God is With Me - Part 1

For downloadable notes: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XMOarkhAx7oxErtcNSR6HF5y0UVJR2xo

 

GOD IS WITH ME – Part 1

The Story of Joseph

 

 

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

 

YOUR STORY IS A LOVE STORY

 

Everything about our story changes when we stop trying to earn God’s love and start to learn God’s love.

 

(Genesis 37:3-4 NLT) Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe. 4 But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.

 

1. Stand in awe of God’s love.

 

(Romans 5:10-11 NLT) For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

 

Our “Chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.”  - Westminster Catechism

 

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” – John Piper

 

(Jeremiah 9:23-24 NIV) “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,’ declares the Lord”

 

“It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon…

 

It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; It may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; For we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”  - G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

 

2. See your situation with faith.

 

Choose to see your situation from the angle of God’s love, rather than see God’s love from the angle of our situation.

 

(Genesis 37:5-8 NLT) One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. 6 “Listen to this dream,” he said. 7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!” 8 His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.