Skip to content God’s Call: Living Beyond the Ordinary || Pastor Gerald Brooks Nov 21 · 44 min ...more
God’s Call: Living Beyond the Ordinary || Pastor Gerald Brooks
November 21, 2024 · 44 min
Series Patria Sermons November 21, 2024 · 44 min · Patria Sermons
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492K followers
Adam Mesa is Lead Pastor of Patria Church and speaks to a congregation of 12,000 about how the gospel of Jesus Christ brings purpose to every life. Patria
492K followers
God's Unimaginable Love 0:00 My name is Gerald Brooks for those of you that don't know me. I have the privilege to be a pastor in Plano, Texas. It's the North Dallas area, and I've had the privilege of being in ministry for 48 years and some0:12 43 years ago. My wife and I, Jenny, started the church that we are at now and God through the grace and mercy has blessed it. But it is always a0:23 thrill here. 1 of the things that I love so much is coming to this particular congregation, not only for the vitality that each 1 of you bring, but for the faithfulness0:35 that Adam and Nathan and Diego have brought and their lovely brides. It is an honor. See, you don't know me, but I get to go to a lot of churches. And you don't0:47 know me, and you don't really get to know what I get to do. But in a given year, I will minister in some way to over 13000 churches in America. But of those0:59 churches that I will minister in using 1 of the platforms that God's given me, most of them have problems that they're dealing with. There are stresses that they're going through, But 1 of the reasons I1:11 love coming here is that because of Adam, Nathan, and Diego, this is a healthy church. And I love being in this place. I don't have to walk in and1:23 fix it, I get to just walk in and enjoy it and that is an honor. Heavenly Father, help us Lord tonight as we take a journey with You. Father, anytime1:35 we come to church, we can just walk in a building or we can walk into the throne room. We can just go through the motions of religion, or we can enjoy a relationship. We can1:46 just hear words, or we can open our heart to your words. And today, Lord, we choose your words over any other words. Thank you for speaking to us, ministering to us,1:58 breathing life into us, and helping us to be more like Jesus than ever before. And we all agree together saying, Amen. Tonight, I want to talk to you2:10 about some God facts. God facts. Just some simple facts about God and you. Not just facts about God,2:22 but facts about God and you. The first fact is this. God loves you more than you can imagine. God loves2:34 you more than you can imagine. You know, it's sad that in our society today that there's just so many people who feel like they've2:46 never been loved in life. They feel like they've never been cared for. They feel like that no one's ever looked at them with a special eye, with a sense of inclination of them being wanted and2:58 them being valued. But what I can say to you is in the midst of a world where maybe that hasn't been prolific, God loves you more than you can3:09 imagine. And Paul gives us this wonderful verse where he talks about how God wants to wrap his arms around you. And when he wraps his arms around you, he says, as he whispers in3:21 your ear, he says, I want you to know what is the length, the depth, the breadth, and the height of my love towards you. Imagine as a parent3:33 taking that child that you love, and you begin to hold them tight, and you begin to whisper in their ear. That's how God loves you. He holds you tight and he says,3:45 I want you to know the length, the depth, the breadth, and the height of the love that I have towards you. But the problem is sometimes when we say, Well, God loves you, it's sort3:57 of 1 of those stereotype sayings people just say, Well, yeah, God loves me. And it's just sort of like 1 of those church sayings, but they don't get the magnitude of what that means.4:09 I believe there's some stories in the Bible that help us understand what it means to be loved by God. 1 of those stories is from Isaiah chapter4:21 42 and verse 3. In there it says this, Isaiah speaking of the Messiah, our Lord and Savior Jesus, he says this. It says,4:32 A bruised reed he will not cast away. Now, that doesn't sound very current to us, so let me just illustrate it. See, people4:44 in the Old Testament were like David many times, they were shepherds. They would go out into the fields, and they would just watch over the flocks, the sheep that they were responsible. Well, they couldn't4:56 pick up their cell phone and play a favorites list. They couldn't begin to tune into a radio. They didn't have XM, they didn't have Sirius, and so as a result of that, they had to make their own music.5:08 And what would happen is because the sheep many times were around the ponds, reeds would begin to grow up. And these reeds, the shepherds would cut 1 off and begin to5:20 drill little holes in it because on the inside, there was sort of this area there that you could breathe through. And in the middle of that, with these holes, they would put their fingers on and it would become5:32 their version of a flute, and they would begin to make music. But what would happen is is that the shepherd would literally get busy taking care of the sheep,5:44 and many times, as they had 1 of those reeds, it would break, or it would get bruised, it would get bent. And so the easy thing was, is there were reeds everywhere, they'd5:56 just throw them away. They would just literally say, hey, I'll get another 1. I can replace this. But what God says is that he doesn't6:08 replace things that have been bruised and damaged. How many of you are happy for that? Because most of us in our relationship with God, we come with6:19 some bruises and we come with some damage, and a lot of people would look at us and say, I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to deal with the damaged things. I don't want to deal with the bruised6:31 things, but what God says is a bruised reed, He won't throw away. God doesn't throw away what everyone else throws away. God doesn't give up on what everyone6:43 else gives up on. He keeps it. Now see, that's how we are. I grew up in a lower middle class family.6:56 The lower middle class meant that when I was growing up, which you can tell I'm pretty old, was a long, long time ago, but when we were growing up, our family didn't have much money, which meant7:07 that there were places we didn't shop. I mean, early on, you begin to realize there are stores and there are some stores you don't go into because they're just not the7:19 stores you can afford. But there were stores that we could afford, but they weren't the high end stores, they were down here kind of stores. But even those stores were a little bit7:31 unique, because we didn't shop in the regular place in those stores. There was usually a place in those stores where it had damaged and defective goods,7:44 and that's where my mom would shop for our clothes. And so, she would go back there, and she would begin to sort through and look at the shirts and look at the pants. Now, those shirts7:56 and pants, many times, look good, but there might be just a little bit of flaw in it. There might be a little place that the shirt had been nicked, or maybe the material had been pulled.8:08 And the reason she shot back there is because you could get those goods cheaper than any other goods. And so, a shirt that may have a little pull in it, that8:20 would cost maybe a few dollars, it would cost just a couple of dollars. And so, that's where we bought our clothes. We bought them from the damaged good, the8:32 flaw section. But do you know what? God's sort of interesting when it comes to his relationship with you, because he loves you more than you can8:44 imagine. God found you in the damaged goods sections. He found you with some flaws. But8:56 you know what God said when it came to checkout? He said, I'm going to pay full price. Because I see something in them that no 1 else sees. See,9:08 there wasn't a half price cross. There wasn't a discounted cross. Everybody else would9:20 say, hey, I found some flaws in there and I'm not paying full price for that. And you've seen people go up and literally negotiate as they're checking out, and God sat there and said, well this thing has9:32 flaws in it. He said, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna pay full price for them. And see, that's more love than most of us ever imagined.9:43 Because some of you, every day you wake up and you think about your flaws and you think of your defects. And you think that you're not worth anything. And you think that you're not important. And9:55 you think that you're not valuable. But God looks at you and He says, I paid full price for you. The world may have discounted you, but I didn't. The world may10:07 have said that you're flawed, but I paid full price for you. The world may say that you have defects, but I paid the full price for you because I see something in you that is different than anyone else10:21 sees. And do you know this simple thought isn't complex? But if I could get some of you to believe it, it would change how you view your life and you view yourself. Because some of you10:33 look in the mirror every morning, and when you look in the mirror, you see every flaw, you see every defect, you see every failure. But when God looks at you, he looks at someone he paid full10:45 price for. So why in the world do Christians live down here when God paid a price for them up here? And10:56 the reason they do is that they've never come to terms that God loves them more than they could ever imagine. Maybe no 1 else has11:08 ever loved you, but God's loved you. Maybe no 1 else has ever cared, but God cares. Maybe no 1 else has ever esteemed you, but God has. You know there's an11:20 interesting verse in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 8. And that verse says this, Put on the breastplate of faith and love. Now11:32 most people know about the breastplate of righteousness from Ephesians chapter 6. But if you want to know what the breastplate of righteousness is, just look at what he says in 1 Thessalonians chapter11:44 5 and verse 8. He describes it, and whenever God becomes his own commentator on his own verse, take that verse for what it means. He says, The breastplate of righteousness,11:56 that's what went over your heart. He said, It's the breastplate of faith and love. And someone says, Well, what does that mean? It means this,12:08 believing that God loves you just like he loves Jesus. Oh, I just blew some of you out of the water. I can believe he loves me, but not the way he loved12:19 Jesus. But see, in John chapter 17, and I believe it's in verse 23, Jesus prayed this prayer. He said, Lord show them that you love them just like you12:31 love me. See most people have never come to terms with the first fact, that God loves you12:43 more than you imagine. They've never believed in the love that God has for them. Now, they sing about it, they worship about it,12:55 they say it to 1 another, Hey, God loves you. But they've never believed in it. I remember this story, it was 1 of those stories that was wonderful, but it was horrible at the same time.13:08 It involved a young lady decades ago, who grew up in a family that was abusive. Things were done to her that should never be done to any child. Things happened to13:20 her that should have never happened. But this was back in the day that people didn't report things, they just whispered things. Everyone in the community knew that this girl was13:32 being mistreated. But this girl never had anyone come to her aid. No 1 ever called, no 1 ever reported it. So she lived with it.13:44 The thing about this little girl was that she grew up, and she had this friend in the community that was about her age and they grew up together.13:57 This friend would help her when she was going through these painful moments of just being there with her. But 1 day this girl got old enough that she ran away and she left14:09 town. No 1 else came to help her so she just took off. And this little girl that was her friend hadn't seen her. But it was a few14:21 years later, they ended up meeting up and they're both young moms and they both have kids. They're literally at a playground watching their kids play. As they're watching their14:32 kids play, the 1 girl who had been the friend of the girl who had been abused, just looked at her and said, I just want to ask you a question.14:45 She said, Well, what's the question? She said, I don't understand you. How did you turn out so normal? All the stats say that14:57 what happened to you, you should be a drug addict, you should be an alcoholic, you shouldn't be married, you should be divorced, and you15:09 shouldn't have kids. But when I look at you, you have a wonderful husband. When I look at you, you have a wonderful set of kids. When I look at you,15:21 you have a wonderful family. Everything about you speaks of a wonderful life. How is it with everything that happened to you that you turned out15:33 so well? And the girl that had gone through so much looked at her friend and said this, I guess God had more love15:46 than they had hate. See, some of you have been that little girl, and you've experienced the hurt and the hate15:58 of this life. But the truth of the matter is, that little girl, it's not a preacher story, it's a real story, had somehow found16:10 that God loved her more than she could imagine. In your life, can you come to terms with the God fact that God16:22 loves you? And God loves you more than you can imagine. And maybe you've been through the hurt and the heartache, and you've been through the pain, and you've been16:34 through the disappointment, But God doesn't take a bruised reed and throw it away. He doesn't take what everyone else sees as damaged and said, I'm not16:46 going to mess with it. He pays full value for it because he sees the value in you. And for some, I pray what Paul prayed,16:58 that you would know what is the length, the depth, the breadth and the height. You guys are starting a church down in Alameda. There's a true story about17:09 a pastor who worked the streets down there. So the nature of his job was that he would work with many people that made their living on the streets.17:21 It's not easy ministry. It's tough ministry because he's helping people that are making a living in a way that is so challenging.17:33 But what he had was, he had 1 individual, a lady, that she had worked the street so long and so often, that she was17:45 now sick and she was going to die. He would go to her bedside in this little shack of an area and begin to talk to her about Jesus. But there's nothing17:57 he could say to convince this young lady that God loved her. He wanted her to know that, but this lady knew that her lifestyle had not18:09 been right. And she kept saying to him, You know what? There's no way God would love me. She kept getting sicker and sicker, and it was getting18:21 close to her leaving this planet. And he prayed, he said, God, give me some way to reach her. And then 1 day, as he was sitting by her bedside trying to convince her18:33 of the love of God, he looked over and he saw this little picture on a nightstand. And he looked over and he said, Who's that? The lady smiled in the midst of her18:44 pain and said, That's my daughter. I gave her up for adoption, I've never seen her, but I love her so much. He looked at the lady and said, Why do you have18:57 that picture on your nightstand? She said, Because I love her. The pastor looked and said, I want you to know in Heaven, God has your picture19:09 on his nightstand. See, fact number 1 about God is this, he loves you more than you can imagine.Show more In this video 0:00 God's Unimaginable Love19:20 God's Purpose and Power Within
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