Good Morning!

I’m really enjoying this exercise of examining God’s Promises. You know what I really enjoy? Searching for scripture only to find more and more and more that I could share with you! Honestly, there are promises after promises as I turn pages. Sure, there are the well-known verses, but there are ones almost identical to all these scattered from the front of the bible to the end. It’s not a matter of finding a verse, it’s a matter of rejoicing in all of them. You’ve seen movies of people standing in a huge pile of cash and throwing it up in the air in celebration? That’s what God has provided for us – that huge pile of promises that are far, far more valuable than all the cash in the entire world! Go ahead and splurge in this wealth that God has so graciously provided to us!

As a recap, here is the outline that I am following:

Promise of Death from Sin
Promise of Salvation
Promise of Jesus’ Return
Promise of Companionship (We Have Not Been Left Alone)
Promise of Well-Being
Promise of Our Eternal Home

Today we are examining the Promise of Companionship, that we have not been abandoned after Jesus ascended into heaven. Let’s look at some scripture.

John 14:15-18a “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans;

John 14:23-27 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Ephesians 1:11-14 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Romans 8:26-27 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Joshua 1:5b I will not leave you or forsake you.

Psalm 91:14-16 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

John 10:25-30 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

I think we’ll wrap this up with a passage we shared in my bible study last night. I think you’ll agree this one is fantastic!

Romans 8:34-39 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

What do you think about them apples? Can you rejoice over this? Is there any reason we should feel alone? Let’s get brutally honest now. Is there any reason for us to feel alone? No, there is not.

So, celebrate, my friends, just like that person dancing in the pile of cash. You cannot “spend” all the spiritual gifting God has given you. The only thing you can do is ignore it. Why do that? Instead, rejoice!!

Father, send us out dancing in the street with overwhelming joy and gratitude. Let us show the world our elation and the reason we believe. Let us prove to the world that you indeed are with us and that it really does matter. Make it so that we simply CANNOT contain ourselves! Amen!

Copyright © 2018 Scott Powers