GOD IS READY AND WILLING TO SAVE AND REDEEM YOU
Sunday, June 27, 1999
2 Peter 3:9 (NKJ)
9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
God is very, very patient with us – earnestly desiring that we should come to repentance. He wants us to realize that we are hopelessly unable to save ourselves and to throw ourselves on His grace and mercy. Many people are under the false impression that God sends people to hell and that He is seeking every opportunity to do so. On the contrary, He is seeking any opportunity to send us to heaven! If He wanted us to go to hell He should not have sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be born of a virgin, suffer, die and be raised up again for our deliverance and salvation. He should have and could have left us alone, because we were already going to hell all by ourselves.
John 3:16-21 (NKJ)
16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
God does not condemn us. We condemn ourselves by our refusal to accept the way He has made for us. The gospel is as simple, as it is powerful. People try to complicate it, but the truth is not hard to understand for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Jesus bore the penalty of our sin so that we could be born again into the family of God.
John 14:6 (NKJ)
6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
All we do is repent of our sin, believe that Jesus died and rose again, and accept Him as Lord of our life. From that moment on you are translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light and you become a partaker of God’s eternal life. Your heart will be forever changed from within and you will live in the presence of God eternally.
Ezekiel 36:24-27 (NKJ)
24 "For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land.
25 "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
26 "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
27 "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
God’s love and mercy have been extended toward you. He wants you in His family – He wants you as His child and He wants to be your Father. He loves you – you are valuable and precious to Him. He has done everything He can for you - in Jesus - and He is waiting for you to take the next step toward Him. He will meet you at the point of your faith and you will never be the same again!
Recent:
Righteous Now
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV
Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17 AMP
“Therefore if any man be in Christ…” What does it mean to be “in Christ”? Galatians 3:27 says, “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” You are baptized into Christ when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Romans 10:9-10 says, “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” And Romans 10:13 says, “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The moment
Defeating Strife
These six things the Lord hates, indeed, seven are an abomination to Him: 17 A proud look [the spirit that makes one overestimate himself and underestimate others], a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 A heart that manufactures wicked thoughts and plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, 19 A false witness who breathes out lies [even under oath], and he who sows discord among his brethren. Proverbs 6:16-19 AMP
Faith Facts
Faith is persistent
Luke 11:9-10 AMP
So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened.
John 16:24 AMP
Up to this time you have not asked a [single] thing in My Name [as presenting all that I AM]; but now ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy (gladness, delight) may be full and complete.
Faith is single-minded
James 1:5-8 AMP
If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. 6 Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the