God's Unfailing Love

God’s Unfailing Love

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

OPENING: - In 1966 Dionne Warwick sang a song titled “What the world needs now”. The word were What the world needs now is love sweet love, It’s the only thing that there's just too little of, What the world needs now is love sweet love, No, not just for some but for everyone,

Lord we don't need another mountain, There are mountains and hillsides, Enough to climb

There are oceans and rivers, Enough to cross, enough to last till the end of time,

What the world needs now is love sweet love, It’s the only thing that there's just too little of,

What the world needs now is love sweet love. No not just for some but for everyone.

Our world is filled with brokenness, heartache, sadness, prejudice, hatred, contempt, bitterness, animosity, and hostility. Tensions are high, Emotions are on edge, Relationships are breaking down, the governmental system has failed, medical reliability failed, security and stability is crumbling. Violence, war, sickness, disease, and unrest are mere indicators that things in this world are not the way they are supposed to be.

Political, racial, judicial, and economical divide has people separated in ways that seem to be an unsurmountable task of ever having unity and peace again. People carrying assault rifles to the State Capitol building protesting against an order that was put in place to possibly save their lives, vigilante crimes being done based on racial profiling which in turn is nothing more than a modern-day lynching. Police killing a black man by putting his knee on his neck for nearly 9 minutes. Unrest, confusion, and agitation seem to be the normal emotions people are carrying instead kindness, gentleness, and happiness. People living in the streets without food to eat, unemployment on the rise, yet we are sending rockets and satellites high into the sky.

We undeniably live in a world that is truly crying out for love and this is or at least should be the desire of everyone’s heart that this world would be a better place. However, it is also something that we find ourselves struggling to pin down, perpetually chasing after and never being completely satisfied.

There is a longing to make sense of our world and to make it right. When everything looks like it could fail, the question becomes: - Is there anything that can give us that sense of security and make our broken world right? The answer Yes and it is only found in God’s unfailing love.

PRAYER

SCRIPTURE:- (KJV) 1 Corinthians 13:8 “Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away” (NLT) Psalm 33:18 “But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love” (NIV) Proverbs 19:22 “What a person desires is unfailing love; better to be poor than a liar”.

1 Corinthians 13 is called the Love chapter because it tells what Love is, what Love does and what is does not do. Verses 4-8 says “Charity (Love) suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things Charity (Love) never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away”.

The word faileth Paul uses describe the demise of a flower as it falls to the ground, withers, and decays. It carries the meaning of death and abolishment. God’s love, says the apostle, will never fall to the ground, wither, and decay. By its nature, it is permanent.

1 John 4:8 & 16 “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him”

LOVE describes the nature of God, provides the basis of Christian ethics, and manifests the object of Christian faith and the culmination of Christian hope.

LOVE is how God deals with his creation. It was this Love that was shown to us through the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ – John 3:16 says “For God so LOVED the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life”.

Both the Old and New Testaments paint a wonderful picture of this love that originates from God, because God is love and love is God, we can be assured that this highest form of love is an unfailing love.