Sermon: God's Love: A Story of Redemption.Numbers 21:4-9, John 3:14-17

the God be the glory it is good to be at Ford's Chapel at 11 o'clock to worship God with people who love God and who sings God's praise i just then got to be here i don't know about you i feel good to be in the house of the lord and again thank you choir brother king for ministering to eyes come on give God praise for choir and uh you see I have the privilege to sit close to them when they sing the in know I get it twice you know you you you don't get it like me so you don't feel sometimes what I feel I feel good my name is Emmanuel I have the privilege to be the pastor here at 4th chapter I thank God for you for your cooperation for your presence for your support and for everything you do so that we at 4th Chapel can continue to minister to one another and minister to our community make for the chapel a place of possibility and a place of opportunity this morning scripture is a very interesting text in the Bible I'm going to minister to you on this subject God's love a story of redemption God's love the love of God because in this text we see God giving a chance to people that they may respond redemption is available redemption is God's work but God is giving an opportunity to us so that we may respond what happened allow me to go back to the text the text that we read I think you're asked for reading I've been giving you too much work recently thank you for your cooperation brother the first text we read from the Old Testament is a story of the people of Israel these folks were in Egypt for over 400 years they try to set themselves free but they were not able to deliver themselves and the guard intervene God took them out of Egypt through the power of God God made it possible for them together then God gave them the map how they will walk and go toward the promised land and something happened in the world Ernest these men and women complained against God and complain against Moses in fact during this time this is a young generation because by this time they've been in the wilderness for for 40 years and after the first generation of those who left Egypt have all died in the wilderness and this new generation is still complaining and grumbled when you read numbers chapter 11 and 14 you see them grumbling and complaining about 1 then God gave them the 1 then they complain about the food and God gave them food but still it was not enough they just keep on complaining and grumbling they were full of complain they were full of themselves they were self-absorbed and inward focus to the extent that they lack a proper perspective of life they were self-sufficient to the extent that they rejected God and say we want to govern ourselves in fact on one of the occasion they said listen elect another leader and go back to Egypt why why did you bring us here so that we may die we were good we were better off in Egypt why did you bring us here we don't like the food that we are eating this is a miserable food we detest it we don't like it they spoke against the God and against Moses now you know there comes a time where gods bring judgment we call that the Justice of God and this is real my brothers and my sisters I know we live in a time where we think we don't believe in Scripture anymore we live in a time where people have rejected the Word of God and they don't think the Justice of God is real justice of God is real God brought a judgement because of the complain of the people God sent them venomous snake and for people who live in the Sinai desert a snake bite was dangerous because that was dying these venomous snake were dangerous they beat the people and the people died in the wilderness they started dying in the wilderness now something happened they pray they came back to Moses and they repented and they say to Moses we have spoken against the God and against you would you please ask God to forgive us and ask God to move take away the snakes from us God is a healing God God provided a miraculous healing God says to Moses take a replica of a snake take a bronze snake and put it on the pole and whoever look up whoever look whoever look would heal who have a look up shall live anybody who has been bitten by that snake if they can just look up they shall live but yet I can see some people in the camp complaining my son has been bitten Moses I have been bitten Moses my wife has been bitten Moses is stained telling them look up to the browser snake I can hear somebody in the group saying Moses this is a ridiculous way of answering are you serious Moses this is ridiculous I'm being bitten here I'm about to die and you are telling me to look up to your fanny Bros a snake Moses you are not serious I can still see people dying in the world Ernest why because they refuse to cooperate they refuse to answer and they refuse to look up to the bronze snake all they needed was to look up to the bronze snake before I perceived my brothers and my sisters I know we can sit there and say oh what horrible these people were what kind of people after they've seen all that God has done for them what kind of people are these who continue to complain and grumble all the time in spite of God's provision to them o my brothers and my sisters let us not let us not just judge them too quickly perhaps if we see these people they mirror who we are perhaps if we see and understand these people they may just mirror some of who I am some of who you are people were very impatient they just focus too much on themselves they complain they complain because they did not have a proper perspective of life do you know how many times we focus too much on what we do not have instead of focusing on what God has given us you know how many times we focus on the things we cannot do instead of being thankful to God for the things that we can do life is a blessing from the Lord every one of us must say this every morning this is the day that the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad you know what we do we carry the luggage we carry the burden of yesterday we carry the burden the hurts and the brokenness of yesterday we bring them every morning to our lives we carry them to our bird whoever we go to to to to sleep with the burdens with us we focus too much on what is not right oh how many institutions in our society have been broken marriages are being broken today because one spouse is just ungrateful and she keep on complaining all the time and you know if you want to make your husband or your wife run away just keep on continuing to say what is negative I know they will run away from you you know they may not run away from you in the house but you'll notice that they will be withdrawn from you complaining and grumbling focusing on what is negative never appreciate what is right never say something nice you know in our culture I don't like it people always say something nice when somebody's dead don't say something nice when I'm dead say something nice now give me some flowers now don't wait until I'm dead then you bring me those nice flowers I'll be dead by that time I'll be very serious you know how be like one of these the frozen Chosin I'll be very very serious we focus on what we cannot do instead of focusing on what we can do focusing on the positive tuning into the bright side my brothers and my sisters we must learn to tune into the bright side turn into the bright side of life oh they did this to me they did this to me yes it's time that you forgive yourself and you offer the gift of forgiveness to those who have offended you move on with life so that you can enjoy the blessing that God has given you the blessing of having a spouse the blessing of having children the blessing of having grandchildren you know sometimes you have to tell your grandchildren how proud you are of them you have to tell your children how proud you are of them instead of justly reminding them that you are not up to my standard and you know the more you tell them you you don't meet my standard the more you tell them what is negative some have started running away and when they see your call they look at the ideas or not today no today and I am to go just goes into the answering machine or you have reached the voicemail of so-and-so please I'm not available I'll get back to you soon leave a message you got to focus on what is positive and tune in to the bright side you may not feel well in the body you may not be as strong as it used to be but focus on the little that you can do and be 10 full and enjoy the moment life is a gift from God that's why when we come to church on Sunday we just refuse to be those toes and frozen we sing glory and praise hallelujah to the lamb of God you know you got to be excited when you come to church you know some of you I know you pretend to be serious here but I I know how you watch the game yesterday I know how you watch the game I know how you shout hey come on touchdown you are excited about the game this is how you must be excited about church this is how you must be excited about life in general tune into the bright side focus on what you can do what you cannot do leave it to God whatever is difficult leave it to God don't carry the burden of what you cannot do and perhaps the prayer of st. Francis Oh God give me the wisdom give me the wisdom of God to change what I can change in and the strength to endure what I cannot change focus on what is God focus on what God is doing and these people in the wilderness they lose that perspective they they forgot that they were slave they forgot that they were misery they were under the domination of Pharaoh now God has given them freedom and they never appreciate the freedom car is given them they complain and they spoke against the God and they did something I think this was too much a direct rejection of the provision that God gave them they say we reject the food that you have given us you know every day God was giving them fresh manna fresh every day and he was supposed to collect only for one day and I think that's what scripture says enough for each day don't worry about tomorrow tomorrow take care of itself because you see in the text they says if you take more it will go bad at the end of the day every day when they were in the world and as God was providing something fresh and they were expecting God to give them something and God enjoy because they were depending on God to survive now here they come and they reject the provision that God has put in place for them to depend on God and they say we detest this food we don't like it we are did we be tested we don't like this food a direct rejection of God's provision how many times we detest the blessings that God is giving us how many times we reject the provisions that God has provided for us to continue to be dependent on God and I know some people get frustrated and they have rejected the church the church is just another inconvenience for them many have rejected Scripture perhaps maybe we feel like we cannot live up to the standard of Scripture yet if we can just submit and obey God because you see God is given these things to us as provision for us to continue to depend on God the blessings of a friend the blessing of a spouse the blessing of children these are provisions that God has given us so that through them we can experience the love of God because how do you experience the love of God you experience the love of God through humanity this is why we say we are the hands of God this is why we say we are the feet of God the church is not a building the church is not the pews you and I we are the church we are an extension of God's presence in the world we are the Living Word of God for the people because there are people who will never read the Bible and all they will know is you this is why Jesus said let your light shine so that people may see a good work and glorify your father in heaven and now God send a remedy to them because God is a loving God they repented and they came to God they returned to God and allow me to speak this morning as God's prophet America returned to righteousness return to the truth you once believed return to God before his tulane they return to God and they repented God is a loving God even in the midst of God's justice the grace of God can show up my brothers and my sisters Jesus was starting to Nicodemus in the Gospel of John chapter 3 jesus said as Moses lifted up the bronze snake in the wilderness the Son of God will be lifted up so that well whoever looked at him whoever believes in Him shall not perish for God so loved the world that He gave His Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life God's love my brothers and my sisters he's a story of redemption because you see the cross is not just for us the cross is also for God the cross who solve a dilemma in the divinity of God because on one hand there was the Justice of God and on the other end the righteousness of God God has to punish God's judgment was supposed to come when people break the law that's the Justice of God yet God says I love the sinners I don't like their scene then I have to punish them because of their sin but I love them the words of sin is death but thanks be to God for eternal life a gift of God from Jesus Christ God says I'm going to solve the problem I'm going to become flesh myself I'm going to step in into their situation I will become they are healing I'll become the Redeemer for them you have been redeemed you have been bought with a price the punishment that gives us peace the judgment that was supposed to be upon us was upon Jesus Christ the punishment that gives us peace was upon Jesus Christ on the cross Jesus took the punishment for us he paid a price to meet the justice of God and the righteousness of God so the cross is a representation of the grace of God in the midst of the Justice of God and the judgment of God God step in to save you and I today we have been redeemed pain what with a price Jesus paid the price this is how much God loves you this is how much God loves you my sisters and my brothers he paid a price the nail did not hold him on the cross these nails on his hands did not hold him on the cross he had the power and he could have called a thousand of angel to come to his rescue but on that cross on Calvary he thought about you he thought about me and he died on the cross so that we can be saved and redeemed so that the Justice of God can be solved he paid the price or he paid the price he paid the price I don't carry that burden any longer Oh forgive yourself walk with God and rejoice look up look after the cross now look up to God all you need is to respond all you need is to respond all you need is to say lord I adore you and admire you I adore you because you are the first in my life see scripture says we are to love God with all our strength with all our mind with all our soul with everything that we are we are to love God with all our personalities so when we say I adore you O God we are acknowledging that God you are number one in our lives then we have to respond to God and say Lord I bless you because you are my god I'm thankful I celebrate you in my life Oh God I am grateful for all that you have done for me I am grateful for your love and then we have to say to the Lord I imagine just how great you are I am excited about you and Lord I keep your word I yearn for your presence I yield my life to you and I'm sillas for you what is your response for the children of Israel after they've been bitten by these venomous snakes it was to look up to the brown snake and I know we all have been beaten up by these very much snakes of sin and disappointment and we have been bitten we are all broken this is the song we sang last time Oh something beautiful or something good oh my confusion or God you understand because all I had to offer you or god was brokenness brokenness and strife but you made something beautiful out of it yes he made something beautiful when you look up and you trust Jesus you have to trust what God has done for you you look up with faith and trust in what God has done for you Jesus died on the cross for you and now from today on what when you read John 3:16 don't just say God so loved the world I would say God so loved Emmanuel now we will say together and you are going to put your name there if your name is Russ you're going to say God so loved Russ and each one let's go in unison you say your name don't just say the world God so love him anywhere I do not hear you you don't believe that God loves you on a personal level let's try again God so love Emmanuel that He gave His only begotten Son that if the manual believe in Him will not perish come on come on guys if you believe you will not be destroyed the venomous snakes have no power over you because Jesus died for you you can leave and you can leave you can leave and walk in the favour and the grace of God not because of what you have done because of what God has done for you you are loved you are loved don't give opportunity to the devil to make you feel like you are so horrible because the devil has a way to bring our mistakes in front of us and say here we are look at you and then when I look at myself I don't look at myself in the mirror of my own righteousness I look myself in the mirror of the blood of the Lamb for I know the blood of Jesus Christ cleans me from all unrighteousness now I am a child of God not because I want to be the child of God because God has adopted me to those who have received the Jesus Christ God has given them the right to be called children of God yes I am so glad yes I'm so glad in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit let all the church they remain would you please stand on your feet as we are singing are closing in I am so glad and if you are here today you desire to unite with the church or rededicate yourself to God the altar is open for prayer you can come and make your commitment to Jesus Christ oh I am so glad hallelujah to the lamb of God and so Jesus lifted me I'm so glad Jesus lifted me he Gori hallelujah Jesus lifted me [Music] [Music] time I'm so glad I'm so glad I'm so glad please asleep did be I'm so glad he's asleep did me I'm so glad whoa singing glory hallelujah [Music] Oh God in the name of Jesus as you provided healing I pray that the same spirit of healing will come there are many in this house who needs a divine touch many who needs to be healed by you we lift up our eyes to you to the cross heal your people right now in the name of Jesus meet your people at the point of their need oh god you know

Channel: Fords Chapel UMC

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Length: 28min 13sec (1693 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 21 2018