Not Lost Yet

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear in any form. It emphasizes the importance of faith and trust in God and the power of His love to cast out fear. The transcription also discusses the story of Saul and the medium, highlighting the mercy of God even in disobedience. It emphasizes that forgiveness is not deserved, but a result of God's love and grace. The transcription concludes by reminding listeners of their worth and the endless love of God. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of his word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to his perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org 1 Samuel 28.13 The king said to her, Don't be afraid. What do you see? The woman said to Saul, I see a God coming up out of the earth. This verse shows Saul in a should-have-known-better situation. He knew God wasn't happy with him. He knew God was against witchcraft and mediums. Leviticus 20.6.27 29.26.31 In fact, just before this, in 1 Samuel 28.3, it says Saul himself had expelled the mediums and wizards from Israel. He also didn't go to the medium in an upright or forthright manner. He disguised himself and went at night. Now she herself knew that what she was doing was wrong. She was terrified when she realized who Saul was. So you know that he knew that it was bad. The whole thing was deceit and lies and rebellion against God. So why include this verse when we're talking about rejecting fear? Because of what it says a little later in verse 19. Moreover, Yahweh will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines. And tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Yahweh will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines. Did you get that? Even through all of this. This is reaping what they've sown. This is they walked out from under the blessing of the Lord and they are having to deal with the consequences. Even through all of that, Samuel assured Saul that he would be with God the following day. He was in disobedience. He was in disgrace. He was in the middle of being punished. But the next day he would be with God. That is an amazing thing to me. Even before the fulfillment of the law and the enactment of grace upon us all because sins paid for, even before that, God was merciful. Now when exactly why or how Saul was forgiven, how he stayed right with God, how his behavior wasn't a total rejection of the Lord, I don't know. Because when you read the book of 1 Samuel, I don't really get a sense of belief and worship from Saul after the first little while. He uses the name. He invokes blessings and curses. But it doesn't seem like any real worship. But those are just the words in the book teaching us things. That's not the heart of this man and how he lived his life. More so, he reigned for about 40 years and there is not 40 years of material about him in the book. There's a whole lot of unknowns when you read these things as far as how these people's personal lives were working out on a day-by-day basis. Now the rabbis teach that Saul was forgiven for sure based on the phrase, tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Of course the question is, did Saul deserve forgiveness? But you can't ask that without looking at yourself. And do any of us deserve forgiveness? No, we don't. But God is merciful. Saul knew of God. He knew of guilt sacrifices. He knew of the package. He'd been told it his whole life. He'd been running the country. Now who knows what happened between this medium's hunt and his death the next day. God does not record anything past this meeting. If nothing else, this story is a shadow of the grace that was coming in Jesus in his resurrection. And we thank you, Father, that you are a good God and your mercies endure forever. God loved us so much that even when we were in sin and disobedience and rebellion and anything else you can think of, he sent his son to die for us. Now he didn't do that in the sense that we deserved it. He didn't do it just to save us. The fact is, he is righteous. And if he and the creation that he made are going to be together, the creation he made needs to be righteous. And we cannot be righteous without Jesus. It's said in the Bible that we're made to be a bride for Jesus, that we're made as gifts to God, that we were made for his purpose and his pleasure. So none of that is possible if we're unrighteous, because unrighteousness cannot be before God. He loved us because he made us to be what he made us to be. He loves that about us. He loves us personally, he loves us corporately, but we need to be righteous, and we cannot be righteous outside of Jesus. We don't deserve any of it. This is the mercy of God. Even before we tried to do anything, and nothing that we can do will ever make us deserve it, even before our attempts, he was merciful. Before our birth, before the universe was created, before time was time, he was merciful. Knowing what we would do, knowing what our heart would be, he was merciful. He died for us, he died for you. He is so desperate for everyone to know him and to enter into his grace, because it's by grace we're saved. Now, I don't mean desperate as in, oh, I hope they do their thing. No, he just so wanted it. He wanted to make sure there was a way. Regardless of how we were going to act, he wasn't going to let that be an impediment. He created us to be with him, and nothing is going to stand in the way of that. Now, believe that message if you believe nothing else in your entire life. Believe that he has made a way for you, and believe that that way is in Jesus, and through Jesus, and for Jesus, and have faith in Jesus. Jesus broke his body for us. And why did he do that? Well, he did that to get the blood. You can't get blood out of a body without breaking it in some way. Even a needle breaks the skin. Jesus gave up his body to be broken so that he would lose his blood. All of it, every last drop. That blood is the new contract, the new covenant. The one without guilt, without death, without everything that was part of the first contract. Instead of being a mutable contract, it's an immutable contract. The penalty of sin paid. This covenant with Jesus isn't a religion. It's a reconciliation and restoration between heaven and earth, between citizen and king, between father and child. God didn't have to save us. We don't bring anything to God that he needs. He is, in and of himself, complete and always was. He didn't have to save us. He chose to. God provided a lamb, John 1, 29-31. The lamb was a guilt offering. Only the guilty bring lambs, but God has no guilt. He took our guilt with his own lamb and satisfied his own penalty for disobedience, Genesis 2, 17. When Adam ate of the fruit, mankind was doomed to die. It was the penalty to die, death, death. To die, die. They were condemned. God knew this would happen and provided the sacrifice so that the price of sin was paid once and in full. The man, Jesus, died because the man was to die when they disobeyed. Now that Jesus is dead, he's paid the price. So the Father resurrected him to life so that we in Jesus can experience no death anymore. Only life. No trappings of death. Only the rewards of life in Jesus. So now Jesus is alive and we can be alive in him. If you believe that Jesus died for your sins and was raised again to life by the resurrection power of God, if you have faith in Jesus and believe on him, if you confess him as Lord and submit to him, then you're in. Sin's gone. Passed to heaven, received. And also a ton of other stuff. But the most important thing of all is this. In Jesus, your righteousness. Because we become the righteousness of Jesus as he gives us his righteous spirit. We are no longer spiritually dead. Now we are eternally alive. No matter what you feel or see in the mirror, God will give you a new nature, Jesus' righteousness, and welcome you in as a child of his kingdom. It's over. Battle won. No more war. No conflict. On the spiritual plane, everything is done. All that's left is to accept it, to be persuaded of it in full. The more you're persuaded of it, the more of that reality you'll experience. Why? Because we believe, and then we see. 2 Corinthians 4.18 It is the foundation of faith. Hebrews 11.1, Romans 8.24, Hebrews 10.39 Therefore, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are courageous, I say, and we are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore, also, we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing to him. 2 Corinthians 5.6-9 Faith is our part. Obedience and submission is our part. What is God's? Because he has set his love on me, therefore I will deliver him. I will set him on high because he has known my name. He will call on me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. I will satisfy him with long life and will show him my salvation. Psalm 91.14-16 When we walk in faith, in the full persuasion that what God has said is true, when we honor God, love God, and declare him to be God, we enable God to move in our lives. We invite him in knowing he can do it all. What level of victory will we walk in? The level of persuasion we can. That's what faith is about. That's what dominion is about. He gave it to us within distinct parameters. Genesis 1.26-28 and chapter 9 verses 1-2 When we use it to let God in, to do mightily in our lives, there's nothing that cannot be done. Luke 18.27 Because when we do things with God, God does the heavy lifting. We do what we see the Father doing and say what the Father wants us to say and how to say it, and we have no issues. John 5.19 and chapter 12, verse 49-50 It's so easy you have to get it wrong on purpose. It's so simple people can think it's too good to be true, but it isn't. Just believe in what he did. Believe what the Word says, that's all. Believe it. When you believe it and you receive it, you will walk in it, and your obedience and your broken submission to Jesus will change your life. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Psalm 148. It's easy to proclaim love for God when we think of everything he's done for us. But what about the overwhelming awe in love that we feel when we look at everything else? The Lord made everything. Jesus, the Word, spoke it all into being. Creatures, trees, grass, mosquitoes, planets, suns, and things we have yet to discover. It all proclaims God's glory. Look at all the wonder he has created and love him all the more for it. The creativity, diversity, and splendor of it. Look at the creatures within it, our companions and the ones we see in the wild, that they are capable of intelligence, feelings, decent behavior, and love. Isn't that crazy? There's such a current of good that runs through everything, even the bad. Don't believe me? Well, look at the figures of horror in human history. The men and women responsible for some truly terrible things. Even they were capable of love and kindness, goodness toward their families, kindness toward those who they loved. In fact, that makes their horrific deeds all the more horrible. But that's sin for you. It has polluted this whole creation. In spite of that pollution, God still works. Why? Because it cannot change God. It cannot inhibit God. It cannot do any of those things. God will not be mocked, not be stopped, not be hindered. It's easy to look at the terrible majesty of God and get lost. But the flip side is that God, that being of unimaginable power and authority and control, that God loves you. You personally. He's looking out for you, has a solution for you, demonstrates himself to you, corrects you, guides you, rules you, and all because he loves you. That is amazing. But that is God, worthy of all our adoration, all our praise. Think on his creation. Thank him that you can share it. Think on his majesty. Thank him that you can witness it. Praise him, every one. Amen. As we close, remember that you have worth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I, now you, fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love. There is no end to the things about you that he loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you, just because you're you. 1 John 4 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only born son into the world, that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin, and it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because he first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.