Because of the cross, God is today no longer angry with us !.....KNOW WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST !

SERMONS BY JOYCE MEYER

SELF WORTH

         You are right with God therefore you can enjoy the blessings of God - peace, health, wealth, a good family and all the best things in your life. Today when God sees you, He sees you righteous. He does not see your faults and sins you had done and you might do in future, he does not remember your past and what you used to be !


You know why? 

              Somebody totally sinless - was punished in your place . He did not deserve to be punished. But he was. Similarly, you may not deserve to be blessed. But you are.  

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1       

             Righteousness is such a powerful thing. It is like a magic coat and whoever wears it, attracts good things in life -  like money, health, nice friends and favour and every good thing that you can think of. We never had that before because Adam sinned, we all human beings are doomed to sin, sickness and death. It is universal, as we all know.  Jesus had the coat of righteousness because he was sinless and perfect. Everywhere he went, he was a blessing. He healed the sick, made fishermen rich and enjoyed a good life, because he was righteous.

            Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.Ephesians 1:3-7

          Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.  John 3:18

       The good news(Gospel) is, He wanted us to have the best life also. So, he did something wonderful. On the cross, he took all our sins and curse. And he transferred his righteousness to our account. God treated him as the worst sinner on the cross because he was carrying the world's sins (including yours).

                  Jesus usually addresses God as Father. Do you know, the only place in the bible where JESUS called His Father, "My God" - is when he was on the Cross ?

About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

         Only the Righteous has the right to address the God as Father.

Jesus was made sin on the cross, that you might become the righteousness of God in Him.

   God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  2 Corinthians 5:21

          Someone has to pay for our sins. God chose Jesus to pay for us. Jesus overpaid for our sins.. AMEN.
            O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 107:1

          And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3

Get out of bondage, don’t live in fear of not getting what you want.

           Do you want something desperately. Do you fear you cannot live without it or cannot miss it. Then probably you are in bondage.

God does not want his children to live in bondage. He wants us to be free and happy. Bondage is a hindrance to our blessings.

When I first read the commandment Jesus gave us. 

               He(JESUS) answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'” Luke 10:27

           I thought, God is jealous that we are in love more with someone else other than Him. But God showed me that it’s not the primary reason. God never expects anything in return for His love for us. That is why Bible refers God’s love as Agape love (unconditional, self-sacrificing love).  Please understand, God puts us under rules and restrictions for our own good. Because He knows evil things always hurt us.

God showed me that when I got obsessed with something more than God, I ended up in disappointment, because I expect things in them, things that only God can fulfill .

 From old testament to new testament there are several examples of people who fell into bondage and they evaded it through God’s mighty strength.

To start with Abraham, Abraham wanted a son desperately, when God promised Him a son at an age of 99. It was too difficult for them to believe. Out of their desperation Abraham and Sarah, used another women to have a child. God addressed the child as a Bond son (Son born out of bondage). God tells Abraham to cast him off the land, because the bond son cannot share God’s blessings with the promised son. Paul says the bond son is the Law through Moses and the promised son is the Grace through Jesus.

         ¹ Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.  ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. ⁵ Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.  ⁶ Sarah said, “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.” ⁷ And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”  ⁸ The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast. ⁹ But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, ¹⁰ and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”  ¹¹ The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. ¹² But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. ¹³ I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”  Geneis:21

21Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

24These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27For it is written:

“Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”

28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. 30But what does the Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”^c 31Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. Galatians 4

              
          Later  when the God’s promised son Isaac was born, Abraham obviously loved him more than anything and was obsessed with him. Now God asks Abraham to kill his son and offer him as a sacrifice. Abraham knew God would never encourage such cruelty, but now he was confused when God asked him to do so. One of my most favourite words of faith from bible are the words said by Abraham to his son Isaac, when his son asks him, “where is the sheep that we are supposed to deliver as the sacrifice ?” . Abraham replies,

                   
“JEHOVAH  JIRAH (God Is Provision), Jehovah will take care of everything”

        And finally when Abraham, swings the knife to kill his son- It means Abraham was out of the bondage finally and was prepared to live even without His son. Abraham realized that God is more than enough for him and with Jehovah on his side he lacks nothing.

God stops Abraham and gives his son back to him. God was preparing Abraham for the blessing in which God promises Abraham that his generations will multiply like the stars in sky. 

1Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. 2Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” 3Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.” 6Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, 7Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

8Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. 9When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. 10Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 11But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

12“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”  Genesis:22

          When you ask God for something saying, “Please God, I can’t live without it, please give it to me”

God won’t provide it to you, not because he is not capable of understanding your pain and desperation, but instead  God knows such a blessing will put you in bondage and you will start depending on the blessing and not the Blesser and will move away from the Blesser(God). Hence sooner or later you will get hurt. When you get the blessing without the bondage you can enjoy it forever, since you understand God gave it to you and He can give much more. God wants us to feel His loving hand in life. God wants us to realize His everlasting love. He wants us to be loved.

 Hannah was desperately in need of a son and she prayed to God. But she didn’t want a bond son, since a bond son cannot inherit God’s promises. So she prayed that she’ll give the son(the one thing she wanted desperately) back to God himself. God not only blessed her with a blessed son called Samuel, but much more sons and daughters.

12As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14and said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.”

15“Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. 16Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”

17Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”

18She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.

19Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the Lord and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. 20So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,^c saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”

21When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, 22Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”

23“Do what seems best to you,” Elkanah her husband told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the Lord make good his^d word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.

24After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull,^e an ephah^f of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. 25When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli, 26and she said to him, “As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. 27I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. 28So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there. 1 Samuel 1

The best men always know God’s ways better. That is why Moses prayed to God to teach him His ways.

                 12 Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, 'Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, 'I know you by name and you have found favor with me.' 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people." 14 The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." Exodus:33

Our saviour JESUS was the only person who understood God’s ways perfectly.  He made sure that he was out of all bondages. He was ready to sacrifice even His own life for us. Because He knew for sure that God loved him so much and would give it back to Him whatsoever.That is why we say Jesus conquered Death .

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life, only to take it up again.” John 10:17

Leave the Bondages of flesh and start trusting in God- Stop worrying about the problems, enjoy the love of God and embrace of Holy Spirit. To be precise, enjoy the peace our Lord Jesus has left us.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:27

Prayer is the only way to enjoy it. Please remember God’s answers to all your prayers are always Yes and Amen(So be it). Given the condition called Faith, which puts you out of bondage.

“For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” 2 Corinthians 1:20