God Does That?

A talk about five things God does that we may not have remembered!

There are things that God expects us to do for ourselves. They are daily disciplines of being a Christian: prayer, Bible reading, stewardship, fellowship and so on. These are the things that we do  as part of our Christian life.

There are things that God does for us that we cannot do for ourselves. There are things that are purely His responsibility. There are things that come out of His heart of love for you. These things may not always be obvious. Because we may not always be conscious of these things, we might take them for granted. We might even forget He's doing them. These are numerous thoughout the Bible but I wanted to mention five of them today to encourage us and to build us up in His love.

Basecamp Scripture:
Zephaniah 3:17: The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”

He Promises His Presence
The Lord God is with you! This theme just rolls out throughout the Bible. He IS with you. He has not abandoned you, not rejected you, not ignored you. He is with you. Even Jesus carries this as one of His titles: Immanuel, meaning God wth us! (Isaiah 7:14; 8:8; Matt. 1:23).

If you feel like your friends have ditched you, the church has failed you, maybe even pet the dog doesn't like you! But God is still with you!

Paul felt the same way! In the last letter that Paul ever wrote:
2 Timothy 4:16-17a: At my first defence, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them.  But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength....

How heartbreaking!  Everyone had abandoned Paul and had deserted him, perhaps due to a fear of ending up with the same fate as Paul but God never did as he said “the Lord stood by me and strengthened me.”

Just in case you think God has abandoned you, remember Jesus on the cross cried out to God because God had turned His back on Him, not willing to look at the sin of the world engulf His son (Matthew 27:26). Remember this: Jesus was abandoned so you do not have to be!

"The problem that I think I have with God is often not a problem at all. Rather, it is most frequently a tired misperception where I have made God what I need Him to be in order to justify my rejection of Him,”  (Craig D. Lounsbrough).

You are never alone! Remember the little phrase: But the Lord stood by me!

His Strength is Your Salvation
The Mighty Warrior who saves...

When you get to the end of yourself you have not gotten to the end of God. There is a line of thinking that says when you get to end of yourself that is where God begins. That's not true and minimises Him. God is there in the first step with us and He goes beyond what we are capable of. He is God.

His strength is your salvation in every situation. He is the Mighty Warrior who saves! Don't give up your purpose, your dreams in God, He is still your strength.

Don't be intimated by the enemy!
I remember a time when I was at a gym and had finished my sedate work out. When I got to the locker room there was this huge guy there; rippling muscles, sitting on the bench. He pointed up at me and said, "In my bag over there is a banana, can you pass it to me?" So I did. He explained he was training for a bodybuilding championship and had literally exhausted his legs in training, was on a low calorie diet to lose body fat, and was incapable of getting to his feet. At that moment I would have taken him out in a fight!

He reminded me of the enemy whose strength is finite! He exhausts himself, trying to defeat the saints of God, but God is never tired or weary.

Isaiah 40:28: Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

Want to renew your strength? Draw on God's by getting close to Him again! Draw on His strength (Isaiah 40:29-31).

His Delight is Unquenchable (not earned)
He will take great delight in you...

Ever think what God thinks about you? If you think He is angry with you then grace may not have touched your life. It doesn't mean we don't have to repent of a sin we have committed (1 John 1:9), of course we do. What we discover in our relationship with Him is that a new desire rises within us to please Him.

God has a default setting when it comes to you: delight!

The Hebrew in the this phrase for delight is simchâh (sim-khaw' - 8057). It means "extravagant glee," the kind you would see in a religious festival. When God thinks of you, which is all the time, He throws a party! He gathers the Angels, the saints gone before you, and let's them know His delight in you!

When we are proud of our children and grandchildren it can often be because they have done something amazing our our eyes.
When a baby takes a first step we behave like the child has discovered walking for all humanity!
They might win the egg and spoon race at school sports day and we think that they are ready to take on Usain Bolt!
They might pass their GCSE's or A levels, and we're boasting about their intelligence!
Sometimes we temper our kids and say, "Do your best, be happy." We do our best to be even handed with them.

You know what? These are pale reflections of God's delight with you. With His delight you cannot earn it, increase it, multiply it or lose it! He just IS delighted in you!

His Love Calms You
In His love He will no longer rebuke you...

Jesus has taken your punishment! He has done it all.

1 John 2:2: He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world
It is finished! You cannot add to salvation. No sin committed cannot be forgiven. It's done.

God promises not to hold you to account anymore. One of the most beautiful promises of the Bible is this:
Psalm 103:12: As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

He has removed punishment from you and placed it on Jesus (Isaiah 53:10).

His love now calms you! His love washes over you. In the middle of the storm, in the middle of the pain, in the midst of the trial, His love calms you.

When children hurt themselves they normally seek to mummy or daddy for reassurance. Sometimes a little "kiss it better" kiss is enough to send them on their way, pain forgotten. Sometimes there is a real hurt. Sometimes all you can do is hold on to them until the sobbing stops. Sometimes they'll drift into a sleep in your arms.

That's what God does. He holds you in His love until the sobbing stops. Until you come to rest in His loving arms. Until you fall asleep in His love (Dt. 33:27; Isaiah 41:13).

His Song is About You
...but will rejoice over you with singing.

All of this bursts out of God's heart in song!

You know we sing about and to Him in our worship times. Ever wonder what the Inventor and Creator of music sings about? He sings about you!

He cannot help but sing about His love for you. When some people say they have the song of the Lord I get excited: because the song of the Lord is the song of delight in you.

To sing over your loved one is one of the most wonderful things you can do. When Barbie and I married I sang at our wedding; a song of hope and love about our relationship with Jesus and our relationship with each other. When Sam and Susanna married he went one better and wrote a song for his bride! Hard to not cry at those moments.

God sings over you!

Sometimes it is the lullaby of peace!
Sometimes it is the song of the lover!
Sometimes it is the song of encouragement!
Sometimes it is the song of the Mighty Warrior going into battle!

It is always the song of rejoicing!

Wrapping this up:
So there are five things God does that we may or may not always be conscious of, but He does them anyway.

Walk tall in you faith and relationship with Him.

He loves you!