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Weimar University

Don Mackintosh

God’s Greatest Objective and its Practical Application

We're going to talk today about God's greatest objective.

As we start the new year, sounds like maybe a good topic to look at.

But this last year, many people experienced losses.

Loss of health, loss of jobs, loss of peace, loss of confidence, loss of trust in maybe government officials, maybe loss of trust in scientific officials, maybe loss of trust in themselves and their ability to provide for their family.

And instead of having cheer, they've had fear.

And so maybe it would help us to see how God wants to relate to this and would help us in our own journey.

So let's pray together and ask God to bless us as we consider this.

Father in heaven, thank you today that we can come and study your Word.

We ask that you would address the loss in our lives and that you would teach us what your great objective is.

Now, God's great objective, if you were gonna say, what is God's great objective in the world?

I think probably a text that would come to mind would be Luke 19 10, that the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which is lost.

So as we're talking about loss, he has come to seek and save those that have feelings of loss and that are in fact lost.

John 3 16 tells exactly why and by the way John 3 16 is always the most searched text on the internet.

If people are looking at what the Christian faith has to offer, this is the number 1 text.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have what?

And this idea, you know, the Bible says it's appointed to man wants to die.

It's appointed to man once to die, and then comes the judgment.

I don't know if there's any water back there anywhere, but if there is, that would help me.

It's appointed to man once to die, then comes the judgment.

So this is natural, but this text says something else.

God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish.

So while men may die, they will not perish.

That word perish is apolumi in Greek, And that means to be destroyed eternally, to never exist again, to never continue on.

You can lose everything in this world, but you will not lose the ability to live forever because of God's love.

In a time of loss, of loss, when people feel lost.

And this is not just Jesus, it doesn't sell, you know, he gave his only begotten son.

No, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.

So, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, all are involved in this idea of addressing loss.

Now, you know, I've grown to love a psalm over this past several years, and it's a psalm that I often use in talking to people who maybe have lost confidence in God.

It gives an overview of what he's done and is doing to seek and save the lost.

For you formed my inward parts, you covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise you, for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are your works, and that my soul knows very well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed.

And in your book, they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them." So Psalm 139 is making this suggestion, not a suggestion, it's making a statement.

It's saying, look I formed you before you were born.

Now that's on 1 level incredible, but the the other level is not only did he form us, He came and was formed like us.

The whole idea of the fact that Christ was born and entered human history is a parallel to this.

Not only did I form you, I came and was formed like you.

I originated in a mother's womb and I was formed and I was fashioned and that my substance was seen and And God had a plan for me and he has a plan for you Can you say hallelujah to that?

God knows what you're supposed to do even before you knew who you were.

He doesn't take away your freedom of choice, but He certainly has a plan for you.

And so we have a sense of loss of direction or connection just remember he he knew you from Before you were born and he can actually help you be born again Hallelujah, so that's 0.1 from Psalm 139 His love is demonstrated in that way for us.

Well let's keep going in the psalm And see what we have next.

It looks as though I erased my notes by touching the wrong button, but that's okay.

Let's see verse 1 through 6 of Psalm 139.

Oh Lord you have searched me and known me.

You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.

And there's not a word on my tongue, but behold, oh Lord, you know it all together.

You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand upon me.

It is high I cannot attain." So not only did he form us, He knows us completely.

He kind of directs us and this is the picture of Psalm 139.

Now that's not just for us, he's not just saying that to David in the psalm here, he actually did the same thing.

He came into human history and was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.

In our afflictions he was afflicted, which means not only was he formed like we were, he also had thoughts and entered into life and went through every experience that we have to go through in some fashion.

How many think that's good news for someone who's lost?

If you're lost you think it's good to have someone with you who's actually been through the experience and got through it.

I do tours to Europe and to the Middle East and other places.

And first time I went, I went with somebody else.

In fact, even though I go many times, I still have a guide, because even though I may know more than the people on the tour that I'm taking, I still don't know as much as someone who's been through the experience.

And God has been through the experience of being a baby and a young man and a man.

He's gone through the experience of life, and he's a guy.

So he came to seek and save the lost, and he did save the lost.

He said it is finished and he knows the way.

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God’s Greatest Objective and its Practical Application

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