Introduction:
A. Every year the youngest children in a Christian preschool would steal the show at their end-of-the-year program.
1. This year they did their usual waving to parents, tugging at their clothes and at each other, and staring at the floor.
2. The highlight came when 11 children—none of whom could yet read—proudly held up brightly colored 3-foot-high letters that were supposed to spell: GOD LOVES YOU!
3. Unfortunately, they accidently got a couple of the letters out of order and their message instead was: DOG LOVES YOU!
4. There’s nothing wrong with that message – I’m sure your dog does love you.
5. But I want to talk today about a much greater love – God’s love.
B. Years ago, a large Atlanta church was televising their worship service when they asked a retired 92 year-old minister to preach that morning’s sermon.
1. There was a warm welcome as he was introduced and, as the applause quieted down, the old man slowly made his way to the podium with great effort.
2. The old, retired preacher placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself, and then without a note before him began to speak.
3. “When I was asked to come here today and talk to you, your preacher asked me to tell you what was the greatest lesson I ever learned in my over 50 year ministry. I thought about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my trials. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and heart break and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me. The only thing that would comfort was this verse of a children’s song:
Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.”
4. When the 92 year-old, retired preacher finished that verse, the church was so quiet you could hear his footsteps as he shuffled back to his chair.
C. Similarly, Karl Barth, the famed theologian, was once asked, “What is the greatest thought you ever had?”
1. This brilliant, highly educated man, answered: “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”
D. As we have been working through this series on “Answering Faith’s Great Questions,” I have been trying to give us reasons to believe that there is a God and that Christianity is the only way to have a relationship with God.
1. One of the things that separates Christianity from any other religion in the world is the way the Bible tells us of God’s love.
2. There are many world religions with their many books of scripture, but only the Bible clearly tells us that God loves us completely.
a. The Buddhists don’t actually believe there is a god…let alone a god who would love us.
b. The Hindus have their many books and their many gods, but their gods aren’t the type that would love.
c. The Muslims have the Koran that talks about their god, named Allah, but Allah is a more impersonal god, than the God of the Bible, and throughout the Koran we read that Allah loves those who do good and does not love those who do evil.
3. In fact, no matter what world religion you investigate, their gods (if they love anybody) only love “good” people.
4. In other words, the love of god, in those religions, is reserved only for those who deserve it.
E. Let’s spend the rest of our time this morning looking into what the Bible says about God’s love.
1. Let’s answer two questions:
a. Does God love me?
b. Why would God love me?
I. Does God love me?
A. The Bible is full of Scriptures where God declares His love for us.
1. That is true of both parts of the Bible – both Old and New Testaments.
B. Before we survey verses that declare God’s love for us, let’s recognize the fact that the Bible tells us that God not only loves, but that God is love.
1. The apostle John wrote: And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him…We love because he first loved us (1 Jn. 4:16, 19).
2. God describes Himself with these words: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love” (Ps. 103:8).
a. Isn’t it amazing that the thing that characterizes God more than anything else is His love?
b. He is abounding in love.
3. When Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus, one of the things he prayed that they would be able to grasp was God’s love. He wrote: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:17-19)
4. This is my prayer for all of us – that we might grasp how big God’s love is!
C. So if God is love and is characterized by love, then this leads to the question: whom does God love?
1. The answer to that question is: God loves everyone.
2. Jesus said: For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son (Jn. 3:16).
a. The “world” that Jesus is talking about here is the world of people.
3. God is certainly so much bigger and better than us because as Walter Wilson said, “No one in all the world could possibly love everyone in the world. In fact most people find it difficult to love all their relatives.”
4. But the truth of the matter is that God does love everyone.
a. God loves the Jews, but he also loves the Russians, Chinese, Arabs and Americans.
b. God loves people of all colors – “red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight.”
c. God loves the saints, and God loves the sinners.
d. God loves the sinner not the sin.
5. God loves the world – people of all nationalities, colors, education, and character.
a. Everyone includes you and me!
D. And here is another amazing thing - God’s love is unconditional.
1. God loves because of who and what God is, not because who and what we are.
2. So God’s love cannot be won or lost – it just is and it does not change.
3. Our goodness cannot win God’s love and our badness cannot cause us to lose it.
4. Certainly we can resist or reject God’s love, but God loves us none-the-less.
E. In last week’s sermon, I mentioned the story of Hosea.
1. God used that real relationship to illustrate the steadfast love that God has for his fickle people.
2. It is the wonderful story of the prophet Hosea and his wife Gomer.
a. Contrary to the name, Gomer was a female.
b. She was an unfaithful woman, married to a remarkable man.
3. Gomer hopped from one lover to another and in the process she ruined her life and shattered Hosea’s heart.
a. She became destitute, and was placed for sale in a slave market.
b. Remember who stepped forward to buy her? It was Hosea.
4. The Bible says: The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.” (Hosea 3:1)
5. God’s love is patient and forgiving and is inexhaustible.
F. The New Testament talks often of God’s love and how it was demonstrated in the sacrifice of Jesus.
1. Paul wrote: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:6-8).
2. I John 3:16 says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.”
3. Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13). And that is what Jesus did for us.
4. Paul also reassures us that nothing can separate us from God’s love: 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 (Rom. 8:35-39).
G. So without a doubt, the answer to the question: Does God love us? Is “Yes, God loves you and me!”
1. As hard as it may be to believe, it is the truth.
2. But the big question that lingers is “WHY?”
II. Why Would God Love Me?
A. Each one of us know how unlovable we are in so many ways.
1. We know that God is perfect and sinless, and that we have so many faults and sins.
2. We know what a mess we often make of our world and our lives.
3. We know that we do not deserve to be loved by God.
B. But that is the amazing thing about God’s love – it has nothing to do with being deserved.
1. The truth is – we don’t deserve His love. We are not worthy to be loved by God.
2. God gives us what we least deserve – that’s called grace.
3. And God withholds what we do deserve – that’s called mercy.
4. Jesus Christ received what He did not deserve (punishment), so that we could receive what we did not deserve (forgiveness).
C. So why does God love us?
1. Let me answer that question by asking another question: Why do parents love their children?
2. Children are often not deserving of a parent’s love.
3. Even though children disobey their parents, their parents love them nonetheless.
4. A parent’s love is not supposed to be conditioned by their child’s behavior.
5. A parent may not like their child’s behavior, but their love for their child does not change and should not change.
D. So why does God love you and me?
1. Because God made us and we are His.
2. And God not only made us, He made us in His image.
3. We are an extension of God – He loves us because He loves Himself.
E. God also loves us because of His purpose for us.
1. God wants to share His love with us for eternity.
2. God knows our potential and looks forward to fulfilling His plans for us.
F. God also loves us because of His investment in us.
1. God has poured Himself into us and has tied all His hopes and plans to us.
2. God also has invested so much in us through the sacrifice of His Son.
3. God knows our needs and He has paid such a valuable price for our redemption.
Conclusion:
A. In the end, we don’t have to fully understand why God would love us to be able to accept and benefit from His love.
B. Whenever we doubt that God loves us, all we have to do is remember that the Bible tells us of God’s love for us.
1. I can know that God loves me because the Bible tells me so.
2. I can know that God loves me because God sent His Son to die for me.
3. I can know that God loves me because God has adopted me into His family and calls me His child.
a. 1 John 3:1-2 says: How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!...2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
4. I can know that God loves me because God takes care of my needs, and even disciplines me when I need it most. God disciplines those He loves.
C. Perhaps the times when we doubt God’s love the most are those times when our problems seem so big, and our hurts so deep, and our disappointments so numerous.
1. Perhaps you have felt like the person in the popular poem called “Footprints”
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.
This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.
So I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord, that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
have you not been there for me?"
The Lord replied, “The times when you have
seen only one set of footprints,
is when I carried you.” (Mary Stevenson)
D. If there is one thing I could wish for each one of us here today it is to be able to clearly hear the voice of God saying what God so very much wants us to hear – “I love you more than you can imagine.”
1. Here’s a famous quote from one of Max Lucado’s books: “If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If he had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning. Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and He chose your heart. What about the Christmas gift He sent you in Bethlehem; not to mention that Friday at Calvary. Face it, friend. He's crazy about you.”
E. Let me end with this true story from a woman who ran a day care center named Phyllis Zeno.
1. One day a very troubled little girl came through the door of Phyllis’s day care.
2. From the very beginning, Phyllis was captivated by this child who had so little and needed so much.
a. She was heartbroken for this four-year-old who had suffered so much heartache and pain.
b. This little girl had been born in prison after her mother had used illegal drugs throughout her pregnancy.
3. This little girl was nonverbal and had very little control.
a. Whenever someone approached her, she became violent for long periods and ended up crying on the floor in a fetal position.
b. Phyllis found herself praying for this little girl day in and day out.
4. As the months passed, Phyllis began to bond with this little girl.
a. She worked very hard with her, taking two steps forward and one back.
5. Daily, they sat in the big rocking chair in her office, swaying back and forth.
a. During their rocking time, Phyllis sang the song, “Jesus loves me.”
b. The song always caused the little girl to settle down and lay still in her arms.
c. And though the little girl never spoke, peace seemed to come over her.
6. One day, after another outburst, Phyllis took the little girl in her arms and went to the rocking chair.
a. In silence, they rocked back and forth for a few moments.
b. It was then that the little girl spoke her first words, “Please sing to me again about that man who loves me so.”
F. My hope for each one of us is that we can believe and accept the fact that God loves us.
1. No matter where we are or what is happening.
2. We must never forget the wonderful and powerful truth captured in that children’s song.
3. There is no greater or more important truth that we can learn and embrace, than...
Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.
Yes Jesus loves me, yes Jesus loves me,
Yes Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so!
G. Will you accept God’s love for you?
1. Will you let the love of God come into your heart and change your life?
2. Will you learn to love God and love others with the love God has given you?
3. I hope you have, and I hope you will!
Resources:
Why Does God Love Us? By Jack Wellman, www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com
Jesus Loves Me, Sermon by Jeff Strite, SermonCentral.com
Why Does God Love Me? Outline by R.L. Cobb, http://11.newsforchristians.com
