Frankie Mazzapica - Inexhaustible Love
Thank you for tuning in today, my name is Frankie Mazzapica. The title of the message is, "Inexhaustible Love". The love of God is inexhaustible and I wanna just kind of springboard into this, using a few verses out of the Bible. They're found in Psalms 116 verses 1 and 2 and this is what it reads. "I love the Lord". That's how the sentence starts, that's how the verse starts. This is what the Psalmist says. He goes, "I love the Lord because he hears my voice and my prayers, when I ask for mercy. He hears my voice," I don't know if any of you have ever need the mercy of God. I have need the mercy of God every day. It's like, I love you for hearing my voice with all the sounds in the universe, the Niagara falls, the blow of the dust in Sahara. He hears my voice. He hears your voice when you ask for mercy.
And here's the next verse it says this, "Because he bends down to hear me to listen to me, if I have breath, I will pray. He bends down to listen to me". My wife and I were on a trip earlier this week and we left Monday and we came back yesterday. And it was just her and I, we were getting away and my son texted us and said, "Hey, Sissy's feeling sick". And Sissy's our oldest daughter, she's a senior in high school. And then he texted later, "We think that she might be have food poisoning". And so we came home last night and when we walked through the door, our little eight year old came running up, "Ah"! She was so happy to see us. And our son who's a freshman he came up, "Hey dad". And he gave us a hug I'm like, "Go shave your mustache, your little peach fudge, go shave that or pluck it, it'll do this".
And our three dogs came running up, two of them I was happy to see the third one, I'll give him to you. Just know he's impossible to house train, so just know that. But the missing part of our family was our senior in high school and she was in her room, and she's been sick for a minute. And so I went into her room and it was pitch black and I know how she sleeps. She sleeps on her side, she slept on her side since she was a baby. But when I walked in there, after my eyes adjusted to the dark, she was laying on her back and I could clearly see she wasn't doing well. I walked up to her and I bent over and I whispered in her ear "Preslee, are you okay"?
Now sadly, as our kids get older, they go from calling their parents, mommy to mom, to ma. My kids used to call me daddy and now it's dad and my son calls me, "Yo". It just changes. I remember the first time he said, "Bro" and I was like. "I don't know how I feel about that". But anyway, I walked in there and my daughter said, "Hi, daddy". And I bent over and I listened, I says, "Is there anything I can get you"? And she said, "No, I'm fine". And I went and got her a cold rag and put it on her head and I got her an ice water. I said, "Do you want anything else"? She says, "No, daddy I'm okay". And I kissed her hands a whole bunch and I said, "If you need anything, let me know". And I didn't want her to like, I kept bending over to listen to her and whisper to you and let her whisper to me.
You know what didn't cross my mind at that moment? I didn't feel like saying, it did not cross my mind to say, "Hey, while your mom and I have been gone for the past five days, four days, have you been mean to your little sister? Have you been mean to your brother? Were you late for school? Did you get in trouble in school? Did you smart off to your grandma as she was watching over you"? Those thoughts never crossed my mind because she's sick and she's hurting. And I was bending over to make sure she was okay. The scripture we just read says, "He bends over to listen". When you are hurting, and you're in pain, and you're in that darkest place, and you feel like he's a thousand miles away and there's a part of you or you're soul sick, your relationships are sick. The enemy will tell you over and over again, "You've been far too inconsistent".
And I want you to know that that's a lie of the enemy every thought you think that makes you feel bad is coming from hell, and every thought you think that encourages you is coming from heaven. Can you remember that? And when you whisper, the Bible says that, "He bends over to hear you". He bends over and when he is bending over to hear you, he's not thinking about what you did last night, what you did last week, what you did a month ago, what you did seven years ago. Those things are not on his mind, he knows that you're soul is sick. He knows that you're heart broken. He knows that you're desperate and he just leans over to listen. He leans over, I got three major points.
Number one is, our prayers. Number two is, the love of God and number three, is the promises of God. When we talk about our prayers, if we're completely honest, a lot of those prayers are cold prayers. In James chapter 5 verse 16 it says, "That the fervent prayers of God avails much". The fervent prayers. It doesn't say the long prayers, it doesn't say that if you pray for at least 10 minutes, it doesn't say any of that. It says, "The fervent prayers". All of you know how to pray fervently if you have a driver's license. Have you ever almost gotten into a wreck and you're like, "Jesus"! You don't have time to pray a long prayer, you don't have time to say, "Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name".
You don't have time for that, but it's the fervent prayer. "Jesus," have you ever said that? "Jesus"! Maybe it wasn't on the highway, maybe it was after work. Maybe it was when you went to go use the restroom during work and you just went in there just to say, "Jesus". Have you ever been listening to someone in your family and just said, "Oh Jesus". If you ever have, you know how to pray fervently, but sometimes it's a cold prayer. Sometimes it's a casual prayer. Sometimes the prayer is so infrequent, you wonder if it's even worth praying. I want you to know that when we pray, the Lord stands there with both hands full of grace. Did you know that a short prayer pierces through the atmosphere, through the floor of heaven and touches the heart of God? A short prayer.
You may think to yourself, "I'm the chief sinner in this congregation". I want you to know your prayer is a little bit different. Not only does it touch the heart of God, but there's a celebration in heaven, when your voice is lifted up to God. There's a celebration, your voice has a unique sound, a unique tone and when that sound and that tone comes in the presence of God, there's a celebration for you. Whether it's a short prayer, a cold prayer, a distant prayer, an infrequent prayer, it arrests the presence of God. And so the next time he crosses your mind, whisper a prayer. In my darkest hours, and I've been very transparent over the years. That the challenge that has faced me most over the course of my life, is depression and anxiety. And I win that battle sometimes and sometimes I am not winning.
And when I begin to spiral, I don't have the fortitude and the strength that I have whenever I'm winning. Because when I'm winning, I can go in my office, or a place in my house and shut the door and set my alarm on my phone and say, "I'm not coming out for two hours, or I'm not coming out for three hours, or one hour. I'm not coming out until this alarm goes on". And I can worship and praise him and enjoy his presence, but when I'm losing, I can hardly get a sentence out of my mouth. I can only get a few words out of my mouth. I'm not the preacher that only shares testimonies of things that happened ten years ago. Have you ever met somebody like that?
"Oh, 17 years ago, ten years ago, I was struggling but now I'm a victor not a victim". I'm telling you last week I was fighting in this battle. And last week, and in most mornings the first 30 minutes of my day, I'm fighting like a caged warrior. And in those moments, I can only get three or four words out. "I need you. I need you. Help me. I need you". Sometimes those three or four words in a sentence are in succession. Sometimes they're five minutes apart. Sometimes they're 20 minutes apart, but I refuse to just think the prayer, I say the prayer. I say it, I say it. I say, "I need you, I need you, I'm desperate for you. I need you, I need you, I'm desperate for you". And I remind myself that short prayers are powerful prayers. Let me say that again. Short prayers are powerful prayers.
Let me talk to you now about the love of God. There is a scripture that says in Lamentations chapter 3 verses 22 and 23. It says this, "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercy endures forever". And every time you wake up, it's new and fresh as if you have never needed it before. Every time you wake up, it is as if you have never needed it before. It is new, it is fresh. Let me see if I can illustrate because I can talk all day, I can talk for a week, I can talk for a year about the love of God, and my vocabulary will fail me. But let me see if I can illustrate it. We've all had somebody knock on our door and try to sell something we don't want. But imagine for a moment, someone knocks on your door and asks for money. Not to sell something, cash money.
After you get over the shock that somebody would have the audacity to come walk up and knock on your door and ask for money, you look into their face, it's assuming it's a guy, and you can see on his face, he's desperate. And so, even though it is an inconvenience, and even though you're shocked, you go and you find some cash and you give it to him. But then he shows up a month later and knocks on the door again. The thought crosses your mind, "I just gave you money and I don't want this to become a habit". And then he shows up a week later and asks for money again. If you're anything like me, you're thinking to yourself, "I can't afford to support you, I'm trying to support myself. I mean, I can't do this over and over again".
So you tell him, "Look, this is the third time I can't keep doing this". And then he says back, "I'll be back next week". And he comes back next week. And then he says, "I'll be back tomorrow. In fact, I'll be back every single day". Sure enough, he shows up the next day and rings the doorbell and asks for more money. And you tell him, "Look, this relationship can't go on like this". And he says, "I'll be back, I'll be back every hour. I'm desperate, I don't have any answers, I'll be back every hour". And then he says, in fact, "I'll be back twice an hour". And sure enough, he does every half hour on the hour, he's there. You go to work and he gets on a skateboard and chases you down.
Finally, you get to work and he says, "Look, I'm gonna tell you right now". And just pull some number out of the air. "I'm gonna be asking about 66, 77 times a day, and it's not just gonna be for money. If I am having a problem in my family, I'm asking for you to help me". "I'm not a psychologist. What do you think I'm gonna do"? "No, no, no. In fact, and if I'm hungry, if I need money, if I have a problem, if I'm sick, if I got a headache, I'm coming to you". You and I would be exhausted over that. Do you know that in Isaiah chapter 83, the Lord says this, "You need to come to me more". It's in Isaiah he says, "You need to come to me more".
In Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 it says this, "Think about all the things that I've done for you. Don't worry about anything and pray about everything". Everything, you cannot exhaust the love of God, pray about everything. You and I may get exhausted, you and I may say, "You need to start carrying weight for yourself". You and I may look at him and say, "Pull yourself together". He look, God looks at you and say, "You can't pull yourself together, otherwise you would've done it already. But I'm here, I'm here and this is what I love to do". I distinctly remember a few years ago I was driving down the road and I was pulling a U-turn. I know exactly where I was. There was a supermarket on this side, there was a blockbuster on this side.
Can we all just take a moment of rest and mourn over the fact that there's no Blockbuster? But I remember distinctly there was a supermarket over there, there was a Blockbuster over there, I was pulling a U-turn and I felt the Lord tell me, "You need to ask me for more". I'll never forget that. "You need to ask me for more". And my immediate thought was, "I don't wanna just ask you for things, I don't wanna be that person that's always asking and I'm not praising you. I don't want my requests to be greater than my praises, but then I don't wanna manipulate you either. I've come to worship you and praise you knowing I'm just gonna do this, 'cause I got to ask you for something".
Is that just me? It's not what the Bible says, he says "Don't worry about anything and think about everything that I have done and ask me for everything". Ask me for everything, this is the love of God. Regardless of how inconsistent you've been, regardless of how sinful you have been, the Lord says to me, "Come to me". Let me share a thought about how much he loves you. If you've ever had a baby before, if you've ever been in a room where you saw an ultrasound before, of a baby, of a baby in a mother's womb, you know this to be true. The first thing that you see in an ultrasound is the heartbeat. It's the smallest thing, it's flickering. And usually the assistant or the doctor or whoever's doing the ultrasound, they will show you the little flicker.
The very first thing that God creates in a womb, whenever he is forming a baby is the heart. The heart does not need the brain to exist. The heart once it starts beating, it is the spark of God. It doesn't stop and everything is built around that, it's the spark of God. Did you know that if you took a heart and put it in a petri dish full of cancer, cancer cannot get into the heart. You may meet someone who has skin cancer, bone cancer, a massive cancer. You will never meet anyone who has cancer in their heart. That is the spark of God. Sickness cannot inflict the heart of God, it's the spark of God. This is how much he loves you. He makes sure that that heart keeps on beating without a battery, without jumper cables, anything that operates needs a source of power, even the flashlight in your house needs a battery.
But your heart was started by him, controls the everything in your brain, and it was him, it was his spark. He watches over that spark, why? Because he loves you. And when you make mistakes and you do stupid things, that spark doesn't go out because his love is greater than what you can understand, it is inexhaustible. Can we praise him for that? Come on. If you ever think that you have exhausted God, if you ever think that you have reached the bottom of his grace and the end of his love, just lay your hand on your chest and see if that heart's beating. Because if that heart is beating, he's full of patience with you and your assignment is not over, because if your assignment was over and he was ready to bring you to heaven, he'd say, "I started the heart and today's the day it stops". That's his love for you.
Now let me talk about his promises for you. There are promises in the Bible that Satan devotes his entire existence of hiding, he hides those promises. If he can get you to live your whole life unaware of those promises, he is full of joy. He believes that he is winning because your salvation is a promise, if you confess with your mouth that the Lord is the Savior of your life, and you surrender your life it's a promise from the Lord that you will be saved. But if he can hide you of all the promises, not just salvation, but the key to victory and deliverance and freedom and access to the Holy Spirit for his power to move through you. If he can hide you from those promises, to where you live your whole life and you're never aware of them. You're never aware of them, you're not ignoring them, you don't even know they exist. Then, the enemy can get a foothold in your life and begin to fill your mind with lies.
So if you're unaware of his promises, let me just tell you a couple and you can hang onto those for the rest of your life. And let me tell you this, if God does not fulfill his promises to you, that means Jesus died for nothing. He died for nothing. Sometimes when I pray, I claim his promise. "God, I need you to move in my life and you promised that you would, and I'm believing that you are". And every once in a while I drop a nuke. And I say this, "If you're not gonna do it for any other reason, do it because Jesus died for me and if you don't do it, then you're telling your Son Jesus, your sacrifice wasn't enough. I'm breaking my promise and I'm gonna say no, if you don't bless me for any other reason, aside from the fact that you love me, aside from the fact that you put that promise in black and white, aside from all that, you don't wanna look at your one and only begotten Son, and say, 'Your death on the cross is not good enough.' I'm still gonna break my promise". That can't happen, that cannot happen. His promise for you will always be yes and amen. It will always be... can you put your hands together for that?