trying to teach me Lord? He said, in this world, you have much trouble.

But take heart, I've overcome the world.

And you overcome that situation. You don't need to let that guy, you don't let need to give that guy the power. because I got the power. Amen. Why are you letting him have the power? Why?

   Why do you ever, ever let somebody else's sin have the power over your peace?  

It doesn't make any sense, even for a non-Christian. Amen. Right? It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't. And we do it.  

And God doesn't want us to solve things like a non-Christian. He wants to solve as a Christian, where we go to him and say, you got the power.

God glorifies himself in us, 

We're to be the praise of his glory. And the other verse I've shared,

Why? When they see your good deeds, are they praising God? Because the Bible says that every good and perfect gift comes from above. Now, it was really interesting. I remember teaching this in Sunday school and I was teaching how whenever you receive anything good coming from somebody else, you say, thank you God. And I want to encourage you to do this. Not only do we go to God when the people are messing with us and we go, God, you're bigger than this.  

You know, this person's having trouble. I'm praying for them. But we go to him when we see something as good happening and

   we say, "Thank you, Lord, that you touched me through this person."

 Because every good and perfect gift is from above

coming down from the father of heavenly lights. So when a person is doing something good for you, that is God using them as a hose to give you some fresh water. That's it. We're a bunch of hoses. That's what we are. We're a bunch of hoses. And God's love and his goodness flows through.  

But here's what was hard for me. When I was giving that message in Sunday school, all of a sudden I stopped and go, that means

   every good thing I do isn't me either.

And I go, whoa. That was a wake-up call from about 20 years ago. And it hit because you like to think, well, I do some good stuff. You know, I do some good stuff and I just let that all go. Any good stuff I do, it's not me. I can't take credit for any of it.  

And see, it's kind of interesting because a person could look at it and say, well, what use am I then if no good comes from me? But the truth is that

   you don't have value except for God.

Your value comes because of what he's given you. But here's the deal. If it comes from what he's given you, which it does, then you don't need to do anything or be anybody to have value because it's been given to you by somebody bigger than you because you're not big enough or good enough to give yourself value. And deep down inside you know that. And so you do these bad things and then you go, I'm not valuable because I did bad things. And so I'm useless, right? Because I'm, I'm, I'm basing my value on all the things that I did. And God said, no, that's Satan's lie. Your value doesn't come from what you've done. Look at Paul. He murdered Christians, he murdered people. He did all these horrible things. He said, set it behind. I'm pressing on. I accept what God's done for me.  

And he prepared a place for us. However, this is written,

Wow. I mean, just think of that. Wow. There's a place prepared for us.  

So where the rubber meets the road is in your walk, whether it's 10 minutes after you leave class, or whether it's four or five days from now. When you start feeling that thing, when something's hidden, when you're feeling the anxiety, when you're feeling some uncomfortable feeling, when you're having anything going on where you say, I'm not walking in peace, you stop. This. Is it over and over, I'm, I'm never going to stop this.

   You stop with the horizontal and you go vertical. 

It's all about God's love. You see? And these three remain faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love, right? (1 Cor 13:13) Love is patient. Love is kind. Doesn't not envy, does not boast is not proud. (I Cor 13:4) And it's all about love. It's all about the love that God showed the world. For God so loved the world, he sent his only begotten Son into the world. (John 3:16) It's his love that saves us. (Rom 5:8) It's his love that sustains us.  

   And it's love that takes all of us broken people and says, "I care about you so much.

I want to bring you to heaven, to be with me forever. But you've done messed up things (Rom 3:23) and you need to receive the gift of my son who loved you so much. (Rom 6:23) He went to the cross and suffered.  

He loved you so much. He came down to this earth and suffered a lousy life here. (Phil 2:6-8) You know, I mean, he didn't have toilet paper or warm showers. Jesus didn't, you know. I wouldn't want to trade place with his life much less his death. Okay? Seriously. No way. You know, he was misunderstood. (Mark 3:30) He was insulted. (I Pet 2:23) You know,

   when you're insulted and misunderstood,

you have two choices. You can feel bad about yourself or you can go,

   "Jesus, you went through this for me."

(Heb 2:18)

 And he understands.  

He became a brother like us in every way. (Heb 2:17) He shows his love to us. So we love God and love others, right? When something happens we don't like,

SPEAKER JOKINGLY POKING AN AUDIENCE MEMBER

and people, and something's messing with us, right?

SPEAKER INTERACTING WITH AUDIENCE MEMBER

"Don't laugh when I do that!"

AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

People go, "oh, fight, fight, fight." And he's laughing. You know, I mean, that, that, that's the way you do it. See, people are messing with you, you laugh. Oh, that wasn't so bad. You know? I mean, you get hurt. Not even, not even close. Not even, not even, just got a little woke up.  

AUDIENCE MEMBER: "Even if I did. Oh, well."

Even if I did. Oh, well, you know, big deal, right?

   When things happen,

what do we, what do we go back to?  What do we,

   what do we think about? God's love! God's power!  

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  "They're the two legs."  

All right? You've got to come back to that. And so I'm telling you, this is the foundation. Love God, love others, and come back to God's love and God's power. Because throughout your life, there's going to be things,

SPEAKER SPEAKS DIRECTLY TO AN AUDIENCE MEMBER WHO HE POKES:  "Ooh, that'll mess you up when you're writing." Here we go.

There's going to be things that mess with you throughout your life. (John 16:33) People and things are going to get you a little off-kilter.

   No matter how much you grow in the Lord, There's going to be things that happen.

And he wants you to stop, look up, go vertical, and say, "You love me?" Yeah, He died for you.