It’s not a surprise to God—and shouldn’t be a surprise to us—when we face battles in this life. Battles are to be expected, but victory is also to be expected. We must realize that our power, our strength, and our ultimate victory comes from the Holy Spirit. When we fail to seek the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are choosing to ignore the dynamic weapon He offers to every believer…
[Music]
at a very low
time in my life when i’ve been in the
hospital twice in just a few months
i walked out on my glass then the porch
and sat down and thought i would just
take it easy and
relax a little bit maybe read something
and
so when i did i noticed on the chair in
front of me
there was a blanket and i had just
tossed it over there but i didn’t see
this
and uh when i looked at it a second time
i saw this inscription that some
wonderful lady
had inscribed in this blanket
it read your messages have helped me
realize
that my life matters to god
when i read that i thought lord i don’t
know what she
had in mind but that’s exactly what i
needed to hear
my life matters to god
and that’s the title of this message
because
it is a message that god wants all of us
to hear
our life matters to him you may not feel
like you matter
you may be able to give lots of evidence
that the way you’re treated
and the things that have happened to you
and the misfortune you have experienced
that certainly your life couldn’t matter
to god but i want to tell you
yes it does difficulty hardship pain and
suffering
does not mean that your life doesn’t
matter to god
some of the greatest saints that i’ve
ever met
people who have written the greatest
books have been people who’ve gone
through difficulty hardship pain and
suffering
beyond anything you and i could ever
know and
never lost their faith but realized that
god
still loved them and he cared for them
when i think about that and i think
about this passage of scripture that i
want us to look at
it states just that our life
matters to god you may be able to look
at
your life this morning today
and say well i’ve got lots of evidence
that my life doesn’t matter to god
because
if it did here’s what would happen and
we would choose some good things in life
and we would choose maybe more money
maybe a better marriage
or something about your children or what
you own
or where your plans would lead you you
may think of a lot of things but no
matter what the circumstances are
your life matters to god
and matters means he’s concerned about
you
he cares about you he’s thinking about
you
and so when we think about that
what does it mean that our life matters
to god
it means all of that that he knows us
personally and intimately
he knows all about weaknesses he knows
all of our frailties
he knows all about our sins he knows
everything there is
to know about us and we still
matter to god imagine that
no matter what you and i face in life
our heavenly father
loves us cares for us we
matter to him and no matter what happens
what he allows us to go through the pain
we may suffer
he we still matter to him
that means he’s still caring still
listening
still loving and all of his promises are
still intact
that is every promise he’s made still
there
and one of those promises i will never
underline it put in parentheses and
quotation marks i will never
leave you nor forsake you what an
awesome awesome promise of almighty god
so that’s what i want us to talk about
that our life
matters to god and i want you to turn if
you will
to first john chapter 3.
this is a late time in john’s life
in those latter years he could be
anywhere from 80 to 90 or whatever it
might be
and he’s written this epistle to
believers
and i’m going to read three verses that
i want us to look at for a moment
the third chapter and the first verse
now listen to this
see how great a love not just love
how great a love the father has bestowed
on us
that is he’s gifted us he’s expressed
that love
he’s shown that love demonstrated that
love how great in love
the father has bestowed on us what what
makes it great
that we would be called children of god
think about that
in god’s mind that’s something great
that we would be called the children of
god and such we are
for this reason the world doesn’t know
us
because it didn’t know him and then he
says beloved
now not one a day later not
in the future now we are children of god
and i love this and it has not yet
appeared what
we will be that is we know very little
about the awesome
future that god has provided for us we
know
how many times he says it we know that
when he appears
we will be like him because we will see
him just
as he is here’s an apostle of the lord
jesus christ speaking
with assurance and authority having
listened to the lord jesus christ
personally
whether it was on the boat at sea it was
up in the mountains somewhere
or just sitting around the fire talking
and listening to jesus
we know we will be like him because we
will see him just as he is
and everyone who has this hope fixed on
him
purifies himself just as he is pure
that is simply this when you trust the
lord jesus christ as your savior
you do so because you sense
that you’ve been separated from him and
you sense also the need
to be one with him and so what happens
you trust him as your savior because
of what he did at the cross and as a
result of that relationship
things change you can’t be a child of
god
and everything be the same as it used to
be you may act sometimes
unlike you ought to be acting but that
relationship watch this
that relationship is not temporary it’s
not conditional
it is absolutely permanent you are saved
once and for all by the grace of god now
watch this
why has god made salvation the result of
a
of a fixed relationship a decision
simply because you and i matter to him
and when you trusted christ as your
savior
the holy spirit came into your life to
do what
to to absolutely assure you
that for all eternity you will belong to
god
you say suppose i sin he’s prepared for
that
he has a very strong hand of discipline
not to destroy not to hurt not to harm
but to spring us back into the foe when
god allows us to go through difficulties
and trials and heartaches and burdens
what is he doing
he’s doing it for one of several reasons
one of which is what
to remind us that we belong to him we’re
not acting out who we are
and to turn our mind and heart toward
him to change that thinking about a
godly life
everyone who has this hope fixed on him
purifies himself just as he’s fruit that
is
if i’m a child of god i’m going to be
sensitive to the way i’m living
i’m going to be sensitive to my
relationship to him
i’m going to be sensitive to the word of
god i want to
i want to read the word of god i want to
pray i want to be obedient to god
i want to find out what god will do in
my life because
i know my life matters to god
think about this watch you listen say
amen
you may not matter to anybody else
in the billions of people in this world
but you matter to god
and if you’ll think about it what
difference does it make that nobody
cares for you
if you know that god that you matter to
god
that means he knows you he’s concerned
about you
he loves you he’s going to provide for
you protect you watch over you care for
you
he’s going to ultimately fulfill his
will for your life why
because you matter to god
now with that in mind i want us to look
at this passage and
think in terms of the evidence of how
god has so worked in our life
that we mounted to him and the first
evidence is
the great love he has bestowed upon us
think about this
why did you get saved you said well i
went and i heard
this powerful preacher one day preaching
so that made me get said no that’s not
it
you got saved because you heard the
truth of the gospel of jesus
christ and god reached down into your
life
through his word spoke to your mind and
your heart
your emotions your whole being and made
you realize that you were living a life
far
less far less way down low than what he
had in mind for you
and you trusted the lord jesus christ as
your savior as a result
of hearing his word the conviction of
the holy spirit
to help you to understand that god loved
you and forgive you
he transformed your life so
it was your salvation the second thing
that resolved
in all of this is this your
sanctification that is
the life the godly life that god has
provided for every single one of us
once you trusted jesus christ as your
savior the spirit of god sealed you as a
child of god
came to indwell us while god sits upon
his throne in the heavens
his holy spirit sits upon the throne of
our heart
guiding us leading us empowering us
endeavoring
to work in our life the light that
represented and looked
something like jesus and so
that’s what he’s provided that is
we matter so much that first of all he
saved us
you think about this he didn’t have to
save you
you could have just lived your life
without him many people do
and you could have just sort of managed
but there would come a time when the
bible says it’s important and the man
wants to die
and after this the judgment but by his
grace and love and mercy
he sanctified you set you apart as unto
him
to live his life in and through you the
third thing he did was what
he he began to meet your needs as a
result of being a child of god
he said he will supply all of our needs
watch this according to his riches in
glory
not according to our talents ability and
skill and all the rest
he’s promised to meet every need that we
have well
watch this because every single point in
this message is because
we matter to him you may not matter to
anybody else and
over the years i’ve heard wives say i
don’t matter to my husband anymore
he used to love me provide for me bring
me beautiful things he used to do all
these things but
i don’t matter anymore nothing
any woman wants to feel could be worse
than
if she loves her husband to feel she
no longer matters and the same thing is
true is
not only a parents and children i don’t
matter no more
i’ve heard kids say that i don’t matter
to my dad i don’t matter to my mom
you know i might as well be living with
somebody else
think about this the fact that you
matter means there’s a relationship
there’s a love there’s a caring there’s
a giving
and that’s what god means he’s saying
listen he saves us he sanctifies us and
what does he do
he meets our needs my god shall supply
all your needs
watch this according to his riches and
glory
will you ever be able to exhaust the
riches of god no
the only thing that blocks god’s
blessings to you
is the fact you become careless in your
life
indifferent to god living in sin
whatever it might be
and then i think about the most
important thing here
our salvation our sanctification needs
and watch what he did
it what’s what’s that how awesome god is
it was not enough
for him to save us that is to have an
experience whereby
we confess our sin repent of our sins
surrender our life to him
now think about that for a moment i
think about in my own life
if that’s all i had that i trusted him
as my savior
then to live the christian life in this
world to one day i die and go to heaven
i couldn’t do it neither can you neither
can you whoever you are
that’s why he said to his disciples
sit down tarry ye in the city of
jerusalem until
i send my spirit who will indwell you
and be upon you and empower you to live
out the christian life
as a result of god caring for us and
meeting our needs
he upon our salvation sent the holy
spirit to enjoy
us think do you realize how blessed you
are you’re indwelt
by listen you’re indwelt by holy god
the holy spirit of god who said to his
disciples you’re not ready
to go preach you’re not ready to
missionarize this world
you won’t be ready till my spirit
baptizes you
anoints you and enables you and equips
you to be the person
i’ve created you to be so do we matter
to god
look at this why because we look at
salvation our sanctification
meet sandy’s in the holy spirit god has
demonstrated his awesome
caring for us that we do
matter now think about this god who’s
the sovereign of the universe could have
said okay
i’m going to save those who will trust
me and just see what they do
well he knew what we’d do we just mess
up we would fail
time after time after time that’s why he
knew watch this
he not only had to reach down and
forgive our sins
he had he had to come down himself and
then drill us
and enable us to live out the life he
provided for us
are we blessed of god or are we not
and so think about this
our life matters because he’s an awesome
god who loves us with all of his heart
first evidence that our life matters is
all these things he’s done for us
secondly
second evidence that we’re called the
children of god
now do i matter sure i do think about
how you feel about your children
you say to your friends this is my son
this is my daughter you’re proud of them
they they
matter to you listen
when someone matters to you it’s going
to affect your relationship to them
the way you speak of them what you do
for them
how you relate to them when you really
are involved in that person’s life
that they matter to you you’re going to
treat them a certain way
and truth of that for example you work
somewhere
and um you see the boss
working in one person’s life one way and
somebody else the other way
and how many times have i heard people
say well i feel like in my job
i don’t matter and when somebody says i
don’t care
you will never hear god say to you watch
this
you’ll never hear god say he i don’t
care
that’s not in his terminology so
the fact that we mattered to god we’re
called his children
all these promises and blessings that
we’ve talked about
our name is written in the lamb’s book
of life we belong to him
no matter what happens it still
matters to god what goes on in our life
the third evidence that our life matters
to god
is listen it has not yet appeared
as what it will be look at our present
society for example
in my lifetime it’s worse
than it has ever been
and think about this for a moment how do
we get this way i’ll tell you
see this book i want you to think about
how much time you spend in this book
in any given day see this
iphone
how much time do we spend in that versus
the word of god
what a difference and so what’s happened
our attention has been drawn away from
god and the more little inventions we
find ourselves inventing is just another
way
to draw us away from god am i saying the
phone’s unimportant no
are computers important yes
but when you talk to anybody very few
people will tell you
i spend as much time reading the word of
god
for myself as i do talking to my friends
on the phone about things that don’t
matter at all
and then look at all the rest think in
terms of all the drunkenness
sports drugs immorality
ungodly counsel depression suicide
shootings
what’s happened to our society i’ll tell
you what’s happened
we own it but we don’t read it
we own it but we don’t live by it we’re
living in a society
that is totally unaware
of who god is and his word
is becoming less and less important and
the world’s providing more and more
things
that we can involve ourselves with that
bring us
supposedly pleasure
i don’t have to tell you about our
society you know about it
you know what’s happening but you will
have to admit it’s drifting
further and further and further away
from god
when and we’re excusing it by saying we
are so busy
there’s so much to do so many places to
go and
so many things i need it matters to god
how much time we spend with him
it matters to god how we relate to him
it matters to god how we treat other
people
it matters to god how we think
about other people it matters to god
what we give him
it matters to god every aspect of our
life
god is involved in every area of our
life
and he’s not trying to cheat us out of
anything
he wants the best for us but look at
this
god knows that the best for us
is to follow the teachings of his
precious word
asking it shall be given you seek and
you shall find knocking this shall be
opened to you
my god shall survive all of your needs
according to his riches in glory
he gives us his strength he helps us to
be
wise enough to follow his
laws and to follow his will and purpose
and plan for our life
and the bible is full of scriptures of
promises of god
where have we gone wrong little by
little
the world fills our minds with things
that we used to fill it with the word of
god
how many people do you know that read
the bible every day
i wonder how many people who go to
church on sunday morning or whenever
they go
who read the bible sometime during the
week how much time do we spend
talking to our heavenly father about our
needs or
be people we love rather than
complaining about what they don’t have
and what we don’t have think about this
when almighty god says you
matter to me that’s god
when god says you matter to me
what more powerful word of encouragement
could we hear than that
you matter to me i care about you
i’m concerned about you i know all about
you
i want the best for you i love you my
love for you is not conditioned my love
for you
is absolutely unconditional i’m looking
forward to seeing you when i called you
home
i’m looking forward to you being in all
that i have provided for you in heaven
where is god
in this mixed up confused frustrated
very affluent world that has lost that
sense of direction
and then i want you to notice something
else
and that is the fourth evidence that our
life matters to god is that uh
we’ll we’ll be like him in other words
think about this for a moment
he says in first corinthians chapter 15
and is you know how long that chapter
is and how much god says about
our life and how much he says about our
future life and
our resurrection and all the rest think
about it
the scripture says but now christ has
been raised from the dead the first
fruits of those who are asleep
and then he starts talking about how god
is going to work in their life
in the resurrection so think about this
you matter to god so much that he not
only has provided for your life
now he’s provided for your life
hereafter
forever and ever and ever
we don’t have to worry about life after
death if we trusted christ as our savior
our life matters to him in fact if
you’ll think about it
there’s not a single aspect of your life
in which god
has not involved himself
for your past present and future and the
future is that we’ll have a resurrection
day
one of these days we’re going to be with
god forever and ever and ever
because he cares for us because it does
matter to him
and when we look at the word of god
we talk about the heavenly family we
talk about
the word of god we talk about heaven we
talk about
how heaven’s going to be we don’t know
what heaven is going to be like we know
what the bible says
as best you can described something that
is
indescribable in human words how do you
describe what heaven is going to be like
we can’t describe it but we know that
god’s given us enough to give us hope in
the lamb’s book of life
listen to this evidence that our life
matters
to god is we’ll be like him
and when i think about that that’s hard
to understand
hard to comprehend that we’re going to
be like him not
look like him but like him
in our very being we will be eternally
with him
we will think like him we will love like
him
in many ways we will be liking that we
can’t even describe
and then i think about it in this life
the fifth reason
that our life matters is that
he desires that you and i live a pure
holy life by the power of the holy
spirit
bringing him glory for all eternity
what’s his desire for us that we live a
holy life
how can i live a holy life simply obey
the holy spirit
with whom he indwelt you think about
this
god does not require anything of us he’s
not provided
he wants us to live a holy life so what
does he do he endures us with the holy
spirit
that we would know what the truth is we
realize he loves us
he forgives us he cleanses us he wants
the very best for us
and he’s willing to provide the best if
we’re willing to trust him
so i’d simply ask you this has there
ever been a time in your life
when you face the reality that you
are worth something to god that he
cares about you that he loves you
that he wants you to know what is true
what is right
what is best that you would understand
that one of these days you’re going to
die and give an account for him
has it ever dawned on you that if you
ask him to forgive you of your sins he
will
if you ask him to give you assurance
that when you die
you’ll go to heaven he will has it ever
occurred to you that god
is so
he’s so involved in your life in every
aspect
he hasn’t forgotten anything
every aspect of your life he’s concerned
about
willing to forgive your sins willing to
call you home one day
absent from the body not floundering in
the darkness everywhere
absent from the body present with the
lord
that’s the promise of god the next most
important decision you’ll ever make if
you’re not a christian
is the one you can make right now
and that is to surrender your life to
christ you say what does that mean
that means you confess that you’re a
sinner before him
that you cannot change yourself that
when jesus went to the cross he went to
the cross to pay your sin debt
and it is a debt you’ll send that in
full and if you ask him to forgive you
on the basis of what he did at the cross
paying your sin then if you ask him to
forgive you he will forgive you
he will write your name in the lamb’s
book of life never to be erased
and from this moment on you can rest
assured
he will be living within you to guide
you help you strengthen you
and give you life at its very best your
life matters to god
and father how grateful we are
we don’t have to come up with a new idea
we simply need to respond to this
awesome truth of the gospel
that you came into this world lay down
your life on the cross
shed your blood for our sins accepted us
as your children written our name in the
lamb’s book of life
and now we have security real
security the security to forever be with
you
once this life is over thank you thank
you thank you god
for such blessed assurance in jesus name
[Music]
amen
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