The Incredible Love Of God
I John 4:8
Bethel Assembly of God
2/24/2002 AM
INTRODUCTION
In a couple of weeks I will no longer be the pastor of Bethel Assembly of God. For the next couple of weeks I want to preach what I believe to be the most important messages of my time with you.
There will be no new revelation. You have heard me say and preach these things to you over and over. These are the things I have been trying to say the last seven years.
The first thing I want to remind you of is the incredible love of God.
SCRIPTURES:
Ephesians 3:14 - 19
1. Paul earnestly desires for them “to grasp” – KJV, “able to comprehend.”
2. To apprehend (), an old and common verb, “to lay hold of effectively (), here with the mind,” to grasp.
3. In other words, “I want you to get it.” “You must understand this.”
4. If you have difficulty grasping His love, you will have difficulty with everything else.
1 John 4:7-9
1. If we could every comprehend, or even begin the process of understanding, God’s love, our lives would change
2. The way we worship, The way we respond to Him, The way we respond to others, The way we reach out, The way we live, The way we think about ourselves, our past, our present, and our future.
The Psalmist had some understanding:
1. Psalm 13:5 But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
2. Psalm 36:7 How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
3. Psalm 130:7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption.
Do you understand that you are:
1. His Treasured Possession (Deuteronomy 7:6 6For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.)
2. The Apple of His Eye (Zechariah 2:7 – 9 Come, O Zion! Escape, you who live in the Daughter of Babylon!” For this is what the LORD Almighty says: “After he has honored me and has sent me against the nations that have plundered you—for whoever touches you touches the apple of his eye—I will surely raise my hand against them so that their slaves will plunder them. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me.)
3. A Child of God – Joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16 - 17 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.)
4. A Friend (John 15:13-16 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.)
5. His People (Jeremiah 31:3 Long ago the LORD said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.)
6. The Sheep in His Care (Psalm 100:1-5 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.)
7. Are the Reason He Died (Romans 5:6-8 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.)
8. The One He Died For
9. His Masterpiece (Ephesians 2:8-10 God saved you by his special favor when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.)
10. Precious and Honored (Isaiah 43:1-4 But now, O Israel, the LORD who created you says: “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I gave Egypt, Ethiopia, and Seba as a ransom for your freedom. Others died that you might live. I traded their lives for yours because you are precious to me. You are honored, and I love you. ((New Living Translation)
11. You are so beautiful. There is no one else like you. He created you and said, “It is very good.”
12. He thinks about you – a lot!! (Psalm 139:13- 19 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand When I awake, I am still with you.)
Only 9 times in the Old Testament is that word, “wonderfully” used. It means more than just wonderful – like I would say “this is a wonderful day.” It means there is a unique quality that is different from anything else.
Billy and Sara Gaines sing, “How many snowflakes fall? In valley’s deep on mountains tall? Would I understand if I count them all?” How great his love for me. No human mind can know, the full extent of the love God shows, it reached so high, it stoops so low. How great are his thoughts tward me.”
HIS LOVE:
1. His Love is Never Exhausted (Ephesians 3: 18)
Again, Paul wants you to grasp that His love is wide and long and high and deep and it surpasses knowledge.
You cannot run out of God’s love. You will not wake up one day and find that God’s love just ran out.
2. Reaches around the world. It is not limited to a few. It is for the “whosoever.”
Wide enough to wrap His loving arms around this universe. Wide enough to love you.
You can be a Mormon, a Buddhist, a Murderer, an adulterer, or a bum on the street. You may have been divorced 16 times. Your picture may be up on every post-office in America. You may have illegitimate children. You could be on your way to prison. You may be pregnant and not know who the Father is.
You may have been abused. You may be the abuser. God’s love can reach you today.
The poor, the maimed, blind.
“There is room at the cross for me.”
It just never fails. “How great is the love of God?…”
It does not give up on us.
3. Never Ending (Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.)
Where is the limit of God’s love?
It is always present.
It is the essence of God’s Being
True love flows directly from Him. He is love personified
5. Never Changing
Consistent & Constant - does not change. Not a feeling because feelings change from day to day.
One day C. H. Spurgeon was walking through the English countryside with a friend. As they strolled along, the evangelist noticed a barn with a weather vane on its roof. At the top of the vane were these words: GOD IS LOVE. Spurgeon remarked to his companion that he thought this was a rather inappropriate place for such a message. "Weather vanes are changeable," he said, "but God’s love is constant." "I don’t agree with you about those words, Charles," replied his friend. "You misunderstood the meaning. That sign is indicating a truth: Regardless of which way the wind blows, God is love."
6. There are no inconsistencies
Hymn - “Jesus never fails. Jesus never fails. Heaven and earth may pass away, but Jesus never fails.”
7. His love is expressed in Jesus.
Agape love is perfectly and ultimately illustrated by the love God expressed toward us when Jesus Christ died at the hands of the lost race He came to save. It is characterized by a willful expression of selflessness, devotion, and commitment - first and foremost toward God, then toward fellow believers, and finally toward the lost world around us.
He was the visible expression to our humanity of the Invisible God loving us.
“We love him because He first loved us.”
Like climbing to the top of a mountain and enjoying the view. The more we study it, the more we enjoy it. As we dwell on it our love for Him increases.
This is not just a discussion or a theory or something so abstract that you cannot know it. And yet we will never know the fullness of it. We need to dwell upon the dimensions of it, talk about it, meditate on it, and let become a part of us.
It is staggering that God should love sinners; yet it is true. There is nothing in us that could attract or prompt this kind of love. It is unevoked, uncaused. God loves people because he chose to do so.
8. Unconditional
Eros - a loved based on fulfillment or value that is received from something or someone. We tend to love someone based on the value or worth it has for us. It is self-fulfilling. This love comes and goes. It is conditional. ex. "I love green beans."
Agape - The Greek and Roman world of N.T. times had never dreamed of such love; its gods were often credited with lusting after women, but never with loving sinners; and the N.T. writers had to introduce a new word. Not based on self-fulfillment or worthiness of object. It gets nothing in return except maybe getting Jesus crucified. It is unconditional.
So the love of the god who is spirit is no fitful, fluctuating thing, as human love is, no is it a mere impotent longing for things that may never be; it is, rather, a spontaneous determination of God’s whole being in an attitude of benevolence and benefaction, an attitude freely chosen and firmly fixed. - J. Packer (Knowing God, 127)
John 3:16
God - the greatest Giver
so loved - the greatest motive
the world - the greatest need
that He gave - the greatest act
His only Son - the greatest gift
that whosoever - the greatest invitation
believes in Him - the greatest opportunity
should not perish - the greatest deliverance
but have eternal life - the greatest joy
He is passionate for us.
9. Long-suffering
Richard Armstrong, "Make Your Life Worthwhile", reports the story about a man in Wales who sought to win the affection of a certain lady for 42 years before she finally said, "Yes." The couple, both 74, recently became "Mr. and Mrs." For more than 40 years, the persistent, but rather shy man slipped a weekly love letter under his neighbor’s door. But she continually refused to speak and mend the spat that had parted them many years before. After writing 2,184 love letters without ever getting a spoken or written answer, the single-hearted old man eventually summoned up enough courage to present himself in person. He knocked on the door of the reluctant lady and asked for her hand. To his delight and surprise, she accepted. Imagine God’s dilemma. Time and time again He tried to get His message of love through to His human creation with little response. Finally, when there was no other way, He wrapped up His message in person.
CONCLUSION
B.B. Winnan singing, “Love lifted me.”
Oh, How I Love Jesus… because He first loved me.
