God Loves You (Right Now) | Pastor Steven Furtick

and maybe you need to hear that God's love for you is never based on your performance before he ever did anything it's kind of like he got the trophy before he even showed up for practice it's kind of like God does not validate how people validate because people will validate you based on what you do for them people will validate you based on the value that your actions carry that will contribute directly to their well-being but God does not validate based on performance he validates based on relationship he did not validate what Jesus would do he validated who he was and just in case you haven't heard it in a while and you feel kind of dirty and kind of ashamed of yourself and kind of like you don't belong in the presence of God and kind of like you're not one of those good church people I want you to know you're still his child you're still made in his image you're still bought with his blood every drop he spilled was on purpose and one of those drops had your name on it and if the blood was enough for me it was enough for you and you don't have to stand here ashamed and look forward to one day when God will never love you any more than he loves you right now I said you're free right now loved right now cleansed right now healed right now somebody shout I am I am his child I am accepted Jesus did not perform his ministry for acceptance that's why he didn't care what anybody thought about it when you know somebody more important approves of you it makes the opinions of people a whole lot less significant isn't that true I I don't care this sounds bad this sounds unpastoral but I don't care as much what you think about this sermon I care I will check Facebook Instagram but before that before everybody say before I'll walk off the stage Holly will meet me and I'll look at her and she'll be like you slayed it when she says that that will matter a little bit more a little bit more because she lives with me and if the person who knows me the best here's what I have to say and feels like it was aligned with the character of my life I don't need the gram no I think this is important I think it's so important that we receive the validation of God each day or we will need from people what they are not capable of giving us how are they going to accept you unconditionally they don't even like themselves some of the time and a voice came and a voice came John came that's preparation a voice came that's validation but notice when the voice spoke church you gotta pay attention to this little stuff in the Bible don't just read 7 verses then get coffee and post about read it slow down and read it it came before he performed any miracles it was not contingent upon his performance and it came after his obedience at that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee was baptized by John in the Jordan check it out verse 10 is verse 10 on the screen is it on there as he was coming up that means as he was doing what he was supposed to do as he was coming up he saw heaven torn open is that what it says my eyes are closed I'm depending on you to validate the heavens torn open and the voice spoke so he saw a vision and he heard a voice but he didn't see it until he was on the way up so it meant that he went all the way out to the Jordan got in the water went down and on the way up God said I'm proud of you and when he came up notice this the synergy of the text is this when he came up the dove came down when he came up to fulfill that which was spoken of that which was prophesied about him in obedience when he came up now here's where a lot of us get it twisted we want the dove to come down before we get into the waters of obedience we want God to give us peace about a decision that we know we need to make but I found out that peace comes after obedience so when Jesus went down into the waters which signified his death and came back up which signified his resurrection it was on the way up it was as he was doing the will of his father it was as he was in the process of fulfilling the purpose that he was put on the earth for that he saw the heavens open and he heard the voice of God saying this is my son and the dove came down but the dove didn't come down until Jesus came up and you know what you are not going to get the peace of God in your situation until you commit yourself to obey what he's speaking to your heart peace comes after obedience and if you don't have the peace of God in your situation God's peace might be awaiting your obedience but we want to experience before what we can only experience after so we put stuff off you know like well I'll do it when I feel a peace about it that's a Christian thing only Christians talk like that people who don't have this religious jargon to throw around to cover up their lack of decisiveness have to either do it or don't but we wait for a peace I was just reading that text over and over and as he was coming up the dove didn't follow him down to the water come on Jesus you got this come on this is the right thing to do I promise you I promise you the dove did not make its appearance until Jesus was already wet until you died to yourself and go down in the water and as he was coming up the dove came down so I had to do something the other day and I didn't want to do it in my flesh in my spirit I am reborn and I told somebody I was gonna do it and they said I guess you have a peace about it I said no that's why I'm doing it because I want peace and I don't have peace and I have spent the last several months waiting for peace that only obedience can produce now the love of God did not come because Jesus obeyed but the peace of God the dove the validation came as he obeyed I said I'm gonna do what I need to do and the peace will follow I'm gonna do what doesn't make sense and the peace will follow I'm gonna join an eGroup at Elevation Church I thought my leaders would shout and the peace will follow but the peace came after the obedience peace comes after obedience peace comes after obedience it's my whole message and so I'm repeating it in case you think this is a sub point it is not everything up until now was just to tell you this Lake Norman peace comes after obedience Jesus went down Jesus came up as he's coming up the dove comes down the voice from heaven speaks and the validation of Jesus Christ came after his obedience stop waiting to feel like it stop waiting for people to understand it stop waiting until everything gets just right this is the day that the Lord has made I will rejoice today if you hear his voice do not harden your heart and then the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus the peace here comes the dove here comes the dove here comes the dove but this dove this dove has a mind of it's own this dove this Holy Spirit that's what it symbolizes in the Bible and the dove comes down and the dove is so beautiful come on LJ play some dove music some dove descending music I think that's twinkle twinkle little star and then abrupt change you got to get used to Mark because he's our tour guide for this entire series at once verse twelve he doesn't even give us time to hang out with the dove get a selfie with the dove at once immediately suddenly the Spirit the dove sent him into the desert why is he going to the desert verse 13 fills it in and he was in the desert forty days being tempted by Satan why would the dove lead you into a place where the devil was waiting I don't like that dove I want the other dove give me the another dove real quick and suddenly right after the validation came the temptation because any time God speaks a promise over your life you will immediately have the opportunity to prove the promise in the dessert the same dove that presided over his baptism now leads him into the desert which seems on the surface to be a contradiction of the Lord's prayer you know our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come Jesus taught us this prayer your will be done on earth I know people think that a football locker room made this prayer up but Jesus taught this prayer on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation so why did the Spirit of God lead Jesus into the very temptation that he told us to pray against see Jesus was a savage and he knew what to do in the desert and he knew that the desert is the place where you prove the promise of God I wanted to include this point because some of you are not in the place of validation as I speak today you are in the place of temptation so remember Mark doesn't really break it down he just tells us real quick because Peters just giving him the highlights and he's writing in a style that keeps the action moving because this thing is headed to the conflict of the cross and he has no time to waste so he just tells us simply he was in the desert forty days he doesn't even mention that Jesus didn't eat in those forty days doesn't even mention it being tempted by Satan he was with the wild animals and angels that's all he says about it if I went 40 days with the animals I would want to describe every detail of it but Mark says he was there and he was tempted but it didn't work by the way you don't have to you don't have to explain every nuance of all of the trials that you go through sometimes we are so busy describing what we are going through that we miss the opportunity to declare the praises of the one who brought us through it he gives one verse to 40 days he was tempted and then the angels came but the angels did not come to protect him from the temptation the angels came after the temptation and sometimes we are expecting God to protect us from stuff when he wants to use the stuff to prove his power in our lives and so he puts you in a lonely place but even in a lonely place you are under an open heaven the greatest temptation of life is to find your validation in a source other than Christ it is life's greatest temptation where will you find your validation and so Satan says to Jesus if you're hungry turn the stones into bread Jesus said I don't need it I don't live by bread alone I live on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God by the way it's a bad idea to get in a scripture quotation contest with the one who is the Word of God he didn't just write it he was it now you're debating scripture with the one who is it in flesh okay then prove it this is life's great temptation to find your validation in anything other than God prove it throw yourself off the temple prove it make more money prove it show them how great you are prove it Jesus said I don't need to prove it it is written it is written I've already been validated in the waters so I don't have to prove anything in the wilderness hey thank you for watching make sure you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a single video or live stream and share this video with a friend and don't forget you can join me live every Sunday thanks again for watching

Channel: Official Steven Furtick

Views: 372,153

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Keywords: pastor steven furtick, steven furtick, furtick steven, stephen furtick, elevation church steven furtick, god loves you, steven furtick god loves you, steven furtick sermons

Id: BLyTjhqg7Oo

Length: 16min 32sec (992 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 19 2019