SCRIPTURE REFERENCE:
John 3:16 (NIV)
INTRODUCTION:
I am sharing on a subject this morning that we all need to know about, but also need to experience. It is something that will change our past, our present and redirect our future.
I have titled my sermon this morning: God loves you!!!!!!!!!!
Did you know that you and I are the focus of God’s affection?
Ian Loughor-Clarke
The love of God is an essential attribute and supreme expression of God’s personhood and is the capstone of His personality.
I find it an overwhelming and incredibly challenging task, trying to put into words this incredible reality. You and I cannot even begin to understand the greatness of God until we read: John 3:16 and even then we will never be able to fully understand God’s love. It consists of only one sentence. However, there is so much truth found in this sentence that I could share on if for the rest of the year and then still not do it justice. I will, however, try to give you a better understanding this morning as we have a look at some of the truths of God’s love.
A.W. Tozer once said, “I can no more do justice to this awesome and wonder-filled topic than a child can grasp a star. Still, by reaching toward the star the child may call attention to it and even indicate the direction one must look to see it. And so, I stretch my heart toward the high, shining love of God so that we may be encouraged to look up and have hope.”
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Do you know that the love of God is unlike any other love that we can experience? There is no other like it on this planet. It has been said that there is no greater love than a mother’s love, but this is not true because there has never yet been a mother who can love like God loves, nor a father for that matter. That amazes me, because I adore my children and kiss them and bite them and hug them and squeeze them every single day of their lives and tell them how much I love them all the time. Yet I still do not come close to His love. It is much greater, wider, stronger, deeper, higher, longer and bigger than the love of anyone, even a newly wed couple. This means that the love of God must be unusual, foreign and truly out of this world and that is what it is.
When you go through the New Testament, there are three primary words for love:
Eros romantic love, erotic love etc.
Phileo brotherly love, friendship love etc.
Agape unconditional love.
We mostly focus on romantic or brotherly love in life. However God wants us to be like Him and love the way that He loves and that is to have an unconditional love. Now that is something in life worth striving for because it is the one thing worth pursuing; the deepest and most sincere love that there can be.
We normally love because someone is good to us or pleases us or makes us laugh or they are kind to us or because they’re good looking, and if not, then they do not receive our love. That means our love is conditional and that is not agape love and God wants that to change.
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
The greatest Lover – for God
The greatest degree – so loved
The greatest company – the world
The greatest act – that he gave
The greatest gift – his one and only Son,
The greatest opportunity – that whoever
The greatest simplicity – believes
The greatest attraction – in him
The greatest promise – shall not perish,
The greatest position – but have eternal life
Let us have a careful look at some aspects of the Love of God.
1. GOD’S LOVE IS UNCONDITIONAL.
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
When it says the world, it means every single last person on this planet.
God’s love is the reason we exist and why He created us.
The Bible says in John 15:18 that the world hated Jesus 18, yet this does not change the love of God. If someone hates you, do you love him or her back?
I think we are very lucky, blessed or whatever word you would like to use, when you think about the fact that He does not love based on our love for Him or our moral lifestyle or our spiritual condition. No. He loves us because He chooses to love us and that is that. Period.
The one thing that makes Christianity unique and separates it from all other religions of the world is that God loves freely and without charge. He loves all of mankind. There is no other religion like this in the world. We do not have to do anything to receive His love, because He just loves us.
Never ever forget that the love of God is unconditional and undeserved, yet it is available to all of us.
Philip Yancey once wrote: “There is nothing we can do to make God love us more. There is nothing we can do to make God love us less.”
No matter what we are or do in this world, the love of God is the same for all. He hates the sin of mankind, but loves mankind with a love that never ends.
On the walls of an insane asylum were scrawled the following words by some unknown patient in the institution:-
“Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made,
and every blade of grass a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade:
to write the love of God to man,
would drain the ocean dry,
nor could the scroll contain the whole
though it stretches from sky to sky.
Even inside one of the darkest places on the face of this earth
the love of God reaches.”
So never ever forget that God’s love for you is unconditional and not based on what you do or do not do.
2. GOD’S LOVE IS SACRIFICIAL.
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
There is no such thing as love without the demonstration of love in tangible ways.
Ian Loughor-Clarke
He loved us by giving, by serving, by sacrificing and this after all, is an historical fact. So true love is all about unconditional sacrifice.
Total Sacrifice. Bryan Chapell tells this story that happened in his hometown: Two brothers were playing on the sandbanks by the river. One ran after another up a large mound of sand. Unfortunately, the mound was not solid, and their weight caused them to sink in quickly. When the boys did not return home for dinner, the family and neighbors organized a search. They found the younger brother unconscious, with his head and shoulders sticking out above the sand. When they cleared the sand to his waist, he awakened. The searchers asked, "Where is your brother?" The child replied, "I’m standing on his shoulders". With the sacrifice of his own life, the older brother lifted the younger to safety. The tangible and sacrificial love of the older brother literally served as a foundation for the younger brother’s life.
My eldest son who is a few years older than his younger brother found that his little brother had wet his pants. He removed them and exchanged his dry pants for the wet ones to help his younger brother.
True love is about what we can do for others and not what others can do for us. It is not about the fact that the other person is beautiful to look at or kind and loving to us and therefore deserve our sacrificial love.
Do we give without expecting anything in return??? He gave just because that is part of his nature to give.
Romans 5:8
8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
So never ever forget that God loves you with a sacrificial love.
3. GOD’S LOVE IS VALUABLE.
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
He gave the only one He had.
He did not give out of the abundance of what He had, but gave the only one He had.
How many times do we say that is the only one that I have, so I cannot give that to you. Well God did!
Psalm 63:3: “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.”
So never ever forget that God’s love for you is more valuable than life, and Him loving you counts for more than anything in this world.
4. GOD’S LOVE IS PERSONAL.
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God’s love is not just something that is a mere disposable item or asset.
His love was manifest in the world in a very real way through His Son. So Jesus Christ came into this world to reveal to us the love of God in human form.
Let us never forget His love and sacrifice that displays God’s love for us in a very real way.
When people look at us, do they want to be like us?
Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
So never ever forget that God loves you so much that he gave his “Child” for you and me.
5. GOD’S LOVE IS ACCESSIBLE.
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Praise God that God’s love is not limited to a select few. This is what I call good news. He is not available for those with a certain colour skin, or sex, or intelligence, or culture or creed or who live in a specific city. No. His love is available to all who choose to believe.
All we have to do is believe in the fact that He came because He loved us, for us to experience that incredible love.
He entered our world, but the question is will you allow Him to enter your heart?
Ian Loughor-Clarke
So never ever forget that God’s love is available to you all the time.
6. GOD’S LOVE IS NON-JUDGMENTAL.
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
God did not send His Son into the world to condemn us or judge us, but rather He came to rescue you, to cleanse you, to deliver you and then to pardon you and not to punish you or destroy you. Why? Because He loves you.
You see God is not so much sending people to hell as it is that they don’t choose to receive His love, and rather they have chosen hell over heaven, Satan over God and sin over righteousness.
John 3:17–18
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
So never ever forget that God’s love is not critical or judgmental.
7. GOD’S LOVE IS NEVER-ENDING.
John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
It seems to me that we are living in a world that is ever changing, but there is one thing that never changes and remains constant and the same and that is the Love of God. The Love of God remains the same no matter what happens around and about us.
God will never ever quit loving us, no matter what, because His love is continual, constant and certain. His love endures time, endures trials, and endures transgressions.
Romans 8:31-39
31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:
“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Can you just imagine how much God loves us? I love my children more than life itself and my love is imperfect, so can you just begin to imagine the undying love of God for you?
My children are going to have a very secure, happy and successful life because of my love, but because of God’s love, each of them will have eternal life and love.
1 John 3:1: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!”
So never ever forget that God’s love for you is never ever ending.
CONCLUSION:
RE-CAP:
1. GOD’S LOVE IS UNCONDITIONAL.
For God so loved the world,
2. GOD’S LOVE IS SACRIFICIAL.
that he gave
3. GOD’S LOVE IS VALUABLE.
his one and only
4. GOD’S LOVE IS PERSONAL.
Son,
5. GOD’S LOVE IS ACCESSIBLE.
that whoever believes in him
6. GOD’S LOVE IS NON-JUDGMENTAL.
shall not perish
7. GOD’S LOVE IS NEVER-ENDING.
but have eternal life.
Prayer
This sermon was preached by
Ian Loughor-Clarke
at
Haenertsburg Christian Church in 2012
(c) Ian F. Loughor-Clarke,
Haenertsburg Christian Church,
9 September 2012 Except where otherwise noted,
Scripture quotations are from the International Version Bible,
Copyright © 1985 by The Zondervan Corporation.
Used by permission.
rights reserved.
