River Church NOLA
Sunday Oct 19 God's Promises about Your Future
  • My Redeemer Lives
  • This Is Amazing Grace
  • In The Secret
  • Great Are You Lord
  • Intro
    We have been a series about God’s Incredible Promises. I have stated this before but there are over 7000 promises in the Bible that God makes for you and me.
    We have looked at God’s promise about Heaven, about giving and generosity (some may have decided to begin tithing) , and the Holy Spirit. Today we will look at God’s Promises for your future.
    This ought to interest everyone for several reasons. First, the rest of your life is in your future.
    Listen, you don’t know what is in the future nor can you control what’s in the future. So we should all be interested in what God has to say about our future because we don’t know what that is, but He does. He knows what will happen tomorrow and next week and years from now. We don’t and we can’t control it no matter hard we try.
    One of the ways we try to control the future is through worry. Worry is worthless because it doesn’t help or change anything. It doesn’t work.

    Facts about my Future

    God knows everything that will happen.

    God already knows everything that will happen in your life. He knows the beginning, the middle and the end. There is nothing that God doesn’t know. So God is not surprised when something happens. He doesn’t go, wow Robert, I didn’t see that coming. God knows your thoughts even before you think them. For some of you, that’s scary.
    God is not limited by time and place like we are. He is timeless… meaning he can see the past and the future at the same time.
    Parade Illustration: If you were to go out to a parade and stand out there you would see the floats in front of you. You would miss out on the ones way down the street and the ones that have already passed.
    However, if you were up in a helicopter, and we looked a t]the same parade from very high, your perspective would change because you can see the beginning and the end at the same time. That’s the way God sees it… it’s a matter of perspective.
    God has that high perspective. He can see everything in history. He can see the beginning, and the middle, and the end all at the same time.
    God knows everything that will happen, and he is not limited by time.
    Hebrews 4:13 NLT
    13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable.
    There are no secrets hidden from God. Too many times, we foolishly try to hide things from God. Adam and Eve did, and we do too.
    Here is something to think about. What secrets are you foolishly trying to hide from God? God knows the good … the bad and the ugly in your life. He even knows your thoughts… and he knows them before you think them. You might keep it a secret from me, but not from God.
    Psalm 139:16 GNB
    16 you saw me before I was born. The days allotted to me had all been recorded in your book, before any of them ever began.
    He saw you before you were born while you were in your mother’s womb. He already knew every detail of your life before you were born. So when a baby is aborted, God’s plan for that person is aborted. That’s another reason abortion is wrong.
    Here is another thing about your future.

    God’s plan for my future is good.

    It’s not a bad plan. God doesn’t have bad plans for people. God is good and because of that he has good plans for everyone. Check this out…
    Jeremiah 29:11 NIV84
    11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
    God has plans for your life… a purpose for your life. God has a future he has planned for you.
    So what does this promise tell us? He says he plans to prosper us… not harm us… to give you a future and a hope. God has probably thought more about your future than you have. Most of us don’t plan out our lives… we just go through life.
    God has thought about every aspect of your life, and he has a plan for your life that is good and that will prosper you if you follow him.
    Maybe you wonder can you miss God’s plan? Yes. Why? Because you choose your plan and not his plan. You have to choose God’s plan. One of the greatest gifts God gave us at creation is the ability to choose… Free Will. It’s also our biggest disadvantage in life because too often we make the wrong choices. But God didn’t create us to be puppets. He wanted us to love and worship him because we choose to do so.
    God won’t force his plan on anyone including you. And since most people make the wrong choice when it comes to God, they die never having found their purpose.
    Why would anyone not choose to follow God and His plan? Pride. Pride makes us think we know better than God does about our lives. So we live like we want to.
    Let me encourage you though. You cannot miss God’s purpose if you really want it. When you make a wrong turn, and we all will, God will steer you back to where he wants you to be.

    I must choose to trust & obey God

    God knows everything that is happening and that’s going to happen, and he has a good plan for my life… I just have to choose to trust him and obey him. I have to make this choice every single day of my life.
    Every day I am faced with the choice, am I going to do what I want to do, or am I going to do what God wants me to do. Am I going to do what the Bible says or am I going to do what I want to do? Am I going to believe what the Bible says or what the culture says?
    Everyday we have to make that choice!
    Deuteronomy 30:19 NLT
    19 “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!
    Here is the choice. Will you choose life or death? Blessings or curses? Do you want to really live, or do you want a dead end life?
    He says if you want a blessed life, do what I tell you. If you want a cursed life with all sorts of problems, do whatever you want. He won’t force us, but we have to choose.
    Then he says, Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. He calls on all of creation to witness what you choose. Are you going to choose your way or God’s way? And everyone will know your choice. All eternity will know your choice.
    But then he says, Oh, that you would choose life. Why would anyone want to choose a dead end? Why would anyone choose destruction, death and to be separated from God who made you and loves you? Why would anyone do that?
    Then he finihes the sentence… Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live. He is saying that your choices now will affect the next generation. The blessings he puts on your life today will bless your children if you choose life. But it’s up to you. You get to choose.

    God will be with me every step of the way

    I don’t know what my future will look like, and I can’t control it, but I know this… God will be with me every step of the way.
    I know that because the Bible says it. This is one of the most repeated promises in the bible. I will not leave you alone. I will be with you. I will not abandon you. Why, because God created you to be connected to Him.
    You may not always feel God’s presence, but God is more than a feeling. You don’t always have to feel things for them to be real. Right now there are cellular signals going through this room… wifi signals going through this room. You don’t see them nor do you feel them but they are real. You don’t have to feel something for it to be real.
    So, even though I don’t know what the future holds, I know who holds the future.
    Hebrews 13:5–6 NIV84
    5 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” 6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
    That word “never” in Greek means never. God says he will not leave you. Others might double cross you … may leave you… but God won’t. Other people will walk out of your life, but God will not.
    Now, God ties not leaving you alone to the love of money and worry. Why is that? Because if He is with you, you don’t need to worry. When I would meet my mom and dad for a meal, I didn’t have to pay… He would always pick up the tab. It’s the same way with my heavenly father. When he is with me, I don’t have to worry.
    A lot of people are scared or worried about the future. Christians are or should be the most confident people about the future. Why? Because we have the Lord helping us. We can say, I will not be afraid because what can people do to me? One plus God outnumbers everyone.
    If God likes me, and you don’t, whats your problem? God says he likes you … he loves you and will always be with you, so no matter what happens in your future, you will not be alone.
    If you're struggling with anxiety or worry in your life, write this down. Every fear is a misunderstanding of who God is and what He's promised.

    Every fear is a misunderstanding of who God is and what He's promised

    When you know who God is, and what He has promised, you would not be afraid.

    Six Guarantees from God for my future.

    Because God’s word is everlasting, we know that we can trust His promises.

    1. God promises to guide me when I’m confused.

    One thing you can predict about your future is that you will have a lot of decisions to make. Many of them will be confusing and difficult. Do I take this job? Do I move to this city? Should I buy this house? Should I marry this person?
    There are some big life-changing decisions, and a lot of times they are scary. They are scary because we are afraid, what if I make the wrong choice? And we get stuck in our confusion.
    We think that maybe we can talk to our friends, but they think like we do, so that’s not a good idea. People’s opinions change like the wind. The only authority who is always right and completely reliable, and is your creator. If you want to know the purpose of something, you have to talk to the inventor. God knows the purpose that He created you for.
    Proverbs 3:5–6 GNB
    5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know. 6 Remember the Lord in everything you do, and he will show you the right way.
    Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Let me ask you, who do you really trust? Solomon wrote to trust in the Lord. Never rely on what you think you know.
    Why trust God? Think about it. He created you. He loves you. He knows everything about you. Why would he tell you to do something wrong? Why would he send you in a direction that isn’t what’s best for you? God wants the best for you. He is completely reliable and trustworthy. He has perspective about your life that you desperately need to have.
    It's like if you're driving on a mountain road, a winding mountain road, and you're trying to get to the top and you're in a hurry, you want to get there, and then you get stuck behind some old guy and a camper, right? He's cruising along, about 10 miles an hour. He's in no hurry to get anywhere, and he's just looking out the window, and talking to his wife, "Hey, look over there, Mabel. There's a stump."
    He's just not in any kind of hurry and you go, "I got to get around this guy, but it's a curvy road, and I have no idea what's coming." You think, "Man, wouldn't it be great if I had that drone or helicopter that we were talking about on the parade, somebody up high who could see the whole road, and could radio down to me and say, 'Hey, you know what? It's safe. You can pass the guy because I can see what's coming'?"
    That’s the perspective we need to have. The only way to get God’s perspective is in his WORD, the Bible. The Bible is the WOG and it shows us what God’s will is. God will guide me when I am confused.

    2. God promises to help me when I’m tempted.

    In the future, you will still face many of the same temptations that you face today. Hopefully you will get better at resisting them, but you’re going to struggle with them the rest of your life.
    If you have a predisposition to be controlling, and in every situation you try to control everything, you will struggle with it the rest of your life. You will be tempted to control things.
    If you are tempted to be depressed, you’re probably going to have to deal with the temptation the rest of your life.
    If you are tempted to be arrogant, or not listen to anybody, you will most likely struggle with that the rest of your life.
    If you are tempted to be anxious, you’re probably going to have to deal with the temptation the rest of your life. If you are going to be tempted to be anxious, you will be tempted to worry. Hopefully you will get better.
    If you struggle with anger now, you will most likely struggle with anger the rest of your life. If you tend to blow up now, you will later. But God promises to help, and that’s a good thing.
    So here is the bad news good news about temptation. The bad news is that you will never outgrow it. Some people think that they will get to the point in their spiritual life where they are not tempted anymore. That doesn’t happen.
    Here is the truth. The more you follow the Lord, the more Satan will tempt you because he doesn’t want you following or doing anything good for God. So the more mature you are in Christ, the more temptation he will throw at you. You just have more tools to deal with them. Temptations don’t go away, you just don’t give into them.
    Some people, maybe some of you, are carrying false shame because you think you should be at a stage where you are not tempted anymore… I shouldn’t have this thought… I should not be craving… That’s a lie from Satan himself. You are not responsible for every thought that comes into your mind. You are responsible for what you do with it.
    When Satan puts a thought in your mind, we call that temptation. When God puts a thought in your mind, we call that inspiration. Temptation, Inspiration, your on thoughts…
    Have you ever been praying and all of a sudden, the most awful, ugly thought comes in to your mind while you're praying? You go, "Where did that one come from?" Anybody ever had that happen? Some of ya’ll are lying. That was from Satan.
    Martin Luther said,
    You can't keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.
    So you should not feel guilty about a thought that you didn’t have. Satan just threw it in there real quick. So you go, I know where that came from, get out. You toss it out.
    So the bad news is that you will be tempted the rest of your life, but the good news is that it’s not a sin to be tempted.
    Hebrews 4:14–15 NLT
    14 So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. 15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
    Temptation is an opportunity for a choice. So don’t be frustrated by that… it’s part of being human. Jesus was tempted but he didn’t sin.
    Every time you make the right choice, you grow stronger. Every time you stumble and fall to temptation, you go backwards. Temptation is an opportunity to grow so don’t be frustrated of ashamed.
    Write this down.

    Attraction is not a sin, action is.

    You are not responsible for your attractions. You are responsible for your actions.
    If you are walking down a buffet line, you might see something that catches your attention, and your mouth begins to water.
    When Apple comes out with new anything…
    Here is another way to think about it. Write this down.

    I can't control what gets my attention. I can control what keeps my attention.

    Say a pretty girl or a handsome guy is walking along, and you go wow he’s handsome, or she is pretty. That’s not lust, which is a sin. It can become lust when you linger. But you turn your attention to something else… you don’t fantasize, you don’t linger. You maybe go God you did pretty good when you made him or her.
    Kathy will see a guy running without a shirt sometimes when we are going somewhere and say, he ought to have a shirt on. I usually say, if I was built like that, I might run without a shirt too. But I’m not so I won’t.
    Lust is when you want that instead of what you have. Does that make sense. You can’t control what gets your attention, but you can control what keeps it.
    It’s not a sin to see some barbecue ribs on the grill and say those look great. It is a sin to eat 5 pounds of them.
    You might walk past a store and see something that really gets your attention. That’s not materialism it’s a temptation. It’s what you do with the temptation. So don’t let false shame stick to you.
    I said that temptation will always be there and that the good news is that is it’s not a sin to be tempted. However the best news is,

    God will provide a way out of temptation.

    Look what Paul wrote,
    1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT
    13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
    I know that Satan always tells us that no one else feels like you do… no one else is tempted like you are… He is a liar. We all have the same temptations.
    If temptations are common to all people, then there are common solutions to them. Here's the thing. If we all share the same temptations, then if we talk about it with each other, they lose their power over us. When you have a temptation and you keep it a secret, then it's going to get worse.
    Say at work, you are being tempted by a co-worker to have an affair. If you keep it a secret, it will get worse. If you confess it to another person, it will lose it’s power.
    I am tempted by Tech. If I had enough money, no telling. One time I got a pop up on my phone, someone was asking, Are you at the Apple Store? I don’t know how they saw I was there, but I was looking at those iPhone 4s’.
    If there were more confession of temptation, there would be less need for confession of sin.
    But no one wants to say, I am being tempted. But it eases the temptation when you do.
    According to this verse God promises two things.

    God will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it.

    Secondly,

    When you are tempted, He will provide you a way out so you will not give into it.

    It’s comforting to know that God understands our struggles. He knows what you are going through. He is pulling for you.
    Jesus experienced the same temptations. And, He’s prepared an escape route for you. God says, I will strengthen you and prepare an escape route.
    People often say, I couldn’t help myself. The temptation was too strong and I could not resist it. That’s not the truth and they are not being honest with themselves. Why? Because God says he will not allow more temptation that you can bear. And He also says that with every temptation, he will provide a way out… a way not to sin.
    It wasn’t that the temptation was too strong for you. You didn’t want to resist it. You wanted to give in. If you are honest with yourself, you wanted to give in because if you had not, God would have given you the strength and a way out. So you didn’t want to resist and didn’t look for the way out.
    Paul also said,
    2 Thessalonians 3:3 NLT
    3 But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.
    God keeps his promises. You don’t have to be afraid of temptation. You don’t have to be afraid of the devil. 1 John 4:4 “4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world.”
    If you are a Christian, a Believer in Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit living in you, and for Satan to get to you, he has to go through God. God will not let him harm you. So the only thing he can do is to tempt you… to try and put crazy thoughts in your head. That’s all he can do. He has to go through God and God will not let him harm you.

    3. God promises to support me in trouble.

    He's going to guide me when I'm confused. He's going to help me when I'm tempted, and He's going to support me when I'm in trouble.

    What’s the difference between temptation and trouble? Temptation is inside me. Trouble is outside me.

    Temptation has to do with my character while trouble has to do with my outside circumstances. In this life, we live in a broken world so we will always have internal temptations and external trouble. In John 16:33 “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”” There are all types of trials and sorrows… relational trouble, financial trouble, health trouble, mental trouble, internal temptations and external troubles.
    Too many people think that when they follow Jesus, life will be heaven on earth. It won’t. In heaven there will be no sorrow, no sin, no evil, no suffering, no sickness, no sadness, no troubles, no temptations, … nothing will be wrong in heaven, but we are not in heaven.
    We live on earth which is marred by sin. There are disasters like earthquakes and hurricanes and tornados. There are terror attacks… that are happening here in our country… because we have strayed away from the Lord. People will say, it must have been God’s will. That wasn’t God’s will.
    It wasn’t God’s will for Hamas to murder 1200 innocent Jews and Christians on Oct 7 2023.
    It wasn’t God’s will for Charlie Kirk to be assonated.
    It’s not God’s will for our teens to be killing each other on the streets.
    God is not the author of evil.
    If I go get drunk and drive and kill someone, that’s not God’s will, that was my will because I got behind the will while drinking.
    So don’t blame God for evil. God cannot do evil. We live in a broken world and things don’t always work right. The weather is broken, relationships are broken, It’s everywhere. Why? Because of sin. We make wrong choices.
    Since we live in a broken world, we know that bad things will happen. Someone might be laid off a job. Someone might get sick. Someone might relapse. But God says he will support us when we go through it. Take a look.
    Isaiah 43:2–3 LBP
    2 When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up—the flames will not consume you. 3 For I am the Lord your God, your Savior, the Holy One of Israel. I gave Egypt and Ethiopia and Seba to Cyrus in exchange for your freedom, as your ransom.
    Notice he didn’t say if, but when you go through… He doesn’t say you won’t get wet, he says you won’t drown. You’re going to have some problems and you will get wet, but you’re not going to drown.
    When you are going through the fire… when the heat is on in your life, you will not be burned up. It doesn’t say it won’t be uncomfortable, it says you won’t be burned up. God will see you through.
    I love this next verse…
    Philippians 4:13 AMP
    13 I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].
    All things… that’s everything that life and the devil will throw at you. That’s a great outlook. I can handle whatever God allows to come at me through His strength.
    You may not feel strong right now, but the strength you need will come when you need it. Write that down,

    The strength I need will come when I need it

    God doesn’t give me strength today for a problem I might have in a week. Think about it. The bible doesn’t say, give this day our weekly bread… God give me my daily bread… my daily strength.
    God will guide me when I’m confused. He will help me when I’m tempted. He will support me when I’m in trouble
    Here is a promise that might surprise you…

    4. God promises to repay those who hurt me.

    Some of you just went… oh yea. That’s not what He meant. He doesn’t want you repaying them… he says, I’ll handle it.
    Have you noticed that the world seems to be getting meaner, more hateful, more rude, more uncivil, more unfair? Do you ever listen to the news or watch a news and you go, "Man, that's just not fair"? There people right now who were not born into the greatest, most prosperous nation to ever exist. They are in extreme poverty… many are hungry. some are being persecuted and killed for being Christians.
    Well, it’s not fair. Life isn’t fair, and God never said that life would be fair. It’s unfair because if sin in our world. People make wrong choices. There is poverty in many countries because of sinful leadership… Hamas…
    One day Jesus is coming to make things right, but that’s not today. Sometimes bad people win and good people suffer. I don’t like it you don’t like it, but it happens. Sometimes well-meaning people get abused and are betrayed, and are cheated on, and have their heartbroken, and on and on and on.
    If you have been discriminated against because of your race or culture or language or sex (Biological), if you've been abused, if you have been harassed, if you have been mistreated, as your pastor, that breaks my heart. I grieve for that, and I'm sorry. I really am. I'm sorry for your hurt.
    That's not fair. We should do whatever we can to correct injustice. Understand that God grieves at injustice.
    God could get rid of all the evil in the world instantly, just take away our freedom to choose, to not follow Him, take away our freedom to say, "I'm going to do what I think is best. That would instantly get rid of all the evil in the world. So, we can't blame God for that because He's given us the freedom to make that choice.
    God's never stopped me from hurting people, stopped you from hurting people, but I do know this, God is keeping a record. The Bible says very clearly that God is keeping a record of all the ways you've been hurt in life. Did you know that in Psalms, Psalm 56:8 it says, "God stores up your tears in a bottle." You don't even know all the tears you've shed. God does. It says, "He's kept an accounting of how many tears you've shed in your life." That's how much you're good, good Father cares about you.
    That’s the God who said,
    Romans 12:19 LBP
    19 Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God, for he has said that he will repay those who deserve it. Don’t take the law into your own hands.
    Don’t ever try to get revenge on those who have hurt you.
    God is a God of love, and because God is a love, that's why we all have love in our lives. If our creator wasn't loving, there would be no love in the universe. God is the source of all love.
    Because God is loving, He is also a God of justice. God is a just God. God is a fair God. He is a righteous God. Why? Because to allow evil to hurt His children and not seek justice would be unloving. Justice is sometimes the loving thing to do and protection is the right thing to do.
    If somebody tried to hurt my wife or my kid or my grandkids and I did nothing about it, and I didn't care about it, that's called being unloving. Sometimes love fights. Sometimes love defends. Sometimes love fights for the protection of other people. The Bible says, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
    Sometimes we have to fight for those we love. But God says, don’t avenge yourself… I’ll take care of it. Listen, God has more tools… more weapons than you do.
    Some of you are still allowing people who hurt you 10 years ago to hurt you today because you're holding on to the memory of it. That’s not smart and it doesn’t work. They can’t hurt you anymore but you let them hurt you by holding onto the memory of the hurt. You may say, they don’t deserve forgiveness, but listen, neither do you. You let it go because you want to get on with your life.
    Some of you need to decide to let God settle the score. Release that person.
    Justice delayed is not justice denied. There will be a day of reckoning… a day of Judgement. God is aware of what people have done to you and He will settle the score one day. If you trust Him, let it go. Look at Mark 10:45
    Mark 10:45 NLT
    45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
    Jesus came to serve and to give. Those two verbs describe the Christian life… serving and giving. If you don’t like serving and you don’t like giving, you cannot call yourself a Christian. You can give without love, and you cannot love without giving. You cannot love without serving.
    Love means I make your problem my problem. Love means I serve your needs, not my needs. Love can always wait to give. Lust can never wait to get. Love is all about giving and serving, giving and serving. That's real love. Lust is all about getting and being served.
    In heaven we will all be serving and giving. God puts us here to practice that so that when we get to heaven, we don’t look stupid.

    5. God promises to reward my service & generosity.

    Now, part of God's plan and purpose for your life is He wants you to become like Jesus Christ. Jesus is the model of perfect humanity. God wants us to grow up like Christ. He wants us to think like Christ, to feel like Christ, to love like Christ, to serve like Christ, to be giving like Christ.
    If God wants me to be more like Jesus; what is Jesus like. Jesus was unselfish. The opposite of selfish is love. If you love someone you give … Babies don’t think like this, but as we mature, we should. We learn to be generous and loving.
    God wired the universe that we're rewarded when we do what He does. God is a giving and serving God. He's loving and serving and generous to a fault. Everything you have is from the generosity of God. So, when you learn to give your life away, and you learn to give your time away, and you learn to give your money away, and you learn to be a giver not a taker in life, that's when you begin to fully live. Life takes on new meaning and new joy and new excitement.
    God didn’t put us here to live for ourselves. God wants us to be like him.
    Hebrews 6:10 NLT
    10 For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.
    He is saying that God will reward you for what you do for him.
    One day, we're all going to stand for God and God's going to say, "What did you do with what you were given?" "Well, I've made a lot of money, retired, and died." "Wrong answer. We were put here for more than that. Are you giving back in a way that you can not be paid back for? God says he will reward you.
    Luke 16:9 NLT
    9 Here’s the lesson: Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home.

    6. God promises to finish what He started in me

    I can’t save myself and I can’t keep myself saved. Once you put your hands in the hands of Jesus, He won’t let go. You might try, but he will not. example of a father and toddler holding hands to keep him from being hurt.
    John 10:28 NLT
    28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me,
    Who gave you eternal life? God did. The devil and culture might try to snatch you out of his hands, but He will not let go. So when you are going through a difficult time, He is right there holding on to you.
    Ruth H story about being out partying and always hearing and feeling the Lord wooing her back…
    There have been times in my life when I felt like turning loose… it’s just too hard Lord. He says, Robert you might want to let go, but I am not letting your go. He always causes me to keep holding onto him too.
    I don’t know what’s in your future or even mine, but I know God will never turn his back on you.
    2 Timothy 2:13 NLT
    13 If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.
    Anybody thankful God is faithful even when we are not?
    Philippians 1:6 NLT
    6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
    What God began in you, He will finish. Someone once said, God doesn’t sponsor flops. So you can be confident that what God began in you he will finish. I don’t know about you but I am glad I don’t have to worry about God changing his mind about me.
    Prayer time -
    Prayer of thankfulness - God, I know You know all of my future. You already know how it's going to end. You know all the problems I'm going to have, and You know all the mistakes I'm going to make, and You still love me, and You have a good plan for my life, and I'm saying today, I want the rest of my life to be on Your plan, not mine. I want to live the rest of my life for You, not for myself, for You, not for me. So, I want to thank You for these promises that You will never leave me alone. You'll never abandon me. I'll never go anywhere into my future without You."
    Thank you that you will
    guide us when we are confused…
    you promise to help us when we are tempted… that you give me strength and a way out.
    to support me when I am in trouble…
    that you will repay those who have hurt me… so we let go of bitterness
    that you promised to reward my service to you…
    that you have promised to finish in me what you began.
    Salvation prayer -
    Jesus , thank you for paying the price for my sins… come in and be the boss of my life. Take control. I want my life to be built on Your plan, not my plan from now on, and I want to learn to follow You. I pray this humbly in Jesus' name

      • Hebrews 4:13NIV2011

      • Psalm 139:16NIV2011

      • Jeremiah 29:11NIV2011

      • Deuteronomy 30:19NIV2011

      • Hebrews 13:5–6NIV2011

      • Proverbs 3:5–6NIV2011

      • Hebrews 4:14–15NIV2011

      • 1 Corinthians 10:13NIV2011

      • 2 Thessalonians 3:3NIV2011

      • Isaiah 43:2–3NIV2011

      • Philippians 4:13NIV2011

      • Romans 12:19NIV2011

      • Mark 10:45NIV2011

      • Hebrews 6:10NIV2011

      • Luke 16:9NIV2011

      • John 10:28NIV2011

      • 2 Timothy 2:13NIV2011

      • Philippians 1:6NIV2011

River Church NOLA
robert@riverchurchnola.com
504-578-8317
https://riverchurchnola.com
6 members • 18 followers