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Teaching podcast from the Eagle Community Church of Christ in Mont Belvieu, TX.
Hey friends, this is John Guenter at the Eagle Community Church of Christ. Thanks so much for listening to our podcast. This week, we're talking about another common lie that Christians believe. We're talking about the idea that God doesn't really care about me. You ever felt like that when you were in a low point in your life?
John Gunter:Well, that's a lie. That is just not true. We can look back on our own lives. We can look back on the word of God. We can tell that God absolutely loves each and every one of us.
John Gunter:So God loves you. That's the message for today. Thanks for listening. Have a great week. Oh, hey and one more thing, I forgot to turn my mic on so for the first about 4 minutes it's, pretty low quality.
John Gunter:So if wanna skip through that or just listen very carefully for the first few minutes, have at it. Sorry about that. Have a great week.
John Gunter:If you're busy with having been here lately, what we're doing, in this series right now, we're going through a book called, by James Brooks called liner that that maybe, you hear in culture. Maybe you say become part of who we are and and how we talk about god's word. But he's saying points out these these are lies. And so just as a refresher, number 4, we had a couple weeks ago. The lion could never forgive that person.
John Gunter:It said that across that. You know? Yeah. That's what that's a lie. You don't find that in scripture.
John Gunter:You know, doesn't talk about some lies within that.
John Gunter:You this idea that you
John Gunter:could ever just forget it. Right? Have a need, you know? Have the the men in black flashy things that reset your memory where you don't remember that. But we talked about those lies.
John Gunter:Last week, we talked about the lie of follow your heart. You know the scripture, the hebrews of the heart. Right? It's this idea of this deceptive thing, you know, that that from I'm with, all of these evil things come out, yet we're gonna say, I'm gonna follow my heart with all my emotions. They talk about how, we get out of bed on the wrong side of the bed sometimes.
John Gunter:Don't you? Never have. That's good. That's great. How God doesn't really care.
John Gunter:Now, usually, this is something people say when, they've been on a a run of bad luck or something just Yeah. Like, the idea that my life isn't going the way way I want it to. Yeah. Then the dark times where you know how you're gonna get out of it. Yeah.
John Gunter:Sometimes those thoughts go through, does god really care about me? David in his book talks about a trip. He's he's made several trips to Africa and he he's made a said this thing with, the people in the Congo one time. He said all the when he showed up, all the kids were really excited to see him. They were calling him this name.
John Gunter:He said, well, he found out that this white people are here or white Christians or something like that.
John Gunter:But he said, you
John Gunter:know, when he got in touch with the the adult, the adults were more kind of He said he was
John Gunter:wandering through an interpreter, talking to this one gentleman.
John Gunter:And, the the gentleman through the interpreter said, you know, it seems that god cares about Uganda, but god doesn't care about us in the Congo.
John Gunter:And he said he actually had to, I'm sorry? I'm so loud. I didn't even notice. Did y'all? Y'all notice?
John Gunter:Alright. There we go. Hello. Testing. The audio quality for that will be great.
John Gunter:Listen, y'all are always doing stuff, so I don't know Rebecca is half asleep most of that. No. Thank you. Yeah? Just thought you all enjoyed it.
John Gunter:Man, let me have that for a minute. You have a y'all can talk about me at lunch afterward, but, thank you. Well, what I just said was phenomenal and should not be forgotten. Should not be forgotten, yeah. Lost to the world and lost to history.
John Gunter:But, yeah, this adult said that, you know, it seems that God cares about Uganda but doesn't care about us. And Shane actually had to he was like, did he really say that? He was like, Yeah, that's what he said. But his view was that God sends missionaries to Uganda, but very few come to the Congo. Now, Congo is a very dangerous place at times.
John Gunter:It's a place that, you'd want to check on before you just visit there, your mom probably won't let you go there. She won't let you go to Israel. But that was his view, because God doesn't send that many missionaries to my place, He must not care about us. And so, Shane said as he went around preaching, his thought from then on was, What I need to do is share the message that God cares. That I have come from a long way that God has allowed me to be here just to tell you that He cares.
John Gunter:But what we do a lot of times is we assign either God's caring or not caring to our circumstances. What's going on? Is my life going well? Is it going poorly? What we need to hear is exactly what Shane told them, is that God cares, God loves us no matter what is going on.
John Gunter:What's interesting is the country we live live in is much different from Uganda or the Congo, and we love our freedom. Anybody love the freedom you have to make choices and all those things? Yeah. I mean, you may not get to choose lunch later on, but you've got a lot of freedoms, right? But but what we do is kind of ridiculous, we we assign our circumstances to God either caring or not caring, but when things aren't going well, we're like, God, why don't you take over?
John Gunter:When things are going well, we're happy about the freedom we have to make choices and to guide our own lives, but when they're not going well, we're like, God, why did you let that happen? You see the rub? I want to make my choices. God, why didn't you make all those for me? And theirs, the people that influenced me.
John Gunter:And so what we end up doing again is assigning our, whether God cares or not, to our circumstances, which I don't think is correct. But what we are going to deal with this morning is really attributes of God, and reminding ourselves who God is and what He is all about. Number 1, God does not suffer from amnesia. I think sometimes because we are human, we see God almost in our own terms. That that we forget, we forget to do things, and so maybe that's how God doesn't care about us.
John Gunter:He forgets. Anybody use a calendar to kind of guide your life? Like, if it's not on my calendar, I will forget it. Until 2 weeks later, at 3 in the morning, for whatever reason, I should have done x y z. Yeah.
John Gunter:And so we see God in in these terms, but God is not limited. Right? God is not God because He needs a calendar to run His life. God is God because He is not limited. He can do all things.
John Gunter:He's not going to forget. We think about things like God placing a rainbow in the sky, and it says, So I remember not to flood the earth again, as if God needed this reminder, Oh, yeah, there's a rainbow. What if there hadn't been a rainbow in a while? Is God almost going to flood? But there's this idea, a comfort for us, right, that the earth is never going to be flooded again.
John Gunter:God doesn't need a calendar, even though John Gunter absolutely does. Also, God is omnipotent, which means all powerful, That he has the power to accomplish everything and that, you know, sometimes comes into our our mind as far as whether God cares or not. Not. Again, God, why didn't you? Or why couldn't you?
John Gunter:Again, giving up our freedoms in the moment when it seems dark, that why God did you not do this or that? But from Matthew 1926, Jesus looked at them and said, with man, this is impossible, but with god, all things are possible. This comes on the heels of a discussion with the disciples about, having wealth and how how can a person that seems to be blessed by God not be saved? And so what what Jesus says there, well, with man, this is impossible, but with God, if you rely on God, because God is, again, all powerful, all things are possible. And yet, we sit here and we tell ourselves, I'm not good enough or I could never do that or there's no way I'm the right person for that and we never rely on God.
John Gunter:We never go back to God is all powerful, we go about how not all powerful I am. But God is all powerful. In Isaiah 4028, do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth.
John Gunter:He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding, no one can fathom. Oh, this is a good one right here. This is this is if you have your your Bibles with you, circle this one. Highlight this one more time. Do you not know, have you not heard, the Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth?
John Gunter:He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. God is all powerful. He is not going to grow tired and be in a season of, Well, I just can't do that, I'm too tired. I jokingly said yesterday, as we were sweating to death in a storage unit, I asked Tyler, I said, Hey, you want to hit the gym after this? Because we've done enough reps right there.
John Gunter:We grow tired. We get tired. We get sore. God does not. He is all powerful.
John Gunter:God is also omnipresent. Omnipresent means god is everywhere and everywhere at once. Sometimes, we think God is off somewhere. Do you remember when Elijah came across the prophets Baal, and they set up 2 altars, and he let them go first, and all of a sudden, as they danced around and did all this, he kind of starts poking at them. So maybe your god is off, you know, doing something else.
John Gunter:Maybe he's asleep, needs to be awake, maybe he's off, you know, relieving himself. Who knows? But but God, our God, is omnipresent. He is everywhere. Psalm 13978.
John Gunter:Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence if I go up to the heavens? You are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. God is everywhere.
John Gunter:You ever said something like you ever had an issue in your life and you you said, Well, I don't want to trouble God with that. Have you ever said that? It's almost like a comparison, My issue is not as bad as, so I don't want to trouble God with that. As if God is limited in His presence, so He's off helping someone else while your issue is, you know, you just kinda own your own. I'll handle this one, Lord.
John Gunter:You ever said that? Yeah. But but God is everywhere. We serve a god that is all powerful, that is ever present. God is promised to be right here with you today.
John Gunter:That as we gather together, multiple people gathered in his name, he is here with us. God is, if you have been baptized, you have been given the Spirit of God, indwelt with the Holy Spirit. God is ever present. He is with you. Don't think God doesn't care about you.
John Gunter:God is also this long word, omnibenevolent, which means he is able to love everyone at one time. Again, don't get in your your head that God can only help me, when I have big issues because those small ones don't compare to someone else's issues. God loves you and cares about, I think, everything in your life. God says, Cast your burdens on me. I've always had big shoulders, that's the way I think of God.
John Gunter:God has big shoulders, right? I can handle it. God is able to love everyone at once. From 1 John 4:8, Whoever does not love does not know God because God, in His very being, His very essence, God is love. That's who he is.
John Gunter:Able to love everyone at one time. God is omniscient. And this scripture from 1 John 3:20, If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything. Now, that may be comforting or that may be scary. This morning in class, we read a a scripture that talked about, watching out for the Pharisees because sometimes they could be hypocritical.
John Gunter:And what Jesus says there, you know, Everything you say in secret is going to be made known. Everything you say in quiet is going to be proclaimed from the rooftops, and we go, Woah! Probably shouldn't have made that joke. Right? But God is all knowing.
John Gunter:Right? That God understands your issues. He understands what you're going through. And that should be a comfort to us that that I don't have to have a special meeting with God for him to know what's going on. I don't have to wait for his schedule to open up.
John Gunter:I don't have to wait for anything because God is all knowing. He doesn't need anything. He is God. And praise God for that, because I am not. The more I study, the more I understand what I don't know.
John Gunter:You have been there before?
John Gunter:I have
John Gunter:told you about 30 times that I have been going through the biography of George Washington. I finished it this week and I am excited to do so. I'm already on to Hamilton, so there you go. But it's crazy to think how much we don't know, even about our own history. How much we don't know about what God has done for the world.
John Gunter:Yet, we sit in judgment oftentimes when it feels like it's not going right for us, thinking, God, You don't really care about me, Which is a lie straight from Satan. In Galatians 4:4-seven, But when the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his son, God God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, the spirit who calls out, Abba, father. So you're no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
John Gunter:It's one of my favorite, verses. I've told you before I am adopted and to to think about being adopted by God, that I am His. I I think I was adopted into the perfect family. We forgot at times that I was adopted. We talk about, you know, things that kids often do, you know, daydreaming, you know, I've got a rich relative somewhere, it's about to make me a billionaire, you know, and, still waiting on that, by the way.
John Gunter:But we would be in conversations about that, and mom would be going through all the, wait, we're not even blood relations, you know? We forget about that, because I was just adopted, I was part of the family. I was there from, I think, 2 weeks old, and that was only because the lady that was going to give me to my parents was on vacation, and she wanted to make sure she gave me to my parents, which I am sure my parents loved for 2 weeks, I don't know. But yeah, to go into a family and you are fully accepted, what I've talked about before, and Michael, you are here this morning, Michael loves this point, but when I first got into Katie's family, and we would take big family pictures because she's got a huge family, And I started noticing that Nana always put me on the edge of the picture. And I called her on it, and I said, Nana, you just want to be able to crop me out, don't you?
John Gunter:And she laughed pretty good about that, and then said, Yes, I think. I don't know. But at some point in our relationship, in our marriage, I started being put toward the middle. Like, John, as you remembered that, she said, John, you you can now become a part of the middle of the picture. And that's the picture I get when I read the scripture, is that with God, you don't have to be on the fringes.
John Gunter:How many of you have said or heard said, I'd just be happy with a tent in heaven. Right? As if all God wants in all of His grace and mercy is to offer you a 2 person tent. Maybe a 1 person tent. I don't know how big a tent you're thinking.
John Gunter:But God wants to lavish His love on you, that He loved you much that he gave his one and only son. He sent his son and says, into our hearts, the spirit who calls out, Abba, father, you are no longer a slave, but god's child, and since you are His child, God has made you also an heir. You're not an outsider. You're not a person born that has no claim to anything. You are a person that is fully in the family of God.
John Gunter:That is who you are if you have put on Christ in baptism, you become a part of His church. This is you. Yet we read a Scripture like this and sometimes think, God doesn't care about me. God sent His Son for you. He sent His Son for every one of us to die on the cross, to live a life not in a castle or a mansion, but to live a homeless life being persecuted, and he did that all for you and for me.
John Gunter:Matthew 2820 says, And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. This is Jesus talking to his disciples right before he left. And as a reminder, as a comfort to them, he reminds them, hey, I am going to be with you. There is going to be Me with you to the very end of the age. Now that didn't mean until the decade closed.
John Gunter:That didn't mean until the turn of the century. That meant until it ends. I will be with you. And if God is with you, don't think he doesn't care about you. God has proven himself over and over, amen?
John Gunter:Has God proven himself in your life? Don't forget that just because something goes wrong and your circumstances change, still remember what God has done for you. He has proven himself. Colossians 1:15 says, The son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. God has sent his son, the image of himself, the firstborn over all creation.
John Gunter:That's how he's proven to you, that he cares and that he loves you, and He remembers you. Psalm 13623, He remembered us in our lowest state. His love endures. How long, church? Forever.
John Gunter:So maybe, right now, this is not for you. But maybe you're sitting here this morning and things aren't going exactly the way you want them to go. Life isn't turning out the way you thought it would. Maybe you have something going on in the family. You have a sickness, an illness.
John Gunter:Maybe someone has passed. And maybe it's a challenging time. Don't let your mind go into a place where God doesn't really care about me or my family because God has shown us over and over He can and He will and He does. He loves you. Sometimes, I think comparison can be our biggest downfall.
John Gunter:Can you imagine as we go back to the story of, Shane being in Africa, can you imagine those people in their state, in the Congo, dealing with all kinds of conflict, all kinds of poverty, just trying to get clean water. Things like that, looking around and thinking God doesn't really care. And then comparing that to some of the lives we live. And if we want clean water, we turn a faucet. If you want a shower, want it colder, hotter in your house, And we have the audacity sometimes to think God doesn't really care about me, and we are some of the most blessed people in the world.
John Gunter:Now, I don't I don't want to tie God's blessing with commercialism or anything like that, but We just need a reminder that we are a blessed people. We live in a wonderful place, we live in a wonderful time. It wasn't that long ago that modern medicine couldn't do a lot for us. I think I have told you before that at one point in our lives a few years ago, I realized that if I didn't have modern medicine, I wouldn't be here. Katie probably wouldn't be here, probably Evan.
John Gunter:Logan would have made it. He's just that way. But just by the fact that we live when we live, right? Which is a huge blessing. And how many blessings do we overlook?
John Gunter:How many blessings do we take for granted? How many blessings are we going to take for granted at lunch here in just a few minutes, right? We may gripe about the price we pay at the grocery store or where we go to eat in a few, but we still do it, don't we? You still get a good meal, you get to go home to live in a house that keeps you covered, keeps you cold, keeps you warm. Maybe not exactly as cold as you want, but what a blessing we have in all of that.
John Gunter:Let's not ever let ourselves go to the point where we think God doesn't really care, because He does. He loves each and every one of you, and I want you to hear that as we worship him this morning. If you've allowed yourself to stray from god, we wanna offer a time to, pray with you. I'd love to pray with you, but, as I encourage you from time to time, if that's, uncomfortable for you, what I want you to do is find someone who loves you and cares for you, and pray with them. What I don't want you to do is come and hear the word of God, and to hopefully hear it with an open heart, and to walk away unchanged.
John Gunter:Because if you need to pray, if you need to make a change in your life, find someone to help you do that. Whether that's me, I'd be happy to. But if that's a close friend, a relative, someone who will keep you accountable, will ask you the hard questions, will tell you the hard truths, Please do that. Because what's most important is our relationship to Jesus. That's most important over anything else, and so that's what we want to offer this morning is move closer to him.
John Gunter:God loves you. He cares about you. Move closer to him. And if you haven't put on Christ in baptism, why not today? Let's do that.
John Gunter:Would you come?