HOW CAN GOD LOVE ME: YOU ARE SOMEONE SPECIAL
As you remember, a while back I gave you some cards and asked you to give me some questions you have or some questions that you’ve been asked that I might be able to address. I got a number of cards in response, some of them I have addressed in weeks past. None of them, however, bothered me quite as much as the question on one of the cards. It asked, “How can God love me when I don’t even like myself?” How can God love me when I don’t even like myself?
Quite honestly, I don’t believe I can accurately or completely answer that question. No one can really explain the love of God. That is a question many people have asked and many people have struggled with since the beginning of time. That is the type of question our minds ask when we are alone, and don’t have any busyness, amusements, activities, or people to hide behind; when we stop long enough to see ourselves as we truly are instead of the person we want others to think we are. That is the type of question that comes to our minds when we think about the trillions of stars in the universe, and think about how small our planet is in the vastness of all of creation.
In the book of Job, believed to be one of the first books written in the Bible, Job asks:
> Job 7:17 What is man, that You think so highly of him and pay so much attention to him?
David asks in:
> Psalm 8:4 What is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him?
> Psalm 144:3 Lord, what is man, that You care for him, the son of man, that You think of him?
If you have messed up in life, if you have made mistakes, or stupid decisions, if you ever stop to look at some of the people you have hurt or see the holiness of God, the realization and questioning can get even worse.
Isaiah, that prophet in the Old Testament, used so greatly by God, after seeing himself next to God’s holiness said:
> Isaiah 6:5 Then I said: Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, [and] because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.
Often, the better life you live, the better person you are, and the closer you walk with God, the more you will ask that question.
The Apostle Paul was a good, moral man. He did what he believed to be right, from the beginning. Yet he asked:
> 1 Timothy 1:15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them.
He also had struggles.
- Romans 7:15,18-19, 24
> Romans 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
When you think of who God is. When you think of His goodness and holiness; when you think of how small we are and the many times we’ve messed up and the people we have either intentionally or unintentionally disappointed, or hurt, it’s easy to get down and discouraged. It’s easy to wonder how in the world a God like ours could possibly love us.
I do, however, have good news. I believe God wants you to know that you are someone special. You are someone special. You are special to God and He loves you. * Turn to someone beside you and tell him, “You are special to God. God knows you and He loves you.
Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to Luke chapter 15 and verse 1. Luke chapter 15 and beginning in verse 1. Let’s look for a moment at how special you are to God.
- Luke 15:1-7
Did you see how this passage started? Jesus was hanging out with sinners. He was hanging out with the outcasts of society. He was hanging out with folks that society would say are not the best people in the world. What did the church folk, the religious people do when they saw Jesus hanging out with the nonreligious folk? What did they do when they saw Jesus hanging out with the people from the wrong side of the tracks? They got upset. They began to complain that Jesus was spending His time with “sinners.” They complained that Jesus was hanging out with the “bad elements.” Today it would probably be the prostitutes and pushers, the homeless and helpless, the alcoholics and abusers, the liars and lechers, the abortionists and those who’ve had abortions, the unwashed and unconverted, He’d be hanging out with, and the church folk got upset.
To try and set the religious folks straight, He told them a parable about a lost sheep. …
Why in the world would Jesus, and why in the world does God think that 1 sheep is worth it?
My friend, I want you to know that you are someone special and God loves you. You are someone special because:
I. YOU ARE SOMEONE SPECIAL BECAUSE GOD MADE YOU
- Genesis 1:1,3, 6-7, 9, 11, 14, 20-21
This is an account that most of you are familiar with. These verses tell how God made everything in the beginning. Did you notice, how, God made all of those things? In each verse, on every day it says that God wanted something to be made, He spoke, and it happened.
However, when God made man, He did something different.
- Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7
You were made by the hands of God.
II. YOU ARE SOMEONE SPECIAL BECAUSE GOD MADE YOU PERSONALLY
Some have the mistaken idea that we are all the result of luck, of the chance union of our parents. Some have the mistaken idea that we are not specially, or individually made or known to God at all. David knew that wasn’t true foe He wrote in:
> Psalm 139:13 For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
My friend, God made you unique. He put you together just the way you are. He gave you the looks you have. He gave you the hair you have. He gave you the feet you have. He gave you your nose. He gave you your figure. He gave you a unique personality. There is no one else exactly like you. …
III. YOU ARE SOMEONE SPECIAL BECAUSE YOU WERE MADE IN GOD’S IMAGE
- Genesis 1:27
My friend, there is nothing in the world, there are no animals, there are no trees, there is nothing else in the world that can say it was made in the image of God, but man. Man is uniquely made, similar to His Creator, in the image of God.
That is the primary reason it is wrong to kill another person. When Cain killed Abel, why did God say it was wrong? It was because Abel and all humanity is made in the image of God.
> Genesis 9:6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, his blood will be shed by man, for God made man in His image.
My friend, you are someone special because you were made in the image of God.
IV. YOU ARE SOMEONE SPECIAL BECAUSE GOD KNOWS YOU
Sometimes, when you are alone at night, or if you camp and happen to look at the stars in the sky, it’s difficult to imagine that that God could even recognize your existence in all the vastness of the universe. But I want you to know that God knows you.
Some have the mistaken idea that God is some kind of watch maker, that He created everything and then went off and left it to run on its own. That is not the case. God knows you personally and individually.
- Luke 15:4-5
- Luke 12:6-7
God even knows how many hairs you have on your head. He knows you personally. He knows you individually. You are special to Him.
V. YOU ARE SOMEONE SPECIAL BECAUSE YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN BY GOD
- Ephesians 1:3-6
You know how good it feels to be chosen for a team? …Chosen as a child to be on a ball team. … Chosen at work to be on the team for the new project. It’s great to know that you’re wanted. My friend, if can hear this today, then I want you to know that you have been chosen by God. You have been picked to be on His team. …
* Adopted. Of the many children without parents, He has chosen you.
VI. YOU ARE SOMEONE SPECIAL BECAUSE YOU ARE LOVED BY GOD
> John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Whosoever. That whosoever includes you. No matter what you have done. No matter who you have hurt. No matter how long you have run, it’s not too late for you. God loves you.
God loves you so much that He sent His Son for you.
Some may say, “But Gene, you don’t know what I’ve done. You don’t know the people I’ve hurt. You don’t know how I’ve let God down. You just don’t know.”
You’re right. I don’t know, but God does and He loves you anyway. He loves you not because of your sin, but in spite of it.
> Romans 5:8 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us!
Did you see that? God doesn’t wait until we clean up our acts before He shows us He loves us. He doesn’t wait until we get perfect and then tell us that He loves us. If that was the case, he’d never love us. No, the Bible says that showed how much He loved us by sending Jesus Christ even before we got our acts together, even before we became Christians. God loves you.
Even if you were the one sheep, even if you’ve wandered away, even if you’re not with the group anymore, even if you’ve drifted away from what you know is right and perhaps away from the way you were raised, God loves you. You are someone special in His sight.
Karl Barth, the great 20th-century theologian, was once asked the most profound thing he had ever learned. With tears in His eyes he answered, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
Dear friend, I can’t explain how God can love you, but I do know that you are special to Him and that he loves you very much. How do I know? Because the Bible tells me so.
Now, how will you respond to God Who loves you so much? If you have never become a follower of His, you have two choices. Either you can continue to ignore Him and His love, or you can accept His love and make Him the Boss of your life.
If you are a follower of Christ, you can respond in 2 ways. You can either say, “Been there, done that”, and ignore His love. Or, you can say, “I will commit myself anew today. I will live like He loves me and like I love Him. He will be my Lord.”
My friend, God loves you. That is a fact. Do you love Him is the question.
