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Jan 13, 2019

Accepted and Restored

Accepted and Restored

Speaker: Dennis Gallaher

Series: Moving Forward

Category: Sunday Morning

Pastor Dennis starts a series on God’s leading and our next great phase at Freedom Fellowship. God intends to use us if we listen and follow Him. Let's be a healed people, so we can reach out of the church walls and touch this community with the love and conviction of Jesus.

After this period of loss of his wife, Pastor Dennis gives the state of his heart and plan for our church. Quoted Verses: Lamentations 3:21-24; Psalm 37:23-25; Habakkuk 3:17-19; Isaiah 64:4; Isaiah 55:8-13; Psalm 23:4-6

  • God has promised to lead us through the valley of death.
  • There is no camping allowed.
  • God has brought us in to lead us out.
  • And at the end of that valley, there is goodness and mercy.

Consider Job.

We know the beginning of the story of Job – the dialogue between satan and God, but few make it to the end. The 39 chapters in the middle are the poetic dialog of Job and his friends. Their advice was anything but helpful and they played right into the devil’s plot.

This is a common path that many take in our lives - stuck. Being stuck is comfortable. Being stuck means I’m a victim and blame others for me not making a decision to change. We need to embrace God to see Him move in a transformational way in our lives. Make a decision to change – to get up – to move. Getting up and moving is a first step in realizing the miracle of transformation.

Job 42 - In the end, Job learns that:

  • God is sovereign
  • Suffering is sovereign
  • God is sovereignly good

God makes three fantastic promises to Job that are also for us today. But first . . . Do we pretend to be ok? We do that because it’s safe. We try to do right to make up for not being ok. We make excuses, but what we really need is to submit our life – to let God take control. Are you Stuck? Are you waiting for change, but refuse to move? Are you a victim of circumstances beyond our control – controlled by the past? Let the Lord transform you. He will make you something you are not, if bow down and submit to His word.

Prayer: God, You brought me to this word today, to this appointed time. Give me ears to hear. Give me a heart to obey. Change me Lord, today.

First Promise: I Will Accept Him

Job 42:7-8  . . . For I will accept him so that I may not do with you according to your folly, because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.”

Acceptance is one of the top needs for human beings. When we accept the forgiveness and the love that Jesus offers, we gain one of the greatest gifts imaginable – God’s acceptance! If we accept, His love will transform us. Romans 15:7 (NASB); Eph 1:6 (NKJV) To be “in Christ” means to be united to Christ. When I ask Him into my life, He becomes my advocate. He exchanges my sin for His sinlessness. When God looks at me, He sees Jesus’ reflection in me!

Second Promise: The Lord Restored

Job 42:10 The Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold. 

When God restores us, He wipes away the old man and begins to restore us to our original intent. Job was restored when prayed for his friends. It’s time to realize it's not about me; it’s not about our comfort or our preference. God desires to bring restoration and it can begin when we minister to other people. This year, for our church, let’s see those who need restoration – go to the foolish and bring them in. 

Third Promise:  The Lord Blessed

Job 42:12 The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning.

The Lord accepted, restored, then the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning. Have you noticed that God’s blessing are always surprises? He loves to surprise us. The sunrise so beautiful – every time – it’s a surprise because we never know what to expect. God’s blessings in our lives are so that we can have an abundance so that we pour it out to those in need.

II Cor 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.

The Lord’s intent for 2019 is to refine this church to be a home:

  • for the lost and lonely
  • that will accept as Jesus accepts
  • that has a plan and process that restores lives back to God’s original intent
  • that is a place of extreme Holy Ghost blessing - the kind that surprises us

But first, we have to be a people, individuals, marriages, and families who are healed. As Pastor James said last week, “If we are to be a healing community, we must first be a healed people.” Let’s commit to being healed.

Allow the Holy Spirit to move in our hearts. Let the mystical power of God come into our lives and change something. Let's have life more abundantly, shaken down, overflowing. It’s found when we receive and believe Jesus - that He accepts us, forgives, restores, transforms, blesses, surprises, astounds us with His goodness.

Do I pretend to be ok? Am I stuck?

Have I received God's promises? accepted, restored and blessed?

Where am I in God's 2019 plan for this church?