No Greater Love

H. A baby sitter was watching her neighbor’s five- and seven-year-olds when she heard a squeal coming from the next room--then little Becky’s voice saying, "Mike, God doesn’t love you when you do things like that." Mike replied, "Yes, he does love me. He’s ... he’s just disappointed in me." – Juanita Slater, West Chester, OH. Christian Reader, "Lite Fare."

I. God loves us the way we are, but he loves us too much to leave us that way - Leighton Ford, Leadership, Vol. 4, no. 1.

J. God’s unconditional love is not a license to live as we please.

K. Hebrews 12:6 "For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives."

III. God’s Love is Unending

A. The world’s concept of love is that it is temporal and fleeting as expressed by one poet as he penned the following words:

Love has come and gone again,

We were bound and we were free,

Love beloved of wiser men

Never stays long with me. - Copied

B. Erwin Lutzer was preaching in the Midwest one day, when a woman came to him with a little girl at her side. This woman showed by the cast on her arm and some scars on the side of her face that she had been in the hospital. She said, "I was in the hospital because of a very serious fire. There were burns over two-thirds of my body. My husband walked into the hospital room, took one look at me, and said, ’You’re not the woman I married.’ " He left her to marry someone younger and more beautiful. Human love says, "As long as you stimulate me, as long as I can be proud of you, as long as you’re beautiful, I can love you. If you change, my love for you changes." - Erwin Lutzer, "Learning to Love," Preaching Today, Tape No. 99.

C. Even as God is eternal, God’s love is eternal.

D. Nothing that you and I can ever do or that will ever happen to us or in our lives will ever cause God to stop loving us.

E. Romans 8:38-39 "For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

F. Jeremiah 31:3 "The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee."

G. Life’s setbacks are temporary, but God’s love is permanent. He’s always there to take us over the rough spots, to lead us out of our slumps and into our grooves. – Professional Baseball Player Terry Pendleton, quoted in Guidepost magazine. Marriage Partnership, Vol. 11, no. 1.

H. 1 Samuel 12:22 "For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people."

IV. God’s Love is Undeniable

A. Romans 5:8 "But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

B. “Commends” – sunistemi – to show, prove, exhibit, demonstrate

C. God proves His love by not giving us what we deserve.

1. Psalms 103:10 "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities."