THE LORD WILL NOT LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU - 7 FOUNDATIONS FOR OUR FAITH AND CONFIDENCE
OUTLINE
1. CONNECTION
2. COURAGE
3. CONFIRMATION
4. COMPLETION
5. COVENANT
6. COMMANDMENTS
7. CONTRITION
THE MESSAGE
THE LORD WILL NOT LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU
1. CONNECTION
The Lord will not leave us or forsake us .He will be with us as He was with our fathers .He will stay with us and cause our hearts to turn towards Him and be connected with him. His presence with us develops an intimacy and a closeness with Him . As a result our hearts are drawn towards Him and we develop a lifestyle that is pleasing to Him.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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I Kings 8:56-61
"Praise be to the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses.
May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us.
May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep the commands, decrees and laws he gave our ancestors.
And may these words of mine, which I have prayed before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need,
so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.
And may your hearts be fully committed to the Lord our God, to live by his decrees and obey his commands, as at this time."
Psalm 22:4-5 ,24
In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.
To you they cried out and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.
2.COURAGE
The Lord will not leave us nor forsake us. This gives us the courage and confidence to face any forces that may rise against us . He will be with us in times of danger and opposition and cause us to triumph over our enemies. David had this courage and confidence when he faced Goliath. Because the Lord is with us we need not fear about what man may do unto us.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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Joshua 1:5
No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.
Hebrews 13:5-6
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."
So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?"
1 Samuel 17:41-47
Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David.
He looked David over and saw that he was little more than a boy, glowing with health and handsome, and he despised him.
He said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
"Come here," he said, "and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and the wild animals! "
David said to the Philistine, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel.
All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands."
3.CONFIRMATION
The Lord will not leave us nor forsake us . He will confirm and fulfill the promise He has given to us . Just as He was with the people of Israel until they entered the promised land He would be with us until we inherit the promises He has given to us . His promises do not fail and will be confirmed by Him. He will not leave us nor forsake us until we enjoy the fulfillment of His promises.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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Deuteronomy 31:6-8
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you."
Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, "Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the Lord swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance.
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
4.COMPLETION
The Lord will not leave us nor forsake us. He will be with us until we complete the task He has entrusted to us. Just as He was with Solomon until he had built the temple of the Lord , He will be with us until the completion of the work we are doing for the Lord. We must trust in His faithfulness and not become discouraged or weary in our labours for the Lord.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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I Chronicles 28:20
David also said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous, and do the work. Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the temple of the Lord is finished.
Philippians 1:6
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
5.COVENANT
The Lord will not leave us nor forsake us. He has made a covenant with us . We are His people and we carry His name. Therefore for His Name’s sake He will not forsake us . We are not alone in this world . We are the people of God who have a covenant relationship with Him. There is a protection in this covenant . The Lord will not forsake us because of His covenant with us.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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I Samuel 12 :22
For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own.
6.COMMANDMENTS
The Lord will not leave us nor forsake us. When we keep His commandments and walk in His ways He gives us the assurance of His presence and His protection . He will not forsake us because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight . It is a great security to live a life according to His commandments .We are sure that He will not leave us nor forsake us . He wil be us at all times and help us in every circumstance we may face in our life.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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I Kings 6:11-14
The word of the Lord came to Solomon:
"As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father.
And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel."
So Solomon built the temple and completed it.
7.CONTRITION
The Lord will not leave us nor forsake us. We may go away from Him in rebellion and face severe troubles and trauma. But when we repent and turn towards Him He will be merciful to us .He will not fail us nor destroy us . He will not despise the broken and contrite heart . We can come back to Him in sincere repentance and be assured of His unfailing mercy towards us. King Manasseh did great evil before the Lord and as a result ended up as a prisoner . In captivity he greatly humbled himself before God and received God’s mercy in his life and was restored to his throne.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
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Deuteronomy 4:25-31
After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time--if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger,
I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.
The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.
There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him.
For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.
2 Chronicles 33 :9-13
But Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the Lord had destroyed before the Israelites.
The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.
So the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.
In his distress he sought the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.
And when he prayed to him, the Lord was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord is God.
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