CRCF””10/3/10
How many of you have ever seen the movie, The Recruit? Al Pacino plays the part of a senior instructor at the CIA”™s training facility known as The Farm. He puts young recruits through rigorous training, both mentally and physically, to make them good, solid intelligence agents. But, one new recruit discovers his secret””that he”™s a double agent working for the other side. In this scene, from the very end of the movie, Pacino walks out to a host of federal agents and various armed authorities. He”™s surrounded! There is no where to go. There is no escape route left.
You”™ve seen dozens of movies, no doubt, where the bad guy is caught and told, “You”™re surrounded! Put down your weapon and come out with your hands up!”
This morning I want to talk to you about the fact that we, as Jesus-followers, are . . .
Surrounded
Psalm 25:1-14
Jesus-followers are always surrounded by God”™s love.
Psalm 25:1-14 (NLT)
A psalm of David.
1 O LORD, I give my life to you.
2 I trust in you, my God!
Do not let me be disgraced,
or let my enemies rejoice in my defeat.
3 No one who trusts in you will ever be disgraced,
but disgrace comes to those who try to deceive others.
4 Show me the right path, O LORD;
point out the road for me to follow.
5 Lead me by your truth and teach me,
for you are the God who saves me.
All day long I put my hope in you.
6 Remember, O LORD, your compassion and unfailing love,
which you have shown from long ages past.
7 Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth.
Remember me in the light of your unfailing love,
for you are merciful, O LORD.
8 The LORD is good and does what is right;
he shows the proper path to those who go astray.
9 He leads the humble in doing right,
teaching them his way.
10 The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness
all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.
11 For the honor of your name, O LORD,
forgive my many, many sins.
12 Who are those who fear the LORD?
He will show them the path they should choose.
13 They will live in prosperity,
and their children will inherit the land.
14 The LORD is a friend to those who fear him.
He teaches them his covenant.
Jesus-followers are always surrounded by God”™s love.
1. God REMEMBERS Us in Love (6-7, 11)
6 Remember, O LORD, your compassion (“tender mercy” and unfailing love (“lovingkindness”),
which you have shown from long ages past.
7 Do not remember the rebellious sins of my youth.
Remember me in the light of your unfailing love,
for you are merciful, O LORD.
11 For the honor of your name, O LORD,
forgive my many, many sins.
Every thought God ever has of you is saturated by His love for you in Jesus!
Romans 3:10, 23””“There is none righteous, no, not one . . . all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
Romans 6:23””“ . . . the wages of sin is death”.
Romans 5:8””“But God demonstrates His own love towards us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 6:23””“but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 8:1””“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 1:3-7 (NLT)
3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.
God remembers us in love!
Jesus-followers are always surrounded by God”™s love.
2. God RELATES to Us in Love (4-5, 8-10, 12-13)
4 Show me the right path, O LORD;
point out the road for me to follow.
5 Lead me by your truth and teach me,
for you are the God who saves me.
All day long I put my hope in you.
8 The LORD is good and does what is right;
he shows the proper path to those who go astray.
9 He leads the humble in doing right,
teaching them his way.
10 The LORD leads with unfailing love and faithfulness
all who keep his covenant and obey his demands.
NIV
10 All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
12 Who are those who fear the LORD?
He will show them the path they should choose.
13 They will live in prosperity,
and their children will inherit the land.
Every second of your life is framed by the covenant love and faithfulness of your God, Who loved you enough to give His own Son to save you!
Swindoll
J. Dwight Pentecost used to say, “Mercy is God”™s ministry to the miserable.” It is both intensely personal and immensely practical. For when I am treated unfairly, God”™s mercy relieves my bitterness. When I grieve over loss, it relieves my pain and anger and denial. When I struggle with disability, it relieves my self-pity. When I endure physical pain, it relieves my hopelessness. When I deal with being sinful, it relieves my guilt.
Genesis 50:20 (NLT)
20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
Romans 8:28-32 (NLT)
28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.
31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won”™t he also give us everything else?
Ephesians 1:11 (NLT)
11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.
God relates to us in love””always!
Today, your life is a life in which you breathe the love of God in every breath!
Jesus-followers are always surrounded by God”™s love.
3. God REVEALS HIMSELF to Us Because of Love (14)
14 The LORD is a friend to those who fear him.
He teaches them his covenant.
NIV
14 The LORD confides in those who fear him;
he makes his covenant known to them.
Every Jesus-follower can live in an unfolding friendship with God as we walk with Him in obedience.
John 15:13-15 (NLT)
13 There is no greater love than to lay down one”™s life for one”™s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn”™t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.
Hymns:
“Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners!”; “What a Friend we have in Jesus!”
“Trust and Obey”
But we never can prove the delights of His love, until all on the altar we lay. For the mercy He shows and the joys He bestows are for them who will trust and obey.
God reveals Himself to us because of love!
God wants to be close to you as your Friend!
Jesus-followers are always surrounded by God”™s love.
Packer
What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it””that He knows me. I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort . . . in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me.
Jesus-followers are always surrounded by God”™s love.