How God Views Us?

I think you'll see that somewhat what I give here today will tie in what Mr. Elliott gave earlier. You know, we sometimes wonder, how could God love us with all of our faults, all of our frailties, all of our weaknesses, all of our shortcomings? Have you ever doubted, have you ever wondered if God really was for you? Where is He when you're going through a severe trial? But have you ever stopped to ask yourself the cardinal question of how does God view you? How does God view you personally, individually? How does God view us collectively as a church, say the Seattle congregation, the Chattanooga congregation, the Chicago congregation?

There are many places in the Bible where God talks about His people and how He sees us. What He thinks of us, what His viewpoint is. And we're going to go through a number of those scriptures today. I'll only scratch the surface. You will only touch on that. But when you get down on your knees before God and you're pouring out your heart to Him, you're asking Him to hear you, to listen, and you're thanking Him, you're praising Him, or you're asking Him for strength, you're asking Him to guide you, lead you, comfort you through a trial and a test, how does He feel?

What is His reaction? Where is He coming from? When we go through our daily life and we're trying to please God with what seems like the culture all around us collapsing and going the way of Sodom and Gomorrah, and you're going off in a direction of lacking values, how does God view us when we are trying and striving to do what is right, to do what He tells us?

As God's people, it is a privilege for us to be called now. And we'll see what a privilege that is. God gives us—and one thing that we find with His Word—God gives us encouragement, hope, strength. God shows us that He certainly cares for us, that He is for us. There are many exhortations in the Bible that I think are very encouraging, very strengthening, that will help us give us faith to move forward. Let's go over to 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9 to start with. 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9. To me, this is a very exciting Scripture. It's something that we should keep in mind today throughout the sermon, and I think throughout our whole life.

And I hope by the time we're finished, we'll have a little better idea of what this Scripture is talking about, how it applies to us. Let's notice 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 9. But as it is written, I has not seen nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.

Now, I want you to notice, especially the word prepared. God has been preparing things that God has been preparing for us. This is part of the work that God the Father has and continues to be involved in. He is preparing things for us for the future. You might remember that Christ mentioned in John 5.17. He said, My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.

So the God family works. And part of the work that God is doing is preparing positions for us, preparing responsibilities for us, preparing the kingdom. He is also constructing the New Jerusalem, getting it ready for the Bride of Christ. He is preparing us for specific jobs, duties in His kingdom. In Matthew 20.23, you might remember Matthew 20.23, Mrs. Zebedee had come to Christ asking that her sons, one sit on the right hand of Christ, one on the left in the kingdom.

And He said to them, You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit on my right hand on my left is simply not mine to give. But it is for those to whom it has been prepared by my Father. You know that what you go through in this life is preparing you for positions in the future. God is getting us ready. And maybe you go through certain trials and tests and you wonder, Why doesn't anybody else go through this?

Well, God is preparing you for certain positions. We may not know precisely what that might be, but there is going to come a time when God will say in the resurrection, Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter you into the glory of your Father and you of the kingdom. And He'll say, I'm going to have you responsible for. And you might say, think, well, how am I going to do that?

And He'll say, I have prepared you. I've gotten you ready. I've trained you. Everything you've gone through is to help you to become a part of my kingdom. So, in Matthew 25.34, you might also notice that Matthew chapter 25 and verse 34, The King will say to those on his right hand, Come, you bless of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So, from the very foundation, from the very beginning, God has been preparing a kingdom for us. He's getting His family ready. He's preparing a kingdom, but that kingdom is also His family.

And, you know, we understand that God is preparing this for us. Now, let's go back to verse 10 of 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 10. We read this.

We read in verse 9 here that, Eyes not seen, ears not heard, the things that God has prepared. But then verse 10 says, But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. So, when God calls you and begins to open your mind, and when you're baptized and you receive the Holy Spirit, you begin to understand what God has planned for us. Not the total depths of what He has planned, but God reveals a kingdom.

He reveals there are going to be positions, responsibilities. He reveals about the millennium, the Great White Throne Judgment, you know, and all of these. But notice, He's revealed these things through His Spirit.

So spiritual understanding comes through the Spirit of God. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. You know, there are deep things that God has prepared that mankind as a whole has no idea, but God begins to reveal them to us. We've not yet experienced the spirit world or existed as spirit beings. I don't know what it's like to be a spirit being.

I mean, I can guess, I can think, but nobody's come down to me yet from the spirit world and said, well, let me tell you and begin to describe it to me. We have the Bible to read, and we tried the phantom. But there's going to come a time when we are resurrected that we will find out what it's like to be able to travel instantaneously.

If we want to be over here, boom, we're there. To have a memory where we don't forget. If God can number all the stars, and there are multiple billions and trillions of stars out there, call Him by name, you don't have a vocabulary like that. But there's going to come a time when we will be able to remember what we want to, forget what we would want to. We'll have the ability to think to a degree that we can't comprehend today.

We'll be able to have sight, insight, be able to see into the very hearts and minds of individuals. Psalm 145 is always an encouraging scripture that I turn to and read occasionally. Chapter 145, beginning in verse 3, in the book of Psalms. It says, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. And as the margin says, beyond our understanding, goes beyond our comprehension and understanding. And verse 10 says, So notice what's going to happen in the future. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom. You and I, in the millennium, and somebody asks us, what is God like?

What is Christ like? Guess what? We've seen Christ. We've worked with Him. We know what it's like to be in the spirit realm. We can then begin to describe it in terms that hopefully will lift, motivate, inspire individuals. And they will speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom, what it's like to be in the kingdom of God.

If you had a member of the God family come down and talk to you about what it's like to be in that family, and the difference between being human and being a spirit being in the family of God, well, it could very well motivate you. What this tells us is that God has said before us, the future is so fantastic, so awesome, so wonderful, so incredible that our minds today presently have trouble even beginning to grasp it. We can't even put it into words.

I don't have the vocabulary here today to be able to explain to you what God has prepared for us, even if I understood it in its totality. It is only through the Holy Spirit working in us that we can begin to grasp with our limited human minds. Why don't we fully understand? Because our minds are limited.

But God is going to reveal here in the future. Let's go back to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1 is one of the most inspiring chapters in the whole Bible. If you want to read something that inspires you and motivates you, Ephesians chapter 1 is. Let's pick up the story here in verses 3 through 5. Bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, or in the heavenlies in Christ, just as He chose us in Himself before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.

Having predestined us to the adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. Now notice in verse 5, especially here, says God has predestined us. The word predestined means to come to a decision beforehand, to decide beforehand, to determine ahead of time. So according to God's plan, God has decided to call some now to be sons and children.

And that's what the Day of Pentecost pictures. We are the firstfruits. God was going and predestined that there would be numbers of people called at various ages. The majority of people who have lived the last 6,000 years will come up in the Great White Throne Judgment. So God has determined and predestined to call individuals. Now, as it goes on to say here, He has predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ. And it also talks about, as verse 4 says, that He has chosen us.

We have been hand chosen, handpicked by God. So we shouldn't take our calling lightly out of the 7 billion people on earth. Just think of that. Something like 7.3 billion people on earth today. Out of that number, God looked down and said, I want you. Or, you know, I want you. And somehow, through His Spirit, He began to open our minds.

And we began to see. And we began to understand. We began to comprehend what God was doing. Our Father, God the Father, is the greatest being in the universe. He's the Almighty, the Eternal, the self-existing One, the all-powerful God, the all-loving God. And that God took time out to call us, to open our minds, to handpick us. So the fact that you're sitting here today, if God is working with you, you understand your mind is open. God the Father Himself picked you.

We've been selected. No man comes to the Son, except the Father draws Him. God has to call us and draws us. What if you're a human Father? Just think of it this way. We're the richest man alive. He was the most powerful man alive. He was the most educated.

He had a 300 IQ. He could stomp anybody. And you were His Son. That's my Dad. Because of everything that He could do. Well, I tell you what. My Dad's the greatest being in the universe. He's all-powerful. He's Almighty. So is yours. If you have God's Spirit dwelling within you, that's our Father. Now, as verse 7 goes on to describe, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

So we have been redeemed. Redemption means to be redeemed. The word actually means to buy in the slave market, to be paid for. You and I, at one time, were slaves to sin, Satan, this world. God comes along and He redeems us. Christ's sacrifice paid for us. And we've been bought and paid for. And we have been redeemed. Verse 9 tells us, Have He made known to us the mystery of His will? Notice, God hasn't hidden that. He's made known to us. He's revealed it to us. The mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself.

Now, there's a lot more in this verse than we think. He has made known to us the mystery of His will. A divine mystery is something that is not previously revealed or understood. Therefore, it's not known apart from Revelation. It's got to be revealed to us. And so God reveals His plan to us. And as verse 9 and also verse 11, let me read verse 11. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

The good pleasure of His will, or the will of God, is an important New Testament term. It's extremely important. Paul uses a word in verse 5, 9, and 11 in the Greek that conveys the idea of desire. When you talk about what God's will is, it's His desire or His heart's desire.

The word will is thelema in the Greek. It means a desire which proceeds from one's heart or emotions. From your heart or your emotions. Now we know the heart is basically the center of emotions, feelings, this type of thing, the mind, the intellect that we have. The word is usually translated as will in the Bible, the will of God. But the English word will sublimates the primary meaning of the Greek word, because primarily it's an emotional word along with will. God's will is not so much just His intention, although that's implied, but it is God's heart's desire.

What is the desire of God's heart? It is that you and I would become His sons and daughters in His kingdom. That's how He looks at us. When you stop and think about it, one time there were two beings in the universe, nothing else existed. Only the one we know as the Father and the one we know as the Son, they had existed for eternity. At some point in their relationship with one another, talking to each other in discussion, they decided that they would like to share their existence, their joy, their happiness, their unity and harmony.

They'd like to share all of that with others. How do you do this? Well, they came up with the plan of salvation, and it flowed from their will. This is what they willed. All of the physical creation, everything that we know and can see and things that we don't know, God created. He created it through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, and He made it so that the plan of salvation could be carried out.

And here we are sitting today in Seattle, and we are the ones that are here as a result of God's heart's desire. That God desires to share His life, His existence, His way with us so that we can be happy forever. So the plan was created by the will of God.

God's will, as I said, is His intention and heart's desire. It flows from His purpose. The Bible uses the word here for purpose, which means laying out beforehand like a blueprint. God has a whole plan, a blueprint He's laid out. And He created this by His counsel, as verse 11 says here. So the two beings counseled, thought about it, and all of this flows out of a heart of love and good pleasure.

Does not the Bible say that God is love? It doesn't just say God loves, but God is love. God is spirit. This is what He is. His grace flows out of His spirit of love that He has to us, where He wants to share. You know, grace is not only just forgiveness, but is where God shares good things with us, and He wants to give to us. God wants to share His level of life and existence.

And so, let me just quote to you here a couple of translation of verse 5, 9, and 11. It says, the good pleasure of God's heart. He made known in verse 9 to us the mystery of His heart's desire. Verse 11, indeed God operates all things according to the counsel of His heart's desire. So God was motivated to do this, and it flowed out of His heart. This section of the Bible is one that you can get into and study and study and study. It's got so much information there. But let's go back to Luke 12.31, Luke 12.31, and again, see how God views us in the future that He has set before us and what He wants to do.

Chapter 12, verse 31, says, but seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. So what is our primary motive? Put God first. Seek His kingdom. And then God will take care of the physical necessities. Verse 32, He says, do not fear little flock. Even though we're a nice-sized congregation, we're not a megachurch here. We don't have hundreds of millions of people.

Right now, we will eventually, in the millennium, white throne judgment, but we're a little flock right now. He says, don't be afraid little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It's God's good pleasure to give us the kingdom. So what makes God happy? What excites God? What stirs Him up? Well, it is to see us in His kingdom. When you realize the whole plan of salvation started around this, God wanted to share with us His level of existence, His life.

And so, you know, He takes good pleasure. Another version translates it this way. Your Father delights to give you the kingdom. He uses the word delights. It is something He delights in. NIV says your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. The expression means to be well pleased. So it's God's pleasure. Remember what the Father said about His Son in Matthew 3.17?

This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Same general expression here. It is God's pleasure, or He is well pleased to give us the kingdom. So it shows us how God thinks. This is what the whole plan of salvation started from, where He wants to share. And so it shows the nature of God as one of giving, sharing, service, helping, strictly, you know, who He is. So there's coming a time when the human family would join the family of God and be in the kingdom of God. Let's notice back in Psalm 16 verse 11, Psalm 16 verse 11, where we again read here of what God is going to give us here in the future.

You know, you don't have to talk about the Millennium only at the Feast of Tabernacles. I mean, you can talk about it any time or study it if you want to. It says, you will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. So once we're in God's presence in His kingdom, we will be able to experience joy to a degree that we can't in the flesh. Now Christ said, my joy I leave with you, not as the world gives. I mean, we can have an extra measure of joy today that the world doesn't understand. But in the kingdom, we will have fullness of joy and that your right hands are pleasures evermore. If you ever had somebody tell you, well, I hope the kingdom doesn't come too soon, because I want to experience the pleasures of, and you can feel whatever those pleasures might be. But in God's kingdom, there will be pleasures forevermore.

Now, what are those pleasures that we will experience forevermore? It doesn't say, does it? But have we ever stopped to think about that God, a God-level being, can enjoy pleasure? He doesn't just sit around all day plucking on a harp or this look on his face. No, he can be joyful. He can be excited. He can show love. He can have pleasure forevermore. Let's go over to the book of Malachi chapter 3 and verse 16.

Last book here in the Old Testament, Malachi chapter 3 and verse 16. A wonderful scripture.

It says, Now, that's something we all should stop and think about, right? Those who fear God, talk among themselves, speak to one another. That's the way it should be, our fellowship. We try to inspire and uplift and encourage each other. And the Lord listens. He knows what we're saying and thinking. And he hears. You need to realize what we say God hears. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name. Think about him and his plan. God listens to our conversation. So, you know, we need to fear God as it says here. It's talking about us today. It's talking about anyone down through the ages. But specifically here, he's listening to us. And we need to obey God and show him the right respect and the right honor. Now verse 17, They shall be mine, God says, or says the Lord of hosts, on the day that I make them my jewels.

On the day that I make them my jewels, I will spare them as a man spares his own son whom he serves. God says those who respect and honor him will become something that is very precious to him. The New International Translation translates this verse, His treasured possession. We will become God's treasured possession, His precious possession, or as it says here, the word jewels. The word translated jewels or treasured possession means something of very great value. Not just like a diamond or an emerald, something of that nature, but something very rare and almost without value. When God looks at us, He's looking at a potential treasure. And when we're in His kingdom, He will treasure us. He will love us. Another translation translates this, I will make them my special treasure.

Now, the only earthly example I think I can give to you is the British royal crown jewels. I don't know how many of you have ever been to London, been able to see the crown jewels. Beautiful. Several of you here have. They've been valued by some as 20 million pounds. It's pure speculation as to how much the crown jewels have been valued. They've been valued for insurance purposes alone. Some say they're valued in excess of 20 billion. That's probably too high.

But the way to express it is they're priceless. The diamond in the royal scepter, the Star of Africa alone, is estimated to be worth $400 million. Just this one diamond. But it's worth a lot. Probably, the better estimate, $3 to $5 billion. But they're actually priceless. You cannot steal these and go and market them. Not unless you cut them down and you broke them up and did all of that kind of thing. Then they lose their value. So we say that when God looks at His people, at the potential of who we are, and what we will be to Him in the future, in His family, we are going to be His special treasure. The family of God will be priceless in His sight. Something that He says He will make up His jewels. Now, God knows that we're human. He knows that we're flesh. He knows that we make mistakes. He knows we fall short. He knows we stumble. And yet in Psalm 103, He tells us that He is willing to forgive our sins when we repent. And He's willing to help us. And He takes pity on us. You might remember the Bible says in Psalm 103, He pities us as a father does His children. Our children are learning, are they not? They're growing. That's what John was mentioning. As children, we grow, we develop, we mature. You don't expect a two-year-old to behave like a ten-year-old. Our ten-year-old is not going to behave like an eighteen-year-old. We all grow up and we mature. And we don't remain children. We begin to grow and mature. Now, I've got children who are fifty years old and younger. That's hard to believe. But they're still my children. It doesn't matter what their age would be. And I'm still their dad. And their mom is still their mom. There's a family relationship. So God remembers. He knows our frame. He remembers that we're dust. He understands the struggles. In Christ, there's a high priest. He understands what we go through. He owns everything. And He looks out and He's concerned for us. Let's read one scripture here. We'll probably have to end on this one. In 1 Peter 2 and verse 9, 1 Peter 2 and verse 9 here, it describes another way that God inspired Peter to write about us. It says, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who have not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. We, again, are a chosen generation. Selected, word means to be selected, are marked for favor or special privilege. And what a privilege it is to be a son of God, a daughter of God. And so we've been chosen by God. Who did the choosing? The Father Himself. We are a chosen generation. Word generation here means family or race. In the Old Testament, God chose Israel. Today, God chooses us out of every nation, and we become a spiritual family, the Israel of God, the spiritual Israel of God. We're a royal priesthood. We're being prepared to be kings and priests. Kings and priests. The job in the millennium won't be divided. We will be a kingly priesthood.

And it says, you are a holy nation. We have been set apart to service of God. We are saints. Look around the room. Look at the person next to you. They're saints. You're a saint if you have God's Spirit. And we have been set apart to service to God. We are a people, as it goes on to say here, His own special people. King James Version says, a peculiar people. Yes, sometimes we are peculiar. But that's not what it's talking about. We are His special people. The people claim New English Bible translated as a people claimed by God for His own. And so God has called us to do what? Well, notice. Again, Verse 10, who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who have not attained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. And in Verse 9, it talks about how we've been set aside to proclaim the praises of Him, who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. So we've been called out of darkness to understand and to walk in the right way. So, brethren, God has called us. And so when we look at God and we stop and we think about who is God, God is our Father. We are His children. We are special to Him. We are priceless to Him. His whole plan of salvation was started so that He could share eternity with us. But not just eternity, but share eternity on a higher level, on the God-playing level, to be able to share the joy, the pleasures, the happiness. Be productive. Be prepared. He's prepared. Who knows what God is going to have us to do for all eternity? He hasn't revealed that yet. He's only revealed a fragment, a segment of what He's going to do. So there is a tremendous calling that God has called us to. So realize and deeply appreciate everything that God has been doing for us. He sees us as His family, a priesthood, a chosen people. And realize, if you want to summarize it, that we are God's special treasure.