I want to talk about What The Bible has to say about Imperfection. There is a song I would like to start out with called Imperfections by Matthew West. The lyrics of the song say: All of my life I've been making a list, Of all the things about me I'd change if I could And the longer I live, the more I'm convinced, The bad and the ugly will outweigh the good, I beat myself up, I tear myself down, And it's never been harder to understand how, You perfectly love me and all my imperfections, Still can't believe that it's true, How You perfectly love me and all my imperfections And all my imperfections You'll use, I'm clumsy and foolish, I'm reckless and clueless, If there's a wrong turn, I'll take it, But You keep on raising me up from my ruins, And tell me I'm something worth saving, The story of me is a story of grace, Every chapter's a new list of all of the ways, You perfectly love me and all my imperfections, Still can't believe that it's true, How You perfectly love me and all my imperfections, And all my imperfections you'll use, All of my life I thought You had a list, Of all the things about me You'd change if You could. But here in Your presence my heart is convinced, There's no part of me that you can't use for good, Lord, You perfectly love me and all my imperfections, I'm finally believing it's true, How You perfectly love me and all my imperfections, And all my imperfections You'll use, All my imperfections You'll use, So, I give all my imperfections to You. A second song I would like to share is one I've shared before in a study and it's by an artist named Amy Picard and it's her song called Perfectly Imperfect and for me when I think of this song, I take it in a way, that all of us are perfectly imperfect children of God trying to lead by the example God has given us to minister to others who are not only feeling lost but how God will take the perfectly imperfect parts of our testimonies to turn them into beautifully broken pieces that are a piece of the puzzle that is being crafted by God with knowing that He is still perfecting the imperfections of that Scrapbook of our testimonies to live by Faith alone, and to not walk by sight. I want us to look at some scripture now. The scriptures we are going to look at tonight are Ephesians 2 verse 8-9, John 10 verse 10, James 3 verse 2, Philippians 4 verse 13, Philippians 3 verse 12, Psalm 120 verse 1, James 1 verse 4, 2 Corinthians 2 verse 9, Luke 1 verse 37, and the last two we will look at are Colossians 3 verse 14 and 2 Chronicles 7 verse 14. We see in these scriptures that God takes our imperfection and turns it around to something that is Beautifully Broken in the eyes of Him. I would like to share Plumb's song Beautifully Broken with you and the lyrics say: Every tear, every doubt, Every time you've fallen down, When you're hurting, feeling ashamed, When you're numbing off your pain, When you've lost your way, And feel so far away, You're not, You're beautifully broken, And you can be whole again, Even a million scars doesn't change whose you are, You're worthy, Beautifully broken, Every fear of being loved, For who you are no matter what, When you're stumbling,, And you're haunted by regret, And the darkness closes in, Just listen, You're beautifully broken, And You can be whole again, Even a million scars doesn't change whose you are, You're worthy, Beautifully broken, You're beautifully broken (beautifully broken), You're beautifully broken, Oh, the God who made the stars, Is the God that made your heart, And He's holding you right now, He can heal the broken parts, And make beauty from the scars, the scars, Beautiful scars! There are a few things that I would like to close on tonight. The first thing that I would like to close on is this. “Remember God is not surprised by your inabilities, your imperfections, or your faults. He has always known everything about you that you are just now finding out, and he chose you on purpose for himself.” The second thing I would like to share is a song called How He Loves and some of the lyrics I want to share say this: … He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy, When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, And I realize just how beautiful You are, And how great Your affections are for me … And oh, how He loves us, oh, Oh, how He loves us, How He loves us all … He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy, When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, And I realise just how beautiful You are, And how great Your affections are for me … And oh, how He loves us, oh, Oh, how He loves us, How He loves us all. The third thing I would like to share is another quote. The quote says this: It is in your most broken places you are most often used by God. The next thing that I would like to share is DC Talk's song called What If I Stumble and the lyrics say: What if I stumble? What if I fall? This one for the people? Is this one for the Lord? Or do I simply serenade for things I must afford? You can jumble them together, My conflict still remains, Holiness is callin', In the midst of courting fame, 'Cause I see the trust in their eyes, Though the sky is fallin', They need Your love in their lives, Compromise is callin', What if I stumble?, What if I fall? What if I lose my step and I make fools of us all? Will the love continue, When my walk becomes a crawl? What if I stumble? And what if I fall? What if I stumble? What if I fall? (Fall, fall) (O Lord) You never turn in the heat of it all What if I stumble? What if I fall? (Fall, fall, fall, fall, fall) Father, please forgive me, For I cannot compose, The fear that lives within me Or the rate at which it grows (rate at which it grows) If struggle has a purpose On the narrow road You carved, Why do I dread my trespasses will leave a deadly scar?, Did they see the fear in my eyes? Are they so revealin'? This time I cannot disguise, All the doubt I'm feelin', What if I stumble? What if I fall? What if I lose my step and I make fools of us all?, Will the love continue When my walk becomes a crawl? What if I stumble? And what if I fall? What if I stumble?, Everyone's got to crawl when you know that you're up against the wall, It's about to fall, Everyone's got to crawl when you know that... Yeah, Everyone's got to crawl when you know that you're up against the wall, It's about to fall, Everyone's got to crawl when you know that..., Yeah, I hear You whispering my name, You said, "My love for you will never change" (never change). Another quote that I would like to share says this: “God uses broken things beautifully; Broken clouds pour rain, Broken soil sets as fields, Broken crop yield seeds, Broken seeds give life to new plants. So when you feel you are broken, be rest assured that God is planning to utilize you for something great.” We see here in all of this that God is using us to the best of our abilities to utilize us in what we can do and to use us in how He sees us as Beloved children of God who are completely loved and known by Him. Here is the last quote I want to leave all of you with tonight. The quote says this: “There is nothing more liberating than being fully known and still loved.” I wanted to end on that quote tonight because I want us to be reminded in how God sees beyond the imperfection or imperfections of our past, to help us be reminded in how we can be loved, are loved, and how we can take the good parts of our testimony to share with others, because when we think about it and truly think about it, we know we were made in the Image Of God, that our testimonies are from over, that it is the beginning of something beautiful because just like in Jeremiah 29 verse 11, God reminds us that the plans He has for us are to prosper us, not to harm us, but to give us a hope and a future. We need to know that what God has in store is what He will keep revealing to us in His Timing because our ways are not perfect, but God's ways are perfect. So tonight as we leave, let us remember that we are truly Loved. The song I started out with by Matthew West is a nice song, and it reminds me a lot of the time that beyond my imperfection or imperfections, God's got me in His hands and He will always love me without end because as a Beloved child of God, He sees beyond our imperfection and imperfections to give us a beautifully broken picture of how we are made whole in the Image of Him. Let this be a reminder for all of us this week that we don't have to be perfect in anything we do because our ways are not perfect, because God's ways are. Just a like Land of Color song says: We don't have to win, we don't have to lie, we don't have to always get it right, we will find the strength when we let go to be your warriors. As God's Warriors, we may feel like we are broken and that we have to be perfect, but God reminds us that we don't have to be because like another song says: We Are Perfectly Imperfect.
Friday, March 3, 2023
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Thankfulness
Tonight I want to talk about Thankfulness. I would like to start off with a song by Charity Gale called Thank You Jesus For The Blood.
The lyrics of the song say this: I was a wretch, I remember who I was, I was lost, I was blind, I was running out of time, Sin separated, The breach was far too wide, But from the far side of the chasm, You held me in your sight, So You made a way, Across the great divide, Left behind Heaven's throne, To build it here inside, And there at the cross, You paid the debt I owed, Broke my chains, freed my soul, For the first time I had hope, Thank you Jesus for the blood applied, Thank you Jesus, it has washed me white, Thank you Jesus, You have saved my life, Brought me from the darkness into glorious light, You took my place, Laid inside my tomb of sin, You were buried for three days, But then You walked right out again, And now death has no sting, And life has no end, For I have been transformed, By the blood of the lamb, Thank You Jesus for the blood applied (thank You Jesus), Thank You Jesus, it has washed me white, Thank You Jesus, You have saved my life, Brought me from the darkness into glorious light, There is nothing stronger, Than the wonder working power of the blood, The blood, That calls us sons and daughters, We are ransomed by our Father, Through the blood, The blood, There is nothing stronger, Of the wonder working power of the blood, The blood, That calls us sons and daughters, We are ransomed by the Father, Through the blood, The blood, Thank You Jesus for the blood applied, Thank You Jesus, it have washed me white, Thank You Jesus, You have saved my life, Brought me from the darkness into glorious light, Glory to His name, Glory to His name, There to my heart was the blood applied, Glory to His name.
I want to share another song called Thank You Lord by Chris Tomlin and the lyrics say: Thank You Lord for the small things, Like me and her on the porch swing, For summer nights and fireflies, And the sound of my old six string, Blessings, on blessings, on blessings, on blessings, If I still got breath in these lungs, And that's all I need to get down on my knees, And be thankful for all that He's done, For my mama, for my friends, For Your love that never ends, For the songs that make us dance, On this ol' dirt floor, For my babies, for my girl, For the way they changed my world, Waking up today, Yeah, I just gotta say, Thank You Lord, Yeah, I just wanna say, Thank You Lord (oh, now), Thank You Lord for the hard times, For lighting the way in the dark times, For pulling me in, forgiving again, The times that I took it too far, I Gotta thank You for keeping me humble, For picking me up when I stumble, And although I change, You stay the same, And I don't say thank You enough, For my mama, for my friends, For Your love that never ends, For the songs that make us dance, On this ol' dirt floor, For my babies, for my girl, For the way they changed my world (changed my world), Waking up today, Yeah, I just gotta say, Thank You Lord, I just wanna say, Thank You Lord (oh yeah), Praise up, Eyes closed, One thing I know, I just wanna thank You Lord, thank You Lord (thank You Lord).
With these two songs we say how we give God thanks and how we are thankful for what He has and continues to do in our lives.
I want us to look at some scriptures now.
The scriptures I would like to share are these scriptures.
1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18 says: Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 4 verse 2 says: Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Ephesians 5 verse 20 says: Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Psalm 100 verse 4 says: Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
Psalm 107 verse 1: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Psalm 69 verse 30: I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.
Psalm 28 verse 7: The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning.
Philippians 4 verse 6-7: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Then the last scripture we will take a look at tonight is this one.
2 Corinthians 9 verse 15: Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
In the scriptures we see how when we have a trait like Thankfulness, we can be humbly thankful, grateful, and blessed in knowing how God has had His Hands in everything that He has done and continues to do for us.
I want to share three quotes with you. The first quote I would like to share says: ''Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.''
The second quote I would like to share says: Thanksgiving to be truly thanksgiving, is first thanks, then giving.
The last quote I would like to share says: ''Thanksgiving is a time of togetherness and gratitude.''
In these quotes we see how when we are thankful for what we have and receive the blessings that God continues to give us, that we truly start to see what we are thankful for.
Here are the things that I would like to end on tonight. The first thing I would like to share is a song called Give Thanks and some of the lyrics say: Give thanks with a grateful heart, Give thanks to the Holy One, Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son, Give thanks with a grateful heart, Give thanks to the Holy One, Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son, And now let the weak say, "I am strong", Let the poor say, "I am rich, Because of what the Lord has done for us", And now let the weak say, "I am strong", Let the poor say, "I am rich, Because of what the Lord has done for us", Give thanks with a grateful heart (with a grateful heart), Give thanks to the Holy One (to the Holy One). Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son, Give thanks with a grateful heart (with a grateful heart), Give thanks to the Holy One (to the Holy One), Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ, His Son, And now let the weak say, "I am strong", Let the poor say, "I am rich, Because of what the Lord has done for us", And now let the weak say, "I am strong", Let the poor say, "I am rich (I am rich), Because of what the Lord has done for us", Give thanks, We give thanks to You.
The next thing I would like to share is another quote and the quote says this: Gratitude, ''Never let the things you want make you forget the things you have.''
Here is the last thing that I would like to share with all of you. Be thankful for what you have, be grateful in what you do, and be humbly blessed in all the things that God has done and continues to do for you, as God gives you the thankfulness in your heart to know that you can do all things with Him that gives you the strength to do those things. You don't have to be afraid as God will show you the gratitude you need in order to grow daily in your relationship and in your faith walk with Him. So let's show that gratitude daily.