Taffi Dollar - The God Who Stoops

Watch
Donate

Tonight, I want to talk about the God who stoops. The God who stoops. He who stoops. And I just trust that whatever circumstance or situation that you are presently dealing with or facing, that you will begin to allow Him to intervene and get involved in your everyday affairs. There is nothing that He will not be able to cause us to prevail and be victorious in. It’s a matter more so of us welcoming Him and allowing Him in. Just, you know, on a day-to-day, at work, when we’re at home, when we’re going throughout the week, going to the store, at school, at class, whatever and wherever we are, He wants to be welcomed in. He will not insert himself. But you know what? We have to pause and recognize that He wants to get involved in our everyday affairs.

And so when we talk about the God who stoops, we’re talking about the one who bends down. And, you know, out of God’s love for us, He got involved in our everyday affairs. And so it was sin that separated us from God. And that sin occurred in Genesis chapter 3 where the story is where Eve and Adam ate of the fruit of the tree that the enemy came and tempted them with. And as a result of them choosing to partake of what God told them not to partake of, it was through that decision that sin entered in.

In fact, look at Genesis chapter 3 verse 25. And we can look at how sin entered in and stripped us from God’s best, but is out of God’s love for us that he lowers himself and he caused them to get into a place where they would be cut off. And so it took the things that happened through the new covenant to allow him to get back in. And so after Adam and Eve ate here in verse 23, Genesis 3:23, it says, «Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden,» so man, mankind, the woman and the man, it says that, they were sent «forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken». And we know Adam was taken from the dust of the ground. And the Bible talks about how God breathed into him and he became a living soul. And the woman came out of the side of the man. And Adam said, «This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh».

But after they ate, the scripture says, «The Lord God sent them away, sent them from the Garden. They were removed from the place that God had designed for them to be, the Garden of Eden,» where everything was good, where everything was perfect, where all was well, all the things that were created in Genesis chapter 1, but here we see in verse 24, «So God or so He drove out the man,» referring to God, «So God drove out the man and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden, the Cherubim and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep and guard the way to the Tree of Life». And so we see here that there was a disconnect between God and man, and that disconnect occurred when they sinned.

Look at Isaiah chapter 59. Isaiah 59, we can see specifically how God had to bend down and as a result, bring us up. He went down low so that we could be elevated, and we would not stay low. Because of what Adam and Eve did, mankind was at a disconnect. They were distant. We all were distant because we were born in sin and shaped in iniquity and all the things that happened, the by product of what Adam and Eve did. And so in Isaiah 59, let’s look at this, verses 1 through 3, it says, «Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened», isn’t that good news? «That it cannot save. Neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God».

So it was sin that separated us from God. It was the iniquities here. It wasn’t that, you know, God is unable to do it, but it was the sin that was committed. And he says, «Your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear». And it says, «For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken lies. Your tongue hath muttered perverseness». And so we see here according to the scripture that it was sin that separated. Somebody say «sin». Sin separates man from God.

And that’s what we saw here in Genesis chapter 3 a moment ago. So when we look at this word «stoop,» we’re talking about humbling ourselves. We’re talking about bending down to lower, to condescend, to yield, to submit. It is us willingly becoming small. Jesus was in heaven with God. God said, «Let us make mankind». He was talking about us being the father of the son, father, the Holy Spirit, God, the Father God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus had to take on flesh. He had to take on things in this natural realm in order and lower himself and to stoop down to descend. I mean, you know, that’s a dissension to come from heaven down to earth.

And so that’s in essence what Jesus did on our behalf. And so it was out of the love that God sent Jesus. And Jesus lowered himself to restore the dignity that sin had stripped up off us. I’ll say that again, out of love, God sent Jesus. And he lowered himself to restore dignity, that sin that we just read, had stripped from us. And so God stoops down allowing himself in the form of Jesus to be broken on our behalf, to stand in our stead, to take on our sins, to take on our brokenness, to take on our poverty, to take on death, to take on all the things that were ahead of us. And so it was the decision that Jesus made when he came in the form of grace. And it was love that stooped down. And it was grace that stooped down.

Now, let’s look at this over in Psalms 113. I’m just trying to paint a picture here. And I trust the Holy Spirit that it’ll just be clear, and you’ll see it all come together. So he says in Psalms 113, verse 6 through 9, he is ready today to intervene in all of your affairs. Glory be to God. Isn’t that good news? We’re no longer separated, we’re no longer disconnected, we’re no longer distant from God. But because of Jesus, we have access and we have a close and we can have a intimate relationship with the father.

And so here in 113, in Psalms, he says, «Praise ye the Lord, praise o ye servants of the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore, from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same, the Lord’s name is to be praised. The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens». And so the fact that we have a God, a father who was high and lifted up. But yet, I mean, no, he was willing to stoop down. He is high and lifted up. He sits high above the heavens. He says, «The Lord is high above all nations and his glory above the heavens. Who is like unto the Lord, our God who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and that are in the earth».

Now, let’s look at this in a new international version. Let’s switch over for just a second. «who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth». And so when he describes himself here as being in heaven above all the earth, but yet at the same time, he says, he stoops down just to look on us, to look on you, to look on me, to make sure you are good, to make sure that you have everything that you need. He has your best interest. He says, «Who is like unto the Lord who sits high, but yet he stoops down to look on and to behold the things of the earth».

Let’s read verse 7 m «He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with princes, with the princes of his people». And I’m telling you in verse 9, I love this, it says, «He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children». Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, church. And so we see how we can benefit by him humbling himself here in verse 6, King James talks about how he bends down, how he lowers himself, how he condescends and submits on our behalf. And then he raises the person who is poor out of poverty. How many God has brought you out of poverty? And he says that, «Not only does he bring the poor out of poverty, but he’s a lifter tonight».

Some of you may have, you know, thoughts of depression in the past or thoughts of sadness of the past, but how many of you know he’s a lifter tonight? He says that, «He’s the lifter of the needy out of the dunghill». Because you know the enemy wants us to stay in that place of self-pitying, feeling unworthy and undeserving and in shame and condescending and all those things. But thank God that He is the lifter tonight. Somebody say, «He is a lifter tonight». Thank you. And so it’s a matter of us receiving what has already been done.

Now, goodness, I want to read all of this. Let’s just kinda go to verse 2, «Early in the morning, he came into the temple and all the people came unto him and he sat down and taught them. Scribes and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had sat her in the midst, they say unto him, 'Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act.'» My God, was she in adultery by herself? That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Some say and some believe that this was orchestrated. And this was all about those behind the scenes who were really just trying to shame her more and condemn her more. But, nevertheless, we know you can’t be in adultery by yourself.

So it says in verse 5, «Now, Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned. But what sayest thou»? They wanted to know Jesus’s opinion. «This, they said, tempting him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus,» He is stooping, I’m telling you. «And just like Jesus stooped down, it’s our responsibility to recognize and receive his presence in our life and to do and receive what he wants to take place». He says, «But Jesus stooped down, he humbled himself, he lowered himself, he bent down, and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not».

Anybody glad that he stooped down? I remember when I was in college and just trying my best to figure out how to go to hell as quick as I could. And I’m telling you, I think I was trying to be the party girl on the campus. But it was something about, almost 40 years ago when I got down on my knees in my dorm room in college and received him into my life. He stooped down right there. I’ll never forget it. And how many of you can remember situations and circumstances in your life where there was an indelible mark on his presence, His spirit just swooped in, in the middle of the mess, in the middle of the jump, in the middle of the addictions. And you know, without any shadow of a doubt, that it was the Lord. He says, «I will make the childless woman a happy mother».

So it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are. And how Sarah said, you know, I can’t have a child. But how many, you know when God begins to swoop down, things begin to happen, the impossible becomes possible, miraculous things began to happen. And I’m telling you, that’s the God that we serve. And so it was Jesus who asked them, he says, «Now he that is without sin, cast the first stone». I wish you would. You wanna accuse me, but your own sin is going to accuse you. And that’s what sin does. But thank God he was a lifter, that he intervened.

How many of us are willing to stoop down in other people’s mess and other people’s life and lift and elevate and promote and humble ourselves and be willing to be used by God as an instrument, as a channel, as a vessel to bring a word, to give a hug, to say something, to be kind? I mean, you know, that’ll lift, that’ll take people out. That’ll keep somebody from committing suicide tonight. That’ll keep someone from cutting themselves. That’ll keep somebody from shooting up. That’ll keep somebody from turning up the bottle because he is the God who stoops down. I’m telling you he will stoop down.

All He needs is somebody who will make room. Somebody who would dare to trust him. Somebody who understands that this is God who is working behind the scenes. There is nothing that is too messy. There’s nothing that is too dirty. There is nothing where the towel has been thrown in that he cannot change. He is a change maker and he wants to change things in our life. Look over at Psalms 139. Glory be to God. Is this helping you tonight? Oh, my God. He is God who stoops. Love that stoops is grace. The love that we receive, that love that’s been shed abroad in our heart by the Holy ghost. That love that stoops is grace. On your way to where I told you to go a minute ago, Psalms 18 verse 35 says, «That you stoop down to make me great». Think of that. He stoops down to make us great.