This was a special Thanksgiving message taught at North Christian Church on November 23, 2023. Visit www.nccdighton.org for audio or video.
There are a lot of messages throughout Holy Scripture that God actually cares about us, and deeply!
In our flesh, we tend to doubt this. In the back of our minds, we start to wonder and doubt sometimes (they really do “creep in”, don’t they?! It’s “creepy”, truly).
But understand, that is our flesh, and that comes from the influences in this world.
We need to look no further than the Cross itself to see His great care for us,…
… even though, by right, He should have passed judgment on us without delay! (Rom 3)
But, to say the least, the Lord went another mile with us and turned the other cheek!
His care for us might be summed up by His goodness as our Shepherd who came for His lost sheep…
Jn 10:10-15 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
I picture a literal shepherd out in the middle of nowhere with the sheep that he loves, fighting off a pack of wolves until they eventually attack him instead (and he knew it was coming).
Ohhh, the GOOD Shepherd… knowing He defends us like this gives us such great hope…
… and knowing He’s the One that doesn’t even leave one sheep behind!!
His care is immeasurable; even though we’re the ones that run off and disobey Him!
Mt 18:10-14 “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 12 What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?
13 And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. 14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
Do you see the attitude of our Heavenly Father, which was lived out in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ?!
Hopefully, through this parable, you see the heart of God and His deep care for each one of us.
1 Pe 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
As we’ve talked about over the years, it’s just a mind-blow that He even cares for us at all!! Isn’t it?!
For example,
Ps 8:3-4 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
It doesn’t make sense, but it doesn’t have to.
This is where we are called by God to receive these truths BY FAITH.
It’s true, we can’t see Him right now, visibly speaking, but He wants us to know He sees us and cares for us!
Ps 32:8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Ps 40:17a As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. 🙂
This is all of us, “poor and needy”,… unless you’re in denial.
Some of us need to stop rationalizing. And we need to stop trying to make sense of it all.
It doesn’t make sense! But that’s the beauty of our God.
So, today, let’s be thankful for some passages that reveal God’s goodness towards us…
… that reveal that God really cares about us, despite the great guilt of our sins.
Let’s now visit an old friend and glean from it the beauty of our God…
Jas 2:1-13 My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. 2 For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, 3 and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,”
4 have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called?
Jump to vs. 12.
12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
This is GOD who said this; His Holy Spirit revealed God’s attitude here, towards mercy and judgment.
And He says “Mercy triumphs over judgment”!
Talk about something to be thankful to God for!! Right?!!
It could have been the other way around!
This is the God we serve. This is the God we love.
The God who RIGHTLY should have just judged us before we even got started, but chose to have mercy towards us instead!
Let’s now see a few passages about His great mercy, as evidence of His great care for us….
Without mercy, we couldn’t even get out of bed in the morning, quite literally.
Lam 3:21-23 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
When’s the last time you thanked God for His mercy in the morning??? (do you take His mercy upon you for granted???)
Do you realize God actively applies His mercy to you each day you’re alive?? (i.e.- by His patience and forgiveness of your sins, experientially, day by day)
It was God’s great mercy that caused us to be born again, do you remember that??
We were all dead in our trespasses and sins, as we know. (Eph 2) But He dramatically did something about it, like the Shepherd defending His sheep from the pack of wolves.
Jesus came for us who had no hope within ourselves, out of His great mercy towards us.
1 Pe 1:3-5 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
“According to His great mercy”!!!
Mercy triumphs over judgment, because our Good God says so!
And even when we believers are faithless and lose heart at times, He’s the One intervening on our behalf…
… we are guarded by His power until the end…
… and His faithfulness towards us endures until that Great Day!
2 Ti 2:11-13
The saying is trustworthy, for:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
My friends, His faithfulness reaches to the skies (there is no end:).
His faithfulness towards us who trust in Him is literally never ending!
Talk about another truth to be thankful for! – He cares for us THAT MUCH… to remain faithful to us even when we lose our way.
Ps 36:5-7 Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. 6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save, O Lord. 7 How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Obviously, all of God’s goodness, including His perfect faithfulness, is motivated by His steadfast love.
“God is love”, we remember. (talk about something to REALLY be thankful for!)
Ps 57:9-11 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
Why should God’s glory be spread over all the earth??
One very simple reason? – because He actually cares for us!
He really is merciful and full of love and faithfulness towards those who turn to His Son for forgiveness!
How incredibly THANKFUL we should be, each and every day we wake up.
Ps 138 I give you thanks, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise;2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word. 3 On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased.
4 All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord, for they have heard the words of your mouth,5 and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the Lord.6 For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.8 The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.
At this point, it’s also appropriate to pause and recall God’s gentleness towards us.
Ohhhh… how wonderful is His gentleness.
Just an analogy on this: You know when you definitely deserve something, and someone holds back from saying or doing what YOU would do if you were them??
That’s gentleness…. that’s choosing to be gentle in the face of circumstances that call for judgment.
And this is part of God’s amazing patience!
Were it not for His patience and His gentleness, we would be consumed.
But out of His great love for us, He has chosen to be gentle with us.
Here’s a good reminder, a good picture, of the God who cares for us…
Mt 12:9-21 He went on from there and entered their synagogue. 10 And a man was there with a withered hand. And they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”— so that they might accuse him. 11 He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?
12 Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” 13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And the man stretched it out, and it was restored, healthy like the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
15 Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all 16 and ordered them not to make him known. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets;20 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory;21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
This is the God we serve, my brothers and sisters in Christ!
And we can serve Him with joy and hope because we know of things like His gentleness.
Remember David’s exclamation about God’s gentleness towards him??
Ps 18:35 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand supported me,
and your gentleness made me great.
Anything good about us, and any good that comes from us, is because God has chosen to be patient and gentle with us. Amen??
David knew where his success came from; it was from the Lord, His God, who expressed gentleness towards Him.
Is 40:10-11 Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11 He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
This is the mighty God we serve… He is mightier than all, yet gentler than all!
Again, this is the God who says “mercy triumphs over judgment”.
We have so much to be thankful for, and it starts with HIM!
Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law
Again, here’s a picture of the God we serve.
This is a picture of the God who cares.
Jas 3:17-18 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. 18 And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
We should probably end this time of thanksgiving by thanking God for His love….
… being thankful that He is the God of love!!
1 Jn 3:1-3 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
1 Jn 3:16-18 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
1 Jn 4:7-12 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
What else can we say??
What else needs to be said right now??
The Lord is gracious and compassionate and full of mercy, and this is all motivated by His love.
We have a God who cares deeply about us.
And all we have to remember is the Precious Person who gave Himself up on the Cross, out of His great love for us.
Amen??
We have a God who cares deeply about us… let’s thank God for this each and every day He allows us to wake up.