Merritt Opening Song: Rock of Ages #300 Title: God Keeps You
Scripture: Romans 16:25, Now to Him Who is able to establish you.
On visit to Beethoven museum in Bonn, an American student was fascinated by the piano where Beethoven composed his greatest work. She asked the guard if she could play on it, gave a big tip, and guard agreed. The girl played on piano keys. She said to the guard, "I suppose all great pianists who come here want to play on that piano." The guard shook his head. "Padarewski the famed Polish pianist was here a few years ago and he said he wasn't even worthy to touch it."
God is gracious, not because we’re good, because HE is good! Grace all depends on God’s performance, not ours. You’re buying a house, but your rich father goes to the bank and pays off the mortgage. Lawyer gives you title deed and the house is yours! But you continue to make monthly payments! Something is wrong. Fact it was a gift and you’re free of payments hasn’t registered with you.
Do we serve a God who can save you but can’t KEEP you? Jude 1:24, Now to Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you without blemish before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. In our loving relationship with God, He keeps us. Jude 1:1, A servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. Kept by Jesus, kept safe, preserved, to retain in custody, keep watch over, guard, cause to continue, hold, and reserve.
We don't have to fend for ourselves. God doesn’t just hand us a map and say, “I hope you make it.” Some churches maintain constant fear of hellfire to keep people living right. And we all relate to fear. The Psalmist cried, "My feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped." If we were strong, sure-footed mountaineers, this wouldn’t be a problem! But of ourselves, on best trails we trip, on smooth paths we stumble. A curve can throw us, pebble wound us. One Evangelist said, "My sermons are like chickens with heads cut off- when I think the sermon is done, it just jumps back up and runs in another direction!" Enemy lurks in ambush, to rush out when we least expect by the nearest cliff. Only God’s arm preserves us from what seeks to destroy us.
SONG: TEMPORARY HOME
Waylon Prendergast, 37, of Tampa, Florida, committed a spur-of-the-moment robbery after late-night at a pub. Drunk Mr. Prendergast entered through an open window, took valuables and set living room on fire to cover his tracks, escaped out the back, chuckling all the way. Only as he got to his own street, and saw 3 fire engines outside his house, did he realize in his drunkenness he had walked in circles and burgled his own property! It sobered him instantly. Our weakness fills us with horror.
But God said we shall be presented faultless, because of Jesus’ merits. John 10: 27-30, My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. For My Father has given them to me, and He is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father's hand. The Father and I are One. God keeps you in His hand. You are free to jump out if you want to, but why do that?
Don’t let weakness and failure get you down. From God’s viewpoint our hang-ups, insecurity, failures, inadequacy can be turned for our good, Romans 8:28. God has the first and last word. God gives us inheritance that is not forgotten. FBI and Florida police arrested Paul Flasher, 45, who was sentenced to five years in prison for grand theft but who was never jailed. Flasher said he went home from sentencing in Tampa and "sat tight," just as his lawyer said, for notification to report to prison. Authorities forgot him for 12 years. God cannot forget you; He wrote you on nail scars in His hands.
Is God’s grace sufficient for my food addiction, my pride, my control issues? Apostle Paul wrestled with a painful thorn in the flesh. 2Corinthians 12:8-10, Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord 3 times that it might depart from me. He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” The thorn in Paul’s flesh made him focus not on what Paul was able to do but on what Jesus does. God works out our destiny. Ephesians 2:10, For we are God's masterpiece. He created us anew in Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. There’s only one way to overcome, through Jesus! All other ways fail. All other ways are inadequate! If you’re in Jesus, the devil can’t condemn you for sin and failure. If you accept Satan’s condemnation, you repeat your sin. Why? Because you believe your fellowship with God is broken. You feel unclean and unworthy.
Focusing on sin causes our thoughts and actions to follow. The power of sin comes from focusing on it. But if you believe the blood of Jesus makes you clean, what you believe changes your life! We wake up and remember, Saved by grace, thank You God! Do your work and remember, Saved by grace, thank You God! Go to bed and remember, Saved by grace, Thank You God!
SONG: ONLY BY HIS GRACE
What happens when Grace doesn’t seem to be working? Grace doesn’t mean you are perfect. Abraham made his slave pregnant instead of trusting God that his wife would bear a child. God gave Him the child of promise because God is faithful. In children's Sabbath school, teacher told how to catch fish. Then she asked what they would need to do to be fishers of men. A boy answered, "Throw them in first?" In baptism, when we go under water, we left the old me behind and we enter the new country of grace! Buried with Jesus then resurrection in Him.
Ephesians 3:17-19, Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Christ makes His home in our hearts and HE completes us. How wide, how long, how high, and how deep God’s love is. Grow down deep in Jesus. But don't go digging where God has buried your sins.
The Bible contains our vitamins of soul health. Real friends are those who, when you feel you've made a fool of yourself, they don't feel you've done a permanent job. Jesus is that Friend. Thank God for what you have. Trust God for what you need. Never doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light. Rather than focusing on what we do, we focus on what Jesus has done. From where shall my help come? “I lift up my eyes to the mountains. My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps you will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper, Psalm 121:1-5. Paul writes "LIVE by the Spirit" not visit the Spirit from time to time. God's truth isn’t convenient, comfortable but when received, it has healing and freedom. Those who doubt whether or not God can save us and keep us saved often have a false view of Who God is.
If our salvation depends on anything less than the power of God, then we’re all lost, wasting our time serving the Lord if we’re not kept by HIS power. Salvation has never depended on what we can do but what we do with Jesus. God is able to save to the uttermost. In a church there was a note over the baby diaper station: We shall not all sleep but we SHALL BE CHANGED. Philippians 1:6, Being confident of this, that He Who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. What He started, He will finish. Nothing can make us leave God. We won't be able to blame the devil, parents, spouse, children, our DNA, our illness, fatigue, society, circumstances, or God Himself. God IS able to keep us, if that’s what we choose.
At a preacher's convention a preacher got up and started his sermon, "I spent the best years of my life in the arms of a woman not my wife!" Audience gasped; he said, "She was my mother!" Back home a young pastor decided to use this. He started, "I spent the best years of my life in the arms of a woman not my wife." Congregation gasped and pastor suddenly forgot the ending. Very nervous he said, "And I can't remember who she was!" If we forget God and walk away from Him, we do so because we don’t know Him, because to REALLY know Him is to love Him. Victory is possible because God is ready, willing, and able to take us through. When God measures a man, He puts the tape around the heart. Let us surrender our heart to Jesus.
SONG: HE WHO BEGAN A GOOD WORK IN YOU
Our need to control will yield to God, but will never surrender. The last thing people surrender to God is admitting they are helpless to save themselves. AA knows until a man admits he’s an alcoholic, he can’t receive help. Until a man admits his sin, he can’t accept forgiveness. I pray, “Lord make me willing to be willing to give you control.” When God takes control, He violates our traditions, clashes with our most cherished ideas and false beliefs. When grace flows, people who don’t deserve healing may be made whole, while those we feel deserving are untouched. The world looks down on weakness and believes this is where change must begin. God chose weak things of the world to confound the strong, so His strength can flow into what we are not. Coming to realize we’re too weak to obey God and stop sinning is the most priceless place we can come to, because it’s there we are willing to receive the saving and keeping power of GOD.
One night, a few co-workers at a computer data center stayed late, got hungry, decided to order food by phone, but Boss said since they work with computers, it was more appropriate to order by Internet. On a restaurant chain's website they spent a long time registering as new customers; message appeared on the screen, "Thank you. You will be able to order food in three days." To us, it seems God is holding back like that. People who haven’t yet obtained healing, take comfort from Matthew 15:22-28. A woman asked Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter.
Jesus didn’t give the blessing at once. He intended to grant it, but He waited. "He answered her not a word." Weren’t her prayers any good? None better in the world. Wasn’t her situation needy? Totally needy. Did she feel her need enough? She felt it overwhelmingly. Was she earnest enough? Intensely earnest. Had she no faith? She had such faith even Jesus wondered, "O woman, great is thy faith!" Yet faith did not bring it instantly. A painful silence from God is grief of many a seeker, but heavier still is distress of a reply, "It isn’t right to take children's bread and cast it to dogs."
Many people who wait on God find immediate relief, but this isn’t the case with all. A deeper sense of sin may be given us instead of sense of pardon; we need patience to bear the pain. Sad heart of Job cried, “Though God slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Jesus told the woman what his disciples were thinking about dogs; the woman believes in the love of God’s heart, and her daughter was healed. Do not give up trusting Jesus, because we have not yet obtained what we long for. Cast your burdens on Him, depend on His grace.
In 1929, Georgia Tech played University of California in the Rose Bowl. Roy Riegels recovered a fumble for California. Somehow, he got confused and started running the wrong direction! His team-mate, Benny, overtook him at 65 yards, just before he scored for the opposite team on his own goal. California tried to punt, Tech blocked the kick stopping their team in their own end zone. That strange play came in the first half, and everyone who was watching the game was asking the same question, "What will Coach do with Roy in the second half?" Men filed off the field, went into the dressing room, sat on benches, all but Roy. He put his blanket around his shoulders, sat in a corner, put his face in his hands, and cried like a baby!
If you have played football, you know that a coach has lots to say to his team during halftime. Coach was quiet, trying to decide what to do with Roy. Three minutes before playing time, Coach said simply, "Men, the same team that played the first half will start the second." Players got up and started out, but Roy did not budge. Coach called to Roy. Still he didn't move. Coach went over, "Roy, didn't you hear me say the same team that played the first half will start the second?"
Then Roy Riegels looked up and his cheeks were wet with a strong man's tears. "Coach," he said, "I can't do it to save my life. I've ruined you. I've ruined the University of California. I've ruined myself. I couldn't face that crowd in the stadium to SAVE my life." Coach put his hand on Roy's shoulder, "Roy, get up and go on back; the game is only half over." And Roy Riegels went back. Those Tech men said they’d never seen a man play football as Roy Riegels played that second half!
We take the ball and run in the wrong direction. We stumble and fall and are so ashamed of ourselves we never want to try again. Jesus comes to us and bends over us saying, "Get up and go on back; the game is only half over." God’s grace is able to keep you to the very end.
SONG: EVERLASTING GOD