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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor December
16, 2001 We
don't normally think of jealousy
as an admirable character trait.
In fact it has mostly a negative
connotation in our culture. 9-The
God
Who
Fills
Heaven
and
Earth If
you look up the word "jealous" in
a dictionary, you'll begin to
understand why the Bible says
that God is jealous. Jealous
can mean, "concerned about being
supplanted or
replaced." It
is the record of humanity that
supplanting or trying to replace
God is what we have done over and
over again. This
concerns God for two
reasons: 1)
He loves us and wants us to be in
right relationship with Him; The
word "jealous" can also mean
"vigilant in guarding
something." In
2 Timothy 1:10 Paul
writes: In
John 10:28-30 Jesus said of those
who believe: Our
God is a jealous God. He is
vigilant in guarding us from the
enemy of our souls. "Jealous"
can also mean, "intolerant of
disloyalty or
infidelity." The
other night I witnessed a good
example of this in the lives of
those two eminent theologians,
Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Lucy and
Ethyl cooked up a scheme to make
Ricky jealous. Fred overheard
their scheming and told Ricky, so
when Lucy tried to make him
jealous, Ricky played it cool and
showed no signs of jealously at
all. What
do you think that did to
Lucy? The
truth is we
want
those we love to be jealous --
within reason of course --
because if they're not it says
they don't really care, they
don't really value our
relationship. Our
God is a jealous. He does not
want running after other
gods. You
were probably expecting a
Christmas sermon today, and
you're wondering what all this
talk about God's jealous nature
has to do with
Christmas. Think
about it. When we celebrate that
fact that God became a human
being and came to us. He
came to get us, to claim us for
Himself. A
jealous God came to rescue His
beloved from the clutches of sin.
He came to claim the Bride of His
choosing, so that we might
forsake all other gods and be
with Him forever. Our
God is a jealous God.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
Ministry
of the
Word:
Recent
sermons
Our quarterly e-magazine
Gateway
Today
For the Gateway family
Pastor
Jerry's Weekly
E-Mail
A
GATEWAY SERMON
A
jealous God
(First
in the series, Knowing
God)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
whose name is Jealous, is a
jealous God.
(Exodus
34:14).
Yet we have emphatic assertions
in Scripture that our God is "a
jealous God."
In
this
series
First
in His affections
2)
He knows that without Him we will
get ourselves in serious trouble.
He knows that life without Him
leads to death and
hell.
Guarding
what is HisI
know whom I have believed and
I am convinced that He is able
to guard what I have entrusted
to Him until that day, meaning
to the day of
judgment.
I
give them eternal life, and
they shall never perish; no
one can snatch them out of my
hand. My Father, who has given
them to me, is greater than
all; no one can snatch them
out of my Father's hand. I and
the Father are one.
No
other gods
Christmas
and God's jealousy
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
011216a: A Jealous
God.
©
2001 Gerald R.
Varnado