God’s Monumental…So What? (Joshua 1:9, Psalm 147:5, Romans 8:38)
GIST: You can be strong and courageous because He won’t leave you, He’s abundantly powerful, and nothing can ever separate you from His love!
Today, we're celebrating VBS Family Day. This is one of my favorite services of the year. I love VBS, and I love being able to dedicate a service to sharing what the kids have been learning. Honestly, I love just giving an entire service to our kiddos. Calling them “the future” isn't just something we say. That has to be the reality we live. We have to invest in these kids seeing the love of Jesus!
That being said, this morning, we'll take a break from our regular Psalms study to focus on the three memory verses from this weekend. Every one of these passages is taken from such a rich portion of Scripture we could easily have camped out in any of them for the whole service. In fact, I encourage you to take time to read them all in context. Nevertheless, for today, I want to zero in on how the truths in these three verses interact to respond to this question. All week, we've been calling God monumental: So what? What difference does that make in our lives?
Here’s our gist: You can be strong and courageous because He won’t leave you, He’s abundantly powerful, and nothing can ever separate you from His love!
And I know the kids, and maybe adults, can get pretty anxious knowing there are bounce-houses awaiting them, so I won’t keep you overly long this morning ☺️.
Let’s just walk through the implications of these verses our kids have been memorizing all weekend. First, why does it matter that God is amazing?
I. You Can Be Strong & Courageous
Let’s look at the whole text of Joshua 1:9. This was written to Joshua right after the death of Moses. He was the new leader of a group of people with a pretty dicey track-record, and he was stepping into massive shoes. Moses was called a friend of God. He was used to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt. He was used to part the red sea. He was given the 10 commandments. Can you imagine being the “next guy” after that!? But what message does God have for Joshua? → “9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)
Guys, we live in a world where we don’t often feel strong or courageous. Fear is easy because brokenness is rampant. You probably don’t often, if ever, feel up to whatever is in front of you. I get it. Neither do I. And honestly, I’m not. Neither are you. Neither was Joshua. God didn’t tell you to be strong and courageous because you’re awesome. He told you to be strong and courageous→
II. Because He Won’t Leave You
This is what the kids memorized this week: “for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” This is true. There is no where you can go that He’s not. At one point this week, Haley tied a balloon to my wrist, and I ran around trying to get away from it. Of course, it didn’t work (though I’m sure the kids like watching me dive under the pews ☺️). We talked about how we should think about where we go and what we do because God is always there with us. The flip side of that coin is that God wants to be there with you. He is pursuing you with His love and amazing grace! He has plans and purposes for your life, and He’ll never leave you. If you belong to Him, the Bible tells us His goodness and mercy will chase after you all the days of your life (Psalm 23). That’s kind of a big deal. We live in an ever-changing world, but we serve an ever-constant God. In fact, I’m pretty sure I heard my dad say that this week ☺️. That’s awesome, and it’s just the first verse we memorized. The next one reminds us why we can trust this pursing presence.
III. He’s Abundantly Powerful
Look at Psalm 147:5. “5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure.” This verse is pretty straight forward, but there are two points that I don’t want us to miss. Two of God’s characteristics are being described here: His power and understanding. Both are said to be beyond us. His power is abundant. His understanding is beyond measure. Why does it matter that God is monumental? Because He is bigger and brighter and better than anyone or anything ever could be, He’s stronger than anything that could possibly come our way, He gets us on a level no one else ever could, →
IV. And Nothing Can Ever Separate You From His Love!
I couldn’t help it. I had to go back a few verses on the last passage here just to give you a taste of how beautiful this portion of Scripture is, and I think you’ll understand why when we read it. “35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)
Nothing. Nothing that you are facing now. Nothing that might come your way tomorrow. Not your darkest day. Not that worst possible scenario you try not to run through in your mind. Nothing can ever separate you from the love of Jesus.
TAKEAWAYS
We’ve been calling God monumental all weekend. Why does that matter?
You can be strong and courageous. Even though you don’t feel like it.
Because He won’t leave you. And there’s nowhere you could hide from Him and nothing you could do to make Him love you less. And→
He’s abundantly powerful. And wise beyond our understanding. Still→
Nothing can ever separate you from His love! Nothing. Ever.
Do you know Him today?saszss
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