Why God Never Gives Up On You | The Deep End

Well, hey, everybody. My name is Jordan. I want to welcome you to The Deep End, and I'm excited to spend a few minutes with you today talking about a question that I think every single one of us has asked at some point in our lives. The question is, has God given up on me? Sometimes it feels like everybody else has given up on you. I know there's been moments in my life, personally, where it's felt like people have walked away from me for a time, or people have stopped believing in me. There's decisions that I've made in the past that I wish I could erase or take back, and at times it feels like people have given up on me and counted me out, which then leads me to ask, has God given up on me as well? Could God ever use somebody like me? And maybe you can connect with that question, and I'm here today to tell you, God has not given up on you. God never gives up on you. His love does not quit. It doesn't fade away, and it doesn't keep score. So even when you fall, even when you mess up, he never, not once, turns his back on you. So I want to share two verses from the Bible with you that I believe will resonate with you and impact your life very deeply. The first one is from a book called Philippians. This is chapter one, verse six, and it says, I am certain that God who began the good work within you will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Jesus returns. Main point is that God has started something in your life, and if he started something, he's going to finish it. That means that if you have a relationship with God, he's always working in you and through you.

Even if it feels like your story got interrupted, even if it feels like things have not gone according to plan, even if this is not how you envisioned parts or pieces or moments of your life playing out, I can think of several times in my life personally where I thought that I had messed up too badly for God to still want to use someone like me. I thought that the things that I had done had disqualified me from ever being used by God. But over time, I learned something, and it took me a long time, but I'm starting to understand and realize that God doesn't throw people away. God wants to rebuild people. God doesn't want to get rid of you. He actually wants to restore you. He's patient, and he's working in you and through your life even when you can't see it, which means that if you are still breathing, God wants to do good work in you and through you. He wants to take your story and connect it to his bigger, better, and greater story. It gets even better. God doesn't want to just use you to do something great. He actually wants to change your life through his love and through his grace. The next verse from the Bible that I want to share with you is from Psalm 23, verse 6. This is what it says. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. God's mercy is always chasing you down. The author of this verse is a man named David, and I can identify with the story of David because he was a man who had some incredibly high highs, great moments of victory, and incredibly powerful moments of God moving in his life. But also, he had moments of depression, anxiety, fear, worry, doubt, and even grief. And there were times in his life where David tried to run away from his problems and to run away from God. I can think back on some distinct moments in my personal life where I tried to run away

from God. I wanted to do things on my own. And when I got myself into some trouble, I was ashamed and I was embarrassed because of the decisions that I had made. But I realized that God is not chasing us down to punish us or because he's mad at us. No, he's pursuing us with his goodness and his mercy so that he can restore us. David learned that it is impossible to outrun God's mercy. There's nothing that you have done or could ever do in your life that could separate you from the love of God. In fact, at the beginning of Psalm 23, the writer David says, The Lord is my shepherd. There are many areas of the Bible where God is described as a shepherd, someone who oversees for sheep. and cares for their well-being, and when one of those sheep wanders away and gets into some trouble, God, the Good Shepherd, chooses to leave all of the sheep that are safe in order to search and track down and chase down the one that is lost. And the Bible says that when that lost sheep is discovered, God the Shepherd rejoices because what was lost has now been found. God is always ready to remind you that you are welcomed home by Him with open arms. He's the Good Shepherd who is always pursuing you with goodness, love, and mercy. So you might be hearing all this and you might be wondering, this sounds great, but what am I actually supposed to do with all of this? This week, I just want to challenge you to do something really simple, but I believe it could have profound impact on your life. I want you to try to find one quiet moment each day, maybe when you wake up, maybe right before you go to bed, and I just want you to say these words, God has not given up on me. God has not given up on me. Even if you've had a rough day, even if you've failed again and did the exact thing that you said you weren't gonna do, say it anyways because it's true, God hasn't given up on me. Remind yourself that God is faithful to continue working in your life as long as you have breath in your lungs. Remind yourself that God's love and God's mercy

are following you and accessible to you every single day of your life. These simple yet powerful truths have changed my life, and I believe that they could change your life as well. God never quits on you. His love doesn't keep score. His mercy is chasing you down, and the same God who began good work in you, he's gonna finish that good work, and he's the good shepherd who's watching over you, who's caring for you, and who never gives up on you. Thank you so much for taking some time to watch this video. It's been an honor to spend a few minutes with you today, and remember, God never gives up on you. Thanks for watching The Deep End. I'm Chuck Mingo, one of the pastors at Crossroads, and we would love to come alongside you. If you have a prayer request or you want to reach out to Crossroads, you can do that at prisonsatcrossroads.net. You can also find that information on our page on the Pando app, and we would love to come alongside of you if you're looking for reentry support. You can email reentryatthe47.org, and we would love to come alongside you in that way. Let me pray for you. God, thank you for the person who is watching right now. I thank you that you know them, you see them, and you are for them, and we are for them at Crossroads, and I pray, God, that they would sense that. I pray for joy. I pray for peace, and I pray that they would be able to walk in your power in a unique and fresh way. In Jesus' name, amen.