Sunday 10:12:14 Calvary Baptist Church - Canyon Texas - David Crump, Pastor

We serve a great God. Throughout history, he has done great things for his people.
We worship a victorious savior. He defeated sin, death, took all the wrath of a righteous God, he bought us back from slavery to sin and made us sons and daughters of

Last week - even in our failures, the victory of Christ is demonstrated.
When we fail, when we sin, we remember that Jesus' victory on the cross carried away my sins.

God wants you to think about, meditate on, study and explore the victories of Jesus. He wants you to see that his grace really is greater than all our sin.

There is no moment or circumstance of my life that is not impacted by God's greatness and the victorious work of Jesus Christ.

What about those times when we're discouraged and worn?
Do God's people get discouraged?
Ps 77:3, I remembered you, o God, and I groaned
Ps 102:4-6, I forgot to eat
Jer 20:14, I curse the day I was born.
Job 10:1 I loathe my very life.

Why does God allow his people to be discouraged?
1. Emptiness - Absence increases our desire, presence increases our joy.
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Blessings lost and then found again become extraordinary.

2. Disappointment - So we find that nothing else will fulfill us and come to him alone.
Hosea 11:2-4
V. 2. God called, they went further away. Worshipped Baals
V. 3. They did not see God's kindness, took it for granted.
V. 4 God led them in kindness and love.
Hosea 11:5-8
V. 5. Return to Egypt - after God set them free, from slavery, they wanted to return there. We return to old idols, old habits, looking for fulfillment.
V. 6 God will allow them to be invaded by Assyria.
V. 7. My people are determined to turn from me.
Man comes to God only after finding emptiness everywhere else. William Bridge
So long as we can find fulfillment anywhere else, we will not come to God.
V. 8. In triumphant, unfailing love, God will not give up on you or let you go.

The greatness of God's love will bring you back to him.
His unfailing love will remind you that even if you have discouragement all around you, you have the greatest possession in the universe, you have the love of your great God.
You are His and He is yours.

God wants to have all the love of his children.
He allows us to figure out that no other pursuits will satisfy us.

3. Conviction - Jesus as a surgeon, uses discouragement to repair what is wrong in us. He points out areas in our lives where we are looking at external things rather than the demonstrated love of God for us.

Read the scriptures much. The promise yields its power when you put it to work, not before. Relying on the promise makes it yours.

Psalm 94:19 "when anxiety was great within me,
your consolation brought joy to my soul."