Gregory Dickow - A True Love Story About Jesus and You
Welcome to Life Changers Church this beautiful day. Welcome our global family wherever you're watching, however you're watching, however you're listening. I really believe this week is my favorite week of the year. The whole concept of the Holy Week that's dedicated from the time Jesus enters to Jerusalem and they're singing Hosanna, Hosanna to the time He dies on the cross and rises from the dead and all that happens in that week. All the miracles, all the things that had to come together to demonstrate God's love. It really is a love story.
Holy Week is so holy to me because it's a love story. It's a story of God's love for us. It's a story of God's love for you. It's the story of God's love relationship with you. It's not just how much He loved us to die for us, but how much He wanted us in a close relationship with Him. This is all about love. Everything that has to do with God is all about love. We get love wrong because we expect too much of it from others and too little of it from God. But when we start expecting all of it from Him, we will be like a river of love. That His love flowing into our lives will then flow from our lives into the lives of others. That's what Palm Sunday is about. It's about Love entering Jerusalem, Love walking to the Garden of Gethsemane, Love walking to the cross, Love dying on the cross, Love rising from the dead, Love coming to you, and you coming to love.
You know, I remember reading a lady writing about love once and she said, "I thought marriage would bring me happiness and fulfillment. And so, I prayed for a husband while I waited for my life to start". But she went on to say, and this is how so many people think sometimes, that mistaken belief that we have to wait for our life to start. We have to wait until we're married. We have to wait until we get a better job. We have to wait until our healing comes, or we have to wait for somebody to complete us before we can start our life. But we need to stop waiting for our life to start and realize that our life with God begins right this moment. And right now, you can experience Him in a new way. I pray you would taste and see how good He is today, that you would feel the depth of His love that no one could ever match. This person who wrote this when they said, "So, I prayed for a husband while I waited for my life to start". But then they went on to say, "Thankfully, God met me in my ignorance and showed me how wrong I was. He has better plans for me than just writing my love story".
You see, it's only when God writes when we understand. It's only when God writes our story. The story of Christ and His church that we begin to live as we were created to. Only then, when we look at God as love and look at our relationship with Jesus as a husband/wife relationship. In Ephesians chapter five and verse 25, it says, "Husbands love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her". So, now he's talking about what Jesus did for you and me; for the church. He "gave Himself for her that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish".
You see, all He's ever wanted to do was to know us. All He came to do was to die so that we could know Him; so that we could know and experience greater love as no one than this, that a man lay his life down for his friends. God had no other purpose in sending Jesus but to bring us into fellowship with Him, to bring us into friendship with Him, to bring us into a love relationship with Him. You know, through the tides of time, loneliness sets in. Maybe you felt that. Maybe you feel that now. There is this loneliness that comes to every human soul. Sometimes I think people reject us or betray us, or sometimes people leave our lives. Sometimes people disappoint us. And at first we feel raw from it. We feel offended by it. We feel hurt by it. We feel disillusioned by it. But really, a man or woman's disappointment in your life is really an invitation from God to be close to you.
You know, I love this passage of Scripture in Song of Solomon, chapter one, verse two, He says, "Your love is better than wine". Your love is better than wine. Wine here is not being described as something bad. It's described as something good that causes you to forget your pain sometimes, causes you to feel happy for a moment, causes you to be loving in that moment or stage of feeling the effect of that wine. The reason why God's love is better than wine is because it has all those same effects but they don't wear off. It has all those same effects that wine has, but without a hangover. It has all those same effects of bringing love, and joy, and cheer, and happiness, but without any negative consequence from it; without any danger. This is what God wants you to taste, His love.
Mother Teresa said loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty of all. How many of us have felt this loneliness or love deficit? Perhaps you felt this absence of love, but you shoved it down and you just learn to tolerate it. The devil wants you in a place of darkness to keep you there so that you will quit. But everything broken in your life, every disappointment, every betrayal, every lack, every loneliness, every rejection is an invitation from God to reconnect with Him in the deepest, most intimate place of your soul, to experience the deepest fellowship with God and love. The truth is, is that Jesus came and He destroyed the works of the devil. But we forget that sometimes.
First John 3:18 says, or 3:8, "He came to destroy the works of the devil". So, what the enemy tries to do is to knowing that he's been defeated by Jesus, he tries to paint for you a hopeless, dark picture of your life, so that you become discouraged, lonely, and depressed. Maybe you're in that place right now. Or perhaps you know someone that's in that place. Reach out to them now. Tell them you love them. Tell them God loves them. Tell them light is coming. Tell them revival is coming. Tell them love is coming. Tell them goodness is coming their way. Tell them something good is going to happen in their life. We have to break free from this place of loneliness and darkness and connect with God. Psalm 119, verse 30 says, "The entrance of your word brings light". As we flood the light of God's Word into our hearts, darkness and loneliness and depression flee.
Boy, if there's ever been a day that we should be healed and set free from loneliness and depression, it's today. You know, King David knew what it was like to go through times of darkness. He said in one place of Scripture, he said, "The enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground; he makes me dwell in darkness like those long dead. So, my spirit grows faint within me; my heart within me is dismayed". That's in Psalm 143, verse three and verse four. He says the enemy pursues me and crushes me to the ground. You ever felt like that? Darkness has swept over my soul, that's depression; overwhelms me, that's stress and feeling like giving up. But then he remembers that the word of God is more powerful. Look at how he breaks free from this depression and darkness.
In fact, here are seven simple steps that David took to be set free from loneliness and darkness in his darkest moment. In verse five, he says, I remember the days of long ago. So, he tells us how he felt crushed by the enemy. Felt like the enemy has just gotten the best of him. Darkness has flooded his soul. Verse five, but "I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what Your hands have done". But we have to remember, number one, we have to remember what God has done. We have to deliberately go back and look at what God has already done for those in the Bible and deliberately go back and look at what He's done in your own life. He says, the first thing he says is, I remember the days, what your hands have done. Hands... What has His hands done? They've been stretched out and nailed to a cross so that you and I can feel and know we're loved by God. He says, number one, remember the days of old.
You got to remember. You got to deliberately remember what God has done, deliberately remember His hands on the cross. What your hands have done. His hands fed us. His hands have healed us. His hands have delivered us. His hands have provided for us. His hands have saved us. His hands have caught us. His hands have rescued us. His hands have picked us up. His hands died for us. His hands were nailed for us. His hands were given for us; pierced for your salvation and for your healing. Then David says, I spread out my hands to you. So this is the second step David takes to get out of his depression, to get out of his darkness, to get out of his loneliness. I spread out my hands to you. This is worship; worshiping God. No matter what it feels like, lift your hands, lift your voice to God in thanks. Worship Him because He's so good, even when things don't look so good.
So, number one, remember what God has done. Number two, I spread out my hands. Worship God no matter what it feels like right now. Number three, he says in verse seven, "Answer me speedily". Look at what this the point that I want to make with this verse. Answer me speedily. It means listen for God's answer. Listen for God's solution. Listen for God's voice. In fact, ask for a quick response from God. I know that we can't control the timing of when God answers, but David prayed. Answer me speedily. We should listen for God's voice. We should be in a hurry to listen, and we should ask God to move in our lives and we should ask Him to answer. He said, "Ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and the door will be open to you".
We need to expect to hear an answer. We need to expect the door to open. We need to expect the prayer to be answered. We need to expect to ask and receive. We need to expect to believe and see it happen. We need to expect when we knock on the door it's going to open. We keep on asking. It's going to. It's going to be answered. Keep on seeking and we're going to find. Let's expect today. Let's expect the voice of God. Let's expect a move of God. Let's expect revival in our home. Let's expect God's power to show up in our lives. Let's expect him to keep His promises. I know it's depressing sometimes in life. I know you're lonely sometimes. I'm lonely sometimes, too. We've all been lonely at times. But that is our invitation to have that loneliness swallowed up by the only thing that can swallow it up. And that is a love relationship with God. Then I love what he says next in verse eight. "Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I've put my trust in you".
Well, this is the fourth step David takes out of darkness, out of depression, out of loneliness. Greet your day meditating on God's love for you. This sets the course of your day. The greatest happiness in life is the assurance that we're loved. Find one verse every day, even if it's the same one every day, but find a verse every day about God's love until it drives out all fear and loneliness. Because it says perfect love, which is God's love, First John 4, "Perfect love casts out all fear". I love this verse. Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love. You know what you should be looking forward to every time you go to sleep? It's the moment you're going to wake up and God is going to bring you another word about His love, another promise about His love, another assurance that He loves you. And then I love what happens in this next verse. "Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life," in verse eight. Show me the way I should go. Can we just take a moment and ask God to show us the way? Just pray this right now:
Heavenly Father, I'm asking for You to show me the way that I should go. Show me the next step I'm to take. Show me your wisdom. Give me your wisdom. Show me the way that I should go today. Show my family the way we should go today. Show my church the way we should go today. I ask You for that wisdom. I ask You for that direction. I ask You for that guidance. And I thank You, in Jesus' Name, Amen.
We just have two more to go, guys. This is really a great Psalm, one of the best ever for me. I love what he says in the next verse. "Teach me to do your will... May your good Spirit lead me on level ground". Teach me to do Your will. May your good Spirit lead me on level ground. Invite the Holy Spirit to lead you, to teach you, to empower you. The Holy Spirit is called our Teacher, our Encourager, our Comforter, the Helper. There're so many. The Advocate, the Paricletus, the one who comes alongside to help us. It's just beautiful. Today, I want you to invite the Holy Spirit to lead you. Let's invite Him, right. Come on. Let's do this together. Say:
Heavenly Father, I invite the Holy Spirit to lead me today. I invite the Holy Spirit. (Come on, say that. Pray that out loud with me.) I invite the Holy Spirit to teach me today. I invite the Holy Spirit to empower me today. May your Spirit lead me into your perfect will for my life. May your Spirit lead me into your will for my life.
And then I love what he says, the seventh step out of darkness this great Palm Sunday, the seventh step out of fear, the seventh step out of loneliness. He says, "For your namesake, Lord, preserve my life; in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble". In your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. The seventh beautiful gateway into peace and joy is remind yourself that you are the righteousness of God. He says in this verse, "Preserve my life in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble". When you understand the gift of righteousness, it will bring you out of trouble. When you understand the gift of righteousness, it will preserve your life. He said, "Many are the afflictions," Psalm 34:19, remember that? Many are the afflictions of the righteous. But the Lord delivers him out of them all. God doesn't promise that you're never going to have affliction, but He promises for the righteous that He will deliver you from all of your afflictions.
We're not righteous because we do everything right. We're righteous because God makes us right with Him through the blood of Jesus. He makes us right with Him because of that triumphant entry into Jerusalem, because of that suffering in the Garden of Eden, and because of the suffering on the cross, and because of that death and His blood being shed to establish a covenant with you in blood, that He will forever be yours, and you will forever be His. He swore with His blood that He would keep His promises to you. He swore in His blood that He would always love you. When God says I love you, He means I will never break my promise to you. I will never leave you or forsake you. And I will never remember your sins anymore. What a Savior. What a God. And we get to call Him Father, Son, Holy Spirit. He is one and all in one and three in one. And He is your deliverer. Come on, let's pray together. If you never received Jesus today, pray this prayer with me. And let's start this journey with this great, great Savior. Just say if you're not sure you're going to heaven when you die, pray this.
Heavenly Father. I invite Jesus into my life as my Savior and Lord. I believe, come on, say this out loud. I believe Jesus died for my sins and rose from the dead. From this moment forward, I'm a child of God, in Jesus' Name, Amen.