What is Your Character? Pt 3

All right. So here we go. So let's go back. And I'm going to ask you to turn to Psalm 107, verse 43. And this is the based scripture that we have been using over the last couple of months. And we are a couple of weeks, and we are talking about God's character, God's character.

We're basically we're talking about his nature, his true personhood. And we find this in Psalm 107, verse 43, and I'm going kind of quick here because I want to get to the end of where I want to end up talking about faith in just a few minutes. But it says whoever is wise will observe these things and they will understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.

And I want to reiterate this. We need to understand that by revelation, we understand God's true character. That's what God wants us to have a revelation of. He wants us to know that His true person, that his true nature is one of loving-kindness. Remember, he is not the Whac-A-Mole person at Chucky Cheese waiting to beat you every time you mess up.

His character is loving kindness. And real quickly, it is God's love and kindness that makes relationship possible. When we backslide or we fall away, or we may just fall out of Relationship.

It's God's loving kindness that opens the floodgate of blessings in our life. It is God's love and kindness that makes forgiven us possible. It is God's loving kindness that makes intimacy with God possible. So it is His character. Now, thing that we want to remember about this is, is we remember that is we are born again and we have God's spirit inside of us when if we're not when we made Jesus Lord of our life, our spirit changed.

It was sealed, it was made new, and we became one. We came spirit to spirit with God. So really our character is a character of loving-kindness. And anything that is opposite of that or portrays that is a work. It's a work you have to work against your.

True character if it's anything but loving-kindness.

If you're mean to somebody, you have to work at it. It doesn't just.

Come out naturally. If you're born again, you have to have to go here than here. Then out.

So your character is of loving-kindness.

It is what makes forgiveness possible. I want to talk about this for just a second.

Because forgiveness is an issue that has come up several times in the church in the last couple of weeks. And I just.

Want to let you know if you are.

One of those that are struggling with unforgiveness right now, God's loving-kindness, his character, his love for you and his love for me fixes that.

It's what makes forgiveness possible.

And I've heard people say even this week, Pastor Joe, I've heard you say from the platform that forgiveness is possible, that I don't understand forgiveness. I don't understand how that works. I don't know if I'm ready to forgive. I want to say this really, really quick.

We have to forgive. Scripture says that we have to forgive. But, you know, when I tell people that, you know, the first thing they tell me is they're like, well, I don't know if I can. I don't know if I want to. I want to talk about forgiveness for just a for just a minute. Hear me. When it comes to this, if somebody has done something against you just because you have forgiven them, it doesn't mean what they did was right and.

If somebody has gone against.

You and they have hurt you.

Just because you forgive them, it doesn't mean that there's not consequences.

To what they did.

Right. Just because you forgive somebody.

It doesn't mean that we forget about it, right?

And just because we forgive somebody, it doesn't mean.

That we have to trust them. And trust is earned. Always be aware of trust. It's given. You can still hurt. We can still think about it, but we can forgive them. And it's because of God's love that makes forgiveness possible. Move on quickly.

Another thing that I've heard over the.

Last couple of weeks when it comes to God's loving kindness and God's character, is this.

Well, if God loved me, if God's true character was loving-kindness.

Then fill in the blank. Right?

We've all said that. If we haven't said it, we've heard it. If God really loved me, I wouldn't be in this season of life that I am right now. If God really loved me, I wouldn't be living paycheck to paycheck. If God really loved me, my child wouldn't have a cold right now. If God really loved me, my car would have started this morning.

If if God, if God, if it goes on and on. We have got to get the if God.

Vocabulary out of our brain.

Turn with me to John Chapter 16, verse 33.

John 16, verse. 33.

Many of you have heard this many times, but this is for somebody in here this morning that is saying, if God, John, 16:33 says these things, I've spoken to you that in me you may have peace in the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. You can highlight the world tribulation right there.

You are going to have some things that don't go your way. But that does not mean that God does not love you. That's not what that Scripture says. What the Scripture says is hate. Because you live in a fallen world. There's going to be some things that come against you but be of good cheer. I love you and I am with you through every single minute of it.

And isn't that.

Good?

That's what I want to hear from my father. Hey, there's going to be some tough times, but don't worry. I'll be right there with you.

I don't know, Pastor Joe.

If God really loved me, I wouldn't have a need if God really loved me the way that you says he does.

My life would be perfect.

My life would be perfect. Yeah. The only promise that God gave us in His Scripture about perfect.

Was his son. Right?

And God wanted us to make sure that we knew that we may not have a perfect life.

But we have a perfect savior. Philippians chapter four, verse 19.

And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches and glory by Christ.

Jesus, your need has been met by Jesus.

So go with me on this venture and let's never, ever say again to our spouses, to ourselves or anybody else we love. If God loved me, blank, we're going to go through trials and.

Tribulations and we're going to have some needs, right? Does it mean that God doesn't love us or that his character is not of loving kindness?

Are you with me this morning? Yeah. Okay. So we've been talking about love and kindness. I want to go ahead and I want to define what God's loving kindness is. And let's go to the next slot here. In God's loving-kindness is this God's loving kindness is his true nature. It is his character. It is his true nature.

It is his character. It is a display of his tenderness. Do you know that our God is a tender God? God's loving-kindness is a true reflection of His person. God's loving-kindness is His mercy and His compassion. Do you know what I have to do.

When I think about God's love and kindness?

I got to make it simple. I got to make it simple for my brain to encompass how strong God's loving kindness is. Have you guys ever watched the Discovery Channel? And if you ever watch the Discovery Channel in, they're showing the Amazon River or they're showing a crocodile attack, something, you know, in these crocodiles, they come out with their mouth like this and it just clamps down and it never let go
So for me to understand God's love and kindness, I got to say it this way. God has a crocodile kind of love for Joe. Yeah, he's going to clamp down. And no matter what I do, no matter how twisted or no matter how underwater I go, he is not going to let go of me. Right? Right. And guess what?

He has a crocodile love for encounter church and he has a crocodile love for each and every one of you in this room and those that are watching online. Isn't that awesome? And he has a crocodile love for you. Is that you can't escape it. So I want to take.

In the minutes that we have left together this morning, I want to take God's true nature and his character, which is loving kindness. And I want to show you what that produces. When we understand God's true love for us, I want to show what that produces. It's pretty awesome.

Turning to Galatians chapter five, verse six Oh man, somebody.

Is going to get something this morning. Somebody in this place or somebody online is going to get the revelation of how much God loves them. They're going to understand God's character. They're going to understand their character.

Better, and they're going to start to operate by faith.

And four in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor circumcision avails anything but faith. Working through.

Love.

And I said this last week and you can rewrite this in your notes this week, but we need to know that faith is a byproduct of God's love. Faith is a byproduct of God's word. You can highlight working through love in your Bible there.

Sorry, I'm trying to get us through faith, working through love.

This is very interesting. I like this scripture. I love that love is a our faith is a byproduct of love.

But if you're like me, I want to go. I want to know what's the author saying right here? What is this really, really talking about? What sermon? Why why is circumcision a part.

Of this scripture? Let's talk about that for just a second. Paul is really saying this. We gotta remember who he's talking to. We got to hear who's rotten to. He's writing to a mixed group of people here. He's writing to Jews. He's writing to Gentiles.

And he's speaking to him. And he knows that he's speaking to Jews and he knows that they're these Jews. Consider that circumcision is a must to be saved. So Paul, in all of his genius, is going to use this to show everybody that here is his voice, that everybody that reads this letter, that it is not circumcision that produces salvation, but in turn it is God's love that produces faith through Christ that gets you saved right?

So what are you talking about? Well, Paul, if you study this and you go back to versus four and you verse five, Paul uses some very, very strong language and he says, you know what, if you guys want to continue to use the circumcision as a measure of salvation, go right ahead.

But you're cut off.

He used some very, very strong language in versus four and five. Keep doing it.

But you're done. You're cut off by the grace of God.

You can't circumcise enough people.

To get to heaven.

He was talking to the Jews and there's still people that believe that circumcision is a part of salvation.

And he's saying, No, it's the love of God that produces salvation. People say, Well, Pastor, I know you love the Book of Acts, and I've read the book of Acts. Like you ask us to do. And I know for a fact that in the Book of Acts it shows where Paul circumcised, Timothy and he did it because of salvation reasons.

That's wrong. If you go back and you study and you look at why Paul was circumcised. Timothy what you'll find.

Is you'll.

Find that Paul knew Timothy's mother and knew that she was a Jewess and it was important for her to be circumcised. So he did as a favor. Why do you know that? Well, because you can go and you can start to read in the book of Timothy.

And you can find that whenever.

Titus wanted to, when they wanted to circumcised Titus, Paul wouldn't do it. Paul wouldn't do it. So there's no reason to.

There's no reason to. It has nothing to do with salvation. What Paul was saying was this. He says that because of the love of God, he sent us his son in my son was enough. And those that believe in my son by faith will have eternal life. Get the circumcision thing out of your head. What Paul was really saying in Galatians chapter five, verse six, was this Paul said that true faith becomes effective by God's love the long way around it.

You can read that scripture however you want to, but true faith becomes effective by God's love. So this is where we can say that love or faith is a byproduct.

Of God's love.

So what does that mean for us today?

It means that when we understand God's love in the more that we read about it, in, the more that we study about it in, the more that we pick up on the revelation of how strong his.

Love is that a God by love.

It means that we can begin to trusting.

How many of you in here can honestly say that you.

Trust God right now ought to be 100%. Ought to be 100%.

Do you trust.

God right now? How come we don't have faith in God? It's a good question, but we can look at our faith comes faith comes through God's love and faith comes by Romans, chapter ten, verse 17.

So then faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. So let's put it this way. Where is your faith at today? Who is your faith in? We just read a few scriptures ago that we are going to run into some bumps in the road. We are going to come into a point in our life that we have a need.

So whose is our faith going to be in? If you're putting more ESPN in your ears than you are the Word of God, then the next time you go to the hospital, you can call ESPN. Or if it's the Dallas Cowboys like Pastor Jay, say, next time you have a need or next time tribulation hits in your life if that's where your faith is, because that's all you listen to and that's all you watch, you can call Jerry Jones.

That's tough, but it's true, isn't it?

Faith is a byproduct of God's love. It's important that we're in the word congregation. It's important what we listen to. Because do you.

Guys remember the other day, you and I gave you the.

Examples of those parents that used to be in my office, and we talked about all those bad things. And there was there was no trust in those in those examples I gave you, whether we want to hear it or not as a whole, Christians have a hard time.

Having faith in God. And the reason they have a hard time having.

Faith in God's Word or God in His Word is because you don't love him. I said it.

But if anybody wants to argue.

I'll be in the fourth year at the end of service. I know that's hard to hear, but it's the truth.

And the reason. It's not that we're bad people, and it's not that we don't choose to love him on a level that we can be intimate with him.

It's just that we don't do anything to get close to him. And the closer we get to him through his word, our faith begins to grow. Why? Because our love for him begins to grow. You see how that works? If we really got to the place that we understood God's love too, it'd be amazing. It would be.

Absolutely awesome if you could find God's character in your life. If you could find God's character in you, what you would find out. You would find out that God is a really, really awesome God, that God is a God that loves you. God is a cool God. God is somebody that wants to be with me. God is somebody wants to hear me and talk to me right.

That we should snuggle right.

Up next to him. Our love for him grows when we're in the word. I'm going to close with this. We're running out of time. It's hard to trust somebody that you don't love. Can we agree with that? Does God love you? You can have. Do you love God? And I want you to really think about that. Really? Do you love God or is he just our bellboy or genie in the bottle?

You can't trust God. We can trust God. He will never leave us or he will never forsake us. Why can we trust him? Because he loves us.

I want to close with this scripture. Psalm 36, verse seven.

How precious is your loving kindness?

Oh, God.

Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings.

I'm going to let that soak for just a second.

Have you ever seen baby chickens with their mama or any type of bird? What are those mamas do? Put those wings out. And why do they put those wings out like that? To protect their babies. Why do the chicks always run to their mother's wings? Have you ever, ever thought about that? Why? Why do they do that?

Because they know their mom loves them.

If she put her wings out and every time those chickens ran up to her, she started picking them on the head, they'd run off and the Hawks would get them. God's not waiting.

To pick her heads wings around and say, I love you. And He's talking to everybody in this place this morning. He's going, I don't care how old you are. Will you trust me? I think I've earned it. He's throwing it out there. He's saying, This is who I am. Here's my wings. Come a little closer. Let me show you how much I love you.

So if you'll stand your feet.