The Father is Well-Pleased When We are Secure in His Love - Santosh Poonen - August 3, 2018
http://rlcfchurch.org/father-well-pleased-secure-love http://rlcfchurch.org/conferences/yac2018 River of Life Christian Fellowship 1306 N Lincoln Avenue Loveland, Colorado - 80537, USA
Summary
The speaker encourages listeners to base their lives on the foundational truth that God is always good, drawing from Psalm 136. He emphasizes that giving thanks for God's inherent goodness is different from thanking Him for specific blessings or rescues. Ultimately, he urges believers to adopt a 'big picture' perspective, trusting that God orchestrates all circumstances, even the difficult ones, for their ultimate good.
Outline
The message in plain words, in the order it unfolds. Select a time to jump the video to that moment.
Behold the great love of the FatherJohn the Apostle, writing near the end of his long life, urges believers to look intently and be astonished at the incredible love the Father has bestowed on us to make us children of God.
Foundation One: God is always goodEven when life's circumstances and pain make it hard to understand what God is doing, His essential nature is always good, just as Psalm 136 declares.
Trusting God's greater purposeGod often removes things we desperately want, like an ant having a grain of rice vacuumed away, because He has something far better prepared for us according to His purpose.Romans 8:28
Ensuring your heart is completely HisInstead of anxiously scheming and fighting for our own desires, our responsibility is to keep our hearts completely devoted to God so He can strongly support us.
Foundation Two: God is always in controlNo matter who holds power or influence over our lives, every earthly authority is ultimately in the hands of our sovereign God who reigns over all.Isaiah 52:7
The King's heart is in the hand of the LordProverbs teaches that earthly kings and authorities are like channels of water directed by the Lord wherever He pleases, operating safely under our Father's umbrella.
Foundation Three: God is your personal FatherWhile God is Father to all believers, being born again grants the wonderful privilege of a deeply personal, one-to-one relationship where we can cry out 'Abba, Father' as His individual child.
Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the worldLong before Genesis 1 and before we ever committed sins or faced accusations, God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless before Him at the beginning and the end of time.
Formed and consecrated in the wombGod knew and consecrated us before He even formed us as a tiny fetus in our mother's womb, watching over every delicate detail of our development.
Fearfully and wonderfully made by GodPsalm 139 reveals that God carefully wove our inward parts together, ordained every day of our lives in His book before they happened, and knows our every thought and motive intimately.
Valued far more than sparrows with every hair numberedBecause God values us far more than worthless sparrows and numbers the very hairs on our heads, we can trust that He is intimately connected to every detail of our daily lives.Matthew 10:29–31
Plans for welfare and a hopeEven when feeling trapped in spiritual captivity like the Israelites in Babylon, God declares He has plans for our welfare, a future, and a hope, promising to restore us.Jeremiah 29:11–14
If God is for us, who can be against us?Drawing from Romans 8, Santosh emphasizes that because God did not spare His own Son, nothing in all creation—neither tribulation, distress, nor persecution—can separate us from His love.Romans 8:31–39
The ultimate proof of love in Jesus ChristTo prove how deeply He loves us, God gave the highest value heaven possessed: His only begotten Son, assuring us we can trust Him completely rather than doubting His love.
A time of quiet prayer, confession, and surrenderSantosh invites listeners to spend time in quiet prayer, shooing away distractions, confessing any sins, forgiving others, and letting the deep love of God take root in their hearts.
