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Plymouth-Sorrento SDA Church

Ralph Henderson

Did You Know God Misses You?

Our loving Father in Heaven, once again we kneel before you today because we truly are humbled when we think of your infinite love and compassion toward us.

We are humbled when we think of what an awesome God you are, what a mighty God you are, and your creative power in all of the universe that you've created around us.

We are so small and so tiny in such a great universe, but yet it is as though we individually have a personal walk and experience with you.

So we are thankful that you are such a God today, that we serve a God that with all of that infinite power, wisdom, and might, still has the love for such a tiny planet, and for people who seem or feel sometimes so insignificant in the universe around us.

Today we just pray that as we have come into your presence that each 1 of us will be filled, that we will go away from this place having our needs met today, having been drawn closer to you and strengthened in our walk and encouraged knowing that your love for us is so infinite that we could never even imagine or measure it.

And we just pray for Your presence to be in every heart just now.

That You would touch each life in the way that You know they need to be touched today.

Speak to us through Your Word today and encourage us, we pray In Jesus' name, amen.

This morning the thought came to my mind as Diane was up and she was talking about Sandy, Hurricane Sandy or the storm that Sandy became and all that has happened up there in the north.

And I was just thinking about what people go through in life and even in our day-to-day life when there's not any real physical storms around us, Do you ever feel discouraged?

Do you ever feel like, not only do you feel like you're discouraged with life, but sometimes you feel discouraged that you're really not material for heaven?

You know, you think, you know, Lord, I read it, you know, I hear people talk about it, I hear people explain it, but for some reason I feel like I'm just not getting it.

I feel like I just can't seem to somehow focus in on how I do this, the how-to's of being more like Jesus.

This morning I think then, if that's the way we feel sometimes, that perhaps we've forgotten what God is really like.

Perhaps We have let the adversary make us think that we're so small and so insignificant that that God up there couldn't possibly care enough about us to really give us victory, to really empower us to live the way His Word has described that we can.

You know, we just say, you know, I just don't have hope.

You talk to people today, we live in a world that has no hope.

People talk as though there's nothing to look forward to.

And I don't want us to forget this morning what the story is all about.

The good news that I want to share with you this morning is that God, the God of the universe, the God that created everything around you, the God that created you, misses you and wants to be in your presence with you again.

I want you to go with me as we begin this morning.

We're going to start at the very back of the book in Revelation chapter 21.

As we begin I want us to remember what God has promised our future will be.

I want us to have some hope today as we start our journey.

I want us to remember what God has promised our future will be.

I want us to remember what God says is going to take place when it's all done and when everything is finished.

Revelation chapter 21 and beginning in verse 1, the prophet John says, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the first heaven and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea.

How much damage has the sea caused in our world?

We have hurricanes that come off of the sea, we have tsunamis that come off of the sea, and sometimes that sea takes the sand and moves it inland to where the sand itself destroys so much.

And then in verse 2 he says, and I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is where?

With men, And He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.

And this is everyone's favorite verse, but sometimes I think we forget.

And he says, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death nor sorrow, neither crying, neither shall there be any more pain.

Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.

And in verse 5 he says, And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful.

Now how do I know that those words are true and faithful?

Because God has given me a whole book, that in that book, He has taken prophecy and revealed to me things that would take place as time progressed And I have the privilege as you have the privilege of living in the very last hours of Earth's history So I don't have to look forward to too much I can look back and see all kinds of things that the God of the universe has done to show me who He really is.

God has fulfilled prophecy after prophecy.

He has laid things out in His book and we have the privilege of looking back and seeing how everything went exactly as He said it would take place.

When God lays it out, it happens exactly as He says.

So how do I know those words are true and faithful?

Because I've read the book and I know that God does not lie.

Go back with me with 1 more verse as we begin now to Lamentations chapter 3.

This morning my message is about hope because God misses you.

God misses me and he longs to be with us again.

Lamentations chapter 3, beginning in verse 21.

But Jeremiah says, This I recall to my mind, therefore I have what?

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I?

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

Now I'm starting to think maybe you do have some hope.

Alright, verse 22 he said, It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.

The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in Him.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father!

Thou changest not, thy compassions they fail not.

Great is Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided.

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

Now do you believe what you sang this morning?

I want you to go back with me this morning to the beginning, the creation of man.

We talk about creation a lot, but really try to picture in your mind what it must have been like And how excited God must have been after He created Adam and Eve.

You know He created Adam and Eve because He is a God of relationships, and He wanted to fellowship with them.

He wanted someone to love Him, not out of force, but because of love.

And as Adam and Eve got the opportunity to walk with God in the Garden of Eden, can you imagine what that must have been like for them?

To discover that this God that had created everything around them This God wanted to walk with them through the garden and spend time intimately with them What a setting it must have been and when I think about that it makes me look forward to the new heaven and the new earth.

When we're going to have the opportunity to watch God recreate, do it all again.

But you know, more so than creation, God is more interested in salvation.

The devil has painted a picture of a God that's not really redemptive, but a God that has been looking for a reason to wipe man out.

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Did You Know God Misses You?

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