...
>> Dr. Charles Stanley: When
Almighty God says, "You matter
to Me," that's God.
When God says, "You matter to
Me," what more powerful word of
encouragement could we hear
than that?
You matter to Me.
[music]
>> Dr. Stanley: Four decades
ago, we started In Touch
Ministries to lead people
worldwide into a growing
relationship with Jesus Christ.
Throughout the years,
we've seen God's greatness,
his love and his blessings
in such awesome ways
that we just want everyone
to know him.
So, let's open God's Word
and seek him together.
[music]
>> Brian Kayanja: I think a
child can learn a lot from their
fathers.
I didn't get that opportunity to
be with a father.
I remember growing up a couple
of years before my mom passed
on--actually, I didn't know that
she had HIV, and we started
staying with my grandmother.
So that's where I lived up to
when my mom died.
And as I grew up going to
church, listening to spiritual
leaders talk about God, I had
that vacuum in my life that
could only be filled with
Christ.
That picture on my wall, that's
when I graduated, and there is a
verse right under it.
This is Christ talking to His
disciples and telling him that
whoever wants to be first must
be a servant of all.
Growing up in a Christian
family, it was more like a
culture.
When I gave my life to Christ, I
didn't really understand the
full concept of following
Christ.
I began listening to Dr. Charles
Stanley in 2011.
I found the truth with In Touch
Ministries.
I've come to understand that
forgiving is like you're not
doing someone that you're
forgiving a favor but you're
doing yourself a favor by
forgiving that person.
It's one of the greatest lessons
I've learned from Dr. Charles
Stanley.
The day I watched the sermon on
YouTube, it really moved me.
Someone said that the two most
important days in someone's life
is the day they are born and the
day you find out why you were
born.
I use soccer to reach out to
hundreds of kids.
>> Brian: Good try.
Good for you.
>> Brian: Soccer is so important
to the kids, basically a game
that unites all these kids from
different communities.
And on top of that, the most
important thing is that it is
through soccer, we share Christ
with them through soccer, that
they're getting all these life
values.
It is through soccer that
they're being introduced
to the light.
[speaking in foreign language]
>> Brian: Typically, when you
think about someone in Africa
who is often--you expect these
people to be stranded in life,
and then you get this boy, you
spend time listening to them,
understanding their situation
and talking to them, encouraging
them, you can easily understand
what someone goes through if you
have been there.
When I look at an eight-year-old
boy playing soccer, I just see a
responsible man to come.
I just see a sweet dad in him.
I just see a leader
I just see a leader who fears Christ.
[speaking in foreign language]
>> Brian: We are preparing these
young men to become great
leaders who are going to be the
light to the world.
I've come to believe that
everything happens for a reason.
Every time I get a terrible
situation hit my life, I know
that maybe God has a plan for
me.
What I pray about most is that
God can help me use me as his
vessel, make my hands like the
vessel, make my hands like the hands of Christ.
[music]
>> male announcer: Next on "In
Touch," "Your Life Matters to
God."
>> Dr. Stanley: At a
very low time in my life when
I'd been in the hospital twice
in just a few months, I walked
out on my glassed-in porch and
sat down and thought I would
just take it easy and relax
a little bit and maybe read
something, and so when I did,
I noticed on the chair in front
of me there was a blanket, and
I had just tossed it over there,
but I didn't see this.
And when I looked at it a second
time, I saw this inscription
that some wonderful lady had
inscribed in this blanket.
It read, "Your messages have
helped me realize that my life
matters to God."
When I read that, I thought,
Lord, I don't know what she had
in mind, but that's exactly what
I needed to hear.
My life matters to God.
And that's the title of this
message because it is a message
that God wants all of us to
hear.
Our life matters to Him.
You may not feel like you
matter, you may be able to give
lots of evidence that the way
you are treated and the things
that have happened to you and
the misfortune you have
experienced, that certainly,
your life couldn't matter
to God.
But I want to tell you, yes,
it does.
Difficulty, hardship, pain, and
suffering does not mean that
your life doesn't matter to God.
Some of the greatest saints that
I've ever met, people who have
written the greatest books have
been people who've gone through
difficulty, hardship, pain, and
suffering beyond anything you
and I could ever know and never
lost their faith, but realized
that God still loved them and He
cared for 'em.
When I think about that and I
think about this passage of
Scripture that I want us to look
at, it states just that.
Our life matters to God.
And I want you to turn, if you
will, to First John, chapter
three.
This is a late time in John's
life, in those latter years, he
could be anywhere from eighty to
ninety, or whatever it might be.
And he's written this Epistle to
believers, and I'm going to read
three verses that I want us to
look at for a moment.
The third chapter and the first
verse.
Now, listen to this, "See how
great a love," not just love,
how great a love, "the Father
has bestowed on us," that is,
He's gifted us, He's expressed
that love, He's shown that love,
demonstrated that love.
"How great a love the Father has
bestowed on us."
What makes it great?
"That we would be called
children of God."
Think about that.
In God's mind, that's
something great.
"That we would be called the
children of God, and such
we are.
For this reason the world
doesn't know us, because it
didn't know Him."
And then he says, "Beloved,
now," not one day later, not in
the future, "now we are children
of God."
And, I love this, "And it has
not yet appeared what we
will be."
That is, we know very little
about the awesome future that
God has provided for us.
"We know," how many times he
says that, "We know that when He
appears, we will be like Him,
because we will see Him just as
He is."
Here's an Apostle of the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking with
assurance and authority, having
listened to the Lord Jesus
Christ personally, whether it
was on the boat at sea, or was
up in a mountain somewhere or
just sitting around the fire
talking and listening to Jesus,
"We know we will be like Him,
because we will see Him just as
He is.
And everyone who has this hope
fixed on Him purifies himself,
just as He is pure."
That is simply this, when you
trust the Lord Jesus Christ as
your Savior, you do so because
you sense that you've been
separated from Him.
And you sense also the need to
be one with Him.
And so, what happens?
You trust Him as your Savior
because of what He did at
the cross.
And as a result of that
relationship, it--things change.
You can't be a child of God and
everything be the same as
it used to be.
You may act sometimes unlike you
ought to be acting, but that
relationship, watch this, that
relationship is not temporary.
It's not conditional.
It is absolutely permanent.
You are saved once and for all
by the grace of God.
Now, watch this, why has God
made salvation the result of
a fixed relationship?
A decision?
Simply because you and I matter
to Him.
And when you trusted Christ as
your Savior, the Holy Spirit
came into your life to do what?
To absolutely assure you that
for all eternity, you will
belong to God.
You say, "Suppose I sin?
He's prepared for that.
He has a very strong hand of
discipline, not to destroy, not
to hurt, not to harm, but to
bring us back into the fold.
When God allows us to go through
difficulties and trials and
heartaches and burdens, what is
He doing?
He's doing it for one of several
reasons, one of which is, what?
To remind us that we belong
to Him.
We're not acting out who we are.
And to turn our mind and heart
toward Him to change our
thinking about a godly life.
"Everyone who has this hope
fixed of Him purifies himself,
just as He is pure."
That is, if I'm a child of God,
I'm going to be sensitive to the
way I'm living.
I'm going to be sensitive to my
relationship to Him.
I'm going to be sensitive to the
Word of God.
I want to read the Word of God.
I want to pray.
I want to be obedient to God.
I want to find out what God will
do in my life because I know my
life matters to God.
Think about this, watch this,
you listening?
Say amen.
You may not matter to anybody
else in the billions of people
in this world, but you matter
to God.
And if you'll think about it,
what difference does it make
that nobody cares for you if you
know that God--that you matter
to God.
That means He knows you.
He's concerned about you.
He loves you.
He's going to provide for you,
protect you, watch over you,
care for you.
He's going to ultimately fulfill
His will for your life.
Why?
Because you matter to God.
Now, with that in mind, I want
us to look at this passage and
think of terms of the evidence
of how God has so worked in our
life that we matter to Him.
And the first evidence is the
great love He has bestowed
upon us.
Think about this, why did you
get saved?
You said, "Well, I went and I
heard this powerful preacher one
day preaching so that it made me
get saved."
No, that's not it.
You got saved because you heard
the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ and God reached down into
your life through His Word,
spoke to your mind and your
heart, your emotions, your whole
being and made you realize that
you were living a life far less,
far less, way down lower than
what He had in mind for you.
And you trusted the Lord Jesus
Christ as your Savior as a
result of hearing His Word, the
conviction of the Holy Spirit to
help you to understand that God
loved you and forgives you, He
transformed your life.
So, it was your salvation.
The second thing that resolved
in all of this is that your
sanctification.
That is, the life, the godly
life that God has provided for
every single one of us, once you
trusted Jesus Christ as your
Savior, the Spirit of God sealed
you as a child of God, came to
indwell us while God sits upon
His throne in the heavens.
His Holy Spirit sits upon the
throne of our heart, guiding us,
leading us, empowering us,
endeavoring to work in our life
the life that represented and
looked something like Jesus.
And so, that's what He's
provided.
The third thing He did was what?
He began to meet your needs.
As a result of being a child of
God, He said He will supply all
of our needs, watch this,
according to His riches
in glory.
Not according to our talents,
ability, and skill and all
the rest.
He's promised to meet every need
that we have.
Why?
Watch this, because every single
point in this message is because
we matter to Him.
Think about this, the fact that
you matter means there's
a relationship.
There's a love, there's
a caring.
There's a giving.
And that's what God means.
He's saying, listen, He saves
us, He sanctifies us, and then
what does He do?
He meets our needs.
"My God shall supply all your
needs, watch this, "according to
His riches in glory."
Would you ever be able to
exhaust the riches of God?
No.
The only thing that blocks God's
blessings to you is the fact
you've become careless in your
life, indifferent to God, living
in sin, or whatever it might be.
And then I think about the most
important thing here, our
salvation, our sanctification
our needs, and watch what He
did.
As a result of God caring for us
and meeting our needs, He,
upon our salvation, sent the
Holy Spirit to indwell us.
Think--do you realize how
blessed you are?
You're indwelt by, listen,
you're indwelt by Holy God.
The Holy Spirit of God who said
to His Disciples, "You're not
ready to go preach.
You are not ready to missionize
this world.
You won't be ready till My
Spirit baptizes you, anoints you
and enables you and equips you
to be the person I've created
you to be."
So, do we matter to God?
Look at this, why?
Because I, we look at it,
salvation, our sanctification,
meets our needs, and the
Holy Spirit.
God had demonstrated His awesome
caring for us, that we
do matter.
Now, think about this, God,
who's the Sovereign of the
universe, could have said,
"Okay, I'm going to save those
who will trust Me and just see
what they do."
Well, He knew what we'd do, we'd
just mess up.
We would fail time after time
after time.
That's why He knew, watch this,
He not only had to reach down
and forgive our sins, He had to
come down Himself and indwell us
and enable us to live out the
live He'd provided for us.
Are we blessed of God or are
we not?
And so, think about this, our
life matters because He's an
awesome God who loves us with
all of His heart.
The first evidence that our life
matters is all these things He's
done for us.
Secondly, the second evidence is
that we're called the children
of God.
Now, do I matter?
Sure, I do.
Think about how you feel about
your children.
You say to your friends, "This
is my son.
This is my daughter."
You're proud of them.
You--they matter to you.
Listen, when someone matters to
you, it's going to affect your
relationship to them, the way
you speak of 'em, what you do
for 'em, how you relate to them.
When you really are involved in
that person's life, that they
matter to you, you're going to
treat 'em a certain way.
And truth of that, for example,
you work somewhere and you see
the boss working in one person's
life one way and somebody else
the other way.
And how many times have I heard
people say, "Well, I feel like
in my job, I don't matter."
And when somebody says, "I don't
care," you will never hear God
say to you, watch this, you'll
never hear God say to you,
"I don't care."
That's not in His terminology.
So, the fact that we matter to
God, we're called His children,
all these promises and blessings
that we've talked about, our
name is written in the Lamb's
Book of Life.
We belong to Him no matter
what happens.
It still matters to God what
goes on in our life.
The third evidence that our life
matters to God is, listen, it
has not yet appeared as what it
will be.
Look at our present society,
for example.
In my lifetime, it's worse than
it has ever been.
And think about this for a
moment, how did we get this way?
I'll tell you, see this Book?
I want you think about how much
time you spend in this Book in
any given day.
See this iPhone?
How much do we spend in that
versus the Word of God?
What a difference.
And so, what's happened?
Our attention has been drawn
away from God.
And the more little inventions
we find ourselves inventing is
just another way to draw us away
from God.
Am I saying the phone's
not important?
No.
Are computers important?
Yes.
But when you talk to anybody,
very few people will tell you,
I spend as much time reading the
Word of God for myself as I do
talking to my friends on the
phone about things that don't
matter at all.
What's happened to our society?
I'll tell you what's happened,
we own it, but we don't read it.
We own it, but we don't live
by it.
We are living in a society that
is totally unaware of who God is
and His Word is becoming less
and less important.
And the world's providing more
and more things that we can
involve ourselves with that
bring us supposedly pleasure.
But look at this, God knows that
the best for us is to follow the
teachings of His precious Word.
"Ask, and it shall be given to
you, seek, and you shall find,
knock, and it shall be open
to you."
"My God shall supply all of your
needs according to His riches
in glory."
He gives us His strength.
He helps us to be wise enough to
follow His laws and to follow
His will and purpose and plan
for our life.
And the Bible's full of
Scriptures of promises of God.
Where have we gone wrong?
Little by little, the world
fills our minds with things that
we used to fill it with the Word
of God.
Think about this, when Almighty
God says, "You matter to Me,"
that's God.
When God says, "You matter to
Me," what more powerful word of
encouragement could we hear
than that?
You matter to Me.
I care about you.
I'm concerned about you.
I know all about you.
I want the best for you.
I love you.
My love for you is not
conditioned.
My love for you is absolutely
unconditional.
I'm looking forward to seeing
you when I call you home.
I'm looking for to be--you being
in all that I have provided for
you in Heaven.
Where is God in this mixed up,
confused, frustrated, very
affluent world that has lost its
sense of direction?
And then I want you to notice
something else.
And that is the fourth evidence
that our life matters to God is
that we'll be like Him.
In other words, think about this
for a moment.
He says in First Corinthians,
chapter fifteen, in--is--you
know how long that chapter is
and how much God says about our
life and how much He says about
our future life and our
resurrection and all the rest.
Think about it.
The Scripture says, "But now
Christ has been raised from the
dead, the first fruits of those
who are asleep."
And then he starts talking about
how God is going to work in our
life in the resurrection.
So, think about this.
You matter to God so much that
He not only has provided for
your life now, He's provided for
your life hereafter, forever and
ever and ever.
We don't have to worry about
life after death if we've
trusted Christ as our Savior.
Our life matters to Him.
In fact, if you'll think about
it, there's not a single aspect
of your life in which God has
not involved Himself for your
past, present, and future.
And the future is that we'll
have a resurrection day.
One of these days, we're going
to be with God forever and ever
and ever.
Because He cares for us.
Because it does matter to Him.
And then, I think about in this
light: the fifth reason that our
life matters is that He desires
that you and I live a pure, holy
life by the power of the Holy
Spirit, bringing Him glory for
all eternity.
What's His desire for us?
That we live a holy life.
How can I live a holy life?
Simply obey the Holy Spirit with
whom He indwelt you.
Think about this, God does not
require anything of us He's
not provided.
He wants us to live a holy life,
so what does He do?
He indwells us with the Holy
Spirit, that we would know what
the truth is.
We'd realize He loves us.
He forgives us.
He cleanses us.
He wants the very best for us.
And He's willing to provide the
best if we're willing to
trust Him.
So, I'd simply ask you this: has
there ever been a time in your
life when you faced the reality
that you are worth something
to God?
That He cares about you?
That He loves you?
That He wants you to know what
is true, what is right,
what is best?
That you would understand that
one of these days, you're going
to die and give an account
for Him?
Has it ever dawned on you that
if you ask Him to forgive you
of your sins, He will?
If you ask Him to give you
assurance that when you die,
you'll go to Heaven, He will.
The next most important decision
you'll ever make if you're not a
Christian is the one you can
make right now, and that is to
surrender your life to Christ.
You say, "What does that mean?"
That means you confess that
you're a sinner before Him, that
you cannot change yourself, that
when Jesus went to the cross, He
went to the cross to pay your
sin debt, and it is a debt, your
sin debt in full.
And if you ask Him to forgive
you on the basis of what He did
at the cross, paying your sin
debt, if you ask Him to forgive
you, He will forgive you.
He will write your name in the
Lamb's Book of Life, never to
be erased.
And from this moment on, you can
rest assured, He will be living
within you to guide you, help
you, strengthen you, and give
you life at its very best.
Your life matters to God.
And Father, how grateful we are.
We don't have to come up with
a new idea.
We simply need to respond to
this awesome truth of the
Gospel, that You came into this
world, laid down Your life on
the cross, shed Your blood for
our sins, accepted us as your
children, written our name in
the Lamb's Book of Life, and
now we have security, real
security, the security to
forever be with You once this
life is over.
Thank you, thank you, thank you,
God, for such blessed assurance,
in Jesus's name, amen.
>> male announcer: If you've
been blessed by today's program,
please visit us at intouch.org.
>> female announcer: Life, it
get's busy.
How do you find the time to
pray?
Our Freedom Morning and Evening
Prayer bookmark offers you
prayer prompts and Scripture to
encourage and guide you through
your day.
This free bookmark will give you
a loving reminder that even
though you may not have control
of your day, you do have control
of how you start your day and
end it.
>> Dr. Stanley: You cannot start
or end your day any better than
with a word of prayer.
>> announcer: In our
spiritual journey, we often have
questions.
How do I know God's will for my
life?
Does God hear my prayers?
Why do bad things happen?
The answers are found in the
Word of God.
But how do we know where to
start?
The free In Touch Devotional can
help point you in the right
direction.
With biblically-based content
from Dr. Charles Stanley, you'll
gain insight and wisdom through
daily devotions, Bible studies,
and more.
The In Touch Devotional,
delivered monthly to you
mailbox.
Subscribe for free at
intouch.org/daily.
>> Dr. Stanley: How far are you
willing to go to trust God?
>> female: With my family.
>> male: With my home, my
future.
>> female: When things are going
great.
>> male: And when things are
going not so great.
>> female: I'm willing, but just
don't know how to completely
trust God.
>> Dr. Stanley: If you and I
genuinely love Him, and if we
really believe that His love is
perfect, we will indeed trust
Him in the most difficult times.
>> male announcer: "Can You
Still Trust God?" a new book
from Dr. Charles Stanley.
>> announcer: "In Touch,"
leading people worldwide
into a growing relationship with
Jesus Christ and strengthening
the local church.
This program is sponsored by
In Touch Ministries, and is made
possible by the grace of God and
your faithful prayers and gifts.
>> Jeff Meyer: My story begins
about 64 years ago, had a very
structured Christian background,
always felt really, really good
about going to church, but it
wasn't about a relationship with
Jesus Christ, and that was never
made clear to me.
I started seeking, knocking, and
asking, and maybe the single
most important thing out of
Charles Stanley is to be
obedient and God will take care
of the consequences of that, He
will take care of the rest.