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God’s Love For Us
Contributed by Dennis Lee on Aug 3, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: A sermon on God's love, and how He loves us deeply, beyond anything we could ever imagine.
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God’s Love For Us
Alice thought she had the perfect fiancé. As she was getting to know Michael and his family, she was very impressed by how much his parents loved each other. “They’re so thoughtful,” she said. “Why, your dad even brings your mom a cup of hot coffee in bed every morning.”
Alice and Michael got married, and as they were leaving the wedding, Alice again remarked on Michael’s loving parents and his mom’s morning coffee in bed. She said, “Tell me, does it run in the family?”
And Michael replied, “It sure does, but you should know that I take after my mom.”
One morning a woman woke up and told her husband of a dream. “I just dreamed that you gave me a pearl necklace for Valentine’s Day. What do you think it means?”
Her husband replied, “Honey, you’ll know what it means tonight.”
That evening, her husband came home with a small package and gave it to his wife. Delighted, she opened it to find a book entitled, “The Meaning of Dreams.”
When it comes to relationships, love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but when it comes to our relationship with God, His love exceeds our wildest imagination, and that’s because from the very beginning, from the time God created us, and here’s the really neat part, He didn’t have to love us.
Think about this, God doesn’t need us; rather He wants us. God loves us, and it isn’t something He’s forced to do; rather He loves us because He chose us from the very foundation of the world to be His special people, that is, His bride.
In the song we sang earlier, “The Love of God,” it describes God’s love as “greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.” It goes on to say that if the skies were a scroll, the oceans full of ink, and every stalk on earth a writing quill, we still couldn’t write of how much God loves us.
God loves us deeply beyond anything we could ever imagine, and He longs for every one of us to experience the fullness of His love. And here’s something else that’s neat, God offers us the kind of love we need the most. If we want real love, ideal love, perfect love, it’s not going to be found in any relationship outside of a relationship with God. Only God’s love is big enough to meet all of our needs.
What I’d like to do is to share some ideas and concepts about God’s love for us.
1. God Loves Us Just Because
While Valentines Day is long gone and over, God’s love for us will never be over. As I stated earlier, God loves us deeply and He longs for us to experience that love.
One significant aspect of God’s love is that God loves us just because. Why “just because,” because we are His special treasures and He desires to draw us into a deeper love relationship with Him. Therefore He lures us away from those things that compete for our affection.
“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” (Jeremiah 31:3 NKJV)
Every minute of every day since we heard God’s call to come and meet with Him, He’s been pursuing a love relationship with us, seeking to draw us close as a mother draws her child. He wants us near Him.
God loves us “just because,” which means that while His love defies logic, it still has reason.
First, it’s because God’s love for us is a part of His very nature. God is love. And because of His love for us He tells us to love others.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” (1 John 4:7 NKJV)
In fact, God loved us so much He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us, to take our place and die the death we deserve.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
And so God loves us because God is love.
Second, He loves us because He made us, and while sin has destroyed some of that design, God still loves us because each of us has a unique value. In fact, God made us to have a relationship with Him.
“God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.’” (Genesis 1:26 NKJV)
We’ve been made in God’s image and according to His likeness, and so within our DNA lay the potential of having an intimate relationship with God.
The Bible says God set His affection upon His people to love them, not because they were more numerous or greater than all the other people groups, but rather quite the opposite, He chose to love them. It says He “set His love,” that is, God fastens His love upon us, meaning that God’s love will hold onto us and won’t let go. The Bible says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:38-39)