Judges 7. Gideon, part 25: Why we ultimately do. Don’t lose opportunities due to carelessness.

Title: Judges 7. Gideon, part 25: Why we ultimately do. Don’t lose opportunities due to carelessness.      

 

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On Sunday, we asked the question, "Why do we love and serve and help and give and sacrifice?"

 

By going to the source of love, we asked another question, "Why does God do it?" And the answer was simple since the Bible makes it very clear: He does it because it is His essence to do so. He is good and always a doer of good, which according to Him is grace, mercy, sacrifice, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness; all in all love. God is love.

 

God is: ­______ . Here is a sampling from the scriptures.

 

DEU 4:24

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

 

DEU 4:31

For the Lord your God is a compassionate God

 

JOS 1:9

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

 

2CH 30:9

For the Lord your God is gracious and compassionate, and will not turn His face away from you if you return to Him.

 

PSA 7:11

God is a righteous judge

 

PSA 47:7

For God is the King of all the earth;

Sing praises with a skillful psalm.

 

PSA 54:4

Behold,

God is my helper;

The Lord is the sustainer of my soul.

 

PSA 56:9

Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call;

This I know, that God is for me.

 

PSA 73:26

My flesh and my heart may fail,

But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

 

PSA 77:13

Thy way, O God, is holy;

 

PSA 84:11

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;

The Lord gives grace and glory;

No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

 

DAN 9:14

the Lord our God is righteous with respect to all His deeds which He has done

 

NAH 1:2

A jealous and avenging God is the Lord

 

JOH 3:26

"He who has received His witness has set his seal to this, that God is true."

 

JOH 4:24

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."

 

1CO 1:9

God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

1CO 14:33

God is not a God of confusion but of peace

 

2CO 9:8

God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed

 

GAL 6:7

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

 

1TI 4:4-5

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

 

1JO 1:5

God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

 

1JO 4:8

God is love.

 

So what is the ultimate goal of God’s love, which has been poured out within our hearts, flowing through us? That we be as who we are - In Christ!

 

We are not earning anything or accumulating anything. We have been blessed since the foundation of the world. God will take care of all believers and He will ultimately judge all non-believers. We are not needed in any of it. God is able to do all without us. But this does not make us fatalists just as God is not a fatalist. Christ died for the sins of the entire world even though there would be many who would not believe in Him. He did this because God is ______. We will choose to do what we have been called to, and we will conduct ourselves in a manner that is worthy of what we have been elected when we fully see ourselves as who we are. And the vehicle of our sight is not physical light and physical eyes. The vehicle of this sight is faith.

 

An amazing revolution of transformation has happened to man. He has been elected in Christ and in His image. Each one of us must be who we are and stop entertaining who we are not.

 

ROM 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

 

ROM 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren;

 

ROM 8:30 and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

 

The glorious story is told in five words, "foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified."

 

We have been predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son. At salvation we were entered into union with Christ and the plan of God for our lives is revealing to us what this magnificent title and position entails. When we see it through the eyes of our heart, our way, our conduct, our whole way of thinking will be in harmony with who we are. We do because this is who we are.

 

Foreknown by God to believe, predestined to walk in Christ's manner.