Overview
Rev. Jon Ryan examines “God Loves Us Just As We Are” through Ephesians 1, 1 Samuel 16, Matthew 5, Luke 4, showing how lord, thee, jeremiah shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Transcript
Understanding God Loves Us Just As We Are
God loves us just as we are. Isn’t that a comforting thing? At times we can perhaps judge ourselves, not like ourselves, for a different thing is the way we look, the way we feel, maybe things we’ve, mistakes we’ve made, and yet through all of that God always loves us. If you turn to the book of Ephesians, please.
See, God knew what He was doing when He chose you and me. In Ephesians chapter 1, God wants us to have respect to His choice. That means He chose us, He loves us, so we should love ourselves, and we should love one another.
Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. So it says God chose us. That means He had other choices, and yet He chose you and He chose me.
And we should feel pretty good about that, that God chose us. And it’s not because of anything that we did. He knew, of course, that we would believe Him and that we would walk with respect to Him and to His Word.
But God doesn’t measure the way man measures. Look back in the Old Testament at 1 Samuel. And we’re going to go to chapter 16.
Here in this account, the man of God that’s leading Israel at this time, his name is Samuel. And God has instructed him, directed him, to go to this household of Jesse. Jesse is the father.
And God specifically told Samuel that he’s going to choose a new king to lead Israel. So if we look at 1 Samuel 16, and we’ll pick it up here in verse 6. For man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. And so, Jesse’s sons, there’s seven of them, are paraded in front of Samuel, each one of them.
And then finally, the youngest, who actually is not even in the meeting, he’s out taking care of the sheep. David is brought before Samuel, and God said, this is the man. And David, this youngster who was at that time about 17 years old, he was the one that was chosen by God to lead God’s people.
God knew who he was and who he would become. But to look at him and man’s eyes, even his dad’s eyes, they didn’t think he was worthy of this kind of a position of choice. So we don’t want to get sometimes slanted or deceived by what we look at.
You know, even in our day and time, there’s sayings that, like, there’s more than meets the eye, or you don’t judge a book by its cover. Where people have learned, sometimes by experience, not to just be so quick to come to an evaluation or a judgment. Go to Deuteronomy back, the fifth book of the Bible, Deuteronomy.
And in Deuteronomy chapter seven, this is God’s estimation of the chosen people he had. Israel were God’s chosen people in the Old Testament. And in Deuteronomy chapter seven, in verse six, it says, For thou art and holy people unto the Lord thy God.
The Biblical Foundation
The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all the people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor chose you, because you were more in number than any people. For you were the fewest of all people.
But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath, which he had sworn unto your fathers, that the Lord God brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bond, and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. So here they’re reminded, this people of Israel, that God specifically chose them. And when they were in captivity, they cried out to God, and God heard their cry, and sent Moses to deliver them out of their captivity.
And Moses had led them at this point 40 years he’s been leading them, and they’re on the brink of going into what’s called the Promised Land. But it wasn’t again because of anything they did, it’s because God loved them. And he knew they would have respect unto his word.
Look at the book of Matthew, the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5. Here Jesus Christ has gathered people together, and he’s addressing these people, and he’s mentioning different categories that some of these people anyway would fall into. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 3, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Well the poor in spirit of those who have no spiritual arrogance, they regard themselves oftentimes as insignificant.
So there were people in this day and time, and there’s people in our day and time, that made me feel that they’re not very significant in this world. Well that’s not God’s opinion. That may be man’s opinion, but it’s not God’s opinion.
Verse 4, blessed are they that mourn. Now those that mourn, it’s not just mourning over their loved ones that have died, but it’s mourning over their sins and repenting. They feel badly for the mistakes they have made.
And God doesn’t want us to walk around in that state of condemnation. He loves us. He’s not looking at us according to our sins.
His word teaches us this. It goes on in verse 5, blessed are the meek. Those are the gentle, the kind-hearted, the sweet-spirited.
You know, it’s not just meek, sometimes meek in our day and time. It doesn’t have a good connotation or people think that they’re weak and introverted. But that’s not what this is referring to.
This is more gentle and kind-hearted. It goes on in verse 6, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. See, those who are actively seeking right standing with God, they genuinely want to do the right thing.
That’s who God considers blessed. These people, they think they’re insignificant. They maybe have condemnation over mistakes they’ve made.
Examples and Spiritual Lessons
They’re kind-hearted. They want to do the right thing. You know, these are the people that God says are blessed.
Blessed are the merciful. You know, those that are merciful, that too many people can be hard and certainly not merciful. And yet it’s a great thing to be forgiving.
One thing that’s helped me over the years is when I think of the word forgive, I turn it around and it’s give for. So somebody has maybe done you wrong, and then instead of holding that against them, you give them a chance to move forward. You give for them an opportunity to start over again.
That’s being merciful. Verse 8, blessed are the pure in heart. These are men and women with integrity.
I loved in one record it said moral courage and good character. I’ve got a book in my bookcase that I love. It’s called Moral Courage, and it’s by Rushworth Kidder.
But here it says moral courage isn’t an esoteric branch of philosophy. It’s a practical necessity for modern life. Its presence or absence explains some of the world’s greatest successes and failures.
It’s the willingness to take a tough stand for right in the face of danger, and it will remain and always has been the pinnacle of ethical action. Moral courage is not restricted to great events and famous individuals. It is relevant not only in the boardroom or the war room, but also in the kitchen and the schoolhouse.
See, to have moral courage is just to be willing to do the right thing, when maybe it’s not the popular thing or the most advantageous thing to do the right thing. Well, these are the categories of people that God has chosen. You are among these.
Look at the Gospel of Luke chapter 4. Jesus Christ, when he was opening his ministry, he described who he came for. In Luke chapter 4, he’s quoting a record out of Isaiah and says in verse 16, and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor.
Well, again, the poor are not just the people that don’t have money. It’s that category that I spoke of before, those who maybe regard themselves as insignificant, that don’t have much standing in the world necessarily. But these are the people that Jesus Christ came to, to preach the Gospel to the poor.
Faith in Action
He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Well, that can describe a lot of people that can have their hearts broken over different situations. Again, maybe things that are done to them or things that they have done that they feel terrible about.
He says he’s come to them, he sent to them to preach deliverance to the captives. It’s not just people that are in prisons with steel bars and run by some city or state, but it’s those that have been captive spiritually, those that have been entrapped and got themselves in positions where they need deliverance. Jesus Christ said he’s come to them, and recovering of sight to the blind.
Again, in some cases, this may be the physically blind, but for many people, they can be blinded by what they’ve been taught, where the truth of God’s Word is not made clear, and they fall into categories where they judge people, judge one another or are judged of one another. God doesn’t like that. Oftentimes, religion can do that, and you’re good and you’re not good, and that’s not what it’s about.
He’s opening their eyes to see how God sees, not on the outward appearance, but on the heart, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Again, bruised are those that have been beaten up by the world, and he wants to help them to go free. There’s a verse in Galatians, you don’t have to turn there, but Galatians 5.1 says, Stand fast in the liberty where with Christ hath made us free.
Once we learn what Jesus Christ literally accomplished for us, and that we don’t have to do any works to gain his approval, to gain God’s approval, but it’s by grace, it’s just given to us without merit, then we begin to walk with great liberty. So take a look at the book of Judges. Just to give you one example here, the book of Judges back in the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and we’re going to go to chapter 6. I’m just going to point out a section here of a man that God chose.
In this situation, in Judges chapter 6, God’s people were being overrun by a physical enemy. This enemy was from the land of Midian, they were called the Midianites, and the children of Israel were just trying to live their lives and plant their farms, their gardens, and just go about life. And the Midianites would come in at harvest time and steal their crops or trash, run over their crops.
And you can imagine how discouraging that could be. And it was just to antagonize them. And here we’re going to pick up a record where there’s a man that’s unwilling to just let these evil Midianites steal from his father.
In Judges chapter 6, and look at verse 11. Well, let’s pick it up in verse 7 to give you the context. And it came to pass when the children of Israel cried unto the Lord because of the Midianites that the Lord sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus said the Lord God of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage, and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land.
That’s the Promised Land that God had set aside for his people. And I said unto you, I am the Lord your God. Fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell, but ye have not obeyed my voice.
Now, verse 11. See, they got distracted and were drawn away from trusting and believing God into these gods that these other nations worshipped and served. So he’s saying they haven’t obeyed his voice.
Walking in Love and Confidence
And yet here, that’s why they’ve been impoverished. That’s why they’ve been under attack. And yet, look what happens in verse 11.
And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak, which was in Oprah, that pertained unto Joash the Abisanite. And his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. See, Gideon came to his father’s house, and he was taking the crops and taking the wheat and threshing it so it can be used for food.
And he’s hiding behind the winepress, so the Midianites wouldn’t destroy it or steal it. Verse 12. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor.
And Gideon said unto him, Oh, my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us of, saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord have forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. And the Lord looked this angel, the Lord looked upon him and said, Go, and this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. And then we’re not going to read the record, but then Gideon does what this angel tells him to do, and they are able to defeat the Midianites and no longer be oppressed by them.
By the end of this record, it says they had peace for 40 years under the leadership of Gideon. But Gideon maybe didn’t recognize that he was chosen and a man of valor until this angel came to him. See, he was just doing what he knew to be right, to protect his family, to take care of his dad and the crops that his dad had planted.
See, that’s how simple it is. We just get to walk with God. We can learn from records like this.
Look at Jeremiah. Jeremiah, Psalm of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalm of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 1. Here’s a young man that has been called of God to be a minister to the king of Israel.
The king of Israel is this young man, Josiah. His father had died when he was just eight years old. And so he became the king at eight years old.
And here at this point, he’s 13 years old, five years have gone by. And God has Jeremiah, raises Jeremiah up this prophet to go in and be a counselor for Josiah. In Jeremiah chapter 1, verse 1, and the words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anath in the land of Benjamin, to whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah, the son of Ammon, king of Judah, in the 13th year of his reign.
I’m sorry, I said he was 13 years. He was eight years old and he began to reign. And so now this is the 13th year of his reign.
It came also in the days of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, unto the end of the 11th year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem, captive in the fifth month. So this gave you the breadth of time that Jeremiah was ministering to God’s people. Verse 4, this is when Jeremiah was called.
Applying the Teaching in Daily Life
Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. It’s kind of like what we read in Ephesians chapter 1, that God chose us before the foundation of the world. Here he’s telling Jeremiah, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.
And before thou came as forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee. And I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. Then said, this is Jeremiah’s response, Ah, Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.
He didn’t see that he was capable of taking on the responsibility that God is giving him. But the Lord said in verse 7, But the Lord said unto him, Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak. Now, it sounds like a pretty strong command, but Jeremiah has free will.
God knows that he’s going to obey his voice. God’s going to help him to see himself differently than the way he currently sees himself as a child. Verse 8, Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee, said the Lord.
Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. Now, that’s all a figure of speech. God’s not going to take over and possess somebody to speak.
He just was encouraging Jeremiah that he was with him. And as he had been with the prophets of old, he would be with him to direct his steps. Jeremiah could remember back to Moses, who when Moses was sent at 80 years old to go and deliver God’s people out of captivity, he also said that he could not do it.
He was not an eloquent man. And God assured him that he would be with him. And that’s what he’s telling Jeremiah here, that he would be with him.
Verse 10, See I of this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down and to build and to plant. Sometimes Lisa and I like to watch these programs on TV where they remodel houses. They take an old, dilapidated house and they fix it up and make it saleable.
Sometimes they have to take it right down to the grounds about to build it all over again, to make it a home that they can live in. And here’s what Jeremiah is being called to do, to help this young king to take and lead God’s people in the right direction. Look at verse 17.
Thou therefore gird up thy loins and arise and speak unto them all that I command thee. Be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them. For behold, I have made thee this day a defense city and an iron pillar and grass and walls against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, against the princes thereof, against the priests thereof, and against the people of the land.
And they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee. For I am with thee, set the Lord to deliver thee. See in the Old Testament, they had some physical battles to take on, but here he’s telling Jeremiah he’s going to be with him.
A Life Shaped by God’s Word
And this relates to us in our day because God is with us. We maybe don’t have to take on the Midianites. Sometimes can get in situations where we have adversity that is standing before us, and we have to not cower in the sight of that adversity, but we can prevail.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, please, in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 1. Chapter 1, again, God called you and me. He chose us before the foundation of the world because he knows the end from the beginning.
He knows who we are and what we will become. At times, as you move through life, you’ll recognize that you just happen to cross paths with somebody at the right time, at the right place, and either they can help you or you can help them. It may seem like, wow, what a coincidence.
But God is directing our steps as we walk with him, and at times we need to be there for someone else, and other times we need to be in the right place so someone can assist us or help us. Here in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26, it says, For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and the things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. It’s not that any of us earned it or have done enough work for it, but God chose us, not what the world would choose, not who the world would acclaim.
Coming up pretty soon, I think they have the Oscars or the Emmys or something, and they got these different things on TV, they recognized sports figures and actors and actresses, and those are all the worlds acclaim. But how about God’s acclaim, who God holds in his hall of fame? That’s you and me. Verse 30, But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.
We can brag that we belong to God, and that he is there with us with every step that we take. So we never need to be afraid, or to be anxious to the point of just fearful that we’re going to lose, because God will take care of us. And we’ll close in 1 Peter, 1 Peter in the back of your Bible, Chapter 2. This is written at the very end of Peter’s life.
Peter, who Jesus Christ called when he was a fisherman, that’s what he thought he was going to be for his lifetime. He was working with his brother and his two close friends, and their father, who were fishermen. Even after Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, he was going back to the fishing business.
And yet he responded to the love that God had for him, as it was he saw it and heard it in the person of Jesus Christ. And he abandoned the fishing business, and determined to take care of God’s people. And here in Peter, he’s writing at the end of his life, and here’s what he writes in verse 9 of Chapter 2. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should show forth the praises of him, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. That’s you and me. So God, thank you for your choice, that we were chosen of you before the foundation of the world, and that we can walk with great confidence.
Confidence in you, not in our own ability per se, but in you and your ability to provide for us, to take care of us. It’s your delight for us to prosper and to be in health, and thanks that you can just continue to direct our steps, so that not only are we blessed, but that we can be there for one another, and help them to see your goodness and your grace, your love. And just as Gideon was there to help his father, that we can be there for one another, walking together and standing against the attacks of our enemy in this day and time, and surely to prevail.
So thanks in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Key Takeaways
- Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.
- Here he’s telling Jeremiah, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.
- See in the Old Testament, they had some physical battles to take on, but here he’s telling Jeremiah he’s going to be with him.
- The Lord did not set his love upon you nor chose you, because you were more in number than any people.
- So take a look at the book of Judges.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main message of “God Loves Us Just As We Are”?
Rev. Jon Ryan examines “God Loves Us Just As We Are” through Ephesians 1, 1 Samuel 16, Matthew 5, Luke 4, showing how lord, thee, jeremiah shape a believer’s relationship with God, daily choices, and service to others.
Which scriptures are central to this teaching?
The teaching draws especially from Ephesians 1, 1 Samuel 16, Matthew 5, Luke 4, Galatians 5.
How can believers apply this teaching?
The Lord did not set his love upon you nor chose you, because you were more in number than any people.
Scripture References
Ephesians 1; 1 Samuel 16; Matthew 5; Luke 4; Galatians 5; Judges 6
This text was prepared from the teaching audio or source document. Please verify scripture references against your own Bible.
