Jesus--The Rejected Lover Series

One man who grew up raising chickens in Canada relates an amazing story. One day his chicken coop caught fire. They finally extinguished the fire before too much damage occurred. As they searched through the rubble, they found a dead hen near her nest. The hen’s feathers were scorched from the smoke and fire. As he lifted the burned hen from the ashes, he was surprised to see movement below the mother hen. Four small chicks scurried out from under her outstretched wings chirping and cheeping. She could have escaped herself, but she chose to protect her young. There are some great lessons here. Jesus made a way to shelter us from eternal judgement–and He died in the process. There is a great promise given to us about this in Psalm 91:4. The Bible says, “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge.” Of course God doesn’t really have feathers, He isn’t a chicken with literal wings. The point is God wants to shelter and protect you from harm. That leads us to our

Personal Application: The only safe place in the universe is under God’s love

Jesus weeps because the Jews didn’t seek shelter under His love. Are you hiding under the wings of God? Smart chicks stay close to the mother hen because there’s a lot of danger in the chicken yard. Some of you have wandered away from the protection and the love of God. Oh, God still loves, you, it’s just that you refuse to remain under His care. There is a very important verse in the little book of Jude that many people have missed. Jude only has one chapter and in verse 21 he writes: “Stay right at the center of God’s love...keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 21, The Message) This doesn’t mean you can make God stop loving you, and there is nothing you can do to make yourself any more or less lovable with God. His love is absolutely unconditional. This verse challenges us to remain in what I call “the Zone of Blessing.” When you are driving along and you enter a school zone, you should slow down. There’s usually a sign that says “leaving school zone” so you can resume the lawful speed limit. You are either in the zone or out of it. It would be wonderful if God would post some kind of sign that had the warning: “YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE ZONE OF GOD’S BLESSING. YOU ARE LEAVING THE CIRCLE OF GOD’S LOVE!”

In a few weeks we will get to the Luke 15 where Jesus tells the story of a son who demanded his inheritance and then left home. The prodigal son left the zone of his father’s blessing, but His father never stopped loving him. He left the circle of his father’s affection. Whenever you disobey and rebel against God, He doesn’t stop loving you, but your disobedience causes you to walk out of the zone of blessing. My dad always loved me, but there were times when I was a teenager that I rebelled and he couldn’t really bless me the way he wanted; I left the zone by my stupid rebellion.

That’s why we are told to “stay right in the center” of God’s love. The Greek verb is the word tareo. (tay-ree’-o) It’s a word that was used of a prisoner who was “locked in prison.” We should make sure we are locked into the center of God’s love and then we should throw away the key! Like those little chicks Jesus spoke of, we should stay under the protective wings of God. We should be like a little child running to a parent with our arms outstretched and open–and get back into the zone of His blessing and grace. Some of you are Christians and God loves you, but you have left the shelter of His love. Today, you can come back to Him and get back into the center of His love. Finally, we see