PARTNERSHIP WITH GOD

Ro 8:26-27 (CJB)  Similarly, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we don’t know how to pray the way we should.

• But the Spirit himself pleads on our behalf with groanings too deep for words; 
• and the one who searches hearts knows exactly what the Spirit is thinking, because his pleadings for God’s people accord with God’s will. 

It is so important that we recognise the limitations of our human nature.

• As a man I am only a very imperfect part of a pitifully fallen creation.

• As a man, I can make a great effort to resist the corruption of this world but the results will always fall far short of the goodness of God.

• As a man I cannot save the people around me because I myself need to be saved.

Jesus said to His chosen Apostles:

"Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from me you can’t do a thing. Jn 15:5 (TLB)  

The Apostle Paul reminds us:

...And what do you have that you did not receive? ...1 Corinthians 4:7 (NKJV) 

God created you to enjoy a close personal relationship with himself.

• He loves you completely. His love for you is so warm and tender. 

If you have not experienced the warmth and tenderness of His love, you have hardly begun to understand who Jesus is, no matter how much Bible knowledge you might have.

• He wants you to experience the comfort and security of this deep love every hour of your life on earth.

1Jn 4:16 (TLB)  We know how much God loves us because we have felt his love and because we believe him when he tells us that he loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him. 

Some will protest that the love of God is not just feeling. That is true but if we do not experience and feel the love of God, we are like men and women who are alive but blind and deaf.

• We are called to be partners of Jesus in expressing the love of God on earth, to make His love known, to let His love be seen and felt but those who don’t know Him at all.

1Jn 4:10 (NIV)  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 

We can only live in God’s love by receiving and experiencing His love and presence in our lives. 

Someone will probably accuse me of preaching a sweet feeling Gospel. 

Love I practical. Love looks like something. 

• The next step is to choose to love our fellow believers, ALL our fellow believers, Catholic, Protestant, Pentecostal and Evangelical. 

1Jn 3:16 (TLB)  We know what real love is from Christ’s example in dying for us. And so we also ought to lay down our lives for our Christian brothers.

• 1Jn 4:11 (NIV)  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 

You may try to define who can and cannot be saved by measuring other believers against the doctrine of your denomination but does God judge this way? 

Are you an Evangelical Christian? Do you love suffering men and women like Mother Teresa?

• Are you a Roman Catholic? Do feed on the Holy Scriptures as you daily bread?
• Are you a Pentecostal Christian? Do you personally study the Scriptures for yourself with the diligence of a Baptist or a devout Jew?

Romans 14:4 (NKJV)  Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

• Jn 13:35 (NKJV)  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." 

Am I suggesting that all Roman Catholics are born again believers? No, I am not.

• However I believe there are also many Baptists and Pentecostals who are not ready for heaven.

God is calling us to live in partnership with His HOLY Spirit, loving Him, loving one another and loving a lost world with His love working in us.