He Holds Me Forever - Held Tightly by His Promises, Part 1

Do you feel defined by your past mistakes.

No matter what you separate your experience. God has a special plan for you. What you see is a damaged and tattered life God sees as a precious child who wants to love and shape into a masterpiece to display his glory. If you're struggling to believe that stick around and listen to my wife Teresa as she shares you can experience God's best. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram Living on the Edges of international discipleship ministry entering the daily Bible teaching of Chip Ingram and vapor. Join us as we continue our series forever. I Chip's wife Teresa for the last couple programs we've learned about God's love for despite knowing that we still fall for the lives that we are worth unlovable to know something about that.

She shared in the last few messages in this program. She points out where the deceit comes from and why we are cherished by God. This is such a relevant topic because so many people wrestled with self-worth. If that's you, what Teresa shares today will be extra helpful and be sure to stick around after the teaching when she should join us in studio. Okay, let's listen now to Teresa's message held tightly by his promises girl helix account and she she's in her life where she's early 20s we were landing relationships and she honestly getting close to that time she would like to be married. I would like to meet someone and looking forward to that in her life and I was so impressed with her change. She told me that she had memorized something I wrote it down because I was so impressed with what she said she quoted a line for me.

Also on chambers book, the Lamb of God and this is what she said, drink, and fall on the love of God and he will not demand impossible from Ursulines and the love of life and child has been a friend will grow holier and healthier and simpler ingrained and I realize that this young woman was looking to fill up her alarm tank with God and a lot of time Jesus people in our likes to do that – if these people he uses others to express his left. He wants us to experience his left first. He wants to be the one who fills up our lab tanks when I was in my early 20s I line totally different and this young woman and I trying to find all the love in my life solely in another person until I found with this young man got married and I loved so much and I just put so much weight on this one person in my life to fulfill all my needs and there were many things that were wrong in this relationship with him and I overlooked them because I wanted to live so much that I let things go because the entire focus on one person in the sun rose on his life and whether he was in a good whether he treated me kinder not because I needed his love so much and I worked hard not to cause any ways in the relationship and several years later, thou he left me and left with another woman and left me alone to little boys.

ECI tried to fill out my lab tank with something that wasn't stable simply could not satisfy my life and again I was at that place where I truly longed to be and I was inside and I felt like I was more damaged than I ever was before. Remember we said God lacked first lot just before we even knew him and that he was pursuing us even now, we weren't aware that he was there at the time when I look back now, my life, I see us doing that for me. He was putting his arms around me and he was orchestrating the affairs in my life to draw meetings. No I wasn't aware that he was there black and my husband last night I took a new job working at a college and the director of missions at this college, who I worked for the time and and I didn't realize at the time was a very godly Christian man. He loved the Lord and I would work with him every day and he would ask me questions about my life just trying to be friendly and he would ask anyone how are you doing how's your family doing and I trying to take my problems to work with me but one day Asking this every day couldn't hold it any more.

Just started crying) I all my life is just a mass in my left knee to little kids to take care of and make it and then I was really shocked that I was saying all this to my boss.

He was so kind and amazing thing that I see now is how God used this name to draw me to Johnny to God and John Conway didn't quote Scripture to me. Indeed, he didn't tell me that I need to go to church at the time didn't even tell me how to say I didn't know that prolonged time, but every day it was. Tell me how much he told me over over how much he loved me how much she wanted to take care of me and so as I listened I decided that well maybe there's something to this morning to find. I wanted to know if he was real in children. Conway was also a lay preacher bear in some of the West region.

It is always little country churches and said he would go around to some of these churches in and preach on Sunday evenings and so I was searching to find out if this guy really did exist and so I went with him and his wife. One Sunday right to church we set through the service and just did all the things that you do in a typical church service and I went there with the purpose, thou wast going God and didn't know where I was in my life that I wanted to bring God and so as I sat through everything that was going on.

I was looking for something happen. I was waiting with expectation. I don't know what I expect God to do, but I find something to reveal himself to me that I sent you that service.

I listen to them message and singing everything I want to know that churches over was out on the sidewalk about ready to get into my car now so sated to think that folk hero, but he doesn't seem real. Certainly didn't reveal himself to me in any way as I was about to get in my car. It was a little lady there. I didn't know her. She didn't know me to nothing about me and she walked right up to me and she said would you like to be safe tonight. I thought God is something I know how to do and so she everyone was outside of the church went back in this little Free Methodist Church the altar and pray Christ to come live in my life and it was was just the most tremendous night and I've ever experienced. Because for the first time I got and I was experiencing.

For the first time what true love really well. I was experiencing true God's truth and I was experiencing God's law through his people in the church and he reached down into my life. The promises he want me and I learned and have been learning ever sense. But it means to be truly God is so we can't fully understand his love because it's so great that we can never fully understand what we want to talk about today is that we can't experience his love in our lives we can experience it on a regular basis. In fact, God expresses his lot in many ways every day many times we keep missing. We don't see often, we fail to recognize God's level or sometimes I find it hard to believe that he loves us. Why is this why you think it's so hard to experience God's love with the hindrances are to experiencing God's love in our lives and remove those hindrances so that we can know his love and experience it in our lives.

When I grew up in West Virginia.

Remember my bedroom so well that I spent hours and hours and in the winter, sometimes it can be called and we can have a lot of snow in the wet winters can be pretty harsh. Sometimes I can remember when spring time came and finally warmed and you can smell the flowers in the air and you can hear the birds singing just loved it and it could finally warmed and opened the window in my hand fresh breeze blowing through and I can even see the curtains moving breeze would blow through my bedroom window and I thought today will pretend that there's a window to our soul and when the window is closed and we close ourselves off from experiencing God's love. When we open it and we begin to experience the love that he has for us to love is already there. They are already all the time.

He states a choice, just like I can open and close my window. It's a choice we make, whether open or close the window of ourselves whether to experience his love or not because it's there all the time and willing to look at four ways that we close the window. What keeps us from experiencing God's love in her life and how we remove those hindrances so that we can know how why and how long I deed his love really is for us and so the first close window that we see here is that sin in my life and disobedience to God's word keeps me from experiencing in John 15, nine and 10, it says I have loved you even as the father has left me remain in my love. When you obey me you remain in my not just as I obey my father and remain in his Jesus is talking here and he is saying I love you in the same way that my mom wants me at the time when he should stay close to me and you experience the joy of knowing if you stay close to me as I tell you how it is you can remain in my mom by obedience to my word says I came to set an example for you to show you how to do this on as I have obeyed my father and you obey my word and remain in my recent God is holy and his holiness is incompatible with sin in our lives. It just doesn't ask and she can't associate with sin or any part and so when we have seen for disobeying God. And we separate ourselves from him away from see that he desires for us to have a broken when I was on a child I remember one time picking up disfiguring that I wasn't supposed to touch. It was one that my mom don't want you to touch them because I think it was very valuable to her. Well, one time I was in the room and protecting trumped in a piece of nobody was there so I took the piece and I stuck inside back up on the shelf.

She never found out for a long time she ever discovered that thing was broken. In fact, when she did find out I was in the room with her, but she's not one of my cousins broke it times for a long time with the fear she was going to discover that I broke that thing and then I live with the guilt of allowing someone else to take the blame to see what I did was I allowed my disobedience was attached to place a barrier in my relationship and so when I was in that room with her what you think was only moving find out, and so what did was it placed a barrier in my relationship with her caused me to pull away from me to fully disobey God causes us to pull away from Deuteronomy 510 says that I lavished my love on those who love me and obey my trillions even for generations seen being able to experience God's love is conditioned on obedience to him. He's holding and even though he loves us more than we could ever imagine as a loving father. He disciplines his children is any loving father would doesn't form good and it's only in our obedience than as we obey his word that we open the window to God, to have relationship with him and so we opened the window by living righteously because God's love is perfected in my computer. First John 245 the one who says, I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected by this we know we can. It says the love of God is dead in the believer.

The word perfected here does not mean that we reach a state of perfection. That's what it means at all, but it means that we are continually growing and continuing maturing in our walk with the Lord as we live in obedience to him and to his word were crawling in Christ likeness were growing in our knowledge of his love for us in any print is love by dying on the cross to pay for our sins, and then forgive us we could come to humanity close to him, but every day he shows us his by forgiving our daily stands. I don't know about you but I sin pretty much every day I do something I I may have about two say something in kind, or worry about something that I should trust in God for every time. Ask him to forgive me. He embraces and he forgives me. Did you ever think that the forgiveness of your daily stands sign. Did you ever think about that every day and he forgives us, showing his it doesn't matter what we determine how big weakness.

It doesn't matter when you recognize your wrong come to him with a sincere heart he's waiting to ingratiate and forgive you.

David Wertz and writes in a book called love without shame.

This divine loyalty is more tenacious than the compassionate mother feels for the child she carried in her womb.

Forgiveness flows from this womb, like tenderness, God feels for his babies human parents sometimes quit on the children but the ultimate father's heart stirs within to restore his child.

When greatest since stains are hard. Satan attacks with his potent line God has given up when you, the relationship is over. Why return the father who is disowned, you true confession breaks through this deception and remembers God's children are safe, loyalty, and compassion in God's rebellious children cry out for mercy. He always listens he gets far more than a spot clean bleaches and freestanding bleach and so this way could he looking for notes here. The steps to take his daily confession of our sins. Don't don't. Let's see.

Stay for long periods of time. Keep short accounts when you're aware that you done something in disobedience to God's word right away wherever you are. You don't have to hold onto. You don't have to wait until you can get in a room all by yourself.

Set in the free and stay close to God as soon as you're aware, confess it right away and some 51 wanted to David Price, have mercy on me.

Oh God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgression wash away all my iniquity, and cleanse me from only seen 15 David knew what it was like to blow big time and he came to God with a repentant heart and God forgive. David did experience consequences in his life for what he did the sin of adultery and murder the big things we think this makes sense and sin always damages us always damages other people but David came to God with a repentant heart and he was completely forgiven and his record was wiped completely clean white completely claim and so the steps to take. First of all is make confession a part of your daily life and the second thing is spend time in God's word on a regular basis and I'm going to be bold enough to say 5 to 7 days a week. We need to be in God's word on Psalm one 1911 says I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you see, God wants to speak to you. He wants to tell you how how to live a good life how to have a life filled with joy it was to be close to you and he wrote you a love letter in his book the Bible because he cares for you so much. He wrote this book as a love letter to tell us how much he wants us when I first realized that I was falling in love with chap. He was about to go overseas on a missions trip and we had communicated each other at this time that we were really in love and so he went away on this trip and I didn't hear from them is gone for the whole summer in here coming for quite a long time that after about a month or so.

There was a letter in my mailbox from South America and I got really excited.

It picked up this matter opened with anticipation of what he was saying in the cell excited to hear.

And you know I believe God wants us to his word and will be open.

We are in such anticipation of what he has to say what you say to me is important things to me. He wants to speak to ask, but he wants us to be excited and he will speak to us through his word. He wants us to know he wants us to know how much he loves us and so the question that I would press the take to heart. Is there any area of my life that needs cleaning any sin in my life not confess to God separating me from here and secondly do I spend regular time reading and meditating on God's word so that I can now him and haven't been to relationship. We need to answer these questions individually in our own hearts. Secondly we close the window of our souls by believers learned way of thinking about themselves.

The self talk. What we say in our minds to ourselves can keep us from experiencing in progress 23 seven it says as a man her as a woman. Thanks in her heart so she is as she thinks in her mind that's how she's going and we don't we learn to believe certain things about ourselves that may or may not be true. They may not be true. We live in a world system and culture that is telling us everyday, we need to have certain things and we need to behave a certain way. We need to look a certain way.

We need to believe certain things in order to not accepted significant lines and what we believe about ourselves, affects our actions, and it affects our emotions. It affects the decisions that we affects everything in our lives, what we believe about ourselves, and particularly in our growing up years. We learned during ourselves in a certain way. I grew up in a home where I was afraid to stop. I was afraid to even make it accidental mistake because even those things were punished and during those years. At home I was afraid I might when I wanted to ask him to go someplace or to do something special.

It would take me hours just to get up the courage to go ask him.

I would sit down and go through all this torture in my mind trying to build up the courage to ask him to do something and then when most the time now and so I learned that unless I do everything perfectly.

And lastly, don't miss the person and then early in my Christian life as an adult. Every time my next stop God like me.

Like me, and I believe that that he certainly wouldn't give me good things, and that if I ask him for something he would probably say now I learned about myself and it's very important that we take a good look at what we think and what we believe and compare with God's word to see what our self talk is to see if it's really true or not because of what we believe about ourselves. We may try to earn God's love that is freely given when they try different. It's already there and because of what we believe about ourselves we we might not believe that God would take care of them because of what we believe about ourselves, we may believe that we show it when listening to my prayers, showing give me good things and because of what we believe about ourselves. We may not believe we sense and so then we did close the window of our soul from experiencing what we can open that window by filling our minds with God's truth to overcome the negative belief systems.

We have learned and we will clean his promises for lines how we can open in Philippians 48 it says, and now, dear friends, let me say one more thing is I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable, and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. In this passage the apostle Paul is pretty on his psychology to know him as a psychologist to assess how to deal with the belief. How do we deal with these negative things that we think in our minds and he says to think about what's true, think about what what what is statements that are the real that are not lines that are not rumors, but the real their sincere and genuine things are true. Just think about things that are honorable that are respectful. Think about things the right things that are in keeping with God's church with his word about things that are lovely things that beautiful there pure, morally pure.

Think about things that are admirable.

Think about things, speak well of the think about things is the thinker. She think about things, speak well thinker if someone could hear your thoughts about yourself when they hear what you learned here for a long time I believed the town deep in my heart that I was in that because I Give me good things he did that for other people know he doesn't smarter people, but he would do that for me but I learned through God's word that I was wrong and that he tells me is truth in his love for me is eternal now I in his his desires is to be close to me that I in his child and he treasures me that he will withhold no he says he withhold no good thing from those who walk up rightly. He gives us the desires of our hearts so we ask you, are you not to believe God wants to do good in your life. This is what he says this is what his word says is true that we must begin the process of recognizing the lies we believe anxious to replace God's truth, listening to the first held tightly by his promises from her series. He holds me forever future per your note will be back in just a few minutes to talk about what you sure today the ideas to Reese's tackling in the series are fundamental to understanding God's loving nature. So believe there are a lot of people who don't know what that feels like regular struggling with self-worth or feeling spiritually lost them. God is cold and distant. Our desire with these messages is to help you understand the God deeply cares and loves each and every one of us.

If you're still wrestling with that idea that's okay. Let me encourage you to get plugged in with the series and find the hope you're missing check out the resources, for he holds me forever LivingontheEdge.org or by calling AAA to 333-6003 helpless nurse simply tap special offers chip as I heard your message today.

Ariel is thinking literally about a million people are listening right now. Those people have real needs as Living on the Edge continues to buy airtime and create new programming to develop resources that address those needs. The expenses of the ministry are always a monthly issue.

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But God could take your small gift into something really big with it. So thanks so much and appreciate anything.

God leads you to do like strip and as you prayerfully consider your role in this ministry I will remind you that when you partner with Living on the Edge you become part of a much bigger team dollars go places and do things with you on your own could never do. But as we partner administered together every gift is significant concern the gift by calling us a triple late. 333-6003, or if you prefer to give online just go to LivingontheEdge.org your partnership with us is greatly appreciated on behalf of chip of the stuff your thank you for your support of this ministry well with some final thoughts, peers, chip and Teresa. Teresa knew the very end of your teaching time you said something that really struck me. You said his word is true, but we have to begin the process of recognizing the lies that we believe and then replace those with God's truth. What were your first steps in recognizing the lies you believed and then getting God's truth into your mind into your heart. I was a believer for years and I had no idea of the lies I believe when when you live with a certain belief system. You grow up with that and that's how you think. I had no idea that my thoughts were wrong that that those weren't the thoughts that God wanted me to have. And I realized that what we believe what we think about ourselves really affects our relationships in it with affects our lives and lots of different ways and in a negative way, especially in in marriage, but it was affecting chip and eyes marriage. I grew up with such a poor self-image.

I was afraid of everything.

I wish I didn't believe that I was really useful or that people really liked me and and just had so many lies and so it was during that time that we got started on these affirmation cards and that's where I would write down the lie that I was thinking about myself or the or about life actually and then I would turn the other side and I would find scriptures I would find what God says is true in that situation, and so I begin to practice that every day for four days until these truths about myself got in my mind and it's just something I want to say hereto is its this isn't about me is not about us, it's about God wants us to know who we are in hand it's it's about God and pleases him. When we realize how much he cares for us and that we are made in his image and we are precious to him and he loves us more than we can ever imagine.

And he has good for us and he gives us all that we need to do whatever he is asking us to do and those were truth that I needed to have deep in my heart. So God opened my eyes and I learned to believe that truths that that the his word said about me in the verse that I think about here is that God says that that that you shall know my truth and my truth will set you free, and the freedom of not listening to the negative things that Satan would want to put in my mind are that I learned as I grew up was was an amazing thing and I still struggle I've done this for years and years and I've changed a lot. I had so much more confidence than I used to have. I actually like myself now. I didn't like my cell phone for a long time and I really believe that other people like me to and that I don't have to please everybody all the time but that I can. I can be free and and live my life and be due, in a way that honors God and brings glory to him as I think back abusive those days and those years you I would review those cards with you. I thought these were for you and it really transform my life.

So maybe you could take a moment just let people know how they can access those affirmation cards that have really been the key to changing so many people's lives happy to do know someone who needs the kind of encouragement chip and Teresa were just describing sending the gift of these affirmation cards might be just the thing they made you'll find all the details of LivingontheEdge.org or by calling triple late.

333-6003 and if you're wanting these cards for Mother's Day. Be sure to place your order by Monday, April 26. Again, the place your order for Teresa's affirmation cards and receive them by Mother's Day. Don't delay, visit us@livingontheedge.org or call triple late. 333-6003 hapless nurse top special offers on selects time.

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